Use Automator to copy multiple folders with different amounts of folders while removing parent folder copy whats within the red box(images folder too with content) into the blue box and delete the folders.
the remaining result will then be SIZExSIZE - > sizexsize.file etc.. and images folder with images.

To make sure The problem statement is clear, let’s assume:

You have a number of folders named using the format 123x456, e.g. 300x250, 728x90, etc.  These are all contained in a single, top-level folder with some arbitrary name, e.g. 01_FILE_NUMBER (unimportant);
Each folder named like 123x456 contained a single folder called folderA, and nothing else;
Each folder called folderA contains a single folder called folderB, and nothing else;
Each folder called folderB contains a single folder named identically to the 123x456 second-tier folder that contains this branch of the directory sub-tree, e.g. 728x90;
Finally, these bottom-tier folders contain a .PNG image file whose filename is identical to the parent folder, e.g. 728x90.png;
Summarising all of this: all .PNG image files have a path of the form 01_FILE_NUMBER/728x90/folderA/folderB/728x90/728x90.png.  Importantly, folderA has no siblings, and folderB has no siblings, i.e. they reside in their parent directory by themselves.

Assuming this is accurate...
I would do the bulk of the file and folder processing with a Run Shell Script action (use the following options: Shell: /bin/bash, Pass input: as arguments):

Breakdown:
① This workflow asks the user to locate the top-level directory that contains the folders to be archived.  Using the example name from above, the user would navigate to the folder 01_FILE_NUMBER; double-click on it; then click "Open" to beginning processing of its contents.
② A shell script processes the folder's contents as follows:

The entire top-level folder and its contents are copied to the desktop, which is where you stated you want the final archive to reside.
Processing is done using this desktop copy, leaving the original untouched.
All folders three-tiers deep are moved up a level.  To illustrate this, consider the example path 01_FILE_NUMBER/728x90/folderA/folderB/728x90/728x90.png: the tier 1 folder is 728x90; the tier 2 folder is folderA; the tier 3 folder is folderB.  All folders called folderB reside at this third-tier level.  They are then moved up one level, and will now reside in the same folder as folderA, at tier 2.
All folders two-tiers deep that are not named folderB are deleted.  This will delete the now-empty folderA folders.
The final folder structure now looks like this: 01_FILE_NUMBER/728x90/folderB/728x90/728x90.png.

③ A .zip archive is created on the desktop using the same name as the original top-level folder, i.e. 01_FILE_NUMBER.zip.
Here is the bash source code to copy-n-paste:
    cp -R "$1" ~/Desktop
    cd ~/Desktop/"$(basename "$1")"
    find . -type d -depth 3 -execdir mv {} ../ \;
    find . -type d -depth 2 ! -iname "folderB" -exec rm -R {} +
    pwd

Optionally...
The desktop will have both the copied top-level folder and its archived form.  You can now safely delete the uncompressed folder from the desktop (the original is still safe in its original location) and keep only the archive.  To do this, append a final Run Shell Action at the end of the workflow, using the same Shell and Pass input options as before, and enter this source code:
    f="$1"
    rm -R "${f%.*}"
    open -R "$f"  # Reveals the archive in Finder

Warning: Test this workflow with a sample set of files and folders until you're satisfied it does what you want.  The workflow permanently deletes folders, and these are not recoverable.


Downloading all photos from iCloud Photo Library without Photos app I have an iCloud account with about 800 photos stored in iCloud Photo Library. I’m trying to move them to a Mac and delete them from iCloud in order to clear up space.

I tried to connect my Mac to iCloud Photo Library by going into the Photos app’s preferences; however it then asks me to upgrade to a paid iCloud storage tier because I have over 5GB worth of local images that Photos wants to sync to iCloud.

So I don't think using the Photos app is going to work for offloading pictures to a Mac.

I then logged in to the Photos app at iCloud.com. I was able to select and download individual images, but it won’t let me select more than one at a time, so I can’t download them all in bulk. Selecting the first image, holding down the ⇧ shift key, then selecting the last image causes only the last image to be selected.

I could click on all 800 images while holding the ⌘ cmd key, but that’s obviously very tedious.

What’s the most efficient way to download images from iCloud Photo Library to a Mac that can’t connect to iCloud Photo Library without upgrading to a paid plan?

I highly recommend ndbroadbent's fantastic Python program the icloud_photos_downloader project. The project repository can be found at his Github account: https://github.com/ndbroadbent/icloud_photos_downloader.

There are some great instructions on installation and use in the project README. Once installed, you run the program to download all your photos to a directory called foto_folder; from the terminal

./download_photos.py ../foto_folder
    --username=myemail@email.com
    --password=myp@ss
    --size=original
    --download-videos

And viola, it does its magic.

I've also posted this answer here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/311787/271502


Sniffing router traffic I have a 10 MB connection, which runs really good but sometimes it get slower then 56kb dialup connection, i had my provider call up and asked, what is wrong but they say too much traffic is being consumed in your house by devices on the chart of connected devices. So i had my password of wifi changed and just connected my laptop, and it was running really like a 10 MB connection, but again i am facing same issue.
I want to monitor my network traffic and see what's the devices on router taking so much of my bandwidth and if possible website address too. I have a mac, i was wondering if there is any software that can really help me out?

It's hard to comment on your question as you didn't give many details.

You could connect a switch with monitor/mirror port functionality between your router and your DSL modem/network terminator (if that is two discrete devices for you). This way you could connect a computer to the switch's mirror port and "see" (snoop, trace) all traffic that goes out your router's WAN port and analyze it.


Which files are transferred when using Transfer purchases from? iTunes is still very confusing to me, and today I tried to upload a book on an iPad.

After adding one pdf file to the iBooks library on OS X, I tried to sync the iPad. Unfortunately, iTunes insist on erasing everything before synchronising the content, because it's not using the same iTunes library. Apparently, iTunes refuse to simply upload a file to the iPad.

