automatically change keyboard shortcuts when keyboard layout changes I have a MacBook Pro with American keyboard, but I also use a Bluetooth keyboard with Spanish layout.
To cycle through windows I use command+` in the built in keyboard, but when I'm using the Spanish keyboard this does not work and I have to change the shortcut to command+º (this is the key that is in the corresponding position  on top of the tab key).
Is there a way to quickly or automatically change this shortcut so I don't have to open the settings window every time when I change the input source?

Updated Answer
The purpose of this update is to provide a fully automated solution to the changing of the keyboard shortcut used for System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to next window when the user switches between English and Spanish - ISO on the Input menu of the menu bar and between the use of the built-in US English keyboard and the attached Bluetooth keyboard with a Spanish - ISO layout.
There was a time when one could use PlistBuddy and or defaults in Mac OS X/OS X to modify an entry in the com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist file to accomplish this task and it would just automatically update, however, the update is no longer possible in macOS without rebooting. As a result, this will be accomplished by using AppleScript run by osascript as a Launch Agent and UI Scripting of the keyboard shortcut for System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to next window, while not having to reboot.
The example AppleScript code, shown further below, was tested and worked for me without issues as is under macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and macOS Big Sur 11.2.2 as a shell script using a #!/usr/bin/osascript shebang, and a Launch Agent that watches for changes to the com.apple.HIToolbox.plist file and changes to the value of its AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID key.  It also checks the value of parameters of the AppleSymbolicHotKeys for the target keyboard shortcut, (27 in this use case), in the com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist file to ensure the changes to the com.apple.HIToolbox.plist file only trigger when changing of the target keyboard shortcut because the keyboard input method has changed.
The following steps are necessary to implement this solution and once completed, it is fully automatic thereafter, until the Launch Agent is stopped, unloaded and removed when no longer needed/wanted.

Create the shell script:
Hint: Copy and paste the shell commands from here to Terminal, and use the same window until completely finished.
In Terminal, assuming the pwd is your Home directory:
touch changeKSforMFTNW; open -e changeKSforMFTNW; chmod +x changeKSforMFTNW

Copy and paste the example AppleScript code, shown further below, into the opened changeKSforMFTNW document and then save and close the document.
Back in Terminal:
[ ! -d '/usr/local/bin/' ] && sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv -v changeKSforMFTNW /usr/local/bin/
sudo -k

Create the Launch Agent:
With the shell script taken care of, create the Launch Agent in Terminal, assuming the pwd is your Home directory:
cd Library
[ ! -d 'LaunchAgents' ] && mkdir LaunchAgents
cd LaunchAgents
touch com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist
open -e com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist

Copy and paste the example XML Plist code, shown further below, into the opened com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist document and change you in the value for WatchPaths to your Home directory, then save and close the document.
With the the com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist file set up and before loading it as the Launch Agent, osascript needs to be added to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility. To do this, in Terminal run open /usr/bin, and in the Finder window that opens to /usr/bin locate the osascript file so it can be dragged and dropped in the next step.
Open System Preferences to Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and click the Lock, enter your (Admin) credentials and then drag and drop osascript onto the list on the right side of Accessibility and ensure it is checked. You can then close System Preferences.
NOTE: Make sure you do this before loading the Launch Agent.

Loading the Launch Agent:
Back in Terminal:
launchctl load com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist

This loads the Launch Agent and the first time you select the target language from the Input menu on the menu bar that is not currently selected, if System Events under osascript System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Automation is unchecked or not there, a dialog box, e.g. '"osascript" wants access to control "System Events". Allowing control will provide access to documents and data in "System Events" and to perform actions within that app.', will appear and you need to click the OK button.
Note that if you were presented with the aforementioned dialog box, the shell script will fail this first time because of the dialog box, but just select again the target language that is not currently selected from the Input menu on the menu bar and it should work this time.
NOTE: Because this is using UI Scripting, once you have selected a target from Input menu on the menu bar you will need to allow the UI Scripting to complete uninterrupted!
I found in testing that in normal switching between English and Spanish - ISO on the Input menu of the menu bar that the UI Scripting would take place almost immediately and take two or three seconds to complete. Time may vary base on speed of the system, what other process are running and if any are CPU intensive at the time.

Example AppleScript code:
#!/usr/bin/osascript

--  # Flush cache on the 'com.apple.HIToolbox.plist' file.
--  # Flush cache on the 'com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist' file.
--  #
--  # The next three lines of code are commented out (with a # character)
--  # and I found them not to be necessary, but have left them in if timing
--  # debugging becomes necessary if the cache does need to be flushed.

# do shell script "defaults read com.apple.HIToolbox.plist 'foobar'; exit 0"
# do shell script "defaults read com.apple.symbolichotkeys 'foobar'; exit 0"
# delay 0.5

--  # Get the fully qualified POSIX pathname of the target .plist file.

set thePropertyListFilePath to POSIX path of ¬
    (path to preferences from user domain) & ¬
    "com.apple.HIToolbox.plist"

--  # See which keyboard layout is the current one.

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell property list file thePropertyListFilePath to ¬
        set theCurrentKeyboardLayout to value of ¬
            property list item "AppleCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSourceID"

--  # Get the value of the parameters of the AppleSymbolicHotKeys for the
--  # target keyboard shortcut as an aggregated numeric string to be used
--  # to stop the script from processing all of its code if the watched .plist
--  # changes for other than to the currently selected keyboard layout.

set shellCMD to ¬
    {"/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c ", ¬
        "'Print :AppleSymbolicHotKeys:27:value:parameters' ", ¬
        "$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist | ", ¬
        "awk '/[0-9]/{sub(/[ ]+/, \"\"); printf( \"%s\", $0 );}'"} ¬
        as string

set ksNumericValue to do shell script shellCMD

if (ksNumericValue is "96501048576") and ¬
    (theCurrentKeyboardLayout is "com.apple.keylayout.US") then
    return
else if (ksNumericValue is "186101048576") and ¬
    (theCurrentKeyboardLayout is "com.apple.keylayout.Spanish-ISO") then
    return
end if

--  # Check to see if System Preferences is
--  # running and if yes, then close it.
--  #
--  # This is done so the script will not fail
--  # if it is running and a modal sheet is
--  # showing, hence the use of 'killall'
--  # as 'quit' fails when done so, if it is.
--  #
--  # This is also done to allow default behaviors
--  # to be predictable from a clean occurrence.

if running of application "System Preferences" then
    try
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    on error
        do shell script "killall 'System Preferences'"
    end try
    delay 0.1
end if

--  # Make sure System Preferences is not running before
--  # opening it again. Otherwise there can be an issue
--  # when trying to reopen it while it is actually closing.

repeat while running of application "System Preferences" is true
    delay 0.1
end repeat

--  # Open System Preferences to the Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard pane.
--  #
--  # This UI Script needs it to be visible, hence the activate command.

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "shortcutsTab" of ¬
        pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

--  # System Events does the navigating around the
--  # Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard pane and changes
--  # the value of the target keyboard shortcut.

tell application "System Events"

    --  # Make sure the UI is ready to be navigated.

    repeat until (exists checkbox 1 of ¬
        tab group 1 of ¬
        window 1 of ¬
        process "System Preferences")
        delay 0.05
    end repeat

    --  # Press the Tab key twice.

    repeat 2 times
        key code 48
        delay 0.1
    end repeat

    --  # Select 'Keyboard' from the list on the left.
    --  # This is wrapped in a try statement to get
    --  # past a bug in how the select command is
    --  # interpreted and is silently eaten.

    try
        select (every row of ¬
            table 1 of ¬
            scroll area 1 of ¬
            splitter group 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" whose ¬
            value of static text 1 = "Keyboard")
    end try

    --  # Select 'Move focus to next window' from the
    --  # list on the right. This is wrapped in a try
    --  # statement to get past a bug in how the select
    --  # command is interpreted and is silently eaten.

    try
        select (every row of ¬
            outline 1 of ¬
            scroll area 2 of ¬
            splitter group 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" whose ¬
            value of static text 1 of ¬
            UI element 2 is "Move focus to next window")
    end try

    --  # By default, when System Preferences opens, focus is in
    --  # the Search text box, and depending on whether or not the
    --  # 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls'
    --  # is checked, it makes a difference when 'UI Scripting' is
    --  # being used. Set a flag so as to handle the differences.

    set isChecked to ¬
        the value of ¬
            checkbox 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" as boolean

    --  # Based on the state of the target check box,
    --  # press the Tab key the necessary times to
    --  # navigate to and or open the text field for
    --  # input of the target keyboard shortcut.

    if isChecked then
        delay 0.1
        repeat 3 times
            key code 48 --  # Tab key.
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
    else
        key code 48 --  # Tab key.
        delay 0.01
    end if

    --  # Toggle the value of the target keyboard shortcut.

    if theCurrentKeyboardLayout is "com.apple.keylayout.US" then
        key code 50 using command down --   # ⌘` keys
    else if theCurrentKeyboardLayout is "com.apple.keylayout.Spanish-ISO" then
        key code 10 using command down --   # ⌘º keys
    end if

    delay 0.5

end tell

tell application "System Preferences" to quit

Because of the comments and coding style the script is very long. It ends with tell application "System Preferences" to quit, so make sure you highlight all of it when copying and pasting to Script Editor for testing and or into the ** changeKSforMFTNW** shell script for production purposes.

