I hate that the caller id display moves across screen I have an iPhone 6s. Ever since the last update, when I get a call, the caller ID display moves across the screen like a news ticker. Instead of just glancing at it, I now have to wait for the number to complete its movement to see it.  Is there any way to get it back to just appearing all at once so I can see it?

As of now, on iOS 12.0, this is not something that can be altered. It was part of the update, and it unfortunately does not have a way of being changed back to the original format.


How to get Quick Look to print PDF files double-sided? My default printer's default settings are to print double-sided. It works well in all apps, due to system-wide preferences… with the exception of Quick Look: when I open a file with Quick Look (pressing space bar in Finder), then ask it to print (Command-P), it does not open a dialog and send it directly to the printer, one-sided.

How can I configure this behavior? Or is there another shortcut to get the behavior I want?

If you are on Mountain Lion when u use quick-look and press Command-P to print the document. The "Quick-look App" actually opens the document in "Preview App" and make a simple print.
I advise you to open the document in preview directly to print it double-sided.


Considering SSD upgrade for 13" Mid-2012 MacBook Pro My Macbook's HDD is starting to show signs of age and I'm considering replacing it with a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD. I know and am comfortable with the actual hardware replacement, but I heard that the newest Mac; OS El Capitan, has some "feature" to prevent using third party SSDs. Something to do with TRIM if I remember right. I would like to know if that is an actual problem or if I can go ahead and make the purchase.

Thank you very much!

P.S. I'd like to point out that this will be a fresh install.

OS X 10.11, El Capitan, does not include specific code to prevent the use of a third party Solid State Disk (SSD).

I have replaced my MacBook Pro's Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with a Samsung SSD; the MacBook is running OS X 10.11.

With regard to TRIM support on non-Apple installed drives, see Should I enable TRIM with a third party (non-Apple) SSD?


How to do I save a file that has been put into the clipboard? I'm using a program that exports an image to the clipboard.
If I goto Finder->Edit->"Show Clipboard" a windows pops up showing the image.

How do I save this image to the Finder?  If I goto the Finder->Edit-> "paste" is greyed out.

Things I've tried:

pbpaste doesn't seem to see the image but the man page seems to
insinuate that it only understands Encapsulated  PostScript  (EPS)
.ps files
New from Clipboard in SnagIt works but I'm guessing that it creates a
new file and I'd like to get the original file.
Paste into PowerPoint puts the file there...but I can't seem to take
it out of there.  IE, dragging the image from PowerPoint to Finder
doesn't work.

An easy way is to use the built-in Preview app.

Copy the image.
Open Preview.
Press: ⌘+N

A new window will open with your copied image.

On the menu bar, click File > Save, or press ⌘+S, and a Save As sheet will appear.


Accessing an MCU via minicom but it keeps saying Resource Busy I am accessing a micontroller that's running linux off the SD card and is connected to my Mac via USB cable, but when I try to access it serially via minicom, it errors out:
minicom: cannot open /dev/disk3: Resource busy

How do you know what application is using this disk? I tried using lsof but not sure if I find something that's using disk3. What am I missing?

It seems like you have confused some things:
minicom is a program that will allow you to communicate with for example a different computer running Linux over a serial connection.
/dev/disk3 is a device node on your computer that refers to a physical block device (i.e. for example a hard drive or an SSD).
It does not make sense to ask minicom to communicate with an SSD disk. This is why your command fails.
Instead when using minicom you need to use the device node for a serial communications port. For example it could /dev/cu.usbserial or similar depending on the type of serial port you have.


Maximum memory for 2011 iMac I just bought an iMac and want to max out the memory on the machine. I have received two conflicting answers to my question so I'm bringing it to the community.

Can I install 4 8GB memory chips for a total of 32GB? The technical specs say it supports up to 16GB (4x4GB) but it hasn't been updated since May 2011 and was wonder if a firmware update allows it to support my proposed configuration.

The iMac has an i7 processor.

If you have the 27" iMac MacTracker says it supports up to 32GB, even though Apple only says it supports 16GB. The 21.5" iMac can only support 8GB either way. OWC, a reputable memory retailer, started selling 32GB upgrade kits for the 2011 iMac last year.


What are these accessories that came with my 1st gen iPod touch? I got these with my 1st gen iPod Touch, but I have never figured out how to use them? What are these for?

A dock adapter and a display stand.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/09/13/ipod_touch_unpacking_tour_and_first_look_photos.html


Why am I being asked to pay for iPhoto when I already have it? I just upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mavericks and when I run 'check for updates' in iPhoto it says there is an upgrade available but that I need to pay for it (this was not the case with the GarageBand update)

Why is this happening and how do I get round it?

Did you change your Apple ID? If you bought iPhoto in [apple ID 1] and you are using [apple ID 2] now, may be it will charge you.


Use screencapture with PHP exec I can't get screencapture to work work when triggered with exec() command.

$output = exec("/usr/sbin/screencapture -R 0,0,450,150 hehe.png"." 2>&1");
echo $output; //  in /System/Library/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/ImageIO

I am not sure what the $output message is trying to convey.

php.ini disable_functions is empty.

I have a feeling that this is a osx problem. Can you point me in the right direction regarding solving this problem?

from man screencapture

SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
     To capture screen content while logged in via ssh, you must launch
     screencapture in the same mach bootstrap hierarchy as loginwindow:

     PID=pid of loginwindow
     sudo launchctl bsexec $PID screencapture

I'm not using any ssh. PID of which process should be used in this case?

exec("sudo launchctl bsexec $PID screencapture -R 0,0,450,150 hehe.png");

All credit goes to patrix.

The problem stems from OSX preventing php script from executing screencapture command. OSX has no problem if you run your script manually, but if it is triggered as a response to a GET or POST request, than it raises the red flag.

To solve this 3 steps are needed:

Add permission to the user that is running httpd (and php) to execute sudo launchctl without password. In my case it is daemon. I got it from Activity Monitor. Edit /etc/sudoers with

daemon ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /bin/launchctl

get the PID of loginWindow. you can use ActivityMonitor for that. PID is subjected to changes so to bullet proof yourself use:

pgrep loginwindow

update your screencapture command:

sudo launchctl bsexec PIDNUMBERHERE screencapture [options] path/image.png

It might be worth mentioning that step 1 adds a slight security risk and probably shouldn't be used in an internet-facing environment (especially with a PHP solution where everybody can easily read the source code).


watchOS 4: Can you display complications on the photo albums watch face? With watchOS 4, is it possible to display complications on the photo album watch face?

Yes, the 'Photos' watch face supports complications including Activity.

It's not possible to display the complication Activity as rings, just as a text.


Path not being honored? I have the following in my .bash_profile:

$ cat ~/.bash_profile
# Prompt
export PS1="\h:\W$ "

# Standard path
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:
/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin"

# Android
export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=/opt/android-ndk
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/opt/android-sdk
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home`
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/.android"

export PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/tools/":"$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/platform-tools/"

I verified the path with:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/opt/local/bin:
/opt/local/sbin:/opt/android-sdk/tools/:/opt/android-sdk/platform-tools/

My local build of Emacs is in /usr/local/bin. I just built and installed it:

$ which emacs
/usr/local/bin/emacs

When I run Emacs, I get the one from /usr/bin:

$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 22.1.1
...
$ /usr/bin/emacs --version
GNU Emacs 22.1.1
...
$ /usr/local/bin/emacs --version
GNU Emacs 24.5.1
...

Why am I having trouble with the paths? Why is OS X ignoring them? How can I use my copy of Emacs in /usr/local/bin/emacs without specifying the full path?

In order to amend your PATH so that /usr/local/bin
is ahead of /usr/bin do the following:

execute . ~/.bash_profile
execute PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH" in the current shell
restart Terminal

You may also want to amend /etc/paths so that /usr/local/bin is listed before /usr/bin. You'll need to sudo your editor in order to do that.

sudo open -t /etc/paths

Bear in mind that if you edit /etc/paths there is a risk that non-terminal applications may pick up your locally build version. Just FYI.

A little more information on paths.

/bin (and /sbin) were intended for programs that needed to be on a small / partition before the larger /usr, etc. partitions were mounted. These days, it mostly serves as a standard location for key programs like /bin/sh, although the original intent may still be relevant for e.g. installations on small embedded devices.
/sbin, as distinct from /bin, is for system management programs (not normally used by ordinary users) needed before /usr is mounted.
/usr/bin is for distribution-managed normal user programs.
There is a /usr/sbin with the same relationship to /usr/bin as /sbin has to /bin.
/usr/local/bin is for normal user programs not managed by the distribution package manager, e.g. locally compiled packages. You should not install them into /usr/bin because future distribution upgrades may modify or delete them without warning.
/usr/local/sbin, as you can probably guess at this point, is to /usr/local/bin as /usr/sbin to /usr/bin.

This source helps explain the filesystem hierarchy standard on a deeper level.

And you might find this article on the use and abuse of /usr/local/bin interesting as well.


Are number of desktops affecting memory? I use 8 desktops on my MBP for my different apps. Do you know if it can affect memory use?

Having various applications open (on the same or on different desktops/spaces) requires much more memory than the desktops/spaces themselves. Even with different background pictures on every desktop the memory impact will be low compared to whatever else is going on on your machine.


FileVault unlock startup screen I don't want anybody turning on my Mac seeing my name and user account picture (all user account configured on the computer, actually!) just because it defaults to choosing a user to unlock the drive.

How can I get two simple username/password text fields instead of the "personal" login screen? This is possible for a "normal" login screen...

There is no way currently to get login / password blanks at the FileVault 2 preboot login screen.


How to encrypt USB drive on a Mac? I have an external USB drive and want to encrypt it. I have seen many 'suggestions' on how to do that, but I do not see any option to encrypt the drive. I am using MacOS 10.13.2.

