Completely removing an iOS app from iPhone xS I'm trying to delete a few old apps from my iPhone but the best I can do is hide them. Does anyone know of a way to completely and fully delete the apps?  Thanks

Press and hold the app icon, when the X appears, press it to delete the app.

This doesn’t hide the app, but actually deletes it and all locally stored data from the device. Whether it also deletes any app data stored in a cloud service depends on the app.


Isn't the Reminders app on iPad allowing you to trigger an alarm when you leave a location? Isn't Reminders app on iPad allowing you to trigger an alarm when you leave a location ?

I can only find the option to set the time. I do have a 3G version of the iPad so it does have the GPS chip which in theory should make this feature as beneficial as on an iPhone with GPS and a data connection.

This appears to be currently available for the iPhone 4 and 4s only. Give this page a look. Several frustrated commenters.
Macworld Review


Can Mac OS lion and Win 7 (Vmware Fusion) Access Fat32 Partition? Is it possible that I can make partitions on Mac other than the one holding OSX as FAT32. I want to access it via Mac and also when I run Win7 on Vmware Fusion. I can then add that FAT32 partition as Shared Network folder and access its data.

The following is the partition structure I would like to use:

MacOS = 100GB
VmWare Fusion Win7 = 120GB
myStuff Partition = 280GB (which is Fat32 or exFat)

I want to access myStuff partition via OSX as well as VMWare Fusion.

Is it possible? Yes

Based on your comment, why?

VMWare Fusion runs Windows 7 virtually. Therefore you don't need a partition for it, the OS will simply be installed in a Virtual File on your current HDD, which will grow based on how much space it is using up to the maximum set when you created the virtual machine. Fusion only allows you to use a partition if your using Bootcamp to run Windows already.

Furthermore, Fusion allows you to share folders on your OSX drive with the Virtual Machine directly, without needing to format a partition beforehand, and can also write to your OSX drive natively.

Remember, you are basically running both operating systems at the same time, and Fusion, like Parallels, completely integrates and shares between the 2 operating sysems seamlessly.

What you are referring to in your question is dual booting using Bootcamp, where you can only access one operating system at a time, and no sharing is done.


MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) thermal issues A few months ago I got a 16-inch MacBook Pro (A2141) with 32GB ram and Core i9 (I9-9980HK) 2.4 GHz processor.
My problem is that that it overheats very quickly and drop the performance of the CPU to the ground. I installed Intel Power Gadget for investigating and turns out, just after a few minutes of heavier workload (clean install a bit larger maven project) get so hot the system limits the maximum core clock speed to 1GHz. When this happens the mac feels very slow and janky and even the most basic things can take uncomfortably long.
I heard that this series of MacBook Pros with Core i9 has thermal issues but this seems ridiculous. I already bought a Cooler Master A200 laptop cooler and it's helped a bit, but it still doesn't feel right.
Does this MacBooks has THAT bad thermal problem, or should I take mine for a cleaning? I also read that a repaste would help a lot. Do Apple authorized services allowed to perform repaste and cleaning? I could not figure it out from official websites. Does the repaste/cleaning at a non-Apple authorized service spoil the warranty?

AppleInsider tested the 2019 Core i9 2.4GHz MacBook Pro 16" and found that it could maintain 3.19GHz under sustained load. This and many other sustained load benchmarks demonstrate that your issue is not normal.
The easiest thing to do is bring it to Apple so they can fix it. If you want to know more, keep reading.
I think some repairs would actually require Apple Authorized Repair shops to reapply thermal paste, so I guess they are allowed to do it. They are also authorized to clean the Mac's internal components, and will often do that for all repairs requiring opening the computer.
Any repairs done outside Apple Authorized Repair shops could void your warranty if done incorrectly, but there isn't anything inside your Mac designed to tell Apple it's been repaired by someone else. So unless they screw up, I think it won't void your warranty. In my opinion, I'd rather not risk it, specially for replacing parts.
Intel clock speeds
1GHz (and sometimes 800MHz) is the absolute lowest clock speed the CPU in Macs like yours can go. Throttling down to the lowest clock possible under Standard Ambient Temperature and Pressure (SATP) is not normal. Intel/AMD/x86 notebooks often throttle to some degree, but extreme throttling is usually a sign of a deeper issue. The expected behavior on well designed computers (such as the 16" MacBook Pro) is to, at most, stay close to the base clock when under sustained load (CPU-only).
Your Mac has a base clock of 2.4GHz. Based on my experience with Macs and your model's benchmarks, I think normal values for it on SATP would be 2.4~3.2GHz under sustained load (CPU-only workloads, discrete GPU disabled), or 2.0~2.4GHz under sustained load for workloads that heavily use GPU in addition of the CPU.
Here are common things you can do to troubleshoot your issue. Remedies potentially fix the issue. Workarounds might improve your situation, but are unlikely to actually fix it. I recommend trying the remedies.
Check if you have the latest updates
It's very important to keep your Mac's Operating System (OS) up-to-date. Updates include bug, performance, reliability and security fixes and improvements. It also includes new features. Apple has previously fixed thermal throttling for some MacBook Pros in a software update.
Remedy:

Update macOS to the latest version

Check the temperatures
Thermal throttling is caused by aggregate component temperatures above the computer's thermal budget. This usually means the CPU and GPU because they are the most power-hungry parts, but is not limited to them. High battery temperatures or high VRM temperatures can also make the computer throttle.
The CPU and GPU can withstand temperatures as high as 100ºC, but that's the limit. Macs usually prefer keeping it to lower temperatures such as 85ºC under sustained load. If your Mac's CPU is at around 85ºC or more while throttling after a long time, it's possible the issue is the CPU's own temperatures.
If the CPU temperatures are not that high, check the GPU temperatures, which also present numbers similar to the ones mentioned above.
Remedies:

Check if the fans are working. 15"/16" Intel Macs have 2 fans, whereas 13" and smaller Intel Macs usually have 1 fan.
Clean all computer vents and fans, carefully removing dust and extraneous objects that are blocking airflow.
Carefully clean then replace the thermal paste for the components that originally had thermal paste on them (usually CPU, but could include GPU).

Workarounds (I do not recommend. They will only alleviate the issue, not fix it):

Use an utility such as Macs Fan Control to manually adjust the fan curve or max out the fans on your Mac in order to delay throttling.
Use an utility such as Turbo Boost Switcher to disable Intel Turbo Boost. This could delay throttling but will make no effect after it begins throttling.

Closed operation and airflow
Macs can operate with the lid closed by using an external monitor and peripherals. The MacBook cooling design inputs air from the sides and outputs to the back.

Remedies:

Make sure your Mac's airflow is not blocked or hindered by objects, fabric or walls in close proximity.
Avoid placing your computer on top of fabric, in particular if the fabric is designed to warm up such as carpets or blankets.

Workarounds:

The higher your ambient temperature, the more throttling your computer could exhibit, so move to an air conditioned room if possible.
Try opening the lid and see if there's any difference in behavior.

Battery aging
Portable computers use batteries to continue working when not plugged to a power outlet. The battery is a consumable part of the computer, and its performance degrades as it ages. Apple has developed specific features to help with that.
The ability of a battery to supply the required voltage for the processor and other components is affected by its age.
Quoting Apple:

All rechargeable batteries are consumable components that become less effective as they chemically age.
As lithium-ion batteries chemically age, [their] ability to deliver maximum instantaneous performance, or 'peak power', may decrease. [...] One attribute that affects this instantaneous power delivery is the battery’s impedance. A battery with high impedance may be unable to provide sufficient power to the system that needs it. A battery's impedance can increase if a battery has a higher chemical age. [...] These are characteristics of battery chemistry that are common to all lithium-ion batteries in the industry.
When power is pulled from a battery with a higher level of impedance, the battery’s voltage will drop to a greater degree. [...] The power management system determines the capability of the battery to supply this power, and manages the loads in order to maintain operations.

As the battery's ability to supply a consistent voltage is diminished, the Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) will have to work a lot harder to convert that to a usable, constant voltage for your Mac's circuitry. This in turn can make the VRM overheat, which could cause your Mac to throttle other components to the levels your Mac is experiencing in order to dissipate the heat.
Apple, iFixit and many others recommend changing the battery when its health drops below 80%, or when its cycle count goes over 1000. Your Mac will automatically tell you when your battery reaches these thresholds, but you can use CoconutBattery to manually check the battery health of your Mac. If it's close to 80% or lower and you have already checked the other things mentioned here, this could likely be the cause of your computer's extreme throttling.
80% is not a magic number. Battery aging is a complex chemical process also affected by temperature, and your battery may naturally have its performance diminished before or after this threshold. Apple is very good at managing (and even masking) battery aging by taking steps to remedy and keep the device working reliably for a very long time. I've had Macs with over 6 years old batteries still working fine.
This means your Mac's battery is probably fine and could still be used for many years. But the Intel Core i9 and the discrete AMD GPU are very power-hungry devices that draw a lot of instant power from the battery, potentially dropping the voltage, regulated by the VRM. The i9 alone draws 45W at 2.4GHz. So if your Mac's VRM is overheating due to the battery aging, perhaps it would be in your best interest to replace the battery in order to have better performance.
Remedy:

Replace the battery on an Apple Store or authorized repair shop.
Never use generic or counterfeit batteries or chargers on any devices you own. Counterfeit batteries and chargers have high risk of fire, swelling and irreparable damage to your devices, amongst potentially reduced battery life, increased aging and incompatible power draw. It's just not worth the risk and could end up costing a lot more.

