How to edit any text in chosen editor? I'm looking for a small app that will let me move any selected text (ie in a text box or another app) into my chosen text editor (in this case Sublime Text 2), and when I save will move it back to where it came from. I remember reading about such a thing ages ago, and google has failed me. Please tell me what I can do to solve this problem.

Is this

http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/quickcursor

what you're thinking of?

  QuickCursor brings your favorite text editor* to any app with a global keyboard shortcut. Unlike manually copying and pasting between apps, QuickCursor automates the entire process to save you time.

To use Sublime Text 2 with QuickCursor, add it's bundle ID (com.sublimetext.2) to the custom bundle ID field in the QuickCursor preferences.


Hidden folder in /Users/Shared that has MD5-encrypted name of another user I was familiarizing myself with some of the hidden files in OS X (while cleaning house) and I came across a hidden folder inside the /Users/Shared directory. It's name is "." followed by a 32-character hex string, which (I googled the string) is the MD5-encrypted version of the name of my user account on this computer.

The folder was created in 2008, but last modified just two days ago (which leads me to believe it's been accessed somewhat regularly). It contains three files: "." (4 KB document, created and modified two days ago), ".." (Zero KB document, created and modified in 2008), and "Temporary Items" (4 KB document, created and modified two days ago).

Is this normal, or is something strange going on? (Have I been hacked?) I'm using a PowerPC Mac running 10.4.11 (yeah, I know).

Your question appears to be slightly incomplete, however the first two files are standard unix "files".

. is the shortcut for the current directory;
.. is the shortcut for the directory up one in the tree.

A lot of Unix shells require you to completely specify the path to an executable when executing them from the command line, and an example you may have seen:

./Make

Is a request to execute the file Make in the current directory.

Similarly, using the command

cd ..

Is a request to change the directory to the parent of the current directory.

Your third file is not named in your question so I cannot provide an answer for that.


Using wildcards in Find and Replace (Mac OS app) I'm using an app called Scapple which (I think) accesses the built in Find and Replace of Mac OS.

It's a mind map app into which I'm pasting dozens and dozens of paragraphs from Kindle books. Each time you paste from Kindle, it adds the book title and location at the bottom of the pasted section. Like this:

  AuthorSurname, AuthorFirstname. Book Title (Kindle Locations 637-639).
  Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

I want to get rid of these, and deleting them one at a time is getting laborious. I could remove them in seconds with a Find and Replace leaving the Replace box empty, if it weren't for the Location changing every time.

Is there a way to use wildcards in a Find and Replace in Mac OS apps?

So my Find string would look something like:

  AuthorSurname, AuthorFirstname. Book Title (Kindle Locations ???-???).
  Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

macOS's built-in text find and replace, NSTextFinder shown below, does support wildcards available from clicking the search button and choosing Insert Pattern (⌃⌥⌘P).

Other third-party search dialogs may support regex search. For example, in Scrivener, which is developed by the same company as Scapple, you can perform a regular expression search — [0-9]{3} matches a digit 0-9 exactly 3 times.


Writing EOF (End of File) on Windows 7 with bootcamp I'm looking for a way to input the EOF char into the command line on my MacBook Pro with Windows 7 running in Boot Camp.
I've tried several suggested shortcuts and the on-screen keyboard but none of it works.

In Windows, use Ctrl+Z to enter an EOF. If you're not on an empty line, you'll need to press that shortcut twice, once to flush the buffer of the current line, and the second to send the actual EOF.


No Wi-Fi connectivity after waking up from sleep on MacBook I'm running a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) with OS X El Capitan. I have an Arris DG1760 Cable Modem/Wi-Fi Router from Time Warner Cable. I connect to the router via Wi-Fi (5G). No issues until after my MBP goes to sleep and then I wake it up, I am still connected to Wi-Fi but have no connectivity whatsoever. I diff'd the result of ifconfig with a good connection versus after sleep/wake, and there is only one line different.

Working:

  inet 192.168.0.8 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255

Not Working:

  inet 169.254.150.25 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 169.254.255.255

Apparently (from whois), the non-working IP is a link-local address. Not sure exactly what that means to my situation, but any ideas on how to resolve this? I'd prefer to not have to turn Wi-Fi on/off each time I come back to my MacBook.

Had very similar problem.  After wake up Wi-Fi icon shows "connected" status, but network does not work, i.e. even ping to my router does not work.  The connectivity usually resumes on its own after some time (dozens of seconds to couple of minutes), or after I do manual DHCP renew or turn Wi-Fi off and then back on.

The problem gone after I disabled DoS attack protection on my router.  It seems that my router treated Apple's rapid DHCP (https://cafbit.com/entry/rapid_dhcp_or_how_do) as DoS attack attempt.


How to disable scroll acceleration in macOS Sierra? A few releases ago OS X introduced scroll acceleration, which means if you keep scrolling in some direction, the speed of the scroll will be greater and greater. You cannot disable this from the UI. It is extremely annoying if you want to scroll through a long website or a long source code in an editor.

Until macOS Sierra you could disable this using DisableExtremeScrollAcceleration tool. But this tool is no longer working.

Is there any way to prevent the scroll acceleration?

I wrote a small program to fix this behavior: https://github.com/emreyolcu/discrete-scroll

You may download a binary here. It runs in the background and allows you to scroll 3 lines with each tick of the wheel.


Why iPad can't open an email with 'open in mail' option? I have a stored email (.eml) file that can be downloaded and open with Mail.app on mac.
When I tried to open the same email in iPad, I clicked 'open with mail' to launch mail app, but nothing seems to happen; the mail app doesn't show the downloaded email.

What might be wrong? Do I need to make additional setup for reading emails downloaded somewhere?

.eml is not supported by iOS by default.

You might try an external app like Klammer.


Firefox - Shortcut for activating bookmarks in Bookmarks Toolbar? Are there any keyboard shortcuts for activating bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar for Firefox?

(Similar to the +1, +2, ..., keyboard shortcuts for Safari.)

Not built-in, but it is available through a no-restart extension called Bookmark Shortcut Keys:

Access Bookmark Toolbar items with a keyboard shortcut.
The default is Control+1-9. Change it in the preferences.

Note that you have to organize your bookmarks toolbar with up to nine of your favorite links at the beginning of the list to use it. There is no way to map a specific number to a specific link (except by the order in which they appear).
Note:
In my use, I could not get Cmd+1-9 to work because it's used to navigate to open tabs. But it did work with Alt+Shift+1-9.
I didn't use the default Control+1-9 because that's mapped to switching spaces in OS X and I didn't want to re-map it.


Is it bad when my iMac is constantly on? Is it bad if I never shutdown my computer?

I am asking solely terms of hardware so let's assume my software is stable and I reboot regularly to clean up software errors.

If running constantly is harmful, what can happen? (If not, why?)

The computer in question is an iMac (Mid 2011 - 27 inch) with a 3.4 GHz i7 processor.

No, it's fine. The CPU's heatsink may warp over time (unlikely unless there were QA problems to begin with like some in the first generation MBP) and reduce the transfer of heat, leading to thermal thresholds being reached and the system shutting down.

Some may claim excessive fan wear, leading to failure, but I ran the stock fans in my 2006 MBP at 6,000 rpm for over a year without problems—they are quite resilient and I suspect RPM throttling hurts them the most, not constant spinning.

Other issues some might find distressing would be hard drive wear (again unlikely as heads are often parked if not in use).

Truthfully, the only surefire downside would be the increase in power draw, but other than that, no, no ill effects or failure to hardware will occur.


After midnight insomnia MacBook Air 2012 with Sierra 10.12.6

Something is draining my battery overnight.

The pmset -g assertions
Assertion status system-wide:

BackgroundTask                 0
   ApplePushServiceTask           0
   UserIsActive                   1
   PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep    0
   PreventSystemSleep             0
   ExternalMedia                  0
   PreventUserIdleSystemSleep     0
   NetworkClientActive            0
Listed by owning process:
   pid 117(hidd): [0x00052d7300099bbd] 02:56:54 UserIsActive named: "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294976712.3"
    Timeout will fire in 1440 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease
No kernel assertions.
Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

Turned off WiFi and anything that would wake it up or keep awake, problem remains. Battery is down to 5-10% in 8 hours of sleep time.
Battery is new (6 months old)

Charge Information:
  Charge Remaining (mAh):   7334
  Fully Charged:    Yes
  Charging: No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   7340
  Health Information:
  Cycle Count:  15
  Condition:    Normal
  Battery Installed:    Yes

Following was active at lid closing time:
Mail, Skype, Chrome (with 10 tabs)

Found a suggestion to address the:

 Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

by removing/resetting Printers and other stuff
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7275550?start=0&tstart=0
No help.

Update:
Running log show --style syslog | fgrep "Wake reason"
shows noting in the hours of interest!

Manual method: Review Console system log ...
Found huge activity from Google Chrome reporting errors

Aug 16 01:22:29 myMBA Google Chrome[18176]: objc[18176]: __weak variable at 0x600001228a50 holds 0x2121212121212121 instead of 0x600000c279a0. This is probably incorrect use of objc_storeWeak() and objc_loadWeak(). Break on objc_weak_error to debug.

and Google Software trying to do update on repeated basis?

  Aug 16 01:40:11 myMBA GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent
  Closed Chrome overnight, still the same.