I have see, for example, this answer. But in step 9, when I right click the drive (on the Desktop or the Finder), there is no option 'encrypt'. Before that I have formatted the drive in the 'Mac OC Extended (Journaled)' format. No option for encryption in the Disk Utility either ...

So how to do that? Maybe the option was forgotten in the new OS version?

I didn't find a way to do this from Disk Utility, but you can accomplish it from Terminal using diskutil.

Open Terminal and run diskutil list to show all devices currently connected. One of the entries should look similar to

/dev/disk7 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 GB     disk7
   1:                  Apple_HFS LOGBOOK                 1.0 GB     disk7s1

with the name of your USB stick instead of LOGBOOK. Take note of the device shown in the first line.

Then run

diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ NEWNAME GPT /dev/diskWHATEVER-NUMBER-YOURS-IS

to erase all content and create the required partition scheme. Replace NEWNAME with whatever name you want to use (enclose in "" if it contains anything else than letters) and use the device number found above.

Once done you can encrypt in Finder by right-clicking on the stick name in the sidebar.


How to get menu bar on both of my screens? Is there anyway to get my menu bar to show up on both of my screens? I don't want to use display mirroring, I just want the menu to be mirrored on both screens.

I'm using 10.6, but if this is a reason to upgrade to 10.8 I will. I want this so bad:)

Mac OS X does not allow for this natively. However, there is a third-party tool called SecondBar that purports to do just this. I have not used this myself, but you might want to take a look.


How do I use the 'Profiles' tab in System Preferences? I've found a bunch of random (sketchy-looking) files inside the Profiles pane of System Preferences.

To delete them, I need to be an admin, but no matter how many times I put my account on admin, it says I don't have admin permissions. My thinking is that  one of the configuration profiles is causing this.

Is there any way I can find/write a configuration profile to make myself an admin so I can delete the rest?

Good thinking - although they seem sketchy - they are likely well designed and well placed by professional IT. Are you sure you don't know how they arrived or any context about someone enforcing some restrictions or providing some software / benefit / services in relation to this Mac?

The longer answer why you can't really get around this is likelyd ue to those profiles being placed there by an organization / MDM and Apple backs up that enrollment process by getting positive consent before the "locked" profiles are accepted by macOS.

The correct manner is to get the company / person / MDM team to revoke / remove / modify the restrictions that have been placed.

They could remove the restrictions entirely.
They could push less restrictive parts to profiles.
They could say no.

If they say no, then you could ask - if you're not OK with their controls, would it be possible to wipe the device and then use it with different controls. They might have it enrolled in DEP - device enrollment program - which would then prompt to be re-enrolled like iOS Activation Lock, so be sure you exhaust all other options on a personal level before you resort to an erase.


How do I check an iPad 2's supported carrier? I had an AT&T iPad 2 3G which I took back to the Apple store on a warranty, and they gave me a replacement one. When I got back (it was an 1.5 hour drive), I realized that I forgot to specify that it's AT&T, not Verizon. Now I know that, chances are, they gave me the correct one, but how do I verify if the iPad is GSM or CDMA-enabled? I don't have a SIM card handy at the moment, so the easiest solution won't work here.

Correct if wrong but I am sure that only the GSM devices have a micro sim card slot. The CDMA or Verizon ones do not have sim cards.

So as you are on AT&T they would have seen a SIM and got you one with a SIM.


Can I disable auto-correction of a single word on OS X? I'm running into an annoying issue with OS X's automatic spelling correction where the word nala gets automatically corrected to napa.

I've tried adding nala to my custom dictionary under ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary but it still reliably makes the correction anyway.

How do I configure OS X to not automatically correct a given word short of turning off automatic correction entirely which is not really desirable?

Yes you can do it.

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text.
Click the + sign on the bottom left to add a new text replacement.
In the Replace column, put the word you want OS X to stop autocorrecting (no spaces are allowed).
In the With column, put the exact same word you put in the Replace column.

Voila.  You're done.

This has worked flawlessly for me every time.


How can I view movie subtitles on a new AppleTV? I have an .avi and an .srt for a Mandarin movie. I used HandBrakeCLI to generate a M4V file that I could import into iTunes. In iTunes there is an option to turn the subtitles on and off, which works beautifully.

But when I move over to my AppleTV and select the movie from my computer's library, the subtitles do not show when played. I don't see any option in the AppleTV UI to turn subtitles on/off during movie playback.

All I could find was a setting in the Settings menu to set subtitles to "English" - would this be a global setting? Regardless it had no effect on my movie.

How can I view the subtitles when I watch on my AppleTV?

FYI here is the HandBrakeCLI command I used:

HandBrakeCLI -i /Volumes/Drobo/Movies/Ip\ Man\ The\ Legend\ is\ Born.avi -o /Users/emh/Desktop/movie.m4v --preset="AppleTV" --srt-file /Volumes/Drobo/Movies/Ip\ Man\ The\ Legend\ is\ Born.srt --srt-lang English --srt-default

Use Subler.

Open file, click plus sign at top right to add srt file, and then save.

This process is both very fast and easy.


idle power consumption of MagSafe 2 45 W A1436 Power Supply The title says it: plugged into the wall (120vac), but disconnected from the MacBook Air, how much power is consumed by the power supply?

I have measured the consumed energy of an Apple MagSafe 2 60 W Power Adapter over a period of three weeks while idle.

The energy consumption drops to 0.00001 kWh per day after less than 30 minutes since the last usage.

I am confident that the MagSafe 2 45 W Power Adapter will behave the same.

Note: Other power supplies I have do consume a measurable amount energy with no devices attached. So Apple seems to have done a really great job building these power supplies.


iPhone 6+ in UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) Can someone please let me know which model to chose (from the US) for someone who would like to use iPhone 6+ in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for carrier Etisalat or DU. Where can I buy the phone? Is there an international version, can I buy a normal version? Thanks!

You need to buy iPhone 6 Plus Model A1524 (GSM). I would think you can get that model in the local Apple store.


MacBook Pro 2016 does not turn on I have a MacBook Pro 2016 with a touch bar, and without prior warning it is now refusing to turn on. Pressing the Touch ID button does nothing: no chime, no screen activity, no computer noise, no Caps Lock LED. Resetting the SMC has no effect.

Is there any kind of diagnosis I can perform before bringing it to the Apple Store? Is there some secret key combination that will make it tell me where it's failing? Can I somehow connect it to a second computer and use that to perform a diagnosis?

Guides freely available through Google don't say very much beyond these steps that I've already taken.

I guess my real question is:

  What will Apple itself do before starting to dissemble it? Can I do that myself?

If you press the power button and nothing happens, there's no special or secret combination of keystrokes that will get you into diagnostic mode,

Given that it is so new (and still under warranty), you want an exchange, not a repair.  This is way too new for you to be having this type of difficulty.

As to your question, "what will Apple do?"  They will look at it, press the power button, check your charger and then then they will give you another machine.  They won't attempt to repair it.


What specs to look for in a router to connect multiple Apple and non-Apple devices efficiently? I have a router at the moment that keeps dropping Airplay connection between different iOS devices. I'm trying to find a better router that can withstand the amount of interference from various devices such as multiple iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Windows laptops, AppleTV, and a TV.

I know the iPad (1 and 2) and the iPhone cannot use 5 Ghz wireless signals, yet the AppleTV and retina MacBook Pro do. So I am not sure if I need to get a dual band router that can send both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz, or just stick to 2.4 Ghz single band transmitter.

I would appreciate your advice for what to look for in a router to achieve what I mentioned?

It depends what you expect to get out of a router.

I just use an AirPort Extreme, and at any time there are at least 7 devices connected, 3 of which are on the 5ghz band, 3 are on 2.4ghz, and the other 2 are wired.

It's possibly the most reliable router I've had, and is incredibly easy to configure and maintain.

I also have 2 hard drives and a printer connected to it's USB port via a USB hub.

The only issue I have with it is that it doesn't play nicely if I try to set-up an incoming VPN connection on my Windows server, however it does work if I run a VPN on an OS X server I borrowed to test.


iPhone 5S overheating with very short battery life I have done my research, and have found no solutions to my phone overheating. I've had the phone since July 2014, and I really started to notice that the phone over heated a lot in January 2015, and the battery life getting shorter and shorter.

Today in fact, my phone got so hot it was actually that hot that I couldn't really touch it. In the last few hours it has been hot, and has not cooled down. There are about 2 apps running on my phone: Settings and Safari.

The battery in your phone is dying. Continuing to use it and charge it could cause it to catch on fire. You can take it to Apple to be repaired/replaced but will probably cost a lot as it is an older phone or you can take it to a local phone "fix-it" place to have the battery replaced.

It looks like https://www.batteriesplus.com will replace it fot $60 or you could go the ifixit route and do it yourself.

I do recommend that you replace the battery soon, I had a 3GS years ago with the exact same symptoms, the battery eventually expanded so much it broke the back of the phone and could not be repaired.


Macbook Pro renders font differently then other screen This is the font looks on my friend's Macbook Pro:

This is the font looks on my computer with DELL U2412M monitor:

They look different, the first one looks smooth and the second one looks blurry.

Anyone have insight on this?

It looks different because your Macbook and the Dell does not get the same resolution. Your Macbook should display 1280*800 or 2560 x 1600 or other, and the Dell displays 1900*1200. The ratio is not the same, it has to be stretched.


My son's user account and my user account on my iMac are linked/synced through iCloud. How do I unlink them? So, on my home iMac - I have separate user accounts for me, my wife, and my two kids (ages 5 & 7).

This has worked great - my young children only have access to age-appropriate sites, and bookmarks for all their favorites.

However - after I upgraded my iMac to Yosemite - I noticed that, when I first logged into my child's account to confirm that everything worked - I was prompted to log into iCloud using my Apple ID.

I didn't really understand this - I was logged into iCloud on MY user account; why should I have to log in again for my son's user account?

Nevertheless - and foolishly - I did log in again.