Using the computer plugged in
It's possible that the battery will naturally heat up as it charges. This could lead to an additional degree of throttling.
Workarounds:

Try using the computer unplugged and see if temperatures improve.
If you want to keep it plugged in, fully charge the battery before starting your workload

Discrete graphics
15" and 16" Intel Macs have discrete graphics in addition to the CPU's integrated graphics. The discrete GPU is a powerful chip that competes with your CPU and other components for the computer's thermal budget. The thermal budget is the total capacity of your computer's thermal design to dissipate heat, usually measured in Watts.
When the discrete GPU is doing heavy processing, it's expected that the CPU will exhibit more throttling than if you were only using the CPU. Macs automatically switch between discrete and integrated graphics depending on what tasks they are running and whether your Mac is running on battery or plugged in to achieve a balance between performance and battery life.
You can check this opening the Energy tab on Activity Monitor.

Placa gráfica = Graphics card.
Integrada = Integrated.
Sim = Yes. Não = No

Shows whether your Mac is using Integrated or High Performance graphics
Shows which apps are using the discrete GPU

There's also the free utility gfxGardStatus that constantly shows an icon with the current GPU on the menu bar and can display notifications when the GPUs are switched, as well as which apps are using the discrete GPU.
Workaround:

Close apps that are using the discrete graphics when you want higher CPU performance.

External displays
Intel Macs with discrete graphics often use the discrete graphics to drive external displays connected to them.
Workaround:

If you don't need it, disconnect the external display

Apple Diagnostics
There's a simple tool that comes with Macs and is able to catch a few issues: the Apple Diagnostics tool (there's more than one link for it). Reboot your Mac holding the D key or or follow the instructions provided on the links. Running the tool will give you a simple result that can be used to find obvious problems with your Mac and (optionally) request support.

This tool is not a substitute for bringing your Mac to an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP), where Apple runs a complete suite of tests that is able to catch more issues than this diagnostics tool.
Workaround:

Run the tool and see if it finds any issues.

Clean Operating System install
If everything failed and you think you have a software issue you are not willing to troubleshoot, you can try to do a clean macOS install. Before trying that, backup any data you want to save. This operation will completely erase everything that's on your Mac's internal storage and you will not be able to restore any data lost after formatting if you don't have a backup.
Workaround:

Follow the instructions provided on this Apple Support link.


Force a read-only mount of startup disk I want to create a MacOS recovery startup disk on a USB flash drive. In order to maintain the integrity of the drive's contents (and, perhaps more importantly, reduce write wear on the flash drive from tmp files, swapping, SpotLight, etc.), I'd like to be able to have the kernel mount the drive read-only (but otherwise boot into a full-featured desktop environment where various GUI-based recovery tools are available).

This is obviously possible when booting from CD/DVD (and probably when booting from a flash drive with a physical write-protect switch), but I suspect the hardware state just magically causes the kernel/bootloader to do the right thing.

Back in the day, I recall that some systems had the ability to specify boot arguments that would force behavior like this.  Scanning the OpenFirmware command and MacOS boot-args cheat sheets reveals nothing obvious.

Is there any way to request that the firmware or kernel make the boot device be read-only for a multi-user boot?  Or, alternately, is there a way to continue startup from single-user mode while keeping the boot device in a read-only state?

The install CDs took a lot of shortcuts to deal with read-only boot volumes. One of the tricks is to mount the swap partition in a ramdisk - yes, it sounds rather pointless to swap your RAM to another part of memory, but I expect it was easier to do that than to rewrite the kernel to not swap at all. Make the GUI single-application and you won't need swap anyway.

If you are making a maintenance drive rather than a one-task USB installer I would recommend a spinning external. Faster than most USB thumb drives and it will have enough space to recover data. Get a 500Gb external, partition it into a 50Gb boot volume with CCC, DiskWarrior, DataRescue and whatever else you like, a standard recovery partition, and the rest for user data.


git auto-complete branches with checkout alias There's this neat script to autocomplete git branches.

It works fine with git checkout <tab>.

But, I want to take it further. I have a checkout alias: alias co='git co'.

How can I make branch autocompletion work using co <branch>

I have this in my .bashrc which works okay:

alias gco="git checkout"
__git_complete gco _git_checkout

If you open up that neat script you'll see method names like __git_checkout. You can get completion for each of those methods using this method.

Unfortunately, commands like git pull don't play nice when you try to tab complete the branch name (the second argument), for example given this alias:

alias gpl="git pull"
__git_complete gpl _git_pull

This behavior occurs:

gpl origin master
      ^      ^
 tab ok      doesn't tab


Is it possible my neighbor could hack in and read my files on my Macbook? I have a very sneaky neighbor who is a state cop and wouldn't put it past him to try and hack into my network or computer. Oftentimes I find files open that weren't open. He is obsessed with us and harasses us continuously (video cameras looking in my house, calls cops on us when we haven't done anything, hates us because we had to sue him and won- etc).

Whether a neighbor hacks into your network/computer is hard to say without detailled analysis. What you can do to reduce the risk is to

Make sure your WiFi is set to WPA2
Change the password on your WiFi to something which is not/not easy to guess
Change the passwords on all the accounts on your computer
Check whether there are accounts visible in System Preferences->Users & Groups which don't belong to you

This will not prevent a dedicated attacker from finding a way in of course, but might be enough to keep sneaky neighbors out.


Preview crashes on Print command I have this crash on Preview and TextEdit happening every time I use the Print command. cmd+p = spinning ball... It's only on these two apps, as far as I know. Ie: Mail app prints fine. Both MS Office and Acrobat Reader print okay.

Printed installed: Canon MF4360-4390 using driver Canon MF4360-4390 UFRII LT (UK); version 2.0

Current OS: 10.7.2

On 10.6 it worked fine.
I already deleted the printer and installed it again but got the same result.

Thanks for any help.

My Preview on Lion was crashing on Print. The stack in the crash log shows:

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   jp.co.canon.bj.print.v710a.pde.QualityMedia 0x060b52ae CBJ_SetDispValue(BJPDEMainContext*) + 44
1   jp.co.canon.bj.print.v710a.pde.QualityMedia 0x060b4820 CBJ_QualityMediaPDEPluginFactory + 1064
2   com.apple.print.framework.Print.Private 0x0654f709 0x6537000 + 100105

I tried upgrading to the most recent drivers from Canon's MX850 page. No luck.

I opened "Get Info" from the Finder, with Preview selected, and saw I had set it to "Open in 32-bit mode". I unchecked that box. Now Preview prints again.


Finder -- "Open file with..." offers incorrect list of candidate apps When I right-click -> "Open with" -> ...

I see an option for atom 1.19.3 and 1.19.1.

However Spotlight locates only one Atom.app (which is found in Applications).

Opening with 1.19.1 succeeds. However it turns out my version of Atom is actually 1.19.3.

Opening with 1.19.3 however fails to do anything.

I notice from the same screenshot there is a similar duplication going on with VSCode.

What is the problem with my system?  And how to repair it?

You could try rebuilding the LaunchServices database using this terminal command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

This may fix the duplicate listings.


Can I use the T-mobile contract free iPhone 5S with my AT&T number? I am thinking of purchasing the contract-free 5S because my contract with AT&T just expired, and I will only need the phone in the US for a few more months.  Will I be able to use my AT&T sim card (I currently have a 4S) when I receive the T-mobile contract free 5S? Also, I assume I will be able to take it abroad with me and use an international carrier once I move abroad at the end of the year.

Thanks in advance.

Yes, as long as you buy it from Apple's online store.


Does unsupported RAM effect display cards? I have a MacBook Pro 17" Mid 2010 which normally supports 1067 MHz RAM. I needed more memory and installed 2 x 4 GB RAM 1333 MHz modules which - as expected -  also work with 1067 MHz.

After a couple of weeks the display started flickering and showed disturbances similar to television statics for a second and then returns to normal. A couple of weeks later this happens more frequently like every 5-9 minutes. It especially occurs when a secondary display is attached.

Could the RAM modules cause this or is my display card just dying?

This is how it looks like: video

Yes. Apple uses some of your RAM as VRAM as explained in this answer.

So using unsupported RAM can affect your integrated video card.  Try switching back to the stock modules that came with the device and see if you can still replicate your problem.


Wifi not working in windows if thunderbolt display is connected I had to install windows 7 on my macbook air (...) and I'm having trouble getting it to work with the thunderbolt display.

As soon as the display is connected, the wifi doesn't work anymore. Device manager shows the broadcom wifi device with a warning sign. It works nicely  when I reboot without the display plugged in.

Of course I've installed the newest Bootcamp drivers!

Is this a known problem?
Any suggestions?

(If it helps, I'm also having trouble getting my wireless trackpad and wireless keyboard to work at all with windows 7, might be related..)

(un)fortunately I don't know jack about windows anymore because I didn't use it seriously for at least 10 years.

I have this exact same problem but in MacOS X Mountain Lion.  The minute I unplug the thunderbolt/minidisplayport, the wifi starts working again.

I found a weird solution on the internet from another Macbook Air owner witht eh same problem as us: access your router and change the channel to 1, or 2, or any other number that works.  For some reason, plugging in the cable disrupts the wifi signal entering the Macbook.

This seems to be a common problem and this seems to be the only solution that works, as many users have tried with different cables and different OS.  Hopefully Apple will provide a firmware update to fix this for good as not always can we access the router (like at my work).  However, as of today (I updated my OS to 10.8.4), this problem has not been fixed properly.

Good luck!!


Suddenly Siri started to drain battery on iPhone SE (iOS 12.3.1) About 4 days ago I noticed a firm and steady battery drain on my iPhone SE, that the Settings attribute to Siri (see screenshot below).

I did not (or don't remember doing) do any changes in settings at that time.

I installed a few apps recently, so I deleted some of them and offloaded the rest.
I also disabled some Siri related settings (like suggestions).
Apparently (some of) the above stopped the drain for about an hour, but then it continued. So... looking for solutions.

I almost never user Siri. Like once a week maybe, usually even less. (I use it mostly for testing as in "I wonder if Siri can do this" - the answer is usually "no, it can't")

Non-solutions:

turning Siri Suggestions off
turning Siri off "completely"
playing a song in iTunes/Music (suggested here by DRH255)

These made no change.