At that point, I thought I could just transfer back the selection of books (not bought through any store, really just PDF files that happen to be on that iPad) and manually add them together with the new file I wanted originally. I have never been able to get the files back. It looks like Transfer purchases from ignore those files. (ITunes / Files / Devices / Transfer purchases from )

So I ended erasing the content of iBooks on the iPad to put a new file.
Am I missing something, or is iTunes just developed with frustration in mind ?

You are right about iTunes showing great signs of strain. It was designed for a pretty simple task that now overwhelms it with too many functions - it's very un-Mac like due to how long it has taken Apple to kill it and reinvent all the jobs it does with better tools.

Now - transferring purchases was really simple in iOS 7 and earlier. There was no family sharing, there was no app thinning, there was no just in time downloadable resources, iBooks wasn't a separate app that can complicate things.

I'll try to explain how to make use of the tools, but you will probably spend some time trying things out and changing your workflow to accommodate the tradeoffs that were made in designing iOS and iTunes.

Each class of data has a "sync source" so you could for instance, sync iBooks from Mac A, Apps from PC B and songs from Mac C. You are right that iTunes is designed to wipe old content from a previous sync source before switching to a new source. You can usually transfer or back things up, accept the wipe and then proceed, but I've seen cases where you literally have to go get things again in this case. Especially when you don't sync with multiple computers and instead software bug resulted in the system thinking the same iTunes was a different iTunes.
You can get around this a little with a good backup - but pay attention to iCloud settings since if you skip backing up some things, you still have to re-download them.


how can I turn off speech in the parental controls lockout dialog? Every night before 1am, when my daughter has gone to bed but stayed logged in to our iMac (Lion 10.7.5), the parental controls dialog pops up.  Unfortunately it ALSO announces itself via text-to-speech at whatever volume the computer happens to be set.  And then proceeds to do a 10-9-8-... countdown at exactly 1am.  You can probably imagine how unwelcome this is.

I can not find ANY setting that controls this.  VoiceOver is off.  Speech > "Speakable items" is off.  I've disabled every version of universal access or text-to-speech that I can find.  In fact I'm pretty sure the voice that speaks isn't even one of the default assistive voices (Bob, Alex, etc)

Are there any easily overlooked options that I might have missed, or any methods to force ALL speech off, or any other ways I could get it to shut up - other than reminding my daughter to always remember to log out?  Thanks!

When logged into the account with Parental Controls, go to System Preferences > Speech > Text to speech tab > Uncheck the options alerts and application attention.

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2763273


In non-native applications, in the Open File dialog, I can see hidden files but I can't select them I have a problem with some non-native mac software (Perforce Diff and Kdiff3).

When I use the Open File Dialog, I can see the hidden files, but I can not select them or interact with them at all.

In contrast, when using the native Mac TextEdit, when I use the Open File Dialog, I can see and open the hidden files.

This is a screenshot of the Kdiff3 Open File Dialog. I can see the hidden files, but I can not select them.

OS X version 10.10.3 Yosemite.

I did this to make Finder show hidden files

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

I did this to make the file open dialog show hidden files

defaults write -g AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

You can often alt/option click on files to force open them.


How do I reset my me.com email password I have a me.com email account and I need to reset my password but cannot figure out how to do it.  I need assistance in finding out how to reset it. Thanks

When you visit me.com you are redirected to icloud.com.  Given this info it should be the same the password as your appleid, if you have forgotten that then go to http://iforgot.apple.com to reset the password.


Make apps smaller / "zoom out" apps I made my screen resolution much smaller, so now most apps look 4x larger than I'm used to.

iTunes and Finder for example are much larger than they need to be.

Can I make everything about these apps smaller?

The text, the window sizes, the icon sizes etc.

Macbook Pro w/ Retina display, mid-2015 15".

I used RDM to make my screen to 720p. Previously had been 1080p HiDPI

Go to the screen and right-click on the desktop. This brings up a menu and the last option is to "Show view options". Select this. You'll get a small window where you can adjust the icon size.

You can also change font size and icon spacing.


Mail.app has no entry for from: gmail-account I'm using OSX10.11.4. I've got several mail accounts and use mail.app to receive and send mails. One of these accounts is a gmail Account. I'm able to receive all mails with mail.app but I can't send a mail from my gmail Account.

With all other accounts it's possible to receive and send, gmail is the only one where I'm only able to receive but not to send mails. If I want to send a mail the gmail account is not listed at the from dropdown-field.

I used default settings to set up the account at mail.app and does not change something.

Hope someone has an idea.

You could just go into Mail/Preferences/Outgoing Mail settings and verify the SMTP settings.
Gmail uses smtp.gmail.com on port 465


How can I export my system preferences? Is there a way for me to export my system preferences on my Mac for quick install on another machine?

An example of what I am trying to accomplish is, when I start a new job, I would like to import my settings and have my system preference work without having to manually configure all of my custom settings.

I am most interested in exporting settings for :

Trackpad / Mouse
Keyboard
Dock
dashboard (I like to disable it)

I wrote some scripts to backup and restore Mac preferences. It does both System and Application preferences.

You can grab them here: https://github.com/clintmod/mac-preferences-backup

They're pretty simple. I just loop over the domains from running defaults domains and then call default export [domain] [plist file path].

Then to restore I just loop over all the plist files in the dir and run default import [plist file path]

You can modify the config.py file if you want to backup to a different dir. The default dir is ~/Dropbox/MacPrefsBackup.


iPhone Simulator on Macbook is showing question Mark iPhone Simulator on Macbook is showing question Mark. I am not able to launch the iPhone Simulator. I have my app deployed on the simulator.

How to fix the iPhone Simulator?

Try to open it from /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app


How can I change the position and size of an image in Apple pages 5.5? How can I change the position and size of an image in Apple pages 5.5? I have tried all the things I used to do but now when I import a photo, the handle bars do not show up, nor does the image editor as it used to do when clicking on the image.

