IOS Upgrade Downloading for every device I have many apple devices 5 iPhones and 4 iPads to be exact

I upgrade by connecting to my Mac and then from iTunes

So when upgrading iOS, it's downloading the software every time?

I would understand the reason for having separate download for iPad and iPhone but for all my phones it has to download 1.59GB every time

Which is time consuming and also wastage of my download

Questions
Is there a way to make it so when i upgrade my phones it uses the same file
same goes for iPads

If you have identical devices, even if they are synced to different computers using different iTunes, then this is the way to save the download bandwidth...

You can choose to do the download via iTunes for the first device, or directly by picking the correct ipsw file from https://ipsw.me which simply provides direct download links - the downloads themselves come directly from Apple in both cases.

Assuming you are on Mac...

if you are using ipsw.me then skip this step.

Connect the first device then when asked about the update select "Download Only". This gives you chance to sync & backup first, but otherwise doesn't affect the update. Allow the update to finish, then disconnect the device.
You now have the downloaded file.
If you are going to share this update to other computers, or other Mac user accounts on the same machine, then you need to find it & copy over...
From Finder, open a new window then hit  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   G  for 'Go To...' then copy paste ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates & hit  Enter ⌅
Inside there you will see the downloaded ipsw file.

now rejoin if you got the file from ipsw.me... but remember the path from the last step

Copy [don't move] this to your other locations using the same method to find the folder, or if the other users are on the same machine, copy to a 'public' folder that all users can see, then get each user to copy from there to their own folder
[each user has their own folder, accessible from their own account using the same path, as in 3. above].
Connect any of your identical devices to iTunes from the correct user account for that user.
You can now begin the standard update process, the update file is already there & will be recognised.


What are water resistance specifications for Apple Watch? General note before getting into the Apple Watch:

No watch, not even a diver's watch, is "waterproof" in the sense that it can be taken to any depth of the ocean, no matter how abysmal, and remain intact, keeping out the water however there are certain standard degrees of water resistance. No watch is marketed as waterproof as far as I know; watches are marketed as water-resistant at the lowest level, and water resistant to XYZ depth for higher levels.

What is the overall outlook regarding swimming and the Apple Watch?

We really don't know what Apple has in store for the Apple Watch as far as waterproofing it. YouTube is full of guys who test their Apple Watch to see if is waterproof, they take it down to depths of ten feet and lower for a pretty long time and, though not very useful while underwater (due to pressure, the touch screen won't work also the heart rate sensor isn't always accurate), I've yet to see where the Apple Watch doesn't survive being taken underwater.

I've never submerged my Apple Watch Sport, but it has gotten wet quite a few times and I've rinsed it off in the sink many times, too.

Given that the Apple Watch is almost waterproof today, I think that Apple just doesn't want to call it that for fear that they will have to replace any units that break when taken deep underwater.


Can't find coda plist I can't seem to find my Coda plist. I've searched all throughout my library (including the Preferences folder), and I can't seem to find it. I've searched my computer, and that doesn't work either... Can anyone else find their coda plist?

Coda's preference plist file is stored here:

~/Library/Preferences/com.panic.Coda.plist

There's also ~/Library/Preferences/com.panic.Coda.LSSharedFileList.plist. I'm not sure what this does exactly, but it doesn't appear to store preferences.


Why aren't pictures in imessages showing up on my macbook messages? I setup my macbook to show messages from my iphone conversations and they show up now but none of the pictures show up.  I see a reference to a picture but i can't view it or download it.

NOTE: I am able to send pictures from my macbook messages directly and those work fine.

I have plenty of storage available on my computer so not sure what the reason could be.

if I click on download arrow or double click on the image this is all I see

Can anyone else determine why I can't see pictures on my macbook within messages when it was sent from my iphone.

I had the same problem. It turned out that I had an empty file at /Users/name/Library/Messages/Attachments, even though that's supposed to be a folder where all of your images get stored. Once I deleted the blank file, photos started working. There's a related discussion here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6601288.


How can I use FaceTime Audio with MacBook in clamshell / lid closed? At my desk I use my 11" MacBook Air with the lid closed, an external monitor with no camera, and a headset with microphone. I have just updated to Mojave from Sierra, and can no longer use FaceTime Audio in that configuration. I'm looking for a way to stop FaceTime from waiting for video from the inactive FaceTime camera.

Under Sierra, I could open the FaceTime app, and place or receive FaceTime Audio calls normally.

Now, under Mojave, when I open FaceTime, the window is black, and after a minute or so, I get an alert saying "No Video - FaceTime has not received any video from the connected camera. Restarting the computer may fix this issue." I'm not able to place calls, and restarting doesn't help. It's not clear whether I can receive calls or not.

I can plug in an old USB webcam, but I'd rather not as it seems to use a significant amount of CPU, and also my USB ports are currently all in use.

Is there a software solution I can use to make this work without having to  keep the lid open or plug in a camera? Is there some hidden preference to tell FaceTime to ignore the camera, or could I create a "dummy" camera interface or something like that? Would updating to Catalina solve the problem?

Here's a solution which works for macOS >= 10.14. One can initiate a call in Messages by clicking on details in a chat history and then on the phone symbol.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/messages/icht1091/mac


How can I repair a keychain in Mojave? Whenever I encounter a password field in Safari which it wants to auto-fill using my keychain, it freezes up for a few minutes and shows nothing but the beach ball. I presume it has to do with a corrupted keychain.

In previous versions of macOS, there was the option to repair a keychain. In Mojave, there is no such thing. When I "reset my default keychains", it fixes the problem and everything works as usual. However I lose all my passwords and notes.

What I've tried that didn't work:

Run first aid from the Disk Manager
Restored my keychain (contents of ~/Library/Keychains) from a Time Machine backup
Moved everything but login.keychain to the trash

I know that you could theoretically create a new keychain and copy items from the original keychain, but it keeps prompting for a password for each item which would not be feasible with the amount of items I have stored.

The repair tool was removed over security concerns where it could be use to export your keychain without your permissions. what we're left with are guidances you'll find throughout various blog articles explaining some specific problems with workarounds to "fix" specific issues related to the keychain.

How to Resolve Mac OS X Keychain Problems
5 Common Keychain Problems on Mac and How to Fix Them
Keychain Access Mojave

Most of these solutions involve deleting specific offending keys or toggling "Show Summary" or other aspects of a problematic key.


Apple Script notification bubble - quick reply style prompt I know that you can trigger a notification using Apple Script:

osascript -e 'display notification "Hello" with title "How are you feeling?"'

However, I also want to be able to prompt for certain values in the style of iMessages reply-from-notification-popup.

For example, I want to be able to do this from shell script:

ANS=$(osascript -e 'display notification "Hello" with title "How are you feeling?"' with prompt)
echo "User is feeling $ANS"

Is this possible at all?

The appeal in the notification is obviously typically its aesthetic, but if its functionalities were what you were in need of, then you're in luck because you can use display dialog to act literally the exact same way:

set userCanceled to false
try
    set dialogResult to display dialog ¬
        "How are you feeling?" with title ¬
        "Hello" buttons {"Close", "Reply"} ¬
        default button "Reply" cancel button ¬
        "Close" giving up after 8 ¬
        default answer ("")
on error number -128
    set userCanceled to true
end try

log "User is feeling " & text returned of dialogResult

The "giving up after 8" means that if nothing happens within that time, the box will go away.

You could also theoretically make it more like a notification by making the textbox only appear after the user hits "Reply". Youd do this by making a copy of this dialog without the "default answer" part, and removing the "giving up after 8" part from the original, then putting the copy before the original, and putting this if statement around the original:

if button returned of dialogResult is "Reply" then

Another thing you could do with the dialog box, that i'm pretty sure you cant even do with the imessage notification, is control it with the keyboard. When a dialog box with a textbox appears, you can start typing immediately, press enter to send, and press esc at any moment.

If you're set on using a notification, unfortunately the notification section of the applescript documentation totally suggests that its not possible (with applescript). According to it, you cant even return one of two values let alone let the user enter a string.

]1

If you could get 2 answers from it, though, id suggest having one button cancel button and another button that gets the text from your clipboard. Perhaps not the most elegant approach, but it would get the job done.


How do I use Applescript to click the Replace button in the Photoshop Save As dialog? I have an Applescript that successfully clicks the Replace button in the InDesign Save As dialog, but the same script doesn't work in Photoshop. It fails on the click command in this section of the script:

tell application "System Events" to tell process activeProcess
    click button "Replace" of sheet 1 of front window
end tell

with this message:

Can't get sheet 1 of window 1 of process "Adobe Photoshop CC 2018": invalid index

Here's what the Accessibility Inspector shows for the Replace button:

I've tried various approaches to identifying the sheet, none of which have worked. Any suggestions?

Just to be thorough, here's what the Save As dialog looks like when the Replace button is available:

Thanks for your help!

This works for me on the latest version of High Sierra and Adobe Photoshop CC 2018...

delay 1
tell application "System Events"
    click UI element "Replace" of sheet 1 of window ¬
        "Save As" of application process "Adobe Photoshop CC 2018"
    delay 0.3
    click UI element "Large file size (Fastest saving)" of window ¬
        "PNG Format Options" of application process "Adobe Photoshop CC 2018"
    delay 0.3
    click UI element "OK" of window "PNG Format Options" of ¬
        application process "Adobe Photoshop CC 2018"
end tell


My mom can't send me iMessages and she has iPhone4 and I know iMessage works on my iPhone 5 The button "Use your apple ID ..... " doesn't work on her phone on iMessages settings, but she entered her phone number properly to be used for iMessages. I tried turning on and off the iMessages. Still doesn't work and she is sending me SMS regular instead of iMessage iPhone to iPhone. I even managed to send her iMessage from Macbook to her iPhone 4 using Message app for Macbook, but not from iPhone 5 (I have iPhone 5). But Apple, (please) this is the BASIC BASIC function of a telephone, why can't you fix this......I love Apple and all but things like this make me freaking jump out of my skin....the simplest basic stuff :)

I'm with you, this pisses me off. This small explanation may help:

iMessages on an iPhone has two ways of sending a text.

iMessage

  This is the blue colored bubbles. It requires data to be turned on to
  send and receive messages. It goes through apple servers. This can be
  sent between macs, iPads, iPods, and iPhones.

