Wireless problems on iMac I have an old iMac running OS X Lion, and I am experiencing some Wi-Fi problems. Networks around me are either completely undetectable, or only one of them shows (not the one I own).

My Wireless card is an Airport Extreme BCM43xx. The ioreg -l | grep 14e4 command shows that the card is specifically 14e4:4328.

If it is a firmware problem, then is there any firmware I can install? I only know b43, which might be linux only. Note that wireless does not work in Recovery HD either.

Try changing the channel of your WiFi router. Might fix confusion of the AirPort. To do, see the documentation for your router, for suggestions as to which channel you should choose, option-click the wifi button in the status bar, click Wireless Diagnostics, and then after the application opens, click window, and Scan. This will tell you the best channel to choose for your router.

If changing the channel doesn't fix the issue, try running the Apple Diagnostics Tool.

OR

If your iMac is pre-2013, try the Apple Hardware Test after completing the steps above with the exception of the Diagnostics tool.


iTunes shortcut to delete files from disk I remember iTunes has a shortcut "Cmd + Opt + delete" to delele files from disk, it works in any playlist in iTunes. But now it's no longer available.

Thank you for your help.

In fact, after iCloud Music Upgrade, Opt + Delete gives 2 options now,

Delete locally
Delete from iCloud Music Library

You can remove local copy from Edit Menu though

You can add a Keyboard Shortcut for this form Keyboard Shortcuts System Preferences

Make sure the iTunes Media Folder is set up correctly for you.


Getting keystrokes on VLC via AppleScript I have an AppleScript file which works like a charm, except for the part where I use keystrokes to make VLC run fullscreen. The filename has been changed for privacy reasons, but the rest of the code is the exact same. My code goes as this:

tell application "Finder"
    set MyFile to ((path to me as text) & "File.mkv") as text
end tell
tell application "VLC"
    open MyFile
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "VLC"
        set frontmost to true
        keystroke "f" using command down
    end tell
end tell

You don't need to tell VLC to perform the keystroke.

tell application "VLC"
    open MyFile
    activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "f" using command down
end tell

I understand you say the rest of the script works, but without more information, I don't see how.

path to me will return the path to the actual script, not the containing folder. This means you'll end up with the equivalent of path:to:script.scptFile.mkv, which can't be true. Instead, you need to get the container:

tell application "Finder"
    set MyFile to ((container of (path to me) as text) & "File.mkv") as text
end tell

This will return path:to:File.mkv. Make sure your mkv is actually in this location.

Full script:

tell application "Finder"
    set MyFile to ((container of (path to me) as text) & "File.mkv") as text
end tell
tell application "VLC"
    open MyFile
    activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "f" using command down
end tell


Accessibility settings asking everytime Those two apps are always asking for the accessibility permission, one is location and the other is contacts. As the picture shows that I have already enabled those settings for them. It keep asking me every time I quit the app or on system startup when it run because of login items. Is there anyway to make it not ask again? or make the settings permanent.

OS : MacOS Sierra (10.12)

  The location permission for the Forecast bar is already granted, but whenever the app started, I found out that the location setting has been unticked, by itself.

I got it working by resetting app permissions with tccutil https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/344086
First, you need to find the bundle ID of your app via Terminal:
mdls /Applications/Forecast\ Bar.app | grep kMDItemCF (note that folder of your app may be different)
Then run tccutil to reset permissions:
tccutil reset All [bundle ID]
Application will ask for permissions once more, but now it will be saved correctly


macOS Mojave Software Update error - "A server with the specified hostname could not be found." How do I get rid of this message and in fact manage to update the machine?

A server with the specified hostname could not be found.
An error occurred while installing the selected updates.

I can browse internal and external websites fine, name resolution works fine, a packet capture tcpdump -i en7 port 53 and subsequent analysis of the dump using tshark shows that the name software update requires resolves just fine:
1   0.000000 ww.xx.yy.zz → vv.ww.xx.yy  DNS 76 Standard query 0xc474 A swscan.apple.com
2   0.014597  vv.ww.xx.yy → ww.xx.yy.zz DNS 210 Standard query response 0xc474 A swscan.apple.com CNAME swscan-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net CNAME swdist.apple.com.edgekey.net CNAME e5977.e9.akamaiedge.net A 104.113.184.251

I've been having this problem myself recently. What just happened to work for me (after already attempting restarts, dns flushes, dns server changes) is to disable Content Caching. Content Caching can be found in System Settings ➡ Sharing.

After this the update started to download immediately.


Reclaiming space used by deleted partition A few days ago I installed Mac OS and Linux Mint on my 2015 MacBook pro. I created a 412GB APFS container for mac and used the other 100GB for Linux. After wrestling with the issue, I learned that Apple blocks access to the Intel iGPU to third-party operating systems and Linux only uses the AMD GPU. I tried to delete the Linux partition using disk utility, but it did not see the Linux partitions, so I used a live CD to delete them. I am trying to reclaim that space to use on my Mac OS partition but it does not seem to be an option. Can I get help? I attached 3 pictures of what disk utility looks like for me.

The Terminal application command is given below. You can enter this command while booted to macOS.

sudo  diskutil  apfs  resizeContainer  disk0s2  0

This command has been known to fail if there is something wrong with your macOS APFS partition. Backing up important data is always a good idea.

The current version of the Disk Utility application assumes there will never be free space on a drive. When the Disk Utility removes a partition, the utility also returns the free space to another partition. Often, when one tries to do this with the diskutil command, two separate commands must be entered. The first command creates the free space and the second command adds the free space to a partition. You preformed the first part using live CD. The second command was given as my answer.


How can I turn off my Time Capsule's wireless router? I have a useful wireless network, and then my Time Capsule's wireless network, which overpowers the other network when the computer is next to it. I don't know if it's misconfigured, but the Time Capsule's wireless network lets me do Time Machine backups and nothing else.

Is there a way to turn off the Time Capsule saying "I am the network" or configure my MacBook Pro (Lion) to ignore the router's network unless instructed to? Or how can I configure the Time Capsule, which is plugged in to a working wired network, to be a better router and forward traffic appropriately?

Yes, using the Airport Utility you can turn off the router and WiFi functionality independently of each other.

Under the Wireless tab - Network Mode: select Off
Under the Network tab - Router Mode: select Off

At this point you can connect the Time Capsule to the wired network using the ports with a horizontal icon <-> or even use it to receive the internet and connect your router to the ethernet ports. Bridge mode disables firewall, port forwarding, DHCP and DNS and makes it simply a network peer.


Can I control audio/vibrate/DND on iOS remotely? I have 2 iPad minis and an iPhone 6+.

Sometimes I like to hear the "ding" of a message or mail, sometimes I dont.  Its a pain to go to each device to change the settings.  Is it possible to set a remote iOS device to DND or turn the volume/vibrate/DND on/off from another device?

FYI, I do not have a Mac, just Windows or Linux.

No. Per iDownloadBlog.com's article on using "Do Not Disturb" in OS X Yosemite:

Do Not Disturb settings do not sync across the Mac and iOS devices.


Add TL Symbol to Character Viewer (Unicode 20BA) [TL simgesi] I want to add the new 2012 Turkish Lira currency symbol, U+20BA, to Character Viewer as shown at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_lira_sign

What can I do?

Here is a reference to a font which will give you the character you are looking for in Character Viewer

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2012/05/font-with-new-turkish-lira-symbol.html

You may need to deactivate some other font if that has an interfering character -- I had one called PT on my machine.


Apple Script, Javascript: fill text filed (web form) with data from clipboard I want to fill a webform (text filed) from a page i open in Safari with the text from a excel cell. I have managed to do a script to copy the cell content to clipboard but i do not know how to use this to fill the form.

I do not have much experience and i found the below code to input a specific text. How do i change it to do what i need?

tell application "Safari"
do JavaScript "document.getElementById('Exampleid').value = "Clipboard";" in document 1
end tell

Note: the script in total is bigger and it goes in a loop each time selecting a different cell in excel to copy into the same form but at a different address.

Instead of copying the cell text to the clipboard, save it in a variable and then apply it to the form.

Here's a helpful tutorial that will give you the answer, step by step.

The code would be very similar to yours, using the variable:

tell application "Safari"
        do JavaScript "  document.getElementById('" & IdVar & "').value ='" & theCellValue & "';" in document 1
end tell

To set the variable form Excel use this:

tell application "Microsoft Excel"
        set CellValueX to (value of cell ColX of row RowX)
end tell

And, of course, wrapt it all in a repeat loop.

I hope this helps.


El Capitan unable to boot I am using a Mac Book Pro with El Capitan installed. Yesterterday I was trying to change a file permission and I made a very big mistake.

This is the command I issued

sudo chmod -R 777 /

After issuing the command the system began to give many system errors. I restarted my laptop and now it keeps stack at the apple logo with the progress bar.

I have been able to go to the single user mode, buh I dnt know how to get the laptop to boot normally.

Anybody with an idea on this can help me. Thanks

Boot to recovery HD and just reinstall the OS.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

This is done by Holding the Command and r keys down while turning on the Mac. You will then be given the option for reinstalling Mac OS. This will not delete any of your files, merely replace just the damaged Mac OS files.

All permissions will be fixed on the system side - no apps get deleted, no user accounts or date is deleted.

Worst case, you'll need to set up a new admin user on the machine once it's reinstalled (boot to single user move and delete /var/db/.AppleSetupDone) to finish changing permissions on your user folder.

You could also boot to internet recovery if normal recovery fails.


Deleted app '?' icon in Dock I deleted an app from the Applications folder. However the original app icon in the Dock is now appearing as a '?'. I am unable to delete this icon from the dock, when I click to get the Options menu, I dont see any sub-items. I am unable to drag this icon into trash as well. Any ideas as to how this can be done?

Running Mojave: 10.14.3

Drag the icon off the dock (not into the trash) and hold it for a second until it says "Remove". Then drop the item and it should go away.