Example XML Plist code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/changeKSforMFTNW</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/you/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Notes:

Be sure to change you in <string>/Users/you/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist</string> in the XML Plist file used for the Launch Agent to the name of you Home folder.

Sans the code changes to target the correct key code and fully automating the solution, the conditions mentioned in the original answer, listed below, still apply as applicable.

The naming convention for the shell script e.g. changeKSforMFTNW stands for, change keyboard shortcut for move focus to next window and applies to that portion of the com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist file too. Obviously for testing purposes I need to use something. However, change the naming convention as you desire.

Some of the shell commands that are formatted as a compound command are done so because in a clean install of macOS the bin directory in /usr/local does not exist even though /usr/local/bin is in the PATH (and path in a zsh shell). As well as the LaunchAgents directory in $HOME/Library. (mkdir -p could be used in lieu of the [ ... ] | && paradigm.)

When using Launch Agents and Launch Daemons, I highly recommend reading the manual pages for launchctl, launchd.plist and launchd. You can read the manual page for command in Terminal by typing command and then right-click on it and select: Open man Page

Reverting Changes
To completely undo the changes made by this, in Terminal:
cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
launchctl stop com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist
launchctl unload com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist
rm com.my.change.KS.for.MFTNW.plist
cd /usr/local/bin
sudo rm changeKSforMFTNW

In System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility uncheck and remove osascript if not being used otherwise.
In System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Automation uncheck System Events under osascript if not being used otherwise.

Original Answer
Note: The original answer is beening kept as part of the overall answer as the example AppleScript code used as the proof of concept has value for someone else wanting this solution for different keyboard input other then the two languages beening used by the OP.
Whenever I have have to do something repetitiously I automate it in some manner so as to not have to manually take all the steps necessary to accomplish the task.
In this particular case, as much as I do not like to use UI Scripting, nonetheless, I'll do it when it is the easiest way I know, with all things considered.
Presented as a proof of concept, the example AppleScript code shown below was tested and worked for me without issues as is under macOS Catalina 10.15.7 in Script Editor, under the following conditions:

System Preferences > Language & Region:

Preferred languages:
English
English (US) — Primary

System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility

[√] Script Editor

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard

[ ] Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls
[√] Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls

Allowed the script to run uninterrupted and not taking focus away from System Preferences, as is necessary in this use case in order to use UI Scripting to set the keyboard shortcut.
Changes may be needed to the code in general when run on other versions of macOS and or different Language settings, and was only tested under the aforementioned conditions and the condition expressed in the next paragraph.

I also tested the example AppleScript code saved as an AppleScript application, noting that the application needs to be added to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and clicking the OK button on the, e.g., '“Toggle ⌘` - ⌘=“ wants access to control “System Events“. Allowing control will provide access to documents and data in “System Events“, and to perform actions within that app.' dialog box. (Obviously the name of the application will be whatever it was named. I used Toggle ⌘` - ⌘= for testing purposes.)
Although it was not tested in the following manner, nonetheless, the example AppleScript code should also be able to be used in a Run AppleScript action in an Automator Service/Quick Action, or a third-party automation type application that can make use of AppleScript.
The example AppleScript code toggles the value of the keyboard shortcut for: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to next window
For this proof of concept it toggles between ⌘` and ⌘=, and ⌘= is not really meant to be used, it strictly a placeholder for whatever the key code value of º is, which you'll have to determine.
I determine the value of key codes using a free third-party utility named Key Codes, by Many Tricks, and is available for download from the developers web site, or the Mac AppStore. (I am not affiliated with the developer of Key Codes, just a satisfied user.)
I have also commented the code so you may have an understanding of what it's doing, and it is near the very bottom of the code where you need to change:
key code 24 using command down --   # {"⌘="}

To:
key code ? using command down --    # {"⌘º"}

Where ? is the value for Key Code: in the Key Codes application when the º key is pressed.
Or possibly1 use the keystroke command, e.g.:
keystroke "º" using command down -- # {"⌘º"}

1 Without a Spanish keyboard I cannot effectively test the the keystroke command.

Example AppleScript code:
--  # Check to see if System Preferences is
--  # running and if yes, then close it.
--  #
--  # This is done so the script will not fail
--  # if it is running and a modal sheet is
--  # showing, hence the use of 'killall'
--  # as 'quit' fails when done so, if it is.
--  #
--  # This is also done to allow default behaviors
--  # to be predictable from a clean occurrence.

if running of application "System Preferences" then
    try
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    on error
        do shell script "killall 'System Preferences'"
    end try
    delay 0.1
end if

--  # Make sure System Preferences is not running before
--  # opening it again. Otherwise there can be an issue
--  # when trying to reopen it while it is actually closing.

repeat while running of application "System Preferences" is true
    delay 0.1
end repeat

--  # Open System Preferences to the Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard pane.
--  #
--  # This UI Script needs it to be visible, hence the activate command.

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "shortcutsTab" of ¬
        pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

--  # System Events does the navigating around the
--  # Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard pane and changes
--  # the value of the target keyboard shortcut.

tell application "System Events"

    --  # Make sure the UI is ready to be navigated.

    repeat until (exists checkbox 1 of ¬
        tab group 1 of ¬
        window 1 of ¬
        process "System Preferences")
        delay 0.1
    end repeat

    --  # Press the Tab key twice.

    repeat 2 times
        key code 48
        delay 0.1
    end repeat

    --  # Select 'Keyboard' from the list on the left.
    --  # This is wrapped in a try statement to get
    --  # past a bug in how the select command is
    --  # interpreted and is silently eaten.

    try
        select (every row of ¬
            table 1 of ¬
            scroll area 1 of ¬
            splitter group 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" whose ¬
            value of static text 1 = "Keyboard")
    end try

    --  # Select 'Move focus to next window' from the
    --  # list on the right. This is wrapped in a try
    --  # statement to get past a bug in how the select
    --  # command is interpreted and is silently eaten.

    try
        select (every row of ¬
            outline 1 of ¬
            scroll area 2 of ¬
            splitter group 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" whose ¬
            value of static text 1 of ¬
            UI element 2 is "Move focus to next window")
    end try

    --  # By default, when System Preferences opens, focus is in
    --  # the Search text box, and depending on whether or not the
    --  # 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls'
    --  # is checked, it makes a difference when 'UI Scripting' is
    --  # being used. Set a flag so as to handle the differences.

    set isChecked to ¬
        the value of ¬
            checkbox 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" as boolean

    --  # Based on the state of the target check box,
    --  # press the Tab key the necessary times to
    --  # navigate to and or open the text field for
    --  # input of the target keyboard shortcut.

    if isChecked then
        delay 0.1
        repeat 3 times
            key code 48 --  # Tab key.
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
    else
        key code 48 --  # Tab key.
        delay 0.01
    end if

    --  # Toggle the value of the target keyboard shortcut.

    if the value of ¬
        text field 1 of ¬
        UI element 2 of ¬
        (every row of ¬
            outline 1 of ¬
            scroll area 2 of ¬
            splitter group 1 of ¬
            tab group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "System Preferences" whose ¬
            value of ¬
            static text 1 of ¬
            UI element 2 ¬
                is "Move focus to next window") ¬
            is {"⌘`"} then

        key code 24 using command down --   # ⌘= keys
    else
        key code 50 using command down --   # ⌘` keys
    end if

    delay 0.5

end tell

tell application "System Preferences" to quit

Because of the comments and coding style the script is very long. It ends with tell application "System Preferences" to quit, so make sure you highlight all of it when copying and pasting to Script Editor for testing.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and sans any included error handling does not contain any additional  error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


I have Yosemite 10.10.1, after the upgrade my Cal has a 1 in a red dot on it, like there is message or something. What is this? I updated to Yosemite 10.10.1.  I sent an invitation to a colleague.  Now I have a Red Dot with 1 in it on my iCAL icon.  I deleted the invitation, but the Dot and one remain. Does anyone know what this is?

Go to help topics and the answer is there. It happens when someone invites you to an event and you have not accepted yet. In the top left corner of the calendar screen there is a symbol that looks like a u with an arrow pointing downward, Click on this and the events appear asking if you want to accept or decline. one you complete the number disappears.


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I took it out again and I connected it with a SATA to USB cable and it worked perfectly, so the drive is not broken, I suspected the data cable is broken because that happens sometimes with this model MacBook Pro.  I put the old 500GB drive back in, and it works fine. So it can't be the cable, this doesn't really make sense to me but I'm going to try to put the 1TB drive into the drive cage and the SSD into the standard drive bay.

Any ideas or suggestions what I should try?

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Homebrew: Easy way to add 'gnubin' to path for multiple packages? I would like to use Homebrew to install GNU versions of several utilities, and use the GNU versions by default with their usual names.

From the output of brew install gnu-tar and by reading How to replace Mac OS X utilities with GNU core utilities? I learned that I can add /usr/local/opt/gnu-tar/libexec/gnubin to my $PATH variable. However, for other packages, the gnubin directory is under a different path, like /usr/local/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin for the coreutils package.

Do I have to add each of these to my path by hand, or does Homebrew provide an easy way to collect all of the entries in various gnubin directories into one place?

I suppose I could put some kind of auto-finding script in my .bash_profile like:

GNUBINS=$(find -L /usr/local/opt -type d -name gnubin | tr ' ' ':')
export PATH=$GNUBINS:$PATH

However this feels a little clunky and insecure, and I was hoping for a Homebrew-specific solution.