The photo must be selectable and selected for you to be able to manipulate it.
If the image is locked, unlock it with ⌥⌘L.


"Unable to obtain authorization for this operation" when trying to reset my default keychain I've not been able to save new passwords to my keychain lately.

In addition, I can't view any of my passwords. I'll open Keychain Access, pick a login entry, click the Show Password checkbox, and enter my account password. When I do this, I get an error message:

This is really weird considering my account is an Admin user:

Keychain Access isn't my main password repository so I don't really care if I need to reset it. I tried going into Keychain Access to reset my default keychain.

When I do this I receive the error message:

Like I said, I'm an admin for my computer. There is another admin account that was setup when this computer was imaged, but that account shouldn't own my keychain, right?!

I tried looking for Keychain First Aid but apparently that's been removed.

I'm running 10.12.4.

Any ideas of what's going on and/or how to fix it?

I was able to fix this issue by restarting my computer in recovery mode and using disk utility's First Aid to repair all volumes and the disk itself. I don't know which repair actually fixed the issue, but when I restarted I was able to view and save items in my keychain.

You can enter recovery mode by restarting your computer and holding down the keys command and r. Once you're in recovery mode you can select "Disk Utility" to get to the First Aid tool.

Once you're here you can click on each of the volumes (the indented names on the left. E.g. Macintosh HD) and then click the First Aid button.

I repaired both of my volumes and the disk itself (the APPLE SSD SM...). The first aids for the volumes and the disk itself do different things.

After you're done, restart your computer and try to use/view your keychain. Cross your fingers and hope you don't have to do more googling!


Choosing between opening a file with primary or secondary program with a shortcut I know how to change default program to certain type of files, but I've been running to situations where I could use 2 defaults.

Lets take .html files for example. I have assigned Chrome to open all .html files on doubleclick, which is nice. As Im web developer, I usually need to open .html files also in textmate. For this to happen, I need to open context menu and select program from Open With menu.

Wouldn't it be great if one could Command+doubleclick to open that file with secondary program?

Is there a way to achieve this?

Open Automator and choose the service template
Set the input type to files or folders
Add a run shell script action and choose to pass input as arguments
Paste this as the script and edit the list of applications:

applications="pdf Preview
zip The Unarchiver"

for f in "$@"; do
    basename=${f%/}
    basename=${basename##*/}
    ext=${basename##*.}
    if [[ "$ext" == "$basename" ]]; then
        app=
    else
        app=$(grep -m1 ^$ext' ' <<< "$applications" | cut -d ' ' -f 2-)
    fi
    [[ -z "$app" ]] && app=TextMate
    open "$f" -a "$app"
done

Assing the service a shortcut in the keyboard preference pane

There's a bug where the shortcuts for Automator services don't always work until the services menu has been shown once from the menu bar. Another bug is that services that receive folders or files as input aren't available when folders are selected in column view in Finder.


Create categories with iBooks (Mavericks) I need to regroup PDF which I have created into categories and to put them on my iPad. With mountain lion I used Calibre to create the categories and iTunes to put the PDF on my iPad as books. After the Mavericks update I realized that the books are now managed by IBooks. Unfortunately I can't use the categories created with Calibre in IBooks and I'm not able to create categories with IBooks. Do you have an idea to do that on Mavericks ?

Go to: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books and make a backup copy the file Books.plist.

Double-click Books.plist when it should open in Property List Editor, assuming you have Xcode installed.

Expand Root>Books and examine any item from Apple to see the format. Find the item containing your PDF (I'll call it 'itemX') and open it. If there is genre key all you have to do is edit the value field. If not, select 'itemX' and click on 'Add Child' at the top left to insert a new blank key/value pair.

Fill in 'genre' for the Key, String (the default) is correct for the Type, and for the Value insert the category you wish to associate with the PDF (you can invent your own).

Save, restart your computer, open iBooks, and your PDF should now have the category you assigned it.

Next you have to sync your iPad to your Mac with iTunes, but before you do that you need to delete the PDF files from your iPad, so that you have the 'new' versions with the changed categories. You may have to restart your iPad to see the changes.

A bit of a faffle, but it works for me on Mavericks with my iPhone.


Sending messages to an iPhone without iMessage I need to send texts to my kids while they are away from Wi-Fi. I pay for a text message service through my carrier, but can't force my phone to send a text message instead of an iMessage with iOS 10.

So are all our iPhones incapable of sending text messages to people without data plans now?

On all of your iPhones go to Settings > Messages.

You will see an option to Send as SMS. Toggle this on so your messages can be sent as normal text messages when the iMessage service is unavailable.

Hope this helps.


Cannot select "Not Now" under Settings>My Name>Start Using iCloud in iOS 11 A red badge appears on my Settings panel right underneath my name next to "Start Using iCloud".

Under Settings>My Name>Start Using iCloud, I am given two choices: (1) "Start Using iCloud"; and (2) "Not Now". When I tap "Not Now" nothing happens. I would like to get rid of the badge.

How can I do this?

In order to be able to select "Not Now" I needed to:

"Sign Out" under Settings>My Name.
Connect to the Internet (I used WiFi).
Tap "Not Now" under Settings>Sign in to your iPhone

Badge gone!


How delete an ipad app totally (rather than it continuing to exist when viewed over in iTunes)? On my iPad, there are many apps that I owned once, didn't enjoy much, and then deleted.

However, if I go to iTunes and then open up the section pertaining to my iPad, I still see these many old apps listed (just that their check-boxes are unchecked, symbolizing that they are not copied over onto the iPad.)

I would like to totally delete these from the iTunes world too. Partially because I did a sync today which caused them to awake from the dead and get re-synced to my computer... and partly just out of a sense of completeness and health.