Solution:

disable the option Settings / General / Keyboard / Enable Dictation (got the hint here and in the above link)

Funny thing, I did not have that option at all, because it appears only when a keyboard language that supports it is added. So I had to add "English (United Kingdom)" to my keyboards, then the dictation option appeared, I turned it off and... the problem is gone.

PS: This post on reddit suggests it is not really draining the battery, only the indicator is showing the wrong value....

*edit*: this seems to (also) be the case. I left my iPhone to drain the battery completely and when it reached 1% it kept going for 5 more hours, always showing 1%. Before that it decreased by 2-3%each hour.

PPS: It still uses about 15% during night, which is too much according to some, but that is probably a separate problem.


Elgato Eve is connected on Home app of iPhone but not on iPad I have Elgato Eve Thermo. Home app on iPhone shows that the device is connected. While on iPad, Home app shows that the device is not connected.

Any ideas what is going on and how to fix it?

It turns out that the iPad should have Bluetooth enabled. I hope at least that some kind of info or hint is displayed.


When using a third-party script library, I can no longer save an AppleScript file in Script Editor.app I have an AppleScript .scpt file that uses the Dialog Toolkit scripting library:

  Dialog Toolkit is an ASObjC-based script library for showing enhanced dialogs.

The following line is at the top of the .scpt file:

use script "Dialog Toolkit" version "2.0"

The Dialog Toolkit file is in the correct location:

  /Users/Me/Library/Script Libraries/Dialog Toolkit.scptd

However, when I try to save my .scpt file in Script Editor.app, I am given the following message:

The dialog reads:

  The document “Untitled.scpt” could not be saved. C and Objective-C pointers cannot be saved in scripts.

  Compiling the script will reset property values and may resolve this issue.

I don't know the meaning of "C and Objective-C pointers", so I don't understand the problem.

I can successfully run and compile the script. But, after I compile the script, I still cannot save the file; I still get the above error message.

If I copy the full code and paste it into a New Document in Script Editor, the error still persists.

If I remove all of the Dialog Toolkit code from my script, then I can save the .scpt file, without error. Hence, it seems that the issue has something to do with how Script Editor handles an external script library.

Also, I have noticed general "bugginess" when working on my script that contains Dialog Toolkit code in Script Editor.

For example, sometimes Script Editor.app will spontaneously quit if the document is open.
Other times, when I press the "Compile the Script" or "Run the Script" button, my cursor transforms into the spinning pinwheel, and remains as a pinwheel for over a minute. Script Editor freezes up, so I then have to Force Quit Script Editor.

There is some chance that this question is related to a previous question of mine:

I suddenly cannot open any files in Script Editor.app

Everything that is listed in the "What I've tried:" section of the above question also failed to fix the The document could not be saved. error.

OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.6.

Script Editor Version 2.8.1 (183.1)

First thing I would try is opening up the scripteditor.app library panel.
In Scripteditor go to menu item "Window/Library"

If dialog toolkit is present in the list, I would select it in the list and remove it.  Then I would quit scripteditor.app and relaunch it again. Once scripteditor.app is up and running again, Open the Library panel and click on the “Add” button in the menu bar and navigate to ~/Library/Script Libraries and select Dialog Toolkit.scptd.

That will probably solve your problem.  I have a funny feeling the problem is occurring because your new com.apple.ScriptEditor2.plist file probably does not contain any reference to the Dialog Toolkit.scptd as per this example in this image..

This is com.apple.ScriptEditor2.plist file opened in xcode


Services menu polluted by apps from another installation Reinstalled 10.15, signed into icloud, had previous 10.13 on another partition for a while.

10.15 is a clean install. The apps that provide those services haven't even been installed.

~/Library/Services is empty. Tried grepping the whole filesystem for those. No match.

The only place they seem to exist is in defaults manager. So I tried removing
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ServicesMenu.Services.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/pbs.plist. Didn't help.

Why are those services in that menu on a clean installation and how to I get rid of them?

Well, I'll be damned.

In the evening I removed 10.13 partition. Immediately after the list remained the same. In the morning the list was fixed.

I believe what happened is, this list is constructed by scanning all available mountpoints. it went into the old volume and picked up the old service files. It probably runs an update every few hours.

This is such a weird behavior.


Sharing music from CD's Me and my husband have just upgraded our phones. Since we have done this I now can no longer access all our music (on my phone). We have separate I-Tunes accounts and family share and for the last god knows how long I have always been able to listen to Albums he has burned from CD's on to our Mac on my phone but all of a sudden I don't have access to them all. Most I can access and download from the cloud but there are the odd tracks and all albums by Garth Brooks that I can not access. Does anyone have any idea what's going on. TIA

Prior to various iCloud services, you used iTunes to sync music to your iphone. If you burned from CDs, the music will be in iTunes on your Mac. The simplest solution is to plug in your new iphone to the Mac and let iTunes sync. This will allow you to copy all music in iTunes Mac to the new iPhone. (this also allows you to backup your phone to the mac)

Since iCloud you have the option of syncing your music library via iCloud. However, this is not a free service, you need to enable iCloud Music Library, and pay for the service.  You can get this via subscribing to Apple Music or paying for something called iTunes Match. Either of these services will allow you to stream all your music, or download to your phone from iCloud.


How to fully disable auto-fill-mode in Aquamacs 3.3? After upgrading Aquamacs to version 3.3, many modes turned on auto-fill-mode. I've followed the answers from questions such as "How can I disable auto-fill mode in emacs?" to disable it, but without complete success. Specifically, I:

set line-wrapping option to "Wrap" (Options→Line Wrapping→Wrap)
turned off "Auto-Detect Line Wrap in Text Files"
set line-wrapping options as default (Options→Line Wrapping→Adopt as Default)
saved options
added lines to .emacs to disable mode globally:

(auto-fill-mode -1)
(remove-hook 'text-mode-hook 'auto-detect-wrap)

added (auto-fill-mode nil) to hooks for specific modes (e.g. html-mode, nxhtml-mode, xhtml-mode).
set text mode hook in customizations.el to disable auto-fill-mode:

'(text-mode-hook
  '((lambda nil (auto-fill-mode nil))
    smart-spacing-mode))

Despite these changes, auto-fill-mode is enabled for some newly opened files (e.g. txt, html, svg) in Aquamacs (the system emacs also enables auto-fill-mode when entering html-mode, but not text-mode). I've grepped for auto-fill in the load path directories that exist but haven't found anything that appears to be enabling it:

~/Library/Application Support/Aquamacs Emacs/
~/Library/Application Support/Emacs/
~/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs/
/Applications/Aquamacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp
/Library/Application Support/Aquamacs Emacs
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp

Where else might auto-fill-mode be enabled? How can I fully disable auto-fill-mode?

Add this to  ~/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Preferences.el:

(remove-hook 'text-mode-hook 'auto-detect-wrap)


How to find the Lion installation image on the iMac? I recently bought Lion for $29.99 for my iMac on the App Store, and now want to burn a disc so that I can make another white Macbook that has Snow Leopard dual boot to Lion as well (Apple allows installing Lion on more than one machine that a user owns).  Also, I wanted to create a disc so that if there is an need in the future, there is a disc to boot to.

But I followed the instructions on

http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/08/create-burn-bootable-mac-os-x-lion-install-disc/

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from-a-usb-flash-drive/

which are both linked from Can I dual boot Snow Leopard and Lion?

and the InstallESD.dmg file cannot be found.  In fact, if I type dmg in the Finder's search box, and chose "Disc Image" (kind / type), the whole hard disk doesn't have a file that is more than 90MB in size.  If I go to the Applications folder, the largest size shown is merely 495MB...

How can this be solved?  thanks.

When you buy Lion from the App Store, it downloads an application named Install Mac OS X Lion to your Applications folder.  InstallESD.dmg is hidden inside this application.  Since it's hidden, a Spotlight search normally won't show it; you need to find the installer application, right-click on it, choose Show Package Contents, and then navigate to the image inside it (both links have instructions for this).

There is one more complication: when you run the Lion installer application, it installs Lion and then deletes the installer.  But you can re-download it if you know the trick: open the App Store, Option-click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar, and you should have a Download button available for OS X Lion.


How can I remove iCloud data for a specific app I want to delete Pixel Gun 3D status but it is apparently saved to iCloud.

I have tried deleting the app and reinstalling but it kept the game's data.  How can completely delete and reinstall the app as new with no previous data?

As detailed in Apple's support article,

Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage (on your device)
Tap on the app's name, Pixel Gun 3D and tap "Delete Data"

This is for an iOS device, which I am assuming you are using. Mac instructions are detailed on the Apple Support article.


How do I regain all unallocated disk space to add it to macOS after removing bootcamp partition? I accidentally erased my Windows 10 bootcamp partition using Disk Utility by reformatting it to MS DOS FAT.  I then tried to restore it with a Winclone backup which failed.  So I finally booted from and external drive with OS X El Capitan and used terminal and a    get remove

Here is where I am at -- any assistance would be greatly appreciated:

I would just like to add disk0 index 4 to index 2
Thx

OK, I managed to solve the problem and hence answer my own question.  BTW, I'm not a fan of the Disk Utility GUI version included with OS X El Capitan - too easy to commit to things without some cautionary dialogues IMO.  That being said, I was able to reformat and reclaim the missing ex-bootcamp partition by simply using Disk Utility to reduce -- yes reduce -- the size of the OS X partition slightly ~ 5GB in this case.  After waiting about 5 minutes for the changes to be completed, here is the output:


Getting error -1426 when trying to transfer files from iPhone via iTunes File Sharing I'm getting error -1426 when trying to transfer files from iPhone via iTunes File Sharing. I'm on iOS 12.4 and macOS 10.14.6. iPhone is XS Max 256GB and Mac is MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD (APFS Encrypted).

It's a 1.8GB audio file. I have 22GB free space on the Mac.