The proposed find based solution takes about 5 seconds to execute on my system. The following bash snippet executes in a fraction of a second.

if type brew &>/dev/null; then
  HOMEBREW_PREFIX=$(brew --prefix)
  # gnubin; gnuman
  for d in ${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/opt/*/libexec/gnubin; do export PATH=$d:$PATH; done
  # I actually like that man grep gives the BSD grep man page
  #for d in ${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/opt/*/libexec/gnuman; do export MANPATH=$d:$MANPATH; done
fi


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So the main issue is this: I cannot get her iPhone to be able to show my counseling calendar. When she goes to the Google Sync page on her iPhone where you can choose which calendars you want your iPhone to sync with, my counseling calendar will not show up. It will only show up if I give her rights to see details... which is unacceptable because of patient confidentiality, etc.

Has anyone heard of this problem or have any ideas??

The iOs Calendar client doesn't support availability-only calendars, that's why they are not listed on the Google Sync settings page.

Sorry!


Am I being hacked? Why can't I change the firewall settings? I'm attaching a picture of my Privacy Settings and there is a screensharing and file sharing settings that I cannot modify. Can someone tell me if this is default, or if I got hacked. If so, how can I disable these seemingly hard coded settings?

I'm using High Sierra 10.13.6

This is not any kind of sign that you've been "hacked".
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Disabling the service will remove the firewall setting.
It would be potentially highly confusing if you could switch on a service, then block it in the firewall.


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On the '7' key there are the '&' and the '₪' sings. The '&' sign can be triggered by the standard shift-7 shortcut, but I don't have any idea for how to use the '₪' sign (its pretty useful in Hebrew). I haven't found any solution (not online or in the keyboard settings), does anyone has any idea?

Thanks!

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If you are using the "Hebrew PC" layout, ₪ will be Option 4 (and Shift 7 will give you &).


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I use labels a lot and so I have a template folder set up that has the labels I need and the workflow duplicates the template structure and puts it into my jobs folder. I find it easier to search on labels as I can drill down into the specifics with saved searches
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Does anyone have any idea how I might accomplish this?
I was thinking along the lines of a folder action that changes the creation date of the folder once it is added to the folder
Any help gratefully received

Without seeing what you already have in your Automator workflow the only suggestion I can make is the following example shell script code is how I would set the creation date, to the date/time of execution (or current date/time), on a target folder containing the folders the creation date should be changed for:
find '/path/to/parent/folder' -type d -print0 | xargs -0 -I{} SetFile -d "$(date -j "+%m/%d/%Y %T")" {}

The example shell script code uses the find command to find all directories within '/path/to/parent/folder', passing a null terminated string (a list of the directories found) to xargs and executes SetFile with the strings as arguments. Thus changing the creation date on the directories (folders).
Obviously '/path/to/parent/folder' will need to be defined, literally or tokenized, and again without seeing what you already have, I'm not going to waste time guessing, to offer variations on the example shell script code.


Can malware skip the administrator password popup if it already knows the password on macOS I have two accounts on my Mac: standard and administrator. I always use the standard account and when I need to perform an action that requires the administrator rights I enter my admin credentials into the popup window.
I got curious, is it possible for a malware that was installed in my standard user scope to gain the admin rights skipping the administrator credentials popup if it already possesses the admin password and username for some reason, in other words, can it enter the administrator password in the background so the user won't notice anything?
Generally speaking, is it possible for malware to do bigger harm if it knows the administrator credentials somehow?
Thanks!

Yes, specifically, if malware can pop that up, you may already “be toast” so it won’t need to do this since it could just install a key logger and not tip you off.
If you want to learn more about keyloggers or other behaviors that are more solid indications of keylogger, try ReiKey by Objective-See is excellent.
LuLu and KnockKnock are excellent as well as general tools in this (malware and PUP) space:

https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html
https://objective-see.com/products/knockknock.html

When you are prompted for the password, normally that’s the OS asking for your password and very low chance that your password is about to be compromised. Malware could be about to run, but it’s not likely and not likely about to capture your password. The program asking for the password doesn’t get your password, just temporary admin rights.
What it does with those rights is the worrisome part, malware or not. It could install a key logger or persistent processes - those are worrisome.
Worst case, some malware could craft a dialog like your password and fool you to escalate privileges, but this is an unlikely possible scenario.
Anything is possible, especially if you are a high value target. For most people, tricking you or just running something that’s not signed is the risk here - not losing control of a strong and unique admin password.


Where can I find a replacement screen for my 13" MBP? I have purchased Macbook Pro 13 inch, and it was shipped by DHL, but when I received it, the screen was damaged. So, I want to buy a new one.
Where I can find it? Because I want to buy and install it.

You should contact the company you bought it from, they should replace the Macbook Pro for you. If for some crazy reason they won't, contact DHL and see if there was insurance on the package, you might be able to get it replaced by them.


Can you use a bootable macOS USB created on a MacBook pro, to install macOS on another MacBook Pro? So my friend has a 2011 MacBook Pro. The laptop's hard drive crashed and no longer works. He bought a new SSD as a replacement, but he doesn't have a way to install macOS on this new SSD, because he cannot create a bootable USB from his old hard drive.

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro running OS X El Capitan on it. Can I use my MacBook Pro to create a bootable USB with OS X El Capitan on it? So my friend can use this bootable USB to install OS X El Capitan on his MacBook Pro.

Yes, it is perfectly normal to create a macOS bootable installer USB key on one Mac and use it to install macOS on any other Mac.

The bootable installer is not customized for a particular Mac hardware, can be used to install macOS on any Mac that supports running the particular version of macOS.

You can use your 2009 MacBook Pro to download OS X El Capitan installer from this link:

OS X El Capitan
How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan

After downloading the installer, you can follow the below instruction to create to create a bootable USB installer:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS


Can you make Bluetooth hardware work out-of-the-box in Boot Camp? I have a Bluetooth keyboard (the Microsoft Surface Ergonomic) paired to OS X. When I boot into Windows, the only way I've found to get it to work is to manually put it into pairing mode again and pair it through the Windows Add a Bluetooth Device option. But then when I reboot back into OS X, the keyboard is disconnected and I have to re-pair again. Is there any way to keep it paired to both?

No, this is not possible.
Looking at this from the perspective your your keyboard, it believes it's connecting to two different machines.  When a pairing request is made, due to security, a "key" is generated at that time.  The keyboard and host exchange it - then "agree" it's genuine and proceed to pair.
When you switch operating systems, say to macOS now, that OS has never seen your keyboard so when you attempt to pair, it doesn't work as there's no key.  So, you pair it and a new key gets generated, agreed that it's genuine and you continue your merry way, keyboarding happily until you switch OSes again.
Now, the key your first OS had doesn't match what it expects from the keyboard and the whole pairing dance has to be repeated.  This is because your keyboard only supports a single pairing.  What you need is a keyboard that supports multiple devices like the Logitech MX series of products where it will support 3 different devices.  There are many of these out there besides Logitech (I personally use a Keychron K8), but some are definitely better than others at the pairing aspect, so be wary of that when selecting one.


Why isn't this alias in terminal working? The alias's objective is to launch a pdf in my chrome browser. The pdf is entitled "Intro to Java.pdf"; the browser is "Google Chrome"

alias x='open -a "Google Chrome" /Users/ahanagrawal/Documents/"Intro to Java.pdf"'

Are you sourcing the file in which the alias is defined?

source ~/.bash_profile

If your alias was defined in .bash_profile in your home directory.

To list the defined aliases, simply type 'alias' in the shell. Type 'alias youraliasname' to see whether the alias 'youraliasname' is defined, and if so, its definition.


Windows 10 not recognized mac high sierra (APFS system) partition Today i installed windows 10 ver 1607 on my macbook air with high sierra 10.13 on it. but i cant find my mac partition via windows 10. I tried repair it with step that suggested in this  forum:

How can I make Mac Partition visible in Bootcamp (Windows 10 Anniversary Update)?

so after few tried, i found new partition, there was "Local Disk (D:)" with zero size. Of course I couldnt read my macintosh partition and windows suggested me for format it. so check disk management and found that mac partition still not have file system (RAW). then i realized that High Sierra had new system format that different with HFS format.

So can i make my windows read macintosh hd with APFS format? can someone give tutorial? i new in this type of thing.

Currently there is no way to read APFS partitions with the tools provided by Apple's Boot Camp drivers or any other tool for Windows.

See also Paragon's answer regarding this topic.


How to link multiple key events in AppleScript? I have been trying to write an AppleScript that would open the mail app register a save as key event (Shift+Command+S) wait 1.5 seconds, do a return key event ("Enter") and then wait another 1 second and then register a down arrow key event.

activate application "Mail"
repeat 2310 times
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "s" using {shift down,command down}
    delay 1.5
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "return"
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "DownArrow"
end repeat

tell application "System Events" to repeat 2310 times
    tell application process "Mail" to set frontmost to true
    keystroke "s" using {shift down, command down}
    delay 1.5
    keystroke return
    delay 1
    key code 125
end repeat


iPad children's storybook with audio: is there a way to create a paid iBook AND free version? I've been researching what it would take to create a children's storybook (including custom audio containing music and narration as well as moving imagery) and publish it on the iPad.

I discovered that I can accomplish this using iBooks by making an ePUB using CSS for the images, JS for any animation and custom read-aloud recordings for the music/narration.

Now I'm faced with another hurdle: I want the digital book to be accessible for free to those who already purchased a physical version of the book (probably using some kind of authentication code).