Now - my son's user account and my user account are linked and synced through iCloud. He can see all my bookmarks, and I can see all of his. I'm sure everything else that's stored on iCloud drive are also synced between our two user accounts.

So - I guess what I need to do is "unlink" my iCloud account from my son's user account. However - I can't figure out how to do that.

Any advice or suggestions?

On your sons account you should be able to open up System Preferences, choose iCloud (you should see your account logged in here). From there just click sign out. It will ask if you want to keep synced bookmarks, contacts, notes, etc you can then choose to delete them or keep them on that account.

Edit: Short answer: When you remove iCloud Drive from your sons account, your files will still remain on your account.
Longer answer: I tested out the iCloud Drive problem by creating a new user account managed by parental controls on my Mac. After I created this account, it asked me to sign into my Apple ID, which I did. I then went to sign myself out of the managed user account. I had the same thing occur, it said that my iCloud Drive documents will be deleted from this computer. I clicked delete, and removed them, as well as contacts, bookmarks, etc. When I logged back into my main (administrator) account all of my iCloud Drive files were still there, it is safe to delete iCloud Drive from that account.


Recovery of files in iphoto I had thousands of important photos, screen shots, etc. deleted by my wife.

Please let me know what I can do to restore/get them back.  Or, are they gone forever?

First, I would check the trash from within iPhoto to see if you can simply undelete the photos.
If that doesn't work, hopefully you have your Time Machine backup available. Go to your Photos folder in Finder, then from the Time Machine icon on your Menu Bar, select Enter Time Machine... Once active, you'll be able to find a recent copy of your iPhoto.Library package and restore it.
Good practices would also suggest that you move your existing iPhoto.Library to a safe location before you do the above  so that it is not overwritten until after you've verified the restore.


MacOS High Sierra: how can I merge 2 partitions into one? Well, I've got a little problem with my SSD.

I had Windows installed through the bootcamp, when macOS offered me a High Sierra update. I've updated. But when I wanted to remove Windows, I could not do it. I had to delete it via the Disk Utility. And then I ran into a problem: I had 2 containers on one internal physical disk.

But how do I unite them now, so that the empty merged with the system without loss of information?

Here is my diskutil list:

Use the commands given below to preform the merge.

  Note: These commands will delete the noname volume, therefore you may want to backup this volume.

diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk0s3
diskutil eraseVolume free n disk0s3
diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

If a command fails, try prepending a sudo.


AppStore API for search and download? I am looking for an AppStore API, official or 3rd party, that would enable me to both search for (using keywords) and download apps. I'd be downloading free apps, such as:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/angry-birds-2/id880047117

There is a 3rd party Google Play Unofficial Python API available, but does such a thing (preferably in Python) exist for the AppStore?

There are no official API to search the iOS App Store. Also, starting with iTunes 12.7, Apple has removed the ability to browse, search for and download iOS apps on a Mac/PC.

The only currently official way for public users to download and install apps is directly an iOS device via the App Store. This is done as a step towards optimizing the installed app bundle size depending on device type and capabilities.

There is a official iTunes Search API (with very limited support for apps) which you go through and see if meets some of your needs:

iTunes Affiliate Resources


Can I disable the linear image scaling in Safari on a retina display? I have two MacBook Pros: one with Retina, and one without. Although browsing the web with Retina has much sharper text, most images appear noticeably blurry.

For websites that have not put in the effort to have Retina optimized images, I'd much rather their images appear pixelated than blurry. Can I tell Safari to use nearest-neighbour scaling?

What you want to do is force the image-rendering CSS property to be set to optimizeSpeed (see here). You could use the Stylish browser extension to achieve this.

Create a new custom style:

* {
image-rendering: optimizeSpeed !important;
}

Set "Apply to" to "Global".


After enabling File Vault, OS X doesn't mount disk automatically anymore I have an external 2 TB LaCie drive connected via FireWire 800 to my MacBook Pro (8,2 – early 2011 model), which runs OS X 10.8.5. It has one big partition which is a Time Machine target, and the backup is encrypted. My Macintosh HD itself is also encrypted.

Before, I could just plug in the drive and it would automatically mount all the volumes on it, but ever since I've enabled encryption and started a new Time Machine backup, the disk is not mounted automatically anymore – I have to go into Disk Utility and manually unlock it:

Sometimes I even have to enter my master password for that drive.

Of course, that's not really practical: it's a backup drive and therefore should be mounted automatically every time it's plugged in.

I have not changed my /etc/fstab to prevent it from mounting, nor have I changed any configuration regarding mounting or Time Machine. Here's the diskutil list output for the sake of completeness:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         120.5 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *120.1 GB   disk1
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         2.0 TB     disk2s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk2s3
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Data                   *2.0 TB     disk3

How do I get OS X to mount my volume automatically again?

NB: I also noticed that as soon as I eject the drive, it doesn't spin down anymore. It used to do that before though – now I have to shut it down with the hardware switch.

I have had the same issue.  If you have an entry for the drive in your Keychain, delete it and try again.

To do so, open Applications » Utilities » Keychain Access.app and look for the Encrypted Volume password. Delete it from the list.

Eject and plug in the drive again. When it asks for the master password check the 'remember' button.


How to get iTunes 11 to Group by Album Name tl;dr Is there an easier way / hack to get iTunes to display albums by album name? Currently it splits albums up by artist, then sorts the album names A-Z. Going through and manually changing the Album Artist will take way to long...

I recently upgraded to iTunes 11 and for the most part I like it. However one issue I have come across (and it would seem many others are in the same boat) is that iTunes is grouping albums by artists. For the most part this is fine, but when it comes to soundtracks and compilations things get hairy...

As you can see soundtracks for games or movies (eg the Shutter Island or Sin City soundtrack) is a compilation of different songs by various artists and iTunes is displaying albums in A-Z order but grouping them by Artist...

I've found that you need to set the 'album artist' to something like Soundtrack or Various Artists to get the grouping to work correctly. However this would take hours to do manually!!

Is there an easy fix for this behavious? Either by automating the Album Artist or by hacking iTunes to display albums grouped by album name?

iTunes 11.0.3

In general, you're already using the correct way to sort by album name.  Click "Music" then, "Albums"

The problem you're seeing with compilations being shown multiple times for each artist has always been a problem even in older versions of iTunes.  In order to fix this, you'll need to modify the Album Artist field in the track info.

To do this, press ⌘+i (Ctrl+i on Windows), then put “VA” into the Album Artist field (Note: using “Various Artists” or any matching string should also work). You can select multiple tracks with ⌘+Click (Ctrl+Click on Windows) to edit many tracks on the same compilation at a time.


How to give enough access so a child can use the terminal, download packages, yet does not have full admin rights on mac? I need some smart ideas for clever ways around mac security and online child safety issues. I'm not exactly sure how to word this question. Of course my 11 year old does not have full admin rights on his laptop, but this creates problems in downloading and running packages using homebrew, etc.
We're running into lots of rights access and sudo issues. I'm downloading packages on the admin account, then trying to get things working on his user account. We're trying to get rtl-433 up and running, and running into a ton of issues with different needed packages.
How can I give him semi admin rights to be able to download and install via the terminal so he do whatever dev he needs to, yet also maintain admin rights over other aspects, internet usage etc? Anyone know some tricks?
Specifically running into access rights issues with files in user/bin/local from his account.
Does this make sense?
If I give his account admin rights just to install stuff, and change it back once things are installed, I think we're still going to run into access issues, right? or not? Is this a potential way around it?
Otherwise, is there anything like some kind of virtual environment I can run, that gives some level of access to admin rights?

You can give admin access to specific commands using sudo. To do so, log in as an admin user, open Terminal and run EDITOR=nano sudo visudo /etc/sudoers.d/myconfig (which will create a new file and open in nano). Then add the following line (replace KID with the name of the unix account of your kid, ADMIN with the account name of the user which installed brew)
KID ALL = (ADMIN) /usr/local/bin/brew

He should then be able to run brew commands by typing sudo brew ... and entering his password.
To allow commands to be run as root (things you already run with sudo even from an admin account) use
KID ALL = /path/to/command

(obviuosly this has some risks).


How can I schedule sending the day’s iCal events via email? I followed this tutorial on creating a workflow using Automator that will email the events of the day from iCal to an email address.

I would like this to be executed every morning at, say 4am, so it is in my inbox when I wake up. What would be the best way to do this? I was thinking of perhaps creating a daily iCal event to execute the workflow, but then wouldn't that event also be included in the email?

The easiest way to schedule a workflow is to use iCal for the scheduling: if you have followed the steps of the tutorial you linked to to the letter and have saved the workflow as an iCal reminder, Automator will have added a new event named like your workflow to a local calendar called “Automator” (creating it if it does’t exist yet). This event has a reminder set to execute the workflow 0 minutes before the event.

To execute it every day on 4 a.m., just schedule the event that way (you could also set it to only repeat on weekdays – or to anything iCal will let you do with a scheduled event). To make sure the triggering event itself is not included, make sure the “Filter iCal Calendar” action (the 1st step of your workflow) excludes the “Automator” calendar – either because filter conditions will bypass it anyway, or by setting a filter condition to “Name is not Automator”.

You can hide the “Automator” calendar from displaying in iCal by unchecking its checkbox in iCal’s calendar list, thus making your workflow execute invisibly for all practical purposes. Also note iCal does not need to run for the event to be triggered, but you must be logged in and the computer should not be sleeping (a workaround for that last gotcha is to set the machine to wake up shortly before the scheduled time in Power Saving System Settings – this would also be necessary if you scheduled with launchd or cron). The actual workflow is to be found in ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/iCal and can be set to a “open file” reminder on any event, should you ever need to do so.


Why use backup if icloud is already enabled for every application iCloud Backup refers to Settings > [name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and iCloud sync refers to iCloud > Apps using iCloud and you enable/disable iCloud for the respective applications. Have a look at this  for reference.
I found the image online.
I am not sure if that enable/disable for the apps (the ones displayed like Mail, Contacts, Calendars, etc) works only if the iCloud Backup is enabled.