NOTES: I have tried to click one of the unwelcome apps and then go to the Edit menu and choose Delete.  But Delete is greyed out! even though that app's checkbox is unchecked. ALSO, note, I have my iPad synced to the computer via WiFi -- I can't imagine that causes the problem?

What is the official, graceful, good way to fully delete these apps so they don't exist, even in ghost form?

In iTunes in the left hand sidebar go to Apps into the Library selection. If you delete the app there it will not show up in the sync section. In case you need it again you can always download it from the Store again (as long as it is available there).


How many external HD (not 4K or 5K) displays can I use with the 2016 13" MacBook Pro with Touchbar? How many external HD (not 4K or 5K) external displays can I use with the 2016 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, using multiple HDMI to Type-C adapters?

The Touch Bar models also have 4 Type-C ports and an Intel Iris Graphics 550, not an Intel Iris Graphics 540 like the base model.

Officially it will support one display at 5120 x 2880 pixels at 60 Hz or up to two displays at 4096 x 2304 pixels at 60 Hz. Of course, this is the 5K and 4K you're probably already aware of.

However, unofficially you could use more than two external displays via various adaptors, at or below the above resolutions. How many you can use will depend on the specs of the actual displays used. Also, you need to be aware that your MBP fans may start spinning at much faster speeds depending on your setup.

You may find the following info of interest to you. While not directly about the 2016 MBP, the info is still relevant.


Paste into Xterm on MacBook Air I'm running Xterm in a Linux VMware Virtual Machine. I can copy out of it but I can't figure out how to paste into it. On a desktop computer, the middle mouse button or shift + insert does the trick. How about on a MacBook Air?

If you're using an external mouse, clicking both buttons (if it's a two button mouse) should do it.

I'm not aware of a way to do it with the trackpad only unless you use a third party tool like KeyRemap4Macbook which will let you bind, eg, ⌥ + left click to a middle click. I've just tested exactly that combination and it works fine for pasting into an X11.app Xterm so should work fine with your VM.


How to install a previously downloaded IPSW file on iPhone directly without iTunes? I've downloaded the correct IPSW file for the iPhone 4 using BitTorrent.
iPhone3,1_7.0_11A465_Restore.ipsw

I cannot use the Apple servers because the connection keeps dropping and the download does not resume where it left off.

The iPhone can download the file itself, but again unreliable connection prevents me from doing that.

I want to move the IPSW file to the iPhone using iFile and then tell the iPhone to update from the IPSW file on the iPhone.

Where do I place the IPSW file on the iPhone, so that it will see the file and perform the update?
And are there other files I need to update so that the iPhone will see the file.

There's two problems here that prevents what you're trying to do:

OTA updates don't work by downloading the IPSW and installing it. They use delta updates, only downloading a 'patch' which is applied on top of the system.

You can download the patch yourself if you really want based on the version of iOS that you're currently on and what version you want to update to, but that's not going to help you, because…
OTA updates don't work on jailbroken devices. You'll end up in a boot loop and have to restore properly. Many jailbreak tools disable OTA updates for this very reason.

If your Internet connection fails whilst iTunes is downloading an IPSW, it will continue from where it left off when the connection is restored.


changing notification sound for different notifications I want to change the notification sound for each event like email, FB, SMS so it plays the sound I like and differs for each one from the other, is there a way to do this?

Searching for it, led me to the fact that I can do it but I'm not sure how and there was nothing which seems the right thing to do.

Open Settings.

To change the system's notifications, navigate to General > Sounds:

Currently there is no way to set apps' notifications unless there is a setting within the app. I recommend you thoroughly look through the apps' settings if you want to do this.

Edit: In regards to our conversation in chat about this topic, here's some more info.

System apps, again, you can change using the above method. Other apps depend on a per-app basis: It is entirely the developer's choice whether to support functionality for customizing notification tones. Facebook, for instance, does not.


Educational discount at Apple Retail Stores? Is it possible to get educationally-priced hardware by visiting any given physical Apple Store, or is that only achievable online or at college stores?

Yes, you can get educational discounts at a physical Apple Store -- I have done it, though it has been a while ;-).

They require verification of your status which can generally be done with a student id.


Convert dynamic content to static in Numbers I have used some formulas in Numbers and I would like to change the dynamic values to static ones, so I can copy them to different sheets, without having any reference errors.

Does anybody know how to do that?

Select and copy the source cells, then hit ⇧⌘V, which is the default shortcut for the Edit » Paste Formula Results menu command.

(I assume that by dynamic value, you are referring to the the result of the calculation of an entire formula and not to the individual cell references you are using as part of the formula’s expression. Feel free to update and clarify your question if you disagree.)

If you want the static results to persist in your original cells as well, just hit ⌘C ⇧⌘V to paste the results in place.


Magic Mouse right click lost every day My Magic Mouse at work looses right-click functionality every day, although System Preferences says it's enabled. I usually leave the computer at the "Login window" before leaving, and authenticate again to resume the session the next day. When I do that, right-clicking doesn't work anymore. I have to turn the mouse off and back on again to re-enable right-click functionality. I'm running OSX 10.7.5, but the problem is present at least since I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion (an year ago, maybe?).

I've googled this issue several times, and many other people have similar complaints, but I couldn't find a permanent fix. Does anyone know how to solve that? It's driving me crazy!

I tried replacing the mouse, but the problem persists. So, I think the actual cause must be one of the following:

A problem with my iMac's bluetooth hardware
A bug on the Magic Mouse's firmware software
An on OSX bug

I just talked to German Apple telephone support. They fixed the problem for me! With fresh  installs of 10.7.5 the problem is that two files are missing that are needed for the mouse. In my case I could get them from another computer I own that ran Lion and did have the files. To get to the files you need do this:

Go to
/System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin

control-click that file and choose "show contents"
now in the finder window navigate to
Contents/PlugIns/

In this folder should be two files named
AppleBluetoothHIDMouse.plist
and
AppleHIDMouse.plist

If you don't find these files, you need to get them and put them in.


iPhone: Why does the keyboard language switch randomly? Currently on my iPhone (current iOS, but this has been an issue since long ago), the keyboard language switches randomly between English and Chinese, every time I go to a new app or an input field.