How to ensure that windows opened from the Dock open in the current Space/Desktop A Mail window was in the Dock, and I clicked on it to restore it to my current Desktop.  Instead of opening where I can see it, it went to some other Desktop, presumably the one it was in when it was minimized.

I use different Desktops for different projects, where one Desktop may have multiple browser windows, multiple text editors, etc., so I've disabled the default setting of "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application", because that seems to only make sense if you use an approach of one Space per Application, which makes no sense for me.  As far as I can tell this is the only setting I'm using that may be relevant to this problem, but I really really don't want to have OS X forcing me to constantly switch spaces and force me into a one-space-per-app model.

Is there some way to make the window I restore (de-minimize) appear in my current Space/Desktop?  It could be

a hidden preference that I set with defaults write;
an AppleScript that I have to trigger after restoring the window, to move it to my current Space/Desktop;
some utility application meant to handle this problem
some other workaround or solution I hadn't thought of.

(An AppleScript would probably be the least desirable approach, but it could be triggered with Alfred, QuicKeys, or BetterTouchTool, etc.)

It might also be worth mentioning that I'm using Yosemite because of problems between El Capitan and TotalSpaces2, but I'd like to know if upgrading solves this problem.

⌘ Command "click" on the minimized window in the dock, and it will restore (de-minimize) in the current workspace, regardless of which space it was on when it was minimized.


Safari on iOS 9.2.1 / 9.3 won't open links Update 2: Fixed in iOS 9.3.1

Update: Apple has confirmed the bug and is working on a fix for a 9.3.1 release.

My Safari on iOS 9.2.1 (update: and now 9.3) won’t open most links anymore, i.e. tapping on a link on a page does not do anything. Worse, other apps like Messages, Chrome are having issues when they try to open URL/Links.

The common issue is pauses when tapping links and even Mobile Safari tap and hold (to get the app open a link in a new tab), the device freezes and eventually crashes.

Looking at the html source for the links causing issues, it seems all scheme absolute links are affected (e.g. http://example.com/something), while relative links work (e.g. /some/page.html).
This makes me think third party registration of URL handlers (or what they are called) is related to the bug
All apps that can open links, such as Mail or Spark, are affected. Tapping a link freezes the device. Tap & hold and then selecting copy link, switch to Safari or Chrome and paste URL sometimes helps/works.
It happens mostly on Google and DuckDuckGo result pages. On some other pages it works.

I tried things to rule out a simple setting error:

disable all content blockers
delete website data from Safari (in preferences app)
kill all apps, restart iOS.
Tried Chrome, and it doesn't work there on simple taps, but tap and hold works, and I can open them in a new tab at least.

My conclusion is that this bug relates to iOS 9.2 and third party app updates triggering bad behavior, I saw constant crashes of the swdc process in my iPhone logs and I reported a bug with Apple. Suspect apps include:

Wikipedia
Booking.com

Is there a way to list these apps that change link handling so I can selectively uninstall them?

Update to iOS 9.3.1 or later to fix this specific issue.

Details of iOS 9 updates are posted at https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1842

If you want to try to fix this before Apple patches the bug, here are some steps to try:

https://bencollier.net/2016/03/how-to-fix-ios-9-3s-broken-safari-links/
https://infinitediaries.net/how-to-fix-ios-9-x-safarimail-link-bug/

The latter is a bit longer and more humorous and has some nice photos to look at while you do the prescribed dance. The former link is shorter and more to the point.

Both require the device to be put in AirPlane mode and connected to a computer to resolve the data corruption caused by some apps and iOS not handling the app configurations in a robust manner.

There's a lot of evidence that Safari is in fact having a lot of trouble for some people. I haven't seen a device with issues, but if I did I would do two things to help narrow down the possibilities:

Verify your personal backup situation. Run a manual iCloud backup and make sure it finishes. Run a manual iTunes backup if you do that as well.
Connect the iPhone to iTunes and run a sync - be careful to read and cancel any sync if iTunes warns you that the sync may erase any data or content. The sync is to gather logs from iOS so you can look them over on the computer - but it's not worth losing music files if a sync will erase that.
Keep a log of when you run into issues - you'll want to note the time, the app in question (if you aren't using Mobile Safari to browse links)
Keep track of which apps you uninstall/install while sleuthing is ingoing.

Now - I would recommend anyone contact AppleCare if they can - sooner rather than later as Apple's paid support will a) know how to use these logs and get them to engineering b) know if/when a fix is out c) allocate resources to nail this down based on support costs and volume.

I believe someone has isolated one third party app that is causing Safari on iOS 9.3 to behave badly:

@stroughtonsmith > Reproducible: installing http://Booking.com ’s app will break link handling across iOS. Uninstalling it will fix it
@stroughtonsmith > The fun part, however: it won’t be fixed immediately after uninstalling. There’s a timeout before it’ll fix itself

If you have that specific app, you might consider deleting it and then waiting a bit (10 to 15 minutes) to see if this resoles your issue. If this is in fact the case, my suspicion is that Apple can work with developers to fix this or release a patch.

If not - you might need to keep track of and troubleshoot the following items:

watch the system log on iOS when Safari is crashing or mis-behaving with cfgutil syslog and Apple Configurator 2's automation tools.
Safari content blockers
Whether some or all web sites are problematic
Safari settings (it's not looking like javascript is failing - but that could conceivably cause an issue like this combined with other settings and internet access)
How you connect to the internet (public WiFi, work WiFi, cellular and which carrier, VPN to a data center or specific other network)
It would take time, but you could easily make a backup and then erase all content and settings to verify that the issue is one or more third party apps. Depending on how full your iOS device is - a restore overnight or over lunch isn't a bad solution to knowing what precisely is the cause.


How to install an homebrew package behind a proxy? I'm working behind a proxy. When I installed homebrew I've modified the official command:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

by adding a -x option to tell curl about the proxy:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -x proxy.mydomain.com:3128 -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

and it works well. But now I want to install openssl:

brew install openssl

and logically, the proxy is not detected:

curl: (7) Failed to connect to homebrew.bintray.com port 443: Connection refused
Error: Failed to download resource "openssl"

If I set the environment variables as described in the documentation:

http_proxy=proxy.mydomain.com:3128
HTTPS_PROXY=proxy.mydomain.com:3128
ALL_PROXY=proxy.mydomain.com:3128

I obtain the same error. Adding http: or https: before doesn't change the problem.

Any ideas?

To run Homebrew or Curl behind a proxy :

export ALL_PROXY=$http_proxy:port

or

export ALL_PROXY=proxyIP:port

After this is done, installation worked smoothly.


Is there an iPhone app that acts as a radio signal strength sensor? I would like to find an iPhone app that is able to show the GSM or WiFi signal strength. Does it exist?

Apple does not provide any public APIs for interacting with any of the device radios, and would not approve any app that did so with a private API.


MacBook Air Starts up when I close the lid When I turn off my MacBook Air running High Sierra by selecting  > Shut Down, then close the lid, the white Apple logo in the lid will come on and I hear the startup chime.

At first I thought that the Power button was pressed by something on the lid when I close it, but that isn't the case.

I've found only one Support page about this, but this doesn't seem to apply to me because I have no error messages.

As a consequence, I can never turn off the computer while the lid is closed - i.e. to travel or put it away - and the battery depletes much faster when I don't use it for a couple of days.

How do I stop this from happening?

Try resetting the NVRAM and the SMC on your Mac then test it afterwards and see if it still continues.

NVRAM aka PRAM
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

  How to reset NVRAM

  Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold
  these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release
  the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to
  restart.

  On Mac computers that play a startup sound, you can release the keys
  after the second startup sound. On iMac Pro, you can release the keys
  after the Apple logo appears and disappears for the second time.

SMC (System Management Controller)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

  How to reset the SMC on Mac notebooks

  First, determine whether the battery is removable. Most older Mac
  notebooks have removable batteries. Mac notebooks that have
  nonremovable batteries include MacBook Pro (Early 2009 and later), all
  models of MacBook Air, MacBook (Late 2009), and MacBook (Retina,
  12-inch, Early 2015 and later). Learn more about Mac notebook
  batteries.

  If the battery is nonremovable:

  Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
  After your Mac shuts down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same
  time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. If you have
  a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power
  button.
  Release all keys.
  Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

  If the battery is removable:

  Shut down your Mac.
  Remove the battery. If you need help removing the battery, contact
  an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store.
  Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
  Reinstall the battery.
  Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.


How do I sync up my iPhone with my Google Calendar? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I sync my Google calendar with my iPhone?

So I want to be able to add appointments/events/tasks on either and have those changes reflected on both.

You should really use Google Sync for iPhone to have all the benefits of Calendars (and even Mail if you need it).


TIme Machine IP Change Loses Backup History I have a time machine setup where the backup location is on a Synology NAS drive; having recently moved house, and ended up with a different router, I setup the NAS drive again, and it has a different IP address (formerly in the 10.* range, now in the 192.* range).

I couldn't - no matter what I tried - get Time Machine on the iMac to recognise the drive as the existing TM location; despite it showing up as an available disk in TM preferences. In the end, I deleted the old backups (nothing required from them yet, so it won't hurt to start again, I suppose). What I'd like to know, for future reference, is if/how I can get TM to recognise the NAS as the backup location if the IP address changes again. None of the hardware changed, so I can't see why this was an issue.

The new router (the hardware did change) is obviously using one of the default 192.* ranges instead of the 10.* range the old router was using. Your iMac and NAS picked up an address in the new IP range, (that's why the iMac could 'see' the NAS,) but because the IP in the NAT changed, Time Machine failed.

When you change routers in the future, you should make sure the iMac and NAS pick up an IP in the same range as the old router so there is no mismatch.


Technical comparison: MBP 15" mid-2010 or MBP 13" 2012 I plan to use the MBP to edit a lot of pictures.

I am torn between spending less than $600 on a mid-2010 MBP 15" (Core i7 2.66Ghz) or a 2012 MBP 13" (Core i5 2.5Ghz) for less than $800.