I'm a PHP programmer/designer who's very familiar with most Apple technologies. I don't know Obj-C, but if I have no other recourse than to be make an app, I will build one.

Any suggestions?

You may wish to avoid using iBooks Author (iBA) and the iTunes store for distribution since what you seek to do (provide a free download to paying customers that pay elsewhere) violates Apple's guidelines that each SKU either be paid (and paid through an AppleID and Apple's payment system) or free to all who wish to download it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5071

There is nothing preventing you from controlling the distribution of a generic  source file that's PDF or ePub format and using whatever payment system you want. Also, as long as your work is free - you can use iBA even distribute PDF/ibooks files outside the App Store ecosystem. In both these cases, your customers would then be free to choose to consume your work using iBooks or other apps as they choose. You will be bypassing Apple's DRM, review, code-signing and customer handling (billing, first level support, account setup, etc…) so there seems to be little avenue you will have to control each person from re-sharing your work and you'll probably need to spend significant energy and time to implement a framework from which you build your multimedia ePub book if you choose to go without the iBooks Author packaging and authoring system.

You should be in the clear to use iBooks Author to craft your paid book for distribution through Apple's channels and reevaluate whether you need to somehow offer those books for free rather than gifting them. You might need a lawyer or to work with Apple to determine what modifications would be needed for you to have a paid work for sale and a free work for distribution to your paying customers. I would guess you would be in violation of the license terms of iBooks Author if you were selling one version and made a second version that had trivial changes and was distributed outside the store to get around the pricing intentions Apple has established.


Is it possible to clone the operating system to a different machine? I have spent a lot of time setting up a speech recognition profile which would be a pain to do all over again. I have configured this on a Mac mini. Suppose I now wish to buy a MacBook Air. Would it be possible to transfer my entire current setup including software and settings across to a different hardware platform?

Yes, it is possible to clone the OS between machines. SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner are the recommended ways to do so. Make sure both machines are on the same OS version (i.e. 10.7.3) before you do so.

However: Migration Assistant is really good. Try using it first. If that fails, then use SD! or CCC.


Mail.app and multiple copies of emails I start using Mail.app today. I have two Gmail accounts (one free hosted and one on Google Apps). In Mail.app I created two IMAP accounts according to the official Google manual.

But when somebody send my a mail, I receive two copies of it: one copy in each inbox. Could somebody please explain me what's going on here?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best, Andrej

To flesh out an answer from your comment in case other people encounter this problem...

You need to provide the full e-mail address as the username. If you have two accounts with different domains and the same local part and you only specify the local part as the username, it can cause problems.

First.Last@gmail.com
First.Last@company.com

It may appear that both accounts are 'working' (as in no connection errors) but really it is just connected to the same account twice causing the double messages as you described.


2009 iMac automatically ejecting DVD I'm trying to read a Snow Leopard installation DVD on an iMac 2009 (it's running El Capitan) and it automatically ejects several seconds after inserting it. Why? How can this be fixed?

That usually happens when the disc is damaged or dirty and can’t be mounted. Physically inspect the surface of your disc for scratches or residue, and if necessary clean it with a microfiber cloth (wiping radially, outward). It’s okay to use water or a damp cloth if necessary, but avoid harsh chemicals. And of course wipe your disc dry before trying again.

If this doesn’t work, make sure your DVD drive isn’t the culprit by inserting another DVD and making sure it mounts properly.


Change default travel type maps I have an iPhone running iOS 12. Is there anyway to change the travel type as I walk a lot so that it automatically gets walking directions where possible and shows travel times as walking times?

This can be changed in Settings -> Maps -> Preferred Transport Type.

Change it to walking or your choice of transport.

When you set your mode of transport it will automatically give directions for that transport type:

The type can still be changed manually if you are using another mode of transport but it will be set to your choice by default.


How to fix iTunes downloading IOS update but not installing? iTunes is currently downloading software for the iPad "iPad".

has been displayed for more than an hour.  (Second update at end.)

Where does iTunes save iOS updates? suggests that the update should be less than a gigabyte and should be put in ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates—which is currently empty, owned by me, and writable.  UPDATE: There must be either another temporary location, or the 1440-byte packets were something else.  Because now (26 minutes later) that directory is 2.6 GB.

tcpdump -vv shows that I am fetching packets of 1440 bytes from ussea4-vip-bx-006.aaplimg.com.http at about 1.3 GB per hour.  And responding to each with a packet of length zero on the same port.  (No other packets are shown on any other port, which seems odd.)

lsof and sudo lsof have no output—what's up with that?

What is actually happening and what do I do about it?

Latest iTunes and MacOS; IOS 12.4.1

UPDATE TWO: The "iTunes is downloading and will install" went away with no diagnostics, and then iTunes told me that an update is available and do I want to download and install it?  (Same question I already answered.). iPad is still 12.4.1.  The download filename was iPad_64bit_TouchID_ASTC_13.1.1_17A854_Restore.ipsw which grew to 3585 MB and stopped.  Clicked update again and iTunes started a new file called iPad_64bit_TouchID_ASTC_13.1.1_17A854_Restore.ipsw.download  The .download was not there the previous time.

There were no other files in that directory during the previous attempt although there had been several attempts the day before.

Attempts to have the iPad update itself never got past "update requested" over a several-hour wait.  The following things failed to help:

turning WiFi off and on in the iPad
rebooting the router and iPad at the same time
shutting down anything possibly competing for bandwidth
plugging it into power.
shut down and restart
hard reset
resetting network
removing used apps to free up four gigabytes of storage (with thirty
already free)
looking for the update in "storage" to delete it (it wasn't there
asking iTunes to fix it in DFU mode

Five of these suggestions were found on several identical web pages, each finishing with the suggestion that I fix it by running their app.  Looked like all these apps were repackaging of the same thing, which reeks of malware or spyware.

I do not know whether this is general or something unique to me, but here's what seems to be happening here:

When iTunes is asked to update the iPad or iPhone, it downloads the update but doesn't install it.  Usually there are no diagnostics, but on one occasion there was an "error 4000" when the download completed.
After the download, putting the device in DFU mode and launching iTunes causes iTunes to install the downloaded update.
Trying to do DFU mode without doing the download first fails.

None of the "normal" update methods did anything, though they have worked on these devices on previous updates.


Keychain keeps locking since upgrade to Lion. I get prompted every 5 min, turn it off After completion of a "clean" install of Lion I get prompted for keychain passwords every 5 min.  It's driving me crazy.  I want my keychain to fill needed fields automatically as it had in the past.  Most frequent is the "Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates" prompt for Outlook 2011.
I have searched all through Keychain Access and have found no solution. I even checked the box for keeping keychains unlocked and still it locks and prompts later.

Are you sure it's a keychain password and not just a standard administrator authentication?

It might be wise to run a permissions repair in Disk Utility or run Keychain First Aid from the application menu of Keychain Access.

In Keychain Access preferences, you can also elect to show the Keychain's status in the menubar to ensure that it's unlocked when it's supposed to be.

It's possible that you have more than one keychain and are being prompted to unlock older unused keychains. The two required keychains should be System and login--login is your personal keychain and should remain unlocked when you log in.

Also check to make sure everything is checked under Keychain Access Preferences->First Aid.


Safari incorrectly demands to select an SSL client certificate Several websites suddenly recently have popped up the dialog sheet in Safari requesting me to select an SSL client certificate. None of these sites (one example is forums.macrumors.com) actually use client certificates at all. It doesn't matter which one I pick, the dialog simply comes back. If I select cancel, then loading the site simply hangs.

None of this happens with any other browser, or with Safari on any other machine.

Where do I aim the scalpel to chop out this particular cancer?

Among the things I've tried... Looking at the console app, looking at the console in Safari (I simply get a message that loading failed because the site requires a client cert - which is wrong), disabling all extensions, deleting all website data.

We were having this problem on our site with Safari users on a mac/macbook (iOS was okay).

On our server (Apache) we commented out two optional parameters in the httpd 'conf' file: SSLVerifyClient and SSLVerifyDepth. Our SSLVerifyClient was set to 'optional' which seems to be the issue. The default is "none" and I believe not commenting out the SSLVerifyDepth creates problems as well.


Microsoft Excel - Conditional formatting, finding duplicates I need to highlight duplicates in column A, but only if column B is equal to 10.

67890    10

67891    10

67891   20

67891   30

67892   10

67892   20

67894   10

67895   10

67891

In this example, what I want it to do is, as soon as I input the value on column A the cell automatically changes colour.

I have tried using sumproduct and countifs on conditional formatting, but it does not highlight the values.

Thank you in advance.

I found a solution; it's not "pretty", but it works. Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to describe, so I'll make an
example file with explanations available, instead. In short, it uses

a "helper cell" the locate and mark duplicates
Excel's use a formula to determine which cells to format Conditional Formatting option to then color the original cells


How do I transfer my iPhone photos/videos to a NAS with afp-protocol? How do I transfer my iPhone photos/videos to my NAS?
I can connect to my NAS using afp-protocol.

My current solution is to mount the NAS on my MacBook using cmd-k in Finder, then by using Image Capture I can move them from the phone to the mounted NAS.

Is it possible to transfer directly from iPhone to NAS using afp, or do I need to go indirectly through my MacBook?

I use iPhone 5S with iOS 9 and I do have a MacBook Pro with Yosemite.

I was looking for this too. In Image Capture, I think you should be able to choose Import To: Other (if you scroll to the bottom of the choices there), and then choose your NAS storage location. At least I am able to do it that way. My NAS shows up on the left in the popup dialog similar to how it shows in Finder. Anyway I still prefer to copy to my computer first, and then to the NAS, so that I am sure I get all my photos without some error.