SMS

  This is the green colored bubbles. It does not require data and it
  goes through cell towers from your carrier. This can only be sent to
  phones, including android phones, those old Nokia phones, and anything
  that can receive text messages. It does not send to a mac, iPod, and iPad without cellular

On an iPhone you can have both enabled, or just SMS. You cannot disable SMS.


Sharing Hotspot from the mac that the iPhone or iPad can connect with? Is it possible to share a kind of "hotspot" from my macbook so that the iPhone and iPad can connect with it? Just like there is a "personal hotspot" feature on the iPhone I want it the other way around.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm in a room where I have absolutely NO internet. Wheter 3G on my iPhone nor any wireless or ethernet connection.

Is there any chance I can create my own "internal" wireless network outgoing of my mac and connect my iPhone and iPad with it so that it has a regular IP etc.

I need this because I want to demo a Website that is built for mobile devices. I have a local apache server on my mac and usually develop and test with "Adobe Shadow" (meanwhile Adobe Edge Inspect). This works great usuaslly when all my devices are in the same network. However in this room there is no network so I wonder how I could create my own network.

Any ideas about that?

You can create a Personal Network from the AirPort (Wi-Fi) menu.

Select Create Network ...
Define a name for your Network
Select the channel
Select the security (if selected, define a passphrase/key)
Click Create.

In my case I also have to define the IP addresses on the devices.

On your MacBook:

Go to System Preferences
Network
Select the Wi-Fi connection
Click Advanced
Select the tab TCP/IP
In the first field select the voice Manually
Set an IP (e.g. 192.168.1.1)
Set a Subnet Mask (255.255.255.0)
Click OK

On the iOS devices:

Go to Settings
Wi-Fi
Click the blue arrow on the righ of your ad hoc Wi-Fi connection
Select the tab Static
Set an IP (e.g. 192.168.1.2)
Set a Subnet Mask (255.255.255.0)


Publishing app with iAd but no completed contract Would it be possible to submit an app with iAd in it, without having your iAd contract completed? Since it would be like 7-14 days for Apple to review the app and publish it.

Could I submit my app now, and do the iAd contract tomorrow and everything will be fine?

You can submit your app and use the waiting period to complete meta-data and surrounding materials.

Try submitting your app. If the app passes the automated checks, then you have a few days to sort out the contract.

As @jherran mentions, you will need the iAd contract completed before the app review takes place.


Is there an aftermarket USB->DockConnector cable that works with an iPhone 4 + bumper case? I'm looking for a third-party (i.e., cheaper) alternative to the Apple Dock Connector to USB Cable that is compatible with an iPhone 4 w/ bumper case. I've tried a few third-party cables and none of them are able to connect properly with the bumper case installed on the phone.

Also, I'd prefer it if the dock connector end of the cable doesn't have the press-to-disconnect buttons.

Maybe this'll work: http://cablejive.com/istubz

EDIT:
Whoops, maybe not. The 1st party cables are a precision molded plastic that is thinner than the 3rd-party clones as detailed in this video @ 3:40 -

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XpmLvY2XNPg


Connect to MySql over Airport Wireless LAN I have installed MySql on a Mac Mini that I want to use as a dev database server. I have created a toy database on the server. I have created a wireless network using Airport. I now want to connect to the database from a MySql client on my Macbook Air. I am using the root user with no security at all (hey, it's a toy database), but cannot connect as the Macbook is not allowed to connect.

What do I need to do to configure my WLAN so that the client can see the server?

Open terminal.
Type ifconfig
Find something like inet 192.168.1.100 netmask
192.168.1.100 is local ip of your machine in your WLAN. You can connect to mysql using this ip.


bluetoothd 100%cpu cant turn off bluetooth my bluetoothd is hitting 100% CPU,on mbp 2013, I have no devices. when I click turn bluetooth off nothing happens, all of the options in option click and shift option click dont change anything, reset smc, pram, tried to turn off sniff mode in bt explorer but clicking link policy does nothing

Do you have Android File Transfer installed by any chance? I had a very similar problem about a year ago with my Macbook Pro 2015 after upgrading to High Sierra. Even when it isn't visibly running there is still a background agent running that interferes with bluetooth, try removing it and killing any related processes in activity monitor to see if that solves the issue.
Hopefully removing Android File Transfer will fix the issue for you, but it only worked for me after I reinstalled the version of macOS my mac came with through internet recovery and then upgrading up to High Sierra again. Reinstalling High Sierra alone never fixed the problem. This is only speculation but my best explanation as to why this fixed the issue is that some firmware upgrade that was supposed to happen between OS upgrades failed, and in upgrading from the older macOS to newer macOS provided the option for that upgrade to happen properly.


How to get UUID with Python? System Report will display the system's Hardware UUID in the format 01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef.

Using the shell we can retrieve the same UUID:

ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | grep -E '(UUID)'

Is it possible to get this UUID in Python without resorting to executing a shell command?

Short answer: not really.

Long answer: sort of, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth, unless you really can't used the shell command for some reason. OS X doesn't really expose much system configuration to Python. Most scriptable interfaces to configure OS X are shell-based or AppleScript-based (and of course the various Objective-C APIs).

Getting the UUID is possible in AppleScript:

tell application "System Information"
    set profile to system profile
    quit
end tell

set delim to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "Hardware UUID: "
set uuid to paragraph 1 of text item 2 of profile
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to delim
uuid

But as you can see, it's a bit convoluted (and is much slower than the ioreg method, as it has to process the entire system profile).

There is a way to bridge AppleScript to Python, known as Appscript, but it's no longer developed, and not recommended for new projects. However, if you're really determined, you could convert the above AppleScript into Python using Appscript. But to be honest, it seems like a lot of trouble to get a worse result.


Every second in my log: "md5: BUG in libdispatch ..." I checked my log yesterday for an issue not related to this one and saw that aprox. every second I get a message like this:

Sep  6 10:54:32 my-mac.local md5[2257]: BUG in libdispatch: 12E55 - 1879 - 0x1b
Sep  6 10:54:32 my-mac.local md5[2258]: BUG in libdispatch: 12E55 - 1879 - 0x1b
Sep  6 10:54:33 my-mac.local md5[2259]: BUG in libdispatch: 12E55 - 1879 - 0x1b
Sep  6 10:54:33 my-mac.local md5[2260]: BUG in libdispatch: 12E55 - 1879 - 0x1b
Sep  6 10:54:34 my-mac.local md5[2262]: BUG in libdispatch: 12E55 - 1879 - 0x1b

Does anyone know what it is? Less advanced forums have proposed re-installing my Mac but that seems a bit too radical to me.

What's interesting is that the md5 process is getting spawned quite rapidly. You can tell that by the incrementing process id (pid) - 2257, 2258, 2259, 2260

Can you run top -u -s15 and see if you can determine the parent process of the md5?

From there, we can know what process is launching the chatty md5. Also, run a md5 process by hand md5 /dev/null to see if any error conditions are spit out other than the expected hash shown below:

Mac:~ me$ md5 /dev/null
MD5 (/dev/null) = d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e

Also, list any file synchronization tools you might have running - rsync, carbon copy cloner, dropbox, box.net, or similar... They often use md5 to tell if a file has really changed and needs to be synchronized.


Macbook Pro macOS upgrade without losing applications (not owned under my Apple ID) I bought a pre-owned Macbook Pro that is currently running Sierra. It came with the Adobe Suite and a number of other expensive applications. I was told that I would lose these apps if I were to update the operating system. Is there a way to circumvent this?

The update process deletes no application, so the update doesn’t make you lose anything. Upgrade processes can migrate known broken software to a new location, but there’s almost always a log file explaining what and why that happened.

However, you can’t roll back an update if an application breaks, so you might lose the ability of the program to use a license key, be supported, or even launch/run when your system changes.

Get a good Time Machine backup or other clone / backup so if your system breaks (whether you break it unintentionally with an update you apply, whether it breaks due to an update that self-applies or whether it breaks due to breakage, eventually all programs will stop running).
Think if you can reinstall the app if you erase your Mac, reinstall the older version / unpatched version in terms of time and hassle and knowledge.
Check with the vendor so you know your support options, both DIY / Free / Paid - this is key since the vendor can even kill your apps without an upgrade. In fact, Adobe just did this:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/05/13/adobe-warning-of-legal-problems-if-users-keep-using-old-versions-of-creative-cloud-apps

In general, it’s safe to upgrade since Apple designs the system to not touch apps and settings, but even with that design, sometimes a bug ships and you get breakage for something that should have been easy and non-intrusive.


What is the Default Location of Photos in Photo application? I see many photos in Photos application.
However, I cannot add them to my mails without knowing their exact location.
I am using El Capitan.
Of course, I can take a screenshot of originals always but I see this as a way of duplicating things, losing accuracy and causing trash.

I would like to get the location for the internet browser like Google Chrome, Firefox, ...

You cannot drag and drop directly from Photos to the SE's picture uploader neither.

How can you add a photo in Photos application to a web email window?

Right click the photo > Share > Mail

Alternatively, from within Mail itself
Window menu > Photo Browser


How do I uninstall a Kernel Extension in Yosemite? I've recently reformatted my MBP to Yosemite and have run into an issue with my Logitech mouse. After doing some research I discovered that this is a longstanding issue. In the process of trying to fix this, I've installed (and tried to uninstall) several different driver kernel extensions.

I've removed these drivers from system preferences (by right clicking) but I've noticed that there are still the .kext files in /Library/Extensions folder.

Is it same to simply delete the related files and restart my computer to remove the extensions, or do I need to use some kind of tool to do so?

