Have DHCP for Wi-Fi and static IP for Ethernet? I'm trying to connect to a device over Ethernet and set a static IP for the Ethernet to talk to the device. When I do this, I can talk to the device but it kills connection to the Wi-Fi and I can't use the Internet.

Is there a way to keep the static IP just for the Ethernet and keep the Wi-Fi connection as dynamic?

This Apple discussion sounds like what you're looking for, titled: Wi-Fi and Wired network load preference. This discussion shows a screenshot where you can augment the service order for the network connections.

Set your connections appropriately under their respective configurations (Wi-Fi vs. Ethernet) and then set the order so that the connection you've decided and configured as the Internet facing one is the one with higher service order than the other.

This should give you what you want.


Mail autocomplete is different for search and compose It annoys me that Mail “To” field autocomplete doesn't match that of the search bar.

When I start typing name of a person I've had conversation with in the search bar, I can see their full name along with the address. Clearly, Mail knows about them.

When I hit Compose and start typing in “To” field, I see a tiny loading wheel image appearing on the right for a fraction of second—and then, nothing, no autocomplete, no suggestions.

The search field looks among all the people you've ever talked to  but the compose form only offers your address book contacts.

Can I change it to work the same way as Search bar, or do I have to add each person in my address book to have them in autocomplete?

I'm using Gmail.

The difference in autocomplete stems from the fact there is no “Mail knows about”. The lookup happens on two different sets of data:

Autocomplete in search happens on the Spotlight index of all received and sent mails in Mail.app’s database (since version 2 of Mail.app).
Autocomplete on compose happens on Mail.app’s potential recipients list, which is a compound of contacts with an email address in Addressbook and a list of previous recipients stored by Mail.app (a list you can see and edit under Window » Previous Recipients).

Notice the difference: search knows about people you have only received mail from, compose does not. Hence different autocomplete results.


Using Launchpad with folders Prior to Lion I used overflow as a program launcher.  I'm trying to replace that with Launchpad (one less app to deal with) and it seems to be working...almost.

Is there any way I can add an icon in Launchpad that opens a folder or a specific file (pdf for example)?  I've got all my application icons in place, I'm just trying to get the last few shortcuts from overflow into Launchpad.

Yeah, I got a little trick that will do that, with Automator. Launch Automator and create an an Application workflow. Add the following actions:
"Get Specified Finder Items" -> here's where you specify the folder you want opened.
"Open Finder Items"

Then save the workflow and drag it to Launchpad. You might wanna change the icon too. Works just like a folder.


Setting Preview Default to Single Page So I'm not at all impressed with the "Continuous" view in Preview, that seems to be the default way PDFs are opened. Is there a way to change the Preview.app preferences in such a way as to set "Single Page" as the default?

In Mountain Lion, at least, there's a Opening for the first time entry in the PDF pane in Preferences, where you can select Single Page. This sets the default view mode for all PDF files.

If you for some reason can't get it to work, you could try this Terminal command (don't know if it will work in Lion) and restart Preview:

defaults write -app preview kPVPDFDefaultPageViewModeOption -int 1

(in ML, the value of kPVPDFDefaultPageViewModeOption changes to 1 in Preview's plist, when selecting Single Page)


Why is my mouse lagging so much it's impossible to use? I've a little logitech mouse, and suddenly, with no reasons, it started to lag heavily, and now it's impossibile to use. I've a MBP mid 2012 13'', and never had problems, but now it is unusable. The mouse is ok, i've tried it on another mac and it works fine. I've already tried to reset the controller, but nothing changed.

I really can't understand what could  be the problem? when i restart the mac it works fine for a while and then restart lagging.

Any ideas or similar experience?

I had a similar problem with my 2011 17" MBP and Apple magic mouse.  Frustrated the hell out of me.  I turned off Handoff (Continuity) on my iOS devices and the problem has since disappeared.


WD Passport not mounting I copied a number of Adobe Premier Pro movie files and some mixed Pro Tools files onto a WD My Passport Slim from my Mac Pro in order to work on them on vacation. When I plug the external drive into my MacBook it won't mount. The power light is on so I know the drive is getting power through the USB cable. At one point it appeared in disk utility but I could not alter it at all. Now it's not showing up at all.Tried to install the "My Passport"drivers from WDC but it won't load properly either (just gives me a "not responding" message). I am running Sierra on this MacBook and the drive itself is formatted to FAT32 so everything should load properly. And yet!! Any tips would be appreciated.

Follow the diskutil advice... if it’s listed in Diskutil, you can try the mount command. You can also check to see if the drive is listed within “about this Mac”. Click on more information and scroll down to USB, the drive should be listed there.


Safari and desktop apps have connectivity issues, but chrome and ping work I have a 16 inch Mac book Pro, which I have been using for the past 8 months.
It is connected to my home wifi network. In my home wifi network there are other devices like a 15 inch Mac book Pro, couple of iPhones, Amazon Firestick, Alexa etc and all of them are working properly without any issues.
But I am facing a wired and strange issue only in the 16 inch Mac book Pro.
I am able to browse internet using Chrome and it works without any issues. But both Safari and other desktop apps like Slack, Zoom, App Store etc have intermittent network issues. It works for a few seconds, stops working for a few minutes and then works again for a few seconds before stoping again.
But Google Chrome and the ping command in iTerm work without any issues, exactly when Safari and other apps have issues.
So far I have tried to reboot the machine, clear the cache by running dscacheutil -flushcache command but nothing works.
Any idea what might be wrong and how to fix it?

The proper way on modern macOS to flush the dns cache is:
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

You’ll want ensure your DNS is working well by bypassing your routers provided DNS and manually configuring Google or Cloudflare or other DNS provider on the MBP.
8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 is Google
1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1 is Cloudflare
There are several other DNS providers to choose from. You definitely should use one of these on your router instead of your Internet providers DNS. Not only for privacy but also performance.
Some even setup their own DNS servers and enable DNSSEC, etc. to encrypt the DNS traffic. The Pi-hole DNS filter can block tracking, ads, and known malware sites for your entire network. Although it runs on a Raspberry Pi you can run it on other systems such as Docker, etc
Another possible problem may be a proxy. If this is an employer issued Mac it may be using a corporate network proxy even when you are not VPN connected. Companies are doing more of this due to the pandemic and work from home. If you see a Profiles icon in System Preferences (might have to search for it) then the Mac is managed with Configuration Profiles likely outside your control.
You may need to update the firmware on your router or if the router is older than 5 years consider replacing it.
You should check everything running from /Library/LaunchDaemons /Library/LaunchAgents and ~/Library/LaunchAgents for anything suspicious.


iPhone and iCloud storage not fill but isn't allowing me to take a picture i have an ihphone X with 64GB of storage and 200GB of icloud storage. as you can see bellow both of them have still available space.

Unfortunatelytely the "iPhone storage full, can't take a picture" notification still pops up. i tried workig something out via mac but nothing changed, also my iCloud storage says it's at 1% deespite the fact it has 114GB left... Can someone help?

That is iCloud online storage and not the actual device storage.

See My storage was not updated

You need the storage on the device to take a photo. Check it in Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage.

  The iPhone itself has a fixed hardware memory, or space, which can only be chosen when you buy it, in 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 GB configurations.
  The total you see in Settings > General > Storage will never be quite this figure, as some of that is needed for the formatting of the memory & the data structure itself.
  This memory is where it stores all apps, music, documents etc that your phone can use.


Should I use my primary Apple ID for that or create another one to use with Apple Developer account? I’m thinking about getting an Apple Developer account. But not sure whether I should tie it to my primary Apple ID that I use on all my devices. Will this has an effect on beta testing, or anything?

From the Apple Developer Program page:

  Enrolling as an Individual

  If you are an individual or sole proprietor/single person business, get started by signing in with your Apple ID with two-factor authentication turned on. You’ll need to provide basic personal information, including your legal name and address.

If you use a different Apple ID, you need at least one device with this Apple ID signed-in to authenticate your login, because of mandatory two-factor authentication. Switching your Apple ID on a device is not something you want to do regularily.


Restoring selected files from time machine backup of a different mac Here's the situation so far:

20" Alum iMac 2007 HDD has died (3 days after I got a new Macbook Pro - coincidence, or suicide?)
It had a time machine backup on a regular external drive
I have connected that external drive to my new macbook
I tried Migration Utility but it wants to copy all files

Q1: Is there any way to make that thing break down to the individual folder or file level?

Giving up on Migration, I want to use Time Machine to restore

I read somewhere that I need to use the Browse Other Time Machine option ...
But I can't even run Time Machine without setting it up, so I do - I turn it on and point it at my external drive with the old time machine
Q2: Uh oh - wait a minute, is it going to wipe my old backup and replace it with backup of the new machine?

I turn off Time Machine quickly
I add a new external drive to another usb port and set up That one as a Time Machine backup for the new machine - turning TM back on.
More research and I find out that I can get at the Browse feature from the Time Machine icon in the dock. (Why not from the system bar!) Anyway, I put TM in the dock, right-click and sure enough - there it is.
Now I select my old external TM disk and start to browse
The Today backup shows only stuff on my new macbook

I guess I created that when I selected it
But I'm hoping it didn't overwrite my old backups of the old machine
I see on the timeline on the right various dates going back but I can't select them

Q3: How do I get access to those previous backups - I can see them there in the timeline but can't browse to them (back arrow doesn't work, nor does clicking in the time line - they're all faint purple)
Now in desperation I look at the old TM drive in Finder - I can browse to the backupdb and see backups for the dates

But these dates seem to only include files which I worked with on those dates
That kind of makes sense for a backup - but ...

Q4: ... is there a way to merge all the date folders in Finder to get the latest version of the folder? Or is that only possible through the TM UI (which doesn't let me access - per Q3)

Really finding TM to be very frustrating when moving to a new computer.