More investigation (and it repeats following every 30 second all night long):

pmset -g log

UUID: C67362CF-C70A-4AC3-AB1E-EC803FD0563F
2017-08-18 04:53:46 -0700 Notification          Display is turned off
2017-08-18 04:53:46 -0700 Assertions            PID 117(hidd) Summary UserIsActive "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294968070.3" 07:57:39  id:0x0x90000926c [System: DeclUser kDisp]
2017-08-18 04:53:46 -0700 Assertions            PID 50(UserEventAgent) Summary BackgroundTask "com.apple.mds.3" 36:06:15  id:0x0xb00008082 [System: DeclUser kDisp]
2017-08-18 04:53:46 -0700 Assertions            Kernel Idle sleep preventers: -None-
2017-08-18 04:53:46 -0700 Assertions            PID 62(powerd) Created InternalPreventSleep "com.apple.powermanagement.darkwakelinger" 00:00:00  id:0x0xd0000937e [System: PrevIdle DeclUser SRPrevSleep kCPU kDisp]
2017-08-18 04:53:47 -0700 Assertions            Kernel Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler
2017-08-18 04:53:47 -0700 Notification          Display is turned on
2017-08-18 04:53:49 -0700 Kernel Client Acks    Delays to Sleep notifications: [AppleBacklightDisplay driver is slow(msg: SetState to 0)(984 ms)] [AppleIntelFramebuffer driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(420 ms)] [AppleHDADriver driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(409 ms)] [AppleHDADriver driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(441 ms)] [AppleIntelFramebuffer driver is slow(msg: SetState to 2)(1027 ms)]
2017-08-18 04:54:01 -0700 Assertions            PID 62(powerd) TimedOut InternalPreventSleep "com.apple.powermanagement.darkwakelinger" 00:00:15  id:0x0xd0000937e [System: DeclUser SRPrevSleep kCPU kDisp]
Sleep/Wakes since boot at 2017-08-16 16:47:11 -0700 :0   Dark Wake Count in this sleep cycle:1

Problem remains, something is draining the battery. How can I prevent this drain from happening?

Finally, I got it to obey when I say sleep !

The battery remained at 100% charge after 8 hours of sleep.

This is what sleep should look like between 1AM and 10AM. That's it, no other activity as it should be.

Aug 19 01:05:19 myMBA com.apple.usbmuxd[4793]: notice    Idle, stopping.
Aug 19 01:05:19 myMBA com.apple.usbmuxd[7126]: notice    usbmuxd-374.913 on Mar 17 2017 at 17:43:50, running 64 bit
Aug 19 01:05:54 myMBA com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.user.501): Service "com.apple.xpc.launchd.unmanaged.loginwindow.113" tried to hijack endpoint "com.apple.tsm.uiserver" from owner: com.apple.SystemUIServer.agent
Aug 19 01:06:24 --- last message repeated 3 times ---
Aug 19 02:16:35 myMBA syslogd[51]: ASL Sender Statistics
Aug 19 09:52:58 myMBA syslogd[51]: ASL Sender Statistics

So what did I do?
First it killed the pesky GooleSotwareUpdate (as described here)
Pesky Google acting up
.. that was active all night long and completely ignoring my sleep request.
Then I shut down all apps (especially the Google Chrome that was misbehaving).
Then I Left the Lid open and used the Sleep now command (in Apple top left)
The reason for Lid open was to see if monitor comes on after a while, and it did !
I had to use the Sleep command 3 times, since it came back on about 3 seconds after ?


Why is my external disk being backed up again by Time Machine? My 200 GB music library resides on a SD card that is permanently inserted into my MacBook Pro. The volume is encrypted using Filevault. Time Machine will include that volume when doing backups onto an external USB disk. This solutions worked very well for the past 1–2 years.

However, today Time Machine decided to backup the entire SD card again (I verified this using BackupLoupe) and it is a complete mystery to me why it did that. The md5 checksums of both versions are identical and also permissions seem identical between the two backed up versions and the original one. My main drive was backed up as usual (i.e. no full backup).

The only actual change I can think of, is an upgrade to the macOS 10.14.4 from 10.14.3.

Any ideas why these files have been backed up again and how I can investigate this? Is there a tool / command to see why TimeMachine decides to back up a file?

Update 1

It just happened a second time and again the entire disk is being backed up. So I am starting to suspect that something is happening which leads Time Machine to believe this is a new disk. As I said, this worked without issues in the past.

And, yes, I am aware that this is not the safest (but cheapest ;) form of data storage and I keep redundant backups.

I also use a 256gb external SD card in the MacBook Pro 15” to store music and videos unencrypted. I Have done so for the last 2 years With no issues, while backing up using time machine. @n1000 Interesting that my SD card was never included in the esclude list. So basically I never had to do anything other connect my external hard drive to backup everything on my Mac. I can add the SD to the esclude list manually.


How to use fiber-optic LC connector with my MacBook Pro for access to LTO-5 tape drive? I'd like to use an LTO-5 tape drive to provide long term backup storage for files on my MacBook Pro that I wish to archive.  It appears the drive uses a fiber-optic LC connector.  Is there a way to connect such a drive to my MacBook Pro so I can back up files using it from my laptop?  If not, is there a LTO tape solution that works with MacBooks?

The only way that I know of connecting a MacBook (any modern laptop) to a fiber channel drive/drive subsystem is with a a device like the ATTO Thunderlink FC3162, however, they are prohibitively expensive.

What might be a much cheaper and more effective alternative is to build another machine (a cheap PC will work well) and install a Fibre Channel HBA to connect to your LTO tape system.  I’ve done something very similar with FreeBSD and a Fibre Channel array that served as storage and Time Capsule backup using drives; I’m sure a tape solution would work just as easily.


Save Excel file as pipe-delimited values file I know that you can save an Excel spreadsheet as a CSV file and that this will put quotes around any fields that have commas in them. I have commas in one of my columns and want pipe (|) delimited output, just like the question asked here:
Customize delimiter character with Excel CSV save-as
with no Excel solution. I need an Excel solution due to limitations on my machine.
Running version 15.27.

While I don't know how to use the pipe character | can I suggest you use "Tab-Delimited Text" which is one of the "Specialty Formats" listed under "Save As...".

Then if you wish you can use tr to change the tabs to pipes. tr '\t' '\|' < file.txt > file_converted.txt at the command line.

Note that most software that exports CSV files (including Excel) wraps a field with a comma in it in quotes (as you mention above). Also note that most software that imports CSV files can usually also perform the unwrap. Finally, you may well find that whatever you are doing with the exported file is perfectly happy with tab-delimited text.


Accessing my contacts from broken iPhone? My iPhone 4 gave up its last hope and hasn't turned on in two weeks. I need to get my contacts, and it's not backed up. What do I do? Phone doesn't turn on, say it's charging but won't turn on. Left it plugged in for three days, still had red battery sign. I'm about to hook it up to a computer to find whether or not I can access its contents.

Check your iCloud account to see if your contacts were backed up. You can go to www.icloud.com and then sign in with your Apple ID and password. Once you are in, you'll be able to view contacts and see if they are backed up.

As for the iPhone and its battery/power issues, you'll need to visit an Apple Store and get a new battery to replace the current one. Keep in mind you may have to pay for it since its likely that you no longer have a warranty on it. That should at least fix the issue. Also since support is no longer provided for the iPhone 4, they can choose to opt out of repairing it if they can't order the parts from the repair depot.

***Make sure that when you charge your iPhone that you use the standard Apple charger that came with your iPhone. By using third-party chargers, they can create issues similiar to this one.


Can I connect my Mini DisplayPort monitor with a Thunderbolt cable? I wanted to go to the Apple Store and pick up a Thunderbolt cable, as they seem to be the only store in the area that has a Mini DisplayPort (style) in the Thunderbolt cable. My monitor requires mini display port to broadcast at 60Hz at 4k resolution.

Will the Thunderbolt cable work in lieu of a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable?

Yes that is possible!

But all you need is a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable. Skip this upscale Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable. You'll find Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cables much cheaper in other retailers.

For example Amazon..


Is there a way to copy the link URL in Safari (Mac OS X) without using right click? In Safari, if you want to copy the link URL, you should do 3 operations:

Hover the link
Right-click the link
Use the "Copy link" item from the main/contextual menu

Alternatively, you can hover/navigate to the link and then select the link (usually if textual) by using the mouse/trackpad. Then you hit CMD+C and have the link copied, but these are still 3 operations (navigate/hover, select, copy).

So, the question: Is there a way in Safari to reduce the above to just 2 operations:  1) Hover and 2) Copy ?

It seems there are similar tools/plugins for Firefox and Chrome:

Chrome: Copy link address
Firefox: Copy URL on Mouse Over

There is even a plugin for Safari which does something similar, but not exactly: Type to navigate. The issue is that this plugin is not designed to solve the above problem, so even though the plugin allows you to copy the link you have selected, it is not solving the real problem - how to reduce the steps to just 2 (hover and copy).

Ideas are welcome!

Select Command-L
That will highlight the URL field
Then just select Command-C to copy.

This is the quickest keyboard shortcuts I have found.


Kingston Predator showing up as "External" Drive in Disk Utility, Blocking Boot Camp Install I installed a 480GB Kingston Predator PCIe flash SSD in a 2009 Mac Pro. It worked great after installing macOS Sierra. Boots fast and is very snappy.

Went to install Windows using Boot Camp and I couldn't get past the error:

  You cannot partition an external disk, a RAID disk or an internal disk on which FileVault encryption is in progress. Restart your
  computer using an internal disk that is not part of a RAID set or try
  it again after FileVault has completed.

For some reason either Mac Pro or macOS Sierra sees the PCIe SSD as an external drive.

Is there any way to make it appear as an internal drive or any way I can dual boot into Windows if I cannot get past this error in Boot Camp?

I was able to add a second PCIe flash card and install Windows directly without the use of Boot Camp Assistant. I was also able to do the same by using Apple Disk Utility to create a free partition on the macOS drive for Windows and install it that way as well. However I opted for the second PCIe flash card to keep things simple and segregated.

Now, when I boot and hold the Control key, I get "Macintosh HD" and "EFI Boot", the later of which is Windows.


Where is macOS 10.14 Mojave com.apple.Safari.plist ResponsiveDesignCustomPresetConfigurations? Does anyone know where to find the equivalent of ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist ResponsiveDesignCustomPresetConfigurations on macOS Mojave? I have the same problem as this post, but can't find it on recently updated macOS:

This has changed since High Sierra.

Thanks in advance.

The file is in /Users/$USER/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

(replace $USER with your username).

However to edit it you have to disable SIP. Reboot and hold Ctrl+R, open Terminal and type csrutil disable && reboot.

Login and edit the file (either manually or using defaults command).
Reboot again holding Ctrl+R and type to the terminal csrutil enable && reboot to enable SIP.