I wouldn't go playing with kexts. They don't like being dragged around. You'll end up with a kernel panic and have to pick it apart in single user mode - let's leave that kind of thing to the hackintosh kiddies.
Logitech Control Center (LCC) comes with an uninstaller in /Applications/Utilities which would be a far better bet.


Hooking up Dell printer 2155 CN to OS X 10.9 I just got a new MacBook Air and called Dell about hooking up my printer. They told me that they have no drivers for OS X 10.9, which means I cannot use my Dell printers with my mac? I have a Dell 2155 CN printer. Anyone have any ideas on how to get this to work?

The Dell support told me today the Driver for Mac OS 10.8 doesn't support Mac OS beyhond the 10.8 version... so, I guess you can not use your printer until they upgrade the driver :-(


Can't install Xcode Command Line Tools on Mountain Lion I try to install the most recent (july 25) version of Command Line Tools (xcode44cltools_10_76938107a.dm), downloaded from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/, but are stopped with the error message
"This package can only be installed on OS X 10.7
Install a version of the Command Line Tools that
supports OS X 10.8."

But I can't find any better version; if such exist why isn't it on the Developer site?

You can install the command line tools within XCode.

Open XCode and navigate to the preferences.

  From here you have to go to the Downloads-Section. Here you can see
  the ability to install the command line tools:

EDIT: I can see the right command line tools on the download-page from Apple:


Remove (or throttle) fan on eMac I'm replacing the HDD  with a SSD on an eMac (1 GHz). I get a headache from the  loud fan noise. A friend who does hardware repairs said the fan is there mainly because of the HDD, so I should then be able to disconnect the fan. Can someone with knowledge and experience with this confirm?

If the machine will fail without the fan, we plan to throttle the fan, ie. adjust its supplied power based on the measured temperature in the cabinet. Please share any knowledge/experience with this.

If you fan is making enough noise to give you a headache it's because the bearing has worn out.

Removing the fan is not a good idea.  Fans in computers either pull in cool air or expel warm air.  The fact that this fan was close to the drive doesn't negate the fact that it wasn't displacing the "other" warm ambient air around the drive.

You have three options:

Replace the fan.  A quick search on eBay shows there are still fans available for the eMac.
Replace the motor.  The good news is that the fan motor and blades aren't so custom as you would think.  The fan PN# is 4710KL-04W-B56 and can also be found on eBay quite easily.  You can disassemble the fan, extract the motor/blades and replace it.
Replace the bearing.  These older fan assemblies could actually be taken apart (if you're careful).  Simply replace the bearing assembly (you'll need ID and OD measurements) and purchase a bearing online.


Garageband speed up individual region How does one speed up an individual portion (region) of a track on garageband without altering the tempo of other tracks or regions? Altering the song tempo changes everything's tempo.

Enable Flex Time in the Editor

Drag from the beginning of the track so that the waveform turns white. It sometimes trims instead, but it generally works when clicking the middle of the left side.


Add to Reading List from Mac OS X Mail Is there a keyboard shortcut / key modifier for adding links to the Reading List from Mail? You can hold ⌘ to open the link in the background, but that seems to be about it.

In Safari, you can ⇧-click links to add them to the Reading List. Does such a shortcut exist in Mail? I'm aware of the Add to Reading List command available in the context menu; I just find it more cumbersome than I'd like, especially for newsletters such as StackExchange's, which are essentially a collection of links.

You can use Keyboard Maestro with a macro such as this. The following macro will add the link to the Reading List if the link is clicked whilst holding control and alt. Holding control means it will be right-clicked anyway and typing the text means it will select the option from anywhere in the list.

If you have multiple services enabled, you will need to add a step to select the Services submenu.


Ignore entire folder using du -I I tried to ignore an entire subfolder of the current folder when running du:

du -I=./subfolder -sh

This, however, gives me the grand total size of the current folder as if the -I never worked. I read from manpage that:

  -I mask
           Ignore files and folders matching the specified mask.

So it's supposed to work with folders.
But all the examples that I found online specify simple globs like -I="*.txt".

Is it that the folder must take on a specific form instead of a plain relative path?

Found the problem myself:

The single-dash option -I does not accept =. The convention is that double-dash options -- require =.

I fixed by using -I ./subfolder instead.


Setting background image to dropbox file doesn't update background Im trying to have my desktop background be an image stored on my dropbox account. My dropbox folder is linked in my home directory. When i set the background to this photo and then change the photo the background doesn't follow. I know the file has changed by opening in Finder.

If I reboot the machine the image changes so it must be cached somewhere?

You're right, it is cached. So if you want to change the desktop image, you'll need to change the db file. In Yosemite, that is ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db

And here's a way to change it using the Terminal:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db "update data set value = '/path/to/your/image.jpg'" && killall Dock

So, if you want to run that after a file have changed (such as modyfing it through dropbox) you could use a file watcher script, such as this Ruby one.


2013 iMac 27" SSD Failure, Power Supply or Both? I have a late 2013 27" iMac i7, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, running the laster version of Sierra 10.12.4 (I think) Two days ago I suddenly got the spinning beachball while browsing in Safari. However, after a few seconds it just froze completely - the first time ever! I had to hold down the power button to shut it down. I restarted and then a few hours later it happened again. I shut it down again but this time it would not start. Nothing happened when I pressed the power button. I tried a SMC reset and it started so I ran disk utility. There were a couple of minor permissions errors, which were fixed but then it froze again. After 2-3mins A black screen appeared saying there was a problem and the computer had to be shut down, which it did by itself.

From that moment, it's gotten worse. Now it won't start properly at all. I press the power button and nothing happens, then maybe 3-4 mins later it starts and I get the flashing folder.

I tried starting in safe mode, recovery mode and also from a Disk Warrior start-up USB drive but when I run disk utility I don't see the hard drive, only disk0 > OS X Base System.

I thought it might just be the SSD but why would it be so difficult to power on from safe mode, recovery or the Disk Warrior USB drive? Do I have a power issue, an SSD issue or both?

Many thanks

Additional Information: As requested, I tried to run tests holding down Option + "D". As before, it was very reluctant to power on at all. Pressing the power button did nothing. I pressed it a couple more times and then suddenly about 3mins later I got the startup bong. I immediately hit option+d and it started the diagnostics. I then got a black screen with the following message:

There may be an issue with a storage device. Ref Code: VDH002
...followed by instructions to contact Apple.

I also took it to an Apple service centre today and the engineer confirmed that the main hard drive was not appearing, so it does look like the SSD has failed, but why does it have so much trouble starting up? Why doesn't the power button work properly?

Troubleshooting is often a process of elimination and requires time.

Considering all the steps you've already taken, the first thing I'd do next is to test your hardware with Apple Diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.


How to avoid auto-disable Low Power Mode on iOS9 when charging In iOS9, when Low Power Mode is activated, and you are charging your iPhone, when charge percentage gets to 80%, the iPhone disables Low Power Mode automatically.

Is there any way to avoid this automatic change and let Low Power Mode remain activated?

Just tested this - you can get Siri to turn low power on which saves navigating to the Battery settings screen. Just ask Siri to "Turn on low power mode"


Is there a dashboard widget for Microsoft Outlook/Exchange calendar? Does there exist a dashboard widget which displays my Outlook/Entourage and Exchange calendar?

There are no widgets for OSX for use with Outlook, there are calendar widgets for iCal or Google Calendars, that can be downloaded here but you will need to route all your calendars through iCal or Google calendars instead of Outlook and you probably won't want to do that.


APFS/High Sierra - `tmutil deletelocalsnapshots` not deleting snapshots Listing local snapshots yields this

> tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-194719
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-211627
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-224917
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-234619
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-014151
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-024107
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-034442
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-044108
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-054441
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-064120

and i try to delete a local snapshot but running this

> sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-01-30-194719
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-30-194719'

but listing the local snapshots again showed that the snapshot has not been removed

> tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-194719
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-211627
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-224917
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-30-234619
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-014151
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-024107
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-034442
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-044108
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-054441
com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-01-31-064120

Just for fun i wrote a little bash script to delete them all (which also avoids any typos).

for date in $(tmutil listlocalsnapshots / | perl -pe 's/com.*(2018.*)/\1/'); do echo "deleting $date"; sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots "$date";  done

Strangely enough, i can repetitively run that command above and it will always show the same output:

deleting 2018-01-30-194719
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-30-194719'
deleting 2018-01-30-211627
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-30-211627'
deleting 2018-01-30-224917
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-30-224917'
deleting 2018-01-30-234619
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-30-234619'
deleting 2018-01-31-014151
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-31-014151'
deleting 2018-01-31-024107
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-31-024107'
deleting 2018-01-31-034442
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-31-034442'
deleting 2018-01-31-044108
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-31-044108'
deleting 2018-01-31-054441
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-31-054441'
deleting 2018-01-31-064120
Deleted local snapshot '2018-01-31-064120'

Why are my snapshots not deleting? I am quite low on storage space (13gb of space - the snapshots would not even clear when i had 2gb of free space left)

I think the least-recent time machine snapshots was corrupted - potentially from some system crashes caused by APFS bugs.

I tried running DIsk Utility's first aid, but that froze my computer for over 3 hours (maybe it ran out of space to work with?) - I ended up having to force-restart.

I solved the problem by running first aid booted from an external hard drive install of High Sierra. It removed some old snapshots. I then was able to boot from my normal drive and run tmutil deletelocalsnapshots... which successfully deleted the snapshots and freed up space


Why is encrypted APFS on SD cards so slow? When writing any data to SD cards, the operation is usually very slow compared to other kinds of media (up to tens ob MBytes/s). However, when using an encrypted file system on the SD card, such as encrypted APFS, the write operations tend to be even slower, for example one fourth of the transfer rate. Why is this the case? Modern CPUs should provide special instructions that are also used for any other file vault operation.