There doesn't seem to be a pattern, like what was the input language when I last used the app. Sometimes it appears to switch to a different language even for the same app (e.g. Safari) when I switch somewhere else and switch back. I have 3 input languages installed: English, Simplified Chinese and Emoji. Though the input never defaults to Emoji.

Any idea what is going on? Are there any fixes?

What you are observing is not really random. It is programmatically possible to remember the last used keyboard language, from among the set of languages chosen by user under Settings app → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, on a per text input field basis. This is employed by apps which present multiple text entry fields (such as messaging apps) to automatically choose the last used or the most relevant language.

Let me explain it with the help of an example. Suppose in a messaging app, you prefer conversing with some users in Simplified Chinese and with some in English. It's possible to program the app so that a text input field remembers the last used keyboard language. This way, the last chosen language is automatically selected for you. However, this doesn't work with the Emoji keyboard. This approach can be taken to aid user convenience.

If you are interested in learning about the programming aspect of how this can be achieved, refer to this answer on Stack Overflow:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/23403247/6995250


Recorded song in GarageBand and uploaded to iCloud but file now missing from phone Earlier today, I recorded a song and uploaded it to the iCloud.

I want to edit it on my MacBook Air (OS X Mavericks) and then send it back to my iPhone, but the file on my iPhone just disappeared?

I found some instructions that might help you with your problem.

  When you want to send a song to iCloud, tap on the Edit button and
  select a song (or songs). With iCloud enabled in the app, you will now
  see an iCloud icon along the top bar. Tapping on the iCloud icon will
  bring up a prompt, asking if you want to send the song(s) to iCloud.

  After the song is uploaded to iCloud, you will see an iCloud logo in
  the top-right corner of the song thumbnail, indicating a successful
  upload and the fact that the song is stored in the cloud.


Having Remote Desktop in Full screen view Is it possible to have Remote Desktop running in Full Screen mode ? Like it is possible to have with Real VNC, for instance.

In 3.3.2 you can have it running full screen by clicking the fullscreen icon; but the client will only appear in full screen mode if it has the same resolution. Smaller resolutions will be surrounded by a black box.

I haven't tried this: but clients with higher resolutions will probably full the screen if they have the same aspect ratio, but they might look a bit funky.


USB flash drive in ExFat doesn't unmount I need to transfer large files (9 GB) from my Mac to a PC. I bought a 64 GB flash drive, and it wouldn't work because it was in FAT 32 format and I couldnt transfer such a large file.

I reformatted the drive to ExFAT, and copied the file without a problem -- everything opened on my Mac and worked fine. When I plugged the drive into the PC, it said the drive was corrupted. So I went back to my computer, and the drive wasn't mounting. I opened Disk Utility and tried to repair it. After a while, it said it was repaired but the process never finished (even though it said in the activity log that it had been repaired). After an hour I pushed stop repair a few times, but it still didn't stop, so I just quit Disk Utility (probably not a great idea).

I decided to try starting again, and I clicked Erase in the Disk Utility so I can re-format the drive. Its now been about an hour and it hasnt moved past "unmounting disk" and the blue barber pole on the bottom.

Any ideas what I can do? Why did this happen? Should I just keep waiting? Should I quit Disk Utility? Any help or guidance would be incredibly helpful.

Force-quit Disk Utility and yank the drive. OS X will probably fuss at you; ignore it.

Stick the drive into the Windows computer and format it there, using Disk Management. (I've had much better success with ExFAT drives formatted under Windows than under OS X.)


Terminal leaving a blank line on High Sierra when tabs are used Since the upgrade from El Capitain to High Sierra (I jumped over Sierra), my terminal leaves a blank line at the very bottom as soon as I open another tab. See picture as example:

Here is my ~/.bash_profile

# Beautify bash prompt
function parse_git_branch {
  git branch --no-color 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/on \1/'
}
export PS1="\e[1;30m\u\e[m in \e[0;34m\w\e[m \e[0;32m\$(parse_git_branch)\e[m \e[0;37m// \$(date '+%H:%M')\e[m\n$ "

# Extend PATH for Homebrew
export PATH="/usr/local/sbin:$PATH"
export PATH="$(brew --prefix homebrew/php/php70)/bin:$PATH"

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

It is not a big issue, but somewhat annoying especially when working with tmux during ssh sessions.

Does anyone know what is causing this or how I might resolve it?

This issue has been corrected in macOS Mojave 10.14.


Safari 13 update sets negative com.apple.quarantine -1 making multiple directories inaccessible Updated to Safari 13 today on Mojave 10.14.6 and suddenly a bunch of my ~/Library/ directories are inaccessible via terminal and other apps (even with sudo).  Checking the xattr I see:

com.apple.quarantine -1

Directories affected:

~/Library/Calendars (previously 28)
~/Library/Cookies (previously 15)
~/Library/Mail (previously 19)
~/Library/Safari (previously 15)

Two other changes in ~/Library/ I found are with:

com.apple.metadata:com_apple_backup_excludeItem -1

Directories affected:

~/Library/PersonalizationPortrait (previously 61)
~/Library/Saved Application State (previously 61)

Now I can't access these directories via terminal or some other apps.  Interestingly I can navigate to the directory with Finder.  e.g. Navigate to ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/  But when I click on Extensions.plist, Xcode does not have permission to open it.

I can't seem to find documentation on what the negative values mean and how to change it because sudo doesn't even have permission to change it.

Something more weird is my High Sierra machine doesn't have these com.apple.quarantine changes.

Update:  It's very possible that multiple directories outside ~/Library/ are also affected because my next Time Machine backup was over 1 GB and the only thing that changed is the install of Safari 13.