How do I enroll devices while "Can enable remote management" is disabled? I'm deploying a large number of iPads and Mac Minis in my environment, and I need to be able to enroll them so they can be managed by my server.

In my server "Profile Manager" there is a setting to "Can Enable Remote Management".

By enabling this, I can Enroll a device through the http://myserver/mydevices/ page

If I disable the "Can Enable Remote Management" feature, the "Enroll this mac" button disappears.

This is to be expected since once I have the remote management enabled, I don't want any other users monkeying with it, removing the trust certificate, or otherwise vandalizing my hard work.

What is the right way to mass deploy these devices to my network, ensuring they can't be changed by the users, and disabling the ability for the end user to enable/disable remote management.

Four years after you posted this, Apple's answer to this is Device Enrollment Program to point all the macOS and iOS hardware you buy to your MDM enrollment URL without user interaction.

That way the devices can be enrolled, supervised, managed without needing to train end users.


Listing/Moving certain files My current path is /Users/UserName/Downloads/Downloaded_Path. In Downloaded_Path Folder i have multiple folders like F1, F2 etc and each folder contain rar part-files from rar to r99. What I want to do is to list all files which are either rar or r* extension type and copy them from those respective folder to a new folder.

It's very easy to do,

The * acts as a wildcard so that we are copying every files that has .r in it ie 133.rar or 123.r99.
The cp function more properly looks like this

cp /path/from/*.r* /path/to

Edit: upon re reading the question you will want to add the recursive tag -R

cp -R /path/from/*.r* path/to

More specifically for you

cp -R /Users/UserName/Downloads/Downloaded_Path/*.r* new/path/location

Additionally what you can do to list all these files as well is

ls  /Users/UserName/Downloads/Downloaded_Path/*.r*

ls allows for some tags to give you more information about the files being listed. -a -l -t
Or -alt all together. -a shows all files including the files starting with . Or ..
-l lists the files in a long format
-t lists them in time order (in which I believe is last touched or modified)
The following code will explain more about the ls tags if you want to read more about it.

man ls

Another helpful tip is to get out of man within terminal, just press the q button.

Cheers!


Why do calendar notifications bring macOS Calendar application to the foreground? I've noticed that recently, maybe after some sort application or OS update, calendar notifications have been functioning normally in notification center BUT have also caused the calendar application (Calendar.app) to be brought to the foreground. It has no relation to what i'm currently working on or what application i'm using - it even does this while i'm typing, if a new calendar update comes in.

This is SUPER annoying as it completely distracts from whatever i'm currently doing.

So as it happens, I had recently turned on a feature in macOS Mail (mail.app) called "Add invitations to Calendar automatically". Disabling this feature immediately fixed this issue and does not prevent Calendar from receiving/notifying/displaying calendar invites. In honesty, aside from removing this really annoying side-effect it doesn't seem to have any downsides for my usage of Mail/Calendar.

Fix: Mail > Preferences > General > Disable "Add invitations to Calendar automatically"


Backup and Restore Apple Messages on macOS Is there some means of saving your Messages history on OS X and copying it to a new system without doing a full restore from a Time Machine back up?

Doing some searching, I found the below and tried this approach in a virtual machine copy of Mavericks without much luck.

  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5948332

Despite copying the files to their respective locations on the fresh install and adjusting permissions, the new installation version of Messages never seems to import/recognize the history from my current system.

To ensure my permissions were okay, I also found

  Mavericks Mail will not save preferences

which was linked to by

  Fixing broken Messages on OS X Mavericks

but this also did not result in Messages importing/using the copied history.  Both instances of Mavericks are using Messages 8.0

Yes, it is possible to import message history from a Time Machine backup onto a new machine without a full restore from a Time Machine backup. This was tested on 10.10 but should work for at least 10.9 as well.

Take a full Time Machine backup of the new system.
Quit Messages.app.
Remove all of the following files and directories on the new system:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iChat/
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/
~/Library/Messages/
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imessage.bag.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.FaceTime.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.iMessage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.ids.FaceTime.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.ids.iMessage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.Jabber.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.LSSharedFileList.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.StatusMessages.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.Yahoo.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plist

Copy the following files and directories from your Time Machine backup to their respective locations on your new system:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/
~/Library/Messages/
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imessage.bag.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.FaceTime.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.iMessage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.ids.FaceTime.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.ids.iMessage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.Jabber.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.LSSharedFileList.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.StatusMessages.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.Yahoo.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plist

Restart your system


MacOS: iTunes switches to safe mode occasionally Once a week or so, this message pops up on my Macbook Pro:

why?  When I restart iTunes, iTunes seems happy again (for a time).

Safe mode is (usually) triggered by holding  Cmd ⌘  &  Opt ⌥  as you launch iTunes. It's a diagnostic mode for troubleshooting.
I can't imagine why it would do this alone, unless you have stuck keys… but you'd have very probably noticed that by now.


iPhone full Backup possible? I am updating my iPhone from a 6 to 8.
I wanted to move everything including passwords from the old phone, and I understood that I needed to perform an encrypted backup.

The file is 23.33GB vs the 53GB storage used on my phone. Is the file compressed to account for this or does the full backup not include everything on the iPhone?

The full backup does not include:

iOS itself (since that will already be on the other device),
app bundles (since they will be downloaded from the App Store again).

App data is backed up even if the apps themselves aren't. It's as full of a backup as is available and will back up all of your data.


XQuartz X11 2.7.5 not found to get X11 i went to XQuartz here https://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/X112.7.5
however the download linke XQuartz-2.7.5.dmg seems to be broken -- couldn't find it anywhere else either. what am i missing?

If you go to the XQuartz home page you will find a link to download XQuartz that should be correct.

If you are running OS X 10.9 then you need version 2.7.5

At the moment it is http://xquartz.macosforge.org/downloads/SL/XQuartz-2.7.5.dmg but our friends at MacOSforge appear to have a broken server. The problem is not yours, it is on their system.

Wait a few more hours and it should be right.

If you can't wait then grab it from my dropbox :-

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6c2owdu0nkf7aa/XQuartz-2.7.5.dmg

(note to everyone - I'll remove it in a day or so. Try the website first.)


How do I make a mac have a faster boot time? I have a Mac desktop 2017 that has 8  Gigabytes of ram and a 1 TB HDD running Catalina. I was wondering how I can make the boot time faster because of work-related reasons. Thank you

Here, I assume your iMac has a 21.5" screen and was original configured with a internal 1 TB HDD. In this case, your model does not have the PCIe connector for an internal blade SSD. Therefore, you could only replace the internal SATA HDD with an internal SATA SSD. Note, this SATA connector operates at a maximum of 6 Gb/s. So, instead of replacing the internal drive, you would probably be better off with an external 10 Gb/s USB or 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 drive. Also, an external drive would be easier to try and if purchased properly, the drive could be returned if the performance is not satisfactory.
Your model Mac is not designed to be taken apart. Although, opening the Mac to replace the SATA HDD with SATA SSD would be possible. When I purchased my 2013 iMac, I had Micro Center open the tapped edge Mac and upgrade to 16 GB of RAM. Like your Mac, the internal drive is a 1 TB HDD. Upgrading to Catalina made this Mac unusable. APFS was not made for HDD. I added an external USB Samsung T7 SSD as the boot drive. Even though this Mac only has a 5 Gb/s USB type A port, the performance improved dramatically. This includes the boot time. Your Mac has 10 Gb/s USB type C ports, so I would expect even better performance. Evidently, Macs preform TRIM operations when booting, which can increase boot times. However, the Samsung T7 does not support TRIM, so this will not be a factor. There are reports stating the lack of TRIM will eventually slow down a SSD, but I have not noticed any slow down. I theorize that even at the drive's slowest speed, the drive is still operating faster than the 5 Gb/s USB interface. For reference purposes, below is the output from the System Information application. Your Mac would report a speed of up to 10 Gb/s.

Another possibility is to add a external Thunderbolt 3 Samsung X5 SSD as the boot drive. These drives are significantly more expansive that the Samsung T7, but the interface is 40 Gb/s. I have one of these drives connected to a 2018 Mac mini. The Mac reports that TRIM is supported and enabled when the Samsung X5 is connected. I have booted Mojave from the PCIe-based internal SSD storage and the external Samsung X5 SSD. I can report that I do not really notice any difference in performance. However, the specifications state the Samsung X5 should have a slightly slower transfer rate. For reference purposes, below is the output from the System Information application.

I should also note that the external Samsung X5 is also reported to be a NVMExpress device, just like the PCIe-based internal SSD storage. (Boot Camp was added manually. You can not use the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows on external drives.) Note that the Thunderbolt drive is disk0 even though the Mac is current booted to Mojave from the internal drive.

References:
How do you upgrade the hard drive or SSD in the "Tapered Edge" Aluminum iMac models? What type of storage do they support? Is it even possible to upgrade the storage?


How to create a USB installer for multiple OS on an OS X system? I would like to be able to create a disk image (that I can transfer via Disk Utility.app to a large USB storage thumb drive) which is a multiboot installer for provisioning various operating systems from a single USB drive.  I need to be able to create the image in one step to include multiple bootable OS installers (various multiple versions of OS X/Windows/Linux/Linux based Recovery Platforms), all from a single OS X machine.

I found a nice tutorial for creating a multiboot usb thumbdrive via Linux that will boot OS X on a Mac, and Linux or Windows on PCs or Macs, and obviously, if I already have a Linux virtual machine, I could use YUMI as indicated in the tutorial (and I have seen other, similar tutorials that use a similar utilities to do this from Windows like SARDU and XBOOT), but I am hoping to discover a similar OS X native method or application that accomplishes the same thing.

I am aware of and own the commercial application iPartition, and obiously have access to  fdisk and gpt amongst other command line utilities available for use which likely could do the job. If I knew exactly how to set up and where to place the specific individual platform partitions, then I might be able to use one of them. I'd be relatively satisfied with an answer with suggested examples of how to set up this complex partition table, with any explanation on what is particular or different about the types of partitions needed and where they go, and maybe some example syntax for the command line utilities as well.