Most of what iCloud does (other than iCloud Backup) is synchronize data between your various devices and the cloud. Synchronization is not a backup! Synchronization protects you in case a device is lost, fails, etc, but does nothing to protect against data being deleted or corrupted. If you delete or overwrite an important note on one of your devices, iCloud sync will promptly delete/overwrite the copy on the iCloud servers, and then do the same on all your other devices. In a situation like this, a backup would let you go back to before the problem happened, but sync copies the problem around.
(As Allan pointed out, it's best to have multiple "redundant" backups -- a sync service doesn't count as one of them.)


iOS - Photos & message access to MDM installed apps In iOS, is it possible for apps managed via MDM to get access to photos and text/WhatsApp text messages of user stored on user's iPhone. If yes, what kind of permissions do these actions require?

MDM controls how an iOS device is remotely configured and what apps are pushed to be installed. It has nothing to do with what permissions are available to an app.

Reading photos stored on devices requires access to user photos. The mechanism to ask user for photos permission can be programmed by an iOS app developer and would work in the same way irrespective of the way the app is installed (MDM or App Store).

There are no permissions/mechanisms available in iOS which can let a third party app read text and WhatsApp messages. Each app is technically sandboxed and need to seek permission from iOS to access user data and device hardware.


USB devices intermittently disconnecting For a long while now I've experienced USB devices intermittently disconnecting on my Macbook Pro Retina 2012 (El Capitan 10.11.2).

I'm currently using a Targus 7 port USB 3 hub (http://targus.com/au/usb-30-7-port-hub-with-fast-charging) but this problem existed when I was using an older USB hub. I bought this one in the hope it might resolve this problem, but it didn't.

This USB hub is connected to its power adaptor.

From memory this problem also existed before El Capitan update.

For work I use Microsoft Lync for Mac, and I sometimes notice than when a new instant message arrives, my keyboard, mouse and headset will disconnect. But they also sometimes disconnect without this trigger.

To reconnect them, bizarrely, i seem to need to unplug and replug each device in 3 times specifically.

It's very frustrating and inefficient for my workflow. Just wondering if there are any suggestions or recommendations as to how I can troubleshoot or resolve this?

Following are screenshots of the USB map (two separate screenshots as the contents of the USB 3.0 Bus details page didn't fit in one screen)

Disclaimer: this is an answer under construction.

Open the  > About This Mac > System Report...,
select Hardware > USB,
and open every small ▼.

Select the USB bus where is connected your USB hub, and enlarge the
lower part of the window to have a complete vue of all your USB equipments.

Make a screen capture: commandshift4, space, select the USB map window and click.
You will get something like:

Include this screen capture within your OQ (original question).

Verify that the sum of the Current Required (mA) of all the equipments
connected to the same internal USB hub don't exceed the Current Available (mA) for the hub. This value might be different depending on the USB port available outside and what is already connected on it internally.

As a basic simple rule, avoid the external USB port which is on the bus where is connected the FaceTime HD camera (Current Required (mA) = 500 mA).
For example, on a MacBook Pro, I discovered through trials that my FaceTime HD camera is on the bus with the USB external port nearest from the front.

To check this hidden cabling, just use your external mouse.

Connect it on port nearest from the front. Hit commandR in System Report... to refresh the USB connection information.
Note on which bus is this external USB port.

Repeat the same operation for port farthest from the front.


Matching a column of cells to another column in Excel Ok, I need to compare "A" column to "B" column. I have a billing agency that generates  a number i.e. 00125785231... This number could be in column A at A80 and then in column b at B801... I need something to show in column C801 that it has a match in A column.

Vlookup will be the answer here.

Eg, given a table:

   A,B
   1,5
   2,6
   3,7
   4,8
   5,9

In C1 put in, and drag it down:

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B1,$A$1:$A$6,1,FALSE)),"NOT IN A","IN A")

Col A has to be sorted.

Output:

A,B,C
1,5,In A
2,6,In A
3,7,Not in A
4,8,Not in A
5,9,Not in A
6, 10,Not in A

To deconstruct this:

   (VLOOKUP(B1,$A$1:$A$6,1,FALSE)

VLOOKUP takes your input (B1), and finds that value in the search table (A1:A6). The $ stops this changing as you drag down. It pulls back column 1 of the search table, in this case that's Column A. False tells it not to fuzzy match

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B1,$A$1:$A$6,1,FALSE)),"NOT IN A","IN A")

Wrapping this in an ISNA tells the IF to print out "NOT IN A" for successful ISNA - ie. where you get NA as a value from the vlookup, meaning it can't find a value. Otherwise, it prints IN A, which is where it can find a value.

Might be more than you care to learn about VLOOKUP (HLOOKUP is the horizontal equivilent), but with a larger search table, you can then pick different values that match your input. This approximates a SQL join.

So, given a table of client data:

Name, ID, Phone
Alex, 1, 123-456-7890
Bob, 2, 111-111-1111
Alice, 3, 222-222-2222
Teresa, 4, 333-333-3333

You can then create another table with a second set of data, and use a column in that to pull in data from this table.

eg.

OrderNum, ClientID, Client Name
1, 3, VLOOKUP - Alice
2, 4, VLOOKUP - Teresa
3, 2, VLOOKUP - Bob

This generally useful when given a report to be enriched.


Yellow tooltip stuck on screen There is a yellow tooltip stuck and it floats above all other windows. I do not know from what program it came.

How can I get rid of it without restarting my computer?

EDIT:

The simplest way to get rid of this, at least when it happens for me, is to hover over anything with a tooltip to get a new tooltip. Happens to me quite often with Safari these days, very annoying.


Has anyone actually gotten AT&T to unlock an iPhone? We're going to be moving to Germany in a few weeks, so I visited AT&T today and asked them to unlock our phones.  They unlocked my Android device, but told me that "Apple did not give [them] the tools to unlock iPhones".  I had a little shouting match, but I got nowhere.

I might be able to figure out how to jailbreak and unlock my wife's 3GS (v 4.3.5 8L1, BB  05.16.02 if that matters) but she's really hesitant to "mess with it".  I'd really prefer to be able to go through official channels.

I found plenty of questions here about unlocking iPhones, but nearly all of them seem to be overrun with irrelevant answers about how other networks work.  I get the impression from other web sites that AT&T is a "special case" and flatly refuses to ever unlock any iPhone, for any reason, period.  Is this true?  Would I have better luck talking directly to Apple?  Do I have any recourse, or is this phone going to magically turn into an iPod Touch after our plane ride is over?

Yes, I've unlocked 4 myself and helped family members and friends unlock another dozen.

The web interface is nice, but I also call them after 2 days if the unlock isn't done since most of the unlock requests are either processed rapidly or hung due to an error or mis-typing/missing entirely a digit or two. Once I get someone on the phone, the unlock usually is done the next day but I also follow their procedure and submit the web form first before bugging AT&T in person.

So, the process is straightforward andbutyou'll do well to triple check your IMEI and account details before submitting your unlock request. I've not had any issues by following the guide as published by AT&T - even when we purchased an AT&T phone second hand for a gift / spare phone while traveling internationally or for a young child to use as an iPod and occasional unlocked phone.

Here is AT&T's knowledge base on their current unlock policy:

What are the eligibility requirements for unlocking iPhone?


rEFInd not showing macOS partition, just Ubuntu A week ago I installed Ubuntu gnome in dual boot on my MacBook Pro mid 2012 (macOS Sierra). I followed the installation guide, disabled SIP in Recovery Mode, installed rEFInd and everything went well.

Today I wanted to go back to macOS and when I rebooted the system rEFInd did not show up, instead there was just Ubuntu loading. So I booted to Recovery Mode and reinstalled rEFInd (from that console I was able to locate my macOS files).

After rebooting I was able to load rEFInd page, but I cannot find the macOS "icon" to boot the system, just the Ubuntu one. Any hint on what may be the problem?


How to delete all photos from iPhone using mac or pc I'd like to delete all of the photos and videos from my iPhone 5S. I am willing to use [free] software on a mac or PC. Image Capture on a Mac does not have a delete option, before or after import. I imported all of the images and it did not offer any way to delete them from the iPhone. And, the instructions at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3075727?tstart=0 do not work for me since there is no delete icon visible.

On the PC side, the windows explorer delete function gives an error when I try to delete.

Is there an iPhone setting I need to change in order to make them deletable? Does this have to do with iCloud at all?

I found out that if you disable iCloud photo syncing, then Image Capture will allow you to delete your photos.

Go to Settings > iCloud > Photos and turn off "iCloud Photo Library". Then, close image capture, disconnect your iPhone from your Mac, and reconnect the iPhone. Then Image Capture will show the delete icon.


Keep copy/paste and TOC in PDF converted from ebook? For research, I often convert non-DRM ebooks to PDF using Calibre.  The resulting PDF has a TOC with working links.  However, it is not searchable in Preview, and copy/paste results in blank white space, even when pasting into TextEdit or nValt.
(Adobe Acrobat can search, copy/paste the PDF and the TOC works, but I use many tools that use Apple's PDF frameworks, so I'd like to solve this.)
To make it searchable and copyable, I run the PDF through Ghostscript using these commands:
gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="output" "input"
This renders a new PDF that is searchable, and copy/pastes properly.  However, it strips the links from the TOC.
Is there a way to convert the PDF so that it will retain its TOC links and also be searchable and have copy/paste work?

