finding the remote IP address used by a mounted SMB share Using Finder, I have mounted an SMB share which resides on my NAS . When I use the mount command, the NAS is listed with the name it advertises (nas-smb).

mbp:~ me$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
//me@nas-smb._smb._tcp.local/myshare on /Volumes/myshare (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by me)

Edit:
Is there a way to translate this to the IP address of the NAS or otherwise learn this information?
Is there any way to find out the IP address of the NAS which is used to mount this share?

The tricky part is that my NAS can be reached on two different IP addresses (direct wired 1Gbps and wireless through my router).

On different sessions from the transfer speeds alone I have concluded that either of the IP addresses were in use. So I can't definitely tell to which of the two addresses I am connected for the SMB sharing.

The host command didn't works only with the wireless interface. I have also tried lsof -i -n but it shows no SMB related connections.

I hoped that smbutil lookup nas-smb could tell me what I want, but it doesn't. When the speeds show that the wired interface is in use, it still returns the address of the wireless interface.

Thanks!

Since it is advertising its presence on the network with Bonjour, you should be able to simply ping it:

ping -c 1 nas-smb.local


Is there a way to stop receiving iMessages on OS X when the Messages application is closed? After I quit the Messages application, I will still receive my iMessages on my Mac. I don't want to disable my iMessages completely but I'd like them to stop bothering me when I've closed the application.

Yes, you can achieve your desired behavior without disabling Messages on your Mac.

If you turn off notifications for Messages from within System Preferences, you will still receive the messages, but will not be notified that they came in.

You can turn notifications off on the following screen.  Simply click on "None", and deselect all the checkboxes, as illustrated below:


Mac OS word delimiter character settings I seem to remember seeing a tip once where there was a setting in System Preferences where you can define "programming" as a language or something so that double-clicking on a hyphenated word selects the entire word, hyphen and all.

I did this on my older MBP and now can't remember how to do it for my new one (10.9.1)

There's a setting that might be what you're referring to:

OS X Preferences > Language & Region > Region > Americas > United States (Computer)


Saving applescripts as scripts versus text When saving a script in Applescript Editor, it defaults to the Script file format. The file produced is binary and cannot be indexed by Spotlight. So if I want to search a script based on a word used in the code, I cannot since script code is not indexed.

On the other hand I can save as text, but I must remember to change the format option every time!

So what is the advantage of saving in Script format and is it possible to make Text the default?

I am using the editor in 10.6.8 Snow Leopard

EDIT:

Text format files are saved with the extension .applescript and are setup to open by default with the Applescript Editor, same as with .scpt.

This has been a goal for many an Applescripter for a long time.

Not sure anyone has hit the holly grail without using a third party scripting app with a Spotlight indexer..

I have tried a few things in the past but this thread prompted me again to have another go.

I now normally try and save all my applescripts in one places, in a Scripts folder in my Documents folder and also use Hazel to watch place like my Documents folder and desktop for scpt files and move them into the Scripts folder.

My new idea is to run a shell script that will be passed a scpt file that is saved in my Normal scripts folder as a normal scpt file and use the shell command osadecompile to decompile and read the file. Then create a text version in my new Script Text folder.

The code I am using is:

fname=`basename "$1"`

echo "`osadecompile "$1"`"  > "/Users/UserName/Documents/Scripts/Script Text/$fname".txt

Hazel conveniently uses $1 for the file path of the file being passed.
And I use the command basename to get the file name.

In Hazel it looks like this.

Notice I am using a date last modified condition with 5 minutes.

This is to try and catch any edits I do.

The nice thing I found is when I find the text file with the code I am looking for, I can either copy the text, refer to it, or find the scpt file easily because I have the same file name in the text file file name.

i.e

display iTunes artwork.scpt

display iTunes artwork.scpt.txt

This idea should be able to be used with other folder watching apps or hopefully give you some inspiration ...


How do I reboot my iMac, after I cleared a virus and the computer froze? Ran an virus scan which detected a geneio virus, removed the virus and the computer froze. I only have the Apple icon a spinning wheel. How can I reboot?

You can hold down the power button for 5 seconds to force a power down and then press it again to power it on. The power button, if you're looking at the front of the computer, is located on the back in the lower left hand corner.


Macbook Pro two external display, one keeps blinking/turn-black I recently set up 2 external displays to my MacBook Pro, 2017. 1 monitor is a Samsung 27" 4k, the second one is Dell 28" LCD.
The Samsung is connected with this adapter and another one with this.
The Samsung display works perfectly, no issue at all. But the Dell, from time to time turns to black or starts to blink and eventually turns to black as well. In the end, I need or remove the cable from the MacBook or turn the display off and turn it on again.
Any idea how I can handle this issue?
If more information is needed I will be happy to provide it.
Computer info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports, 16 GB RAM)
OSx version: 10.14.6
Thanks in advance
UPDATE 11.2.1 the issue was fixed.


How to make double click on titlebar maximize a window to fill up screen? I hide my dock. How do I acheive this: double click on titlebar to maximize a window to fill up screen?

Please pay attention to two red rectangles (not fill up the screen though I double click on titlebar) as shown below a screenshot of the entire screen.

This post How to maximise a window to fill up screen in Mavericks? proposes to use SizeUp (PS: it is not free?) by assigning a new shortcut. Is it still possible to use double click?

BetterSnapTool has the option that you're requesting. (The drop-down has many options including maximize.) You can also change the behavior of the green zoom button to do this as well.


How can I delete all voicemails from my iPhone? I would like to bulk delete all the voice mails from my iPhone but it appears I need to first delete each one (multiple taps on each message) and then bulk delete them all from the "deleted items" sub folder.

Is there a way to more efficiently delete all voicemail?

n.b. I have an iPhone 5 with iOS 7 on Verizon that isn't jailbroken but would welcome any answers that work for whatever OS / carrier even if a jailbreak is needed

Via swipe left on multiple voicemails you can delete them, and on the Phone app, you can even "delete all" of them.

But to delete Permanently all voicemails Permanently, meaning could not be recovery by any software, you should try iMyfone Umate.


Can I prevent OS X from resizing and moving windows when sleeping while attached to an external monitor? I have my Retina Macbook Pro connected to a ASUS 2560x1440 display via the HDMI port. I keep the laptop lid closed so the monitor is the only display in use.

When I sleep my computer (via hot corners if it matters) and wake it back up, all the windows are resized and in the upper left hand corner. My assumption is that it is resizing and repositioning them for the built in display. Is there a way to prevent this from happening so I don't have to resize and move all my windows when I use the computer again?

Go into the menu on your external monitor. If there's an option that allows one device to toggle the power on the other via HDMI, make sure this is deselected (honestly, I don't think this will have an effect as your laptop is doing the driving, but for the sake of troubleshooting...).

I too use an MBP Retina with external monitor (via HDMI). If I shut off the external monitor while it has application windows in its desktop, the screen on my laptop refreshes and said windows are moved to my laptop's display. However, if I power the external monitor back on, these application windows "automagically" move back to where they were (same location and size) on the external' Desktop (as long as I haven't shut down the computer in the meantime). So, it seems one solution (if you're hard set against also using your laptop' display) is to leave the laptop open, but decrease the brightness of the screen to 0. I do this all the time when watching a movie on the big screen, and, truly, the laptop' profile is no less "bulky" than it would be if it was closed. An additional benefit to this method is that the laptop stays cooler (than it otherwise would by closing it). You can verify this with any free temperature-monitoring app.

If the above does not work or is otherwise intolerable, you're looking at some heavy Linux scripting to get something like this to work (which, even for an expert programmer, should prove to be a great learning experience, if its even possible).


Unknown when I receive incoming calls on Iphone 5S I have an Iphone 5S. When I receive calls I do not see a number it only reflects "Unknown" on the screen. How can I change this to ensure that it reflects either the number or name if the person is in my address book?

If you see "Unknown" this means that the caller is not transmitting his ID (i.e. number) to your carrier and hence your iPhone.

Not much can be changed unless you pick up the phone and ask the caller to change his Caller ID settings on his phone.

In addition, some business numbers and calls over VoIP tend to appear as "Unknown". It is not the fault of your iPhone but from where exactly the call originates.


Why automator's component "Get Selected Finder Items" duplicates path of selected file? I'm trying to make automator quick action/service for coping text from images.

It looks like this:

When I run script from automator everything works fine. But when I try to run it from services menu (right click on image > Services > service_name) then it doesn't work as expected.

The problem is that "Get Selected Finder Items" returns two copies of the to the image's path. In this case ~/Desktop/t1.png ~/Desktop/t1.png. I even saved input to the script to a separate file (foo.txt) to be sure.

So the question is why this happens and how to fix it?

When run from the Automator app it needs the Get Selected Finder Items action, however when run as a Quick Action from Finder it isn't needed as the selected files in Finder are passed to the Quick Action.

You need to remove or disable the Get Selected Finder Items action to have the duplication stopped when run as a Quick Action.

To disable an action, check the [√] Ignore this action's input under the action's Options.


Is the iOS 5 beta no longer usable? I've been using iOS5 beta 7 for a while.  About 4 hours ago (possibly the end of the 20th, PST, the expiration date for iOS 5 beta 7) the phone locked itself and claims it requires activation.  Whenever I try, it claims the activation server is temporarily unavailable.

Should I sit tight and wait, or is there something else I can do, such as wipe iOS5 and reinstall from a release image?

You'll have to upgrade to the release version, not much else you can do about it.


Why Firefox takes so long to open in Mac OS X? When I first boot my MacBook Pro with Core i7, 8 GB ram, and 7200 rpm hard drive running Mac OS X 10.6.7, it still takes a long time (10 or so dock icon bounces) for latest Firefox 4.0.1 to open.

Why is it so slow? Is it something on my part? Or is Firefox just that slow to open? Thanks!

P.S. As a comparison, it doesn't take long a all (a few seconds) for Firefox to open on my Windoze machine.

If you have installed many fonts (font packages), you should disable the ones that you don't use. Also try running Firefox in safe mode (without addons). FF4 should start for about 2-3 seconds.