I suspect the encrypted vs unencrypted read and write speed has to do with continuous vs random performance on (Micro-) SD cards as measured and described here: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/raspberry-pi-microsd-card-performance-comparison-2019


problem accessing localhost on Mac OS X Mavericks...it was working fine until I rebooted today I am perplexed about the problem I am having and would really appreciate help resolving it.

I have an iMac running Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.2

I have set up my apache to serve documents from the server root /Volume/sites/

I am using Dynamic Virtual hosts, so just by adding a directory with the *.dev suffix, it becomes a virtual host.

My hosts file is pretty basic:

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

My httpd-vhosts.conf file is as follows:

#
# Virtual Hosts
#
# If you want to maintain multiple domains/hostnames on your
# machine you can setup VirtualHost containers for them. Most configurations
# use only name-based virtual hosts so the server doesn't need to worry about
# IP addresses. This is indicated by the asterisks in the directives below.
#
# Please see the documentation at
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/>
# for further details before you try to setup virtual hosts.
#
# You may use the command line option '-S' to verify your virtual host
# configuration.

#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
NameVirtualHost *:80

#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for all requests that do not
# match a ServerName or ServerAlias in any <VirtualHost> block.
#

#allow access to the Hosts directory where your sites are
<Directory "/Volumes/sites">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    #you could configure the following to only allow access from localhost
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

#get the server name from the Host: header
UseCanonicalName Off
VirtualDocumentRoot /Volumes/sites/%0/

This all worked. And I have not changed anything in my httpd.conf file.

Yet I can't load localhost

I also cannot load 127.0.0.1

I ran the command sudo lsof -i :80 | egrep "PID|LISTEN" to see if any PID was listening on port 80. The results were empty.

I have tried to restart apache and also to stop and then start apache using

sudo apachectl stop
sudo apachectl start

sudo apachectl restart

Nothing works.

I checked if apache was running by issuing the command httpd -v

The return was:

Server version: Apache/2.2.26 (Unix)
Server built:   Dec 10 2013 22:09:38

I tried to connect to localhost and 127.0.0.1 via the command line with the following result:

alisamii at alisamii in ~
$ telnet localhost 80
Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
Trying fe80::1...
telnet: connect to address fe80::1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
alisamii at alisamii in ~
$ telnet 127.0.0.1 80
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
alisamii at alisamii in ~
$ lynx http://localhost

Looking up localhost
Making HTTP connection to localhost
Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host.

lynx: Can't access startfile http://localhost/
alisamii at alisamii in ~
$ lynx http://127.0.0.1

Looking up 127.0.0.1
Making HTTP connection to 127.0.0.1
Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host.

lynx: Can't access startfile http://127.0.0.1/
alisamii at alisamii in ~

Please help.

Had the same problem. I deleted one of my project's folder and it became broken.
In this case the site's configs should be removed from httpd-vhosts.conf and httpd.conf.

Try ping 127.0.0.1

apachectl configtest can help you to detect the problem.


Is there software that allows multiple users to simultaneously and independently share a personal computer running Mac Os? Like BeTwin. For example, I have Macbook Pro with one Mini DisplayPort (for additional monitor) and two USB port (for additional mouse and keyboard).
How can i implement it on Mac OS Snow Leopard?

Not aware of anything quite like BeTwin, but you may not be aware that is is possible to run 2 user accounts simultaeniously out of the box without the need for any extra software, at least in Lion (And I have seen, but cannot find, that this can be retroconfigured on SL).  You mention SLin your question, but have also tagged, Lion, so I will reply anyway.

When you use screen sharing, you are able to choose which display to connect to, either the physical or the virtual display.  Connecting to the physical display will allow you to take over the screen of the target computer, taking control of the kb/mouse etc.  But if you use the virtual display, you are able to log in as a new user, and run processes entirely independently of the peron who is physically logged onto the machine.

Whilst I have only tested this with a a Mac initiating the screen sharing, there is no reason why with an up to date VNC client any old netbook, or thin client etc shouldn't be able to connect in this way, as the Screen Sharing technology is only VNC under the hood.

Edit: Read this for more information on getting this working using Snow Leopard


Unsold iPhones & Battery Life There is a lot unsold iPhones 4s on the Apple Store.
According to the "About iPhone Batteries", iPhone's battery should be regularly charged. But in case that the battery is not charge after the iPhone has been packed in 2011-2012, what will be the condition of those batteries? After all this time for several years on the stock.

It depends on how the batteries are maintained since Lithium-ion polymer batteries need to be used and recharged regularly. There will definitely be some reduction in capacity as time passes, regardless of whether the batteries are regularly used/charged or not.
From Battery University - Is Lithium-ion the Ideal Battery? (emphasis mine):

Aging is a concern with most lithium-ion batteries and many manufacturers remain silent about this issue. Some capacity deterioration is noticeable after one year, whether the battery is in use or not. The battery frequently fails after two or three years. It should be noted that other chemistries also have age-related degenerative effects. This is especially true for nickel-metal-hydride if exposed to high ambient temperatures. At the same time, lithium-ion packs are known to have served for five years in some applications.
Manufacturers are constantly improving lithium-ion. New and enhanced chemical combinations are introduced every six months or so. With such rapid progress, it is difficult to assess how well the revised battery will age.

References:
Apple - Lithium-ion Batteries
Battery University


iTunes Store Doesn't Recognize iTunes Library About two weeks ago, iTunes stopped recognizing my iTunes library. I get this message when I go to either File → Library → Update iCloud Music Library or Update Genius:

There is no such option under File → Library. I tried disabling Genius Recommendations under my account, then turning them back on, but with no success. What is causing this and how can I fix it?

I have iTunes Match, but not Apple Music, if that matters.

Logging out of my iTunes account and logging back in did the trick.

Account → Sign Out
iTunes → Quit iTunes
Wait a bit, relaunch iTunes
Account → Sign In
iTunes → Preferences → General → uncheck iCloud Music Library
Click OK, wait a bit
iTunes → Preferences → General → check iCloud Music Library

iTunes should immediately start updating your iCloud Music Library. Once that’s done, everything should be working correctly.


Move application to another desktop directly When I open my application on desktop 1. I can't open it in desktop 2, it will jump back to desktop 1.

Can I directly move the application to desktop 2 without exiting the application?

On desktop 1, open the Mission Control (four fingers, swipe up), you will see desktop spaces on top of the screen.  Move the application to desktop 2.

Or, on desktop 1, drag the application, move it to the right edge of the screen, wait two second, the desktop will be switch to desktop 2, and your application will be there.


New MacBook Pro graphics card? When I have a monitor plugged in at work (dual monitor) and I go to About this Mac -> More Info it says Graphics Radeon HD6770. But when I unplug the monitor and just use the laptop display (17") It says Intel graphics. Is this normal? This is a brand new machine.

Yes this is normal. Both the 15" and the 17" MacBook Pro have two graphic cards and use the Intel HD graphics for normal function and switch to the ATI Radeon when a more graphically demanding application is being run. Also when you connect the external display the ATI card kicks in in order to drive both of your screens. This is why you get the blue screen flash when you connect and disconnect an external monitor (the graphics source is being switched)


Clear Terminal command history I'm trying to clear the history of commands that have been run on Terminal, I found an article which said I can do it with rm ~/.bash_history

However, I am still able to see the previous commands that I've ran by pressing the up arrow

The correct command is history -c, as shown in the picture below.


Can't send or receive e-mail via Mail I've tried multiple e-mail accounts and can't get my computer to talk to the e-mail server.  I've loaded and re-loaded the SMTP and IMAP settings.  Everything seems in order, but it just doesn't want to work.  "Could not connect to this SMTP server" is the message.  I tried it with Yahoo free mail and Gmail.
Nothing works.
I'm running OSX 10.9.5 and Mail version 7.3.

Mail app has a weird tendency to mix SMTP servers, which may be the cause of your issue.

Open Mail.app, go to Preferences > Accounts and select one of your accounts.
Look for the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP):" dropdown; click on it and then on "Edit SMTP server list".
Delete all SMTP servers that don't correspond to the accounts that you're trying to configure (if you have two accounts, you should have two SMTP servers). Select the corresponding SMTP server for each account. Check the box that says "Use only this server".

Check that the settings correspond with what each vendor recommends.

For Google Mail:

"Account Information" tab

Server name: smtp.gmail.com
TLS Certificate: None

"Advanced" tab

Automatically detect and maintain account settings: Checked (not sure if needed)
Port: 587
Use SSL: Checked
Authentication: Password
Allow insecure authentication: Unchecked
User name: your whole email (user@gmail.com)
Password: your password.

Up to date info on how to configure IMAP client for Google: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229

For Yahoo Mail:

"Account Information" tab

Server name: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
TLS Certificate: None

"Advanced" tab

Automatically detect and maintain account settings: Checked (not sure if needed)
Port: 587
Use SSL: Checked
Authentication: Password
Allow insecure authentication: Unchecked
User name: your whole email (user@yahoo.com)
Password: your password.

Up to date info on how to configure IMAP client for Yahoo:
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN4075.html


Battery gets hot on iPhone SE After I updated my iPhone SE to iOS 10.2.1, the battery become really hot without changing it's life.

Are there some new functions that stress the battery? What should I disable to keep the battery from getting hot?

It could be somekind of software or hardware fault, if it's a software fault try this:

Reboot the phone, hold the home button and the power button at the same time till you see an apple logo

If it doesn't help, try to update the phone to iOS 10.3.1

If none of this help, try to bring your phone to the local Apple Store, or the place you bought it.


Google Backup and Sync super slow and 100% CPU usage for days I recently copied a lot of files into a synced folder to be back them up. The total file size was about 30GB, I have 10MB up/100MB down internet connection. So in a perfect world 8 hours should have been enough to sync.