Console shows this error when it happens:

error   17:38:08.029393 -0700   iTunes  AFC OpenFile failed (0xE8004001) for "<private>" for mode 1 with connection 0x7ff3b4156e00

Disk utility gives no errors on the main volume.

I don't recall ever seeing that specific error code with iTunes before.

However, when it comes to the other 14xx* error codes I've seen, the fix is usually doing one of the following:

Restart your Mac (or PC) and change the USB port you're using
Restart your Mac (or PC) and change the USB cable you're using

If neither of these works, reinstalling iTunes may resolve the issue.

Another option worth trying is to download and install iTunes 12.6.3 (this can be installed alongside newer versions of iTunes).

Refer to Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes on Apple's website for further information and download links.

Let me know if none of the above works.

* More specifically, error codes 1413, 1415, 1417, 1418 and 1428.


How to view my custom VPN service listed in a terminal in order to export it? When I execute this command to list my network services:
networksetup -listallnetworkservices

I only get Wifi, why my VPN configuration is not listed here (it's in the Network Preferences list) ? And how can I get it listed in the terminal ?
My goal is to export it via a terminal, edit the configuration manually in a text editor and re-import it.
EDIT
I have set "MyVPN" like below and it's connecting via this Network Configuration window.

But when trying to list it or run it with:
networksetup -connectpppoeservice "MyVPN"

Or with:
scutil --nc start "MyVPN"
No service

Then it doesn't work.

Use networksetup or scutil
You can use it to at least establish/ disconnect connections to the VPN.
Use this command to connect the VPN configured with the name "myVPN":
networksetup -connectpppoeservice "myVPN"

Disconnect from the VPN
networksetup -disconnectpppoeservice "myVPN"

When you want to check the connection status
networksetup -showpppoestatus "myVPN"

The "system configuration utility" or scutil command provides access to network configuration, too.
To connect to your VPN use this command:
scutil --nc start "myVPN"

Run the following command to disconnect from the VPN:
scutil --nc stop "myVPN"

If you want to check the connection status, use:
 scutil --nc status "myVPN"

Let's make it even better
Github Code
#!/bin/bash
#
# Provides some basic utilities for VPN connections.

readonly cmd="${1}"
readonly vpn="${2}"

err() {
  echo "$*" >&2
}

validateCmd() {
  if [[ -z "${cmd}" ]]; then
    err "Command must be provided: [connect, disconnect, status, list]"
    exit 1
  fi
}

validateVpnName() {
  if [[ -z "${vpn}" ]]; then
    err "VPN name must be provided as second argument"
    exit 1
  fi
}

isConnected() {
  networksetup -showpppoestatus "${vpn}" | grep -qv "^connected$"
}

enterPassword() {
  sleep 1
  osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"${1}\""
  osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke return"
}

connect() {
  if ! isConnected; then
    err "Already connected to '${vpn}'"
    exit 1
  fi

  local readonly password="$(security find-generic-password -s "${vpn}" -w)"
  if [[ -z "${password}" ]]; then
    err "Unable to find VPN password in keychain"
    exit 1
  fi

  scutil --nc start "${vpn}"
  enterPassword "${password}"
}

disconnect() {
  scutil --nc stop "${vpn}"
}

status() {
  scutil --nc status "${vpn}"
}

list() {
  scutil --nc list
}

main() {
  validateCmd

  case "${cmd}" in
    connect)
      validateVpnName
      connect "${vpn}"
      ;;
    disconnect)
      validateVpnName
      disconnect "${vpn}"
      ;;
    status)
      validateVpnName
      status "${vpn}"
      ;;
    list)
      list
      ;;
    *)
      err "Unexpected cmd '${cmd}', must be one of [connect, disconnect, status, list]"
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
}

set -e
main "${@}"
set +e

Open the script in an editor and add this code. Let's say it's called vpnConnection.
Add #!/bin/bash so that it can start without further ado
echo `'#!/bin/bash'` > ~/vpnConnection.sh && chmod +x ~/vpnConnection.sh

./vpnConnection.sh list show all VPN connections
./vpnConnection.sh connect "myVPN" Connect to the VPN "myVPN" and automatically enter the password
./vpnConnection.sh disconnect "myVPN" disconnect the VPN "myVPN"
./vpnConnection.sh status "myVPN" view the connection status for VPN "myVPN"


Help! How do I locate a missing iPhone? My brother's phone got stolen. I tried locating it with "Find My iPhone" but the app doesn't show up so I guess it's not installed on his device. I don't think we ever connected his device to iTunes. Is there a way to download the app to his device or use my iPhone to find his, or any other way to find it? The phone company says the thief is still using the internet on the device and today he accidentally called me when I was sleeping so I couldn't answer. When we call it, he doesn't pick up. So I just really need to find it! :/

Sorry, but if Find My iPhone wasn't enabled on his iPhone at the time it was stolen, there's not much you can do to track it, as you can't remotely enable Find My iPhone.

Even if you could push an app to the phone, it's not possible to enter the iCloud account. Your option is to pursue legal means to compel the phone company to either track the device or terminate the service.


How to disable Mac OS X's autocorrect but still show spelling suggestions? I welcome popup spelling suggestions, but I dislike the OS replacing text as I type without any real confirmation from me.

I'm aware both behaviors can be enabled/disabled together as one option in System Prefs > Keyboard > Text, but would anyone know a way to disable the autocorrect while leaving the tooltip-style suggestions intact…perhaps via the Terminal? Thank you.

Mac OS X 9.4 (Mavericks)

When a suggestion happens and the word is underlined in blue, then right click the word and goto Spelling and Grammar and uncheck Correct Spelling Automatically.


Script for getting windows from beyond display border I have a problem with my new monitor. Often when I unlock the screen, there are windows that are hanging beyond desktop border. It is quite irritating having to drag them back to the window centre manually.

Luckily, I've found a script that can do it for me:
https://github.com/bradchoate/gather-windows/blob/master/Gather%20Windows.applescript

Unfortunately, it only works from the script editor window. When I try to run it by clicking on its name in the script menu bar it does nothing. I tried saving it as an application and running it, to the same effect.

Anyone can help me with that?

I went to the URL in your question, click the Raw button, copied the code and pasted it into Script Editor, where I saved it as an application named: Gather Off-Screen Windows.app

I then went into System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Accessibility, as show in the image below, and added the Gather Off-Screen Windows.app.

I moved some windows off-screen, then ran the Gather Off-Screen Windows.app, and it completed without error and moved the off-screen windows fully onto the screen.

Now while I added the Gather Off-Screen Windows.app to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Accessibility after having saved it, had I not done so, I would have expected to see the following dialog boxes when I ran the app, (which sometimes one or both may not appear):

That said, let me say that while I have not studied the script in depth to have a through understanding of it mechanics, nonetheless, I see what I consider some poor coding in this instance in the beginning and would change the following line of code from:

repeat with proc in application processes

To:

repeat with proc in (application processes whose visible is equal to true)

The reason this change makes sense to me is, as an example, at the moment I have 38 application processes running of which only 10 are visible and therefore it's seems senseless to query further the 28 application processes that aren't even visible.

Also note that I even minimized some of the off-screen windows before running the app and when I unminimized them, they were then completely on screen. So the visible property in this instance is about the process not minimized off-screen windows that while minimized are not visible.


Sharing Internet with Mac and Buffalo WHR-HP-G54? I have enabled internet sharing with ethernet. I try to share the internet with "automatic DHCP" to my Buffalo. I can access the buffalo but I am unable to share the internet from mac to buffalo and from buffalo to other machines. How can I do that?

Short answer: you're doing it wrong.

The Buffalo device you've got is a wifi router. Normally this kind of thing sits between your cable modem (or whatever you've got connected to the wall) and the rest of your home network, and redistributes your Internet connection to multiple devices in your home.

If you turn on "internet sharing" on your Mac, you're essentially turning your mac into a wifi router as well. There is no reason to do this. And you're probably creating a "double-NATing" situation as well, which is undesirable.  I'm not sure how you've got your network wired up physically, but that could be part of the problem too, I imagine.

So, in short, either get rid of the Buffalo entirely and rely on your Mac's internet sharing to do the same thing, or use the Buffalo to distribute your Internet connection and turn off Internet sharing on your Mac. I would do the latter. So your setup should look like this:

Wall socket -- Cable Modem -- Buffalo -- Computer
                                      -- Another Computer
                                      -- Yet Another Computer

This is the case both on a physical level and on a logical level—the Buffalo sits "upstream" of your computers in terms of networks traffic, whether it connects to them over an Ethernet cable or wifi.


How to show all dates (jubilees) from contacts on calendar There is 1 calendar, that shows only birthday dates from contacts on iphone/mac OS. But if 1 contact has several dates (e.g. jubilee, birthday of kids or other important dates) that i want to be shown in calendar on iphone or mac OS.
How can it be done? And can it?
Thanks.

Nope. You can add custom dates in Contacts

and create repeating events in Calendar,

but there's no automatic linkage between the two. The best you'll get is something like BirthdayScanner which scans all dates in Contacts then allows you to add them to your Calendar, but there's no first-party automagic solution.


Time/date not auto recognising my location for time zone after using a VPN Recently I was using a VPN (provided by Avast) to secure my connection whilst traveling.

Right now I am not using it as I am back in my office.

But using it seems to have caused an issue with the auto time clock on my computer (see attached screenshot) any ideas how to resolve this?

I hate to point out the obvious, but at least it is a temporary fix. Uncheck the "Set time zone automatically..." checkbox and manually set your time zone.


Software to synchronize two directories (local/remote) I need software that would detect changes in directory (A) every 5 seconds or so and upload/delete changed files from/at (B) remote directory.

I found non-commercial software, https://github.com/devstructure/doubledown. I am wondering if there are any commercial alternatives?

rsync is definitely the right tool for this job. It exists to keep directories in synch and can do it with a fair bit of smarts. For example: it'll transfer only deltas whenever it can and it can work over ssh tunnels.