[Update] I found something. It turns out that the reason the backups are there but not selectable in the timeline is to do with the (frustrating) TM UI: It requires that you navigate to the right directory to see it's history.
I found this out from the tan coloured box on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html

The problem is that the directory structure is not the same on my new machine. I want to explore and retrieve things from the root directory on the old machine. What's more, the user directories like Documents and Pictures are not the same - even though i am using the same user name on both machines, so the path is the same /Users/me - so I can't see the history, of say, Documents.

However, if I click on the All Files link in Finder I can see old files from my back up and can go back through the timeline. But how I do I get at the folder structure.
To sum up:
 - I have my TM disk from my broken iMac attached to my new macbook pro
 - I have TM running on the new machine with a different disk and the icon in the doc
 - I right-click and Browse Other Time Machine disk and can select the old one
 - I see a bunch of backups in the timeline but they are greyed out (actually, light purple, if we're being precise - non selectable anyway)
 - If I click on All Files in Finder now, I can see the backups of the files
But I really need to be able to explore the file system, not just from the unorganized All Files.
Note that I tried making local directories with the names of dirs I know to be in the TM backup, but that doesn't work - it recognizes, I think, that these are not the same dirs.

Just Checking that you have not missed the "holding option key down in time machine" thing that I missed for ages:

Source:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-software/complete-guide-time-machine-mac-backup-3626572/

Complete guide to Time Machine: Can I browse Time Machine backups from another Mac, or older Time Machine backups from my own Mac that I no longer use?
Yes. Attach the disk, or attach the Time Capsule to your main Wi-Fi/internet router, then hold down Alt (Option on some keyboards) on your Mac and click the Time Machine menu bar icon. Select Browse Other Backup Disks. The Time Machine disk should appear in a list, and once you've selected it you'll see the standard Finder-based Time Machine view where you can move back in time to retrieve older files.

If the backup is encrypted you'll be prompted to enter the password before you can gain access.

This worked well for me so thought I would share here.


Exchange contacts not syncing with iPhone 5 All my contacts have disappeared from my iPhone 5. I have tried to delete end reinstall my exchange account but that did not help. Also I have tried resetting network settings and turning syncing contacts with iCloud off.

My mail and calendar are syncing just fine.

Solutions please?

This did the trick for me:

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Exchange
Turn Contacts on
Go into the App called Contacts and select Groups
Select All Exchange, Contacts and Suggested Contacts

After doing that, all the and the names of my contacts came back for recent calls and messages.


3rd party power adapter causing screen glitches? After some rearranging my bedroom, I had to replace my US plug power adapter to a 3rd party UK plug power adapter, whenever I plug my iPad Air 2 into the 3rd party charger, the screen starts to glitch and it acts almost like there is another (invisible) finger constantly on the screen, this causes issues when selecting different keyboards, playing games, typing and scrolling through internet. But when I remove the iPad from charging, this issue doesn't happen... it's almost like the touch screen having a weird spasm whenever it's got water droplets on it.

When I had my old original Apple US plug adapter, this problem never happened, also I replaced the original short and fragile Apple charging cord to another one that is 3 metres (although I don't think that the cable is the issue because I've been using it for a very long time).

This issue is quite new to me and i am quite unsure whether it's the iPad itself or the power adapter...

What should I do?

Thanks,

Sid.

It's almost certainly the fact you're using the 3rd party UK plug power adapter (although it's not clear to me how you're doing this).

Regardless, as a simple test to confirm, all you need to do is plug your iPad into a USB port (e.g. on your Mac/PC) using the same cable. If the problem doesn't repeat itself, you have your answer.

If it does still occur, you know then that's it's likely the cable or iPad itself. You could then double-check there's nothing inside the Lighting port of your iPad causing interference/conductivity issues. If there's nothing obvious, retest by using another cable.


Windows 10 Bootcamp throws exception on first boot with igdkmd64.sys driver I've spent the better part of a week trying to get Bootcamp setup with Windows 10 on my Mac and have finally ended up in a spot that I've not been able to get around on my own.

I have installed Windows 10 via Bootcamp, and during the initial Windows boot-up during the installation, I'm given the following BSOD

I've googled like crazy and have come to the conclusion that this appears to be related to the Intel drivers. Every post I've found thus far however explains how to fix this when it occurs randomly once you are in Windows. They go through suggesting updating drivers, replacing the file, disabling windows updates for the hot fix that introduces this issue etc. All of which requires the OS to have been fully installed and booted. Neither of which is the case for me.

Is there any known fixes for this that I can apply? The fixes I can do probably needs to be done from within macOS because I can't get booted into Windows.

Computer specs

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
Processor: 2.7 Ghz Intel Core i7
Memory: 16gb 1600 MHz DDR3
OS: macOS Sierra 10.12
Graphics:

Nvidia GeForce GT 650M 1024MB
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

I spent a long time trying to figure this out, and ended up taking it to an Apple store. It was determined that my drive partition tables had become screwed up and the entire drive needed to be wiped. Doing it from within the recovery partition did not work, the macOS installer had to be ran from a network share or USB drive.

From the external drive, macOS installer was used to completely wipe the entire drive. It was formatted using MBR to clean it up and then formatted using GPT (which is what Windows 10 needs the drive to be) to prep the drive for Bootcamp.

After macOS was finished reinstalling, I ran the Bootcamp installer and Windows 10 installed without any further issues. I've been running Bootcamp as my daily OS for nearly 4 months without a problem.


Is it possible to quickly clear flags in Apple Mail 6 ( probably with AppleScript)? I'm running Apple Mail 6.2 on OS X 10.8.2.

I'm wondering how to clear flags easily, maybe a button exists or a shortcut is possible? Currently I need to press the down arrow in flag button and click "clear flag", which is really inconvenient.

I think AppleScript is highly promising, but I don't know how to do it.

According to this thread, copy below script into Apple Script Editor and then run

tell application "Mail"
set selectedMessages to (selected messages of front message viewer)
if (count of selectedMessages) is greater than 0 then
    repeat with theMessage in selectedMessages
        set flag index of theMessage to 1
    end repeat
end if
end tell

Your selected message will flag with Orange. You can flag message with other color by replacing 1 in the script


I've lost administrator access and /var/db/.AppleSetupDone is read only I have lost administrator access  after trying to change my username in system preferences and restarting.

I have followed the directions by rebooting in Single user mode, ⌘S and typing the following commands:

/sbin/fsck -fy

/sbin/mount -uw /

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

It then asks if I want to override rm /var/db/.applesetupdone and if I then type "YES" it says that it is a read only file and nothing happens.

I have also tried typing rm /var/db/.applesetupdone in terminal and again it asks me if I want to override, and again answering YES I get the reply Permission denied:

override r--------  root/wheel for /var/db/.applesetupdone? YES

rm: /var/db/.applesetupdone: Permission denied

I am using MacOS High Sierra Version 10.13.4

How do I remove applesetupdone or get administrator privileges back?

You can run the command as superuser (explanation on wikipedia)

Either run

sudo rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

or

su

to log in as super user and then regularly run the commands.


Unable to select and highlight on Preview in OSX Lion I've been trying to highlight my pdf notes on preview, but am unable to select or highlight a single sentence. When I try to highlight, it just shows the chosen highlight colour on the whole page, then when I let go of the mouse button, it just disappears.

I've followed all the usual methods of selecting the annotation tool and also the highlight button option but am still unable to do so.

Any suggestions?

PDFs are just a wrapper for various kinds of content.   Depending on how the PDF was created the text might be selectable.   A lot of them have the text stored as graphics and in that case you wont be able to select/copy/highlight it.   I suspect PDFs also allows the "protection" of content so that viewers cannot select and copy bits of text.

Where did you get the PDFs if you can track the source you can change how they are created.   If it was prom a scan it will normally be a picture.   Utilities like PDFPen etc.  allows OCS of Scans.  If you do that the text will become selectable/highlightable.


Keyboard shortcut to scroll window up and down? In Windows, there's a really useful keyboard shortcut for scrolling the current text editor window up or down by one line without moving the cursor. This appears to be implemented in the operating system because it works in almost every application.

The shortcut is ⌃ CTRL+↑ Up Arrow to move the viewport up the document and ⌃ CTRL+↓ Down Arrow to move the viewport down the document.

Is there something similar in OS X?

You can try ⇞ page up and ⇟ page down, which usual pages one whole page back and forth. I don't think there is a system wide shortcut to scroll by line.


No Sound macbook pro Im playing music through my mbp 15" speakers and i keep getting a glitch were the sound will wont start playing i click on the sound up key and i get this icon, after a while (10 seconds) it goes away and i can get sound.

Any idea what might be causing it ? I tend to play music through headphones, but this error has occured when using the speakers..

It might think that you have connected an optical cable (is the port glowing red?) or that you are sending the sound through HDMI instead. If it's the former, try connecting your speaker/headphone cable and wiggle it a little. If it's the latter, check the sound settings in System preferences.


Mountain Lion Messages Facebook Jabber connection problem This is a very weird problem I'm having with my Messages app on Mountain Lion. I have two accounts: a Google Talk and a Jabber account that is linked to my Facebook chat. Whenever I open my Messages app, my connection to Google Talk works just fine, but there is always a connection error with my Facebook account. But my Internet is working fine (like, I'm able to browse to www.facebook.com just fine). It's not an account authorization problem (incorrect username/password), trust me. To fix the problem, I need to go into Preferences -> delete my Facebook Jabber account -> recreate the account -> boom, connection is working fine again.

But, as soon as I log off from my Messages app (by closing it) and re-opening it, the problem re-emerges. Connection to Google Talk works fine, but a connection error with Facebook again. Perhaps this is an issue with Mountain Lion's implementation of Messages; because it is a newer app than the battle-tested iChat, there are still some rough edges needing to be sorted out.

Anyone having any tips regarding this problem?