Google Backup and Sync kicked in and was at 100% CPU with the fan on hair dryer mode for nearly 2 weeks. Unfortunately there were 1000s of extremely small source code files which Google Backup can not handle efficiently. See https://support.google.com/drive/thread/5381381?hl=en

Setup:
2018 MacBook Air
Internet: 100MB download and 10MB upload
Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76)
Google Backup and Sync
Version 3.48.8668.1939

What can be done to speed things up and avoid this?

I thought it would be more efficient to leave it on but I noticed that the number of files synced was increasing more slowly as time went on. Possibly due to an inefficiency as the back app was continuously scanning unsynced files. After a few days it was managing just 1000 files a day. When I restarted it would manage 500+ in the first half an hour.

Rather than constantly restarting the app here is an Apple Script which helped speed things up. It restarts Google Backup and Sync every half an hours which really helped.

Open the apple Script Editor. Copy the text into the script editor and hit “Run"

repeat
    log "About to start Google backup and sync"
    tell application "Backup and Sync" to activate
    log "Starting for 30 minutes..."
    delay 1800
    log "About to quit Google backup and sync"
    tell application "Backup and Sync" to quit
    log "Application Closed"
    delay 60
end repeat


Mouse tracking speed setting has no effect If I change the tracking speed of my USB mouse then literally nothing happens. It tracks at the exact same speed:

It appears to remember the setting and it makes defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling return different results, but the actual mouse tracking speed never changes. Is there any way to debug this? I'm using MacOS 10.15.6.

Ah I just figured it out! I was using a KVM with a "fast switching mode" where you can hit the side of the screen with your mouse twice to switch inputs. Somehow this got turned on. (It also explains why it was randomly switching inputs without me asking!)
As soon as you turn it off (Scroll lock, Scroll lock, F12 for the one I'm using), the mouse works perfectly again. My guess is that in order to know when you hit the side of the screen, the KVM has to be in charge of the position of the cursor on the screen, so it must set the mouse to absolute mode, and then the OS sensitivity has no effect.
Would be nice if something in the UI said the mouse is operating in absolute mode (I didn't even know that was possible, though I guess graphics tablets use it).


SSD and Mountain Lion I have a Vertex Plus r2 OCZ SSD drive in my Macbook Pro 2010,

It's been going well and it only cost me like 80gbp.

I noticed recently (not that I run tests regularly) that the performance has dropped by nearly 50%

200Mbps read -> 90,      160 write -> 80

There is so much misinfo on SSD's out there it drives me mental, I don't have the 'trim enabler' hack installed because I read that the SSD drive had it's own built in hardware regeneration/ware leveling/trim type thing going on.

My question: how can I get performance back to what it was like when I bought it (6 months ago).

I was thinking:

A) Enable trim?
B) do a complete format and reinstall?
C) Leave the computer on and idle and hope it does it's hardware trim thing or whatever?

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
John

Try erasing free space (from Disk Utility, on the bottom left corner of the "erase" tab of your drive), and then enable trim (via Trim Enabler).

More than likely this drop in performance is caused by the SSD having to clear memory before being able to write to it. Flash memory can only bring bits up (from 0 to 1), meaning that over-writing a non-zero byte requires first erasing the whole byte, then bringing up whatever bits are needed. This means that 2 operations are needed (erase, write) rather than just 1 (write). TRIM helps improve performance by actively zeroing out memory locations that have been deleted during idle times, allowing for a single write operation to be sufficient for writing to that location. Erasing free space will do the same thing, but it's a one time deal, whereas TRIM works in the background to keep it all tidy.


Automator: Filter finder items by date modified isn't working as expected I am using automator to move all finder items in a location to trash if their last date modified is after 2 weeks from today.

The workflow is as follows:

Get Specified Finder Items (an external hard drive) - works well

Get Folder Contents (repeat for each subfolder found) - works well

Filter Finder Items (all that are not a folder) - works well

Filter Finder Items (all whose date modified is not in the last 2 weeks) - DOES NOT WORK
This passes all the items to the next process without any being filtered

Move Finder Items to Trash - works well

I am able to make this workflow work correctly if the condition for the Filter is set to "All items whose date modified is after a specific date". Here, I manually input the date which is 14 days before today.

Can anyone explain why these two functions cause the filter to behave differently when they are essentially the exact same thing?

I want to have the 2 week condition so that I can run the workflow without having to edit it every time.

Thanks!
Cake

I'd use the find command instead.

In a new Automator workflow, add the following actions:

Run Shell Script

Settings - Shell: /bin/bash and Pass input: to stdin
Replace the default cat with:

find "/Path/To/Directoty" -type f -mtime +14d -iname '*.*'

Change "/Path/To/Directory" to the pathname of the target directory, e.g. "/Volumes/Name/Directory/.."

Move Finder Items to Trash
Save the workflow as an application.

Test that this does as you want before saving it as an application.

Note: You could devise a more complex find command and or workflow, however this, as is, is better then your current malfunctioning workflow.


MacBook Running Really Slow, Activity Monitor Reports HUGE VM My MacBook is running really really slow at the moment, I have quit loads of processes (but activity monitor only reported about 10% cpu usage anyway).

I had just noticed I have a VM Size of 250GB!

Could this be the problem? Why would it ever be that big?

The first thing you might want to do is restart it. That will probably fix the problems.

Other things you might want to check:

Do you have enough free disk space?
How much RAM do you have? Are you running any memory intensive application (or many)? I.e. you might have photoshop sitting idle, but ten 80mb RAW files open… that uses RAM, not CPU (as long as you’re not processing them in any way).
Are you running any sort of Virtualization software (VMware, Parallels, VirtualBox?) If yes, are they running a Virtual Machine?
Is your computer Paging too much to disk? (See activity Monitor, memory: Page ins vs. Page outs). A lot of Pageouts is bad (compared to Ins). That means your box is lacking physical RAM memory and must write to the (slow) HDD to save the memory pieces. This is one of the #1 causes for slowdowns. note: some page outs are ok, the system uses the swap no matter how much ram you have.
You already mention it, but sort by CPU Usage in All Processes (Activity Monitor) and make sure no process goes crazy every now and then.
Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.App) and execute:

ls -lh /var/vm

The output will consist of one (or more) swapfile0, 1, 2… and next to them you’ll see the size. Small sizes are ok (a few hundred Megabytes). If that swapfile is huge, then you have an Insufficient RAM problem. You need more RAM or less programs at the same time.

Here’s my output: (I have 12 GB of RAM, so that’s a lot to spare)

In the end, restart your computer and monitor those values throughout the day(s).


Connecting any device to wired Keyboard USBs makes it stop working I have an Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and a MacBook Pro (early 2015) with Yosemite (10.10.5).

This keyboard comes with two 2.0 USB ports, which, as per own product description, states:

  enable you to connect your mouse as well as a high-speed peripheral such as a digital camera or printer.

Every time I connect anything to these ports, the keyboard stops working (and of course, the connected device won't work either in almost all cases).

I tried different USB flash drives from different brands and sizes (1GB, 8GB), 1TB external drive, charge my headphones.. nothing.

Is there anything to be done in order to make the USB ports work in MacBook Pro (a hidden "use full power on usb" hidden feature perhaps)?

Oddity: One thing I discovered while testing was that if I plug iPhone on the right slot then the external hdd on the left, keyboard will work while hdd mounts and iPhone charges. But if I only plug one of them (hdd, headphones, etc), keyboard dies. I tested once in iMac and worked fine though. Is it broken perhaps?

I think the keyboard is not usb upward compatible so you might need to pay attention to USB 2 or USB 3 connection.


BOOTCAMP HDD move - Missing operating system A few weeks ago I put a bootcamp partition on my 320gb HDD in my mbp early 2009. However, a few days ago I bough me a 1tb hdd and exchanged it. Of course, I don't really want to re-install windows all over again, and just "copy" over my installed version.

After installing OS X I created a bootcamp partition and rebooted. I put my old HDD in a chassi and booted up into recovery-mode for OS X. Here I used the disk utility to "restore" the USB Bootcamp partition to the new Bootcamp partition.
Now, when I boot, I can boot to the bootcamp partition, but as soon as it is boots I get the Missing operating system error.

I tried booting from the original windows 7 disk and choose repair, but get the message that I cannot repair the current version of windows since its not the same version.

How can I solve this, without reinstalling windows?

Well.. unfortunately... I didn't got it working. So, I ended up making a new partition for windows and re-installing it. Too bad I wasted so much time.


Unable to download apps on iPad 1 I am using an iPad first generation. I am not able to download any apps from the App Store as they are no longer supported on iOS 5.1.1.

They ask me to update iOS but I can not see any software update available for my iPad.

What do I do?

iOS 5 was released in 2011. A new major iOS version is released every year.

iOS 5.1.1 is the last supported iOS release for iPad 1. A lot of apps on the App Store no longer support iOS 5 as it is outdated. Basically the recent version(s) of iOS have advanced way past the features and technologies (due to new hardware features and advancements) available around iOS 5.

You’ll be able to find very few apps on the App Store capable of running on iOS 5. With Apple's push for keeping the apps up-to-date and dropping support for older software releases, a lot of the popular and commonly used apps are no longer iOS 5 compatible.

iPad 1 can not be upgraded past iOS 5.1.1 which is the last supported release for the device.


Headphone jack/logic board broken? Recently, my headphone jack on my macbook pro has been very loose. I could easily just tap the wire and the headphone jack would disconnect the wire. So what I did was put some aluminum foil inside the jack. stupid me. Because I stuck too much in there, and I stuck it in real deep, and a pin or a needle can barely even reach it.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Update:

I got it out! Yay. However now, here are two problems I am having:

1) My speakers don't work and the adjust volume option is greyed out, went to system preferences but nothing in output

2) Works with earphones/external speakers but only the left ear works (for both my external speakers and earphones)

3) Occasionally there is a red light in the headphone jack when nothing is inserted in it

4) Its also worth mentioning that these three keys: p, caps lock and mute do not function and are not recognized on my computer and have not been working for a while.

Is there is something wrong with my logic board?

You're absolutely right, stupid you.