Adding this not to answer my own question, but to help whomever answers, and I hope with even easier instructions. Maybe it can be done another way? Maybe following a guide to create a multiboot Mac would work, except instead of using the internal harddrive, install on a USB drive as though it were the internal drive, and solve the desire to be able to do this without actually having access to Linux and Windows machines. See here, here, and here. I really want instructions my mother could follow.

The way to do this is to create multiple partitions on the USB drive.
There is a Tech Republic article that gives the full details on how to do this:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-create-an-os-x-multiboot-usb-install-drive/

In summary, TechRepublic gives the steps:

Using Disk Utility, create separate partitions for each version of MacOS that will be booted. (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format; In "Options" choose "GUID Partition Table.")  It's a good idea to name the partitions for the Mac OS version you'll be booting.
Copy the relevant contents to the particular partitions.  This is different for different versions of MacOS:

Apple OS X 10.7 (Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion):
a. Right-click the installer and select Show Package Contents from the context menu;
b. Drill-down through the Contents | Shared Support directories and drag-drop the InstallESD.dmg to the desktop;
c. Using Disk Utility's "Restore" tab, Perform a Restore into the appropriate partition, using InstallESD.dmg as the source.  This takes about 30 minutes.
Apple OS X 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard):
Since these were distributed as DVDs, you restore from the DVD or ISO image. (DVD restore will be much slower than the file restore method.) Use Disk Utility's "Restore" tab with the DVD or ISO image as the source.
Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and 10.10 (Yosemite):
Ise the new "createinstallmedia" command. If your installer.app is not in /Applications, modify the "-applicationpath" argument appropriately.)
For example:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/DRIVE_LABEL —applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app —nointeraction

I expect that the method for 10.7 and 10.8 will work for later versions of MacOS as well.


How do I delete route to "link#8" gateway on OS X? How do I delete default route of "link#8" gateway on OS X El Capitan? It's a route automaticaly added after connecting to IPSec VPN.

$ netstat -rn
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
default            link#8             UCS            21        0   utun0
default            192.168.1.1        UGScI          16        0     en1
10.2.2.71          10.2.2.71          UH              0       11   utun0
10.19.5.40         link#8             UHWIi           1       27   utun0

$ ifconfig
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 60:33:4b:04:d4:7a
    inet 192.168.1.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active
utun0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
    inet 10.2.2.71 --> 10.2.2.71 netmask 0xffffff00
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

This doesn't work:

$ sudo route -n delete default -ifscope utun0
route: writing to routing socket: not in table
delete net default: not in table

$ sudo route -n delete default "link#8"
route: bad address: link#8

This worked:

sudo route -n delete default -link 8


Full screen mode across multiple monitors on Yosemite I have a mid 2014 15" MacBook Pro Retina connected to 3 1920x1080 monitors on thunderbolt+HMDI ports (NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB). The monitors are in portrait mode with total screen resolution of 3240x1920.

I would like to be able to make an application run in full screen across all three monitors using the full screen mode introduced in Yosemite. At present, I can scale a window to almost fit the full screen manually. Is it possible to make this happen with the green full screen button in the gui?

Fullscreen only works on the desktop (space) the application is inside of at the moment. Since each display has their own spaces, the app will not cross over into the others unless you manually resize it to fit.


How do I take a Screenshot of the new "Touch Bar" on the newer Macs? I am using Safari on the MacBook Pro, and had about 100 tabs open. As a result the Touch Bar lit up with lots of tiny images of the pages I opened.

I wanted to show someone how the Touch Bar had changed, but didn't want to take out my phone and take a picture of it.

Is there any way to do this?

Apple has released an update to the Grab application that allows you to capture the Touch Bar.

The Touch Bar is constantly dynamic in nature, so Apple added a "timed" capture for the Touch Bar so you can navigate to the App with the Touch Bar layout before the "grab" executes.

You can find the Grab application under Utilities.  ⇧ Shift⌘ CommandU and select Grab or use Spotlight (⌘ CommandSpace) and just start typing "grab..."


Clipboard manager for pasting multiple items at once? I'm looking for an app that let me copy multiple items from different locations and paste them at once, I have tried many clipboard managers but none of them let me to paste my whole clipboard history at once and I have to paste the items one by one which is not good at all.

Please help me if there is a clipboard manager or app (for Lion) that let me do that, thanks.

My favourite swiss army knife for OS X, LaunchBar, has clipboard history and management. In addition to being able to access historical, clipped information it can also do clip-merge. A quick double press of Cmd-C will merge the currently selected contents in to the current top-of-the-heap clipboard object for you, allowing you to paste them as one object with a single Cmd-V.

You can merge multiple items in the clipboard history by selecting the first one and doing Cmd-C and then selecting additional items and doing the quick, double press of Cmd-C. They'll all get merged in to the top item as expected.


Issue with Microsoft Word on Mac Hopefully, this is the right site for this. I am using a 2020 MacBook Pro and Word 2016.  I am having issues opening a document sent by a friend.  He is able to open it, and this problem does not occur when I try to open files that originated on my computer.  When I try to open the document, I get the following error message:

Word experienced an error trying to open the file.
Try these suggestions.
* Check the file permissions for the document or drive.
* Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space.
* Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.

To resolve this, I tried having my friend paste the contents of the document into a new document, but I also wasn't able to open that file.  Here's what I tried regarding the specific suggestions.

Check the file permissions for the document or drive.

I checked and the file is totally accessible, read-write enabled, Word has access to the folder it's in (just the Desktop), etc.

Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space.

I just got a new computer and have 1.88 terabytes of space left, so definitely not a problem here.

Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.

In Word, I went to File>Open and selected the document.  In the bottom-right corner of the window, I went to the drop-down that said "Open Original" and instead selected "Open Recover Text."  The file it produced is blank except for the words "Error serving file."  I also tried the "Open Repair" option in the drop-down menu, but that gave the same error as before.
Something else that might be relevant is that the files were sent through Slack, and the Slack preview worked on the document, but the Mac QuickLook preview does not work on the document (it just shows the document icon instead of a preview of the contents).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

I figured out the issue.  The file from my friend was not corrupted, and upon receipt in Slack, it was still not corrupted (which allowed me to use the Slack preview to view it).  However, when I downloaded the 165kB file, it only showed up as 19 bytes on my Desktop.  The issue is with the Slack download process, not Word, the document, or my computer.


Is it possible for an AppleScript .scpt file to retain a custom icon, even after edits have been made to the code? The file:

I created an AppleScript .scpt file in Script Debugger.app.

Here is how I assigned a custom icon to this .scpt file:

I downloaded a unique icon (in the "512px PNG" format) from IconArchive.com.
I opened the .png file with Preview.app. In Preview, I clicked Edit ⟶ Copy, to place this image on my clipboard.
I opened the .scpt file's Get Info window in Finder. I left-clicked on the default icon, found in the top-left corner of the Get Info window. A blue outline then appeared around the default icon, reflecting that the icon was selected.
Finally, I pasted the custom icon over the default icon via the keyboard shortcut, ⌘ command + V. The custom icon was set immediately. I closed out of the Get Info window.

The bug:

When I open the .scpt file in Script Debugger, to edit the code, and then resave the .scpt file, the custom icon disappears.

On save, the following icon immediately takes the place of the custom icon:

(This is OS X's default icon for .scpt files.)

Of course, having to go through the process of setting the custom icon every time that I save (i.e., edit) the file is an inconvenience.

But, there is also a second, corollary bug: Each time that I re-add the custom icon in the Get Info window, the file size of the .scpt file cumulatively increases. In other words, when Script Debugger deletes the custom file icon, the icon's file size is still included, somehow, as part of the overall .scpt file size.

Case in point: the file size of the .scpt file in question is 12.6 MB, at the moment. The file should not be larger than .5 MB.

The question:

I understand how to set a custom file icon to an AppleScript .app file, so that this custom icon remains in place after editing, but I am curious if the same can be done for an .scpt file.

Is there a way for my custom script icon to remain in place, even after the .scpt file has been modified in Script Debugger?

This is an .scpt file that is launched via the FastScripts.app menu bar drop-down menu. (The .scpt file is located in /Users/Me/Library/Scripts.) The FastScripts drop-down menu actually displays the file icons of the scripts, which is a nice feature. This is the reason why I want to set a custom icon to the .scpt file (i.e., so that I can observe an apposite icon in the FastScripts shortcut menu).

No, it is not a big deal to simply convert the AppleScript .scpt files that I want to have a custom file icon to AppleScript .app files. I ask this question just to see if there is something that I am missing or overlooking here.

What about Script Editor?

It appears that this bug is unique to Script Debugger.

When I follow the same steps in OS X's native AppleScript editing program, Script Editor.app, the .scpt file icon remains in tact, upon save. However, I could've sworn that I have, in fact, experienced this issue in Script Editor, in the past.

For example, I recall that, once, Script Editor refused to save a .scpt file that I had edited; a vague error dialog was presented on Save. To successfully save the file, I had to either delete the custom icon from Finder's Get Info window, or copy the code text and paste it into a new .scpt file (which, of course, would necessarily possess the default .scpt file icon).

But, at this time, I can no longer reproduce the error in Script Editor.

At any rate, I try to not use Script Editor to edit my AppleScripts anymore. This is because Script Editor is laggy, potentially crashes when using a third-party script library, and can be temperamental when it comes to opening and saving files.

In my experience, so far, Script Debugger has none of these issues.

Of course, Script Debugger does have at least one issue, though (i.e., the issue detailed in this post).

OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.6.

Generally speaking, when a User assigns a custom icon to a file by copying and pasting an image file into the icon, in the top left corner, on the file's Get Info sheet, the image file is stored as a com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute of the file it's applied to, and can be seen in Terminal using ls -l@ filename.ext to show the file has extended attributes. To manipulate the extended attributes, use the xattr utility in Terminal. Note that the use of the term image file in this contact is any valid source copied on the Clipboard to then be pasted in the Get Info sheet.

Having to reapply the icon file after having saved the .scpt file in Script Debugger causes the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute to continue to grow in size, while possibly loosing access to the accumulated icon files, can't say for sure as I've not done enough testing. Unfortunately, while Script Editor keeps the custom icon file, nonetheless it appears to grow the size of the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute as well.