The MBP 15" tech is too old and it doesn't even have a USB 3.0 port but has a fast processor while the MBP 13" screen is too small for editing pictures (but I can attach it to an external monitor, no problem there).

Should I just wait and save up for the MBP 13" or buy the MBP 15" now?

Can someone share they experiences and advice including the Graphics performances?

Let me provide you with my opinion:

The CPU can not be changed (well it could but at about $1000)
The slower USB is normally not a issue unless you are high user of external disks, etc. (and even then it is unlikely to make a noticeable difference)
Buying an external screen will always be an option regardless of model (only budget question).
Portability? Do you have to travel a lot?

Since your main use is to edit pictures, how about a graphics quality comparison?

  MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)

  Graphics and video support

  NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz configurations; or 512MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.66GHz configuration
  Intel HD Graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
  Automatic graphics switching
  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP582

The Cons:
The MacBook Pro 15″ Mid 2010 had an 'intermittent black screen or loss of video' problem caused by the graphics card. The program has since ended.

  MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

  Graphics and video support

  Intel HD Graphics 4000
  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP649

Further details of the 13″ at NotebookCheck.net


iPhone ceased connecting to AkrutoSync on laptop with static IP address I seem to be having problems sync'ing my iPhone with Outlook on the laptop via AkrutoSync.  It is configured to sync over home WiFi, not over the Internet.  The IPv4 address of the laptop is static, fixed at 192.168.1.101, and this has worked for quite a few months.  The only things that are configured to sync are Calendar, Contacts, and Notes (not email).  The last sync was on Fri July 21.

I tried a number of things:

Deleting the AkrutoSync log file, which tends to get very large
Removing very old calendar itmes and large attachments to them
Compacting and restarting Outlook
Rebooting laptop, home WiFi router, and the iPhone
I followed the AkrutoSync process to reconfigure the Exchange account, but the phone timed out before 192.168.1.101 responded (AkrutoSync was waiting for the phone to connect)
I even updated Java (though I don't know if that's relevant)

Here are the details of my accessories/apps:

AkrutoSync 5.2.33 (32-bit)
Laptop: Toshiba Satellite A110 running Windows 7 Pro, 64-bit
Outlook version 2007
iPhone SE running iOS 12.3.1
Laptop firewall: Whatever comes with Windows 7 (if any)
WiFi router TP-Link model TD-W9970
Both the iPhone and laptop are able to access the internet

What else can I do?

Thanks.

Thanks to AkrutoSync, the problem is solved.  The WiFi was off, so internet connectivity was due to the use of my data plan.  The iPhone often flips settings in ways that I don't expect, e.g., switching out of low-power mode.  It's still possible that I had disabled WiFi, but at the moment, I am unable to think of a situation in which I would specifically choose to ensure that the data plan is used instead of WiFi.

Afternote: Actually, one reason to ensure use of data plan rather than WiFi was to ensure uninterrupted connectivity as one moves around, e.g., when using Google Maps for navigation.  It was possible that navigation would be uninterrupted by the hand-off from WiFi to data plan, but as I was in a hurry, I didn't want to risk it.


How well does VirtualBox perform when compared to VMWare Fusion for Linux guests? I'm looking to do some Linux development, which includes some live testing of my application. I need pretty decent performance, but maybe not pedal to the metal performance, at least not for testing. However, I don't want a VM that is going to drag me down, or use more of my Mac's resources than needed. How well does VirtualBox perform on Snow Leopard?

Having extensively used VMware Fusion (all the versions from 1 beta till 3.1), Parallels (from their first public release till 5.x -haven’t yet upgraded to 6) and a lot of VirtualBox versions (Although I stopped using it six months ago), I can say that for Windows both Parallels and VMware ran circles around VirtualBox in terms of features, compatibility and speed.

I used to compile .NET code inside those Windows and the speed of VMware and Parallels was superior (I went ahead and clocked different timings).

VirtualBox’s advantage was (and still is) price. For a lot of stuff VirtualBox is enough, but it’s still (as far as I understand) slower than its two (only) competitors.

The advantage you have is that VirtualBox is free, so you can start trying it now, and both VMware and Parallels offer trial versions you can try. If you’re serious about finding the best virtualization solution for your scenario, I suggest you take the appropriate time to test all three options yourself.

I’m personally using Parallels 5 these months, because it worked better than VMware 3.1 for my Visual Studio C# very big solution. However, I’ve used VMware and skipped Parallels 3 and 4 because they were more unstable and slow (for me).

I didn’t want to upgrade to Parallels 6 because they annoy me with their $49 upgrade price that you have to pay every year.


In iTerm2 map the left Command key to the left Control key & map Command+Tab In iTerm2, can I map the left ⌘ Command key to the left ^ Control
key and still map the system ⌘ Command ⇨Tab to still switch to all other windows?

I've use three different OS's (Ubuntu, macOS and Windows) regular and my subconscious is constantly wanting to switch windows using ⌥ Option⇨Tab.

While not answering the question I have discovered the following work around in the meantime for my most commonly used terminal "control+" inputs:

Ctrl+C - clear terminal line
Ctrl+R - reverse search

Set the remap modifiers in iTerm to default:

Set the keybindings for Command+R, etc. to "Send Hex codes:" and enter the hex codes from http://ascii-table.com/control-chars.php as follows:

And viola it works for Command+R = Ctrl+R as required....to do the entire alphabet would require mapping multiple hex codes


pgp on macOS 10.12, Sierra Rrunning macOS 10.12, Sierra, on my secondary Mac and am fairly happy with stability and all that.

Nonetheless the one thing bugging me to the max is the incompatibility of GPGTools. I know that it isn't GPGTools fault. What would be a recommended alternative to decrypt gpg/pgp emails coming into Mail 10.0 ?

Yes, I am aware that I shouldn´t be running production stuff on a beta.

I'm experimenting with veertu to run a 10.11 VM inside 10.12 native for cases like this. It's clearly not ideal, but depending on how large your mailboxes are - it might let you keep working with encrypted emails while that specific tool gets reworked (assuming it does get ported).


First Aid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume I accidentally unplugged my hard drive without properly ejecting it, and now the drive does not mount when plugged in.
What can I do to make it work again?
I can see the disk in lsusb and diskutil list.
I've tried:
sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk2

sudo diskutil unmount force /dev/disk2

I tried Run "First Aid" under Disk Utility getting this error message

Help me out from this issue. Thanks in advance

The obvious cause is the filesystem or physical media can not make changes so make it reliable. Also, there are many different filesystem types and drives, so be sure your tool supports your OS and Hardware if you don’t try them for free first.
Do you have a backup? If not, do that immediately. You may need recovery software for this if the mechanism is failing. Disconnect the drive immediately if this is the case and buy a new drive that’s larger (or as large) as the drive so you can copy off the files before any more attempts to “fix” it. Sometimes the fix is deleting lost files or corrupt files to make the “filesystem” balance again.

https://www.prosofteng.com/mac-data-recovery I use Data Rescue, but other options exist.

If you want a third party tool to try and fix this, I use Disk Warrior first, then perhaps Drive Genius if I don’t want to just send it to the professionals.

https://www.alsoft.com/
https://www.prosofteng.com/drive-genius-mac-protection-software

If you don’t need to back up the data, just erase the drive entirely. That is free and Apple tools will test if the drive is functioning as part of the erase operation.


make applescript close keynote after presentation is over does anyone know how i would achieve the following?
i want to make applescript close Keynote AFTER the slideshow is finished. any idea? mybe via the class "playing" in keynotes application properties? but i dont know hw to write it.
my code so far

tell application "Keynote" to open "/Users/bla/Desktop/bla1.key"
delay 3 set var to properties of application "Keynote"
repeat if var contains "playing:false" then
exit repeat
end if
delay 1
end repeat

do shell script "killall 'Keynote'"

thx

If you run this to kick off the keynote then it will quit Keynote as soon ( well within 5 seconds ) as you stop presenting (esc). If you want it to quit after you sit on the final slide for a preset amount of time then just say so.

tell application "Keynote"
    if not playing then
        start
        repeat while playing
            delay 5
        end repeat
    end if
    quit
end tell


Do I need DisplayLink software on my Mac? I just upgraded to Mojave and my second monitor would not work. Tried all kinds of things suggested in the top Google results to no avail. Then I read to try and update DisplayLink, which I had not heard of.

I downloaded and installed it but got a security error saying I had to allow it. I thought this can't be a necessary piece of software, since it's not even by Apple. I ran the uninstaller, rebooted, and my second screen worked instantly, even remembering that the application bar should be attached to that screen.

Why was DisplayLink installed to begin with? Why should I need it? My second monitor work fine with just native macOS Mojave. So what benefit am I missing if any?

DisplayLink is most commonly used to connect external displays via USB. It is proprietary software, not made or supported or automatically installed by Apple.

If you had it installed earlier, it was because you have installed it yourself at some point in time.

Ordinary monitors connected via HDMI, DisplayPort, mini-DisplayPort, DVI or similar on Macs work with multiple monitor support without any extra software.


What software can replace AppleWorks on a new Mac? I just purchased a new Mac Mini, replacing an ancient iMac with AppleWorks. I use that software for email, web-browsing, word processing, spreadsheets and an occasional database.

Is there a package like Appleworks?

All I'm seeing is Pages, Numbers, etc.  What can replace these functions?

There isn't a perfect fit for a unified Appleworks replacement - but each of the 5 functions is available directly from Apple either pre-installed or on the App Store.
Apple now has the iWork suite, which used to be a single package you can buy, but is now separate apps on the App Store. It is made up of Pages (word processor), Keynote (presentation software), and Numbers (spreadsheet). If you want a database consider Bento or FileMaker Pro. All five are made by Apple (the databases are made by FileMaker, an Apple subsidiary). Bento equates to Access, and FileMaker equates to MS-SQL (roughly).  Of course the mail app is the fifth item you will use to fully replace Appleworks.
Edit: Bento is no longer an option.  FileMaker ceased production/support of Bento.  There are other options like TapForms at http://www.tapforms.com.