Jokes aside, if you have the MBP with removable battery, remove it. Turn your computer off, and get a long needle, match, miniature tweezer, unbent paperclip, straw, or pretty much any long, thin pretty strong appliance with a tip able to "hook" on to the aluminium foil. Try to get it out.

There really isn't much more to do. If you can't get it out, you'll either need to send it in for service, or open the Mac and replace the headphone jack yourself (warranty break deluxe).

Keep trying, maybe use a weak suction device or compressed air, be patient, and you'll hopefully get it out. Good luck!


IPad Battery replacement criteria under warranty, no applecare does the complimentary one year warranty cover replacement of batteries that go below 50% of original capacity? What is 50%...? Like how fast does it have to drain? Is there a way to measure without bringing the iPad to an Apple store?

Yes, the warranty covers battery failure.

The batteries capacity can be measured in mAh.
If Apple sells it with 1000mAh, then 500 would mean 50% (example numbers). I'm not sure at what percentage Apple considers a battery failure but I'm strongly assuming 50% within a year is considered a warranty case.

Call AppleCare or take it to a store. They will give you a URL to enter in Safari (something like diag://12345)
That will send the test results to Apple (including battery capacity) and they'll tell you your options to get your battery swapped.

There is no official way to check your battery capacity yourself (there are possibilities with jailbroken devices AFAIK).


Send all notifications all the time I just realised someone sent me an email 6 hours ago. This was an important mail.

I think I was watching a full-screen video in Safari at the time.

Does macOS block notifications when you are watching films? I've noticed this problem before, maybe I'm off the mark but missing notifications has become a problem as of late.

How can I make sure I'm getting all notifications (specifically Discord and Mail.app)

If you go to Notifications in System Preferences you can access the notification settings. Each individual app can have the style of notification changed, as well as some other settings. You can also set the Do Not Disturb hours and settings, which will prevent notifications from displaying.


How can I change my iPhone's camera's resolution? I know that Android phones let you change camera resolution. How can I accomplish the same on iOS?

Go to Settings > Camera.

You can select resolution and FPS for video & slo-mo. However, you cannot change the photo resolution.

You you will also be able to choose between high efficiency, using HEIF/HEVC, or most compatible, using JPEG/H.264. This does not directly affect the resolution, but does affect how large the photo and video files are.


As part of "nuking it from orbit", is it safe to reinstall the OS using Recovery? Context: I've erased my hard drive and had OS El Capitan reinstalled via a bootable drive from a Genius Bar many times leading up to me asking this question. After going through the process of erasing + reinstalling + setting up preferences/calendars + changing passwords etc, the day after there have always been little things that were noticeable enough to arouse suspicion regarding a RAT/trojan on my Macbook (minor changes to iCal entries I definitely didn't make etc).

Recently, I tried a different route: I erased the hard drive and reinstalled the OS via Recovery using an Apple store's wifi. But even after doing this, I noticed the day after of setting up my Macbook as new again that one of my iCal entries were edited that I didn't make...

However, I read somewhere that it's best to reinstall the OS from a non-recovery partition source because if there is/was a RAT/trojan on my Macbook, said RAT/trojan could modify some files in the recovery partition without my knowledge thus leading me to unwittingly install a backdoored OS. Does this seem plausible? Should I once again try and erase/reinstall the OS from a bootable drive at a Genius Bar?

You are correct - a suitably advanced attacker could technically rewrite the OS on the recovery HD to point it to a bad source when you reinstall the OS.

Better would to be use internet recovery since that would require even more advanced work to compromise the firmware on the Mac.

Best would be to bring a bootable installer from a machine you have more confidence hasn’t been comnptromised.

In 98% of the time - all of the above steps to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS are going to be equally effective, but there are increased levels of safety to be had than just using the self-contained recovery HD.


Are every version of Bluestacks fully compatible with macOS Big Sur 11.0.1? I upgraded to BigSur version 11.0.1 yesterday but after that, I am not able to open Bluestacks
Whenever I try so, it prompts that this
I clicked on open system preferences, but there I don't get an option to allow it

After 3-5 minutes, it shows this

Is this a bug?

Looks like this now has been fixed! Try reinstalling Bluestacks newest version
https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053434311-How-to-use-BlueStacks-on-MacOS-11-Big-Sur


Can set iTerm2 tab colors from the command line? I'd like to automatically set a terminal tab's color when certain things happen, like when I run teamocil, ssh or other programs.

I know how to watch the .bash_history file.  But I don't know how to programmatically change the tab color.  Is there a way?

(not related: 1, 2)

It appears a script like this could work for you. This is using zsh, but should work or only require a little bit of editing to work with bash.

Essentially what it does is aliases ssh to this color ssh command which changes the color of the tab and then runs ssh.


How to access history of podcasts I have listened to in iphone? I don't know if this is possible or not: I would like to see the history of all the podcasts I have ever listened to. Is this possible?

I am sure the phone logs this information. I have been wondering the same for as long as the Podcasts app came out in the App Store.

Unfortunately I have failed to find a way to extract data around the play history of my podcasts. I think this is impossible at this time.


Unable to View Web Browsing History in Safari 10.0.2 on macOS Sierra Safari recently quit displaying my web browsing history. However, it appears to be storing at least part of my history. (See Photo 1 and Photo 2).

Safari preferences specify keeping history for 365 days.

What might I try to fix this?

Yes, I have the same issue. It started when I upgraded to Sierra, I got Safari 10.0.3. Rather than reinstall all of macOS, I'm waiting to see if this is a bug in syncing between Sierra and iOS through iCloud.

Here are details of my thinking.

Frequently Visited in Favorites isn't showing anything either.

I got a History.db of 61,6 MB in my ~/Library/Safari/ folder and I manage to see some iCloud macbook browsing history on my iPhone running iOS 10.3.1.


How to remove Guest option from login screen? I just started using a MacBook Pro in addition to my Windows 7 laptop (to see if the OS X 10.8 will be a good alternative for me). At Windows bootup, since my user is the only one on the computer, it is already selected at the login screen and I just type my password and go.

On OS X 10.8.2 it shows my name and a Guest account. I have to select my name with the mouse before I can type in my password. I can't even use the keyboard to tab over to my name:

How can I disable the Guest account from showing on the login screen so only my user is displayed with a password box?

In Users & Groups the Guest user is disabled:

I also did some searching and found that this could be a side affect of the 'Find my Mac' feature of iCloud. I verified it is also disabled:

Any ideas?

@andyshinn
OK,
I see on your screen shot, that is not Guest user icon, that is Group user!

It says Other (not Guest).

The Guest user shows with one face, the group shows with multiple faces, like your icon.

I see you are at work.
Do you have a group user account set up by your IT people?

Let me clarify that.
Someone or something (a program) has put a login and hidden it from you so you can not delete it.

Well you can now do something since you know about it.
First lets find out who! then decide if you want to delete it.


I have trouble accessing my Mac After I accidentally left my Mac on my balcony last summer and after a heavy rain when typing the mac keyboard only symbols appear.

When using external keyboard things have worked smoothly since until today when I turned on Filevault.

Now suddenly it wouldn't accept my password any longer.

Now I can only access the guest account on my mac.

And the Mac wont recognize my password even after the restore password--- nothing happens in keyboard when i try to type these passwords.

I have even tried resetting the PRAM but it would not work. Any suggestions?

What Mac are you using (Macbook Air / Pro)? Does it have a replaceable disk?

If the disk is not replaceable, I see the following options:

Assuming the T key is still functional: Access your Mac in target mode and unlock the disk from the other computer. For example this article explains the procedure.
Assuming the cmd and R keys are still functional: Recovery Mode
Assuming the alt key is still functional: Same as above, but you manually select the recovery partition

Sometimes the filevault2 volume cannot be opened easily. See here for a workaround.

If the disk is replaceable I would remove it asap, unlock the disk, and save the data e.g. with an USB-IDE adapter (like this one).


FaceTime audio when blocked? If you're blocked as a contact on a iPhone can you still contact them by FaceTime audio?

No. Blocking a number will block it for normal calls, FaceTime and FaceTime audio.

You might have to pay attention to the details though to fully block someone. Anyone using FaceTime has an AppleID so you'd want to block the Apple ID (usually it's an email) and possibly also block the associated cellular number(s) since you can attach several phone numbers to one Apple ID.


A small window opens for a seccond Everytime I start the Macbook, a small window opens for a seccond and disapeared. I managed to take a screenshot for that provided below,

I have High Sierra OS instilled and the machine config is provided below,

This started from today though this doesnt creates any other issue. However, I'm worried that this may be the symptom of something bigger that would come later point.

Does anyone see this before or can explain?

I have not seen the OS X doing that ever.

It must be one of your Applications.

The OS X is already fully up and running at the time that Window pops up.


What's the maximum necessary size in pixels for a video for iPhone? I'm exporting MOVs from Flash, then converting them to mp4 with Handbrake. The video will scale to the screen size, but I would prefer it to scale down, rather than  scale up.

So, what are the optimum pixel width and height of a MOV/mp4 for iPhones? By "optimum", I mean the maximum needed to display 1:1 on the highest definition iPhone screen.

I know iPhone screen sizes have changed with each new iPhone, and screen sizes come in points, rendered pixels, physical pixels and physical devices. But hopefully in the end there's max X-px x Y-px.

The currently biggest iPhone is the iPhone 7 plus. It has a 5.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit widescreen.

In landscape mode it has a 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution at 401 ppi.
In portrait mode it has a 1080-by-1920-pixel resolution at 401 ppi.

Which is the equivalent of a full HD movie.


How can I reinstall Mac OS 9 on a G3 PowerBook's original hard drive? I have a PowerBook G3 from 2000 or so and would like to put Mac OS 9 on it for nostalgia reasons. There are games that simply don't perform well with SheepShaver, plus networking with SheepShaver isn't reliable with Classic multiplayer games.