PS: I did try to look at this question:  iChat + facebook disconnection

These steps fixed the problem for me:

Disable the account.
Check 'Automatically find server and port'.
Enable the account again.


Cannot share internet from MacBook to iPhone via usb cable; option not available This is not a duplicate question asked here or here.

I cannot tether internet to my iPhone from my MacBook Pro using a USB cable; the option to do so is simply not available (see screenshot). The device I am using as the gateway to the internet is my MacBook, connected to the internet via ethernet. I do not want to use Bluetooth or wifi to share internet.
I can access my iPhone normally from finder (i.e. my MacBook recognizes the device). My previous MacBook had an iPhone USB option in the To computers using: list which my current MacBook lacks.

My devices:

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019), macOS Catalina, Version 10.15.4
iPhone 7 iOS 13.3.1

In MacOS Catalina, the internet sharing settings for iOS devices are located under the content Caching section.

I've verified that it works with MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 on a 2018 Macbook Pro and an iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 13.4.1

The network is sharing wifi from my macbook, with the iPhone's cellular, wifi and bluetooth disabled. Safari was able to load up multiple pages.

*note it may take a few minutes to set the cache up before pages load on your iPhone

Also note that when content caching is on, the internet sharing service is disabled as is controlled by content caching

To read more from apple, view their guide


iPhone, is Reset Network settings necessary after a Carrier profile install? My phone carrier requested an update of the Carrier Profile (Delete + Install).

They suggested also to perform a Reset Network settings after the profile installation.

Is it really necessary?

I don't mind doing a reset-network, but among the things the reset does, all Wi-Fi passwords are deleted as well, which is annoying.

No, you don't have to reset the network settings. Your phone carrier is just being thorough, as updating the profile can result in some unexpected behaviour for some users and resetting network settings usually resolves this.

I've personally only ever had to reset network settings once on an iPhone after a profile update, so you can just install the new profile and reset network settings afterwards if you start noticing some weird behaviour.


Custom "mouse" gestures for Trackpad on Macbook Pro and Magic mouse Is it possible to create custom gestures for Macbook Pro Trackpad and Magic Mouse to custom actions? For example to close a window or launch some application.

Not so sure about the Magic Mouse, but for the trackpad there are a number of options.

jitouch looks very customisable, but costs.

BetterTouchTool works with the Magic Mouse. It gives you a PrefPane that lets you assign loads of gestures with loads of actions, including opening Apps. I'm sure it has capability to close windows as well.

Hope this helps!


Can I make my iPhone vibrate louder or stronger? I often have to turn my iPhone ringer off. This is ok when I’m at my desk because when it vibrates it is loud enough on the desk that I never miss a call. My problem is that when I am walking and have the phone in my pocket, I almost always miss the call.

This is becoming a real issue for me and I wondered if I could make the vibration louder, but this question indicates not.

I have an iPhone 6s on iOS 10.3.3, and that question is about 4 years old now, so I'm hoping things have changed.

Is this still the case? If its still the case, is there any way I can make the vibration stronger or something?

No, you can’t make your iPhone vibrate louder. But since your real issue is that you’re not noticing the vibration while it’s in your pocket, you could try creating a custom vibration that is more noticeable to you.

Creating a custom vibration

Follow these steps:

Open Settings
Tap on Sounds
Tap on the Ringtone option
Tap on Vibration
Tap on Create New Vibration
Now tap the centre of your screen to record a pattern you think will be more noticeable (I’m thinking two or three long presses will be more obvious when it’s in your pocket, but at least you can try different things until you find one that suits you)
When finished, tap on Save in the top right-hand corner
Give your new custom vibration a name
Make sure it’s now selected as your vibration type for your ringtone
Exit Settings

Note: - All vibrations you create appear in a list of custom vibrations and are available for all events, not just your ringtone (e.g. you can select it for reminders, texts, etc).

[EDIT - Select or create custom vibrations for individual Contacts]

Another option that may interest you is to select or create a custom vibration for people in your contacts. To do this:

Open Contacts
Select a contact
Tap on Edit in the top right corner
Tap on either Ringtone or Text Tone
Tap on Vibration
Select one of the standard or custom vibrations
Go back and tap on Done


How can I move my data to the new harddrive? So I am planning to upgrade my Macbook pro's harddrive to a SSD. I don't know much Mac OS X tools, so I was wondering if anyone could let me know how I can copy my entire harddrive (including OS) to my SSD.

I have a MacBook 2011 and am using OS X Lion.

CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are amazing programs, and will do a bit-for-bit copy to your new HD. CCC is free, while SuperDuper costs about $30. There are very few differences between the two, so I'd go with CarbonCopyCloner for being free.


Can't send mail using Mail.app since update to Mavericks One morning Mail on my Mac was working perfectly. At noon, I upgraded to Mavericks, then I could not send mails anymore!

I could read my mails but not send them (though I changed nothing in the configuration). I get the message: "authentication failed"!

My SMTP servers (two of these university based) are ok… So either:

The new version of Mail is no longer pleased with the server credentials (though I checked these)
The new version of Mail sends wrong information (password), but since these are still here I am wondering if there is some encoding fancy in the protocol that is not working anymore (yes there are accented characters in these informations!)

What I can I do? Can I downgrade and load an earlier version of the Mail app?

I have had the same problem... Spent two days then found it so simple:

Open Mail.app and go to your SMTP account settings;
Click on the Advanced tab and change the authentication method to password;
Input your mail as username and the password;
Voilá! Outgoing mail traffic working!


Is there a way to animate the replacement of one object by another in Keynote? In Keynote, I would like to show some text and then have it replaced by an image. It would be awesome if I could do that by using the cube effect, having the text and image on different faces of the cube and then rotating the cube so the photo replaces the text, but I cannot find a way to do this. I cannot even find a way to get multiple build effects to run simultaneously.

Is it possible to combine a build in and a build out animation in one step? If so, how do I do it?

If that is not possible, what are my options for creating a presentation where a text item is replaced with an image while the rest of the slide stays the same? Magic Move does not seem to handle replacing things, only moving them around.

It is possible to have objects run their animations at the same time. This is done in the Build Order window, which is available from the Animation palette (button at the bottom labeled "Build Order") or via the View > Show Build Order menu item. Set one of the 2 animations to fire normally, either "On Click" or "After Transition".

Set the second animation to go immediately after the first one, either by setting its build order number to 1 more than the other, or by dragging and dropping in the Build Order window so that it is immediately below the other. Select the second animation, and now you have the option in the Start menu to start "With Build x" where "x" is the build number of the animation directly above it.

So, by setting one item to have a build in of Cube and another item to have a build out of Cube and setting them to go at the same time, I can get the effect I want of having the one replaced by the other.


Can I screen share an OS X computer to several viewers over VNC? I want to give a demo to people remotely. I want them to be able to use any VNC client to view my current Mac desktop. Can I use the built-in screen sharing features to do that? I'm using Mountain Lion (10.8.2). I don't want to set up a special "guest" account. I don't want to share my account password with them. Everything I try under "Screen Sharing" gives the VNC user a Mac login screen, and doesn't connect to the existing desktop. When I enable the "remote management feature" it connects directly to the existing session with full control. I don't want all the viewers of my demo to have full control of the desktop, although that may be an acceptable work-around.

(Note: I posted this on superuser.com, and I think it should go here instead, but I don't know how to "move" it.)

To the best of my knowledge the answer to your question is 'No'. I do the same thing and I use GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar. They are commercial products that cost money but they work really well. (I'm not affiliated in any way... I just use their products). I give demos all the time with GoToMeeting. The monthly fee was totally reasonable for what I do.


Transfer Notes from iCloud I originally created an Apple ID for use on the App Store in iTunes. When Apple introduced iCloud my Apple ID ended up being used.

I recently creating a new iCloud ID for my personal use, retaining the original for Family Purchases.

I just realised that I have lost all my Notes, although these are still on the web in the original iCloud account.

Is there any way I can transfer these to my new iCloud ID? I would prefer a direct transfer if possible, or export data. At the worst I could copy one by one, but this would be tedious.

I was able to move my iCloud notes to a new iCloud account using the following method.

Signout (if required) and Signin to the old iCloud account (via Settings / iCloud)
Go into Notes app on Mac
Go into Preferences
Select "Enable the On My Mac account"
Select all notes you want to move, right click and select "Move to/On My Mac/Notes"
Signout of the old iCloud account and Signin to the new iCloud account (via Settings / iCloud)
Select all notes you want to move, right click and select "Move to/iCloud/Notes"


What can cause an iPhone 4 to not actually sync data when told to sync? My iPhone 4 (iOS 6) has stopped syncing wirelessly (with my Mac) over the course of the past few weeks.  When I connect it via the cable, iPhoto pops up and I can get the photos off, but it doesn't start syncing the music / apps automatically.  I have to hit the "sync" button, and even then, it doesn't appear to be pulling the "last played" data off the phone.

The checkbox for "Open iTunes when this iPhone is connected" is checked, as is "Sync this iPhone wirelessly", and the "Sync Music" stuff... I haven't done anything over there.  I've restarted the iPhone several times, did a restore after 6.0.1 came out, and am considering reinstalling iTunes on the Mac (though I'm not even sure that's easy or possible).

What might be stopping the sync from being effective?

iTunes uses iTunesHelper.app to detect if an iPhone has been plugged in. This app is usually started as a login item. Therefore you could check if iTunesHelper.app ist listed here: Preferences -> Users -> Login Items. If it's not listed you can drag it back as described here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2313998?start=0&tstart=0.


How to open multiple windows of Foxit Reader on mac? How to open multiple windows of Foxit Reader on mac?
I am using Foxit Reader on my mac to read pdfs. I am trying to figure out how to open multiple windows. For example, in preview  we can open separate window for every pdf we want to view.
I don't get the settings as suggested online by Foxit

According to this Foxit for Mac help page, you can open multiple instances.