Any way reinstall the old iWork in Mavericks? The new iWork is an big step backward. Many transitions removed from the Keynote and so on... Is here any way to remove the new iWork and get back the old one?

The Mac App Store updates to iWork should not have replaced the original iWork '09 apps.

The original apps should still be available under /Applications/iWork '09 as well as if you search for them in Spotlight - just look for iWork '09 next to the name if you decide not to delete the newer versions.

If for some reason you have deleted the older versions, you can grab them from a Time Machine backup or reinstall them from a retail CD if you happened to buy them that way.


Swap Fn and Control key on a MacBook Pro I use a MacBook at work and the Fn is exactly where I expect the Control key to be. Is there any way I can swap the two keys?


External Thunderbolt drive and Monitor from same port? I have a MacMini 2011 booting from a GoFlex drive connected to its Thunderbolt cable.

Recently I am considering adding a second monitor. The HDMI port is already taken by my current monitor. It seems that the Thunderbolt port can also work as a DisplayPort for a second monitor.

What can I do? Is it possible to drive two monitors from the same HDMI port? Is there any Thunderbolt/DisplayPort available? Any solution cheaper than buying an external Thunderbolt hub?

Also, the hubs I have seen (LaCie and Belking) only provide two Thunderbolt ports. One will be taken for the connection with my MacMini, the other for the drive, and once time more again, I will be short for a second display.

Thunderbolt as a technology supports daisy-chaining devices (connecting one device into another). Unfortunately a number of the devices available like the 2.5" GoFlex adapter and the video converters don't have the second port to allow this.

Your option could be to get the 3.5" GoFlex adapter and mount your drive in that and connect the screen to the second port on that.

There are some HDMI splitters on the market but this will just send the same image to each screen.


iTerm2 error notification ‘Couldn't log to 2020…’ Every time I open a new window iTerm2 says "Couldn't log to …"

I restarted my Mac which is on High Sierra but the problem continues.

How can I solve this problem?

You've got an invalid or inaccessible log path.

From iTerm Preferences → Profiles → your profile → Session, disable ‘Automatically log session input to files in’ or set the path correctly using the Change button.

https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/issues/8672#note_284043217


How to delete everything on an iPod Touch? I would like to give my iPod touch as a gift to someone I know, but I want to be sure that there is nothing left on it to avoid giving data with it...

How do I clean the iPod ?

Fully charge the iPod Touch
Go to the Settings menu. Scroll down until you see the "General" settings, and hit that, then scan to the very bottom, where you'll see a mini-menu titled "Reset." Press this. This will bring up a few different options, but the one you want is "Erase All Content and Settings." (Settings / General / Reset / Erase all )

you can see full detailed here.

Also you can use itunes, and go to the restore feature. This will take your ipod back to factory default.


How do I stop iCal from automatically adding alarms to new events? I am running iCal on Snow Leopard and, whenever I add a new all day event, two alarms are automatically added, but only after I save the event. There are no alarms present when I create the event; they only appear afterwards.

How do I stop this from happening?

There is an option in the preferences "General" tab, called "Add a default alarm to all new events and invitations". Maybe that's activated?


Streaming purchased DVD through Apple TV I am trying to stream a DVD from my MacBook Air to my TV with the Apple TV. When it comes up on the screen, it only shows a checkerboard design. If I disengage the Apple TV, the DVD shows perfectly on the MacBook Air screen.
Apple Support says it is because of copyright on the DVD that won't let it show on the TV. I don't know why it would be any different that showing it on a DVD player.
Is there a way to work around this block to be able to stream a DVD?

Try using VLC to play the DVD instead of the OS X's DVD Player app.

You can also rip your DVD to a format the Apple TV can play directly using Handbrake, but obviously this isn't really an on-demand solution (it will probably yield better quality than VLC + AirPlay Mirroring though).

Also see this question for details on how you could set up direct streaming without AirPlay mirroring, which should yield better quality (at the cost of some time setting it up at first): Can I stream any video played with VLC player to Apple TV?


Outlook 2011: where are mail message in my archive file stored? I use Outlook to access Exchange.  I store old mail in an Outlook Archive folder. I know that Outlook 2011 stores data in /Users/<user>/Documents/Microsoft User Data but where exactly are these Archive emails stored on my computer?

The reason I'm asking is because I want to provide the path to my archive files to my cloud backup program and exclude all the other Outlook files that are available/stored on the Exchange server.

Outlook 2011 for MAC stores only the indices in a database file and stores the data records (individual emails) as a series of files nested within folders. The Database file and its folders are located here:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/Database
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/Data Records

Adding these path's to your backup strategy should address your issue.


How to reset iTerm2 Window/Tab Title when disconnecting from remote host? I have my bash_profile on my Mac and the remote computers I connect to setup to automatically put the hostname in the window's (or tab's) title area.

A bash shell on my local machine

A remote host name "Socrates"; also a bash shell.

The problem is, when I exit (and disconnect) from the remote host, the window title stays with the host name of the remote.  So, in effect, I'm on the local Apple bash shell with the remote name.  To fix it, I do one of the following:

close the window and open a new one
re-source the .bash_profile (. ~/.bash_profile)
create a new sub shell by issuing the command bash (not desirable at all)

How can I have this done automatically so that when I exit a remote shell, the title goes back to the original host name so I know what host I'm actually connected to?

Note, the previously asked question, Terminal displays directory of previous SSH location even when not running SSH didn't adequately address the issue because the solution was to modify .bash_logoff which only worked for login shells.

The solution to this problem is solved by using Terminal Control Codes (Esc 22 and 23) and  placing four simple lines in .bashrc of the remote host:

# ~/.bashrc
#
# Set the Terminal Title

echo -ne "\033[22;0t"                     #Save Title on Stack
echo -ne "\033]0;${HOSTNAME}\007"         #Set New Title

trap 'echo -ne "\033[23;0t"'  EXIT        #Reset Title Window

How This Works

By using the Terminal Escape Sequence Codes 22 and 23, we can save and retrieve the original title.  The trap function (man bash) will execute a command when a signal is received; in this case upon exit.

Now, when I exit (terminate) the remote host, the title reverts back to the proper host name.

Why .bashrc?

I want to have this available to me whether I log into the host from a remote machine (most common) or when I am local to it.  .bash_profile is read for an interactive login shell and .bashrc is read for an interactive, non-login shell (local) is started.

To ensure that this is the same for both conditions, I include the following in my .bash_profile:

# run a .bashrc file if it exists.

test -f ~/.bashrc && . ~/.bashrc


Listing Homebrew installed XQuartz on OS X El Capitan I installed XQuartz in OS X El Captain using the following command:

brew install Caskroom/cask/xquartz

After completion, brew list does not show XQuartz. Am I doing something wrong here?

No - you shouldn't expect to see a cask when you type brew list - instead use brew cask list to check for XQuartz and other cask-only installs.


Where is the manpage of otools gcc etc. on macOS? Many tools related with binaries, such otools, gcc, don't have manpages on my macOS (10.13.6). Is there a way to install the manpages for them?

This answer from stackoverflow says that gcc is not installed by default on mac. Instead it installs clang and calls it gcc.

usxxplayegm1:~ grady$ which gcc
/usr/bin/gcc

usxxplayegm1:~ grady$ /usr/bin/gcc --version

Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 5.1 (clang-503.0.38) (based on LLVM 3.4svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin13.0.2
Thread model: posix

you need man clang. Alternatively, if you want help regarding gcc, you can use gcc --help


How can I prevent my Apple ID account from being recovered using a trusted phone number? In the Security section of my Apple ID account page (https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage), I have a “Trusted phone number”. The help text says:

  Trusted phone numbers are used [...] to recover your account if you lose access.

However, I don’t want my account to be recoverable using a phone number, because phone numbers aren’t secure.

I have two-factor authentication turned on, and I have several Apple devices that support it. I have my two-factor recovery key saved in a password manager that’s backed up in several places. In short, I’m happy that I’ll be able to recover my account if required, without a trusted phone number.

I’ve seen guides showing how to remove trusted phone numbers when more than one is attached to the account (you click the little cross next to the phone number). But I only have one trusted phone number, and there’s no cross next to it.

How can I turn off the ability to access my Apple ID account using a “trusted” phone number?

As far as I can tell, you can’t.

Aside from the web interface, you can also manage your Apple ID in System Preferences on macOS, and Settings on iOS.

When I try to remove my trusted phone number on macOS (System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details > Security), I’m told that I have to have at least one verified trusted phone number on the Apple ID, even though I have Recovery Key turned on.


iOS can’t add some widgets to home screen I have downloaded iOS 14 and really like the new widgets, but I can’t add some widgets to my home screen. For example, Nord VPN is has a widget to quickly connect/disconnect to the VPN. I can add this widget to the view to the left of the first home screen(screenshot below).
I cannot figure out how to add this widget to my home screen.
I can add the default iOS apps like weather and calendar to my home screen just fine.
(Also the Pacer app also has this same issue.)

It won't work because it's not the right type of widget. NordVPN's 'Quick connect' widget is a 'Today extension', while for the widget to work on the Home Screen it must be a 'Widget extension'. This terminology is even more confusing since 'Widget extensions' can appear on the Today View (but only at the top, above the older Today extensions).
See e.g. the Human Interface Guidelines for some background, but it's all quite technical. I expect most major app developers to convert their extensions, but they do have to support users on iOS 13 and lower (where the new widgets won't work), so it might take a while.

NOTE
Today widgets designed for iOS 13 and earlier aren’t available on the Home screen, but remain accessible at the bottom of the Today View and in the macOS Notification Center.


iPhone sending a lot of packets addressed to weird destinations, draining battery quickly I have a jailbroken iPhone. Recently, I have realized that its battery usage is abysmal. Suspecting that it has something to do with the radio, I downloaded Data Counter from Cydia to check real-time data usage and found that even with push notifications off and exchange set to manual, there is a persistent 0.06kb/s of data transfer. So I hooked the iPhone to a WiFi network and captured packets originating from its IP address using Wireshark under promiscuous mode.