How do I get a keystroke systemwide to trigger an action on  text in a selected item, whether file, mail message, selected text, etc.? In this question I asked how to create a window containing a html rendered preview of text formatted with Markdown. I would also like to be able to have a single keystroke that systemwide will produce these results. I am thinking an Automator service might be the best approach, but it might not be.
I want to be able to select either text or files as input, and pass either the selected text OR the text contained in the file through the Markdown filter and display the resulting HTML in some sort of preview window.

Any pointers? If it can be a single service, great; if not, a service that runs when the Finder is active that accepts files and a separate service that accepts selected text that runs when any other program is active could work.

I'm not looking for the general case here; it's a core feature on the Mac to use the Keyboard Shortcuts pane in System Preferences to assign a global shortcut to an Automator-generated service. I'm looking for a way for a single keystroke to generate a preview of Markdown-rendered text whether it's a selected text file in the Finder or selected text in another program. Spacebar combined with Quicklook could work in Finder and Command-Option-Shift-M could work for selected text, but I a way for one keystroke to serve the function of "Preview Markdown Results" in any context, whether it's text, a file, a selected mail message, etc. Get the text from the selected item, render it, and display it in a window.

My solution to mapping keyboard shortcuts to arbitrary services (as well as general workflows, application launches and scripts) is FastScripts.

Try it for free and pay if you feel you can or need more than 10 shortcuts to be active at the same time.


iOS Album-Art Mismatch Post Sync Whenever I sync any song to my iPhone, some of the songs / albums display the wrong album art despite having the correct album-art in iTunes. I have had this issue since iOS 8 and all of my devices are up to date on the software side. Check out the examples below:

For example, Ride of the Valkyries shows album-art of ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ when I first synced to the device. After I deleted it from my iPhone and synced the song again, it showed album-art from ‘Songs from The Martian’. For the record, these albums are present in my iTunes library and they display it correctly.
Be advised, this problem only with the album-art, not the song meta-data.

Hardware Info: iTunes 12.3 on Windows with iPhone 5 on iOS 9.0.2

After digging a lot of sites on the web, also including StackExchange, I finally stumbled on this blog by Kirk McElhearn. However, it only pointed me the right direction. After trying different methods, the correct solution was not to disconnect my iPhone from the internet while I synced, but to disconnect my PC from the internet before I started the sync process. Here is the result:

And voila!

It finally showed the correct album-art. However my problem was fixed only for that particular song. I had to delete all the songs that had mismatched album-art and re-sync those songs again. It was a pain-in-the-a**, but the result was worth it (if you are particularly OCD about keeping your music perfect).


iTunes movie player loses focus when iPhone starts syncing Frustrated by years of iTunes for Windows quirks, I finally bought a Mac Mini as a sort of media server and moved all my iTunes content over, including wifi-syncing my iPhone and iPads. I figured that iTunes would work better on a Mac.

Nope! Now, when watching a movie full screen, iTunes pops back up into the foreground whenever a device starts syncing. And the movie viewer can't be found again -- I guess it's on a different desktop?

Is this just a bug? Is there a workaround? Seems pretty odd that iTunes can't play movies full screen if there are iOS devices in the house. Surely that's not a design choice?

The follwoing setting should do it.

iTunes > Preferences > Advanced:

Check "Keep movie player on top of all other windows"


How to rename an external hard drive in Mac OS X? I have 2 external hard drives supplied by the same vendor.
They both have the same name.
Using them with the mac is problematic when they have the same name.
Time Machine, for example, tries to back up to the external drive with this name.
I would like to simply change the name of one of these external hard drives.

Multiple forums have suggested 2 solutions:
1: In Finder, just change the name of the drive like you would any folder
2: Use Disk Utility

Neither of these solutions work for me.
The name of the external drive is read only in both applications.

If the file format of the external hard drive is NTFS, then El Capitan will allow you to only read the contents of the drive. To rename the drive, or to modify any contents of the drive, you will have to format the drive with OS X File system.


Mail.app mail list reply address Mail.app allows to send emails from multiple mailboxes by enumerating them in comma-delimited format in:

Preferences-Accounts-Account Information-Email Addresses = test@bar.com,test@foo.com

This feature allows you to seamlessly reply from test@foo.com whenever email was sent to this email by hitting 'Reply' button.

However when test@foo.com receives messages from some mail list list@lists.foo.com, and a message is sent to that list rather then mail address, 'Reply' will pick just a first available mail address, which would be test@bar.com.

Is there a way to specify that replies to list@lists.foo.com should be sent through test@foo.com?

While replying you can turn on the Reply-To header which will let you set this. You can do that by either going to the View menu and turning on Reply-To or you can do it right from within the message itself, which is easier.

Alternatively you can try changing the default preferences via the command line. Chances are the Mail defaults won't have a Reply-To header defined, but you can add the key-pair with this:

defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders '{"Reply-To" = "theemail@goes.here"; }'

or

defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders '{"Reply-To" = "theemail@goes.here"; "Bcc" = "another@address.here"; }'

If that doesn't work and you're like me and want to reverse those changes to keep preferences clean, you can edit the .plist file and remove them. The .plist can be found at:

/Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail

I haven't tested the command line approach, but it should work because I looked this up and used that approach on a work machine once.

Hope this helps!


What can cause 90 second delays joining a wifi network? I have been using my Mac Book Pro (15" Lion, latest version) for coming on a year.
I used to open the cover, it would search for my wifi, and in 15 seconds I could start web surfing.

Suddenly, in the few weeks though, it is doing something strange...

It still finds the wifi connection in a few seconds (the Wifi icon shows all dark), but now it takes an extra 90 seconds plus until I can actually load anything in a browser.

I noticed that Skype connects after about 90 seconds, then a few seconds later Safari allows me to start loading web pages, and then a few seconds later Chrome will let me start loading web pages.

Very nerve wracking! Any suggestions for diagnosing this or speeding this back up again?

You can also boot up to the start up disc that come with your mac if it is 10.6 of newer. There you can connect your wifi when the disc has loaded up to check make sure its not a software issue.

You can also try resetting the P-Ram on startup, by holding P + R + cmd + alt and letting its chime 3 or 4 times. That may help.

Also check with other machines to see how long it takes to receive an ip address. This may be an issue with the router.


Help! Lost admin password for Mac OS X server 10.9 While our netwrokd administrator was admitted to a hospital for an emergency surgery (he is now in coma), being as a temporary delegate, I was ordered by our Institution to turn OFF Mail funciton and to change the admin account password for Mac OS X Server 10.9.2 for security reasons. While changing the password, I took a memo for the new password, but later it turned out to be wrong! My stupidity.

After restart, I cannot open Server.app that controls Mail service because it requires the unknown new password.

Currently Mail service is OFF (it had been turned OFF for security reason before password change), but I' going to need to turn it ON soon after the order is lifted. To do that, however, I need the new password. Luckily, the server still provides access to the Internet. Thus I can still ask you.

Thanks to the following instruction, I find a way to reset the admin password.
http://fixedbyvonnie.com/2013/09/how-to-reset-the-admin-password-on-your-mac-without-a-disk/#.Uz5eM8cT-pe

I carried out a test of the same procedure on another Mac (10.9.2). In the test, although resetpassword command in Recovery Mode successfully updated the account password, it didn't update default Keychain password at the same time.

After restart, the OS asks if I want to update 'default Kecyhain password'. To update it, I need to enter the older Keychain password that I don't know. If I skip the update, Keychain asks passwords repeatedly, and without the old Keychain password, I can't launch and open Keychain Access.

Then I found this. It says you can reset the Keychain password by Keychain First Aid.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24171670#24171670

However, in my test, Keychain First Aid still asks the older Keychain password, so this doesn't work.

In short, I can update the admin password, but not the Keychain password without knowing the old password. So if I carry out this on the server machine, The Server won't run properly and would ask passwords over and over again.

On the test Mac I tried to activate root user, hoping the root user could change Keychain password without knowing the old Keychain password. But I couldn't access to the "login" Keychain of the account in question from the root account.

Does anyone know a work-around?

Is there a way to reset the default Keychain password without the old Keychain password?

Or, is there a way to know the old Keychain password? Probably not.

Or, do you think TimeMachine can undo my failure in changing the admin password and recover the old admin password?

During this mail shutdown period, I assume many people have asked his health status by email. It's an emergency and I really need your help!

In conclusion, TimeMachine recovery of the entire system to the status before changing admin password worked well. I recovered the old admin password and it worked for Keychain Access as well.

In details;
Just in case the recovery doesn't work and I lose the TimeMachine backups somehow, I copied the TimeMachine backup to another external drive. To do that, however, I needed admin password. So, first I had to reset the admin password.

Note: In my case, the destination for TimeMachine backup was a local partition (probably), so I didn't need network password to access it. If it were in network, for example, you would need password that has been lost at step 8. Then this procedure may not work for you. Before actually try the following steps, it may be good to see if you need password for system recovery, following http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14185 (step 5 in this page is the key), but just cancel when you are asked to choose date and time.

Open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. Choose Time Machine > Open Time Machine Preferences…
Slide the Time Machine switch to Off.
Restart the Mac with Command + R keys held down to enter Recovery Mode.
In Recovery Mode, launch Terminal.app.
In Terminal.app, type resetpassword.
Choose the admin account and set new password. Verify it.
Warning about Keychain will appear.
Restart. Now you get admin password at the cost of loosing Keychain password. The server won't work properly any longer.
The OS will ask if you want to update Keychain password. Because you don't know the old password. You can't do that. So just choose Continue in the middle.
The system will ask Keychain passwords, but you have to ignore them.
Connect an external drive that is large enough.
If necessary, reformat the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5096
Click the icon of the new backup drive and choose Get Info from the File menu or press Command-I (⌘-I)
Make sure Ignore ownership on this volume at the bottom of the Sharing & Permissions: section is not checked.
Open a new Finder window. In the Finder sidebar, click the icon of the current backup drive.
Open a new Finder window. In the Finder sidebar, click the icon of the new backup drive.
Drag the folder Backups.backupdb on the current backup drive to the root level of the new backup drive.
Enter an administrator name and password (you needed to reset the admin password for this step), then click OK to start the copying process.  This may take some time to complete because all the backups will be copied.
After the copy has completed, you can eject the eternal drive.
Restart the machine with Command and R keys held down to enter Recovery Mode.
In Recovery Mode, Select Restore from a Time Machine Backup, then click Continue.
Select the TimeMachine storage.
Select the date and time of the backup you want to restore, then follow the onscreen instructions.
In my case, I successfully recovered admin password as well as default Keychain password.