Read PDF Files in Multiple Instances

By default, Foxit Reader displays multiple PDF files in different tabs in a single instance. However, you can enable multiple
instances mode to view PDF files in multiple instances when
double-click to open PDF files, which is ideal for reading PDF side by
side.
To enable multiple instances mode, go to Foxit Reader > Preferences > Documents, check the Allow multiple instances option in Open
Setting group, and click OK to apply the setting.
While in multiple instances mode, you can revert to single instance
mode by redoing the steps and unchecking the Allow multiple instances
option.


rEFInd installation won't boot due to T2 security, despite T2 security being disabled I've been trying to install rEFInd with --ownhfs on my Macbook Air 2019, but booting into it results in Recovery Mode starting with the message

A software update is required to use this Startup Disk.

Trying to accept installing the update either immediately fails or fails after updating for about 5 minutes, with the message

An error occurred installing the update.

Curiously, before installing rEFInd I had both SIP and Secure Boot disabled (No Security) and External Boot enabled so macOS should have no reason to complain about an unverified boot, and yet it does. I haven't been able to find solutions anywhere else (all I can find is the same issue but with reinstalling macOS and Secure Boot enabled). Does anyone know possible workarounds or solutions?
Environment:

macOS Catalina 10.15.6 on Macbook Air 2019
rEFInd 0.12.0 from bin, installed as --ownhfs on a 50MB Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) behind Macintosh HD
SIP & Secure Boot off, External Boot on

Other notes:

rEFInd was also reinstalled 2 more times after the first time this happened, but it didn't change anything. rEFInd also had no warnings or errors when installing
Directly booting from the boot device menu (via Option key on boot) into a portable Windows 10 installation on an external hard drive results in a black screen
Both rEFInd and the Windows drive displays as EFI Boot with an internal and external hard drive icon in the boot device menu, respectively
macOS boots normally without issues
EFI volume only contains the APPLE folder, even after installing rEFInd

Recreating the Problem
Before I provide an answer which explains how to install rEFInd to work properly on a Mac with a T2 chip, I will first incorrectly install rEFInd by following a path similar to the one taken by the OP. I do this because the OP posted a comment stating the following.

Unfortunately, I had No Security set way before I installed rEFInd so this won't help with my issue.

I hope this newly edited answer will demonstrate to the OP that I can recreate the problem outlined in OP's question, then provide steps to eliminate the problem.
I am using a 2018 mac mini which has a T2 chip. The Mac is configure with the following setup.

The firmware password feature is turn off.
SIP is enabled.
Secure Boot is set to No Security..
External Boot is set to Allow.
Both Mojave and Catalina are installed in an APFS container. The label for the Mojave volume is Halibut2 and the labels for the Catalina volumes are Anchovy and Anchovy - Data.
Widows 10 is installed. The Boot Camp Assistant was used to accomplish this.
The rEFInd Boot Manager is installed in a Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) volume with the label rEFInd. The refind-install script with the --ownhfs option was used to install rEFInd. Note, when a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume is substituted, the results are the same.

The OP's question states: "EFI volume only contains the APPLE folder, even after installing rEFInd". This is the expected result since specifying --ownhfs as an option to refind-instal explicitly instructs this script to not put any rEFInd files in the EFI volume.

The output from the command diskutil list is shown below.
/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         200.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                40.6 GB    disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS rEFInd                  103.8 MB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +200.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Anchovy                 11.4 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Anchovy - Data          31.3 GB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 133.7 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume Halibut2                136.7 GB   disk1s7

Note: The Windows 10 Disk Management utility was used to create a 100 MB FAT formatted partition with the label REFIND. As an alternative, I could have used macOS to create a partition between the APFS container and the Windows 10 (Boot Camp) partition.

An image of the Mac Startup Manager icons is shown below.

The label EFI Boot is used by the Mac Startup Manager when no valid label files exist in the folder containing the boot file. The label files can be created by using the macOS bless command. However, when a properly installed Windows 10 exists on an internal drive, then the default Mac Startup Manager label is Windows. The refind-install script does not install a Mac Startup Manager label for rEFInd, therefore the default Mac Startup Manager label will be EFI Boot.
When choosing rEFInd from the Mac Startup Manager, the following message box appears.

Both the OP and I installed rEFInd using the --ownhfs option. This option installs rEFInd to appear to be OS X. The firmware installed in older Macs would be fooled into thinking rEFInd was OS X and the firmware would boot rEFInd. Evidently, Macs with a T2 chip are still being fooled into thinking a version of OS X is installed, but will not boot rEFInd. As the OP discovered, clicking on the Update button will not solve this problem.

One possible solution would be to install rEFInd a FAT formatted volume that exists in either EFI or Microsoft type partition.

Fixing the Problem
Below documents the steps taken to get a properly installed rEFInd.

Boot to macOS. In this case, I choose Catalina.

Use the Disk Utility application to erase the volume with rEFInd label. The name REFIND and format MS-DOS (FAT) were selected. Afterwards, the output from the command diskutil list appeared as shown below.
/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         200.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                40.6 GB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data REFIND                  103.8 MB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +200.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Anchovy                 11.4 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Anchovy - Data          31.3 GB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 133.7 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume Halibut2                136.4 GB   disk1s7

Download rEFInd from this website to my Downloads folder. I downloaded version 0.12.0.

Enter the following commands in a Terminal application window to install rEFInd to the REFIND volume.

Note: Copying and pasting these commands may be easier than typing in by hand.

cd ~/Downloads/refind-bin-0.12.0
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine .
sed -i '' "s/sed -i 's/sed -i '' 's/g" refind-install
diskutil unmount disk0s4
sudo ./refind-install --usedefault /dev/disk0s4
diskutil unmount disk0s4
diskutil mount disk0s4
sudo rmdir /tmp/refind_install

The above sed command fixes a bug in the refind-install script which causes the script to terminate early with the error message sed: -i may not be used with stdin. If you enter this command more than once, only the first entry will change the script.

The above commands produced the following output.
davidanderson@Anchovy ~ % cd ~/Downloads/refind-bin-0.12.0
davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine .
davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % sed -i '' "s/sed -i 's/sed -i '' 's/g" refind-install
davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % diskutil unmount disk0s4
Volume REFIND on disk0s4 unmounted
davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % sudo ./refind-install --usedefault /dev/disk0s4
Password:
ShimSource is none
Installing rEFInd on macOS....
Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at /tmp/refind_install
Copied rEFInd binary files

Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure
rEFInd.

davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % diskutil unmount disk0s4
Volume REFIND on disk0s4 unmounted
davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % diskutil mount disk0s4
        Volume REFIND on disk0s4 mounted
davidanderson@Anchovy refind-bin-0.12.0 % sudo rmdir /tmp/refind_install

Note: The version 0.12.0 of the refind-install script contains an exit command which causes the script to terminate early without making rEFInd the default at startup. This allows the script to be executed without disabling SIP. The procedure for making rEFInd the default at startup is given in a later step.

Enter the following command to changed the label in the Mac Startup Manager for rEFInd from EFI Boot to rEFInd.
bless --folder /Volumes/REFIND/EFI/BOOT --label rEFInd

Restart the mac and immediately hold down the option key until the Mac Startup Manager icons appeared. To make rEFInd the default at startup, hold down the control key while selecting rEFInd.

After these changes, the Mac correctly boots to rEFInd at startup.

Note: I did not need to disable SIP or boot to MacOS Recovery to install rEFInd. You may wish to do either or both as described in Roderick W. Smith's webpage The rEFInd Boot Manager: rEFInd and System Integrity Protection.

Configuring rEFInd
Below is an cropped image of what was displayed by rEFInd.

Note: I noticed that selecting macOS from rEFInd can result in the Mac booting to a white screen. To recover, the Mac needs to be turned off and restarted while holding down the option key to request the Mac Startup Manager. After booting macOS from the Mac Startup Manager, this issue with rEFInd appeared to vanish.

This default arrangement also has the following deficiencies.

The two middle icons on the top row, which are shown below, have the same Boot macOS from Preboot label. There is no indication which is for Mojave or Catalina.  Also, rEFInd is suppose to highlight the previous choice when first displaying the icons. This does not happen when the second icon shown below is selected.

The last icon on the top row, which is shown below, has the label Boot Windows (Legacy) from NTFS volume. When selected, rEFInd will instruct the firmware to BIOS boot Windows 10. Since all Macs with a T2 chip cannot BIOS boot, clearly this choice is invalid and needs to be eliminated.

Two of the icons on the bottom row, which are shown below, have the same Start Apple Recovery on Recovery label. There is no indication which is for Mojave or Catalina.

UUID's can not be used to specify APFS volumes in the refind.conf file. Also, the APFS volume labels are not recognized by the dont_scan_dirs option.

Below outlines additions made to the refind.conf file to remedy the above and other possible deficiencies. This file can be found in the EFI/BOOT folder on the REFIND volume. The additions need be placed at the end of this file.