To reduce the size of file by removing specifically the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attributes,  use the following command syntax in Terminal:

xattr -d com.apple.ResourceFork filename.ext

Then reapply the custom icon to the file.

Have a look at the man page for xattr in Terminal by typing, xattr and then right-click on it selecting Open man Page from the context-menu.

The issue with Script Debugger resetting to the default icon will probably have to be taken up with the Developer, or use the workaround suggested in wch1zpink's answer.

Since the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute grows regardless of which of the apps you use, Script Editor or Script Debugger, this is an issue that Apple need to address.

I know you're using OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, however I tested this under macOS Sierra 10.12.5 and the behavior apparently being the same, it probably doesn't matter that I tested this in a later OS release. I was using Script Debugger 6.0.4.

Because of the repetitiveness of what you're doing, a scripted solution is in order here to reduce the effort necessary to maintain both a small file size, inclusive of it extended attributes, and the custom icon.

Update:

Having gone down a similar road, under OS X 10.8.5, with programmatically setting a file's icon, and having tested almost every solution presented under How can I change a file or folder icon using the Terminal, I chose to use setfileicon from this answer, as it worded the best for my needs at the time.

The following AppleScript code is example code that can programmatically delete the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute of the target file to reduce it accumulative size and reset the target file's icon. It is written around the use of the workaround suggested in wch1zpink's answer, referencing locking the file to keep the icon intact during a save under Script Debugger.

The main purpose of this example code is to show how to delete the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute of the target file and reset its custom icon programmatically. I've thrown in the code to unlock/lock the target file if you choose to use that method of keeping the icon intact between saves, if not it can be removed. I guess it just depends on how often to want to reset the size of the target file's com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute.

tell current application

    set theTargetFilename to "filename.scpt" as string
    set theHomeFolderPath to (path to home folder) as string
    set theScriptsFolder to (path to scripts folder) as string
    set theTargetFilePathname to theScriptsFolder & theTargetFilename as alias
    set theTargetIcon to quoted form of (POSIX path of (theHomeFolderPath & "bin:icon.icns") as string)
    set theTargetExecutable to quoted form of (POSIX path of (theHomeFolderPath & "bin:setfileicon") as string)

    tell application "Finder" to set locked of theTargetFilePathname to false
    do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.ResourceFork " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theTargetFilePathname) & "; exit 0"
    do shell script theTargetExecutable & " " & theTargetIcon & " " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theTargetFilePathname)
    tell application "Finder" to set locked of theTargetFilePathname to true

end tell

Notes:

For the purpose of this example code, I've placed the setfileicon command line utility and target icon.icns files in the bin folder within the root of my Home folder. The icon.icns file is the .icns file of the one linked in your question. You could use the PNG file, however I believe the .icns file produces a better image.

The script could be more hard coded and not as verbose, however I coded it this way for a few reasons of which I'm not going to get into the details of unless you need it explained. Feel free to utilize the example code to implement a working solution as needed/wanted in your environment.

This was tested this under macOS Sierra 10.12.5, however it should also work under OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.


Mac ignores "Display login window as" setting My Mac mini ignores the "Display login window as" setting. I have it set to "Name and password" but it still displays a "List of users" whenever it reboots.

It is a multi-boot setup. Does OS X for some reason store this setting in the vnram?

Update: When I log out it shows name and password field. But when it comes back from a reboot it shows the list of users instead.

Do you have FileVault 2 turned on? The FileVault 2 login screen isn't able to show username and password blanks; only names and icons.


How can I know when new iOS updates are released? As a technician, I'd like to learn when an iOS update appears so I can prepare iTunes with all the recent restore images.  Any way to know that? or receive notifications when an new iOS update is released? (better if Apple official).

ipsw.me provides an RSS feed of iOS releases at ipsw.me/timeline.rss. You can subscribe to this RSS feed (or a filtered version) using IFTTT. Templates are provided at ipsw.me/notifications. This is accurate to a couple of minutes.

You can also subscribe to the TSS status of iOS releases using the API available at api.ineal.me. This can be near instantaneous, providing a real-time view of TSS signing (and subsequently the releases).


Can I use Google Emoji on mac? I want to use Google/Android emoji (noto font) instead of the standard apple emoji set. Can I do that on mac?

sudo cp Downloads/NotoColorEmoji-unhinted/NotoColorEmoji.ttf /library/fonts/Apple\ Color\ Emoji.ttf doesn't change anything and SIP prevents changes to /System/Library/Fonts/Apple Color Emoji.ttf

I'm running 10.11.6 on a 5k iMac if it makes a difference

Yes, you can!
--EDIT--
The below still works, BUT, turns out, JoyPixels (open source emoji and the closest Google emoji / Noto Font replacement) has multiple versions of their emoji set including a .ttc file directly for download on their website for free that you can simply download and install as a font easily: https://www.joypixels.com/fonts
Fonts are in a .ttf file format, but Apple compiles those files using a SBIX format and others use other methods, typically CBDT/CBLC is used. Because of this, even though you have a .ttf file, it has to be compiled in the SBIX format. There is a user (vXBaKeRXv) on Github who has compiled multiple emoji fonts using the SBIX format. There's a Github thread and a Medium article on what to do. Quoting from the Medium article:

The Step-by-Step

Head over to this Github repo and download the .deb archive that contains your emoji set of choice.
Extract/open the .deb archive. Once inside, extract the archive named data.tar.gz. You’ll now see a folder called var. Inside that is a folder called mobile. Keep on going deeper and you’ll eventually reach your destination: a font file named AppleColorEmoji@2x.ttf.
Rename AppleColorEmoji@2x.ttf by putting spaces between each word and removing the ending, so that the new file name is Apple Color Emoji.ttf.
Keeping that Finder window open, start up Font Book (the built-in app where you can manage all the fonts installed on your device). In the left side panel at the top, select the ‘Computer’ option to show all the fonts you’ve installed as well as the default system fonts. If you scroll down the list of fonts, you should see an entry called Apple Color Emoji close to the bottom. This is the font file you’ll be overwriting, but don’t worry, this process is easily reversible!
Drag the Apple Color Emoji.ttf from the Finder window into Font Book. You’ll be prompted to install the font. It may warn you about it being a duplicate, but we already know that, so keep on going. Once you finish installing the new emoji font, you’re good to go! Try out your new emoji set by opening up your browser of choice, selecting a text field, and press CTRL+CMD+SPACEBAR to quickly bring up the emoji picker.

For step 2, this works on a Mac to unpack a .deb file without installing it:
ar -x path/to/deb/file.deb


Is netatalk on Linux unreliable for hosting Time Machine volumes? During some discussion on IRC about my recent problems hosting a Time Machine volume on my Linux PC (using netatalk) -- which worked well for a long time but recently developed issues where my Mac kept telling me I needed to start the whole backup over* -- one user stated that doing so is inherently unreliable because Apple's AppleTalk implementation (and maybe Time Machine-specific bits) has certain kinds of error correction built in that netatalk doesn't have. He was quite opinionated about this and strongly encouraged me to use an actual Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to my Mac.

I haven't run into anyone else who believes this, though, although I have talked to quite a few people who run the netatalk setup and say it works well for them. What substantiation is there to this hypothesis about unreliability and relative lack of error correction?

EDIT: The exact message is "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."

My experience is netatalk is fine until the volume is full and Time Machine starts removing old backups selectively. The deletion process (which involves unlinking a whole load of hard links) seems to be the point at which netatalk falls over and you get the dreaded 'verification' message.

From what I can tell, people who say "it works fine" generally haven't got to the point where their disk is full.

However even external hard drives connected to a AirportExtreme are not immune to this error message. The only completely reliable backup systems I have used are the internal hard drive in an AirportExtreme, and a USB hard drive connected locally.


How to run an automator app which launches an X11 app via shell script multiple times So I have an Applescript to launch xemacs, but I thought it would be nice to have something I could drop files onto (and have an app to choose from contextual menus in the "open with" submenu), so I tried making an Automator app.

I called the app "XEmacs Opener.app" and it works... once.  But it will not launch new XEmacs windows (unless I just click the run button from automator itself) until the first one is closed.

I tried running the shell script with nohup, used the '&' to put it in the background, and called exit afterwards, but this does not solve the problem:

nohup /sw/bin/xemacs "$@" &
exit

Here's a screen-shot in case I didn't fully explain how it's set up:

I also tried calling xemacs without any arguments too.  So how can I get this to open up multiple instances of xemacs - or is that not possible?

I figured it out.  I just need to direct the output to /dev/null:

/sw/bin/xemacs "$@" &> /dev/null &

Easy peasy.  The output was getting grabbed by the shell script.  As soo as you redirect both standard out and standard error to /dev/null (i.e. oblivion), the rest of the workflow stops waiting and ends.


iTunes-cover screensaver not showing Today I tried to use the iTunes-cover screensaver (for the first time), but my screen (and the preview area in the system preferences) simply stays black, nothing else happens.

Has anybody experienced this too or has an idea what to do?

Try the following:

Restarting iTunes
Restarting the Mac
Quitting iTunes and relaunching it while holding down the ⌥ key (to designate a different library), then quitting and relaunching it and re-pointing it at your real library
Selecting a completely different screensaver, then reselecting the iTunes Artwork screensaver.
Repair disk permissions


Sorting iBooks PDFs and eBooks I purchased an iPad mini 2 not too long ago with the intention of using it as an eReader for the various PDFs that I own.  After uploading content to my iPad I tried to sort the content into different collections to help sort PDFs into different categories.  It turns out that moving PDFs into a collection does not remove the PDF from the original collection.  This is making it difficult to sort as not only do you have to search though ones you have already sorted, you have to remember which you've already sorted.  Is there a way to "hide" or remove PDFs from this main collection once they belong to another collection?  If not, is there another decent eReader app available for the iPad, or should I simply return it and find another eReader entirely?

**(Side note) It would be incredibly helpful if I could simply retain the folder structure that they are currently in, as they are already sorted and categorized on my computer.