I suppose the first thing would be to investigate Calibre's PDF output to see if it is to spec, and whether it has options that Preview might prefer.
Ghostscript normally should preserve bookmarks and other annotations. Maybe explicitly set -dPDFSETTINGS=/default.?
See the long answer here about using GS:
https://superuser.com/questions/466031/how-do-i-reduce-a-pdfs-size-and-preserve-the-bookmarks
If that doesn't work, you could use this python script, which will copy Bookmarks from one PDF to another. Note that it will overwrite the destination PDF.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Copy PDF Table of Contents from one PDF to another.
#
# copyOutlines.py <source file> <destination file>

from Foundation import  NSURL
import Quartz as Quartz
import sys

def copyOutlines(source, dest):
    pdfURL = NSURL.fileURLWithPath_(source)
    inPDF = Quartz.PDFDocument.alloc().initWithURL_(pdfURL)
    if inPDF:
        outline = Quartz.PDFOutline.alloc().init()
        outline = inPDF.outlineRoot()
    pdfURL = NSURL.fileURLWithPath_(dest)
    outPDF = Quartz.PDFDocument.alloc().initWithURL_(pdfURL)
    outPDF.setOutlineRoot_(outline)
    outPDF.writeToFile_(dest)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    copyOutlines(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])


My iPhone is over capacity. Is there a way to remove specific data from an iPhone Backup? Let me explain my situation.  I jailbroke my iPhone 4 when the untethered 4.3.1 jailbreak got released last week.  As precaution, I did make a backup of my Cydia apps back when it was 4.2.1 and my iPhone's personal data as well.  When I restored the Cydia apps it had to remove my phone's apps.  The problem is when I restore my iPhone data back on, it does not restore all of my apps due to it being over capacity.  And thus I don't have my app's data.

So, I want to remove the photos and movies from my iPhone's backup as they eat up most of the phone's memory.  Is there a way?  Or is there another solution to handle this problem?

What I did so far
Remove any large Cydia apps.  Still over capacity.

iTunes ver. 10.2.1  Mac OS 10.6.7  iPhone iOS 4.3.1

Well since you are using Mac OSX, when you plug in your phone you can do the following to back up your pictures OUTSIDE of iTunes.

Step 1

Open up Preview with your phone plugged in. Go to File > Import Image. You will see it populate all your photos/videos. Save them in a separate folder (maybe somewhere on your desktop), then delete them all from your phone.

If you are concerned about mass deleting these files, you can just do it with SSH. This is after you've imported all your images through preview.

From Terminal on your desktop type

ssh root@your-iphones-ip-address-here

Will prompt you with a PW, chances are if you haven't changed it it's alpine or Alpine. Change directories via the following command:

cd /var/mobile/Media/DCIM

Depending on the amount of images/videos you have you will see 100APPLE/ and maybe 101APPLE/. In the directory type this to remove ALL images and movies in one command

rm -r 100APPLE/
rm -r 101APPLE/

Backup in iTunes now and you have a fresh backup with just numbers/apps/whatever else. You can then import the pictures/videos back if you want after you restore it.


Can I use iBooks on my MacBook Pro I'd love to be able to use iBooks on my laptop. Is that possible? Maybe if I install Lion?

No, it's an iOS application.  It will not run on OS X.

To read DRM-free e-books on your Mac, there are 3rd party Apps like Calibre. But even they can't read the DRM-encrypted books from the iBooks store.


Why does Pages constantly freeze on a particular pages document I'm writing a report (4000 words)on Pages in the past few days. However, since this afternoon, after I added a new picture to the report, this report has been constantly unresponsive whenever I scroll down/up or type something.
I've restarted macbook but it doesn't solve the problem.
I also opened a small document (200 words), everything works fine.
Macbook Pro 2018. MacOs: Big Sur 11.2.3

It seems that the new picture caused the problem..
After removing the picture, everything is back to normal...


Where does the pmset CPU_Speed_Limit variable come from, and how to modify it The man page of pmset states:

pmset must be run as root in order to modify any settings.

Yet I cannot find out how to alter the CPU_Speed_Limit variable. I'm not a registered Apple developer, but I have searched some of their archives with no success.
$ pmset -g therm
Note: No thermal warning level has been recorded
Note: No performance warning level has been recorded
2020-11-24 13:10:40 +0100 CPU Power notify
    CPU_Scheduler_Limit     = 100
    CPU_Available_CPUs  = 8
    CPU_Speed_Limit     = 35

BACKGROUND: The reason I wish to know the answer to my question is because my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) High Sierra 10.13.6 is throttling my CPU unnecessarily as it's running very cool (roughly 50˚C via smcFanControl). I am running my MBP on AC power and without a battery as I'm waiting for a replacement battery from a third-party. I'm not sure if my AC adapter is an original Apple power adapter, and I'm not sure if that is affecting the SMC. I've cleared NVRAM and done an SMC reset (without battery), but I still have the above issue.
The battery I removed was an original Apple battery, albeit with a third party adapter at the time. The battery was grossly swollen to the point where the touchpad wasn't working.

I cannot find out how to alter the CPU_Speed_Limit variable.

You can't.
It's not a variable in the sense that modifying it will increase/decrease your performance.  It's more of an indicator as to what the limit is currently; it's similar to your battery's current charge status - what it is at the time it was measured.
As correctly stated in the comments, your Mac will limit performance when the battery is missing: Broken battery - downgraded performance
Unfortunately, you'll just have to wait until the replacement battery arrives and you install it to regain full performance from your Mac.


A software update is required to connect to your iOS device / iPhone On my mac I've recently updated to the latest macOS version 10.13.5 and have installed Xcode 10 (beta 1). For my iPhone X there is an update available to 11.4 but i didn't install that yet. Now there is this weird pop up on my mac that keeps appearing, that I have never seen before:

When the alert window is focused the menu in to top left corner of my screen doesn't change. So i can't tell from which application it's coming from, so I assume it's a system alert.

But the font size of the description is 12. Standard is 13. That popup doesn't look safe to me because of that and also the description is not really specific. I have 5 iOS devices connected.

I will update on my iPhone X directly and see if this popup still appears.

UPDATE

I've updated my iPhone X to iOS 11.4 but the pop up still appears.

UPDATE 2

I've found out that the popup is coming from a process called MobileDeviceUpdater

UPDATE 3

I've installed all updates to all my devices and the popup still appears.

UPDATE 4

I've sampled the process and it seems that it is an apple process.

Sampling process 14573 for 3 seconds with 1 millisecond of run time between samples
Sampling completed, processing symbols...
Analysis of sampling MobileDeviceUpdater (pid 14573) every 1 millisecond
Process:         MobileDeviceUpdater [14573]
Path:            /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Resources/MobileDeviceUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/MobileDeviceUpdater
Load Address:    0x10d689000
Identifier:      com.apple.MobileDeviceUpdater
Version:         1.0 (1)
Build Info:      MobileDeviceUpdater-988200034100003~2
Code Type:       X86-64
Parent Process:  ??? [1]

Date/Time:       2018-06-08 14:45:55.105 +0200
Launch Time:     2018-06-08 13:28:48.013 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.13.5 (17F77)
Report Version:  7
Analysis Tool:   /usr/bin/sample

Physical footprint:         15.4M
Physical footprint (peak):  16.1M

...

I didn't include the Call graph and the Binary images.

The binary is located at:

  /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Resources/MobileDeviceUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/MobileDeviceUpdater

UPDATE 5

I've hit the Install button and it tried to download one item but wasn't able to.

UPDATE 6

There is still nothing to update. The popup keeps appearing and fails every time I hit the Install button ...

The problem can be fixed by installing XCode beta.

This error occurs when the version of macOS (and iTunes) running on the computer is not compatible with the version of iOS on the device you're trying to connect.

Normally, updating the macOS to its current version will solve the problem. However, this won't work if the iOS device is running a newer beta version, and the Mac is not.

If you don't want to run the beta version of macOS (or downgrade the iOS device to a non-beta version), a solution is to install the beta version of Xcode.

Even though you may have no use for Xcode itself, its beta version includes the necessary software patches which will allow your existing macOS (and iTunes) to support devices running the iOS beta.

Download the Xcode beta from:
  https://developer.apple.com/download

The xip file will (eventually) unarchive into the full Xcode app. Drag it into your Applications folder, and then be sure to start Xcode. At that point it will install the necessary software components for the latest iOS beta. When it asks to open or create a project, you can quit Xcode.

iTunes should now recognize the iOS device.

Reference: https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/fix-software-update-is-required-connect-your-iphone-warning-your-mac-0185898/


How does FireWire daisy chaining work between two Macs? After taking a look at this question Does Thunderbolt support a net topology like FireWire?

I was wondering how FireWire works when it's daisy-chained with multiple devices between a Mac on each end of the chain?

How does this work in the external drive case? For example, you have the following setup between two Macs running OS X normally. Note that the hard drive is switched off at first:

Mac 1   <-----FireWire----->  Ext HardDrive  <-----FireWire-----> Mac 2

What happens when the hard-drive is turned on in between the two Macs? Does it connect to both, race condition  to 1 of the 2, fail connect to any or does it do something else.

Found the solution, and that is that both system will mount the drive simultaneously in a potentially data corrupting manner.

Source: Macintouch Reader Reports FireWire: Connecting Drive to Two Computers

  Q: Vy Tri Truong
  I have a stack of 2 FireWire Hard Drives next to my Mac Mini. I also have a PC laptop that I sometimes use to access the drives. My Windows XP PC has MacDrive 6 installed which allows it to recognize Mac formatted discs (which these drives are). On one of occasion, I accidentally left the drives plugged into the Mac while connecting my PC to it. I found that both computers were able to access files and write to the discs.
  Is having 2 computers access the same hard drive simultaneously advisable?

Turns out it is not a good thing to do, may cause data corruption, according to the same source.

  A:Daniel Figucio
  Is having 2 computers access the same hard drive simultaneously advisable?
  No, it is not advisable in this configuration at all. The file systems on the drives are not concurrent file systems. This means that the PC has no idea where the Mac may have written data and vice versa - which means that they may both try to write data to the same block on the disk because they think it is free, when the other has already written data there - which will obviously corrupt data. The Mac and the PC WILL NOT communicate and tell each other what they have done. So use at your own risk..

  ...