Reduce the changes of a label (name) conflict. By default, a bootable APFS containers have two hidden volumes with the labels "Preboot" and "Recovery". If a external drive with a bootable APFS container was plugged in to the Mac, then the duplicate labels could cause a conflict. To help prevent this from occurring, these labels need to be made more unique. In this case, the "Preboot" and "Recovery" labels will be changed to "Internal Preboot" and "Internal Recovery", respectively. For my Mac, the commands to rename these volumes is given below. These commands need to entered in a Terminal application window.
 diskutil mount disk1s3
 diskutil rename disk1s3 "Internal Preboot"
 diskutil unmount disk1s3
 diskutil mount disk1s4
 diskutil rename disk1s4 "Internal Recovery"
 diskutil unmount disk1s4

Add the following line to the end of the refind.conf file. This option causes rEFInd to store rEFInd specific variables in the EFI/BOOT/vars folder of the REFIND volume instead of NVRAM. This is done to avoid possible wear on the NVRAM,
 use_nvram false

Add the following line to the end of the refind.conf file to set the System Integrity Protect (SIP) values to enable and disable. This file can be found in the EFI/BOOT folder on the REFIND volume.
 csr_values 10,77

Add the following line to the end of the refind.conf file to set which tool icons to appear on the rEFInd display.
 showtools shell,gdisk,csr_rotate,memtest,apple_recovery,windows_recovery,about,hidden_tags,reboot,shutdown,exit

Even though specified, the follows tools icons will not appear for the following reasons.
shell: No shellx64.efi file exists in  in the EFI/tools folder. See the Installing Additional Components section of the Installing rEFInd page for pointers to acquiring this file. This file did work on my 2018 mac mini.
gdisk: No gdiskx64.efi file exists in the EFI/tools folder.  See the Installing Additional Components section of the Installing rEFInd page for pointers to acquiring this file. This file did not work on my 2018 mac mini.
memtest: No file exists in an acceptable folder. See the Installing Additional Components section of the Installing rEFInd page for pointers to acquiring this file. No file was ever tested on my 2018 mac mini.
apple_recovery: The two macOS Recovery boot files were skipped because two dont_scan_tools options were placed in the refind.conf file.
windows_recovery: The Boot Camp Assistant installed the Windows Recovery Environment (WRE) files inside the BOOTCAMP volume. No WRE partition was created, therefore rEFInd has no volume to scan.

Adding following option to the end of the refind.conf file  will instruct rEFInd to not search for BIOS boot loaders.
 scanfor internal,external,optical,manual

Replace any automatically created menu entries for Mojave and Catalina with manual entries. First, commands need to executed to determine the UUID for the Catalina APFS volume and Mojave APFS volume. For my Mac, the following commands were entered in a macOS Terminal application window. You will need to make the appropriate substitutions for the identifiers and resulting UUIDs.
 diskutil info disk1s1 | grep "Partition UUID"
 diskutil info disk1s7 | grep "Partition UUID"

For my Mac, the output from these commands is summarized below.
  Name (Label)       Type      Identifier             Partition UUID
 ---------------  -----------  ----------  ------------------------------------
 Anchovy          APFS Volume  disk1s1     315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394
 Halibut2         APFS Volume  disk1s7     56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4

Based on the above UUIDs, the following lines were be added to the end of the refind.conf file.
 dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"

 menuentry "Mojave" {
     icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_mac.png
     volume "Internal Preboot"
     loader \56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
     ostype "MacOS"
 }

 menuentry "Catalina" {
     icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_mac.png
     volume "Internal Preboot"
     loader \315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
     ostype "MacOS"
 }

Prevent rEFInd from scanning the EFI volume for Windows boot files and create a manual entry for Windows. First, a command needs to executed to determine the UUID for the EFI volume. For my Mac, the following command was entered in a macOS Terminal application window. You will need to make the appropriate substitutions for the identifier and resulting UUID.
 diskutil info disk0s1 | grep "Partition UUID"

For my Mac, the output from this command is summarized below.
  Name (Label)       Type      Identifier             Partition UUID
 ---------------  -----------  ----------  ------------------------------------
 EFI              EFI          disk0s1     D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31

Based on the above UUID, the following lines were be added to the end of the refind.conf file.
 dont_scan_dirs +,D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31:/EFI/Boot
 dont_scan_dirs +,D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot

 menuentry Windows {
     icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_win8.png
     volume "D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31"
     loader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
     ostype "Windows"
 }

Replace any automatically created menu entries for Mojave and Catalina macOS Recovery with manual entries. Here, the previous determined UUIDs can be use. You will need to make the appropriate substitutions for the identifiers and resulting UUIDs. Based on the UUIDs, the following lines were be added to the end of the refind.conf file.
 dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\boot.efi"

 menuentry "Mojave" {
     icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\tool_rescue.png
     volume "Internal Recovery"
     loader \56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\boot.efi
     ostype "MacOS"
 }

 menuentry "Catalina" {
     icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\tool_rescue.png
     volume "Internal Recovery"
     loader \315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\boot.efi
     ostype "MacOS"
 }

Note: The icon file tool_rescue.png was chosen instead of tool_apple_rescue.png because the former has a size of 128 x 128 pixels and the latter has a size of only 48 x 48 pixels.

Below is a entire copy of the lines added to the end of the refind.conf file.
    use_nvram false
    csr_values 10,77
    showtools shell,gdisk,csr_rotate,memtest,apple_recovery,windows_recovery,about,hidden_tags,reboot,shutdown,exit
    scanfor internal,external,optical,manual

    dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
    dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"

    menuentry "Mojave" {
        icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_mac.png
        volume "Internal Preboot"
        loader \56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
        ostype "MacOS"
    }

    menuentry "Catalina" {
        icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_mac.png
        volume "Internal Preboot"
        loader \315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
        ostype "MacOS"
    }

    dont_scan_dirs +,D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31:/EFI/Boot
    dont_scan_dirs +,D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot

    menuentry Windows {
        icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_win8.png
        volume "D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31"
        loader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
        ostype "Windows"
    }

    dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\boot.efi"
    dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\boot.efi"

    menuentry "Mojave" {
        icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\tool_rescue.png
        volume "Internal Recovery"
        loader \56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\boot.efi
        ostype "MacOS"
    }

    menuentry "Catalina" {
        icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\tool_rescue.png
        volume "Internal Recovery"
        loader \315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\boot.efi
        ostype "MacOS"
    }

Below is an cropped image of what was displayed by rEFInd after adding the above lines.

The label for each icon is given below.
Boot Mojave from Internal Preboot
Boot Catalina from Internal Preboot
Boot Windows from EFI
Boot Mojave from Internal Recovery
Boot Catalina from Internal Recovery
Change SIP Policy
About rEFInd
Manage Hidden Tags Menu
Reboot Computer
Shutdown Computer
Exit rEFInd

Other Thoughts

The options could be simplified. First, a command needs to executed to determine the UUID for the APFS container. For my Mac, the following command was entered in a macOS Terminal application window. You will need to make the appropriate substitutions for the identifier and resulting UUID.
 diskutil info disk0s2 | grep "Partition UUID"

For my Mac, the output from this command is summarized below.
  Name (Label)       Type      Identifier             Partition UUID
 ---------------  -----------  ----------  ------------------------------------
 Container disk1  Apple_APFS   disk0s2     70DDFAEC-71CC-4A0F-8156-E0BEB9BAB69E

Next, the options
 dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\boot.efi"

can be replace by the single option
 dont_scan_volumes 70DDFAEC-71CC-4A0F-8156-E0BEB9BAB69E

without changing the result. Basically, the change causes rEFInd to omit a search of the entire APFS container. This may result in a fast boot time to the rEFInd display.

The above could be improved on by replacing the options
 scanfor internal,external,optical,manual
 dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_files +,"Internal Preboot:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_dirs +,D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31:/EFI/Boot
 dont_scan_dirs +,D118DCAC-1F89-4B1B-94AF-D078CB3FBA31:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
 dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\56F74AC8-0BD4-4086-952E-7038EC7FCFE4\boot.efi"
 dont_scan_tools +,"Internal Recovery:\315F6481-E157-4528-B2FE-170370370394\boot.efi"

with the single option
 scanfor external,optical,manual

which also would not change the result. Basically, this change causes rEFInd to omit a search of the entire internal drive. This may result in an even faster boot time to the rEFInd display.

The rEFInd Boot Manager can also be installed to an ExFAT volume. Currently, refind-install will not permit this, so you would have to do a manual install. I verified installing rEFInd to a ExFAT volume does work, except I needed to rename tool_rescue.png to rescue.png. In other words, rEFInd will not accept long file names for the icon option when installed to an ExFAT volume.

Installing rEFInd to a FAT volume is a security risk. Since no password (or other security means) is required to access the volume where rEFInd is installed, malicious software could change the rEFInd files. One way to help prevent this from happening would be to change the partition type to EFI. This can be done in Windows by using the gdisk or diskpart command and in Linux by using the gdisk command. The gdisk or gpt command can be used in macOS, but this may require disabling SIP and/or booting to macOS Recovery. Note: After rEFInd is installed, SIP can be disabled by rEFInd, thus avoiding the need to boot to macOS Recovery. You can enable SIP from macOS by entering the command sudo csrutil clear.


Parallels Desktop: Option not available: "Install macOS Using the Recovery Partition" I'm on a Mac Mini M1 with Big Sur 11.3.1
Fresh trial install of Parallels Desktop 16.5.0 Pro Edition
I'm not seeing the option "Install macOS Using the Recovery Partition", as described in their KB article.

My screen looks like this:

Parallels support chat told me that macOS vm's are not (yet) supported on M1 processors.
I should follow https://kb.parallels.com/125053.


free up space on iphone Hi I have couple of questions regarding space on my iphone 5s, IOS 10.2
Q1) available space shown in my iphone (2,93 GB) is different than what shown in Itunes when I connect it to mac (3,5 GB). Any explanantion? what to do?
Q2) In my Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage, I have around 1,16 GB used space by messages. However, I have deleted all messages from all my apple products. How do I delete that? I have almost try everything advised on internet. This might be related to question 1.
Q3) when I connect my iphone to mac and open Itunes, in movie section from left side, I have a video that I do not know how to delete it. how to delete?
Q4) every now and then, 3 deleted videos and a picture, show up in my photos on iphone. No matter how many times I have deleted them, they keep showing up like once every 3 days.

There are a few ways you can clear up space on iOS. First of all, there are apps on the iTunes Store that clear up junk on your disk. I used one of these and it opened up 4GB without deleting anything that I noticed. You can also delete browsing data by going into Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data. Scroll down to the bottom and click 'Remove all Website Data'. You can also just delete data. There are some others, but there are just a few.