I get A LOT of these:

No.: 1907
Time: 252.345269
Source: 192.168.2.3
Destination: 10.236.199.xx
Protocol: TCP
Info: 49833 > ssh [SYN] Seq=0 Win=65535 Len=0 MSS=1460 WS=2 TSV=994197017 TSER=0 SACK_PERM=1

Where 10.236.199.xx is the destination IP and xx goes from 0 to 249, then goes back to 0.

If it helps, my cellular data IP address is 10.236.199.213 and my cellular provider is SingTel (Singapore).

I believe when I am on 3G, these packets are keeping the radio transmitter from powering down and thus draining the battery severely.

Which app is causing all these packets and how can I stop it from going on?

You jailbroke (is that a word? jailbreaked?) it, thereby opening the door to any application doing anything with your hardware. And now it appears that some application is doing something with your hardware. Your phone is compromised and is now trying to compromise other devices on its netblock. You're carrying a virus infection vector in your pocket.

I recommend a full restore absolutely ASAP, and I recommend really thinking about whether jailbreaking is for you.

I'm not anti-jailbreak. I just think people aren't aware of the full repercussions when they do it. Apple's not just being arbitrary in only allowing vetted software onto the devices. It's not JUST a business move on their part. It also protects users from exactly what has happened to you.


single key keyboard shortcut run-or-raise applications I just came from linux world (xfce4), where my keyboard workflow consisted of mapping

F9 to terminal app
f10 to firefox
f11 to emacs

Upon pressing, the corresponding app would a) get focused (raised) or b) started. I achieved that by using wmctrl.

Can I achieve this natively in Sierra or is there an app for that?

There's no direct way to map an Application launch to a key command, but it can be achieved without too much difficulty.

To break it down into its components, you need

A Service, which can be key-commanded
An Applescript, to contain the actual launch command
An Automator workflow, to contain the Applescript
The actual key-command.

It might sound hugely long-winded, but it's simpler than building your own .plist

Launch Automator, from Applications
Select New Document, then Service
On the left, search 'applescript' & drag Run Applescript to the main panel

Replace (* Your script goes here *) with tell Application "Terminal" to activate
Using activate will launch the App if it is not running, or bring it to the front if it already is.
[subsequent Services you generate will use each of your desired Apps in this line]
Click at the top where it says 'Untitled' & give it a suitable name. The destination will be already correct for Services.
Hit  Cmd ⌘   S  to Save.
At the moment I'm seeing a new behaviour I've not noticed before, under 10.11.6 - Saving isn't automatically installing the service. Closing the Workflow window, then re-opening from File menu > Recent then gives the option to install it. ymmv.
Go to System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services & find your new Automator Service [probably down towards the bottom of the list under General.
Make sure there's a checkmark to the left of it, then click none/add shortcut, to the right & add your F-Key
Make sure your pref in System Prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard is set to use all F1, F2 etc as standard function keys - otherwise you'll have to use Fn/F-key instead.

Rinse & repeat for your other required Applications.

After comments:
Running Services in this way may require Automator to be checked in System Prefs > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility


Getting a  sometimes on boot On a Mac mini end 2009, with a drive updated to a SSD, and RAM updated to 8GB running OS X 10.11.6, I sometimes get a "" on boot. It then boots in Recovery mode by itself, so i shut it down and power it up again, and it boots normally, without any problems after.

Maybe it's not the right place to ask this, I'm a StackExchange noob.

But how does this happen ?

Sounds to me like you have corruption on the drive and/or the directory information. Boot up in Recovery Mode and use Disk Utility to repair the boot disk. I strongly advise you to make a complete backup before proceeding.

Restart your Mac whilst holding Command (⌘)-R to boot into Recovery Mode
Select Disk Utility from the options presented
Select your internal system disk from the list in the left panel
Choose the Repair option (or First Aid button, depending on your version)

If all goes well, any problems encountered will be fixed. If Disk Utility is unable to fix the issues you will either need to Erase the disk and reinstall the version of OS X/macOS and then use your backup to restore your applications and personal files/settings, or you could try a third-party disk/system utility. My personal favourites are DiskWarrior by Alsoft (https://www.alsoft.com) and TechTool Pro by Micromat (https://www.micromat.com).


Is there any Keychain extension for Chrome? I am using 1Password, but it's not free and I'm thinking about migrating to free OS app - Keychain. Is there anything similar to 1Password extension but for Kechain? I want to use the Keychain only for logins in Chrome and often using many logins to the single page.

I like the way 1Password works. I simply click on the icon and select the username. The extension automatically fills in login details and logs me in. Can I do the same on Chrome with Apple Keychain?

Thanks for help.

Actually there's no official way to do what you want and I recommend you to avoid third parts extensions available somewhere on the internet that could endanger your passwords and personal datas. You can use your Google Account Keychain but you will be able to use the passwords stored on it only on chrome browsers signed and synchronized with your Google Account.


Skype on MacOS keeps 600Mb caches, are these both deleteable? Skype (7.56.0.776) on MacOS (10.10.5) keeps 600Mb in the two caches below, are these both deleteable without any negative effects? Can I prevent Skype doing this with any (Skype or MacOS) config setting? or do I just have to write a crude wrapper which monitors/purges these regularly? EDIT 1: wrt effect on performance, Skype keeps large disk caches, and crashes regularly, which may well lead to fragmentation.

348M    ~/Library/Caches/com.skype.skype/<username>/SKAvatarCache
213M    ~/Library/Application\ Support/Skype/<username>/media_messaging/emo_cache_v2

Related to the second: How do I prevent the Skype emoticon cache emo_cache_v2 directory from being populated with automatically downloaded images?

There's no need to delete these files, but there's no "harm" if you do.

The SKAvatarCache holds thumbnails of your contacts for quick access without downloading each and every time from the Internet
The media_messaging/emo_cache_v2 holds the animated emoticons for faster rendering.

You can delete, but these files will be recreated when you view and/or message with contacts.  It's nothing that should be of concern that would require periodic maintenance.


Recovery HD doesn't boot I just upgraded to El Cap, and now recovery HD will not boot. It goes part of the way, but gets stuck here:

I've tried to boot multiple times, but it just gets stuck there.

Resetting the NVRAM appears to work. However, I used the terminal command: sudo nvram -c, instead of the startup key combination.

Just got it fixed by the help of Apple Support following this Apple support page: How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac

  Resetting NVRAM

  Shut down your Mac.
  Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
  Turn on your Mac.
  Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
  Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
  Release the keys.

  After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for
  speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time
  zone information.


How to stop iMessage from coming to Macbook I have a school computer and my school has been known to be nosey. I don't want them reading my messages but iCloud and iMessage are both blocked so I can't do anything through there. Ive already tried changing the send &I receive section in my iPhone, please help

The only way for your iMessages to also be delivered to your MacBook is if they've been set up that way with the same Apple ID / iCloud account you've set up on your iPhone.

It's not 100% clear what you've actually done in the Send & Receive settings on your iPhone, but just to be clear:

On your iPhone, go to Settings
Swipe up and tap on Messages
Now tap on Send & Receive
Under the You can be reached by iMessage at heading, make sure that the iCloud email address used on the MacBook is not enabled.

This should rectify the issue. Let me know how you go.


Updating OS X 10.6 install screen stuck I just re-installed Mac OS X 10.6 on my MacBook Pro (2008 ed) using the original DVD. I then selected update software to bring it up to 10.6.8. The software downloaded and then I received the message to restart in order to install the software.

I restarted and have the installation screen showing. Not sure what that screen is called but it is the one that looks like the galaxy.

Nothing is happening—it seems stuck there. I have no window telling me to continue, or agree or install, as is the usual order of things. I have tried this twice; i.e. have used the power button to shut down because the computer does not respond to anything else when that screen is on. Then I re-did update software, receive the message that the software has already downloaded, told to restart in order to install, and the same thing happens. Any ideas?

If you reinstalled without erasing the disk, you might have something incompatible from your previous system. Try to restart holding the SHIFT key. This brings you into safe mode, where only apple components are loaded. The system might react slow, but should let you apply the update. (Would also prefer the combo update, as mentioned by 'forquare'.)


Reviving a dead iPod Touch 8GB (2nd gen?) I have an iPod Touch 8GB (probably 2nd gen) that stopped working. By this I mean that it cannot be turned on, an doesn't show any sign of activity when connected to the PC, a docking station and other chargers. Of course iTunes does not recognize the device when plugged in to the PC. This happened, without prior signs of a coming malfunction, about 2 months after I bought it, used, during the last summer.

What are my options in trying to bring it back to life? At the moment, buying a new iPod Touch is not an option.

Try leaving it connected to a PC or Mac for several hours. If the Battery is completely empty, it will take some time to turn on. Happens to my 8GB iPod (which is not used much anymore) every time I leave it disconnected for 2 weeks or more.

THe only other option I can think of is trying to use a tool called RecBoot to boot the iPod into recovery mode. I don't know if that works (never needed it) and where to download it, but it's the only other option that would come to my mind.


Why does sudo ask for a password in terminal? Why does sudo ask for a password when one can sudo su without a password and perform the same commands? Is there a way to make sudo not ask for a password when you're logged in as the an admin anyway?

sudo su asks for a password on my system. Did you run another sudo command before the sudo su? Once you've run sudo and entered your password, it doesn't require a password again for a period of time.


Expected incremental backup performance on Mid-2015 MacBook Pro I use Acronis True Image backup software on a new mid-2015 MacBook Pro Retina with a 2.8GHz processor and a 1TB SSD running High Sierra and APFS.  Incremental backups, even when there's almost no files that are changed on my system, take about 30 minutes to scan ~300GB.  Almost all of this is scanning time to look for changes.  Activity Monitor's Energy tab reports Energy Impact of about 150.