Switch between workspaces with mouse (not trackpad / magicpad and not keyboard) Is there a way I can switch between workspaces with a mouse?
I know I can configure keyboard shortcuts for this, and I can also configure trackpad 3/4 finger swipe up for mission control then select workspace from there.
But is there a method for switching workspaces with only mouse?

You can, of course, use the mouse to click on Mission Control in the dock and then click on your space. It takes 2 clicks but still pretty quick!


Why does my Mac Pro have two ethernet ports on the back of the computer? I'm curious as to how or why I might want to take advantage of two ethernet ports on the back of the tower?

If you wanted to connect to two different networks you could use this.  So say you had an internal network which you had your own computers all linked to but were not connected to the internet, you could use one port to connect to this network.  Then you could connect the other port to a broadband router/modem and access the internet on your Mac Pro.  It's really more of an interest to businesses than domestic users.
You could also use the second port to connect to Network Attached Storage (NAS) such as a MyBook World or similar.  This would allow you to use the full bandwidth of one port for backups to disk while not affecting the speed on the other network.
Backup interface in case one fails.  You could have each interface connect to different switches on your network in case of a failure on one you still have access to the network on the other.
There's also something called link aggregation which allows you to combine the ports to act as one port with twice the speed.  However, this depends on your other network equipment supporting this mode.


Meltdown & Spectre bug & new CPU's I am thinking to buy a new MB Pro in March. However, the bugs discovered has made me a little bit concerned.

I am a software engineer and I am most definitely a "Power User". Apparently, some users, particularly users performing more "heavy duty" tasks, may experience a performance drop of up to 30%. I don't know how accurate this report is - I've not read much into it.

My questions are:

Are new (2017+) CPU's affected by this flaw, too?
   If so, when will CPU's start to come out that are not affected?
Will new (affected, unsold, still in shop) products have their CPU's replaced?

As I understand it, Meltdown can be patched with software, but Spectre can only be fixed with a hardware redesign...

My concern is that I will purchase my MB pro in March, just to find a short time later that Apple has had all products on the market recalled and their CPUs replaced.

To answer your questions:

  Are new (2017+) CPU's affected by this flaw, too?     If so, when will
  CPU's start to come out that are not affected?

Yes.  It affects virtually every CPU going back to 1995

  It affects potentially all out-of-order execution Intel processors
  since 1995, except Itanium and pre-2013 Atoms.

As for when new CPUs will be released, that's impossible for anyone here to even speculate as it will require a hardware redesign.  Apple won't even be able to speculate as it's dependent on availability from the chip manufacturers.

  Will new (affected, unsold, still in shop) products have their CPU's
  replaced?

Nobody but Apple (actually all computer manufacturers for that matter) will be able to answer this.  Given that new, unaffected CPUs don't currently exist, it's reasonably expected that new machines purchased will still contain the flawed CPUs.

  My concern is that I will purchase my MB pro in March, just to find a
  short time later that Apple has had all products on the market
  recalled and their CPUs replaced.

It's a valid concern.  Nobody here can predict what actions Apple will take if any.  The best advice I can give is to take a wait and see approach given that March is two months away and there is bound to be further developments with respect to this issue.  If you need a new Mac for "work" (i.e. to generate revenue that pays the bills), bite the bullet and purchase it.  If this is something you can put off as it's not critical, I would take a wait and see approach.

  Apparently, some users, particularly users performing more "heavy duty" tasks, may experience a performance drop of up to 30%

According to an Intel Press release, they don't anticipate seeing any significant drop in performance for real-world deployments.  Chances are, you will not notice any drop in performance.

Intel has also released patches for these flaws and is working with OEM partners (like Apple) to push them out to customers.


Should I use a network-attached Time Capsule or a USB external drive with my MacBook Air? I love Macbook Air, but disk space is a real issue. This is most obvious when using it as main machine - media from iTunes and iPhoto in particular ends up leaving you with very little working space. How do you approach this problem?

How workable is it to keep this data on a Time Capsule shared drive? I can imagine initial performance when moving large amounts of songs etc. is quite poor, but how is it after that? Is, say, adding a batch of photos or incremental backup/sync of an iPhone noticeable?

A simple external drive attached via USB would seem the other obvious option. Or, perhaps the Air is simply never intended as a main machine - mobility is the key. In this case, do you temporarily dump media to it on-the-move and then move to your desktop when you get home?

it generally depends on being constantly connected (be it ethernet, wifi or some sort of 3g dongle) or not.

ultramobile and having the data everywhere where you have an internet connection: I personally have tried to host my 80gb itunes collection on a jungledisk (powered by amazon s3) and I can only say it's cumbersome. e.g.: you download new podcasts and end up re-uploading them to your s3 storage.

ultramobile and all your data at home on your network (e.g. time capsule or some sort of network attached storage): also did this for a while, no hickups, works great via 802.11g although I'd recommend 802.11n if you're likely to watch HD videos straight from your NAS/Time capsule.

ultramobile and all your data always with you: that's the approach I'm currently using, I have a 500g usb2 drive I carry in my notebook bag containing my itunes library and assorted other data (iphoto library and what not) that doesn't fit on the internal drive.
It's my favorite solution as I have my data on me even if there is no internet connection available.

cheers
florian


"Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar" setting not remembered I see no keyboard & character indicator on the menubar panel, and trying to enable "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar" in  System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard tab, that has no effect and, after closing and re-opening that settings window, Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar is still NOT ticked.

I use more than one keyboard layout and I need to permanently see the active one on the panel, and switch between them from there (at the present I can only switch from shortcut), like in this image I found on the internet:

I think you are looking for this option:


SSH to a remote station without port forwarding on my mac I would like to SSH onto a remote linux computer from the internet at school, which does not support port forwarding.

I type ssh root@<myipadresshere.com

but of course it fails.

Is there a way to SSH to my remote server using any network I am connected to without the ports being forwarded?

If I type SSH -A root@MyIP , it times out.

Skylers-MacBook-Pro:~ skylerfennell$ ssh -vvv root@kd0whb.duckdns.org
OpenSSH_5.9p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8y 5 Feb 2013
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh_config line 20: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to kd0whb.duckdns.org [67.166.55.176] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/skylerfennell/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/skylerfennell/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/skylerfennell/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/skylerfennell/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_4.3
debug1: match: OpenSSH_4.3 pat OpenSSH_4*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.9
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug3: load_hostkeys: loading entries for host "kd0whb.duckdns.org" from file "/Users/skylerfennell/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: load_hostkeys: found key type RSA in file /Users/skylerfennell/.ssh/known_hosts:6
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-rsa-cert-v00@openssh.com,ssh-rsa
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
Write failed: Broken pipe

Skylers-MacBook-Pro:~ skylerfennell$ ssh -a root@kd0whb.duckdns.org
    ssh: connect to host kd0whb.duckdns.org port 22: Operation timed out

are you referring to port forwarding or agent forwarding?  By default, port forwarding isn't enabled unless you use -L or -R options.

Agent forwarding (for authentication using keys in your local ssh-agent) can be enabled by using

ssh -A <user>@<host>

Let me know if this is helpful.


Run the Single User mode with rEFIt installed I recently installed rEFIt boot for a small linux partition. I then tried to boot up into single user mode by hitting {COMMAND + S}, but rEFIts own terminal came up.

Is there any way to still get into single user mode while rEFIt boot is installed?

Figured it out, have to press F2 when I am in the rEFIt menu, and then select Single USER mode


Disable ECDSA SSH Host keys I would like to disable ECDSA SSH host keys.

I deleted the existing keys:

$ sudo rm -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key*

I uncomment ECDSA in /etc/ssh/sshd_config

$ grep -i ecdsa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

But when I restart sshd the keys are re-generated

$ sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
$ ls -l /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key*
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  480 Nov 16 14:57 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  162 Nov 16 14:57 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub

Ideally, the system would not employ weak elliptic curves as ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 at all going forward.

How can I prevent sshd to regenerate the ECDSA keys?

Maybe not the best solution but substituting the key with empty files seems to work:

cd /etc/ssh/
sudo rm ssh_host_ecdsa_key
sudo touch ssh_host_ecdsa_key
sudo rm ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
sudo touch ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub

The key is invalid and not used, but is not corrected/regenerate when starting up


Image Capture on mac won't delete photos/videos off iPhone My iPhone is running of of space so I connected it to my mac, ran Image Capture, chosen the ~40ish biggest videos on my phone (sort by size), click delete, app shows "Deleting...", then it disappears (no error) and videos are still there - both on screen and on the phone. Nothing happened.

What's the issue?
MacOS 10.14.7,
Macbook pro 15" 2019,
iPhone XS iOS 13.3.1

Thanks

Your iPhone has strict Privacy and Security measures in place. You should try deleting/modifying photos via an Apple App. If that doesn't work, then it probably won't work on any app. Your iPhone's SSD is probably mounted as Read Only.


How to display Google App Contacts in a separate iChat list? I have a few accounts in iChat:

GMail
AIM
Google Apps (a custom domain)

Both GMail and Google Apps put all my contacts in the 'Buddies' list. Can I rename my Gmail list to "GMail Contacts' or something else so that both accounts dont get merged?

I actually just tried this and iChat does it automatically. As you can see I have a different window for each account, and I think you can actually set the window's title by setting the account description under Settings->Accounts. As you can see I even have different groups for each account.
Although I usually have them unified using Chax's feature Use All Contacts window as primary contact list


Weird LSCOLORS after copying files Recently I've done clean reinstall of MacOS and naturally I copied all of my important files to external drive and copied them back once I had a clean installed system. The problem is when I type ls in terminal to see my files all the directories have weird colour and all files are executable even though some of them didn't have that flag.
Notice how all the directories in my home directory have normal colour to them and how the copied ones (in BashProfile directory) have a weird colour.

Also all the files that I've copied became executable (you can tell by the bright green colour) but of course the ones I copied into the directory not from external drive but from my home directory are normal like they are supposed to be.