Mac Mini: No sound except for startup chime I have a Mac Mini (mid 2010) and out of nowhere the sound has completely stopped working, the only exception to this is the startup chime when turning on the machine.

I have already checked to see if I just muted the sound, that the internal speakers are selected in system preferences, reset the PRAM, restarted the computer, and wiggled a jack inside of the headphone jack hole.

I have no idea what is going on with the sound! I know the speakers are not broken because the startup chime works, also I've tried using external speakers but those don't solve anything either.

Any thoughts?

Try this
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/54800/210364

I had the same problem, and these steps helped:

Reboot your mac holding Command + Option + P + R until you hear at least two startup chimes.


How to mirror iPod Touch 4th-gen to TV? I have an iPod Touch 4th-generation currently running the latest iOS software supported by it (iOS 6.1.6), and it is jailbroken.  I am trying to find a solution to mirror its screen to a TV.

As this is not an iPod Touch 5th-generation model, I cannot use AirPlay Mirroring to mirror it.  So I bought an official Apple 30-pin to Analog AV Adapter.  This cable works with the iOS internal video player and a few of other apps (such as Keynote), but I would like to mirror the entire iPod Touch screen to my TV through this cable, so allow all other apps can be presented on TV.

I used to use TVOut2 Mirror TVOut tweak when I had iOS 5, but this tweak no longer works with iOS 6, and so far I have not any other working method to mirror the screen. Has anyone else found a solution to mirror the screen with the cable (without wireless mirroring)

Thank you

Mirroring iPod Touch 4th Gen Completely (homescreen and games) !!

If you are jailbroken, then you can go into iFile and go to the directory:
(/var/mobile/Library/Preferences)
Then go to the plist named: (com.apple.springboard.plist) Open the plist up with the Property List Viewer and scroll down until you find the line labelled TVOutDiabled and turn that switch to "off". The Line underneath that will have "TVOutOrientation", tap on this line and change it's value to "1" instead of "0" Now quit out of iFile on your iOS device and you should be good to go.

This tutorial is only for mirroring your device with a cable (such as 30Pin to VGA, or other cables like 30Pin to HDMI)

You can also try editing the .plist file with a program such as iFunbox or Anytrans but I can't garantee that it would work.


How to export to HTML in Keynote 09 I've created presentation in Keynote 09. Now I want to export it to HTML, but without navigation buttons. After selection Share > Export -> HTML I see only option to select movie quality:

On Apple forum I've found some instruction on how to configure my export:

Unfortunately I don't see these all options. Do you have any advices how can I get access to these settings in Keynote HTML export?

Keynote (with iWork 09) does not have Flash options/features in the export to HTML they were available only up to iWork 08. Hopefully someone will be able to tell you how to edit the HTML Keynote now creates so that the navigation controls are not shown.


In what ways can I separately manage entries in Contacts.app and SIM card contacts? I have some basic questions in my mind and ofcourse, I should ask them to know the things.

Can I import/export contacts from/to sim card?
Is it possible to view the contacts that are stored in sim/iPhone separately?
Is it possible to choose the default memory storage for contacts?
Is it possible to delete all contacts from sim/iPhone (or maybe both)by one click?

My answers are only about usual not jailbreaked iPhone

You can import contact from SIM, more on this here. It's not possible to export contacts to the card.
It is not possible to view the contacts that are stored on sim/iPhone separately.
The default memory storage for contacts is iPhone memory. Can't be changed.
Here is a universal way to delete all contacts from Address Book. iPhone can't delete contacts from SIM card.


how to make default torrent handler (.torrent files and magnet links) a certain Transmission Remote GUI URL? I've installed a Transmission daemon on one of my Macs.  I'd like to have all torrents and magnet links I open on my other Macs to be opened by the program at that-macs-url:9091 via Transmission Remote GUI.  How can I make this happen?

Install https://github.com/transmission-remote-gui/transgui on every mac.
Launch it and input Remote host: that-macs-url, Port: 9091. I found out the hard way that a .local (mDNS) hostname will not work on macOS, due to bugs.
It's up to the application what happens when you click on a magnet link. In Safari nothing seems to happen for me for some reason*, but in Firefox I get the option to browse for an app. For torrent files my best bet would be to right click a torrent file → Show Info → Open with: and change all to open in transgui.

Disable prompting for download options in transgui, and use transgui as the default app in your browser to quickly send torrents immediately to your server with a single click and zero context switching. Update: seems that I lost the feature of zero context switching at some point (transgui 5.16.0 on macOS 10.14.4). Transgui now always steals focus when opening magnet links.
* I believe magnet:-links aren't strictly valid URIs.


Why is my Mac unable to connect to network I was debugging some iOS apps with Charles Proxy and Charles froze on my Mac. I assume this was symptom of general network problem, so I rebooted my Mac and confirmed that it wasn’t able to connect to any web sites via web browsers or any apps.
The macOS network utilities (in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications) worked fine, but command line apps like traceroute fail with no useful diagnostics or error messages. Neither WiFi nor wired connection work, though other devices on the network were fine. I rebooted all my network hardware, checked for firmware updates, ran Mac hardware diagnostics (by rebooting while holding down the d key), etc., and the problem persists with no promising leads. The only glimmer of hope is that when I use tethered connection via my iPhone, that works (!).
What is going on?

After of literal hours of debugging, I discovered that Charles Proxy was not symptom of a broader problem, but rather it was the problem (even though I rebooted several times and Charles was no longer running).
After hours of debugging, I spent a little time mentally backtracking and thinking about when the problem first manifested itself, and remembered Charles. So, I decided to fire up Charles and the network was suddenly restored. And when I quit Charles gracefully, it restored everything to a stable state. Lol.
Clearly, when it froze on me, it left my networking configuration in some internally inconsistent state. But restarting Charles and quitting it gracefully allowed it to restore my computer to an operable state again.
That’s six hours of my life that I’ll never get back. I write this post to hopefully save someone the pain and anguish I just went through.
(FWIW, this is not a criticism of Charles. It’s an invaluable tool, like WireShark, for debugging networking code. I love Charles, but I guess one needs to be careful if it ever freezes on you. This was the first time it has locked up on me in my many years of using it, so it’s clearly a fairly isolated problem. In retrospect, the solution seems obvious, but, OMG, what a painful learning experience.)


The App Store app update kept asking for Yahoo password I was trying to update YouTube on an iPhone 5S with iOS 7.0 but it asked me for Yahoo password, not iCloud password.

How am I supposed to solve this problem?

The app store dialog that is titled "Sign in to iTunes Store" is worded slightly ambiguously.  The last sentence reads (for example:) `Enter the password for "youremail@yahoo.com".

You are not being asked here for the password to your yahoo account.  You are being asked for the password for your appleId that uses "youremail@yahoo.com" as it's username.


How to setup macbook disable battery and only turn on when plugged power adapter My MacBook Air 2011 model's battery is broken, often can't be charged, and remains at 1%. Can I disable the use of battery, and only turn it on when it's plugged in with a power adapter?

Sometimes when it's plugged in it's still showing "not charging" and displaying 1%, and operates very slowly. So I guess if I can always only use the power adapter, it can be faster than 1% "low battery mode".

I can't find any related setting in Preferences. Please help, thanks.

First of all, your MacBook Air should not run slower, even with a dead battery, if it's connected to AC power.

Secondly, you really should replace the battery, but if you don't want to physically remove the battery, the nearest option to what you want to achieve is to adjust your Energy Saver settings.

More specifically:

Go to System Preferences
Choose Energy Saver
Ensure you have the Battery tab selected
Now adjust your settings under the Battery tab to suit your needs (perhaps ensure they match as far as possible the settings under the Power Adapter tab).

You may also want to uncheck the option to show the battery status in the menu bar (as that will only be a constant reminder that annoys you under the present circumstances).

NOTES:

My steps above are fairly generic as you didn't specify your OS, however they should get you to where you need.
If you're certain your computer is running 'slowly' then it's quite possible you have something else going on.
Finally, you may want to reset your SMC for good measure. See steps below.

Resetting the SMC on MacBook Airs

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.


Where did the usage bar go in itunes 12.5.1.21? it used to be at the bottom along with the sync button.
I see no bar and button anymore

Are you on the correct page?

If you can see this icon, then you're not. Click it.


iPhone 3G running 4.2.1 but doesn't have all the features? I just bought an iPhone 3G secondhand from a friend. Under Settings the version is listed 4.2.1 but it's missing some of the iOS 4 features. Double-clicking the home button doesn't bring up recent apps, and there's no option to set this function in the home button settings. There's also no Game Centre on the home screen. Does anyone know why this might be?

EDIT: While it will download apps requiring iOS 4.0 from the App Centre, they crash immediately after opening. Apps requiring iOS 3.0 work fine.

This is by design, although the basic internal features and functions of iOS4 are present (this is mainly the stuff that apps will use, so you can be sure that if your app says it needs OS4, then you can run it) not all the OS functions are present, and this includes the background switching functionality as well as a few other things.  I can't remember them all right now, but the 3G only got some of the functionality that the iPhone 4 and 3GS got.

Likewise, when OS6 comes out later this year, there are bits and pieces that will not run on an iPhone 4, which will run fine on an iPhone 4S - I think the turn by turn navigation will not be available on the iPhone 4, for example.

This sort of thing has always happened with iOS upgrades, and the hardware at the bottom of the compatibility tree often has to forgo some of the features.  Often it's down the memory constraints etc.  The key is that none of the missing bits are essential for the running of other apps, so an app that needs OS4 will run fine whether or not you are running it with all the new bits, or only some of them.  Apps will only care about the APIs available to them, and you should have the very same ones regardless of the extra stuff on top that is missing.


Use external WiFi adapter instead of internal I've been trying to get an external USB WiFi adapter to work with OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), instead of the internal one that came with my iMac, but I can't find anything in system preferences whatsoever that lets me configure it, I looked in network settings but couldn't find any option to select the adapter I want to use, it just lets me pick 'WiFi' which is always the internal one.