App for Reading - iPad & PDF I am searching for a application with the following functionality, but cant find one:

I want to read PDFs. I want to highlight some text from time to time or add a note (with its timestamp). The summary of all highlights / notes should aggregated together so there is some special page(s) / section that contain only the highlighted text and notes.

Does something like this exist? I know there are dozens of apps for reading itself, but i am not sure whether there is app that allows me to list in "my highlighted content" only.

The Amazon Kindle app can do this. It's free and you can add your own PDFs to it.

When you highlight some text, an option to write a note is presented (the icon with the pencil):

Then you can go to "My Notebook" to have an overview of all text snippets and your corresponding notes:


How do you use Family Sharing to effectively merge multiple Apple IDs? My wife and I have separate Apple IDs. To simplify (!) things a while ago we both started using a third ID.

Now with Family Sharing we can each access the other's purchases.

So I set myself up as the family organizer, invited Laura, and invited the 3rd account.

Well to accept the invitation for the third account, I would have to sign out of iCloud, loosing a bunch of data, or possibly having merge problems later.

The invitation has to be opened in Mail. I try not to use Mail. I certainly didn't want to not only sign out of iCloud, but also configure yet another account on Mail.  (The third Apple ID forwards to both of us.)

What to do?

.The answer turned out to be only slightly convoluted.

Set up a new user on my mac, tempaccount.
Login as new user.
Use 3rd id as my icloud login.
Set up my gmail account as the Mail account.  (Since I don't intend to send email with this account on a regular basis, I don't really care if Mail.app gets confused.
Find the email forwarded from 3rd id to my gmail account.
Click and accept.

With luck this may help other people in similar circumstances.


How to reduce the number of bits in the programmer calculator on MacOSX? How do I reduce the number of bits from 64 to 8 bits on the Mac OS Programmer calculator?

There don't seem to be any options to limit the display to only show 8 bits.
Sorry.


Buy an App on the Mac App Store without having enough HD space If you don’t have enough free space on your HD, and you are trying to buy an App in the AppStore, you get a message, that you don’t have enough free space and you can’t buy it.

Since I always struggle with HD space and often don’t want to download the app immediately, I was wondering if there is a way to buy the app, even without enough free memory.

(I know, I know, I should free up more memory … but this is hard on a 256gb SSD :/ )

Thanks!

You can't easily interrupt the download or the check for enough space with a toggle or a setting. Much easier would be to use a second drive to add capacity. If you don't like moving files off the SSD, just install OS X onto the external drive and keep space there for overflow files and new app downloads. A 32 GB SD card or fast thumb drive would let you install a minimal OS and have 20+ GB free for app installs and other storage needs you can't accommodate on your main storage.

The downside to installing a second OS is you have to shut down the primary and select the secondary and now you have two OS to patch. This only works if you really can't free up space on the main SSD.

If Apple implements app gifting like it does on the iOS and iTunes stores, then you could gift a paid purchase to yourself without needing the download to commence when the sale is made.

Similarly, setting up a volume purchase account would also let you "purchase" apps from the web interface and not from the App Store interface. It's unlikely any of this is easier than freeing up space on the OS you run or bringing a new OS with enough space to your Mac.


Does restoring from Time Machine also restore installed applications? I am planning to upgrade my late 2009 MacBook Pro (running Snow Leopard) by replacing the 250GB hard drive with a new 1TB drive. I have been maintaining Time Machine backups.

I plan to install the new drive and do a fresh install of Snow Leopard and then restore using the Migration Assistant. This is my first time with Time Machine 'Restore' so two simple questions:

Will restore, restore my OSX patches and installed applications?
Does Time Machine care if the new Drive is bigger than the original drive?

Yes - if you haven't excluded the /Applications folder from the Time Machine backups.

As for system patches - you're installing a new OS. Once you finish, load up the Software Update and it'll pull down the most recent Combo Update for you. Actually, it's better to use the combo update than a collection of patches you would have otherwise.

For more on this go to System Preferences → Time Machine → Options. It'll tell you what, if anything, you've excluded.
No. As long as you have sufficient space, you'll be fine. It doesn't need to be an identical drive.


How do I get the password hint for an encrypted disk? I created an encrypted disk on a USB drive the other day, and added a password hint. I don't remember what the password is. (I have a scheme for mapping hints to passwords, so when there's a hint available I just pick something random and write out the appropriate hint.)

When reconnecting the disk today, OS X popped up the password prompt - but no hint displayed.

When I go into Disk Utility and try to mount the volume, same thing. Not even a button to show the hint!

So now I've got no idea what the password is. How do I find out the hint?

OS X 10.12.6 (16G29)

Here's the process I went through. (I went through it again using a spare SD card and took screen grabs at each point.)

From Disk Utility, select disk in question and go to the Erase option. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)

The password box appears. Enter password and add a hint.

(I usually pick a more cryptic hint than that)

Click Choose, then click Erase, and it will do its thing. Click Done once it's done, and quit Disk Utility.

Eject the newly-mounted encrypted disk image from Finder, then unplug USB hard drive.
Reinsert USB hard drive and wait for password dialog to appear.

But where's the hint?!

Have you tried entering an incorrect password? If I enter a wrong password three times, I get the hint displayed.


Mission control: Show all application windows in current desktop only How can I see all windows which belong to the same app in some desktop? (in OSX 10.9-10.10)

I know about Mission Control -> Application windows but it shows all windows from all desktops.

Say I have TextEdit with 5 windows opened (window1, window2, ...) in 2 different desktops. Window1 and window2 are in desktop1 and Window3,4,5 are in desktop2. Desktop2 is a current desktop. How do I see windows3,4,5 of TextEdit in desktop2 in a similar/same manner as Application windows?

Possibly a duplicate of How to modify app expose to show only open windows of current application on current desktop?

It is simple. You don't.

I have MAC 2 months and Iv heard UX of MAC is gorgeous so I went for it. But for some strange reason MAC has 95% of UX realy awesome as I would expect the top UX to be BUT, there are still those 5% :( And I am not talking about some hard to use UX elements or hidden tasks. Those 5% are everyday usage UX errors MAC has. And when I say error I mean it, its not like I prefer Windows or Linux way, its that human has some "limitations" and for many tasks the "best" UX already exists but in Apple there sits some UX manager (propably few of them) and he thinks like this: "Hmm, we have to differ on as many levels as possible so we are not the same as competition" - so they take that UX, tweak those 5% of it, so it looks different.

How do I know that? Well ofc, I dont, but is there any other logical explenation for that and theese other examples:

App window control buttons on the left side? Yes its briliant - your mouse moves are limited, so your work is faster. It takes a while if ur not used to it, but it is realy good idea and its faster. But now - what will those 3 buttons acutually do? Quit app / minimize app / maximize app? Noooo, that would be too easy for everyone, lets make it different, lets make close button to close only "windows" of the app not entire app and lets leave the top bar of app hanging there so everyone can switch to it and be confused where is his focus, cause he sees the app below but it doesnt have focus right...? Minimize? Yea, it does minimize - did they notice, that minimize and close does the same thing? (It actually doesnt - but the result is the same, so "why....?) Nope they didnt. And maximize? No, why would someone want to maximize, lets make it fullscreen, cause thats the button every person needs, right...? But one brave manager raised hand and said: "But there are still ppl who actually want to maximize the window". "Hmm, ok lets keep it there with some wier shortcut, BUT lets not maximize to cover all screen, I think it is better to maximize only what we think is the best for the user. With more windows opened at once, its gonna be so messy but we dont care about it. And heh, guys, Iv got an idea, lets make a nice little prank, I think it would be hillarious to leave 1px space at the top and bottom of the screen, you know just to have fun of them :D. Every user who spends 1500$ or more will appreciate that! Its gonna be so funny to see them in their chairs asking why would someone do that :D"


Is /usr/bin/python3 provided with macOS Catalina? Is /usr/bin/python3 provided with macOS Catalina?

Kinda. A clean installation of Catalina includes a /usr/bin/python3 binary, but it's a stub for installing the command line developer tools, which includes Python 3.

If/when the command line developer tools are installed, the /usr/bin/python3 stub will run the actual python3 binary, but a clean install will just have the stub.

The Python 2 binaries (/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python2) are still present on a default installation, but they are deprecated and the warning message says they will be removed in future versions (presumably 10.16).


Is Security Update 2020-002 still available? I downloaded Security Update 2020-002 a couple of days ago using softwareupdate -d -a from a terminal window.  Today I tried to install it but nothing happened.

$ softwareupdate -i -a --verbose
Software Update Tool

Finding available software
$

It does not show up in the softwareupdate history

$ softwareupdate --history | head
Display Name                                       Version    Date
------------                                       -------    ----
Safari                                             13.1       2020-04-05, 10:26:52
Security Update 2020-001                           10.13.6    2020-03-08, 22:14:32
Safari                                             13.0.5     2020-03-08, 22:14:32

Similarly, no pending updates are shown in the App Store:

The Safari update that I downloaded along with this security update did successfully install in the App Store, without appearing to require any download time.

I'm running 10.13.6.

Has Security Update 2020-002 been disabled or cancelled?  I searched but didn't find anything indicating that it has been.  It still appears in the list of available updates, for example.