For handling (a lot of) PDFs, I've found GoodReader to be the much better choice than iBooks. It provides a hierarchical way of managing content (similar to a filesystem) and also allows syncing/copying of whatever structure you already have on your Mac.


Send "Here I am now" location report in a Messages.app thread on a Mac In iOS, we can send our current location as a message within a discussion thread on Messages.app.

➥ Can this be done in Messages.app on a Mac in Mojave or Catalina?

I am not asking about people already actively sharing their location on an ongoing basis. I am looking for the "Here I am right now" post of current location offered in iOS. The result is a fixed location, an unchanging report. In iOS it presents as an item in the Messages thread, with a map and pin-drop. The user can tap to be taken to the Maps app with that location.

Yes location can be seen on Mac, but needs to be enabled on iOS.

  Friends can share their location through the Messages or Find My Friends app on an iOS device. You can see the location they shared on a map in Messages.

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/messages/icht18df1a6a/12.0/mac/10.14
 landed here from macOS help menu.

Otherwise, pin drop can be done in Maps app and that can shared using messages. To do this:

Go to Maps on the Mac, click on the Show your current location arrow, click on the Share icon and then select Messages. A popup then appears for you to select your recipient(s) and they're sent a message starting with My location followed by a URL followed by a static image of your location. The recipient can look at the image of your location, or they can tap on the link and that'll open Maps on their device with your location and directions to get there.


iPhone 5 and MacBook Air take quite a few attempts to tether I used to have an iPhone 4 which, when WiFi hotspot was turned on, would connect to my Air (Lion) almost instantaneously.

I have now upgraded to an iPhone 5 (iOS 7) and the process seems to rarely work. I must turn Wifi and Hotspot off and on maybe 10 times in a row before they connect. Sometimes it wont work and at all. Other times it will randomly disconnect.

Would anyone know why this is occurring?

Thanks!

I fixed it by going to System Preferences → Sharing and checking the box for Internet Sharing.


Copy static cell value in Numbers In numbers I have a table that contains some configuration values, I reference these in formulas but when I copy and paste the cells using the configuration values it breaks as it increments the cell position.

How can I copy and paste the cells but maintain the reference to the configuration value?

Thanks

You need to use the $ char e.g. like this: =$D$3


Font Book says multiple copies are installed I downloaded a free font that included four .ttf files for the Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic variants, all different. I dragged them into Font Book and they all appeared in a group, but the three variants other than Regular were flagged as duplicates:

  Multiple copies of this font are installed.

If I choose Resolve automatically all variants except Regular are shown as Off. If I right-click and enable these variants, ignoring the multiple-copies message, I'm still not able to use all the variants in TextEdit or Photoshop (the only apps I've checked in so far).

What's going on with this font? The previews in Font Book look exactly as I expect them to (rendering as the proper variants).

Have you, first of all, looked in /System/Library/Fonts, in /Library/Fonts, and in ~/Library/Fonts to see what actually exists ... as opposed to depending on software to tell you.

I expect that both Photoshop and TextEdit fonts behaving properly depends on the Mac default fonts - and fonts commonly used by those (and other) apps - being in the correct location.


Connect AirPods to Apple Watch My Apple Watch series 1 can play music stored offline without being in wireless proximity to my Apple iPhone 6.

My Apple watch connects over Bluetooth and Wifi, and my AirPods connect over Bluetooth.

My question is: Can I connect my Airpods to my Apple Watch Series 1 for music whilst running without my iPhone?

Apple's official answer on this is a bit contradictory: their promotional page lists Apple Watch as a device you can use with them while their main support page only lists Mac and iPhone as compatible devices.

However, you can definitely use the Airpods with any Apple Watch running watchOS 3 or later. The Airpods should automagically connect to the Watch once you set them up on your phone using iCloud, but if you need to pair them to the watch manually, you can do it like you would with any bluetooth headset. Here's how:

Put your AirPods in the charging case.
Open the lid, but don’t remove AirPods yet.
Press and hold the circular setup button on the back near the bottom of the charging case until the status light between your AirPods at the top of the case starts rhythmically blinking white.
Launch Settings on Apple Watch, tap Bluetooth and select your AirPods when they appear on the list of nearby Bluetooth devices.
After device status changes from “Pairing” to “Paired,” AirPods are ready to use.
Start playing your music.

Those steps are from iDownloadBlog.

If it's still not working make sure:

The Apple Watch is running watchOS 3 and is not in Airplane Mode
The AirPods are within a few feet of the watch
The Apple Watch isn't paired to any other Bluetooth device (other than your phone, of course)
The AirPods are in pairing mode (press and hold the button on the AirPods' case)


How do I know on which devices I can use a purchased app? I am new to OS X and am thinking of purchasing an app from the app store (in this case it's SkySafari 4 Pro). If I purchase this app, or any app, will I be able to use it on, say, my iPad? If the answer depends on the app, how do I find out if this is the case?

I had a look at the Macbook App Store FAQ page, which says:

  Mac App Store can only be used on a Mac

This seems to imply that the answer is no, but even so I'm somewhat confused about the relationship between the different App stores, and how my decision to purchase an app on device X affects my rights to then download it on device Y (where X might be a macbook and Y might be an iPad or vice-versa).

It's not a question of licensing, it's that the architecture of the Mac & an iDevice are totally different.

The Mac runs on an Intel processor, OS X is based on a unix kernel.

iDevices run on an ARM processor, iOS is [actually idk, but proprietary]
(All iDevices run on the same 'family' of processors, so that is why if you purchase an iApp, you can use it on any iDevice you own.)

Apps for one simply cannot run on the other.

Some apps are made in 2 or more versions, for Mac, iPhone, iPad, even Windows or Android etc, each available from their respective Store.

The App Store 'app' on the Mac is only for Mac Apps. iApps can be purchased either from the App Store on the iDevice, or through iTunes on a Mac/PC.

The licensing model for Apple is that the Apple ID used to purchase an app from the App Store is allowed to use it on any device they own using that Apple ID  [1] [so long as it will physically run, as explained above]
This makes moving from machine to machine easy, but not from ID to ID.
It's pretty much the opposite of the Microsoft model, where an app, or even the OS itself is tied to one machine, using a serial number etc.

 [1]with some exceptions which you can see noted in the Purchases tab in the App Store app.
An example…

Interestingly, the only apps I have that are not shareable are all Freeware anyway, so I could simply re-"purchase" if I needed them on another machine.

Family Sharing extends that licensing model to other members of your family, so all can access the same songs, albums, movies, TV shows, books, and apps on both Mac and iDevices, if they wish, from a single 'purchase'.


Apple iPhone won't connect to insecure website A certificate is expired of an application of ours and a client still wants to access it. He is using an Apple iPhone and gets the message

Safari cannot open the page because it could not establish a secure connection to the server

There is no link or button like on desktop to ignore and proceed. Is there a way to ignore the message and proceed?

If the certificate has expired, but HSTS is enabled, it is not possible to bypass the error message ‘Safari cannot open the page because it could not establish a secure connection to the server’.

To bypass an expired certificate for a site without HSTS, choose Show Details, then ‘visit this website’.

If the certificate is was revoked, a similar error message is shown but it cannot be bypassed.


Sending a PDF to iBooks (iPad) How can I send a PDF to my iBooks in iPad without having to connect the iPad to my laptop using a cable?

Is this possible at all? Or do I necessarily have to use iTunes and a cable?

You can use

Mail
Dropbox
Google Drive
And many more

Basically you just need to be able to watch the pdf on your iPad in order to save and open it with iBooks also, you can still sync with iTunes


When shutting down, how to re-open apps on their respective desktops? I work with 4 desktops, and every time I shutdown my machine, I tell it to re-open all windows on next boot.

The problem is, with the exception of iTerm2, they all re-open on the first desktop (probably because it's the one showing by default).

I would like for every window to open in the desktop it was when I shut down the machine last time. This should be possible as iTerm2 always open on the desktop it was shutdown in.

How do I do this?

The apps I'm having this issue are

Google Chrome: I have at least 1 window (with multiple tabs) on each desktop.
PHPStorm: I have 1 window on desktop number 3

If apps don't obey OS X's default windowing (which is to put apps back where they were before you logged out), then you can lock them to specific desktops which forces them to obey:

Right-click on the app in the Dock, then choose Options → This Desktop.


Python / matplotlib graphics & OS X 10.9: mission control? I just got set up on OS X 10.9, and I have matplotlib working with the OS X backend, but the "python" window that shows up is partially inaccessible to Mission Control.

If I activate full Mission Control with F12 (your shortcut key may vary), it appears with the name "python".

However, there is no python icon in the Dock, and ⌘- doesn't show any icon.

Is there any way to get the python app to appear in the dock?

I have the same problem using Anaconda Python. The problem seems to be related to the fact that Anaconda is not a "framework" installation. For more information, see:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4130355/python-matplotlib-framework-under-macosx

and

https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/665#issuecomment-11327805

With Anaconda installed, my default python executable is Anaconda's:

$ which python
/Users/dgolden/anaconda/bin/python

A solution that works for me is to explicitly call the system python installation, which is installed in /usr/bin/python for me, e.g.,

/usr/bin/python /path/to/my/script.py

You can save yourself some typing by creating a symlink with a unique name that won't be shadowed by anaconda (the fw suffix that I use suggests "framework"):

sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python /usr/bin/pythonfw

Then you can run your script with:

pythonfw /path/to/my/script.py


Accessing ICloud Drive files from an iPad I've added some files (photographs) to iCloud drive on my iMac.
Now, I'd like to access the files on my iPad.
I've enabled the setting in "iCloud" on the iPad, like all of the tutorials say.

Now- how can I find those files using my iPad?

Have you made sure that you have also set iCloud Photo Library (Beta) in iCloud settings as well. This is under iCloud > Photos > "iCloud Photo Library (Beta)"


Mac does not recognize password after upgrade Background

This morning I sit in front of the Mac at work and notice that some update is required. Furthermore, the upgrade to Sierra is allowable, but they told me to not upgrade for some reason, so I simply ignore everything.