Update 2: My High Sierra machine's next Time Machine was over 11 GB after this one Safari 13 install.  Something weird is definitely happening with this update.

Ok, after wasting lots of time chasing this issue, I found one possible solution but it has raised more questions.

If I give Terminal Full Disk Access, the quarantine value shows the original values.  Which means either the Safari 13 update also contains Gatekeeper system updates or Apple pushed an independent silent Gatekeeper data update around the same time.

More questions:

Why was this working fine before?  Terminal never had Full Disk Access permission.
Note that Xcode still doesn't have permissions.  That means I need to give Xcode Full Disk Access too.
Why the huge difference in Time Machine backups post update?


How do I resolve 501: Method Not Implemented in MRD for OSX El Captain? I've gotten a MBP with El Captain installed & latest MRD (Microsoft Remote Desktop) 8.0.33 - However when I try connecting to a Windows host with it's PC name given along with credentials .. MRD gives me the following:

  HTTPEndpointException: 4, The non-proxy http connection failed to
  connect with the message: 501 Not Implemented stack exchange

The same credentials & settings worked before, it somehow doesn't work now. I have done intensive research on it including this, this, this, this & this to no avail at all. I've also attempted to install Royal TSX, and it gives me the below:

  The connection failed. (Error Code: CONNECTERROR)

I'm fed up & would require to handle office docs & mailboxes from my Windows Host. I can't ssh into for obvious office reasons. Can the community resolve this one?

After a lot of trial & error, I figured out the most logical assumptions & got it to work. It goes like this (in-case anyone else finds the same problem & is looking forward to an answer):

Determine the host gate way
Physically access the computer
Open up Windows Services (if host is Windows)
In Services, look for Remote Desktop Services
In Remote Desktop Services, click Properties & drop down to Automatic if not already
Restart the Machine (Optional)

Try again with your MBP, and with Wireless connection, you need not set any additional GW info on RDP Client. Food for thought is - this could be one possible way out of many other circumstances you run into. Make sure RDP services aren't disabled on the GW which's suppose to distribute the connection packets & route it the way it should.

Let me know in case I could additionally help with something entirely different if the circumstances are different & RDP services are already not disabled.


Pain with using multiple monitors Today I got a new 13 inch mac book pro. I have a 30 inch asus monitor which I use as a secondary display. The resolution of the monitor is higher than the macbook pro.

when I move the mouse from my secondary display (the asus monitor) to my macbook, it gets stuck. I think the mouse can only move when you are in the resolution area of the macbook.

So I have to move the mouse in the center of the screen and only then I can move it to the macbook.

This is very annoying. Is there a way I can move the mouse between two monitors without really centering it first?

To rearrange the position of the displays, please see Configuring Mac OS X for Multiple Displays.


Cleaning White MacBook I have a white MacBook, and it has gotten kinda dingy over the past couple of years. Still runs fine, but I would like to know what I can use to clean the white plastic. I was thinking one of those Mr. Clean erasers, but just want to see if The Community had any other (verified) options lol.

Thanks!
Thomas

In my (too many) years of experience, the best "mix" you can make is composed of:

Seven parts of water (distilled if possible but in the case of the plastic it won't make much difference)

Three parts of alcohol (the same used in medicine, sold in pharmacies).

So you actually put seven "somethings" of water and then three of alcohol. Mix, and store in a bottle, closed (or the alcohol will evaporate!). It can last for months. Use soft cloth to clean everything, even screens. Don't use toilet paper on screens.

note: Somethings can be, glasses, spoons, lid, etc. The important thing is that you use it for both water and alcohol, so it's the same proportion.


How to tell which iPhone app eats bandwidth? Sometimes I notice that the Internet connection in my house becomes REALLY slow.

Disabling WiFi on my wife's iPhone fixes this.

But how can I tell which app/process does this?

iCloud backup is disabled. Dropbox is not installed. The "data usage" report shows cellular data, not wifi, I assume. What do I do? How do I debug this?

If your router doesn't have a way to log bandwidth usage, your best bet would be to run every suspect app on its own.

By that, I mean you should go into the App Switcher (double-press the Home button) and swipe upwards on all of the apps in that list. That kills all of the apps, so the only ones that'll be running are the ones you open afterwards. Kill all of the apps, then let one run and see if it has any effect on your wifi.

Not a great solution, I know, but to my knowledge, there isn't an easy way to figure out your problem.


What units does Finder use when listing an image's dimensions? What units does Finder use when listing an image's dimensions (e.g. 356 x 120 in the example below)?

Definitely image dimensions on a screen are measured in pixels.

Open your image in Preview application and press Cmd-I.


Is it possible to use an Apple gift card toward repairs? I have a gift card whose balance should just about exactly cover the cost of some repairs Apple is doing on my computer. Is it possible to spend a gift card on repairs? I assume so, but I cannot find any confirmation on Apple's website. Just wondered if anyone on here had any experience to confirm or disconfirm.

If the card can be used in an Apple retail store (i.e. not an iTunes gift card), then yes. Repairs are treated as an in-line item in their POS system. Any valid form of payment that could be used to pay for anything else in the store can be used to pay for repairs.

I called an Apple retail store to confirm this.


Can I upgrade MacBookPro13"(Early 2011-1333 MHZ DDR3-2.3 GHZ i5) to 16GB 1600 MHZ RAM? Can I install 16 GB 1600 MHZ RAM on my MacBookPro 13" (Early 2011-4GB 1333 MHZ DDR3 ) with 2.3 GHZ i5 processor? According to Apple support, I can upgrade upto 8 GB only and does not provide information about 1600 MHZ RAM. Please help.

The source I have, MacTracker, says your laptop can be upgraded to 16 GB. I don't know about the 1600 MHz but I assume that would be ok if all of the memory modules were 1600 MHz.


Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 occasional flickers I just installed a new Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 video card into my Mac Pro (5,1 mid-2012). It works great, except occasionally, perhaps once every hour or so, the screen flickers. By "flicker" I mean that the entire image becomes garbled for just a fraction of a second and then returns to normal. The card's single dip-switch is set for Mac compatibility. No other video card is installed and I'm only running a single 30" Apple Cinema HD Display.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing these occasional "hiccups" and whether it is something that can be stopped?

The "hiccups" could be due to poor cables. Previously I have seen that result in these "flickers" that come randomly once in a while.

Replace the monitor cables with properly shielded, quality cables!


What's wrong with my Outlook search? Ever since doing OS X 10.8 updates, a pair of machines with Outlook refuse to look back further than 2 weeks during e-mail searches.  Spotlight settings all look OK.  I even forced an index deletion/re-creation with "sudo mdutil -E".  Index does go away, but comes back the same way, only being able to search the last 2 weeks worth of items (and there are items going back years it should be finding).  Mailbox size is right around 1.9 GiB.  Ideas?

I see this happen somewhat often in our office environment where Outlook 2011 is connected to our Exchange server. Typically a spotlight re-index will do the trick, either using the method you tried or by adding the HD to Spotlight's privacy pane, then removing it a few minutes later. Sometimes I have to go a step further & remove preference files. spotlight.plist, outlook.plist, etc... Beyond that I will sometimes be forced to rebuild the Outlook identity using the Microsoft Database Utility (hold opt while opening Outlook). Hope that helps! (Oddly it's always 2 weeks here as well)


My mac is sluggish and something is taking up a lot of my CPU Any idea what quicklookd is? It seems to be using up a lot of my CPU resources.

I'm running MacOS Sierra 10.12.1 on a Macbook Air.

That is basically finders previewing system. Try restarting finder.


Identifying bottlenecks In any computer, there is a bottleneck. The processor, the amount of memory, the bus to the hard drive, etc.

I just ordered a 2010 MacPro, 12 core, and although the 12*3.33 GHz cores should give me more than 3x the performance of my quad 2.8 GHz, I understand it probably won't. I am wondering what the weak link will be and how to improve it. The first thing I'm considering is a PCI card with 2 SSD RAID 0 to run the OS. On my old Pro, I saw amazing boot times from a shift to SSD.
The Mac will have 32GB of RAM, I'm assuming that's enough.

Update - One example of an intensive process is video encoding. How do I find whether writing to the hard drives is the slowdown, i.e. that raid 0 for the hard drives would help the speed?

Any other advice? How do I identify the bottlenecks once this machine is running?

OP I think you're looking at the problem a little backwards. Your weakest link will inherently be the I/O bus.
That being said, raid-0 on PCI-e SSDs will be quite performant.

You need to ask yourself a couple questions

What are you trying to optimize for? Its a mac pro and you're cosnidering a significant $ investment, so you're probably doing some professional work. Keep in mind though that you're sinking a lot of money into a 5+ year old machine, and the parts won't be reusable on any new mac pro you buy in the future
What are your pain points now? You just ordered this machine, so you haven't actually used it yet as part of your workflow. Firstly, you might find it more than adequate for what you want to do. But currently, what are the things you are struggling with? We can help answer from there.


Unity Case sensitive file system on macOS I have a NAS which has all of my unity projects on it, I recently bought a MacBook Pro and have connected it to my NAS so my laptop and computer now have their own cloud sorta thing.

When I open the projects in unity on my PC, nothing happens and it happily opens them without issues. On my Mac, however, whenever I try to open them off my NAS, it just comes up with 'Fatal Error: The project is on a case sensitive file system'

I'm guessing it's got something to do with Linux/macOS as it's only occurring on my mac.

Any ideas?

Nathan

Although MacOS has options to work on Case Sensitive disks, most of its applications [mainly 3rd party apps] do not work well on Case Sensitive disks, for historical reasons. Yet this is a future step to next versions to correctly work on Case Sensitive.

Please use any Case Insensitive disk/share to be able to not run into troubles.

Eg:
Many applications can't differentiate thisfile.txt from thisFile.txt so if you have both on any case sensitive disk, the App may get into trouble. Others may work well. It's like lottery.

MacOS [operating system] works relatively well on case sensitive disk, but 3rd party apps may not work so well.


How to fix iPhone; where user is unable to hear from front speaker. New phone with plastic still on So I recently had this issue and had the hardest time figuring it out when, in fact, it was quite an easy solution. I got a brand new iPhone due to the last one breaking. It is an iPhone 6s. I kept the plastic on it because I was waiting for my screen protector to come. Throughout the next few week's usage I had noticed that I can't hear people when on a phone call. I tried a ton to fix it and finally decided to book a genius bar reservation and had them explain that while the plastic seems thin, and while the plastic seemingly does not block sound, it in fact does block sound.

Take the plastic off when you get a new iPhone. That plastic will ruin the phone calling experience


Is there a Google Chrome version 50 supporting Mac OS 10.8.5? My Chrome 49 stopped receiving updates following Google's announcement of discontinuing support for Mac OS 10.8.

Is there any way to install any Chrome version 50 supporting Mac OS 10.8.5 manually?

At the present time the latest version of Google Chrome is: 50.0.2661.94

Under OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5...

If you do not have Google Chrome installed, and you download a copy and install it, the version will show as: 49.0.2623.112

If you then try to update it through Google Chrome it will report: "Google Chrome is up to date."

Note that the downloaded googlechrome.dmg file's URL is:

          https://dl.google.com/dl/chrome/mac/legacy/GGRO/googlechrome.dmg

If you have an earlier version installed, e.g. 48.0.2564.109, and update it through Google Chrome it will report: "Google Chrome is up to date."