The adapter I'm trying to configure is an Alfa AWUS036NH, any help will be greatly appreciated!

You need a proper driver to run your external Wi-Fi adapter.

Check this page, choose Product Category -> Indoor Wireless, Product Model -> AWUS036NH, Type of file -> driver and solve a captcha to get to the download page.

Download the driver for Mac OS X 10.9 and try to install it. If this driver doesn't work with Yosemite you probably have to contact the support there.


Why can't iPhone 4s connect to a specific IP address? I built a robot a while ago that I control via the iPhone (video).

The robot connects to a WiFi hotspot and the iPhone 3Gs would connect to it via Safari and I'd control it from there.  Now that I've upgraded to iPhone 4s, Safari simply won't connect to the IP address stating "Cannot open page".

I can't figure out why.  Every other device in the house connects to the robot fine. How can I debug this?

Are you sure your new iPhone is connected to the same WiFi access point?

Try turning both Airplane mode and WiFi ON in Settings to make sure you are accessing the correct local network.


How to Install and Run Yosemite in Parallels? I'm not ready to commit to Yosemite yet as my primary OS.  So I thought I'd load up a Parallels VM to try it out.

Although Parallels seems to create the Yosemite .dmg file correctly, it just won't finish loading.  I get messages about having to "download additional components" with tens if not hundreds of hours remaining.  If I let it run overnight, I wake up to a message that something failed.

So is it not possible to install Yosemite as a Parallels VM? (I'm running Parallels v10.1.0 on a 2014 MacBook Pro)  Has anyone successfully gotten this to work?

Yes - I've gotten installs of Yosemite to work on Parallels - but on a Mac Pro. I installed Yosemite fairly seamlessly from a Recovery HD - so you would want to install Yosemite onto an external drive (or SD media if your mac has one equipped) and then virtualize from the Recovery HD if you can't test well enough on a second install of OS X.


How often does iCloud sync bookmarks, between iPhone 4 and iPad 2 I've just updated an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 to iOS 5, and turned on iCloud, with syncing of Bookmarks enabled on both. And they are tied to the same Apple ID too.

For both devices, iTunes says "Your bookmarks are being synced with your iPhone over the air from iCloud. Over-the-air settings can be changed on your [device]"

So I expected that if I deleted a Safari bookmark on the iPhone, the change would get reflected in the Safari bookmarks on the iPad.

This update hasn't yet happened, after around 5 minutes.

(But photos do get updated almost instantaneously, I see)

Do I need to do anything special to force bookmark changes to be rolled out to the other device?

It seems that it may be tied to the Fetch New Data setting in Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

When I change that setting to Push, the bookmarks are sent out straight away.

What I don't understand is why the Photo Stream pushes out changes immediately, even if 'Fetch New Data' is set to 'Every 15 Minutes', but the Bookmarks (which appear to have nothing to do with 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars', are not.

Later:

I've just seen the "Advanced" setting in "Fetch New Data". This seems to have a manual override

With Fetch New Data set to "15 min", (and Push is Off), and iCloud set to "Push", I expected to have the bookmark pushed out straight away.

But this doesn't happen: I also have to turn the main "Fetch New Data" setting to Push, in order to have the bookmarks updated immediately.


Is there a way to play Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force on a modern Mac? I have a mid-2010 (Intel) MacBook Pro, and I’m nostalgic for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, which was released in the early 2000s (!). At some point there was a freely-downloadable Carbon version to allow people who already owned the game to play it under then-current versions of Mac OS X, but as far as I know there hasn’t been any development recently. Can anyone think of some way I might be able to get the game running again?

Running Snow Leopard in a virtual machine will run PPC and some carbon apps on a Lion Mac.

You can also install Snow Leopard onto another drive (external or partition) and boot to 10.6 I that's all you need for that app.


Why can't I see my photos in finder? When I search for photos in finder I can see just Photo Booth's photos:

But I have a lof of pictures in Photos app, why can't I see them?

Update

The option "use as system photo library" (in Italian: "usa come libreria foto di sistema") is disabled.

It seems like you might need to open the Photos app, and within Preferences choose "Use as System Photo Library"...

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/message/28138885#28138885

However if this doesn't work it would suggest something on your Mac isn't setup right and you should try backing up your data and reinstalling by following these instructions.


Apple Watch Sport Band Permanently Damaged See the bottom for an update on what the stain might have been caused by.

I'm disappointed to find that there's  nothing I can do (that I know of) to restore my Apple Watch Sport's white band to its formerly clean state. Somehow, it became slightly purple in one area. I'm not sure how things have added up, but I'll state the facts:

My watch arrived only less than a month ago on June 1, 2015.
Usually, I wash with water, toilet paper, and a microfiber cloth, and everything comes out just fine.
I wanted to wash it today. Here's what I used and what happened:

First, rubbing alcohol with a blue microfiber cloth => the back of the longer piece of the band started barely turning purple.
Next, water using my thumb under the faucet => the purplish hue came off, but the toilet paper I placed it on began to look very purple.
Next, toilet paper => that paper became purple as well while I rubbed the back of the band.
I flipped over the band, and the front had a purple stain.
I used water => it didn't go away.
I rubbed with toilet paper => a gray line appeared across the purple stain.
I used water and toilet paper and rubbed quite a bit => the streak left, but the stain remained.
I finally tried the blue cloth, my thumb, and even the alcohol => the stain remained.

I'm frankly concerned that this thing will never come off. I did research on Apple's policy on returning bands, etc., and though I need to confirm, it sounds like any discolored or warped bands will not be accepted for replacements.

Note that the texture of the stained part of the band now feels different from that of the rest of the band, almost like it's more rough. Also, the other half of the band, which was very dirty, washed off just fine with only water and a microfiber cloth.

Here are some pictures of the stain (see descriptions for more details):

The stained half of the band, with the purple stain circled in red.

The original photo of the stain edited for contrast. The purple stain is clearly visible here. (Note: The only editing done here was lighting and contrast changes that can be done in the Photos app on the iPhone. I did not Photoshop this or alter the stain itself, etc.)

Update: I just realized something that may help get the stain off. I never got the chance to follow bmike's advice; I will likely ultimately follow it, but for the time being, I was hoping that this might help find something that I can do myself to clean it.

Check out this photo:

I do a lot of handwriting. Yes, that is my pinky, covered in pen ink, which turns purple when there isn't a thick layer but a thin one over it. Coincidentally, my watch band was stained purple. It adds up to suggest that it's a pen ink stain, which I doubt is more temporary than permanent.

Thus, I suppose my question has changed:

Is it possible to remove pen ink stains (just a typical black ballpoint pen) from a white Apple Watch sport band without damaging it? If so, how? Or is it wiser to just take it in to Apple and see what they can do to help?

Apple's warranty policy allows them to not cover cosmetic damage to parts however, they may not choose to deny a warranty swap if you present the band for service and are reasonable. (I don't think you'll be angry, just that I've seen people totally ruin things by rude or boorish behavior when they are angry and seek service with aggressive language or worse).

I would print out or be very familiar with Apple's cleaning guide for the product. They may decide to take back some parts for quality control that wouldn't normally be exchanged since the product is so new.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204522

Do be aware that toilet paper is not lint free cloth and many brands may not even be non-abrasive. The only cleaning agent Apple recommends is water so be sure to understand if they charge for a replacement if you don't follow their recommendations. Better to take the dirty band in and ask if it's cleanable than to show up after you expanded the list of techniques.

Even if you did resort to harsh methods, asking for help is still worth its IMO.


Customise iTerm sudo password prompt Recently iTerm started showing an emoji key instead of the sexy key symbol at password prompts.

It now shows this:

But I don't like the ugly emoji there.

I want to see (this is what it looks like on Terminal.app):

How can I get it to look like the symbol above?

It almost seems like Terminal.app makes the key symbol part of the cursor (it blinks with the cursor).

I found the setting that turns this off, it's in advanced preferences. Not sure you can make it look like the normal terminal one, but this might help folks that want to get rid of the key entirely.

iTerm2 > Preferences > Advanced > Experimental Features > "Show key at cursor at password prompt" => No


Gaming - MBP runs too hot When I play Diablo 3 on my MBP (late 2011) the computer gets unbelievably hot.

It gets to be too hot to touch near where the screen connects to the keyboard.

I get the feeling like this is terrible for the computer.

I put an external cooling pad underneath it, but it doesn't really help that much.

I also have an app called "IStat Menus by Bjango" which controls the fans.

I stopped using the software a while ago, but it is an option and it is legitimate.

Is there any way I can help it cool down, or should I just buy a computer specific for gaming?

I found a real good ARTICLE on the subject.

As per Intel's site, the maximum temperature for this CPU is 100 C.  I wouldn't be immediately concerned unless your machine is freezing / shutting down, or showing video artifacts.

Obviously 80 C is still pretty warm; you can try some things to bring it down.

Active cooling pad/base with fans built in
Cleaning out the CPU fan and exhaust vents.  This
requires taking off the bottom cover.
Using iStats or another program to run the fan at a higher speed.


Displays won't stay off when I put them to sleep when I press Shift + Control + Eject the displays go blank for a second, then they turn on again.
There's no way I can get them off permanently.
I also don't want the computer to sleep as I leave it downloading over night.
I have a MacBook with an external monitor attached.

Sometimes this can be due to the System Management Controller.  Try resetting the SMC and see if that helps


App called TV appeared then changed to videos I saw the apple livestream saying the TV app would be pushed out to all iOS devices via an update. However, the app just appeared for me today without any update at all. It then was removed and the Videos app (which I'd removed) was added onto my phone.

Why did this happen? I have removed videos again - can I prevent it reinstalling?

This happened to me when I changed to the US iTunes Store from the UK one. 'TV' is only available in the US. Logging out of iTunes & App Stores in Settings and logging in again has restored 'Videos' on my iPad


OSX/MacOS Search priority for app when opening custom extension I'm new to the Mac world but have written my first application. I have it packaged as a .app (let's say my_application.app).

My application registers a custom file extension (let's say .xyz). When you open a .xyz file it will open with my_application.app. However, I'm noticing if I have several my_application.app on my machine it's hard to figure out which one will load when you double click on a .xyz file.