I go to the toilet for some minute and in the meanwhile the Mac start updating something. I sit again and see the white screen, the grey apple, and the progress bar which is almost full and think "Ok, this is not gonna be the Sierra upgrade, but minor updates".

The Mac reboots and...

The problem

It does not recognize the user password anymore! Ok, let's first check the caps lock key. It's off. Searching for a solution on the web I find this, and try cmd+R and everything else. In addition I set a hint, which was not present, in order to see with my eyes that the Mac has digested the change of password. I restart it. The hint is now present, but the password is unbelievably still refused!

EDIT:

I see a dot for each key I press, so it's out of question that some key doesn't work at all (it could work unproperly, thus giving wrong output..). Furthermore I followed the instruction of the video I linked, so I had to write resetpassword, which proves that the keyboard is detected as QWERTY, and not AZERTY, for example.

In the end I found no reasonable answer to my question. So I decided to set the password (with the method mentioned in the question) to void. Then when the mac is boot the password in no more asked, thus solving the problem.


Hidden ‘in use’ file preventing Office MAC 2011 uninstall I am moving from Mac Office 2011 to Office 365. After running the uninstaller, An invisible file in the Excel package, Microsoft Office > Microsoft Excel > Contents > Resources > En.lproj > Help > Art > wheel, continues to show “in use” despite several restarts, so I cannot empty it from the trash. My UNIX skills are embryonic at best. How do I kill this file?

If sudo rm didn't delete it, then maybe it somehow got the schg flag set?

You could try this:

    sudo chflags noschg /Users/bob/.Trash/nasty.file.ext

    sudo /bin/rm -f /Users/bob/.Trash/nasty.file.ext

As I mentioned in the comments, you could also try moving the file to /tmp/ and rebooting, since that usually clears out the /tmp/ but I have a sneaking suspicion that isn't going to help in this case.


Syncing Photos.app with external HDD I want to have my photo library to sync all the pictures on the HDD, which I can easily reference them by deselecting "copy items to the photo library" and import them.

but I want that if I delete the photo in the photos.app, then it would delete the referenced file too. Is that possible?

Importing without coping to the library doesn't give Photos.app ownership of the file. So to be safe you can't delete it directly from the application. You can right-click on the picture and select Show related file in Finder and delete it from there. Unfortunately, it will not delete it from the photo library so you have to do it by yourself.


Printing to Windows (not-domain) Server - Hold for Authentication I've been printing to our windows-connected printer for ages. And then I upgraded to High Sierra and now I can't print because of the "Hold for Authentication" message.

I searched for a solution many times but nothing I've found has worked thus far.
I went into keychain and searched for the printer but it wasn't there.
In keychain I selected all items (logins, certificates) for that server and deleted them.
After deleting items from keychain, I tried printing again and got to the Hold for Authentication again and so I opened the print job and it prompted me for authentication. Nothing I tried worked. I tried my normal windows password. I tried the server administrator password. I tried no password. None of this works.
I deleted the printer and tried to set it up again. In the "Add" screen I browser the workgroup (called "workgroup") and selected the server (named "server") and it threw up a box "There was a problem connecting ... may not exist or it is unavailble at this time" type error.

I used RDP client and connected to the server using its name "server" and that worked fine (after accepting the certificate again - so I know the keychain thing was deleted properly)
I used the Go > Connect to server and entered smb://server and this prompted me for my details (which worked) and connected me to a regular share (which worked). So my mac CAN talk to the server under regular smb, just not printing (I deleted my keychain passwords for this site before this step to ensure they authenticated again).

I tried installing support for Internet Printing Protocol on the server and tried connecting to that, but that also didn't work.
Other Windows 7, 10 and Ubuntu clients on the same network can all print to the same printer.
I waited till I went home, and printed to the printer there just fine. It's the same model printer, but it's connected off my home router rather than a windows server. So as usual there's some kink between Mac and Windows.

/edit

I installed LPD on the server and tried connecting to it from the Mac and printing. This appears to connect to the printer (the dot turns green) and seems to print, but the page pauses and doesn't appear on the server queue at all.

I'm not sure how helpful this will be but I offer it in the hopes it will generate an idea that might work.

On a Macbook Air with Mojave I usually map directly to the printer via IP Address which is the second icon from the left in the "Add" (printer) dialog box. I find this to be more reliable than printing via our print server which is one of our Active Directory domain controllers.

However, once you select the print server (in my case it is [DOMAIN NAME] > [Print Server]) it pops up an authentication dialog box "You are attempting to connect to the server "[SERVERNAME]" Click connect to continue"

Once you click connect you get a standard login dialog box with your username already filled in.

Don't use that username or your local password there

Instead you need to enter the name of the print server, sometimes referred to as the NETBIOS name, followed by a backslash " \ " and then a username of an account on that particular server. In my case it would be something like this:

domain\stevec
[password]

In your case as you are not in an AD domain:

servername\username
[password]

Windows expects authorization from outside the domain to be fully qualified. EG where the credentials are, a backslash and then the account/user name.

It could be that when you try and print there are cached credentials somewhere (possibly on the server?) that are messing you up.

I would delete the printer queue from the Mac and re-add it via the Printers & Scanners preference and choose the Windows printer option and logging in as a user on that PC.

Either that or select the "Default" or "IP" methods and completely bypass printing via your Windows server, if that is possible.


Simple text substitution in OS X using keyboard shortcut I am constantly typing résumé in (Outlook) email messages.  Is there an easy way to associate this text with a keyboard shortcut?  I'd like this shortcut to be available in other applications (e.g. Word, Mail).

The easiest way would be to use Autocorrect shortcuts:

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text
Replace: [[[ with: résumé
(Make sure "correct spelling automatically" is checked)

The character combination [[[ is just an example. Everytime I type [[[ it's automatically replaced with résumé. This applies system wide. You can use any set of not often used character(s). It functions as a keyboard shortcut.


I'm locked out of machine as will not accept password as I shut down while using French keyboard I cannot get into my Mac Book Pro, I just get the password picture which shakes.

The only different key for the password is a which is q on French keyboard but that doesn't unlock either.  I normally work with English keyboard but was using a French keyboard when the machine shut down.

Is there any sequence of keypresses to bypass the password so I can get into the machine?

Or you could change the password to something "keyboard language neutral" via single-user mode. Quoting from Mac OS X Hints

  Boot into single user mode (press Command-S at power on)
  Type fsck -fy
  Type mount -uw /
  Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
  Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password, replacing username with the targeted user and password with the desired password.
  Reboot


imac 21.5 Core i3 mid 2010 - how many SATA ports available? I've been looking to upgrade to an SSD.

And I've read a couple of options:

Swapping the mechanical drive for an SSD.
Swapping the optical drive for an SSD.

My question is, is there another SATA port available on the motherboard that could be used to insert an SSD, possibly behind the existing optical drive, so you could have a total of three drives?

And is there physical space to do so?

I'd ideally have the SSD as the boot drive, the old mechanical for data, and the optical to watch the occasional film.

This post suggests that there is room in the 2011 imac 21.5 inch: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/38040/358026
Is it still applicable here?

That model does not support SSD and HDD in addition to the optical

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i3-3.06-21-inch-aluminum-mid-2010-specs.html

The 27” from 2010 does, however. It just needs a mounting bracket and the SSD. It’s SATA 3 Gbps bus and this link has lots of upgrade referrals:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-2.8-27-inch-aluminum-mid-2010-specs.html

You’d want to get a hybrid SSD/HDD drive if you needed size and space on the 21” unfortunately.

Your mac would need to move the Optical external and put the SSD in place of the optical slot if you chose to retain a full size HDD.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2389+Dual+Drive/8643


"About this Mac" not showing correct local backup size "About this Mac" doesn't appear to be showing the correct information for backups. In fact, it doesn't have a category for backups, even though they are enabled. What I see is this:

I tried using df -h, and here's what I got:

Filesystem                          Size   Used  Avail Capacity  iused  ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1                         112Gi  110Gi  1.2Gi    99% 29009096 312630   99%   /
devfs                              187Ki  187Ki    0Bi   100%      646      0  100%   /dev
map -hosts                           0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0      0  100%   /net
map auto_home                        0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0      0  100%   /home
localhost:/ee6auZTwNjhqkHwrV5MmDo  112Gi  112Gi    0Bi   100%        0      0  100%   /Volumes/MobileBackups

The last line seems particularly confusing. So I tried something a little more pointed: I cd'd to /.MobileBackups, where I read that local backups are stored, and did this:

+~ $ sudo du -hc -d 0
 53G    .
 53G    total

If I'm reading this correctly, my backups are taking up 53 gigs of space, yet MacOS is not reporting this properly. What is wrong and how can I fix it? (Besides sudo tmutil disablelocal, which I might do anyway.)

EDIT: Okay, so now it gets weird. Following advice from here, I used sudo tmutil disablelocal, then restarted my computer (which took a while). Now /.MobileBackups is gone, but I get a similar report for disk space consumed in "About this Mac."

+~ $ df -h
Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity  iused   ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1     112Gi  107Gi  4.4Gi    97% 28157320 1164406   96%   /
devfs          181Ki  181Ki    0Bi   100%      626       0  100%   /dev
map -hosts       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0       0  100%   /net
map auto_home    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0       0  100%   /home

And in the root directory, when I ran a command like this one:

+/ $ sudo du -hc -d 0; tput bel
104G    .
104G    total

Further searching reveals that my user directory is taking up 53 GB. I'm pretty confused now. One possible cause of this is that I changed my system clock by several months at one point, which seems to have messed with Time Machine.

TimeMachine uses hard links to do his magic for incremental backups. so if you do a du check on a TimeMachine backup volume, you won't see good results, because hardlinked files would count twice or more but in fact they use just one. if you check for disk usage, please exclude any form of hard links (backup directories). there is no option to "exclude hardlinks" similar to not follow symlinks, because the backup helper cannot distinguish between a hardlink and a real file.


Snow Leopard Install Hangs I currently have a 2010 15" MacBook Pro installed with OS X Lion and wish to downgrade it to Snow Leopard.

However when trying to boot into the Snow Leopard installer for a clean install, it hangs at the grey apple screen (and no spinner appears).