Direct link: https://updates.cdn-apple.com/2020/macos/061-90747-20200319-5ded2636-188e-428b-90e6-2ed1507f6f46/SecUpd2020-002HighSierra.dmg

in case it doesn't work, it's due to the key in between. Try the next link.
Download page: https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos


Disable line wrapping for output in the Terminal I often read outputs in the terminal that get wrapped as they are too long. Since there is no way that I can modify the printed output, I need to let the Terminal allow for horizontal scrolling.

Is there a modification I can make to the default OS X Terminal to disable line wrapping and allow for horizontal scrolling?

Or do you know another alternative I can use?

tput did the trick for me:

tput rmam

disables line wrapping.

tput smam

enables line wrapping.


Can I move Mobile Sync folder to another HD Can I move my MobileSync folder to another HD on my iMac to free up space on my startup HD?

You can move the folder to another drive, then use a symbolic link back to the original location, so iTunes can still find it.

A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut or alias, that the system can use to target a file or folder in another location.
Because of the rather arcane method you'd need to employ in Terminal to generate them, I've always used a little freeware app that sets itself up as a Service in OS X, meaning you can access it through the right-click menu - SymbolicLinker

After Installing this [reboot may be required if it doesn't immediately show in the right-click menu], the procedure would be

Move your MobileSync folder to your new drive, Cmd/drag will move rather than copy.
Right-click the folder in its new location, go to Services at the bottom of the menu, then Make Symbolic Link
Cmd/drag the created link back to the original location in ~Library/Application Support/
Change its name to remove the 'symlink' at the end, so it has the original name MobilSync
Done.


Can I force GPU rendering on my MBP when connected to a power source? OS X Lion is quite demanding for old Macs. Even though I own a 15'' MBP early 2011 with the 'powerful' Intel HD 3000 for integrated graphics, some animations just don't feel right (low fps).
This is especially very noticeable with Mission Control: It's choppy.
When ever discrete graphics are being used (e.g. QuickTime movie with GPU acceleration, Win7 in VirtualBox...) Mission Control is much smoother and easier on the eye.
Question:

Is it possible to force discrete graphics to be used when the MBP is connected to a power source?

gfxCardStatus (free)
I found the link to it on EveryMac along with some other info about graphics switching.

fast access via menu icon
auto/manually switch between discrete and integrated graphics
power source-based switching
growl support
open source


Can I update apps on my ipod when it's full via itunes? My iPod Touch 8gb is pretty full, so I can't install the vital angry birds updates and so forth.

Is there a way I can upgrade it during sync to iTunes that works round the space without taking all the music off, upgrading apps, then resynching music?

(and by my iPod I mean my son's)

Yes, you can download the apps onto iTunes on your computer. Then, provided you already have app syncing turned on between the iPod and iTunes, you should be able to seamlessly have the updated versions sync over. You can do the same thing to perform iOS updates when the time comes.

That said, it can be frustrating in many scenarios if the iPod touch is so full that you can't even download an Angry Birds update. I may recommend finding a way to lose at least a few songs or apps here or there if possible.


Safari: kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 1 on local (HTML) files I keep a lot of local HTML files on my machine, including my home page.  Whenever I first open Safari, and often when going to any local file, I will receive an error.  Hitting refresh (or, for the home page, the home button again) fixes the problem... until the next time you try to go anywhere.
Usually opening a link in a new tab prevents this from occurring; opening a link in the same tab almost always sees the error.
I realize "wait for Apple to get around to fixing it" is a valid answer; I also realize "use a different browser" is a valid answer.  I'm hoping, instead, for a setting change I can make, or HTML tag I can add to my metric badger-load of files, to prevent this error without swapping browsers or waiting for an update (since it's already been happening for quite some time).
The error:

Safari Can't Open the Page
Safari can't open the page.  The error is "The operation couldn't be completed.
(kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 1.)" (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork:1)

Some potentially useful information:
macOS Mojave Version 10.14.4  (On a desktop, if that matters.)
Safari Version 12.1 (14607.1.40.1.4)

I was having the same issue with my homepage which is stored locally on my mac. Putting the HTML files in the Applications folder seemed to solve the problem.

I know it's not the best solution but at least I don't get an error anymore when opening a new tab.


Macbook Air motherboard description Where can I find something like description, specs, details etc for MacBook Air 11's motherboard (logic board)? I need full information about all parts of motherboard. I tried to google it, but it didn't help. Any ideas?

We have a general question on the site asking for similar details:

Where can I get highly technical documentation of Macintosh hardware?

If you need better information than what is available for free on the internet, you can pay for access to Apple's internal Global Service Exchange web site that has extraordinarily detailed information on the entire line of Apple products.


Macbook Pro won't display on 2nd external monitor until restart I happily run two external monitors from my Macbook Pro, one of these is a Toshiba TV and the other is an AOC 27" monitor.

Occasionally after the computer goes to sleep by itself, when I wake it up the TV as monitor won't recognize the computer. The Macbook Pro detects the TV, I can see it in the "arrangement" tab in the Mac's display control panel, but the TV screen shows "no video".

I've tried detect displays, but clearly this wasn't the problem since it's being detected, I've tried all the controls on the TV, changing the input selection, tried turning it off and on, unplugged and plugged the cables back in, put the Mac to sleep again and woke it up, etc.

The only thing that will get the TV to display the computer again is restarting the Mac. Then, everything works as usual.

So clearly something about restarting the Mac makes it recognize or send a signal to the TV, otherwise I'd think it was something on the TV side.

Not a huge problem but I dislike having to restart the Mac when I really just wanted to wake it up from sleep.

Macbook Pro 13 inch 2017
OS 10.14.4

Toshiba Cast TV  43L511U18

Output: 2 USB C adaptors to HDMI cables,
TV input: HDMI cable

I'm having success so far at least by trying this answer to a similar question posted in 2012. I wasn't looking back that many years because I thought it wouldn't apply, but it looks like the same problem.

Switching my TV to Thunderbolt Port 1 on the Mac seems to be avoiding the problem for the moment. Now using Port 2 for my other external monitor, but since that's a regular computer monitor, perhaps that avoids the same problem happening with it.


Why am I being asked for local password in 'update apple ID settings'? I factory reset my iPhone and set it up from new which caused the notification 'Update Apple ID settings' to appear on both my iPhone and my Mac. After asking for my apple ID password it then asked for my iPhone passcode on my phone and my Mac password on my Mac. I have reset my phone a few times in the last few months due to various issues and have never been asked for these local passwords before.
The exact message on my Mac read 'the password you use to unlock this mac will also be used to access saved passwords and other sensitive data you store in iCloud'. The message was coming from the settings app.
Why is this happening? Is there any reason why Apple needs these passwords?
I have read things about this being something to do with iCloud Keychain but I have never had keychain on. Just want to know if this is something that is supposed to happen as it seems a bit odd to me.

With new hardware and new OS - Apple can entangle the local device password and keychain to cryptographically log in to your iCloud account / AppleID account without needing your password once the setup and initial hand shake to sign in with that iCloud/AppleID is completed.
This confuses a lot of people since they are expecting to enter an iCloud password and not the local admin credentials. This change is across watchOS, TVOS, iPadOS, iOS and macOS.
This also can be prompted when you do a setup / transfer:

iPhone asks for Mac password (or Mac asks for iOS password)
Why do our iPhones keep asking for passwords of other users?
Shady password required for Update Apple ID Settings

I feel this is much more secure overall since it mitigates if you have a key logger and if you lose control of your local admin - this means someone can't use Keychain Access to reveal your iCloud password - it just reveals a secure token that works with one device and can't be abused to download your iCloud data from another device.


What is the source version of Final Cut Pro? I recently downloaded Final Cut Pro Trial and then after using it for a while decided to get Final Cut Pro from the App Store. Whenever I open Final Cut, it still shows as the trial. I think that the problem is caused by the source version in version.plist. Does anyone have any idea what the source version of Final Cut Pro is? It is stored in /Applications/Final\ Cut\ Pro.app/version.plist. Thanks!

Also, if it helps, I am on macOS Catalina 10.15.

According to the App Store, the current version is 10.4.8. Your best course of action is to delete the trial app (or indeed all instances of FCP if you're unsure which is which), and then download the purchased version from the Store again.


macOS - Determine current wallpaper path I want to get current location of my macOS wallpaper. Is there a file or a command that will allow me to find this data?

I would prefer a way that would allow me to do it from the Terminal.

macOS: Mojave Public Beta

This article from OSXDaily.com should be helpful:

Show the Location Path of Current Wallpaper in Mac OS X

  Type the following defaults write command:

  defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE;killall Dock

  Go to the desktop to see the path printed over the wallpaper images

  After you’ve retrieved the desktop picture (use Command+Shift+G to bring up the Go To Folder window), or done what you have needed to do, you can hide the path text by using the following command:

  defaults delete com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text;killall Dock

To determine the path for wallpaper via Terminal, execute the following:

osascript -e 'tell app "finder" to get posix path of (get desktop picture as alias)'


GUI vs. CLI Folders on macOS When you create an empty folder on macOS Catalina (10.15.4) via Finder (Right Click > New Folder), and check its information (Right Click > Get Info), the "Size" attribute shows:

Zero bytes (Zero bytes on disk) for 0 items

However, if you create an empty folder via Terminal (mkdir folder), and check its information the same way, the "Size" attribute now shows:

Zero bytes (Zero bytes on disk) for 1 item

There doesn't seem to be anything hidden in the folder created from CLI.

Why is there such a difference ("0 items" vs. "1 item")?