You can see that all my .jpg files are executable for some reason.

I am using this settings in my .bash_profile :

export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxBxDxCxegedabagacad

My question is: Why were my directories and files affected when I copied them from external hard drive, what do this different colours mean on my directories and is there any possibility that I can revert this changes?

I am running MacOS Mojave

wiktor Pictures $ echo $LSCOLORS
ExFxBxDxCxegedabagacad

Also files that are green are indeed executable in contrast to white coloured files.

And my drive's format is ExFAT

The filesystem on the external storage device does not have a sense of Unix permissions. For example, the external drive may be formatted as one of the FAT variants of filesystems. When you copy the file from the external storage to the Mac's hard drive, it copies the permissions as they were found on the external drive.

Use the idea below or variants of it change the permissions back to something standard on a Unix filesystem. Below, change all files in ~/Pictures with the extension, png, to 0644 (owner = read write, group = read, others = read) and  directories to 0755 (owner = read write execute, group read execute, other = read execute). In context of directories, execute provides the ability to change directory (cd) into the given directory. These are typical, default permissions.

find ~/Pictures -type f -name '*.png' -exec chmod 0644 {} +
find ~/Pictures -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} +

The type option, above, takes an abbreviated file type argument; f specifies regular files, and d specifies directories. The -exec option specifies what to do with found files. In this case, we want to "change mode" (chmod or change permissions). The {} is a list of found files.
Use man find and man chmod for more information. Another nice resource for Unix commands is explainshell.com.

Some of the files may require the execute bit. For example, if you have a script that you want to execute directly, use something such as the following (owner = read write execute, group = read execute, others = read execute).

chmod 0755 script.sh

The permissions above are written in octal notation. Wikipedia has a nice summary of the meanings. After getting the permissions back to normal, the colors can provide the right visual hints again.


How do I stop my text messages and emails from showing on my 5yr old's iPad? I am giving my 5yr old an iPad of his own. I'm happy to buy and share apps with him but how do I keep our text messages and emails separate?

You can logout from iMessage and the Mail app (or don't even log in with your accounts to start with).

To turn messages and email off you can do the following:

iMessage: Settings > Messages > iMessage OFF.
Mail: Settings > Mail, contacts, calendars > the email account > off or delete account.

You can still use your Apple ID on that iPad for the store account.

If you just want to turn of notifications of mail and iMessage you can do that in the notification centre under settings.


macOS "USB Accessories Disabled" notification My iMac 2015 model is giving me a popup:

USB Accessories Disabled
Unplug the accessory using too much power to re-enable USB devices.

After which none of the USB ports work.
Obviously I've tried unplugging everything from the USB ports.
I also tried google searching the error.  The advice I found was to unplug the computer overnight, which I did already twice, and I am still getting the error and the USB ports are still not working.
Any ideas?

Try not using your USB devices one after another. One might be broken and causing the issue. If the issue persists with only known good devices you might need to take it in for repair.


12" MacBook battery is dead after 386 cycles I have an early 2015 12" MacBook 512 GB SSD with 8 GB RAM.

I have used my it nearly daily since I bought it brand new. I have never exposed it to high temperature, always working in AC room with a temperature around 24 degrees Celsius. Never worked in bed, but always on the table. I always care of my computer in the best possible way.

The Battery has major issues, the battery is sometimes charging till 100%, sometimes it drops to 20% and charging only till this number. Sometimes I can run my MacBook without charger plugged and sometimes it won't even start if it's not plugged.

The battery side is probably a little bit inflated so the case doesn't fit together as on another side. Looks like the battery somehow got bigger.

Any ideas why is this happening? And if Apple will care it like some hardware issues from their side so they will change it? The battery is only 386 of 1000 cycles they told me so it is absolutely outrageous on the machine for $2000 at that time.

An inflated/bulging battery is a safety risk and you should get it repaired ASAP. The reason for this could be anything from manufacturing defects to improper care.

If you got AppleCare when you bought your Mac, you may still be able to replace the battery for free. Otherwise, Apple won't change the battery for free, as warranties only last one year.(see here)

If you schedule a repair without AppleCare or warranty, it can cost anywhere from $129-199, depending on your Mac's model. You can schedule a repair here.

Or, if you are willing to take the risk, you can replace the battery on your own using an iFixit guide.


My icloud photos won't upload onto my new macbook air 2018 I just got this computer 2 days ago and the number of photos its trying to upload keeps climbing, but the bar won't show it's loading. It did at one point and it seemed to be done after a bit, but then it went back to the beginning. Is this something that will just take time? Also, I can't plug my phone into the computer to upload because it doesn't have a USB port (computer came out a couple weeks ago so the charging holes and stuff are new and different.) All the icloud settings say my devices are connected but it's just not working, anyone have advice?It also keeps pausing to "save battery power" which is annoying and I wish I could turn that off. Help?

You can try this found here:

  If your Photos library won't open, or if Photos behaves unexpectedly,
  the Photos library repair tool might resolve the issues.

  Follow these steps to use the Photos library repair tool:

  Hold down the Option and Command keys while you open Photos on your
  Mac. In the dialog that appears, click Repair to start the repair
  process. You might be asked to type in your user account password to
  authorize the library repair.

  The repair tool analyzes the the library's database and repairs any
  inconsistencies it detects. Depending on the size of your library,
  this might take some time. When the process is completed, Photos opens
  the library.


Disk utility on OSX and gParted both fail to format a drive I have mac mini mid 2011, bought 14 months back. Yesterday I started my system normally but it was running slow the usual so I restarted it, after restarting system was taking too long to boot but this time it did not show the login screen and stop sign or crossed circle appeared in place of apple logo.

I again restated the system and keep holding option key to use disk utility and recovery-hd(actual name in my sys is recovery-10.8.2) but recovery also didnt worked, after selecting recovey-hd same happen system keep booting too long and stop sign appear on apple logo.

I have bootable mountain lion usb, I get into disk utility check the hard drive by running verify disk and got no issues.

I have 3 partitions

Macintosh HD   (os installed in this) 200gb
Macintosh HD 2 (I keep my important files in this)  200gb
My TimeMachine (I use this for time machine backup) 100gb

I decide to format Macintosh HD and to install mountain Lion again so I started to format this partition, but again after approx 25% formatting got stuck, after restart I also delete the partition and then tried to format but formatting got stuck in middle. I restarted the system and read searched on Internet regarding this issue, some saying hard drive crashed, same saying fan not working but both are fine in my case.

I created a bootable ubuntu on another usb and boot the system from ubuntu, then I tried to delete and format partition using gParted Partition Editor but after too long operation failed message appeared (now I am worried).

I keep searching on Internet regarding this issue and found that this happens when Master Boot Record gets corrupt. And thats why nothing can be write on disk(brief description).

Please help me what actually happed and how to fix this issue?

Two possible problems IMHO:

1) Faulty disk, bad blocks on it.
2) Corrupted GUID (usually mac disks aren't formatted with MBR)

Possible check/solutions:

1) How to check for bad blocks without formatting.
2) View my answer here.

However, if you can provide an exit error number while trying to format disk with disk utility it's easier to identify the exact origin of your issue.


Logging onto Yosemite with FileVault enabled with no username displayed? When I log onto my Mac with FileVault enabled, I am prompted for the user/pass prior to the OS loading, as my boot drive is encrypted.

The problem I have is that, counter-intuitively, it always shows my name as the login user!
I just want blank fields that ask for the username and password respectively, not a prompt for my password.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Edit: This is a screenshot of how Users & Groups is configured:

That is just how FileVault2 (introduced with 10.7) works.

You have a pre-defined set of "Enabled Users" that are allowed to decrypt the boot drive, and those are the users (just your account in this case) that get listed in the first boot screen. Since you have only one account the system deduced automatically that only your account would be the one to unlock the drive. Since the users are predefined, Apple felt it best to just display the accounts in a clickable list.

The reason for this is if you had multiple accounts on the computer, but only wanted a select few to be able to unlock the drive you could enable those specific users and make it so the others required additional authorization from an enabled user.

OS X also has a handy little helper in that OS X will pass the login info that you gave it during the boot drive unlock into the login window and bypass that screen so you don't have to type in your user/pass twice.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4790
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18637


Is Safari, in incognito mode, saving its settings? I have set Safari on board my iPad Mini (first edition) to always run in incognito mode. Every time I start it and go to YouTube or any other video service, I can clearly see, that volume is set to half. I don't know how many times I turned it down to 0, it always is "reset" once I re-start Safari.

This happens only with Safari. Other browsers (Chrome) and all other applications always starts with the volume, it was set, when leaving it. This brings me to a bit mad assumption, that in incognito mode Safari does not save anything, neither browsing data (cookies, history) nor its own settings.

Can that be true?

That is the point of Private Browsing (Safari's calls it Private Browsing, Chrome calls it Incognito). When you use Private Browsing, Safari shouldn't be saving anything at all. The whole idea is that it leaves no trace.


How do I automatically resize all iPhoto pictures above a certain size? I have many photos managed by iPhoto that are over 16 megapixels, much larger than I need. I'm running low on hard disk space and I'd like automatically resize all images over a certain size/resolution by 50%. This is somewhat similar to how iTunes can downsample all your music files above a certain size on your iOS device.

I'm guessing an AppleScript is necessary for this?

There is no way to do this in iPhoto, as what you're doing is destroying data, and iPhoto is built to expressly avoid this.

So, File -> Export, set the Kind to Jpeg and then choose from the Quality setting as appropriate. Export the images to a folder on the desktop.

Trash the images from iPhoto.

Import the exported ones.

Note some things 1: You lose your lossless editing history and Faces data at the very least. If any of the images are used in Books, Slideshows etc then these will have to be remade.

If space is an issue, have you considered moving the Library to a larger disk - an external, for instance? It's easy:

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Quit iPhoto

Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.