Let's say you have machine source that hosts your live version of the directory tree /my/tree and machine sink that you want to keep in close synchronization with it. If you had an ssh account on sink you could, from source use rsync as follows:

rsync -avz --delete -e ssh /my/tree/ remoteuser@sink:/my/tree

This assumes you want /my/tree in the exact same spot on sink as you have it on source. Of course, you don't need to keep it in the exact same spot.

Breaking down the command line:

-avz: archive mode, verbose out, use compression during transfer
--delete: delete files on sync that aren't present on source
-e ssh: Use ssh as the connection method

This call will, of course, ask you for your password when you make it. If you want to do this in some automated fashion you're going to need to share some keys between the accounts on the machines and use public-private key encryption to make the ssh connection.

To set up your key pair for this rysnc, run the following command on your source machine:

> ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -f ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [press enter here]
Enter same passphrase again: [press enter here]
Your identification has been saved in ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key.
Your public key has been saved in ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
2e:28:d9:ec:85:21:e7:ff:73:df:2e:07:78:f0:d0:a0 root@source

> chmod 600 ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key

For this keypair to work we need to add the contents of ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key.pub to the ~<remoteuser>/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the sink machine.

First copy the file over to the sink machine:

scp ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key.pub remoteuser@sink:~

Then ssh to the sink machine and import the key by running the following as remoteuser on the machine:

> if [ ! -d ~/.ssh ]; then mkdir ~/.ssh ; chmod 700 ~/.ssh ; fi
cd ~/.ssh/
if [ ! -f authorized_keys ]; then touch authorized_keys ; chmod 600 authorized_keys ; fi
cat ~/my-rsync-key.pub >> authorized_keys
rm ~/my-rsync-key.pub

For additional tips on locking down the ssh connection between your source and sink machines I recommend taking a look at this page.

From your source machine you can test that this setup works by running:

rsync -avz --dry-run -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/my-rsync-key" /my/tree/ remoteuser@sink:/my/tree

That will do a dry run of an rsync. If you see the rsync command connecting and comparing the files you know things are setup properly.

Now we need an easy way to call this rsync command from a LaunchD config file as shown in this helpful answer on this site. Since you want this call to happen in a tight loop you'll need to make certain you don't have multiple copies of the rsync running at the same time. You can use flock to create a mutex that ensures a bash script is singleton: only one instance of it every runs at one time on a machine. So we're going to create the following script on disk:

#!/bin/sh
SINK_INSTANCE=remoteuser@sink
DIR=/my/tree
KEY=~/.ssh/my-rsync-key
LOG = ~/my_rsync.log
LOCK = ~/my_rsync.lock
SOURCE=/my/tree

exec 9>${LOCK}
if ! flock -n 9  ; then
    echo "Another instance of your rsync is already running";
    exit 1
fi

echo "----------" >> ${LOG}
echo `date` >> ${LOG}

rsync -avz --delete -e "ssh -i ${KEY}" \
    ${SOURCE}/ {SINK_INSTANCE}:${SOURCE} 2>&1 >> ${LOG}

Save that as ~/my_rsync.sh.

That script will take care of doing the rsync for you. All you need to do now is set it up via LaunchD and have it run in a tight loop. Following the directions from here and modifying it to meet our needs, we're going to create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/my-rsync.plist in a text editor and make the contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>My Rsync</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/bin/sh</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>while sleep 5s; /Users/my/my_rsync.sh; done</string>
    </array>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Keep /my/tree synchronized with the machine sink</string>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

That should take care of things.

The usual caveats apply: I wrote this from memory and didn't test it. So don't follow along blindly. Test carefully along the way. Whenever you're in doubt use the --dry-run option on rsync. It'll print out what it would have done without actually doing anything.


Can I trust Apple support and share my password? I have problem with iCloud backup on my iPhone. After several calls to the Russian department of Apple support they suggest me to change my AppleID password temporarily to an test password proposed by the support specialist to see what's going on with my account. Also they say that they get access to all my data stored on phone: messages, photo, apps data etc, and I should agree with this terms.

Of course they say usually engineers don't read/watch users data, but  I think it's weird to grant access to all my data.

Should I trust them and share my pretty photos, banking apps and personal chats? I'm pretty sure I have talked with the official Apple support, not scammers.

In a word, NO.  No-one reputable will EVER ask for your password, EVER.  Proper support have the tools and such in place to allow them the access they need to do what they need.  If they have to actually login as you (Which clearly they can only do from a different device anyway, limiting any usefulness it may even have) then surely there is nothing they need to do that for which they can't simply ask you to replicate for them without handing over credentials.  I smell a rat.


How to transfer data from one iCloud account into a new one? Since approximately 2009, my mother, brother, and I have all shared the same Apple ID and therefore, iCloud. Each of us have our separate devices, computers, and different music, apps, contacts, and other data on them. It's been really messy and generally a pain to try and make our stuff separate when we share the same cloud and everything. Now my brother and I want to get our own separate accounts, but we don't want to have to repurchase over 500 songs and 170+ apps, move around thousands of pictures, reenter our contacts, etc, etc...

Is there any way we can transfer our individual data to a new iCloud account on our respective devices? I feel it should be as simple as signing into the device with one Apple ID, downloading what I want, and then signing back in with my new Apple ID where everything will download. But knowing Apple and my luck with technology it probably won't be that simple.

Thanks for any help.

You can create individual iCloud IDs and keep the old ID as store ID, common for every user. That way you won't have to purchase everything again and still the data within your apps will remain different as your iCloud IDs are different.

Optionally, you can just create two more IDs and use family sharing with the first ID to share all your purchased content.

To transfer your data like contacts, notes etc. configure the old iCloud ID on a new device and when everything is synced just delete the iCloud ID. It should ask if you want to delete all your data from the device. Select "No". Then configure your new iCloud ID from iCloud settings and now it will ask if you want to "merge" all data.


Scripting arbitrary menubar itemns So I really want to fix this applescript I'm working on. I would like to be able to click an arbitrary item in an arbitrary submenu of an arbitrary menu in any application. Here's where I've gotten:

tell application "System Events"
    set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell process activeApp
    tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1
        click
    end tell
end tell

The problem I'm getting is when I add that second "of menu bar item 1". It worked just fine up until I got to that point and now I don't know what to do? I'm pretty new to UI scripting and applescript.

The hierarchy of the menu bar object goes like this:
menu bar > menu bar item > menu > menu item [ > menu > menu item [...] ]

where the square brackets indicate possible sub-menus, should they exist.
Therefore, if you change this line:
    tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1

to this:
    tell menu 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1

it will work.
This, of course, will always click the Apple () menu, which is menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 for all applications in which the menu bar exists and is visible (although it belongs to whichever application is frontmost, so attempting to ask another application process to click this item will throw an error).
If you wish to click an arbitrary menu item in the menu bar to reveal its menu, you need to replace the index number 1 of the menu bar item with a random value, but one that does not exceed the number of available menu bar items.
To get the number of menu bar items, use the count command:
    set N to count menu bar items of menu bar 1 of activeApp

(You can omit of activeApp if the command is placed inside a tell process activeApp block.)
To get a random number between 1 and N, use the random number command:
    set i to random number from 1 to N

Putting that all together, your new command will look something like this:
    tell menu bar item i of menu bar 1 to click

Now each time you run the script, a random menu bar item will be clicked causing its menu to appear.
To go even further, and get your script to click a random menu item, you can apply exactly the same principles as above, bearing in mind the hierarchy I laid out at the top.
So, after retrieving a random menu bar item, next determine the maximum number of menu items and generate a random number less than or equal to this maximum:
    set M to count menu items of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1
    set j to random number from 1 to M

Then you can click it:
    click menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1

Applying the same principles to any sub-menus that exist for that particular menu item, you'll end up with this:
    set L to count menu items of menu 1 of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1
    set k to random number from 1 to L
    click menu item k of menu 1 of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1

However, you'll find that this—more often than not—will throw an error when trying to set L.  This is because not all menu items will have sub-menus, and in the instances where no sub-menu exists, asking AppleScript to count the number of menu items [in a non-existent sub-menu] is not a sensible command.
There are two ways to handle this.  Either wrap those lines in a try...end try error-catching block, like this:
    try
        set L to count menu items of menu 1 of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1
        set k to random number from 1 to L
        click menu item k of menu 1 of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1
    end try

or count the number of (sub-)menus of menu item j, and only proceed if this number is greater than 0:
    count menus of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1

    if the result > 0 then
        set L to count menu items of menu 1 of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1
        set k to random number from 1 to L
        click menu item k of menu 1 of menu item j of menu 1 of menu bar item i of menu bar 1
    end if

And so on, and so on...
Finally...
It's unlikely you will know precisely how many levels deep a particular menu tree goes: how many sub-menus within sub-menus exist for a particular menu item ?  The answer is at least 0, but with no given maximum unless you check in advance yourself.
Luckily, we can AppleScript to do the checking for us.  After picking a random menu bar item, every child that spawns from this (looking at the hierarchy I showed you at the top) is a menu followed by a menu item.  The menu object, as you'll have noticed, only comes in singular count, so will always be referenced as menu 1.  The menu items come in plural, and these are the items that need counting.
So, quite simply, having chosen a random menu bar item, we get AppleScript to do the following:

count the number of menu items it contains;
If this value is 0, then there are no sub-menus, so we can just click the item we have;
If the value is greater than 0, then choose a random one;
count the number of menu items this one contains;
If this value is 0, just click it;
If the value is greater than 0, then choose a random one;
etc..