Is this normal?  Seems like a long time and a lot of battery expenditure (if I enabled backups while not plugged in) for a disk scan.

Also, are there other less battery-intensive backup software for Macs?  Or should I realistically expect any backup system to be a time and resource hog because a full disk scan is inherently energy-intensive and time-consuming?

Finally, is there anything I can do (other than removing files from my disk or excluding them from backups!) to improve backup times and/or energy cost?

With those sorts of times it would appear that Acronis does a brute-force scan of the whole filesystem comparing each file.

But since 10.7 (Lion) macOS provides a mechanism called FSEvents that allows an app to be notified about changes so it can do its job in a much more efficient way. Time Machine uses FSEvents.

So, to answer your question: Your times are about right for software that is doing the scan inefficiently. As a Time Machine user I see far shorter times for much more data (600GB on SSD to external 1TB HDD over Thunderbolt) using my 3GHz i7 MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013) running High Sierra and APFS.

My recommendation is that you change software to one that is more modern in its approach.

PS: Time Machine would backup your old Mac and restore to a new Mac, though it does it using its usual loose files approach rather than a single monolithic image. It would also only backup changes to your Parallels VM – no such luck for a VMware Fusion user like myself.


Can I remove the stock camera app from iOS 9 or later? I would like to be able to remove the stock camera app from an iOS device without disabling the camera itself (because I would like to replace the camera app with a non-stock app).  I know MDM applications allow the camera to be disabled via the iOS mobileconfig restrictions, but can I remove just the (original) app while keeping a functional camera?

Short answer: no.

As of iOS 10, here are the stock apps that users can remove:

Calculator
Calendar
Compass
Contacts (iPhone only, contact information is retained in the Phone
app)
FaceTime
Find My Friends
Home
iBooks
iCloud Drive
iTunes Store
Mail
Maps
Music (if removed, you won't be able to use it with CarPlay)
News
Notes
Podcasts
Reminders
Stocks
Tips
Videos
Voice Memos
Watch app (you'll have to unpair your Apple Watch before deleting it)
Weather

As you can see, the stock Camera app is not one of these. I imagine there are ways to forcibly remove it, but you may lose that functionality of your iPhone permanently.


Reversing mouse scroll in mavericks How to reverse the mouse scroll so that moving a wheel up will make the page go up, and a mouse wheel down makes the page go down.

System Prefs -> Mouse. Toggle 'Scroll direction:natural'.


MacPro 6,1 (late 2013) - 4 monitors using only 1 of 2 available graphics cards Late 2013 mac pro 32GB ram, AMD FirePro D500 3072mb.

All monitors plugged into their own individual thunderbolt ports.

Performance has been abysmal over the last few months. Many coreaudio errors; screen flickering; mouse jittery. None of the usual remedies have helped (reboot; reset NVRAM et al; re-install).

Today I happened to notice in the system report that my four monitors (ASUS VS238) are only using one of the two available graphics cards.

Is there a way to configure the monitors to use a specific graphics card? Does it even make sense to split the 4 monitors between the 2 cards, or is it more sane that it is doing what it is?

I appears it works this way by design: no matter how many monitors are in use, they will be managed by one card, and the other card is in standby for use in uninterrupted GPU computation.


Force integrated graphics card on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion when working with VMware Fusion 5.x? I want to force the GPU on my 2011 MacBook Pro 15 (A1286) to remain on the integrated GPU while I run VMWare Fusion 5.x.

The gfxCardStatus software doesn't work on 10.8. Is there another solution?

With OS X 10.8 gfxCardStatus is no longer capable of enforcing Integrated Graphics card only.

When one uses VMWare Fusion, the discrete graphics card is enforced, which drains the battery too fast.

I have not found any solution online to fix this. But I managed (thanks to PePe) to discover one.

How to use Integrated Graphics Card with VMware Fusion on OS X 10.8:

Install gfxCardStatus
Before launching VMware Fusion, click on Integrated only (THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP: click it several times until it has the checkbox on the Integrated only.):

Then launch VMWare Fusion, start whatever virtual machine. And don’t do anything inside. Leave it idle. There’s a BackTrack 5 R3 with the integrated graphics card:

There’s a BackTrack 5 R3 VM and a Windows XP (both idle) with the integrated graphics card:

I’m using iStatMenus (not free) to check my power consumption. Here’s my power consumption with the two VMs:

Cody Krieger (the creator of gfxCardStatus) says that even if it says that the Integrated is being used, the Discrete (NVidia) is still being powered on, which invalidates the whole exercise.
How do I know that I’m saving power? Well, let’s go to Discrete and check the power consumption:

 ->

Now, let’s check what the consumption is (the same two idle VMs):

So instead of having 3:27 hours left, I now have 1:22 hours left. My consumption 2.5 Amp, instead of 1.1 Amp.
I can’t directly go back though:

What I have to do is to stop VMware completely (Cmd + Q), go to Integrated only again and restart all the VMs
This is something that I discovered today. So it may not be working as expected, but for now it seems it is.
My setup:

OS X 10.8.2 on a Macbook Pro 8.2 (A1286, Quad Core i7 2.3 Ghz, 16gb RAM, 256gb OCZ Vertex 3, AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB)
VMware Fusion 5.0.1 with 2 VMs – Windows XP Pro and Backtrack 5 R3 (both were idle during this setup).


How to accept disabled software in System Information when button is not shown I have recently upgraded my Macbook Pro to the M1 and during the time of me re-downloading and installing my applications that i use, i had ran into a problem. I had to install some audio drivers for my mixer. Now i had a couple issues accepting the software on my Macbook Pro Intel running Big Sur too, i had gone through much uninstalling and rebooting the machine as going into System Preferences > Security & Privacy and clicking allow on the software wasn't fixing my issue, the option wasn't even there. I then went into System Information after hours of researching and found the software in Disabled Software, there was a way for me to allow it. As soon as i allowed it, sound played through my mixer finally. But the issue is for some reason this Macbook does not have an option to accept it. It just shows me the driver is disabled but doesnt offer help on how to allow it. So here i am, il attach a screenshot of what it shows me here:

I have no clue if its because this Macbook is an Apple Chip and not an Intel, it cannot be the Mac update Big Sur as the drivers work on my previous Mac. I really don't know and there's no source to tell me.
Is there a way i can allow this software?

The chances are that you cannot just 'allow' Intel drivers on an Apple Silicon ARM Mac. It just won't work.
the Intel emulation/translation does not cover things like system extensions and input/output components.
You will need to go back to the manufacturers (Pioneer) and ask them for updated drivers. If the device is no longer supported, then you won't be able to use it with this Mac.


16 GB enough ram for my use case? Is 16gb ram enough on macbook pro 16 inch for my use case?
I just purchased a 2019 refurbished 16 inch pro last night to replace my current 2011 iMac (24 gb ram 2.7 GHz i5). I thought I only had 16 gb ram on this machine so figured it would be fine on the macbook as this machine is running fine for me. Now that I've realized I actually have 24 GB ram, and you can't upgrade MacBooks afterwards, I'm starting to get worried I won't have enough on the MacBook. I also was reading something about retina displays/new OS taking up more RAM?
I only use the computer for programming in python/django/java and generally have a simple text editor, intellij, command prompt, and chrome open (normally with atleast 10 tabs open lol). I don't do heavy video/image editing.
Do you think I should cancel the order and upgrade to 32 gb ram? Or will I be ok with 16?
Thanks!

I program in 8 GB and run light virtual machines and docker. You’d only need 16 or more for very specific cases. The new OS take less ram since Apple is dropping all the 32 bit frameworks and libraries. In general 3rd party apps are slimming faster than they are growing now as well, but with M1 and Intel, apps will be larger for a short term but that doesn’t really affect RAM at all, just disk space and network time to download.
You can compile LLVM from first principles on a 2015 MacBook or 2016 MacBook Air, so seriously large and complicated builds don’t require exotic hardware anymore.
The only cases for large RAM are massive browser needs and several VM for more than light testing.


Make app notifications ring as loudly as the phone I have a the IFTT app set up to send me very important ios notifications. I need it to wake me up at night. How can I make the notification sounds max loudness and ring for as long as a phone ring?

The phone ringing is, technically speaking, a notification sound, and uses the same volume setting as all other notifications (called Ringer Volume).

As far as notification tone length, you would need to contact the app's developer. You cannot set custom tones (at least, outside the app) for 3rd-party iOS apps like you can with Phone, Messages, etc.


Macintosh HD drive listing as Recovery Partition and it is not available to boot I just wanted to merge 2 NTFS drives because I want to increase size of my BootCamp partition. But now, I can't boot to macOS. I can see it when I boot to Windows; its files and everything ok, but somewhy it is listed as Macintosh HD (D:) and my Recovery Partition is listed as Recovery HD (E:).

When I open Startup Menu, only my Bootcamp and Recovery partitions are avaible to select, no Macintosh HD.

Here is my Disk Management screen from Windows. My Macintosh HD (371GB) drive listed as "Recovery Partition"

How can I repair my main disk...

Generally, the first step, in reconstructing messed up the partition tables, is to dump the current contents.

If running High Sierra (macOS 10.13), you would need to boot to internet, internal or USB based macOS Recovery. The following commands would partially dump the contents of the GPT and MBR partition table.

gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk0
fdisk  /dev/disk0

The partition tables can then be repaired by using a variety of tools. A well known third party tool is gdisk.

Since you can only boot to Windows, the gpt and fdisk commands would be unavailable. There are third party Windows equivalents named readgpt.exe and readmbr.exe that can dump the contents of the partition tables. The syntax for executing these commands is shown below.

  Note: These commands have to be run from a "Administrator: Command Prompt" window.

readgpt  -t0
readmbr  -t0

Additionally, the following command will dump the GPT attributes.

readgpt  -a0

There also a Windows version of the gdisk command. Below is the syntax for executing this command from a "Administrator: Command Prompt" window.

gdisk64  \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0

If you have trouble using the gdisk command, you can post the partition table information in your question and ask for help.