I know this doesn't answer all of your questions but hopefully, it helps some.


Which photos to be transferred after backup in a new apple device? If I open my iCloud account in a new apple device, then which photos would be transferred - photos from camera roll or photostream ?

Signing in to a new device with your iCloud account will give you access to your Photo Stream. Setting up a new device with your iCloud account and selecting to restore from an iCloud Backup will restore the Camera Roll as well.


Can I play iTunes U courses on the Mac? I installed the iTunes U app on my iPad and subscribed to a couple of courses. Now my iPad is in repair and I wonder if I can see the courses somewhere in iTunes? When I click on iTunes U I can just see the video collections, but not the courses.

Not today. This is similar to how iBooks also cannot (currently) be viewed on a Mac.

(and I don't have any clue if this will ever happen, it just seems like something that could happen)


How to change permissions for etc folder mac? When I check the permission on my etc folder using the alt + i command, I am not able to check the permission. As if the file had no permissions at all.

This occured to me while I was trying to write some stuff in the hosts file.

I tried to manually chmod the file but I got an "operation not allowed".

The /etc directory on a mac isn't a directory at all, it's a symlink (shortcut). It redirects to private/etc.

You won't be able to chmod the directory, because it belongs to the root user by default. If you want to chmod it you'll have to prefix the command with 'sudo' to run as the superuser.

Bearing that in mind, make sure you know what you're doing before you start playing around with system directories and their permissions.


Hostname changes all the time from capital to not capital and back my Macbook air is called Johannes-Air. But when I open the terminal sometimes it says Johannes-Air and sometimes johannes-air. Does anyone know why this happens and how to stop it?

The local hostname (is set in the Sharing pane of System Preferences) check it at first.

Then if you go to the below path, you might find traces of both upper & lower case hostname     remove one of them and reboot your system.

  /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist.


Why is my Mac's CPU throttled? (Turbo Boost Ratio) AnandTech has a instructions1 on how you can check the Turbo Ratios for the Mac's CPU. Since they are logged, the information is very easy to find.

In Mountain Lion you can do this the following way:

Open /Applications/Utilities/Console.app
Open the system.log on the left side.
Search for entries containing Turbo Ratios

What you'll find is something like this:
Dec 16 20:11:47 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios 0035

And this means:

The line above lists turbo ratios as 0035. The four digit number is the turbo ratio for the active cores
(4C/3C/2C/1C). Depending on the active cores, the clock speed
can vary. Each number is hexadecimal.
The first two numbers are 0s because the CPU doesn't have more than
two cores and thus doesn't support any turbo ratios when 4 or 3 cores
are active (2012 Macbook Air, i5-3427U). The third number tells us the
maximum turbo boost with two cores active: 3. That's 3 bins, where
each bin is 100MHz, or 300MHz above the stock 1.8GHz operating
frequency (2.1GHz).
The fourth number gives us max turbo when only a single core is
active: 5. Five bins is 500MHz, which on top of the 1.8GHz base
frequency gives us 2.3GHz.
(Edited text from AnandTech to fit my CPU.)

However, according to notebookcheck.net2 the Turbo Ratio should be 008A or 1.8GHz/2.6GHz/2.8GHz. This would be in line with Apple's advertisement3 for the 2012 13" Macbook Air:

This raises the obvious question: Why is my Mac's CPU throttled?

I wish I were able to use the MSR tools to get more information about the clock speeds, but for them to work I need to boot in 32-bit kernel mode which is not available in Mountain Lion anymore.

MacCPUID4 is an official tool by Intel which you can use to calculate the current CPU clock. The current version 2.1 has been released on the 10/31/2012 but still seems buggy. No matter how I stress my CPU, it always calculates that the clock is at a constant 2.3 GHz.

So, I ran some Cinebench R11.5 benchmarks to get more information about the single threaded performance of my i5-3427U1 (1.8-2.8 GHz) CPU:

  1 thread → 1.10

I also contacted the author of the linked article by AnandTech - @anandshimpi2.  Anand Lal Shimpi was so kind to send me a benchark chart which compared the single threaded performance of the 2011 13" Macbook Airs with the 2012 13" Macbook Airs using Cinebench R11.5.

Into this picture, I have added information about the maximum single threaded CPU clocks along with a comparison of the measured performance such as Anand Lal Shimpi has suggested.

[image source]

In this info graphic I am comparing specifically:

  2011 13" Macbook Air, i5-2557M 1.7GHz/2.4GHz/2.7GHz
  2012 13" Macbook Air, i5-3427U 1.8GHz/2.6GHz/2.8GHz

As you can see, the single threaded clock of the 2012 model is 3.7% increased in turbo boost mode.

However, the benchmark score saw a 9.9% increase which is not simply due to the higher clock, but also due to the more efficient Ivy Bridge architecture which is about 5-15% faster3 than Sandy Bridge.

In sum, the benchmark scores are as expected whereas the Turbo Ratios log entries are not. Anand Lal Shimpi had "figured it was a bug, submitted it to Apple back in July"4.


Can a Mac boot when the right shift key is broken in the pressed position? Here's the thing, the right shift key of my macbook is stuck, so it always boots in safe mode once I turn the machine on. Worse, I cannot log in since my password has lower case letters.

I tried resetting the NVRAM by holding Command - Option - P - R and also went into the disk utilities, however nothing I can do there helps.

I looking for a way to disable the right side shift key or alternatively enable the bluetooth via command line, since I have a wireless keyboard, but I cannot make either work.

UPDATE:

I woke up today and the key was working fine. However I do not trust on it. Probably when the MacBook gets warmer it will stuck again.

I downloaded a software called KeyRemap4MacBook, which can be downloaded from here. I followed this tutorial in order to deactive the key, this is a temporal fix while I make some saving to buy a new one.

Sadly, you might need to open the Mac and disconnect the keyboard.

Here is an image from iFixit.com's takeapart for the 15 inch model.

It is protected by a metal cage - but you won't need to do all the steps - just get the bottom off and disconnect the battery before working on the keyboard cable.

You will of course need a USB keyboard to work things temporarily and enable the bluetooth keyboard if you can't get there with a mouse or the trackpad only. Do read the cautions on the repair guide and be sure you are up to a delicate task. A proper Mac technician might charge $30 for this repair since it's quite easy for someone with all the tools and experience getting in to the Mac.


Lock code needed to erase Iphone data About a week ago, I went to the Sprint store, and traded in my iPhone 6 for an iPhone 8.

They told me that they wouldn't erase the data on my existing phone for a few days in case I noticed that something didn't transfer correctly from the 6 to the 8.

Today, they called me and told me that they couldn't erase the data on the iPhone because they couldn't get past my lock code.  (For the record, I told them I'd swing buy and unlock it myself.)

This situation doesn't make sense to me because everything I've read suggests that it should be possible for a savvy user to erase data on a phone even if they don't know the lock code, and furthermore, I would have just naturally assume that a brick-and-mortar smart phone store would have the capability to erase a phone that had a lock code on it.

Does their ask make sense?  Would a sprint store need a lock code to erase the data on a phone?

It is not necessary to be in possession of the lock code to erase the iPhone, since a DFU restore can be performed at any time (until iOS 12 restricts USB access after 1 hour since last unlock).

Activation Lock will remain if the device is still in your iCloud account's Find My iPhone, but it seems you've already removed it otherwise you could use the Erase iPhone feature remotely.


Software update on obsolete system: is it real? I've got an old PowerPC Mac Mini running Leopard that I keep around to run legacy software.  Today, for the first time in years, Software Update opened up, offering to upgrade Airport Utility from 5.2.2 to 5.6.1.

Is this a genuine update, and if so, why is it showing up now, more than a decade after support for both the OS and the hardware ended?

This is real, yes. A lot of older software updates (but also newer ones e.g. some 10.14.6 Supplemental Update from September 2019!) are signed with a certificate which becomes/became invalid on Oct, 24 2019.

To keep them in the update game the intermediate certificate authority and its certficates have been replaced – the payload stays the same – and they have been republished/reissued.

Further readings (with pics I don't want to deep-link here ):

Beware Apple security certificates after 24 October: they may have expired
Certificate used to sign older Apple software expiring on October 24, 2019

To check the validity of software installer packages use:

pkgutil --check-signature /path/to/package.pkg

Example (the OSInstall.pkg inside the InstallESD.dmg of Install macOS Sierra.app d/led on Feb, 26 2019):

pkgutil --check-signature /Volumes/OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/Packages/OSInstall.pkg
Package "OSInstall.pkg":
   Status: signed by a certificate that has since expired
   Certificate Chain:
    1. Software Update
       SHA1 fingerprint: 1E 34 E3 91 C6 44 37 DD 24 BE 57 B1 66 7B 2F DA 09 76 E1 FD
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2. Apple Software Update Certification Authority
       SHA1 fingerprint: FA 02 79 0F CE 9D 93 00 89 C8 C2 51 0B BC 50 B4 85 8E 6F BF
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3. Apple Root CA
       SHA1 fingerprint: 61 1E 5B 66 2C 59 3A 08 FF 58 D1 4A E2 24 52 D1 98 DF 6C 60

To check dmgs use:

spctl -a -t open --context context:primary-signature -v /path/to/dmg
spctl -a -v /path/to/dmg

or

codesign -dvvv /path/to/dmg

Not all dmgs are codesigned! The precise command is sometimes macOS-version-dependent, or requires a min macOS/OS X version. Please check man <command> (eg: man spctl).


Mac Mini 2014 hard drives Do the Mini 2014 mechanical hard-drive versions have an M.2 ssd slot on their mainboard?

EDIT: Let me clarify: the fusion version have a M.2 SSD on the mainboard slot and a 2.5" mechanical drive. Will I find this M.2 slot even on the mechanical-only version?