For instance, I had my_application.app in my applications folder, but I also had one (an older version) on my desktop. I expected the one in the applications folder to handle opening .xyz files, but instead the one from the desktop opened.

Is there definitive documentation on what the search priority is for finding an app for a custom file extension?

You can choose which application must handle a file type. And change the default application.

You can do it once:

Right mouse click on file
Open with...
It opens the file in the chosen application once.

Or you can decide which application must open all files for a particular file type.

Right mouse click on file
Get Info
Section 'Open with'
Choose the application you want to use for all files from this file type.
Press the 'Change All...' button


Get resolution of a Mac OS X application window I'm using a Macbook Pro Early 2015 running Mac OS X El Capitan.

I'd like to measure the resolution (or at least the aspect ratio) of a specific application window on Mac OS X. Is there a way to do this? The reason I need to do this, is to ensure that I am running the application window at a specific resolution, or aspect ratio.

You can do that with Accessibility Inspector, Xscope or via applescript "get the bounds of the front window"


macbook pro keyboard keys look polished after a few months Is this polished look due to grease from the fingers or simply friction? By polished, I mean that the surface looks shinier on some keys. I got an UPPERCASE Ghost Cover but it isn't as nice to type on. If I can prevent the polished look from happening by removing grease daily after I use the keyboard, I'd prefer that. But not sure if it'll happen regardless if it's due to friction.

All keyboards by any manfacturer have shown wear over time.
We even had keyboards made with stainless steel designed for heavy use and they showed signs of wear.
Fingers carry dirt which abrades the keys and coatings over time - even if you wash your hands prior to use , you pick up something from the desk and back to dirty.
My macbook pro keyboard I have worn through to the clear plastic past the symbols and black base.
Replace the keyboard and put a cover on it but nothing lasts forever. Or use an external keyboard but not practical in all situations.
You are not alone...


Prevent Safari from auto-completing a URL incorrectly? Whenever I try to type plus.google.com into Safari, it starts auto-completing the URL to plus.url.google.com. I've tried removing all my of vists to this domain from my history hoping that plus.google.com would be what it auto-completes with, but that doesn't seem to help.

How do I get rid of plus.url.google.com and have Safari auto-complete to plus.google.com?

One simple way is to use a keyboard shortcut to remove the incorrect auto entry.

Highlight the incorrect entry like the:

  plus.url.google.com

and pres fn+shift+delete


How to copy books from iPad iBooks to PC? I have some books in iBooks on iPad 2 (iOS 5) that were manually transfered to iPad via iTunes (without syncing). How can I copy back a book to my PC, from iPad?

Sync the ipad with books selected then you get a message asking you to transfer purchases, that should work shouldn't it?


Pokemon Uranium and Winetricks Problem I am using a Macbook Pro Version 10.10.2, and I have OSX Yosemite. I've been trying for hours to get Wine, and I downloaded the 1.6.1 version of Wine. Then, on the Windows file, Pokemon Uranium Beta 4.0.msi, I right clicked the file and opened it with Wine. Then I followed the instructions How to run Uranium on Mac OS X

And I did everything except for the 6th instruction, because I couldn't find d3dx9_36, directplay, and directmusic on Winetricks. So with just until the fifth instruction, I launched the game.

And it worked just fine, but at the part where there is a problem in the power room, and the Mum says "What's happening...?", the game starts freezing for a few seconds and then it says,

  Program Uranium.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I clicked for the details so I can mention the details in the post, but Wine just quits and I can't view the details. Is there any way I could fix this? Or, is there a problem with Wine that I can't find d3dx9_36, directplay, and directmusic on Winetricks?

You have to go into the winetricks menu from the dropdown menu on the taskbar, and it should all be there.  If its not there, you should try deleting your copy of wine and reinstalling the latest version.


How do I programatically kill the CCLibrary process by PID? I need to know how to write a command or script to kill the CCLibrary and CCXProcess processes.  They are part of Adobe's Creative Cloud, and since their previous update they keep respawning and running my CPU at 100%.

Until a fix comes out, I'd like a quick way to kill it, without having to go through Activity Monitor.

When I try

sudo killall CCLibrary

I get "No matching processes were found".

I can use ps -ef to find the PID number (eg 9548)
I can grep it, e.g.

ps -ef | grep CCLibrary.app

which returns two activities, the CCLibrary and the grep itself.

$ ps -ef|grep CCLibrary
501 9621 1 0 12:18pm ?? 51:51.71 /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud/CCLibrary/CCLibrary.app/Contents/MacOS/../libs/node /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud/CCLibrary/CCLibrary.app/Contents/MacOS/../js/server.js
501 9818 9407 0 1:10pm ttys001 0:00.00 grep CCLibrary

Then I can "kill" based on the PID number

But how can I write a script to find that PID as a variable, then kill it?

Rather than continuously killing the processes, there's a way to uninstall Adobe's Creative Cloud application manager, mentioned in this thread.

Download Adobe's Creative Cloud Cleaner from this link:
http://download.macromedia.com/SupportTools/Cleaner/mac/AdobeCreativeCloudCleanerTool.dmg
Then select ONLY Creative Cloud
Then "uninstall selected" and reboot

And your fans will finally fall silent.  The other apps still work.


Installing 20+ operating systems on Mac without any virtualization For a scientific project I need to install these operating systems on my Mac Pro.

The catch is...

It has to run on a native hardware, no level 1 or 2 virtualization is allowed.

Here is the list of OSs I need to be able to boot to (some may be even added later):

1. FreeDOS
2. Windows 95
3. Windows XP
4. Windows 7
5. Windows 10
6. Slackware
7. Debian
8. Ubuntu
9. Arch
10. Gentoo
11. Fedora
12. Xinu
13. Minix
14. FreeBSD
15. NetBSD
16. OpenSolaris
17. OS X v10.0
18. OS X v10.1
19. OS X v10.2
20. OS X v10.3
21. OS X v10.4
22. OS X v10.5
23. OS X v10.6
24. OS X v10.7
25. OS X v10.8
26. OS X v10.9
27. OS X v10.10
28. OS X v10.11

Can somebody tell me if it's possible with some existing bootloader for Mac or not?

UPDATE:
This testing system doesn't have to have only 1 bootloader. For example, I can have 2 or 3 USB sticks with different bootloaders and the systems will be installed on the Mac Pro disk's partitions.

Depending on your Mac Pro the following OSs should run (or not). I didn't include every Mac Pro ever sold, but I tried to list major development steps ( e.g different EFI-architectures 32bit->64 bit):

                     MacPro1,1   MacPro3,1  MacPro5,1* MacPro6,1
 1. FreeDOS            +/-         uc         uc         uc
 2. Windows 95          -           -          -          -
 3. Windows XP         ++          ++         ++          -
 4. Windows 7          ++          ++         ++          -
 5. Windows 8           -         (++)        ++         ++
 6. Windows 10          -         (++)       (++)        ++
 7. Slackware           +           +          +          +
 8. Debian              +           +          +          +
 9. Ubuntu              +           +          +          +
10. Arch                +           +          +          +
11. Gentoo              +           +          +          +
12. Fedora              +           +          +          +
13. Xinu                -           -          -          -
14. Minix              uc          uc         uc         uc
15. FreeBSD           +/-          uc         uc         uc
16. NetBSD            +/-         +/-        +/-         uc
17. OpenSolaris         +         +/-        +/-         uc
18. OS X v10.0          -           -          -          -
19. OS X v10.1          -           -          -          -
20. OS X v10.2          -           -          -          -
21. OS X v10.3          -           -          -          -
22. OS X v10.4         ++           -          -          -
23. OS X v10.5         ++          ++          -          -
24. OS X v10.6         ++          ++         ++          -
25. OS X v10.7         ++          ++         ++          -
26. OS X v10.8          -          ++         ++          -
27. OS X v10.9          -          ++         ++         ++
28. OS X v10.10         -          ++         ++         ++
29. OS X v10.11         -          ++         ++         ++

-: doesn't run  ++: officially supported (++): runs probably +: runs maybe one/two drivers missing
+/-: some drivers missing  uc: unclear  *Newer MacPro5,1s probably can't run 10.6

I've compiled this list from various sources and it's probably not complete. I've embezzled the minor version numbers of the OS X versions (e.g MacPro1,1 needs at least 10.4.7). Some entries are well funded (like the Microsoft and Apple OSs), others are derived from my own experience or internet sources. A + or +/- doesn't necessarily mean that it is an easy job to get the system installed/booted. I welcome edits by more knowledgeable people though.

Addendum:

I've found two computer lookalikes which probably run all of those systems, the second one misses a video card though - and both are obviously no Mac Pros:

;-)


Gmail iOS app: What’s a work around to *save* all my deleted gmail messages? I want an easy way to save all of the messages I delete. Gmail automatically empties the trash after a few months. I want to keep all my deleted messages so I can find something several months later that didn’t seem important, but now is.
Can I create a script that will move the messages from the deleted or trash (or bin) folder to something like “archived forever” ?? Where Can I hired someone to do that?
I read most of my emails on an iPad and swipe to delete the messages. I know that I could select and move them to a folder that would not be deleted, but that’s a lot of work for the 75+ messages I get each day.
Thanks for any help... I can pay for quality help on this problem.

Unless you indicate to actually delete emails in Gmail (or move them to Trash), it actually simply changes the tag on an email to the 'All mail' tag. (some apps, like Apple Mail, give you a button to move to Trash). In the Gmail all, go to settings and change the swipe action to 'Archive'. This will remove the message from view, but will move it to 'All mail'. You can go into the 'All mail' folder to see all these archived emails.


"Add To Wish List" in the Mac App Store? Does anybody know if there is a way to "add to wish list" some apps at the Mac App Store and get noticed when their price drops just as in the iTunes Store?

Thanks in advance!

There is no default mac app store wish list, all though, there are some 3 party applications and websites that allow you do track apps prices and add them to a wishlist. One of them is: http://www.appshopper.com/.


Can I use my iPhone charger with my iPad? My iPad 1 charger was burned because of high voltage, so it stopped working. Currently, I am using an iPhone 3GS mini charger. It charges the iPad but only very slowly when the iPad is on but the display is off.