The DVD drive in the MacBook is faulty so I imaged the Snow Leopard DVD onto a USB drive using Disk Utility, which boots but hangs.

I have tried going into the Recovery HD and wiping the HD and trying again but this has not helped.

Is there any other option to installing Snow Leopard on this MacBook which previously had Lion? Thank You.

Actions Taken

Reset PRAM and NVRAM
Wiped Internal Hard Drive

There is a huge list of things which can be wrong here:

It sounds like you don't have the original install DVDs that came with the MBP (MacBook Pro). If you have an external DVD drive available to you then I would suggest running the Apple Hardware Test version 3A171 that came on the original install discs with that model.

You managed to clone the version of Snow Leopard DVD that you have to a USB drive. I assume you didn't use the faulty DVD drive to do this?
Also you need a retail version of Snow Leopard (barring the original install discs), if you have the packaging, then you could see if it has the green dot that says 10.6.3 on the front of the box. You cannot use the original release of the retail Snow Leopard install DVD as your computer probably does not support even a minor version of the OS older than it shipped with (which was 10.6.3). If you're not sure, when you boot up from the install USB check on the "About This Mac..." menu item under the apple, or put in the machine you used to clone the drive and navigate to it and look at the read me files.
Also, note that a DVD that came with another computer, unless it's the same model as yours, will not work to install. So, if you took the install DVD from even the first release cycle of a Mid 2010 Mac Mini that had 10.6.3 on it, it still will not install on your machine.

Just this week I opened up a machine and it a) had a bad Hard Disk Drive, b) had a dirty/faulty Optical Disc Drive (aka Superdrive, dvd/cd drive, etc.) and that was possibly ejecting discs from a stuck trackpad clicker c) would not boot up from a USB Installer of OS X Lion until I removed the faulty Hard Disk Drive!

So, you should use the "Disk Utility" Program under the "Utilities…" menu in the installer to run the "Verify Disk" action on the internal Hard Disk of the MacBook Pro (aka MBP). Because, it just might be that the Hard Disk you are trying to reinstall on is bad!
You might also have a bad, corrupted USB drive, I would use whatever other machine is at your disposal and run verify disk on the USB drive as well. If none of the other things seem to work then I would even erase and Reformat the USB drive as HFS+, then clone the Snow Leopard install DVD back onto it.

Also, I have had a scratched Install DVD that of course wouldn't work, this can translate to files not coming over to your USB drive properly.
If this is a backup copy of the Snow Leopard DVD there is a much greater chance of something going wrong with DVD. If memory serves correct, you actually need a DVD-R DL, known as a "Dual Layer" disc to make a backup copy of Snow Leopard. It can't be a DVD+R DL (notice the "+" symbol") known as a "Double Layer" disc. I wouldn't burn it at higher than 4x, and use a known good burner, maybe run a laser lens cleaner on it first if possible.

Note: If you're still having trouble after checking these things out, please let us know what tools you have at your disposal to continue working on this, for example, another computer, an external disc drive, a bare drive dock, tools/ability/confidence to open up the machine and work inside, etc.)


Complete app uninstaller for free? Is there any way I can completely uninstall an app for free?
I know there are apps that delete the app and the leftovers but none seem to be free.

Try using AppCleaner, it's free, deletes Mac apps and remove any of its related files. To use it, just drag and drop the app you want to remove onto AppCleaners window.


Safari 11 Status Bar I am relatively new to Mac, and I am trying to get used to using Safari, after using Chrome for years.

I'll click on a link in Chrome, and see a status saying "Loading..." or something to that effect.  But with Safari, I don't get any status messages.  I've turned on the status bar in the View menu.  Should I expect to see these kinds of messages in the status bar?

I am on the latest OS (High Sierra).

There should be a small blue bar in the bottom of the URL field that indicates that a page is loading.

It should look like this:

I'm not aware of any loading indicator in the Status Bar. As far as I know, the status bar only display the link's full address when holding the pointer over a link (Apple Support Article).


Upgrading to new iPad, how can I get old settings and apps directly to new iPad? I bought iPad 2 but it is very poor during lectures, very poor camera and storing A4 papers very imprecise. I have over 100 Apps, done all email settings and other things -- probably over 10 hours' tuning. I don't want to do it again. How can I get my settings from my old iPad to my new iPad?

I don't have yet a Mac -computer but my friends have. My friend said that it would be easy if I had a Mac -computer so I am wondering whether only easy way is to get a Mac to get things synced fast?!

P.s. I have also a license to Windows 7 Professional. If all I need is actually just iTunes, I could virtualize W7pro and install iTunes to get things configured. Does it work?

If you have iOS 5 or 6 installed on your iPad, you can use the iCloud Backup functionality to transfer all your settings and apps, without the need for another computer. When you set up your new iPad, it will ask whether you want to set it up as a new iPad, or restore from an iTunes or iCloud backup.

Restoring from an iCloud backup will restore nearly everything, with the exception of any saved Wi-Fi or other passwords, which you'll have to re-enter. Alternately, doing a backup and restore from iTunes on a Mac or PC will restore passwords if you encrypt the backup.

Apple's support site has more details in this article: iOS: Transferring information from your current iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a new device.


ensure new mail message defaults to use correct outbound (sender) account I have two mail accounts in Apple Mail.  Is there a way to ensure that, when making a new message, it is always sent from the correct sender account, based on which mailbox I currently have selected Inbox.  E.g. Imagine I have inboxe with sub-boxes for company_a and company_b.  These correspond to accounts for john@company_a.com and john@company_b.com If I have selected "company_a" I want outbound message to be sent from company_a account with corresponding company_a signature on message.

At moment, Apple mail always defaults to use the first email account defined in accounts list.  I must always click in new message window and change the sender account, which is fine, but I send many messages and it is easy to forget to do it when busy.

If it helps, I also use act-on from SmallCube, but haven't figured out a way to use that to help yet either.

± Rodney

This is governed by the Mail Preferences->Composing->Send new messages From setting. The default is 'Account of selected mailbox', which does what you want.


Is it possible to arrange or categorize the imported pdf assets from within iTunes first and then sync the devices (iPod,iPad) with iTunes? Categorizing the pdf assets from within iPad or iPod is possible now. But I think it is more elegant if I can make the categorization from within iTunes in advance.

Is it possible to arrange or categorize the imported pdf assets from within  iTunes first and then sync the devices (iPod,iPad) with iTunes?

You might want to look at Calibre. Famously one of the ugliest Mac apps ever created (although it's much nicer looking now), Calibre is an e-book manager. You can use it to process your books, categorize them, tidy up the metadata etc. and then hit "send to device" to copy the books into iTunes.

I originally used it because my ePub collection for my Sony Reader was in it, and so it was the easiest way to get that to my iPad, but I've stuck with it because it has lots more features than iTunes.


Clickthrough Hotel WiFi Access Page, and Sparkle I'm currently at a hotel that forces you to click through an "accept screen" before being able to access the Internet.

The way it works, as best as I am able to tell, is;

When you make your first port 80 HTTP request after joining the wifi network, the proxy server intercepts your request, and takes you to a screen in which you must read the terms of service, check a box, and click the submit/accept button.

The problem is that it does this only for first request, then denies all additional port 80 requests, and disallows all other requests until then page is acknowledged.

The issue at hand is that this page only appears for the first HTTP request, and with the myriad of sparkle-update powered software I have running, I'm suspecting that the confirmation screen is being delivered to one of these apps, instead of too my browser.

I've tried logging in with holding shift after entering my password (disables login items) which disabled everything except for MenuMeters, and still I could not get the foxy confirmation screen to come up.

I rebooted into safe boot mode and was able to get the confirmation screen to come up. So I rebooted normally. Unfortunately, I could not access the internet after doing so, and I suspect the confirmation screen once again became trapped behind a menu bar app.

Is there some step I'm missing that may drastically reduce the difficulty I'm having with this confirmation step?

What about an application level firewall like noobproof(free) or little snitch(paid) to block any requests and then only authorize your web browser?


Can the Eclipse emulator be made less blurry when run on retina Mac hardware? I'm using Eclipse JUNO and ADT 21 on a MacBook Pro Retina 15" and the eclipse app itself looks very sharp (code blocks, images and texts). However, things are blurry in the Android Emulator.

What can I do to fix the blurriness of the emulator window?

Eclipse's text is high resolution because it is drawn by OS X's APIs. I assume the emulator is simulating the actual resolution of the device, so it might not be able to run at retina resolution.

You can increase the screen's resolution to make the problem less noticeable. Go to System Preferences > Display and select Scaled. This Apple support doc might help: MacBook Pro: Frequently asked questions about using a Retina display

(The only way to get rid of blurriness completely is to run your retina Mac at full resolution.)

Edit - reword because I misread your question.


How to stop Disk Utility? I'm assuming this USB stick is toast & I'm not going to be doing anything in future with it except for one last short flight into the bin.

The stick gives the "This device is unreadable. Initialise, ignore etc" when inserted. So I go for Initialise which launches Disk Utility, I Erase GUID/HFS+ & this is as far as it gets. I've watched it now for over 4 hours, no change.

Though I could just pull the device out & bin it right now, this doesn't prevent Disk Utility from just sitting there waiting. I tried this yesterday after about half an hour, then thought I ought to reboot because I had to force-quit Disk Utility & wasn't certain what else may be left in an unstable state.

I really assumed it would eventually time out, but it seems not.

To avoid having to reboot, do we know what specific process would be waiting indefinitely? Would it be safe to force-quit? Nothing shows as not responding in Activity Monitor, and Disk Utility doesn't appear to have any child processes, when viewed hierarchically. Nothing is exceptionally busy, everything is currently under 10% CPU, barely ticking over. Disk Utility itself is at 0.0%.

macOS 10.14.6 on a Mac Pro 5,1. Stick tested on USB hub & directly in the Mac, same result. Only this stick is affected.

It is failing to write the partition map on the flash-drive (step before formatting the filesystem) in order to do anything with it, so should be in a safe place to force-quit disk utility.

FWIW, it might be worth trying another file-system before you bin it.