I'm referring to both 1.4 and 2.6 GHz versions.

Thanks.

I think no, as reported here in this guide for replacing the SSD only the SSD or Fusion Drive version has the M.2 slot:

  Use this guide to replace the SSD stick in an SSD only, or Fusion Drive model of the Mac Mini Late 2014.

By the way you can easily figure out this opening the enclosure on the bottom following the guide linked before.


opening smb://user@server/share URLs no longer works Recently, I noticed that when I try to open smb:// URLs that contain a share (exact syntax: smb://user@server.domain/share), I am just presented the dialog asking which shares I want to mount, but in the past it would directly mount the given share and open a Finder window.  (I am typically using open smb://... from the commandline, but I think the same holds for links on intranet pages from within Safari.)

Is this a limitation of Mojave (my suspicion is that this is caused by the upgrade, but I am not sure)? Do other people have the same problem? Is there a setting or workaround for this?

Update: It started working again, maybe through one of the updates Mojave got in the meantime. This status update is written on macOS 10.14.3, which allows to directly open shares again. (I only get a password prompt, but not the annoying share choice when specifying the share already.)

I have the same issue, it seems to be that you have to go to finder and "Command + K" to get a share to mount properly. It's driving me nuts as I have a stickie with all my server links and this new dialog shows...!


macOS 11.0 Big Sur compatibility with Mac Book Pro 2013 I read on macOS Big Sur Preview page that the upcoming release will support only the Late 2013 and later models of MacBook Pro.
Does it mean the Early 2013 MacBook Pro won't be able to run macOS Big Sur? What is the difference between the two?

Yes, this in fact is an existing restriction with Catalina (see screenshot). It is unsurprising that the version of Mac OSX after Catalina has the same limitation; ultimately the hardware gets left behind as it becomes incompatible with changes in the OS.
See this table from https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility:

EveryMac lists the specifications of the Early and Late 2013 MacBook Pros at https://everymac.com/systems/by_year/macs-released-in-2013.html


Liquid keyboard damage on MB Air - password keys don’t work even with USB keyboard A friend decided to disinfect the keyboard of another friend’s MacBook Air. Some of the keys in her password no longer work, specifically M and P.

The weird thing is, we tried a USB keyboard and those keys also don’t work with the external keyboard - typing M and P get no input.

We also tried the Dvorak layout. The “broken” physical keys work, but the keys that are mapped to M and P then don’t work.

When I log in as a Guest User, the USB keyboard works completely, but that doesn’t help much.

It seems like some kind of software keyboard module got fried? I can’t think of a good explanation.

Currently we can not log in to the computer at all.

Can anyone help us, or at least give some guidance on how we can back up the computer?

Physical damage simply cannot “fry” software; it’s impossible.  The most likely cause is that something is shorted in the MacBook keyboard and it’s conflicting with the same signals being sent by the USB keyboard.

Disconnect the keyboard from the logic board and then use use the USB keyboard to login.  While it will get you up and running, it’s not a permanent fix.  The top case will have to be replaced.

See Keyboard key stuck or not being recognized; how to fix for more details


Is there a Developer and Inspect feature in Mail.app Is there a Developer and Inspect feature in Mail.app?

Within Safari.app, I have a developer menu which includes an Inspect item which allows me to investigate issues with HTML in the browser.

Does such a feature exist in the Mail.app?

To inspect the underlying code of a message, you can use View > Message > Raw Source.


How to stream videos from icloud to iphone My Documents and Desktop folders from my Mac have been backed up to iCloud. I would like to watch some videos from iCloud, via my iPhone without downloading. But when I open Files app from iPhone, it just downloads the media file to my phone. I know even though I streamed, I'll consume the same amount of data, but if I stream rather than downloading I'll save some time.
So, in summary, my question is:
How to stream a video file from Documents, from iCloud to iPhone?

iCloud is a file synchronization service, not a streaming service.  So, the short answer is - you cannot.
There's a big difference between opening a file and streaming a file.
When you open files, whether it be on your local device like your computer or your phone, across the network to/from  a shared folder on a friends computer or from a file server or even across the Internet, it is copying the file to a local store before it opens it to play it.
When you stream a file, a service on the server (remote) will open the file and broadcast the contents of the file (audio/video) over the network. The (local) client will then "listen" for this network traffic, capture it, then play it.
iCloud doesn't do this; it's not AppleTV.  Even Apple Music synchronizes your music files


Xcode 7.2 downloading but not installing I went through the tedious download process via App Store. The row in the App Store Updates tab said Xcode was installed. But no sign of it in Applications folder.

When I go to the Purchased tab of App Store, the Xcode row has a button labeled "Install". So Xcode was not installed? OK, click this button. This just starts another 4 GB download. It seems that "install" means "download" and nothing actually installs.

What's up with the App Store? I poked around in the /private/var/.../com.apple.appstore folder but didn't see anything enlightening. I am now downloading the .dmg file directly from the Developer website. (Slow connection: 16 hr download!)

Download it from here: https://developer.apple.com/downloads/

Just log in with your Apple Account and download Xcode 7.2


Email app disappeared and now I can't access email I restored my home screen layout to factory settings after my email app disappeared, but now I cannot access my email. It just shows options to add accounts such as outlook etc. and then says the account already exists when I try to log in.

Try this.

Swipe down from the very top of your home screen. Type "mail" into the search field at the top of the screen. if the mail.app does not show up you may have accidentally deleted it. This is also an easy fix.

Go into the App Store, tap on search and type "mail app" look for the familiar icon and make sure the developer is "Apple." You can then "re-install the app like you would any other. There will be no charge to do this. This is merely the way Apple decided how to put back icons that you have deleted.


Recommended MacBook Pro 13 (mid 2012) SSD upgrade? I am going to buy the high end MacBook Pro mid 2012. I want to get an SSD, but the BTO options given by Apple are too pricey in my opinion.
Which third party SSD (512 GB) are recommended (for performances and prices)?

Edit: at a local shop they told me that changing the drive of an Apple product invalidates warranty. Do you know if it's true?

Your warranty won't be invalidated although Apple can refuse to work on it until you reinstall the original drive (so put it away on a shelf).  A local shop might be more flexible. Or not.


Is there a way to change iPhone backup location? I don't have enough disk space on my PC to store whatever is backed up by iPhone. Is there a way to change location to where iPhone backs up the data? I want to back it up to my external hard drive.

It looks like you can if using Windows.

Is OS X the backups seems to be stored in the following location ...

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

... but I don't think you can change that location.


Does OSX Mavericks prevent third party software from having a "Save as" option? I'm considering upgrading some of my machines from Snow Leopard to OSX Mavericks (and possibly buying a new Mac Pro), but I'm extremely concerned about losing the "Save as" option in third party software such as Photoshop, After Effects, Avid etc. My question to anyone running Mavericks is this: Have you come across any piece of software that still has a "Save as" option? (If anyone has had experience with an Adobe product running on Mavericks that would be even better).

The answer to this question is complicated.  Way back in Lion, Apple began to offer optional API's to software developers that would make it easier for applications to manipulate different versions of saved documents.  The most noticable repurcussion of these updated APIs was the replacement of the Save As.. menu item by Duplicate and Rename... menu items.  For those interested in the details, the best guide is the relevant section of John Siracusa's masterful Lion review.  However, use of these new APIs was optional, and the old functionality is still supported in Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

Most non-Apple software still uses the old Save As menu for now, but in Mavericks some of the Apple applications have migrated to the new Duplicate menu.  As far as I know, Apple has not announced any plans to make the Duplicate model mandatory in the future, so this inconsistency is likely to stick around for a while.

Bottom line: In Mavericks, most applications still have the Save As... menu item.

Photoshop in Mavericks, using the familiar Save As... menu item:

Textedit in Mavericks, using the new Duplicate menu item:


User account no longer in ‘admin’, how to recover? After a recent OS X update (currently Sierra, 10.12.3) the normal user on this machine is no longer in the admin group.

I don't know what caused the account to be removed from that group; how can I get it back?

Advice found via I don't have administrator account on my mac suggests booting to Single-User mode, and using the dscl command:

dscl . -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership username

This fails immediately:

Could not read path: path = /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist, error = 2: No such file or directory

and no change in groups occurs. Apparently I can't expect dscl to work in Single-User mode.

So what should I do, to re-add the username to the admin group?

After starting to Single User Mode enter:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /

Launch opendirectoryd:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist

Then enter (replacing username with the real user name):

dscl . -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership username

You will get an error "...com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist doesn't exit anymore ..." - ignore it! Your user should still get promoted to an admin user.

Enter exit to boot to the GUI.


MacBook Air A1237 Recovery I replaced the hard drive on my Macbook Air. When I press the option key while powering on it takes me to a screen where I select a WiFi network and nothing else is on the screen. I connect to WiFi and then nothing happens. There Are no other options. What should i do?

I have also tried the same procedure with the old disk, but the same strange thing happens.

It connects to the WiFi network but that's all.

The MacBook Air (from early 2008) does neither have a Recovery HD by default nor an Internet Recovery.  You would need to install the original OS with the medium you received with your computer (Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) or if you either have the disc or a USB stick version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, you can install that as well (disc version will require either a USB SuperDrive or a second Mac with an optical drive you can share). Once done, you can at least use your computer again already.

If you, however, want to reinstall Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, you will first have 10.6 Snow Leopard installed and fully updated (see above what that will require). Otherwise, you would need a USB stick with the Lion Installer on it to bypass installing Leopard or Snow Leopard.


Cannot hear music on my iPhone 5S I can't hear sound in my iPhone. I can't listen to music or any sound on my device. I'm frustrated trying to solve this.

Hi and welcome to Ask Different!