Will it make any problem if I continue using mini charger for charging my iPad 1 or do I need to buy a new charger?
If yes, what is the price of new charger in India?

Yes, you can use your iPhone charger with the iPad.

This should not damage the iPad or the charger.

However, since the iPad is provided with a lower current the charging takes longer. Both the iPhone and iPad charge with 5V, but the iPad charger provides 2A while the iPhone charger only provides 1A.

This is why it takes longer to charge. You should completely turn off the iPad in order to speed up the charging process.


None of my apps are keeping a list of recent documents? Example:

If I open an image in Preview, the "File/Open Recent" menu lists the name of the file.
If I then close the file, but still leave Preview running, the "Open Recent" menu still lists the file.
If I quit Preview, the "Show Recents" menu does not show any files.
If I reopen Preview, the "Open Recent" menu does not show any files.

I have a feeling this is a permissions problem, but repair permissions has not helped.

In Console, Preview is reporting the following error upon opening:

"29/02/2012 14:45:57.183 com.apple.Preview.TrustedBookmarksService: Failure to de-serialize bookmark data file."

I'm using Preview as an example here, but it holds for every app - whether they are bundled or downloaded - on my system.

System Preferences/Appearance/Number of Recent Items is set to 10.

I am running Lion 10.7.3 on an iMac 12,1 with a dual SSD and HDD internal drive setup.

I would trash your preview .plist file located at:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist

Restart Preview, and it should create a new one.  It sounds corrupted.


Correct way to backup via Time Machine to a remote Time Capsule If I have a MacBook through which I will like to access a Remote Time Capsule via Back to My Mac in order to perform updates to my Time Machine backup on said Time Capsule, which should be the correct settings o accomplish this?

You would want to run a VPN server on the network where the Time Capsule sits so that your remote machine can log in over the internet as if it were a local computer.

This pokes holes in the network since most people don't allow their Time Capsule to be reachable by anyone on the internet and have their entire home network hidden behind a router with a local and non-routable internet address.

OS X server would be an inexpensive and well documented / supported manner of setting up a VPN or sharing any hard drive with others for Time Machine backups as well as enabling a local Time Capsule to be reachable directly by VPN clients.


Determining unknown filesystems from OSX Years ago I set up a Linux-based multimedia PC for my parents to store all their music and movies on, as that's the OS I use on my home computers and so if/when things went pear-shaped I'd be able to guide them through fixing it over the phone, as they live overseas. Recently that computer died of a hardware failure, and they'd like to access their library of multimedia from their MacBook.

The problem is that the filesystem on the multimedia drive was set up as a Linux one (probably BTRFS or ext4), and I don't remember what I formatted it as. They have a SATA-to-USB bay that they can plug the multimedia drive into, but OS X doesn't recognise the filesystem and we don't want it to attempt to "repair" or reformat the drive and risk losing everything (the backup drive also used a Linux filesystem). I'm unable to visit them and fix it myself, and at any rate I'm not sure what tools there are to use, being totally unfamiliar with what's available for OS X.

How would they go about determining the filesystem on the drive, and/or mounting it from their MacBook?

The simplest solution that would not require altering the software on the MacBook would be to create a USB live flash drive of a linux operating system such as Ubuntu. You could then boot from the flash drive and then access the multimedia drive through the SATA-to-USB bay.


Keyboard shortcuts for renaming file and accepting extension When I try to rename a file (by pressing enter, then changing the extension of the file), it pops up with an alert asking "Are you sure you want to change the extensions ... " and the old extension is selected in blue. I haven't found a keyboard shortcut for selecting the new extension from the popup alert. Is there a way? I need to rename dozens of files, and doing it all through the keyboard would be so much quicker than selecting this one alert with a mouse.

You can disable the prompt under Finder's Preferences (see picture below):

This might save you some time if you are renaming multiple files. Additionally, you may want to look at Rename. It is a free utility that should serve you well for such simple batch renaming.


Exchange Calendar syncing issue on Maverics I have an Exchange calendar synced with Mavericks' Calendar app. I've changed time of one event. Since that a window with following message appears over and over:

  Calendar can’t delete an occurrence from the repeating the event
  “[event]” from the Exchange server.

I've tried to re-add the calendar as well as the whole Exchange account. Deleting the Calendar Cache* files (in ~/Library/Calendars) screws up all calendar data and I'm not able to re-add the synced calendars.

I've all calendars synced in cloud (iCloud, Google, Exchange), so deleting the Calendar files is no issue.

After trial and error, these actions finally solved this issue:

Delete Exchange account from Internet Accounts in System Settings
Clean User and System cache with Onyx
Restart Computer
Re-add the Exchange account

Tested on MacOS 10.9.4.


How does Apple know which passwords never to be saved? When you input a new username/password combination, Apple (macOS and iOS alike) asks if you want to save the password, also offering responses of “never” and “not now.”

I understand the “save” response: the password is encrypted and stored in the keychain, and if iCloud is turned on, it syncs across devices.

I understand the “not now” response: make the decision another time.

What I don’t understand is the “never” response: The password, seemingly, has to be saved somewhere that the system can access it and, if it’s set to never, not prompt a “save password” dialogue after inputting it. Try a different username/password on the same website - you’ll see that it cues the dialog again, thus proving that it doesn’t save a list of websites.

Is this accurate? Does Apple actually save passwords you told it not to save, and “never” really amounts to “don’t ask me again”?

The same question may be asked for credit cards on supported OS’s.

It saves the site for which you don't want to save the password, not the password itself.
You can see the sites at:
Safari->Preferences->Passwords


Running Cron with an updated Bash version Is there a way to get cron to run with an updated version of Bash that's been installed?
My OS came with Bash 3.x installed stock and I've upgraded it to 5.x with macports.
When I query bash --version from a terminal.app window the 5.x version is reported.
If I run the same query from within a cron job: * * * * * /temp/test_bash.sh >> /tmp/test_bash.log 2>&1 the 3.x version which came stock with the OS is reported.
MacOS 10.10.5

This should be easy to sort.
From your shell, examine the full path of the bash you prefer
which bash

Then edit your script in tmp to call the same path to bash (or your script has to source in the dot files, but it’s custom to just make each item in cron know the full proper path and not depend on startup and login files as that is much more light weight for cron)
I’ll end with one last link on good customs for cron environment being intentionally different than an interactive shell.

Use cron to screencapture on Mountain Lion


Get Number of PDF Pages in Terminal How can I output the number of pages in a PDF in the Terminal? I looked into the lp family of commands, with no luck however.

Using Apple's mdls:

 mdls -name kMDItemNumberOfPages file.pdf

to get just the number of pages:

 mdls -name kMDItemNumberOfPages -raw file.pdf


yes takes CPU usage to 99% Running yes > /dev/null takes my CPU usage to 99%.

The Macbook Air 2018 have a 2 core CPU (1.6 GHz Core i5 [I5-8210Y]). Why is the "% CPU" taken by this process so high?

It is because Activity Monitor displays CPU usage as a percentage of a single core. So 100% means that one core is fully occupied.

The percentage can thus be higher than 100% when a program utilizes multiple cores.

The “yes” program is designed to use only one core, and use it fully. Therefore the behavior you’re seeing is entirely normal.


Running with the Apple Watch 3 non-cellular. Can I leave my phone behind? The LTE version of the Apple Watch Series 3 is not available in my country. Can I use the non-cellular version of the watch for tracking my runs while leaving my phone at home? Would this compromise the accuracy of the tracking?

I know that the watch has GPS, but how would it affect the apps if there is no data connectivity while tracking?

Can I use the non-cellular version of the watch for tracking my runs
  while leaving my phone at home?

Yes.  The Apple Watch Series 2 doesn't need to be paired to an iPhone to utilize GPS tracking because it's built in.

From a MacWorld article on the AWS2 and the GPS functionality:

  ...loved how the Series 2 and iPhone intelligently passed off route
  tracking duties. “Apple Watch just seems to know when it’s out of
  communication distance from its paired iPhone, and it gets a GPS
  signal without you telling it to. And if I do have my phone with me,
  the Workout app will let the iPhone do the GPS because it’s the
  bigger-batteried device.”

And from Runners World on the GPS functionality and the accuracy:

  The biggest update for the Apple Watch 2 is a new focus on fitness and
  the integration of GPS into the watch itself. The first version
  off-loaded that work to your phone, but not all runners like to carry
  a phone when working out. Now they don’t have to. In our testing,
  we’ve found the GPS accuracy to be on par with our sport-specific
  watches


Error 2009 when restoring iPhone I have a jailbreaked iPhone 4 and I updated from version 5 to v6 in wifi.

The screen shows only the recovery mode, but when I connect it to iTunes, it detects the iPhone but needs to update it.

When I restore it to the last version or to v6 I get a restore error 2009

I tried with 2 different computers (win7-8) and 2 different cables, but I still get this 2009 error.

I tried to enter DFU mode with redsnow but it didn't work, as the power button doesn't work, and it showed again the recovery mode.

Any thought ?

You can try entering DFU mode by using the DFU IPSW feature with redsn0w.

From what I understand it will create an IPSW and you can click Shift+Restore in iTunes, point to the IPSW redsn0w made and iTunes will put your device in DFU mode.

From there you can try restoring normally with iTunes.


Broken icon in the applications folder in the dock I downloaded an application and copied it to the Applications folder.  When I click on the Applications folder in the dock, the icon for this program is broken. It runs fine, and if I create a direct shortcut to the application on the dock, the icon here is fine.

Any ideas why the icon would be broken within the applications folder in the dock?

This is usual behavior for Applications that you newly installed from the internet (not with the Mac App Store).

You should also be asked whether you are sure to open it because it has been downloaded from the internet.

After a restart, or perhaps just logging out and in again, the usual icon should appear.


How does this AWK script work? I have 2 data files each containing one column.
I want to make another data file by merging both the columns.
I have the command line in shell but I don't know how it works.

Please explain elaborately the below command:

awk 'NR==FNR {a[i++]=$0};
             {b[x++]=$0;};{k=x-i};
     END     {for(j=0;j<i;) print a[j++],b[k++]}' \
  file1.txt file2.txt

Example:

input:

file1.txt
11
23
19
31
67
file2.txt
13
19
25
67
93

I used the command above to write a shell script and got following output:

11 13
23 19
19 25
31 67
67 93

I want to know how this command line is working on this example to give the output?