For those who're interested, below is the ls -al output.

emreerokyar@MBP gui_vs_cli % ls -al
total 0
drwxr-xr-x@ 4 emreerokyar  staff  128 May  7 22:32 .
drwx------@ 5 emreerokyar  staff  160 May  7 22:32 ..
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 emreerokyar  staff   64 May  7 22:32 cli
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 emreerokyar  staff   64 May  7 22:32 gui
emreerokyar@MBP gui_vs_cli % cd gui
emreerokyar@MBP gui % ls -al
total 0
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 emreerokyar  staff   64 May  7 22:32 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 4 emreerokyar  staff  128 May  7 22:32 ..
emreerokyar@MBP gui % cd ..
emreerokyar@MBP gui_vs_cli % cd cli
emreerokyar@MBP cli % ls -al
total 0
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 emreerokyar  staff   64 May  7 22:32 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 4 emreerokyar  staff  128 May  7 22:32 ..
emreerokyar@MBP cli %

Below are some screen shots.

It appears that it was a bug in macOS Catalina (10.15.4), which is now fixed on macOS Big Sur (11.0.1). So the outputs are consistent now - both are showing:
Zero bytes (Zero bytes on disk) for 1 item


Options for repairing iPod Touch with broken glass I've got an 4th-gen iPod Touch with thoroughly smashed glass. What are my options for repair? It sounds like

Apple charges about $200
There are third-party repair-by-mail services that charge around $100, and
You can buy parts and do it yourself.

The first options seems a bit pricey for a $300 unit, and the third sounds too risky. That leaves the second option. I'm wondering if there is a reliable third-party service I can use, or if there are other options I've not considered?

There's also the option of taking it to a local unofficial smartphone repair shop, which has the advantage of nobody having to pay for shipping. This is also risky though, since they might use low-quality parts and/or have poorly-trained staff, so it's probably only a decent option if you can find a convenient one with a good reputation.


How can I prevent changing of networks? Is there a ways to prevent people from changing wireless networks and other networks?

Does Apple have any kind of ACLs or something like Windows where you can control what the users can do?

Require Administrator for AirPort

You can set up your computer to require an administrator password to change AirPort settings, including changing networks.

Open System Preferences → Network.

Select your WiFi service in the services list.

Click Advanced… in the bottom-right corner.

Select the options that you would like to require administrator authorization for.

Click OK, then Apply.


What are all of the URI Schemes Available on macOS This question comes as an offshoot from this question Can MacOS Dictionary be invoked by a URI?
I remembered that there are a number of URI schemes that can utilized in macOS, but I couldn't remember how to list them.  For example, there is x-man-page:// that allows you to create a link to any particular man page and open it up in a Terminal Window with it's own profile: How to open the Apple URL protocol x-man-page:// in iTerm and not Terminal (default)
This existing question:  How can I see what custom URI schemes are registered? relied on a now defunct tool called RCDefault App that would allow you to not only list all available URIs but associate them with any particular app (i.e. telnet:// with iTerm2)
So, in attempting to answer the question, I couldn't remeber the URI scheme and needed a way to find them. Is there a way to list all of the registerd URI schemes?

Use lsregister
The command can be found in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister. I suggest creating a symlink to one of the directories in your PATH for easy access.  You can copy and past the following command for simplicity
% sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister /usr/local/bin/lsregister

Now, you can run lsregister from anywhere.
Dump the URL Binding Table
lsregister has a number of database tables that contain various application registration details.  The table that we're interested in is URLSchemeBinding
% lsregister -dump URLSchemeBinding

This will give you the full list from afp:// to x-man-page://.
To find the URL scheme used for the dictionary we can grep for it:
% lsregister -dump URLSchemeBinding | grep "dict*"
dict:               35608 (0x8b18) (0x8b1a)
x-dictionary:       35604 (0x8b14) (0x8b16)


How to recover a folder deleted in Notes app? My saved Notes on my iPad  were accidentally deleted.  I tried to find a folder for the "recently deleted" and there is none listed, how do I find it?

I like to go to a computer and sign in to iCloud directly.

Much easier to see what’s deleted and diagnose if an iPad or iPhone is behind in syncing up to the cloud. If one device lags, I like to power it off while it’s in an area where WiFi works and plug into charge.

That wakes the device and I unlock it only long enough to verify the WiFi reconnected. Let it sit an hour or overnight and most iCloud sync issues fix themselves.


How can I enable backspace to go back in Safari on Mojave? There are other questions and answers about how to enable the key Backspace to go back to the previous page in Safari, but none of them work on my newly installed Mojave even though it used to work on High Sierra.

How can I enable this behaviour in Mojave?

You can add a keyboard shortcut from the terminal, but this requires you to disable system integrity in macOS 10.14 Mojave and later.
defaults write com.apple.Safari NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add Back "\U232b"

Alternative, you can install a Safari Extension which injects a script that bring back the functionality:
https://github.com/yene/Safari-Backspace
For example:
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {
    function handleBackspace(e) {
        if (e.keyCode === 8 && !e.ctrlKey && !e.shiftKey
            && e.target.tagName !== 'INPUT' && e.target.tagName !== 'TEXTAREA'
            && e.target.contentEditable !== 'true' // TinyMCE
            ) {
            e.preventDefault();
            window.history.go(-1);
        }
    }
    window.addEventListener('keydown', handleBackspace, false);
});


Re-enabling virtual iPad keyboard with paired Bluetooth keyboard I have an Apple bluetooth keyboard (A1255) paired to my iPad. Pressing the keyboard's eject button lets me hide or display the virtual keyboard. It makes sense to hide it with the external keyboard attached.

Is there a way to turn the virtual keyboard back on, while the BT keyboard is still paired, but without having physical access to the BT keyboard?

The reason I ask is because the keyboard can remain paired to the iPad throughout my whole house, so it's easy for the two to be physically separated by a few rooms or a floor but still paired.

This solution just works on an Ipad. when the soft keyboard disappears just press and hold the down arrow on the bottom right of the screen and the soft keyboard will be back.


Transfer values between tabs in Numbers for iPad I have two tabs in one spreadsheet in my Numbers for iPad. Is there a way I can transfer a value between those tabs?

There are two ways, depending on what you want to do.

If you just want to copy the current value or formula, make sure you are not in edit mode (i.e. there should be no keyboard or number pad visible). Click once on the cell you want to copy, pause so it doesn't think you are double tapping, and then tap again. A popover menu should appear. Click copy and then go to the other tab. Select the cell where you want to paste and repeat the "slow motion double tap." Then click paste.

If you want a cell to reference a cell from another tab you can do this to. Start by (quickly) double tapping the empty cell where you want the value from the other tab to appear. This should put you into edit mode. Push the equal sign button. Now navigate to the other tab and select the cell with the value you want to reference. Tap the cell once, and push the green check mark.


How do I update iMovie after changing App Store Apple ID and upgrading macOS? I recently upgraded to Mojave from 10.9.  The app store shows an old Apple id as the "owner" of iMovie and I cannot update my version of iMovie without a password I don't know.  My old version of iMovie works on Mojave and did on Mavericks however.  I don't remember paying for iMovie. The App Store reports Apr 2014 as the last update.

How do I update iMovie now that I'm running macOS Mojave and using a different Apple ID?

iMovie and the other iLife apps used to be paid-for except with a new Mac, and when the App Store was introduced, it registered the Mac's serial number with your App Store account to allow you to download iMovie etc. for free.

These days, these apps are actually free anyway. The problem in your case is that you still have the old binary around, and this contains the App Store receipt with  your old App Store Apple ID.

Make sure you have a backup of the iMovie app just to be sure, (e.g. Time Machine, or just copy the app to an external HDD or USB stick)
Then quit the App Store app if it's running and delete iMovie from the Applications folder.
Eject any external media that have the iMovie app on as well, so the App Store app can't find any existing copies to update.
Open the App Store, make sure you're logged in with your correct Apple ID.
Find iMovie in the store (just search for it), and hit "Get". This will redownload the latest version of iMovie for free, using your new Apple ID.

Step 3 is crucial, if the App Store can find an existing copy of the app it will try to update it again, running into the same problem as before.


Set the master password from terminal I am trying to set a master password from the terminal (using a shell script). I see the passwd function and the master.passwd function, however I don't see any documentation on either of these to set the master password (AFAIK, these set the user passwords only).

I am pulling my information from these sources:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ph7032
What does this command do: sudo dscl . passwd /Users/administrator thePassword
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/darwin/reference/manpages/man5/master.passwd.5.html

My question is:

Can you use the passwd or master.passwd commands to set the master password? If so, can you please provide an example for how to accomplish this?

First, a few things to note:

On the Mac the files /etc/passwd and /etc/master.passwd are only consulted when the Mac is booted into single user mode.

I'm not sure what you mean by "set the master password" for the Mac. Do you mean set the password for the account 'root'?

Usually you use the passwd command to change passwords from the command line (there is no master.passwd command) but you can't use it from a script as it requires input.

To change a password in a script you need to  use the dscl command.

Here is an example :

dscl . -passwd /Users/tonyw newpass

Note that the above would have to be run as root, which means your script would have to be run by root. Otherwise you have to add authentication to the dscl command thus:

dscl . -u Admin -P adminpassword -passwd /Users/tonyw newpass

The user Admin must have administrator privileges for the Mac.

(All of this is incredibly insecure as you have passwords in plain text in a script.)

Of course to set the password for 'root' just change the tonyw to root in the above.

Have a good look at dscl(1) to understand the options in the above.