What are the required conditions for Photos to start a facial scan? I've recently been building a large photo library, and, now that almost all of the content is in, I would like to start completing the people album. Photos says that it will "continue to scan your remaining photos when you're not using the app and your Mac is connected to power", so what I've been doing is letting the app run in the background (opening it and the focusing to another Window), telling my Mac never to sleep, plugging it in and leaving it on overnight.
This, however, does not seem to be working; indeed, the number of faces scanned seems to be going DOWN (yesterday 57,807 photos had been scanned and now it's just 57,381). I seem to be meeting perfect conditions and yet nothing's happening. I should perhaps mention, however, that I've been getting it a little off each time, but not in a way that should affect it, I hope.

The first two nights I quit photos
The third night I left Photos focused.
And tonight I left Mission Control focused

The third night I left Photos
   focused and tonight I left Mission Control running.

What is causing this problem, and what am I doing wrong?
If it helps, here are my system specs:

The conditions are unclear at this time.

  Apple does not inform on how photoanalysisd or photolibraryd work. It is something they need to address properly. As far as I know, photoanalysis uses CoreML and Vision to analyse what images contain, not only Faces in People. So if you search for mountain, it should retrieve images of mountains.

When it comes to how this daemon actually work, I've looked at the process and how it responds to different changes in the macOS environment. From a bit of trial,
I think I've figured out how to make it work in a somewhat expectable way. To summarise, the following technique (if you will) should help you crawl about 1K images an hour.

  Note: this depends on the hardware you are currently running on. You milage may vary.

Prerequisites:

Have photos imported into Photos.app
Have manually marked faces of people you want Photos to recognise.
Make sure you do not have any items in your library that can cause havoc. You can use Smart Filters with Unable to Upload.
Ensure that your power settings are set to never sleep. (Screen saver can still be on).
Plug your Mac to power, it will be running for a while depending on your collection size.

Solution:

Close all apps, reboot your Mac, make sure you untick the "Reopen windows..." before you reboot. We want macOS to return to desktop without any apps loading.
Also make sure you have disabled any apps from starting with macOS too: Users & Groups > Your User > Login Items

Then, once rebooted:

Open Activity Monitor.app and search for photoanalysisd. It should not be found (but leave the window open).
Open Photos.app, wait a minute, then close it. You should see photolibraryd and photoanalysisd in Activity Monitor.app now.
Give it a minute or two (or maybe 10), and now you should see photoanalysisd begin to churn through your photos rather quickly.

For the best possible result, make sure you leave the Mac running over night. If you have a lot of images (50000+) you probably need to do this a couple of nights.

  A few things to consider.

  The daemon can take some time to get it going. When I open Safari it starts churning. You can try this if you don't see any activity after 10 minutes.
  photoanalysisd can hang up some times. If this happens, check if photolibraryd is doing something (check Activity Monitor.app). If this is the case, It is probably pushing updates to the library.
  It can sometimes help if you leave your iPhone/iPad unplugged. It seems that Photos only work on a single device at one time.
  If there is no activity for a while and you don't manage to solve it with the above. Reboot and repeat.

The above has worked for me on 12K photos. I've re-imported them twice to confirm. It took me two days total (by making sure it starts and leave it over night).

Enjoy.


Is it possible to fully separate corporate from private contact data on a BYOD? I did some research on the various ways how corporate data can be protected on a user owned device (BYOD) running iOS.

My understanding is that, through mobile device management (MDM), I could create networking and usage restrictions for certain apps specifically. For example, I could require the user to be connected through a specific VPN in order to use app "X".

I also understand that data is separated logically in the way that, for example, the contact data retrieved from an Exchange Server is only available as long as the configuration setting for said server is active on the device. Deleting it also removes the contacts from the device.

What I cannot figure out is if there is a possibility to limit the scope of the contact data provided by such a corporate server without resorting to third party apps that containerize the data entirely. I'll try to make this clearer with an example.

On my private iPhone, I can allow apps such as WhatsApp or facebook to access my contacts. I am using multiple cloud accounts that sync contacts to my device but on my private device without any mdm, I am not able to restrict this setting to just one specific cloud account - if I understand correctly, "contacts" just means any contact the device has access to.

As the corporate administrator of an mdm solution, would it be possible for me to restrict this, i.e. prevent the user from giving access to company owned contact data to third party apps while not restricting him if he does so with the contact data held locally or coming from a private server?

I spoke to the representative of a well known MDM solution for iOS today about this topic. He confirmed to me that iOS does not support such a separation of work and private data. In other words, you cannot restrict apps to access only specific contact accounts, it's all or nothing. MDM solutions usually deal with this by offering their own containers (apps) for mail and contact management.


Battery life in Macbook Pro with Touchbar vs non-Touchbar model Has anyone measured battery life on both for comparison?
Does the non-Touchbar model have better battery life?

Apple states that both 13″ MacBook Pro 2017 models, with or without Touch Bar, have the same battery life.

Up to 10 hours wireless web
The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%.

Up to 10 hours iTunes film playback
The iTunes film playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%.

Up to 30 days of standby time
The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default.

Testing conducted by Apple in May 2017 using pre-production 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 1TB SSD and 8GB of RAM; and pre-production 3.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM.
Battery life varies by use and configuration. See https://www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/, formatting changed and paragraphs rearranged
My experience is people get far superior run times on Macs with less powerful GPU and more economical CPU so the non touch bar Mac in practice won’t drain its battery nearly as fast as the touchbar model given an identical software setup and usage.
For the 2017 model year lineup and the 2018 model year lineup, the non-touch bar model has a more economical GPU, cache, and typically less SSD and certainly less wattage CPU both at idle and max frequency. For most people that don’t have software issues where they max 85% CPU the touch bar models seem to last 30 to 90 minutes less when working casually. For high workload, either will drain the battery in 3-4 hours with the maxed out models getting 30 to 90 minutes less run time.
The 2018 hardware changes seem to be about the same as 2017 on paper, but we don’t have good real-world data and usage to tell.


Are there external drive enclosures yet with a Thunderbolt interface? I'd like to put some spare disks in enclosures and use the Thunderbolt interface. Does such a thing exist yet? I can't find any. Are there technical issues or licensing restrictions that have stopped this? My searches have turned up no general purpose enclosures and I find that surprising.

This seems like a ServerFault issue but I was sent packing here instead.

Taken from Apple.com

  Promise Pegasus R4 and Pegasus R6,
  LaCie Little Big Disk and 2big,
  Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter,
  Elgato Thunderbolt SSD.


Comfortable typing on a MacBook Pro? I love my macbook pro, I have the 17" version that came out several months ago.  So I can take it with me wherever, at my desk, friend's place, on the couch.. and have a full development environment with the big screen.

Problem is my wrists scrape against the edge on the bottom of the keyboard.  I'm on the computer a lot and this is starting to really bother me.  Normal desktop (detached) keyboards don't have this edge...  I actually bought Apple's wireless beautiful little keyboard, but then the issue is the screen gets too far away if I have to put the wireless keyboard in front of the laptop's built-in keyboard.  And working on my lap, which I absolutely love, is much less comfortable.

What's the solution?  Is there a nice thin padding product I can buy for the bottom of the macbook pro?  Is there a stand or way I can position the laptop so I can use the wireless keyboard without the screen being too far away?  Is that even possible while the laptop and wireless keyboard are on my lap?

UPDATE: I guess the Apple wireless keyboard is a little problematic to use on my lap because it doesn't have a trackpad... so I'll constantly be moving my arm far to move the mouse.

Why don't you put the laptop on a bookstand? that's what I do with my MB.
typing while the laptop is on the bookstand might not suit everyone's taste, but you can easily slide a keyboard right in front of it, leaving the screen where it needs to be!


How to use zsh and bash on iTerm2 at the same time? Zsh is better than bash(obviously), but for some reason, from time to time I have to use bash. I am wondering is there any way for me to use them together without changeing them manually?

What I have in mind is putting them in seperate tabs, I have tried it actually. Using zsh as default, and open another tab using different profile opening bash, though this can work, but all the configurations for bash didn't work.

So can anyone help me out here, thanks!

If by “all the configurations for bash didn’t work” you mean that customizations made in ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.profile or ~/.login) aren’t taking effect, that’s because bash is being invoked as a non-login shell (it runs ~/.bashrc instead).

To make it a login shell, the simplest solution is to add the -l option:

bash -l

Alternatively, if you want to actually create a login session you can invoke it via the login command. This creates a new login session (as displayed by the who command) and it invokes bash with the name -bash (as displayed by ps) to indicate it’s a login shell (same effect as the -l option):

login -f username bash


Automatic reflow of icons in Finder while resizing window? Is there any way to enable automatic reflow of icons in Finder while resizing the window?

One constantly has to to resort via "clean up by ..." after resize.

I've yet to find a piece of software that handles that ridiculous shortcoming of Finder.

If you change your "arrange by" options via "right click" > "arrange by" to any other than "none" spaces between the icons is clinched/stretched according to window size, or icons even get rearranged to the next line if space gets to narrow.

This should be default behaviour without "arrange by" since it kind of breaks list view if active. Sadly Apple rarely listens to customer needs, since they "know what the customer wants".


I want to change to hot key(s) for spaces Currently I can switch between spaces using Control + arrow. I want to change that to Command + arrow. How would I go about doing that?

In System Preferences, open Exposé and Spaces, and go to the Spaces tab. Click the menu by "To switch between spaces:" and choose the second option.


Character encoding in Safari Mobile I've developped a website using JSF, which is accessed by Safari mobile running on Iphone 5C.
Most of the Iphones behave correctly, send the text encoded as it should, but on one of them, text is badly encoded.
Exemple: "Début" is written "DÃ©but" (it's french)
I suspect one of the user changed the settings on the Iphone.
What setting could it be, and how can you change it back ?