Well, part of learning to use Unix is to figure out what existing scripts are doing. In this case you need to know a bit about how awk works to understand the code. I will focus on describing the awk part, this should get you started in figuring out the rest.

Basically awk is a pattern-driven scripting language, where commands consist of both a (search) pattern/condition and a corresponding code block. During execution, any input files are read line by line and if the pattern/condition is true for a line, the code block is executed. There are special patterns BEGIN and END which are used to trigger code to get executed before the first line or after the last line is read.

In your example you have three pattern/code lines:

NR==FNR {a[i++]=$0};

NR and FNR are two special variables set by awk. You can look up their meaning with man awk to see that

NR     ordinal number of the current record
FNR    ordinal number of the current record in the current file

so basically this condition is true while lines from the first line are read (which means that a[i++]=$0 is executed once for each line from the first file) and false for all additional files. $0 is the current line of input.

        {b[x++]=$0;};{k=x-i};

This code block has no condition/pattern so it gets executed for every line read (from all files including the first one).

END     {for(j=0;j<i;) print a[j++],b[k++]}'

This part runs after the last line of the last file has been read and processed.

With these basics you should be able to figure out the meaning of the different code blocks and variables yourself.


How can I make my Xcode 8.0 Support iOS 10.2 It is really difficult to download 5GB+ Xcode file each time iOS gets updated. Do we have any other option to make to new iOS support in our current version of Xcode without upgrading the version?

Xcode updates through the Mac App Store are delta updates, meaning they only download the files necessary, rather than the entire bundle every time. This should reduce the download size.


MacBook - WiFi won't connect in macOS but rebooting into Windows does? I have a MacBook Pro 2017 running macOS 10.14.3.

In my home I have a WiFi router which multiple devices connect to, including my MacBook. Recently for some reason my MacBook has been having trouble connect to it. When I manually select the network in the WiFi menu, it tries to connect to it for a few seconds and then fails with the helpful error message "Unable to connect, try moving closer" (or something like that) with no additional error information about what exactly the issue is.

After numerous attempts, it eventually manages to connect to the network but running ping 192.168.1.1 (my router's IP) or ping google.com, most of the packets time out or take 1s to reply.

Moving closer to the router does not fix the problem.

Other devices (e.g. my iPhone) can connect and work fine.

I can connect to my iPhone via hotspot, but the network performance is more or less the same. pings are terrible, even though browsing the web using mobile data on my iPhone works well.

I have Windows 10 installed via Boot Camp on my machine too. If I reboot into Windows, it connects fine and ping works great. So this leads me to believe that there is something wrong with macOS that is causing this issue.

I understand this is probably one of those questions that can't easily be solved since it could be any number of things that is causing the problem, but can anyone suggest things I can try to diagnose the issue? Can I "reset" the network stack somehow?

I figured it out. It's the weirdest thing.

My WiFi doesn't work when I have a certain external HDD plugged in via USB (Seagate Backup Plus).

I have no idea why it would be interfering with the WiFi signal. I don't have this problem with other external HDDs.

Edit

Upon further investigation it appears to be an issue specifically with the USB C to A adapter that I am using. This question is my exact issue.

The WiFi interference is strongest when I plug in my Seagate Backup Plus 4TB external HDD, a little less when I plug in my Seagate Expansion 1TB, and little or no interference when I plug in my mouse.

It probably has to do with the amount of power these devices require, and also my USB adapter is very cheap so it probably has bad shielding.

I also have an official Apple USB adapter that does not have this problem, but I don't know if it's because this adapter has a cable so it is slightly separated from my laptop, or maybe it's just better quality with proper shielding.


How can I rename my files with datestamps in Aperture and keep them in order? Here's the problem:

If I shoot in continuous mode, I can have several images per second.  Aperture will happily import these and rename them with Date @ Time, but subsequently sorting either by version name or by file name will bring results up in mixed order for a given time stamp.

My camera supports the exif field subsectimeorginal and the field shows up in Aperture, but in Aperture, the field is always blank.  And there is no primitive to add this to to creating filenames anyway.

The solution is to avoid direct import by Aperture.  Import them onto the disk using your camera software, or by using a card reader, or if you camera is suppored as a 'device' then direct copy in Finder.

Run the command:

exiftool  -d %Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S '-filename<${datetimeoriginal}.${subsectimeoriginal}.%e'

This will format the filename as

2016-12-09_20-27-21.20.JPG
2016-12-25_14-29-00.70.NEF

Exiftool can be downloaded from here:

http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

Note that the subsecond time can be either a 2 or 3 digit number -- either centiseconds or milliseconds. My d7100 reports 2 digits, but the last one is always zero.  So internally it's using a decisecond timer.


Installation of macOS High Sierra Update 10.13.4 failed; how do I recover without losing data? This morning I updated macOS High Sierra from 10.13.3 to 10.13.4. It appeared to install fine (I got to the login window), so I clicked on "Shutdown", and when I got to the office, and turned on my Mac, it rebooted into recovery, with the Installer Log open, and a dialog that read, "The macOS Installation couldn't be completed".

I called Apple and they had me run a check disk, and the boot-up volume didn't have any error. My internal SSD showed up just fine, unlike what happened to this poor chap. Apple also had me try to restart in Safe Mode, but the Apple icon got stuck at 100% progress (3+ minutes waiting).

So, since my drive appears to be intact (I used Terminal to browse my data), is it possible to undo the update or reinstall macOS High Sierra and have the system work as it was before the update (apps and data still accessible)?

Note, I use Time Machine backups, and I have a 2TB drive with about 40% free space. There are lots of "snapshots" on the volume. Is there a way to recover the system to the Time Machine snapshot taken before each update? Or, will I need to reinstall macOS High Sierra?

Since posting this, Apple called me back and they said that I should be able to reinstall macOS Sierra without formatting the drive and I should be back to the state I was before the failure. I haven't tried this yet as I wanted to see if others have followed this or another procedure to recover from this failure without blowing up the hard drive and starting from scratch.

Fortunately I was able to simply reinstall macOS High Sierra by booting into Recovery Mode (Command ⌘ + R) and choosing Reinstall macOS High Sierra.

I did not erase my drive first since system volume was intact (no errors after running Disk Utility). I simply reinstalled the OS and I was able to log back in with all my data, settings, and apps still there just like before.

Also, this installed the 10.3.4 version of macOS High Sierra, so I don't have to go through the update process again.


Extracting zip does not store files in "today" in Finder I have a Mac OS X Lion 10.7. I downloaded a zip file from the internet which shows up in "Today". However, after extracting the zip file, it puts the contents in "earlier". is it possible to show the contents in "today" ?

This is very unusual because for some extracted files, it shows the files in "today" and other files, it shows "earlier"

By unzipping the archive you did not modify any file or folder in it, hence the original creation and modification times are used.

In your example the Finder only sees "7 October 2009" as modification date for jquery-form-validate.

The only way to achieve what you want is to use a tool that updates all the modification times when unzipping.

In the terminal you could (untested)

$ find jquery-form-validate -exec touch {} \;


How do I make macOS properly blacken my TV screen on standby I have a Mac Mini connected to a Sony W755C TV by HDMI. If I put "Set display to sleep" on the Mac, the TV goes to black but displaying a very unsightly OSD text "HDMI 1 (Clock) No input. Check your cables, etc." which stays on forever, until I power the TV off manually. I can't find any menu items in the TV to remove the OSD, which just looks ugly on the huge TV in my living room.

So I tried to use the TV's own "standby if inactive for n hours", but "inactive" for the TV means not fiddling with the remote, which I only use for ON/OFF. The TV is oblivious to what's going on on the Mac. So it will suddenly suggest to sleep in the midst of a movie, which is obviously annoying.

Is there any way I can make the TV either a) go to standby modus without any OSD text, or b) soft-power off (same as pressing OFF on the remote -- which is not full power off, mind you...)

The message "HDMI 1 (Clock) No input. Check your cables, etc." is apparently generated by your TV.  The first place I'd look is in the TV's menu system.  See if there's any way to change what is displayed when there is no incoming HDMI signal.

If you can't find anything there, you can look at the Sony website.  Note that there's a firmware update available for you TV as well.  There's a chance you'll be able to control the "no input" message more easily after the update.

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/televisions-projectors-lcd-tvs-android-/kdl-43w755c#manuals

But, what you really want, I think, is to set up the Mac Mini so that it shows a blank image as its screensaver.


dyld message when launching commands as sudo When I launch a command from the shell as super user I always get back the following message:

dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/usr/bin/sudo) is setuid or setgid

I tried to unset all the DYL*** variables and verify it with the set command, as suggested here. However it doesn't fixed my problem.

I'm running 10.8.2 with Xcode 4.5 and the command line tools updated today.

Please find below my .profile, I don't have a .bash_profile

# Git
 [ -f ~/.git-bash-completion.sh ] && . ~/.git-bash-completion.sh

# define colors and default command line
# h is the host name, w the complete path (W for only the current dir)
export PS1="\h:\w$ "

export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxCxDxBxegedabagacad

export CPATH=/opt/local/include:/usr/local/include
export LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib:/usr/local/lib
export DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib:/opt/local/Library/Frameworks:/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib/:$DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH

# Homebrew
export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH="/usr/local/include:$CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH"
export PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/usr/local/lib/python:$PYTHONPATH"

# ROS
export PATH=/usr/local/lib/wxPython/bin:$PATH
# The line below is commnted because it is imported with rosjava
# If you want to remove rosjava, uncomment it in order to use ros-fuerte
source ~/Software/ros/fuerte/ros-stacks/setup.bash
# source /Users/luca/Software/ros-java/setup.bash
export ROS_HOSTNAME=luca-macbook
export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH:~/Software/ros-stacks:~/Development/
export ROS_OS_OVERRIDE=osx:homebrew

export SVN_EDITOR="/usr/bin/nano"

alias GoToPhdRoot="cd ~/Documents/University/PhD"
alias Smultron="open -a Smultron\ 4"
alias MakeBuildDir="mkdir build && cd build"
function UpdateAndBuildPdf() {
    svn up && pdflatex "$1" && bibtex "$1" && pdflatex "$1" && rm "$1.aux" && rm "$1.bbl" && rm "$1.blg" && rm "$1.log" && Open "$1.pdf"
}

To be noticed that also if I comment the line in which I export DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH the problem persists.