The PowerBook doesn't have a CD-ROM, just a plastic spacer.
Apparently the PowerBook G3 Pismo and Lombard variants cannot boot from a USB stick
It has Ethernet, and I have a recent MacBook with an Ethernet dongle, but everything I've read about NetBooting and NetInstalling seems difficult and unapproachable. I tried using BootMania but it won't let me create an image from any of the Mac OS 9 install disk images I have.
The PowerBook originally had Linux or BSD on it or something, so a full reformat is needed.
It has a 20 GB 2.5" IDE drive and I have a USB to IDE adapter, so I can connect the drive to the MacBook with Mac OS X.
SheepShaver cannot use physical media, so I cannot connect the disk to SheepShaver and run the Mac OS 9 installer on it.

I tried creating a new 512 MB disk from SheepShaver and running the Mac OS 9.2 Universal Installer to install OS9 on it. Then I formatted the physical drive with an Apple Partition Map and the partition as HFS Extended Journaled, then I mounted the drive and copied (dragged over) the files and System Folder from the newly-installed disk image. But when I boot the PowerBook with the drive hooked up I just get the blinking folder icon. If I hold Option I get the Reload and Next buttons but no disks are shown.

I also tried dd-ing a working SheepShaver boot image to the physical disk, but I guess that doesn't have a partition map on it or something. It didn't work and diskutil list showed it as "Unknown."

Do you have any ideas how I can get Mac OS 9 back on my PowerBook?

I tried dding the the Mac OS 9.2 Universal Installer to the hard disk, but that didn't work.

@jaume put me on the right path, so I dd-ed the ISO to a USB stick, held down option at boot, and I'm able to install Mac OS 9 to the original hard disk. Success! Thank you!

The real thing I learned is that Mac OS 9 boot volumes need half a dozen special driver partitions. Older versions of Mac OS X, up to 10.12 or something, let you partition OS 9 drives correctly using the Disk Utility which had an "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" option. I used hdiutil info to check that the ISO had these partitions.


Keynote keyboard shortcut to navigate between objects on a slide If I am typing in the Title box and I want to keep my hands on the keyboard, is there a shortcut for me to navigate to the next text box or bulleted list (or whatever) on the screen without having to use my mouse?

You can navigate between text boxes on keynote without using your mouse and only keyboard by using the tab key. This has its limitation as it does not let you edit existing text but instead replace the text with what you begin texting. The process is as follows:

New Slide
Press Tab (bounding box highlights for the text box)
Start Typing (finish text)
Press Escape
Press Tab (continuing pressing to cycle)


Login screen displays in the wrong place? Screenshot:

When I wake up my computer, the login screen is placed up and to the left of where it should be. Fortunately, the login screen otherwise functions normally, and everything is placed correctly after I login.

This problem started happening some time after I upgraded to Yosemite.

Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
13" mid-2013 MacBook Air, Intel Haswell Core i7

Any idea what might be causing this?

Rebooting to upgrade to 10.10.1 seems to have fixed the problem for now.


How to use "open in terminal", and "two windows side by side" on mac? I'm a Linux user. I just bought my first Macbook but I still need some features from Linux that I think are also useful. For example:

Open in terminal (right click and choose menu to open the current folder path in terminal)
Two windows side by side (this feature from Windows.)

How can I get these features?

For the number one, just put the terminal icon in the doc then drag the desired folder to the icon and it open the path


Magic Mouse & Bluetooth Keyboard Won't Pair in Lion I have a new macbook pro 15 inch 2011 model. My magic mouse and bt keyboard won't pair. The keyboard doesn't even get detected in the bluetooth settings. How can I get them to work together?

I have bluetooth enabled and tried using Setup Bluetooth Device to pair them.

I don't think this is your problem, but it might be and doesn't seem to have been raised elsewhere.  I bought a new MacBook Pro running Lion a few months ago, and found that the (also new) Magic Mouse would not connect automatically—I had to force it to connect after any disconnection from switching off the MM or from rebooting the MacBook.

One of the genii at the Genius Bar, after ½ hour of experimenting and in the process of telling me that Lion would have to be reloaded, suddenly realized that the MM connected upon being clicked.  He stated that he had not run into this before and that it must be a new feature in Lion related to battery preservation.

Bottom line, try a single mouse click to initiate the Bluetooth connection.


Command Line: create a link to folder and access files in this folder I want to do this thing:

Create a link to a folder.
Put this link in home (~) directory
Access files in linked folder from home directory (~/LinkToFolder/file)

What is the best way to it?

Main Problem.
I have a set of scripts, that lay in specific folder in git repository local clone.
I want to access them from home directory in very simple way.

perl ~/LinkToFolder/myWorkScript.pl param1 param2

You can do this with Symlinks:

ln -s /path/to/original/location /path/to/intended/shortcut

For example, if you want ~/Scripts to go to ~/Dropbox/Documents/Scripts you can do…

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Documents/Scripts ~/Scripts

Then open ~/Scripts/test.sh will open the file at ~/Dropbox/Documents/Scripts/test.sh.

To see the symlink you can run ls -laPGh ~/Scripts.

For example, I have my Mobile Documents folder symlinked as iCloud, so…

ls -lapGh ~/iCloud
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 grgarside  staff    41B 12 Nov  2012 iCloud -> /Users/grgarside/Library/Mobile Documents


Extracting data from iPhone backup on iCloud I am trying to extract some data from an old iPhone backup which I have on iCloud. I am looking for a good way to do this. I have two options in mind, neither of which will work well for me:

I could restore the data to an iPhone and then manually extract it, but unfortunately I don't have a second iPhone to do this on. Doing this on my main iPhone would disrupt my workflow.
I could use one of the myriad tools made for Mac or PC which have the purpose of extracting data from your iCloud backup. However, I am very wary of giving my Apple ID away to a third party (you usually need to log into iCloud through this app).

So, is there a way to do it which does not have these pitfalls? I'm thinking of a way to download the iCloud backup to my computer, using a third party to extract the local data (in this way I don't need to give my password away), and then obtaining the data. However, I do not know of a way to download an iCloud backup into anything other than when setting up an iPhone after it's been restored.

If you don't want to use a third-party tool for an iCloud download, the only canonical Apple way is through a reset and restore.

As you say, it'd interrupt your workflow, but depending on the size of the backups involved you might be able to get it done in an hour. The greatest consequence of doing this is that you'd have to reauthenticate most apps on your device after restoring your backup.

Using iTunes backups as part of the switcheroo would make this as fast as possible, and you'd do something like this:

Use iTunes to back up your iPhone. (An iTunes backup will be fastest. Make sure it's an encrypted backup, as the unencrypted ones don't include everything.)
Back up your encrypted backup, or move it temporarily onto your desktop. It'll be in one of these folders.
Erase your iPhone. Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
Restore the iCloud backup that you want to examine to it.
Back up the newly restored phone with iTunes. (This will overwrite your earlier iTunes backup, as it's the same device. That's why it was important to back it up earlier.)
Move out the restored phone's iTunes backup, and switch your original iTunes backup into the backup folder.
Erase and restore your phone from the original iTunes backup so that you're back to where you started. Log back into your assorted apps on the phone.

Step 5 will have created an iTunes backup of the iCloud backup data you want to examine. You'll then be able to examine that with a bit of hacking around, or use of a third party tool. Good luck. As someone who built the first iPhone backup tool (and later, iCloud backup tool), I'd say it's important to choose the tool you use carefully!


Mac OS (High Sierra 10.13.6) volume control spontaneously runs; can I disable it? I have a pretty old MacBook Air (bought it in 2011), so I'm thinking it's probably to do with the keyboard wearing out. But I'll be watching a video or something and the volume control will run up to the max, as if holding down F11, or run all the way down as if holding down F10. (Since I installed High Sierra, these keys have shifted one over to the right, so F12 and F11 really.)

I've tried several things: restarting system, cleaning keyboard, etc., setting it up to hold down the Fn key as well as the function key (doesn't change anything), installing updates. Nothing seems to help.

So, unless anyone has any other ideas, I'm presuming that the problem is hardware-related. I don't really use the system volume control anyway; prefer to control it from within the video itself. Is there a way to disable it, without disabling the ability to control it from within, say, youtube videos?

(Edit: I tried resetting the PRAM by holding Option-Command-P-R on reboot after a complete shutdown. The problems haven't reoccurred after some hours of use. I'll post it as an answer if the problem doesn't resurface after I give it a day.)

Doesn't appear to be a hardware problem after all. Resetting the NVRAM/PRAM seems to have done the trick. Before doing this, the problem was occurring about every two minutes. I've now run the system for 24 hours without an incident.

Edit: the problem is back after three days. I would appreciate any ideas.

Edit: the problem turns out to be traceable to a particular set of earphones. Didn't happen unless they were plugged in. Changed earphones, no recurrence of problem. So, it was indeed a hardware problem, just not with the computer itself.


Lion kills application behind the scene, how to put application on a do not kill list? I am encountering an irritating feature of Lion.

Say I spend 30 minutes in XCode, then I go to iChat to talk to my girlfriend for 5 minutes, then I switch to Safari to check StackExchange, gmail, and whatever else I might want to check.

Then I switch to Safari where I run another set of pages. For 5 or 10 seconds, the app resumes with beachball. This is annoying as hell (switch appnames around, they behave the same).

How can I prevent this from happening at all (unlikely) or at least mitigate it by making a list of apps that are not allowed to go into silently-killed mode?

You can't. Check out this thread on the Apple discussion forum. You can also read this article from TUAW.


Airport Extreme PPPoE auth and wireless My provider asks for a PPPoE authentication for internet and I don't know how to do it with Airport Extreme in order to have the wireless working. I can connect to the internet via ethernet using the provided credentials, but the wi-fi has no internet connection, probably because there's no bridge between the wi-fi and the ethernet on Airport Extreme.

Any idea how I can make it work so I can have both ethernet and wi-fi working?

From your description you have a modem provided by your ISP and a separate access point or wireless router given by them that at the moment gives you Wi-Fi access to the internet.