A few things to try:

Make sure the mute switch is off and working - on the top left side of the phone there's a switch that has a red backing if it's turned on. If it's showing red, toggle it back, and your sound will come back on. Simple :)
If that does nothing, make sure the switch works. Toggle it back and forth a few times, there should be a popup indicating that sound is now muted. If nothing appears on the screen when the switch is toggled, the switch is probably broken, and you'll need to talk to Apple or your carrier's insurance about getting it fixed.
I'm guessing you already tried this, but there are two volume settings on iOS, one for the ringer and one for apps and music. If you just use the volume rocker in most places, your ringer volume changes. If you use it while music or sound is playing, app volume changes. Make sure that your music/sound volume is up.


Faster way to close OS X Windows with only a mouse In applications that open a lot of windows, the most common thing I do with a window (aside from scrolling it) is closing one window. The little red dot in the upper-left corner of a window is the obvious way to close it, but that little dot requires careful (aka slower) mousing to hit it, especially when compared to a browser tab, dock icon, or other frequently-clicked areas that are much larger.

Can I make the little red "window close" button larger?  If not, is there some other mouse-only way to close a window that is easier to target with a fast mouse?

I know I can switch over to the keyboard and use ⌘ Command W to close the window, but I'm a lefty mouse user so I'd have to move my hand off the mouse to hit this key combo, and then move my hand back to the mouse again to continue working. Given that this mouse->close window->mouse sequence is an action I do 100+ times per day, I was hoping to have a faster way to do it.

I'm currently using an old USB mouse with a wheel and two buttons.

If you are using Magic Mouse - there's BetterTouchTool where you can set custom gestures.
For example you can assign ⌘+w to three fingers click globally. Here's how this looks like:

You can also assign actions to "Normal Mice" if it has additional keys.


Alfred doesn't see Simulator app I installed Alfred on a 10.13 machine a few days ago and it doesn't see Simulator app.

I tried to reinstall Alfred, clear Alfred cache multiple times, rebuild Spotlight index. No luck.

It works fine on the other machines out of the box (as it always used to do).

Simulator folder is added to Alfred's paths.

What could be wrong here?

I "cut" and "pasted" Simulator.app to Desktop and back to its original location. After that Alfred was able to find it


Backing up full resolution photos from iPhone while using 'Optimize iPhone Storage' with iCloud Photo Library I want to help a friend get setup with iCloud Photo Library. They have an iOS device without a lot of free space and they have a PC and an old Mac that can't run Photos.app. In addition to using iCloud Photo Library they want to back up their original photos from their iPhone to their PC or old Mac. I don't think this would be an issue except they don't have enough space to store all of their originals on their iOS device so they must use the 'Optimize iPhone Storage' setting. My fear is that they will only be backing up thumbnails when they go to backup their photos to their desktop. Is there anyway around this?

They may have updated the iCloud Photo Library for Windows capabilities:

  What you can do with iCloud for Windows

  Safely store your photos and videos in iCloud. With iCloud Photo Library, any new photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically download to your PC. And you can upload new photos and videos from your PC so that you can access them from your other devices too.


Is there a way to change permission of Desktop Pictures folder? In System/Library/Desktop Pictures there are a lot of desktop wallpapers.

I like to open them in photoshop, add some text and then save them there again.

Is there a way to change the permission of that folder as to allow be to add  my own pictures?

I tried the usual - get info -> open the lock, change to read and write.

I get the error "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have the necessary permission." but I thought I was the admin user!

If you're using MacOS 'Catalina' (or earlier): An alternative that's easier (and safer?) to changing permissions, and may achieve your objective:

  Apple lets you choose an arbitrary folder for Desktop Pictures, so copy everything you want to a folder in the /Users/Shared or your /Users home folder and modify them to your pleasing.

Here's how: To add folders you already own to your choices for Desktop graphics, use the "Desktop dialog" as shown below. Simply right-click any desktop & select Change Desktop Background to access this dialog.

For pre-Catalina systems (the following works on my Mojave system), the Desktop Pictures folder is located in /Library/Desktop Pictures. It's also hidden by default, so you must enter open /Library at the CLI to see it. However, once you've found it in Finder, you can change the permissions.

There are several ways to set the permissions you need, but let's use the approach w/ Finder: Once you've gotten the Get Info window open in Finder, click the lock, authenticate yourself (as an admin user). After that, you can change the permissions for group wheel to Read & Write. Once you've selected the Read & Write permissions, you must click the small gear at the bottom of the window, and "Apply" the changes. At this point, you'll be presented with a confirmation dialog similar to this:

Once this has been completed, you should be able to add and delete (or modify) any pictures in /Library/Desktop Pictures.


How to know if a mac is under DEP (Device Enrollment Program)? I just bought a used macbook air 2015
I made a system restore... and was confident the mac is not stolen because of these checks

1- there were no icloud on the computer, and I was able to add my own iCloud normally.

2- the mac firmware had no password

but now, I see something that I have never seen before

I keep seeing this message, always skipping it

1- what are the consequences of allowing DEP, and is it reversible?

2- how to contact the person who has DEP and ask them to remove it from the program?

3- when buying a new mac, how to know if it's on DEP? (the most important question)

4- someone on IRC said that if i was unable to authorize my machine from itunes then the machine is on DEP.. is this correct?

5- the same person on IRC says that there could be a previous owner, and this owner can format my computer and see all of my files even if i have my own icloud on it, is this correct?

the person who sold it to me imported 60 macs from a closed startup in sweden, I can return it to the seller and get my money back, but I really need an answer for these questions...

Have you seen Apple's DEP FAQ? It says

  Which devices can be enrolled in DEP?

  Any Apple Mac or iOS devices purchased on or after March 1, 2011 can
  be enrolled in DEP. Mac or iOS devices purchased from participating
  Apple Authorized resellers or carriers must be added to your DEP
  instance to be included. All iOS devices must use iOS 7 or later, and
  all Mac computers must have OS X Mavericks v10.9 or later. Once
  configured, automatic enrollment in MDM occurs at the time of device
  activation if a profile has been assigned. If a device has already
  been deployed (activated), you can trigger automatic MDM enrollment by
  erasing and restoring the device.

what are the consequences of allowing DEP, and is it reversible?

  DEP supervises and enrolls the device into your Meraki MDM. Any
  configuration profiles are going to come from Meraki, not DEP. If
  there are configuration profiles that you want to remove, make the
  change in Meraki... either remove the device from the "Clients in
  scope" list under the profile, or remove the profile completely from >Meraki (if you don't want it on any device).

  DEP allows for the changing of the following: App Lock (Single App Mode)

  Global HTTP Proxy

  Activation Lock Bypass

  Autonomous Single App Mode

  Web Content Filter

  Set background & lock screen

  Silent App Push

  Always-On VPN

  Allow managed app installation exclusively

  Additionally, you can block/disallow:

  iBookstore

  iMessages

  Game center

  AirDrop

  AirPlay

  Host pairing

  Cloud Sync

  Spotlight internet results

  Handoff

  Erase

  Restrictions UI

  Installation of configuration profiles by UI

  News

  Keyboard shortcuts

  Passcode modifications

  Device name changes

  Wallpaper changes

  Automatic app downloads

  Changes to enterprise app trust

  Apple Music

  Mail Drop

how to contact the person who has DEP and ask them to remove it from the program?

  The line under "add to enrollment" will tell you who is running the
  DEP. You may see details by clicking add, and it will bring up
  preferences. Under this, you may read (in plaintext) who is trying to
  enroll you, and you may find out who it is.

When buying a new mac, how to know if it's on DEP? (the most important question)

  Reset it. See if it bypasses Setup.

Someone on IRC said that if i was unable to authorize my machine from itunes then the machine is on DEP.. is this correct?

  Yes. It would bypass this under MDM or under a DEP.

The same person on IRC says that there could be a previous owner, and this owner can format my computer and see all of my files even if i have my own icloud on it, is this correct?

  This is true.

  The Device Enrollment Program enables IT to easily leverage the
  advanced capabilities of supervision without the need to physically
  tether a device to a master computer running Apple Configurator –
  supervision can be turned on with the click of a button OTA. IT also
  benefits from the avoided risks associated with unmanaged devices.
  With the Device Enrollment Program, IT can leverage un-removable MDM
  profiles and even require devices to re-enroll after being wiped or
  reset.

Best of Luck!


An icon set to extend Lions default icins, Does anyone know of an icon set that he's the same blue icons as are standard in Lion, yet with extended meaning?

E.g. a folder with a pacman figure (to denote a games folder) on front.

I don't know of a pre-built set out there for you, but there's a nifty app on the Mac App Store called "Folders Factory" that makes it very easy to make customized folders.  Just drop in your pacman image and it'll create a folder and allow you to tweak settings, placement, colors, etc.


Does Do Not Disturb mode turn off automatically? If I turn on Do not disturb mode from control center, will it automatically turn off in the morning?

No, just flipping it on in Control Center won't get it to automatically turn off.

To get Do Not Disturb to automatically turn off, you need to schedule it to do so in Settings > Do Not Disturb > Scheduled.


Today & Tomorrow Summaries re-add to Notifications on reboot. Every time I reboot my computer, Today Summary and Tomorrow Summary re-add themselves to my Notification Center. I remove them (click Edit, click the red block button, click Done), and they only stay removed until next reboot.

I'm the only user on my machine. My account is admin. I sync with iCloud, but I don't use these widgets in iOS either, and they don't re-appear there ever.

Is there perhaps a pref file I should trash, or a cache I should reset?

MacBook Pro
macOS 10.12.5 Sierra

It’s possible your Notification Center preference file is corrupted.

Open Finder, then press ⇧ shift ⌘ cmd G. In the popup textbox, type in ~/Library/Preferences.

Locate com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist and delete it. Restart your system and see if the issue persists. If it does, you can pull the file back out of the Trash and restart one more time.