N.B. I don't have Asepsis installed.

I found out that the warning is generated by the line

source ~/Software/ros/fuerte/ros-stacks/setup.bash

It is a line needed if you have installed ROS.

Commenting the line fixes the problem. However ROS cannot work without this line.


Open firewall to run nginx I need to access my computer running nginx on port 8080, but I do not want to turn off the firewall. I know that I can allow application to connect, but I can not figure this out with nginx.

The binary is added to the "Firewall Options..." from /usr/local/Cellar/nginx/1.8.0/bin/nginx

I have also tried creating a code-signing certificate, but no luck.

I’m assuming this is nginx running on a Mac, but you’re not providing much details.

Quit the nginx process
Go to System Preferences: Security: Firewall: Firewall options, and remove nginx or anything else that is denied
Restart the nginx process

A dialog will appear asking you to grant the nginx process access to listen for incoming connections. You may need to configure port forwarding on your router as well.


Safari opens bookmarks on search I'm running OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 on my Late-2013 MacBook Pro. A couple of days ago my Safari (8.0.2) started behaving a little weird when searching. This became really annoying and I have no idea how to fix it.

Whenever I search using my address bar and confirm it by pressing Enter, the bookmarks list opens on top of my search result. I then have to click somewhere in order to close the list. This only happens when searching, not when typing any url's in there.

I don't think this could be a desired behavior for anyone and I have looked at my preferences, but couldn't find any settings related to it.

I hope you can help me to disable it.

Under Safari Preferences -> Search -> Smart Search Field -> uncheck the "Show Favorites" option


Clipboard manager for Mac that doesn't use any cloud service I'm looking for a clipboard manager app/tool for Mac (Mavericks) that does not use any cloud service for saving/syncing data.

I mean that it doesn't save my content on any cloud server, but on my machine locally only.

Is there any?

I use Copyclip. It remembers a certain amount of clips. You can also blacklist apps from which it should not clip something, for instance password managers.
It does not use any kind of cloud. It is only local.

To verify that it does not use any cloud services. You can block the app from accessing the internet. OS X Firewall or third party app. Or you can check all established internet connections with:

lsof -i | grep -E "(LISTEN|ESTABLISHED)"

Or trust the developers that they have not put any hidden cloud abilities into the app. Or use some OpenSource app and check the code. Or develop yourself.


How to wipe my iPhone that's stuck in the update process? I've got an iPhone that is not locked down via the cloud, just PIN.  Unfortunately, the PIN has been lost.  I did the home button down, plug into the computer thing to get it to attach.  I then tried to do the wipe from the computer, but it said the software had to be updated first.  After allowing the update process to go along for awhile the phone rebooted.  It's now at a "swipe to update" screen.  If I swipe, it asks for the PIN (which I don't have).  I'm unable to power it off now (it doesn't respond to the power button).  Attaching it to the computer just gives the backup (PIN required) screen, no wipe option available.

Is there any way to recover from this point?  Is it worth trying to run down the battery to kill it and then try again?  Even if I do, how can I do a wipe without getting stuck in the same place again?

From: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263

"Press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home button for at least 10 seconds, and don't release when you see the Apple logo. Keep holding until you see the recovery mode screen."


Is it safe to stack Mac minis on top of each other? I am thinking of purchasing another Mac mini - I already have an older one - and I am planning to keep them on top of each other as I have limited space on my desk.

I was wondering if it is safe? I am concerned about ventilation. If this is not a good practice then is there any solution that would allow me to keep my new Mac minis on top of each other on my desk?

In How to position your Mac mini, Apple, perhaps being overcautious, say not to:

  Don't put anything on top of your Mac mini or stack Mac minis on top of each other either. If your Mac mini is configured with AirPort or Bluetooth, you could hamper the signal strength since the antennas are located in the top of the computer.

If you only connect with Ethernet the connectivity issues are moot and even if you do use a Bluetooth keyboard or Wi-Fi you may well find it it works well enough for your situation.

Although not mentioned in the support article the Mac mini dissipates a large amount of heat through the case and insufficient ventilation will cause an increased temperature particularly in the lower mini if the hot air is trapped and can not escape.

It will certainly not harm anything to test stacking them as they will shut down if they get dangerously hot. Prior to a temperature related shutdown however you may find reduced CPU performance as there is less thermal head-room to Turbo the CPU clock, and it may also possibly shorten the lifetime of components due to running near the upper end of their safe temperature range for extended periods.

So while it can't hurt to try you should watch the temperatures. As @IconDemon mentions in their answer with sufficient ventilation this will not be an issue.  As they mentioned in their answer ventilation may be improved by putting rubber feet or other spacers to increase the size of the air gap between them.

If you try it and find it is causing a problem either with heat (and thus fan noise) or connectivity, you could perhaps put them both on their sides with a gap between. As mentioned in the support doc above and in this question Is it safe to run a Mac Mini (i5) on its side? you can safely do this.

This vertical configuration would allow air heated by the cases to easily rise and escape rather than be trapped under the mini above.


How do I encode mp4 files with H.264 (or x264) codec in AVIDemux? I am trying to get AVIDemux set up with the X264 codec using this tutorial. The following is what goes down when I get to the ./configure --enable-mp4-output command

Thomas-Phillipss-MacBook:x264 tomdabomb2u$ sudo ./configure --enable-mp4-output
Password:
Unknown option --enable-mp4-output, ignored
Found no assembler
Minimum version is yasm-0.6.2
If you really want to compile without asm, configure with --disable-asm.

So I tried it.

Thomas-Phillipss-MacBook:x264 tomdabomb2u$ sudo ./configure --enable-mp4-output --disable-asm
Unknown option --enable-mp4-output, ignored
Warning: gpac is too old, update to 2007-06-21 UTC or later
Platform:   X86_64
System:     MACOSX
asm:        no
avs:        no
lavf:       no
ffms:       no
gpac:       no
pthread:    yes
filters:    crop select_every
debug:      no
gprof:      no
PIC:        no
shared:     no
visualize:  no
bit depth:  8

You can run 'make' or 'make fprofiled' now.

I issued make, and then Thomas-Phillipss-MacBook:x264 tomdabomb2u$ ./x264 -v -q 20 -o foreman.mp4 foreman_part_qcif.yuv 176x144. And as expected, the results are:

x264 [error]: not compiled with MP4 output support

So I'm stuck. Any ideas?

That's a pretty old tutorial. Try this one (linked from the official Avidemux site).


Displayport to USB-C or GPU card for eGPU with Thunderbolt Output Background: I purchased an LG Ultrafine 5k monitor per Tim Cook's recommendation. This only has a Thunderbolt-3 input. Awesome monitor, but very limited when it comes to what you can drive it with.

Goal: I'd like to use it with a non usb-c video out source. I.e., I'd like to get an eGPU and use a video card that has Displayport output (or HDMI) with that LG Ultrafine. I do understand that the Blackmagic eGPU has Thunderbolt output, but I want a better price to performance ratio than that offers.

Question: Is there a displayport (or HDMI) to USB-C adapter on the market? Searching for this is not easy because everything points to the opposite (USB-C to Displayport, etc.). Alternatively, is there a MacOS compatible video card with Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C out?

I'm ok with not getting full 5k video.

My apologies in advance if this has already been asked. I did search for this question but everything that comes up is about usb-c to displayport (or hdmi, etc.).

Update: There is now the alternative you described: AMD's Radeon Pro W5700, with an integrated USB-C output.
The GPU isn't exactly brand new, and they haven't done a graphics card with USB-C except for that one, so options are still very limited. Since you mentioned price-to-performance compared to BlackMagic's eGPU systems, I'm not sure if this fits the bill either.
But as a "Pro" model, it was used in OEM SKU's, so you may be able to find a HP, Dell, etc. branded used card pulled from retired systems for cheap though.

Short answer: no, and I wouldn't expect to see one on the market anytime soon. I think the shared connector specifications may contribute to some of the confusion, but an HDMI to USB-C adapter like you describe should seem like an impossibility, when you think about it for a second.
HDMI and DP are basically DVI, and USB is, well, USB. You wouldn't expect to be able to plug in a display with HDMI output into a USB port through any sort of adapter and expect it to work...
Except in 2018, many products (several of which you mentioned) seemingly do exactly this, through an addition to the USB specs called "Alternate Mode", which as you might expect, allows alternate modes of transport over the USB connection.
But these alternate mode connections have to be negotiated and configured by the devices themselves, and the implementation of this is up to the vendors. There is no direct mapping between the pins in an HDMI or DP connector and a USB-C connector.
Theoretically, you could design an adapter that would take the HDMI input, pass it through an HDMI-DP adapter, decode the DP signal, handle the USB-C alternate mode negotiation, translate signal levels, and output DP alternate mode over USB-C, but by this point you are looking at $15+ in the controller chips alone, not to mention it would most likely need to be externally powered.
...which is what the Blackmagic eGPU essentially does, through Thunderbolt, not USB, though (the LG Ultrafine 5K has a Thunderbolt connector, I believe it is the 4K that uses DP alternate mode). The graphics card inside is a regular RX580, and the Thunderbolt controller takes the DP signal and multiplexes it into the TB3 chain.
The MacBook Pro's also do this internally, and the circuitry involved takes up a significant amount of real estate on the logic board. All in all, it's not an inexpensive thing to accomplish.


Restoring user data to os10.7 My computer crashed and I made a copy of the entire hard disk by drag and drop on an external hard drive in target mode. Can I restore everything from this drive to the computer now that is 10.7 has been installed. Migration assistant does not see the drive. Help?

Migration assistant doesn't work with individual users data unless it's backed up by Time Machine AFAIK.

If you just copied the user folder over to the other drive, you should be able to create the new user and then copy the contents of the old user folder to the new one.

It sounds like there's something wrong with the external drive.  Try using Disk Utility to scan and fix it.  If that doesn't work, post back here with details of what happened.