Why is the symlink I created inside an application container to allow for external storage not working? I was trying to get around Vemedio's Instacast limitation on storage location by symlinking (ln -s) the Episodes folder in ~Library/Containers/com.vemedio.osx.Instacast/Data/Documents/Instacast to another location on another drive (which is actually internal in my Mac Pro for what it is worth...). I am wondering if Apple's sandboxing is preventing this to work... Once I open Instacast, none of the previously downloaded episodes are marked as available locally and if I try to redownload one, it seems to download the file in the background but never makes it available... Any idea?

For some reason, symlinking a part of the folder inside of the Containers folder doesn't work. If you want to symlink, you have to symlink the whole folder, i.e. com.vemedio.osx.Instacast

See https://snipt.net/certainlyakey/os-x-sandboxed-apps-and-symlinks-problem-solution/ for reference.


pencil tip stuck in charger port of iPhone 6 My 2 year old stuck a pencil tip in the port charger of my iPhone 6. I am now not able to insert the charger into the port. I tried removing the graphite with a nail file but it won't come out.

What are my options at this point?

Try something like fishing line or insulated wire. The idea is to put it's end into the port, make it go around the tip and go out at it's other side (U shape). Now gently pull out the loop you've made around the tip using 2 line/wire's ends looking from the port and it should go out.


Are there any guidelines by Apple on what content apple TV app should have We are in the process of developing app for Apple TV, are there any guidelines that app should be either a video playing or gaming app, can I submit app with just readonly content like an iOS app and still it will be get approved by apple?

From this link I found the following about the Human Interface Guidelines. There is more info at the link.
Apple TV apps should feel natural and intuitive. Users should instinctively know what to do and where they are at all times. Use the provided layout grids, keep the text legible at a distance, and avoid cluttering your interface with unnecessary visual adornments.
Apple TV uses a focus model for navigation. People use the remote to move through interface elements such as movie posters, apps, or buttons, highlighting each item as they come to it. An element is considered focused or in focus when the user highlights the item but has not clicked it. Make it clear at a distance when something is in focus. Implement expected button behavior so it’s impossible to get lost during navigation—clicking an item with the remote takes you deeper into an app’s hierarchy, pressing Menu always takes you back.
There is much more info at the link above.


If I am a member of multiple networks, how can I force my Mac to connect to the Internet through one specific network? I have a Macbook and a Thunderbolt display. The Thunderbolt display is connected to a network with a very tight firewall. I also have a WiFi connection that is always connected at this location. The WiFi firewall isn't as aggressive and every now and then I need to connect to it to connect to a SOAP web service that operates on a blocked port.

Is there a ways (hotkey or system preference) that I can toggle so that I can remain connected to both networks, but force my MacBook to connect to the internet through the WiFi, rather than the local network?

Currently, I have to disconnect from the Thunderbolt display, and connect back up when I am finished downloading my data. Do I have any other options?

You can accomplish this without having to change between both networks. Connect to both networks. From the command line run these two commands.

    sudo route add -default *ipOfEthernetGateway*

That will set all traffic to go through the work ethernet link.

    sudo route add -host SOAPserver.com *ipOfWIFIGateway*

That will set all traffic that needs to go to the SOAP server to go through the WiFi link.


iPad usage does not seem accurate I have a 16GB iPad Air 2. I realize the OS takes up some space (on my iPad, "Used" + "Available" only equals 11.9GB), but looking at this screenshot, even my iPad can't accurately explain what's taking up 8.2 GB. I know it's not the OS because Used + Available is already lower than 16. And I added up all the apps underneath and only came to a little under 800MB. What on earth is taking up the remaining 7.5GB?!

My drawing to illustrate my question:

These could be some temporary files - usually, after a restart they get deleted freeing precious space.

When you connect iOS device to iTunes, these often show as "other" in Summary tab.


Apple Macbook pro differences What is the difference between an Apple Macbook pro ME 293LL/A and an Apple Macbook pro ME 293D/A?

D/A has a German keyboard, LL/A has the American keyboard.


Disable power button on 2015 MBP Me and my friends like having a laugh together and as part of that we turn each other computers off and spam tabs till the computer crashes. Is thee a way how to disable the power button on my MBP 2015 to prevent my friends from turning my computer by holding down the power button? If possible I would like to remap it to command+power or command+option+power.

So far the only way to stop them is physically moving their hand away in time (which I always do). Would be nice to do my work without having to move their hand all the time!

No. While an individual press of the power button can be reconfigured into a keyboard shortcut/function using third party software, the Press and Hold feature of it is a failsafe commonly included with computer systems and is stored at the firmware level of the system to allow you to shut the system down should it lock up. You will not be able to change the behavior.


Signed in with my Apple ID on a friend’s device I lost my iPhone 8 and used my friend’s iPhone to find it. But I forgot to sign out from my friends iPhone.

Can I sign-off from all the devices that I have logged into with my Apple ID?

Yes. Simply visit iCloud website using a desktop browser and login with your Apple ID. Go to Settings. Under My Devices section, you should be able to see your friends iPhone. Click on the device and click on the blue button with cross to remove it from your account.

If you don’t see the Delete button, click Remove Device (below the device’s serial or IMEI number).

Refer to this help article for more details:

https://help.apple.com/icloud/?lang=en-us#/mm25565a6496


How can I monitor an employee's activity on a remote Mac? I have a remote worker for my project and I am letting him use the Mac with the source code on it. I want to monitor his every activity, if that is possible.

If you do not trust the remote worker, do not hire them.

Legal, not technical

This is a legal problem, rather than a technical one. You should agree to a contract with the remote worker stating the limits you desire and how they will be enforced.

See Stopping certain data from ever leaving your Mac? for a related question.


White Screen of Death As seen in the picture above, my Mac Pro is getting the white screen of death. Immediately after turning on, it goes to this - no startup chime, no Apple logo, nothing. I have tried:
- Resetting SMC
- Resetting PRAM
- Holding shift on startup
- Trying to boot into recovery mode (Cmd+R)
But none of these change anything, the white screen stays.

Rule 1 of troubleshooting, "Isolate and identify."

Remove anything you can to still have a bootable computer. That includes RAM, PCI cards, drives, memory risers. Then swap out the memory with the RAM you removed. Unplug everything, even your keyboard and mouse, leave only the monitor connected. And if you have another monitor you can use temporarily...


Bootcamp puts content in Macintosh Harddrive I am using Paragon HFS+ for reading my Macintosh hard drive in windows but when I open my Macintosh hard drive I saw lot of window's garbage that I never kept inside of it. Can I delete .exe files and EULA stuff? How to stop windows from keeping it again automatically to Macintosh drive?

If I remember correctly these files belong to the VisualC++ redistributable. When the installer runs it extracts these files to the root of a drive and then installs to the correct folder. Once the install is complete, these files can just be deleted.

This isn't really anything to do with Boot Camp.


Text selection (not built-in but useful) shortcuts We all now we can select all text (in a text area) in any app by using Ctrl/Cmd + A. And this feature is also available for a lot of other contexts such as file selection (in finder for ex), content selection (in photoshop for ex) etc... But in those other contexts you can also perform a multiple selection and an inverted selection among other stuff.

In the same way for text I would find very useful having shortcuts to be able to

select multiple non-continuous text strings (I believe you can do this in Microsoft Word).
I understand that might be complex to achieve in a rich text area. But how about a plain text area?
"invert" the selected text as well, the same way as we do in Photoshop for a layer for example.

I know there is no built-in way to do this (either on mac or windows). But I wasn't able to find any method/trick to achieve it in my own custom way either (using 3rd-party apps, scripts).

Could anyone enlighten me on this please, especially on Mac?
Thank you

It is easy to select disparate, non-contiguous text in Apple's TextEdit: Just hold down the command key while highlighting each desired string with the mouse/trackpad. This action works with both plain text and rich text.

Here's a screen capture showing some arbitrary selections of discontinuous text made in this manner:

It's also easy to invert the selection: Click-and-drag the cursor over the chosen text while holding down the command key. Here's the same text after making the change:


Cant get iOS 10.2.1 and OSX 10.10.5 devices to allow phone calls from OSX I'm having trouble getting my iPhone 6s (running iOS 10.2.1) to be able to make calls and SMS texts from my Mac, running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

I've followed this guide online: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph18756?locale=en_US

And setup computer as per the following screenshots. (Both the iPhone and Mac only have 1 iCloud account on them which is the same on both devices)

In Facetime on OSX I get the following in preferences, which would seem to show that it's enabled.

However, when I go to make a call I get the following error:

I've double checked the settings on the iPhone under Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices, but when I click enable I get this error:

Any ideas where I'm going wrong?

First, register your phone number with iMessage. It appears that it is not registered from the screenshot you provided.
See how here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201349
Next, ensure your Apple ID is signed in on both devices.
Go to Settings > iCloud on your phone and check your Apple ID here:

Sorry, picture looks different on 10.3 beta
Now, check it on your Mac. Go to FaceTime > Preferences and check that it looks similar to the screenshot below:

OK. Now let's try enabling WiFi calling again. Go to Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices on you iPhone, and FaceTime > Preferences on your Mac. Enable their respective allow calls options.
That should be it! Have a friend try calling you and see if a notification appears on your Mac while your phone is within its range.
If this doesn't work, comment and I'll try to help.


Macports with Xcode CLI tools only I ve installed the latest version of MacPorts and Xcode CLI tools for OS X 10.10 - I don't want download 4GB of data because I need only GCC.
Everything looks fine - I can download and compile ports, except the one thing - every time when I try to install new port I get following messages:

Warning: xcodebuild exists but failed to execute
Warning: Xcode does not appear to be installed; most ports will likely fail to build.

But as I said before everything works fine. Should I worry or just ignore these messages?

You might be lucky and ports work :)

I think the latest I saw in the mailing lists is that most ports will work. The issue is for GUIS and there other issues.

Note that Xcode for OS X 10.10 does not supply gcc, it uses clang. However this works just as well if not better.