This process is a loop that can keep going for as many sub-menus that it finds.  And that's what this code does:
    tell application "System Events" to ¬
        tell (the first application process ¬
            whose frontmost is true)

            set m to it
            set _m to the menu bar items of menu bar 1

            repeat
                if not (exists _m) then exit repeat

                set i to random number from 1 to (count _m)

                set m to item i of _m
                set _m to a reference to menu items of menu 1 of m
            end repeat

            click m

        end tell

Caveat: The horizontal lines that separate sections of a menu are also classed as menu items, as are any menu items that are disabled.  These, when clicked, don't do anything.

BE CAREFUL:  Clicking a menu item randomly before you know what it does can result in some undesirable outcomes.  For instance, you may accidentally quit the front application; you may delete a file or eject a disk if the script runs whilst Finder is at the front; or you may log out or shut down your computer.


Migrating from Old to Less-Old Mac - any other specific issues? Scenario - I have a new Mac, and am giving my old one to my father-in-law.

He now has an old Gx Gumdrop iMac running 10.3 (I think), and the new-to-him mac is an older Core2 iMac running 10.6

From How can I transfer data from a G5 iMac to an i7 iMac? I have an idea of how to connect the two machines.

Other than deleting my old data, etc.; any specific gotchas to watch out for, given that I am targeting not a brand-new mac, but an old one?  Can I just trigger the migration assistant (because normally it is triggered as part of the initial install process)?

Thanks

Yes, if you're fresh installing the new Mac it will ask if you want to transfer information at the end of the install process - just have a firewire to firewire cable handy and have the old mac booted into target disk mode (hold down T while the old mac is booting up).

Just check you can boot the old mac into target mode first - I know some of those old macs weren't built with the capability. If you can't target mode just comment on the answer or your question, there are other ways around this.

The only gotcha I can think of is any PPC apps (ones that use the older Power PC processors) like AppleWorks will need to use Rosetta to run, which might make them run a bit slow or cause general funkyness with those apps. You'll want to upgrade your Dad's apps to their Intel versions if you can - using something like App Fresh after the migration would be a good idea.


HSTS.plist - anyone know what this is about/from? HSTS.plist. Anyone know what this file is about? I thought it was a mal file slipped in, but it does seem to come from Apple. I have accounts at none of the sites listed in the file and visited twitter (it's listed in the file) only once recently to see what William Shatner had to say.

It is found in ~/Library/Cookies/HSTS.plist

Delete it, it comes back.

Found in both Mavericks and Yosemite.

HSTS.plist is a Safari settings file related to HTTP Strict Transport Security. It is a mandatory setting for Mavericks and newer OS releases. For more information about this security policy mechanism, you can read up about it at Wikipedia:

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


Delete all events in iCal How can I delete all events in iCal? I have a bunch of events (some reoccurring) that I want to delete. I don't want to have to manually delete/cut each event.

I tried declining the events but that just turns them gray.

I'm running OS X 10.6.6.

Applescript:

tell application "iCal"
   tell calendar "My Calendar" -- your calendar here
      set theEvents to every event
      repeat with current_event in theEvents
         delete current_event
      end repeat
   end tell
end tell


Preparing my MacBook Pro in case it is ever stolen How might I best prepare my MacBook Pro in case it is ever stolen?

I hardened my security by flipping on FileVault (home directory encryption) and enabling the password prompt after waking from sleep or screensaver. My account has a secure password.

But then if a thief steals my laptop, they'll be completely locked out. So then they will be forced to reformat, and any potential security measures I have will be thrown out the window. Should I then create another user account or something, to allow them a way into my laptop without compromising my home directory and let something like Prey run in the background?

Can I enable some sort of guest account for this purpose, is it a good idea, and what is the security implications of doing so? And then what else should I do to protect my laptop and allow me to potentially recover it? What are my options besides Prey for sneaky background things? How do I prevent the thief from reformatting my laptop and bypassing everything entirely? (is there a BIOS-level theft prevention program?)

How can I best ensure that I can recover my MacBook Pro if it is stolen or lost, while also keeping my physical security of passwords and such to prevent anyone from walking up and using my computer when I'm not looking?

(2010 MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6.5)

You want to set an Open Firmware Password. This makes it so that a thief needs a password to boot to another disk (or do anything other than a normal boot). This means that they can't reset your password from the OS disc and get in anyway. This is an important security measure to take. The only problem is that you can't do things like safe boots and verbose mode. Here is an article about how to set up the OF password (and how to reset a user password).

And here is a general article about physical and virtual options to increase security (ways to help locate a stolen Mac, make thieves think it's broken, or even just lock it to your desk).


Dock restarting continuously after High Sierra update I updated an iMac 2011 to High Sierra and now the dock and the upper bar disappear continuously and the wallpaper turns black. Just for a second, then all restart again. And it is happening all the time. It's like the GUI is restarting but other apps don't.

Sometimes a note that said "In order to enable Apple-tab, the Dock must first be quit and relaunched. This will cause all minimized windows to be expanded. Do you wish to proceed?" appear, if I press "no" the problem stop until I restart the computer.

Any idea about how can I fix this?

I'd start by trying to reset the Dock first and then manually quitting and relaunching it. Note you will need to re-add any non-default icons (i.e. apps) that you've added to the Dock - so you may want to take a screenshot of your Dock as a reminder of what you had there. (Or start afresh and only add things as you actually use them).

Reset the Dock

To reset the Dock, follow these steps:

Go to Finder
Press and hold the option key down
Now go to the Go menu
Select the Library option to open the User's Library folder. You can let go of the option key now.
Go to the Preferences folder (i.e. within the Library folder)
Find and move the com.apple.dock.plist file to the Trash

Quit and relaunch the Dock

To quit and relaunch the Dock, follow these steps:

Open Terminal (usually located in Applications > Utilities)
Enter this command killall -KILL Dock
Press enter

Once you've done the above I'd restart your computer to see if the problem has been resolved. If it hasn't, then I'd try rebooting into Safe Mode to see if the problem is still present.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. is the Dock still misbehaving?)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Test again to see what the Dock does

Let me know how you go.

[EDIT]

Since you've established that you don't have the problem in Safe Mode, but still do after logging in normally again, then it's time to investigate login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Investigating login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Let's start with Login Items:

Startup normally
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Select the Login Items tab
Take a note of your Login Items
Now remove all of them by highlighting them and clicking on the - button below
Restart your computer

Now your Mac will boot up without those login items loading. Test this and see if the problem persists:

If the problem goes away you know one (or more) of the Login items were causing the problem. You can then add them back in one by one until you've identified the culprit. Problem solved.
If the problem does persist, it's either a problem with fonts you've installed yourself or with a 3rd party kernel extension. A little more info below:

Fonts:- You can remove any of the fonts you've installed yourself to see if this makes a difference.

Kernel Extensions:- You can open Terminal (found within your Utilites folder) and enter the following command:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

The above command will list 3rd party kernel extensions (you may need to stretch the Terminal window so it's easier to read). Look for anything you don't remember installing, or something that belongs to software you've removed, or just anything that looks out of place. Remember though, this is a list of 3rd party kernel extensions and therefore any of them could be causing the problem.


Website in separate browser instance in IOS In IOS, adding a website to the home screen in Safari essentially produces a Safari bookmark on the home screen. When clicking on such an icon, the website is displayed in Safari.

Is there some way to start a separate browser instance when clicking on such a "home screen bookmark", i.e., one which does not share state with the regular Safari instance. This would make it possible to delete state (cookies, website data etc.) of one instance without affecting the other. In addition, both instances would be isolated from each other.

Is this possible by some means?

No, it's not possible.  Currently, Home Screen bookmarks open the same instance of Safari.


Why is zeroing out a drive with dd not working? I'm using macOS Catalina.
I have a 16GB microSD card that had Raspbian on it, which is 2 partitions:

45MB boot partition
large Linux partition

I needed to clear it, so I plugged the SD card into my Mac and did this:
$ sudo bash -c 'gdd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=4M; sync'

gdd is the GNU version of dd, installed using homebrew.
/dev/disk2 is definitely the right microSD card I'm zeroing out, confirmed with the Disk Utility.
I use rdisk instead of disk because it's much faster, and points to the same disk.
When the command starts running, the macOS Disk Utility shows the drive name change from "boot" to something like "Generic Flash Device" or something like that, so I know it's definitely doing something.
gdd runs for a while, and after a few minutes, shows this:
gdd: error writing '/dev/rdisk2': Input/output error
3799+0 records in
3798+0 records out
15931539456 bytes (16 GB, 15 GiB) copied, 419.932 s, 37.9 MB/s

The error makes sense, since it tries to write zeroes to the microSD card until it runs out of space. At this point, the SD card should contain all zeroes. I've done this literally dozens of times on Linux. It never fails. I've even done this successfully on High Sierra dozens of times.
What doesn't make sense to me is that as soon as the gdd process is done running, Disk Utility shows the SD card as "boot" again, it automounts at /Volumes/boot, and the files are still there.
How is it that gdd shows that it successfully wrote the entire SD card full of zeros, and yet the data is still there?
Update: The Mac I was doing this on just happened to have VMware fusion on it, so I did this:

Created a VM, attached Arch Linux ISO to it, and booted it
Attached the USB card reader device to the VM
Used dd in Arch to zero out the drive

I shut down the VM, and the USB device reattached to the macOS. Exactly the same thing - the "boot" partition is still there, still auto-mounts, and has all the files there. What is going on?
Update 2: I can't even seem to delete the partitions. I use the Arch VM, and either fdisk, or cfdisk to delete the 2 partitions on the SD card, it says it deleted them successfully, but as soon as I check again, the partitions are still there. The SD card is brand new. I'm not seeing any I/O errors reading from, or writing to it that would even suggest that its damaged.
Update 3: I can't even delete the files. I mount either partition under Arch, use rm -rf * to delete ALL files on that partition, and ls shows that they are gone. I unmount the partition, and immediately mount it again, and all the files are still there.

The error makes sense, since it tries to write zeroes to the microSD card until it runs out of space.