How to restore Mac OS after installing Linux I'm going to install Linux on a Macbook Air (from ~2013), and I plan on replacing the entire contents of the hard disk (OS, recovery partition, etc).

If I want to restore Mac OS, will Internet Recovery work? Do I really just need to hit Command+Option+R during boot? Should I back up something to make restoring easier?

To answer the questions asked, yes.

However, have a look at How to reinstall macOS and About macOS Recovery.

That said, personally I'd create a USB macOS Installer and set it aside for when you want to reinstall. Have a look at: How to create a bootable installer for macOS

Also, dont forget to make proper backups of your data before formatting the HDD/SSD. You might even want to have a Time Machine backup. Have a look at: How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac


Gluing chronologically rtf files via bash script I like learning and creating small scripts for bash, and now I have finally the first "serious" problem I would like to solve through a script.

Here is the situation: I have a folder containing 45 rtf files. I want to prepend to each of them the name of the file (and its creation date) and then glue them all together in a unique rtf file, respecting chronological order.

How can I do that? For the moment I have created the following script: for every rtf file in the folder, it creates a new file (.txt... it is so difficult to use rtf with bash!) and writes into it the name and the creation date of the original file.

for f in *.rtf; do
touch $f"_info_file.txt"
echo "File name:" $f >> $f"_info_file.txt";
printf "Date: " >> $f"_info_file.txt";
stat -f "%SB" "$f" >>$f"_info_file.txt";
done

(I guess this is very rough...)
Now I would like to glue them together in chronological order but I am a bit lost... Any ideas? Can Automator be useful? Thanks.

Following mod's suggestion, I post here my solution to the problem.

I created the following script for bash:

for f in *.rtf; do
   olddate=$(stat -f %SB -t %Y%m%d%H%M "$f")
   touch -mt $olddate "$f""_info_file.txt"
  echo "File name:" "$f" >> "$f""_info_file.txt";
  printf "Date: " >> "$f""_info_file.txt";
  stat -f "%SB" "$f" >>"$f""_info_file.txt";
done

I ran it into the bash and for each RTF file I had in folder a new .txt file associated to it was created. This txt file contained useful metadata (to me) of the file itself. Notice that, thanks to the script above, the new txt files were created in such a way that their creation date coincided with the files they are referring to.

Example: I had file01.rtf in the folder. After the script ran, in the folder I could find a file named file01_info_file.txt whose content was

Name file: file01.rtf
Date: 20.12.2018 18.53

The creation date of the file file01_info_file.txt is identical to the creation date of file01.rtf.

Now the conclusion easily follows: open Finder, sort by creation date the files in the folder, select them all and drag them in a new ... ... Microsoft Word document (:-D). The formatting of rtf was kept and the chronological order as well.


Can I combine message conversations from one contact's different phone numbers? My friend recently got a new phone number assigned to the same iPhone she's had for a while, and sent me an iMessage from it to let me know. Since I didn't have the phone number already, it of course appeared separately in my iPhone's "conversation" list from the messages we had sent back and forth using her old number.

I've added the new phone number to her contact info now, and it would be nice if I could keep the two conversations together -- just continuing with the new number from where the old number left off.

I've found a program called Merge available on Cydia, which looks like it would do exactly what I want. I am not particularly interested in jailbreaking, however. Is there any way to accomplish the same thing on stock iOS 6?

On stock iOS, different contact numbers or email addresses are given their own "conversation". This answer still applies, even on iOS 6.


OSX 10.14 Mojave SMB locking files and not releasing them I have a Windows server with a file share accessed by a few Macs running 10.13 High Sierra and 10.14 Mojave. The Mojave Macs keep locking out every file they access on the SMB file share. So, the Mac user who opened the file can't save to the file (with a warning about the file being open and in use), nor can anyone else access the file (until the connection is force closed on the server side).

On High Sierra Macs, file handling over SMB appears to be normal with no lockout issues.

Because this is become such a chronic issue, I'm considering restoring the Mojave macs back to High Sierra. But before I do that, are there any other options that might address this issue?

Note that SMBv1 is disabled for security reasons, and is not a fallback option.

I have this same issue. It seems to only be with Microsoft Office files. PDFs don't seem to have "permanent lock" issue. I don't know if it's a problem with the MacOS "dual fork" file structure fighting with the Microsoft temporary lock file.

I've re-pushed NTFS permissions down from the parent folder to see if that would resolve the creation/destruction of the temporary files. It works for a bit then the problem comes right back.

We have even had one file where all permissions were removed and even the SYSTEM user was unable to recover the permissions. I couldn't seize ownership with the GUI or any cmd commands. I had to restore the file from a backup.

Have you had any luck with this issue?

I've tested the glitch with a laptop that is running the same versions of MacOS and Office but have been unable to trigger the lock file issue.


What are Mac alternatives to Storage Spaces in Windows 8/Windows Server 2012? I like the Storage Spaces feature in Windows 8/Windows Server 2012, but since I'm mostly working on Mac computers I would like to know if there are any Mac alternatives or equivalents.

The short answer is not really. The more in-depth answer is that there's nothing directly comparable, but there are some alternatives worth looking at, depending on your needs.

RAID

The most basic option is using software RAID (either through built-in OS X tools or third party software) to create a mirrored (RAID 1) or striped (RAID 0) volume out of multiple disks. This is pretty limited in its flexibility, and to my knowledge there's no software that supports RAID 5/6 on OS X.

If you have a Mac Pro, you could get a hardware RAID card, which offers more options in terms of RAID levels, but is still somewhat limited for expansion, as well as costly.

External Units

The Drobo is somewhat popular for direct-attached storage. It provides   more flexibility in terms of mixing and matching capacities, but it has not always had the greatest reputation for performance.

NAS

Using a NAS, whether a pre-packaged solution or a custom built one running some variety of Windows or *nix gives you greater flexibility in most cases, and over wired ethernet can be faster than a Drobo. It can get more complex, and you run into the limitations of networked drives — in particular, Time Machine isn't really built to deal with network drives (it can be done, but gets a bit jacky), but it can also give you the greatest control over your configuration and future expandability.


Is there any way to connect my iPhone to the internet through my MacBook Pro? I'm going to be on an aircraft for a long time, but the aircraft offers an ethernet cable, which I can connect to my Macbook through a USB to ethernet cable, however, I would like to get internet access on my iPhone 5S. Is there any way to do this? Like through a lightning cable? Is there a cydia tweak for this? (I'm jailbroken)

Sharing wifi to your phone is a piece of cake. Your computer just can't bridge a network. Go to System Preferences -> Sharing and enable the network. Then connect to it from your iPhone.

Traveling on an airplane would not affect the performance of your computer's wifi, and yes, at least in the U.S., you are allowed to do that above 10,000' feet (although I've never seen them enforce it below).

The FAA has changed rules within the past years that require devices to be on airplane mode (no antennas activated) while below 10,000' but that isn't necessary above. Many airlines actually provide wifi onboard (like many Southwest and some Delta aircraft).


How to fix 'ssh_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer' on mac OS Mojave? I am trying to connect to my Raspberry Pi over ssh using my MacBook.
The command ssh -v pi@ipadress gives the following output:

OpenSSH_7.9p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 48: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to localhost port 2222.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_xmss type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/Nico/.ssh/id_xmss-cert type -1
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.9
ssh_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer

I have tried all the answers from other threads but could not get it working. Weirdly though, it works on my iMac without any problems. Is there a way to completely reset all the ssh configurations on my MacBook? I had to recently restore my MacBook from a TimeMachine backup, could it be that the problems come from there?

SSH debugging can be notoriously tricky. I'd start with adding additional -v's to your ssh command to get additional logging from your SSH client.

$ ssh -vv   ...
$ ssh -vvv  ...
$ ssh -vvvv ...

This will return more and more logging from ssh as you add them. The message you're receiving indicates that the server (the peer) is resetting the connection from your ssh client.

This can happen for a variety of reasons one of which is the host is unable to establish (fork) an SSH daemon for your client to connect to. I would suggest rebooting the RPi as a first level of debugging this.

Reference: ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host (not using hosts.deny)

It's very likely that this won't be your issue. If it proves not to be there are additional levels of debugging that you can go through to continue to narrow what's causing your issue here.

msg - debug1: Connecting to localhost port 2222

The port you're using to connect is not a standard port, so you might want to investigate if that's intentional or accidental that you're connecting to the SSHD daemon on the RPi is configured to listen on port 2222 or if you're meaning to connect to the RPi via the default port of 22.

References

Chapter 10: Common error messages


Frozen touchpad on iphone 6 having a passcode Is there a way to get into your iphone 6 when

the touchpad is not working and
I have set a passcode so, doing anything with the phone (like a reset) needs logging in first.

Doing a force restart might take care of frozen screen.

Link to apple help page: https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT201559

  You should force restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as a last resort, and only if it's not responding. To force restart your device, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for at least ten seconds, until you see the Apple logo.


Missing toolbar for New Message window in Mail.app I no longer have the toolbar at the top of New Message (The one with buttons for Send, Add Attachments..). It is only missing in New Message, if I for example reply to a message, the toolbar is correct.

I can still send the message by selecting Message -> Send in the menu bar.

I have tried going to View -> Customize Toolbar, but it doesn't display any options.

I'm out of ideas. Searching the web I am only able to find the 'Customize Toolbar'-fix. I also haven't minimized the toolbar, as I've seen some solutions suggesting.

At top of new message page control click and uncheck "Hide Toolbar"