EDIT:
The website is rendered correctly, the problem arise when the user type text in a textbox and submit it to the server.

You could set the header to display UTF-8. The user might have his location settings set differently.

HTML:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

PHP:

header('Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8');


MacBook Pro late 2011 AMD GPU disable I´ve done what's explained on "GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen" question.

In the option "about this Mac" only appear the Intel HD. The graphics card status app shows "i".

I searched for the amdradeon3000 kext on finder, and its in the folder I've created for backup on single user mode.

It seams to have worked, but it only boot correctly after a few power cycles to a black screen. Before it would show random graphics colours and glitches, or a grey or blue screen.

Using find command on user mode the amdradeonx3000.kext appears in 2 locations:
- .../extensions-off
and
- .../.pkinstallsandboxmanager-systemsoftware/nrsandletters.orphanedsandbox/root/system/library/extensions/amdradeonx3000.kext.

It is possible that this last one is causing the black screen at boot?

Should I move it to another folder?

It is possible that this last one is causing the black screen at boot? - I don't know yet. With verbose mode enable at some point it appears a message relating the reboot to a kernel panic.

Should I move it to another folder? - I've moved it. Don't know if it effects the boot sequence, but the behavior got regular.

Boot to a black screen, press power button to shutdown. Repeat 4 or 5 times. When the message about the panic shows, the boot process runs successfully.


Different programs in the same Xcode C++ project I am trying to use XCode as my training environment for simple C++ programs. If I create a new project, I can successfully complete everything (compile, run) but If I add one more file, it can't compile as a separate one. That means that I need to have a main2() and a main3() etc. because having 2 files with two main() in the same folder lead to an error.

In simple words, I want to write code for 30 C++ examples, each one in its own .cpp file and compile every one of them separately and not as a whole project (all files together that If there are two functions of the same name, it will crash).

In order to compile multiple separate files (separate binaries as a result) You would need to create separate targets for every file.

To add new target please choose: File -> New -> Target.., select for example Command Line Tool. Make sure it's properly added to Your project. Here's example:

My main.cpp is added to target multiple_targets like this:

My main-kopia.cpp file is added to target2 like this:

to be sure check the build phases for every target, here's example of my target2 Build Phase:

With this I am able to compile both main.cpp and main-kopia.cpp. Notice that they both have main() inside them.


Two 4K displays on 2015 MacBook Pro 15" and ordering of Thunderbolt devices Using a 2015 15" MBP Retina, maxed out, what's the best source of information on ordering of Thunderbolt devices relative to a cinema display? 4K screen, and 3 Thunderbolt drives?

With the Cinema Display on the end, after the 3 Thunderbolt drives, the sound is severely distorted.

I've never run the Thunderbolt out the back of the cinema display.

And does the Thunderbolt out the back of the Cinema Display power a 4K Display Port cable? (when I tried this on the back of the drives, I got only 2560 resolution, so I'm guessing that the 4K monitor needs a direct connection).

UPDATE
I'm quite happy with the setup pictured below:

Cinema 27" on left
Dell 2715Q 4K Running at next to highest resolution
Retina 15" screen to right running at next to highest resolution
Thunderbolt drives connected to Cinema 27", as well as USB2 and Ethernet
USB3 drives connected to Dell 2715Q built-in USB hub.

Is there anything more optimal?

Is two 4K displays an option? Guessing not due to Thunderbolt.

You really don't run into issues with the ordering of devices in Apple chain able hardware. Whether it's FireWire or Thunderbolt, the only rare situation is where you mix generations.

For example a firewire 400 cable should go at the end of the 800 chain. Same for Thunderbolt 1 and 2 (and soon 3).

Can I daisy chain Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 to FireWire 400
Does daisy chaining FireWire 800 and 400 cause all devices to use 400 speeds?

I haven't seen any issues with powered off thunderbolt drives in the middle of a chain to the display, but I'd probably put the display first and then plug the drives in down stream of the display if you have that option.


Jailbreaking a stolen iPhone 5S after remote wipe from Find My iPhone My iPhone 5S was stolen and I used Find My iPhone App to remote wipe it. Can someone still jailbreak that phone and use it as a new phone?

Since iOS 7, Apple has employed Activation Lock. Once Find my iPhone has been enabled, the device is bound to the user's Apple ID and will require the username and password of that particular Apple ID to restore or activate.

Remote wipes put a lock on the device on top of clearing out the data. Once that phone is turned back on, a password will be required.

Activation Lock cripples iPhones for life (or till the user enters the Apple ID password).

The thief that has your device now has a brick and it will always be a brick. There is absolutely no bypassing Activation Lock because Apple's servers will chase it forever.

The only procedure left to the thief is to put the device in DFU mode, but once the restore is complete, the user will again be prompted for the Apple ID password upon setup. And since the device checks Apple's servers for this hold, the thief is left up a creak.

You can see on Apple's website what Activation Lock consists of:

  With Activation Lock, your Apple ID and password are required before
  anyone can:

  Turn off Find My iPhone on your device
  Sign out of iCloud on your device
  Erase and reactivate your device

Jailbreaking a device requires access to it. If it was that easy, Activation Lock would be useless. Apple is much smarter than that.

iPhone Hacks has a more in-depth look at the feature: Protect your iPhone against theft with Activation Lock


What WiFi authentication protocols does OS X support? I'm trying to find out how many types of WiFi authentications does OS X support. I know it's supports the basic WEP/WPA and even EAP-PEAP. Does anybody have the full list of supported WiFi authentication protocols?

Thanks!

From the Support article Accessing 802.1X networks in OS X Lion:

  This process can be used to join networks with the following EAPOL
  authentication types:

  PEAP
  TTLS (see note 1)
  LEAP
  EAP-FAST (see note 2)
  TLS


Search contents of files within specified directory I aim to search the contents of files at a specified directory.

take an example in spotlight search

'Marked important question' in dir('/desktop)

How can such a task be accomplished?

From the Finder

An easy way is to open a Finder Window to the folder of interest, and use the search box in the upper right corner. For this to work effectively, Finder Preferences should be adjusted as follows:

Under Finder/Preferences/Advanced tab, change

When performing a search: to

"Search the Current Folder"

From the Command Line

Use mdfind, with the -onlyin option, as below, which will search the current directory for all files with a .jpg suffix:

mdfind -name .jpg -onlyin .


Apple Watch stuck on Airplay Today I looked at my Apple Watch and I noticed that the airplane mode was turned on. I had not activated it.

When I looked on the glance with the airplane mode button, I noticed that the AirPlay icon was on (lit in blue).  When I tap it, an option comes up for "Apple Watch", but tapping it does nothing but return to the previous screen.

I have been concerned about security issues recently and this was very random.  Is this a bug, and why can't I turn it off?

Usually when that page is stuck, you simply need to power off the watch.

Press and hold the large button (not the crown) and slide to power off. It's slow, so give it a minute or two to shut everything down and then power up the watch.


Terminal find, rename by deletion Mac will append a ' 2' (note the space) to the end of a file/folder that is  a copy of another file/folder inside the same directory... I was wondering if anybody knows how to batch remove/rename this ' 2' from a directory of folders from Terminal.

Use find to locate files like this way:

find . -name "* 2" -exec rm -r "{}" \;

This command will search for files and folders from where your are . with name "* 2" and delete every result -exec rm {}.

If you want to rename directories:

find . -name "* 2" -type d -exec rename 's/ 2/-copy/g' {} \;

As other command, locate only folders with name "*.2" and rename it replacing 2 with -copy.

If you don't have rename installed, you can also use

find . -name "* 2" -type d -exec bash -c '[[ -x "${0/ 2/-copy}" ]] || mv "$0" "${0/ 2/-copy}"' {} \;

(The [[ -x part tests whether a file/folder already exists).


Why do I occasionally get the message "could not activate cellular data network" when opening the sms app? It pops up a message telling me this which means I have to tap 'OK'

This is seriously annoying, does anyone know why this happens and what terrible event it is supposed to help me avoid?

This is annoying but you can't turn it off unfortunately.  If the iPhone detects a momentary loss of connection to the cell tower and it believes the user is interacting with the phone then it will pop this message up.  It's intention is to let you know that you don't have a signal and therefore won't be able to send your SMS, email etc. however more often than not it's a sub-second blip in the signal rather than a total loss.  If you watch closely you'll sometimes see the signal bars disappear and reappear as the signal is reacquired.

You could try going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings to see if somehow you've altered some network setting which is affecting your reception but you'll lose wifi passwords etc I think if you do that.


SSH no longer listens on custom port after update to 10.12.4 I had a custom port by using the "Port" line in /etc/sshd_config.  After updating to Mac OS X 10.12.4 I found I could no longer connect on the custom port - instead it was listening on port 22.  I found that my sshd_config had apparently been renamed to sshd_config~previous, so I moved it back to the correct spot and restarted sshd from the command line using sudo launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd; sudo launchctl start com.openssh.sshd.  However, after the restart sshd was still listening on port 22.  I then opened System Preferences and under sharing clicked on "Remote Login".  Running `netstat -a -n" showed that port 22 was no longer being listened to.  I then click on "Remote Login" to restart sshd, and then found sshd was still listening on port 22, not my custom port.

In /var/log/apache2 I see an empty access_log on startup, and error_log contains the normal startup message.  No clues there.

How do I get sshd to listen on my custom port again?

I found the answer here and it appears to also apply for upgrading to Sierra from a pre-el capitan version of OS X.

To summarize:

sudo cp /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

Edit /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist and change the lines that read:

<key>Label</key>
<string>com.openssh.sshd</string>

to:

<key>Label</key>
<string>com.openssh.sshd2</string>

And change the lines that read:

<key>SockServiceName</key>
<string>ssh</string>

by replacing "ssh" with whatever port you want to use.

Then start the new port with:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

As noted in the article, this doesn't eliminate ssh running on port 22.  In my case that was okay - the main reason for running on the new port was to match the port ssh was visible at outside the firewall.