You've misread the error.
gdd: error writing '/dev/rdisk2': Input/output error

That means there was an error writing to the device.  The command you issued should do what you want - fill the drive with zeros, but this error says otherwise.

What doesn't make sense to me is that as soon as the gdd process is done running, Disk Utility shows the SD card as "boot" again, it automounts at /Volumes/boot, and the files are still there. How is it that gdd shows that it successfully wrote the entire SD card full of zeros, and yet the data is still there?

gdd did no such thing!  It gave you an I/O error message when it was writing to the device.  Your original files are there because nothing was written to the SD card.
Possible causes:

The card could be write protected
The card could be defective (especially if counterfeit - i.e. it reports 16GB but only has 2GB of actual storage)
The USB card reader could be defective


Storage devices that work with both iPad and iMac I currently have a problem that my grandparents have an old Mac Mini (2007 or so) which is no longer fit for use. They generally just use an iPad now for all of their internetting/computing needs, however they have an abundance of files on their Mini that they want to keep, mainly photos.
I have suggested using cloud storage for it all, but they don't want to do that as they don't want to pay the fee they would need to for the amount of files they have. Also being old, they don't want all their files on the cloud and educating them otherwise is futile.
I have since moved all their files to my more recent iMac for the time being until I can sort something more permanent for them.
I'm looking for a physical storage device that can plug into both my iMac so I can transfer the files to it, and then plug into my grandparent's iPad, so they can view/open their files (photos and word docs occasional audio file) on their iPad.
I recently bought this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08G8HTR8T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and they insist you download an App, called "CooDisk" which looked like a piece of rubbish! -- also the device didn't work when plugged into the iMac. And so I am returning it, I don't want to go off and buy a more expensive version of the same thing without someone recommending that it will do what I want it to do.
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)
iPad 4th Gen
Is there such a device or even a completely new strategy that I can pursue to achieve what I need to above?

I think making the Mini into a fileserver is your best shot. That way they can access the files on it through Files on the iPad. You can also access the Mini this way (when you're at their place) and so it's easy all the way around. This approach means you don't even have to buy anything else. Just allow the Mini to be shared across the local network and you're golden.


jailbroken iPhone 4 stuck at boot screen after update My aunt's iPhone 4 was jailbroken the day it was bought. And about last month, she updated it. Suddenly the screen went blank only the apple logo was showing. She can't fix it with iTunes because she forgot her account. Is there any way to fix this without iTunes?

To summarize

You tried to update a jailbroken iPhone without restoring it first.
The iPhone won't boot anymore

Cause

You cannot just upgrade a jailbroken device without restoring it as new device.

Solution

If you restore the iPhone via iTunes it should be fixed.
(You don't need any Apple ID for this, unless the iPhone is already iOS 7.* and iCloud enabled)


iOS9 photos - remove image from screenshots folder that isn't a screenshot So I have 3 photos in the Screenshots folder in the Photos app of iOS 9. They aren't screenshots, but they may be being classified that way since I imported them from the internet. How do I change their classification so that they're not in that folder?

The screenshot folder is a folder automatically. The user can not handle this file. Only screenshots will appear in this folder.
If you want to import a picture of the web (Google picture for example) in your film, you can hold down over the image and select "save image".
Good luck !


Add wallpaper to iPad but not to the list of Photos? The only way I found of adding a custom wallpaper to an iPad leaves that wallpaper mixed with all the photos. Can I somehow specify that it's a wallpaper and should go into the list of wallpapers?

(couldn't find this by googling...)

I don't believe you can, maybe with jailbreaking?

However, after setting the wallpaper, you can remove it from your photo library without affecting your wallpaper selection. This may be a bit inconvenient when you regularly switch between wallpapers, but it is as close as it gets.


Can the function of the iTunes shuffle control be changed in iTunes 11? I just updated my iTunes to 11.0. I just want to know how I can make the songs in my playlists in shuffle mode, but not the songs in my Library. Before with iTunes 10, you can have that option where you only shuffle songs in your playlists but not the library. But with iTunes 11, I can't seem to find that option. When I have songs in my playlists in shuffle mode, it also shuffles the songs I play from my Library.

So, can shuffle only affect a playlist and remain unset for general library play?

There is a  shuffle button right beside the playlist name (at the top), when you have a playlist selected

In the above, my sidebar is off, (so I get this bar)

Songs   Albums   Artists   Genres   Playlists   Radio   Match        iTunes Store

but this also works if a playlist is selected and the sidebar is on.


Keynote document can't be opened although its size shows normally and how to repair it? I recently moved my some keynote documents into backup HD. And I found I can't open some of those someday. It showed that "xxx.key can't be opened",and then I just try open it in PDF preview, it showed that "It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize."

But something weird was that those fail-to-open files remained normal size. Right now I'm not sure whether it is error of writing files in HD or keynote software itself.

Any other ideas as to how these documents can be repaired?

Try this:

Rename a copy of one of the broken presentation to have an .zip extension:
Bad_Presentation copy.key > Bad_Presentation copy.zip.

Then right-click on Bad_Presentation copy.zip and choose Archive Utility from the Open With> command. This will unpack the presentation into a folder named Bad_Presentation. Take this folder, give it a new name, (Bad_Presentation_Fix) then right-click and Compress the folder back to a .zip formatted file. Lastly, rename the resultant .zip file Bad_Presentation_Fix.key. See if you can open this in Keynote.

iWork documents are not what they seem. They are actually a set of bundled resources in a folder that looks like a single document in the Finder. Sometimes the bundle format can be messed up when transferring iWork documents into and out of file systems which cannot handle this format.

Good luck!


Is there a way to shut down, restart or log off without seeing the popup? I would like to know if there is a way to delete the popup shown when you are trying to shut down, restart or log off your Mac with version OS X 10.9 - What I want is that when I click on one of these buttons, the computer makes that action without asking for a confirmation and the countdown of 1 minute.

I know you can use Alt+Shut down/Restart/Log off but I would like to know if there is a direct way to deactivate that popup via Terminal or something else.

There are a few methods to shutdown without confirmation (this will not remove the confirmation from the original method):

In Terminal: shutdown -h now, but this force quits all applications
Make an Applescript and save it as 'Application,' save it somewhere easily accessible, but not prone to accidental clicks:

on run
  do shell script "shutdown -h now"
end run

The shortcut Control-⌥ Option-⌘ cmd-⏏ Eject
Clicking shutdown with ⌥ Alt / ⌥ Option held down (as you said)
If using Alfred, you can summon the Alfred window and start typing "Shut down" or "Restart" and then pressing Enter. No Power Pack needed, no force quits, no dialog and no countdown.

You could also try following this method by WZZZ, but I haven't checked if it works. It reduces the time to auto-quit apps, so do:

defaults write org.x.X11 wm_auto_quit_timeout -int x


Should Mac menu items be title case? Should Mac menu items be title case? "New from Clipboard" vs "New From
  Clipboard"?

Gus Mueller asked this question on twitter and I am curious as well. If it is title case does it follow a particular set of rules such as the Chicago Manual of Style or Gruber's script? This would be especially good to know when writing scripts to activate menu options which are case sensitive IIRC.

With regard to that specific example, it's "New from Clipboard", as shown in the Preview.app File menu.

A cursory glance through some first-party menus shows that every word begins with a capital except articles, conjunctions and prepositions. There's nothing in the Menu Bar Menus section of the Human Interface Guidelines talking about the capitalisation.


mail.app shows the wrong date for emails I have a very long history of emails 30+ years.
Some of my old emails are showed with the wrong date in mail.app.
Example:
These are the headers after anonymizing the data:
Received: from speedy.grolier.fr (speedy.grolier.fr [194.158.97.87]) by ns.calvacom.fr (8.7.3/8.6.9) with ESMTP id OAA21857 for <*@*>; Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:02:35 +0200 (MET DST)
Received: from *.club-internet.fr (ppp-207-54.neuilly.club-internet.fr [194.117.207.54]) by speedy.grolier.fr (8.7.5/MGC-960516) with ESMTP id OAA16943 for <*@*>; Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:00:14 +0200 (MET DST)
X-UIDL: 842012897.000
Message-Id: <*@speedy.grolier.fr>
From: "*" <*@*>
To: "*" <*@*>
Subject: Re: Faites-vous connaitre
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 13:56:38 +0200
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1132
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

below the body of the email.

So we can see that

Received: has Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:02:35 +0200 (MET DST) and Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:00:14 +0200 (MET DST)
Date: has Fri, 6 Sep 1996 13:56:38 +0200

The displayed date is
So I checked with mdls
mdls  ~/Library/Mail/path_to_email/857941.emlx | grep -i date
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate      = 2015-10-13 04:27:22 +0000

no useful data about the email itself. Let's check with mdimport
mdimport -t -d3  ~/Library/Mail/path_to_email/857941.emlx | grep -i date
    "_kMDItemContentChangeDate" = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    "_kMDItemCreationDate" = "2015-10-13 04:27:22 +0000";
    "_kMDItemExpirationDate" = "<null>";
    "com_apple_mail_dateLastViewed" = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    "com_apple_mail_dateReceived" = "2005-07-16 15:58:43 +0000";
    kMDItemContentCreationDate = "1996-09-06 11:56:38 +0000";
    kMDItemContentModificationDate = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    kMDItemDateAdded = "2020-10-02 02:10:11 +0000";
    kMDItemLastUsedDate = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    kMDItemTextContent = " cut the body of email ";

So I can see that "com_apple_mail_dateReceived" = "2005-07-16 15:58:43 +0000"; is the date retained by mail.app to display the date in the UI.
Now I'm trying to understand how to change that.
Even after doing a mdimport -i ~/Library/Mail/path_to_email/857941.emlx, the date doesn't change in com_apple_mail_dateReceived.
I'm testing on this mail, but I have thousands of emails in the same state with the wrong com_apple_mail_dateReceived.
Update
Using Catalina, the emlx files do not help anymore because the mails are now in a private DB. The issue now is how to change the metadata contained in this DB when they are wrong.
Update 2
Ok I probably understood where the wrong date is coming from. In the emlx file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>conversation-id</key>
    <integer>378100</integer>
    <key>date-last-viewed</key>
    <integer>1601614618</integer>
    <key>date-received</key>
    <integer>1121529523</integer>
    <key>flags</key>
    <integer>9160621057</integer>
    <key>remote-id</key>
    <string>21</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Then let's try to convert the Epoch date to a normal date.
% date -r 1121529523
Dim 17 jul 2005 00:58:43 JST

So now, we need to figure out if we change the date of the emlx file and try to reimport it, if it fixes the DB.