You have to replace this access point or router with your Airport Extreme.
Open (or download, if you're on a Windows box) the Airport Utility app that will allow you to configure the Airport Extreme. Then follow the instructions provided at the Apple Support page:

  AirPort Utility 6.x: Connect to the Internet using PPPoE

  Some DSL and cable modem Internet service providers require you to use
  Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) to connect to the
  Internet.

  If you’re using a DSL or cable modem, make sure it’s connected to the
  telephone or cable jack, and to your wireless device’s wide area
  network (WAN) port before setting up your base station.

  Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder, select the device you want to set up, then click
  Edit. Enter the password if necessary.
  Click Internet, then choose PPPoE from the Connect Using pop-up menu.

  Enter the account name, password, and any other information your Internet service provider gave you. When you set up your base station
  or your AirPort Time Capsule to connect using PPPoE, the device
  receives an IP address from your ISP automatically, and uses DHCP and
  NAT to share that IP connection with computers on your wireless
  network.
  Choose Always On, Automatic, or Manual from the Connection pop-up menu. If you choose Always On, your wireless device stays connected to
  your modem and the Internet as long as the modem is turned on.

  If you choose Automatic or Manual from the Connection pop-up menu, you need to choose an increment, such as “10 minutes,” from the
  “Disconnect if idle” pop-up menu. If you don’t use an Internet app
  after the period of time has passed, you are disconnected from the
  Internet.
  If you choose Automatic, your wireless device connects to the modem, which connects to the Internet when you use an app that
  requires an Internet connection, such as an email, instant message, or
  web app.
  If you choose Manual, you need to connect the modem to the Internet when you use an app that requires an Internet connection.

  Choose an increment of time, such as 30 minutes, from the “Disconnect if idle” pop-up menu if you want to force the base station
  to disconnect from the Internet when it isn’t used for the specified
  amount of time.
  Click Update to reset the wireless device with the new settings. If your web browser reports a connection error when you access the
  Internet, wait until your computer is connected to the AirPort network
  and make sure the network is connected to the Internet.

  To check the connection, use the wireless connection status icon in
  the menu bar on a Mac, and the wireless network icon in the status
  tray on a Windows computer.

On the Wireless tab you want to select "Create a wireless network" and specify the security, SSID and password. You can check additional options but let's keep it simple.

On the Network tab you have to select "DHCP and NAT" on the Router Mode (it does not allow me to modify it, probably because I selected "Create a wireless network" on the Wireless tab).

Please check your settings and comment if this does not solve your question.


Apple Mailbox appearing in trash and in inbox This morning I got the message "An error occurred while moving message to mailbox (null)".

I discovered my entire mailbox is duplicated under Trash and under my Inbox. Anybody got any ideas on how to repair this?

Are you using an IMAP account? If so, remove the account and add it again so it downloads your mailbox entirely from the server.

Did you find the mailbox tree in your Mail.app trash or in you OS X trash?


Software and Monitoring Provision for Mac Clients I was wondering if there are any Apple Software and Monitoring tools specifically made for Mac OSX Clients. I am aware of Profile Manager and several OSX Server tools such as Open Directory for Authentication, but I haven't been able to make a solid plan in terms of tools needed for Deploying Mac Images and then monitoring them.

For example is there an Apple Software product like Nagios for system alerts in OSX? is Munki the only way to manage installed packages on OSX Clients?

Thanks!

Check out DeployStudio :-

http://www.deploystudio.com/Home.html

which is the best image deployment tool.

Monitoring is a little more problematic but I'm a big fan of Caspar if for no other reason than it provides enterprise management for Mac and iOS that runs on enterprise hardware.

http://www.jamfsoftware.com/products/casper-suite/

Apple Remote Desktop is an essential tool and it includes some monitoring tools. http://www.apple.com/support/remotedesktop/ and http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/

I've known some Mac admins who have used Puppet but Munki is popular for a reason. https://code.google.com/p/munki/

Go and visit AFP548 for some good tips too. http://www.afp548.com/

We used to all be in love with monolithic images but these days tend to have simple images and use DeployStudio or Munki to roll out custom packages on top.


Help needed to add text to the end of a string using the "sed" command in Terminal In Terminal.app, I used the curl ftp... command to get a directory listing of folders and files from my friend's computer and I directed the output to a file called "curlFTP.txt". Each line of this file appears like these following 3 examples…

drwxr-xr-x   1 nobody   root     4096 Aug 02  2014 WEDDING_SINGER_4X3
drwxr-xr-x   1 nobody   root     4096 Aug 02  2014 WEEKEND_AT_BERNIES
drwxr-xr-x   1 nobody   root     4096 Aug 02  2014 WEIRD_SCIENCE

From each of these lines of that file, I only need to keep the directory names, which would be...

WEDDING_SINGER_4X3
WEEKEND_AT_BERNIES
WEIRD_SCIENCE

Using the cut -c 52- command, I was able to extract only these folder names which I then directed its output to a file I named "curlFTP2.txt"

The next step I needed to do was prepend each line of the file "curlFTP2.txt" with the text...curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk\ 1\ Movies/Movies\ 1/ and direct its output to a file named "curlFTP3.txt". Now each line of the file "curlFTP3.txt" would look like these following three examples...

curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEDDING_SINGER_4X3
curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEEKEND_AT_BERNIES
curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEIRD_SCIENCE

Here is the full command I used, which worked incredibly well and was extremely fast, considering there was 760 lines in the file to edit.

cat curlFTP.txt | cut -c 52- > curlFTP2.txt ; sed 's|^|curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk\ 1\ Movies/Movies\ 1/|g' curlFTP2.txt > curlFTP3.txt

(the IP address I used in this is a substitute for the IP address I actually used)

Here is where I'm jammed up… what I need to do is use the sed command with the -e argument so I can add an additional sed command to the code from above and add a "/" to the end of each line of that file because each listing is a directory.

I need each line to look like this:    curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEDDING_SINGER_4X3/
Instead of each line looking like:  curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEDDING_SINGER_4X3

I was able to figure out that using the sed 's|^|blah|g' command, for example, the "^" character would mean adding "blah" to the beginning of each line.

So here is my question… is there a similar character I can use, like the "^" character, that would allow me to use the sed command to add text to the end of each line?

So here is my question… is there a similar character I can use, like
  the "^" character, that would allow me to use the sed command to add
  text to the end of each line?

Yes, it is: $

That said, looking at what is is going on, let me offer you a different over all solution where you do not need to first:

cat curlFTP.txt | cut -c 52- > curlFTP2.txt

You can process the curlFTP.txt file directly and completely with sed:

sed -E -e 's|^.*[A-Za-z]{3}[ ][0-9]{2}[ ][0-9]{4}[ ]|curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/|' -e 's|$|/|' curlFTP.txt > newfile.txt

You could even eliminate > newfile.txtby using the -i option of the sed command:

  −i extension Edit files in-place, saving backups with the specified
  extension. If a zero-length extension is given, no backup will be
  saved. It is not recommended to give a zero-length extension when
  in-place editing files, as you risk corruption or partial content in
  situations where disk space is exhausted, etc.

sed -i'.bak' -E -e 's|^.*[A-Za-z]{3}[ ][0-9]{2}[ ][0-9]{4}[ ]|curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/|' -e 's|$|/|' curlFTP.txt

Using https://regex101.com to explain the regex used in the sed command:

Which matches e.g.:

drwxr-xr-x 1 nobody root 4096 Aug 02 2014


Run a program without networking? Is there a way to run a program on OS X (e.g., from the command line) but without letting it see the network?

I can turn off and disconnect all networking, but then all my other processes will be disconnected, too.  I'd like to keep my email, web browser, etc., able to use the network, but this one program isolated.

EDIT: I found this question which is similar, but it uses a static route when the destination host is known.  I want to disable networking for all possible hosts, for this one process.

TCPBlock

  TCPBlock is a lightweight and fast application firewall ... you can prevent selected applications on your computer from opening connections to the network.

TCPBlock is currently free and can be downloaded here.


What could cause a new network route to be added every time a website is accessed? We noticed strange behaviour on a Macbook Pro running OSX 10.11.6 where the routing table is populated with hundreds of host entries for every website/host that the user has accessed. If he accesses a new host you can immediately see the new routing entry. Examples of these entries below:

17.171.8.16        10.0.0.1           UGHWIi          1        3     en0
17.172.232.142     10.0.0.1           UGHWIi          2       14     en0
17.172.232.150     10.0.0.1           UGHWIi          1        3     en0

The BSD docs show that the 'W' flag is 'The route was auto-configured based upon a local area network'.

If you disable the network adapter the entries are removed. If you re-enable it then immediately about 30 routes are created and then as the user accesses the Internet it continues to populate. This happens when using a web browser, Curl, SSH etc. However the routing entry is not added when you ping the host.

Does anyone know what could be causing this or how we can troubleshoot it?

I discovered that these are cloned routes unique to BSD networks stacks which are displayed when you use the '-a' option to netstat. For more info see: ETutorials / Home / Networking / Integrated cisco and unix network architectures /
Route Cloning


Pinning the Dock to a Corner in Yosemite/El Capitan In Mavericks and prior, one could use the following commands to pin the dock to either the top or bottom corner of the screen, if the dock was placed left/right, or to the left/right corners if the dock was placed at the bottom, by using the following commands:

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start

or

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end

This is followed by killall Dock to restart the Dock. Now, in Yosemite, it appears that this option has been removed. Is there no way to get back this functionality in Yosemite?

Update: This is still not possible in El Capitan. Very disappointed in Apple.

I filed bug #18701500 on this problem with http://bugreporter.apple.com/

My bug was closed by Apple Engineering as a duplicate of bug #16814560, which is still marked as open.

Although Apple does not permit public viewing of the bug database—I cannot see the details on the bug that they have closed it in favor of—and thus you cannot verify my statements, this is proof to me that there is currently no solution to this problem.