So… it almost looks like a bug from Mail.app
I tried to modify manually the file to have the right date in the plist and with the right content-size at the top. And the new import converted it back to the date of 2005. I sent a bug report to Apple about it.


How to disable Mavericks' emoji shortcut The shortcut control-command-space in Mavericks opens a panel with Emojis. I'd like to use it for another application (Divvy), but it complains that it is already used by a system-wide keyboard shortcut. But as far as I can see there is no way to disable it in the system settings. Does anyone know of an alternative method to disable it?

You can change the shortcut from System Preferences:

Either three periods or an ellipsis character should work.

You can disable the shortcut by modifying ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist:

defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add 'Special Characters...' '\0'

Quit and reopen applications to apply the changes made with the defaults command.


How to Set, Use iOS 10.2 Parental Controls on iPhone 7 Plus i want to be safe from my child use my iPhone, what i have to do? To restrict my device running on iOS 10.2?

What exactly do you want to restrict?

You can restrict apps:

Settings > General > Restrictions > Select app.

You can restrict websites, content:

Settings > General > Restrictions > Allowed content.

You can set a Password:

Settings > Touch ID & Passcode.

Or you can use third part apps that block specific content and apps.


Can I upgrade RAM to 16GB on MacBook Pro 17" i7 2.66 GHz? When I checked it on System, it says 8 GB RAM. But I wonder, if I put 16 GB of RAM in the two slots of my MacBook (2 8GB sticks) will it work?

Some Mac's can utilize more then the official amount stated however according to EveryMac.com, the actual maximum amount of RAM a MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.66 GHz 17" Mid-2010 can utilize is 8 GB.

I've found that information presented by EveryMac.com to be very accurate in this area and wouldn't waste my time or money trying to put 16 GB in this model MacBook Pro unless it can be corroborated by an authoritative source.

As mentioned in the comments by RedEagle2000, "Mactracker says the same" and they too are known for being very accurate in this area as well.

Also at crucial.com, from Micron Technology and one of the top Semiconductor producing companies in the world, the model you have can only take 8 GB.


El Capitan - Enable Tap-to-click on login screen I want to enable Tap-to-click for my trackpad on the login screen of my MacBook Pro with El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1004).

I tried everything proposed on this old question but nothing has worked.

Could you help me please?

I just tried this and it worked on Sierra but should work on older versions too... The internal trackpad uses a different driver (USB) so need to enable a different default

sudo defaults write com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad Clicking 1


My MacBook Pro sleeps when I turn off external display I have a MacBook Pro (Mid 2012), and had a Dell U24, connected via DVI. I always have the MacBook Pro closed. When I turn off the monitor the MacBook Pro continued working.

Now I have a Dell U27, connected via DisplayPort. Now when I turn off the monitor, the MacBook Pro goes to sleep.

How can I prevent my Mac from sleeping when the display is turned off?

Try putting the monitor to sleep by pressing control+shift+⏏. This will turn off your display and should leave the computer on.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343


What are the empty home and net drives? I have two drives on my Mac which are always empty (I've enabled show hidden files in the Finder):

What are these drives for?

Not sure why you're always seeing them -- I don't, even with hidden files enabled -- but they're the root directories commonly used by the automounter when you connect your Mac to an NFS network (which generally means a Unix/Linux network). Users' home directories are usually mounted under /home, and other shared filesystems under /net.


Why is the iPhone's default landscape orientation 'upside down'? Upside down is probably the wrong phrase here, but whenever I start an app that uses landscape (e.g. a game) or watch a video, the first orientation is starts at is with the phone rotated left. In other words, with the volume controls on the bottom.

However, it seems more logical to me that landscape mode is better the other way up. One reason is that the +/- volume is on the right/left respectively (volume increases to the right in the display) and is easier to access with a finger than thumb on the bottom. Furthermore, since the volume button is used to operate the shutter on the camera, it should be that way up when taking photos.

Is there a reason that apps (Apple-provided and third party) have the default orientation the other way?

I was going to chalk it up to the developer just being lazy and selecting the default value and tab-completing when creating their app. However, I tried it out for myself (create a new iOS app project, edit the $AppName-Info.plist file and add the following new row):

You can see that the first auto complete option for Landscape mode is (left home button), meaning the developer had to consciously choose the second option for it to be right sided as in your app. This supports stuffe's conjecture that this is done because most users are right handed.
The screenshot above are the options for iPad. The iPhone has the same set, except for the second one, which is absent.

AFAIK, Apple doesn't advocate the use of a specific orientation as a default. Their iOS Human Interface Guidelines only say the following re: orientation

Launch your app in your supported orientation, regardless of the current device orientation. For example, if your game or media-viewing application runs in landscape only, it’s appropriate to launch your app in landscape, even if the device is currently in portrait. This way, if people start your application in portrait, they know to rotate the device to landscape to view the content.

Support both variants of an orientation. For example, if your application runs only in landscape, people should be able to use it whether they’re holding the device with the Home button on the right or on the left. And, if people rotate the device 180 degrees while using your application, it’s best if you can respond by rotating your content 180 degrees.

On iPad, strive to satisfy users’ expectations by being able to run in all orientations. The large iPad screen mitigates people’s desire to rotate the device to landscape to “see more.” And, because people don’t pay much attention to the minimal frame of the device or the location of the Home button, they don’t view the device as having a default orientation. This lack of awareness of an app’s default orientation leads people to expect apps to run well in the device orientation they’re currently using. As much as possible, your application should encourage people to interact with iPad from any side by providing a great experience in all orientations.

So as you can see, they don't advocate for any particular orientation and encourage the developer to support all orientations. Also see this.
However, this technical documentation uses an example with code for right-oriented apps (i.e., home button on the right). So another explanation – apart from the developer's own UX inclinations – is a copy-paste effect :)


MacBook Pro 13" (2009): No startup-chime, no error sounds, internal screen stays black I have a 2009 MacBook Pro 13".

After I haven't used it for a while, I wanted to start it up again to give it to my sister and something really odd happened.

I have searched both google and AskDifferent intensively. There is a lot of questions and forum posts, that are similar, but none are quite like my problem.

When I turn it on, the screen stays black. No boot screen, no Apple, nothing. However the backlight is on. The display flashes a bit, when hard powering off.
There is no startup-chime. To be exact, there is no sound what so ever. I tried removing both pieces of ram, because this usually results in a beeping signal. But even this doesn't happen.
I attached my external monitor, and it showed the regular screen. I was able to log in, went to the settings and it recognised the internal monitor as usual. But it still stays black.

Things I tried so far:

Reset NVRAM
Disconnect charger and unplug battery for about an hour. In between pressed the on button a couple of times to drain any remaining charge.
Tried various ram configurations (since that was what I changed recently)

Does anybody have an idea, what the reason for these problems could be?

Is there any analytic/hardware-test tool, that I could run? Keep in mind, that I am able to boot and view stuff on the second screen. However I do not have any access to menus, that show up before the system is fully booted.

Update:

I have looked inside the system settings for sound. The regular sound card as an output device is completely missing. Could this be a problem with the logic board?

You might try attaching the second monitor and running Apple Hardware Test upon boot.

To run the hardware test:

Print these instructions for reference
Disconnect all external devices except the keyboard, mouse, display, and speakers. If you have an Ethernet cable or external DVD drive, disconnect it.
Restart your Mac, holding down the D key while the Mac restarts.
After your Mac restarts, you should see the Apple Hardware Test chooser screen. If you don’t, Apple Hardware Test may not be available on your Mac. You may be able to start Apple Hardware Test from the Internet. Reconnect your Mac to the network, then restart your Mac while holding down both the Option and D keys.
When the Apple Hardware Test chooser screen appears, select the language you want to use, then press the Return key or click the right arrow button.
When the Apple Hardware Test main screen appears (after about 45 seconds), follow the onscreen instructions.

If you can't see anything on your secondary display after starting Apple Hardware Test, then it may have started but not recognized your secondary display.  You could press Enter and then T to start the tests, but there's probably no way to see the results.   If this is the case, you're probably better off taking it to the Apple Store.  It sounds like the LCD is faulty.

Here is a list of other startup keyboard shortcuts.

LCDTest

You might try running this LCDTest program to check whether any RBG test patterns show up or change the display output.  If you still don't see any output, and you've checked that the LCD Display shows up under System Preferences => Displays, then you may have a hardware problem with your Display Data Connector, or LCD Display.

LCD Hardware Problem

This is most likely a hardware problem, and taking it in to the Apple Store for support is probably your best bet if it's still under warranty.  You can check if your Macbook's warranty is still active by visiting this page and entering your serial number.

If it's out of warranty, or you really want to try and solve this yourself (this will void your warranty), then dive into the iFixIt Guide for Replacing a MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2009 Display.  iFixIt sells Replacement Parts for your Macbook.


Amplify mic even more Is there a way to amplify the input audio even more then how far the slider goes on system preferences?

Maybe an application or something?

I am using line-in to pass a small signal through from the mic input, and I can hear it ok when it is quiet, just it needs a bit more volume.

What kind of Microphone? Any pre-amplified microphone should be plenty loud (even too loud) when maxed. You may have to use a pre-amp of some sort, something like the ART PowerMIX III before plugging it into your computer.