On later versions of OS X, the downloaded googlechrome.dmg file's URL is:

          https://dl.google.com/chrome/mac/stable/CHFA/googlechrome.dmg

At the present time that googlechrome.dmg file contains version: 50.0.2661.94

To get the latest version of Google Chrome on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x, do the following:

Download the googlechrome.dmg file from the link directly above,
not the one that has "legacy" in its URL.
If open, close Google Chrome and delete it from the Applications
folder.
Open the newly downloaded googlechrome.dmg file and in spite of
the international no symbol showing, drag and drop it into the
Applications folder, not the Applications link in the installer
.dmg file.
Open Terminal and use the following command to modify the
Info.plist file inside the Google Chrome application bundle:

defaults write /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/Info.plist LSMinimumSystemVersion 10.8.0

       Note: Copy and paste the entire command above into the Terminal and then press Enter.

Now select the Google Chrome application bundle in the Applications
folder and press Command-I to open its Get
Info sheet and then close the Get Info sheet.
In a Terminal run the following command: killall Finder

       The Google Chrome application icon should now show as normal.

Now you can run the latest Google Chrome on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x.

Note: While the current latest version of Google Chrome (50.0.2661.94) is running fine for me under OS X Mountain Lion
10.8.5, this does't mean that future versions will run without issue on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5, and therefore this method will become
worthless.


iPod Touch 5: Start new messages field doesn't show up http://i57.tinypic.com/30kysfl.jpp

Hi, my iPod Touch 5th gen dosent have the start new messages field, and its not there when I scroll down. Also, my iPhone's phone number wasn't an option when the field was there, only my emails.

Is iMessage activated on your iPhone?
Is your iPhone and iPod signed in with the same Apple ID and connected to the Internet?
Without activating iMessage on your phone with the same Apple ID you can't use the telephone number on your iPod.

If you can't use the phone number for iMessage on your iPhone, then try with turning iMessage off from the settings and turn it on again a few seconds later. Try doing that on the iPod as well.


Why is my MacBook Pro beeping when performing a keyboard shortcut? When using any keyboard shortcut in any application, there is a beeping sound effect that is normally played when there is an error. However, the keyboard shortcut still works normally. I am using macOS Mojave 10.14.6.

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Sound, then click Sound Effects.
Find the alert sound that is causing the issue.  When you click on it, it will play the sound effect.  In my case, every time I used the keyboard shortcut cmd-shift-p - even though it was a valid shortcut in some apps - it made the alert sound from "Ping".   I muted the Output volume for "Ping" and that solved the issue.


Is it possible to uninstall Xcode, keep the CLI tools and have a working Homebrew installation running on macOS Mojave? I am trying to claw back as much disk space as possible, and I have no use for Xcode aside from the fact it provides the Command Line Tools I need for using Homebrew. Can I:

Remove Xcode (how to do so properly?)
Install Command Line Tools (I can download them as a developer BTW)
Have a working Homebrew installation

You don't need to have Xcode installed on your system to install Command Line Tools. Command Line Tools can be installed independently from Xcode.

For your scenario, to remove Xcode, take either one of the two approaches depending on how you installed it in first place:

If you have installed Xcode via Mac App Store, simply open Launchpad, press and hold the Alt key, and click on the cross button shown towards top left of the Xcode app icon.

This will uninstall Xcode completely.

If you have installed Xcode via copying from a DMG, simply trash the Xcode.app bundle.

Once you have uninstalled Xcode, you can independently install only the Command Line Tools by running the following in Terminal:

xcode-select --install

You don't need to have an Apple Developer account for doing so, neither will you need to download anything directly from Apple Developer website.


Somebody used my Apple ID on a new iPod touch One of my friends got this error on his iPhone (this is the translation of message in English) :

  Your Apple ID and telephone number are in use in iMessage on a new iPod touch.

There is no iPod touch so someone used the account. What is wrong? Has somebody hacked the iPhone?

In the list of messages, there are lots of Chinese numbers and messages!

The Apple ID was logged in to an iPod touch and used to send spam. The password to the account should be changed immediately and the account secured at appleid.apple.com.


Does OSX 10.10.4 support LZMA compression at the individual file level (not tar files)? From the command line, I would like to compress some database dumps using the LZMA algorithm. And, OSX adds XZ support (written in October of last year), claims

" It turns out the XZ support in OS X 10.10 is kind of broken. Single‐file XZ file streams like those created by XZ Utils, 7zip, and other popular compression utilities are entirely unsupported . Only XZ files containing a TAR archive are supported. OS X insist that there must be a TAR archive inside XZ files or it will choke on it. "

Is this true?

I can create a tar archive with LZMA compression as such:

  $ tar cfJ dbDumps.tar.xz DbDumps

But, indeed OSX does not ship with an LZMA executable (as far as I understand). I learned in the Linux & Unix forum that I could use "Homebrew" or "MacPorts" to get an LZMA executable, but I've not done this yet because I want my Mac as stable as possible.

So, is there a way for me, from a command shell, to compress non-tar files using the LZMA algorithm without having to add custom apps from HomeBrew, MacPorts, etc.? (I cannot use a gui to perform the compression.)

XZ support on macOS isn't broken, it's just restricted to tar. :-)

There is nothing to worry about using Homebrew though. Head over to brew.sh to get started and then run brew install xz to install the xz binary.


I really want to know what is proper the cpu temperature for my Mac book I'm using Mac book pro 13 inch , 3.1 ghz i5 dual core.

I have set up Mac book fan control and I am able to check the temperature.

I was just surfing the internet, and the cpu temperature shows about 65-75 degree Celsius. which made the fan run

Is it normal thing to happen???

I cannot find any proper temperature for my Mac.

I also looked up at some website but it does not have my MacBook model.

https://www.intelmactemp.com/list

please help me

I found two 13" MacBook Pro notebooks which offered a 3.1 GHz i5 CPU with 2 physical cores. Both have a 100°C  TJUNCTION rating for the CPU. (Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.):

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

Model Identifier - MacBookPro13,2
Intel® Core™ i5-6287U Processor
TJUNCTION  100°C

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

Model Identifier - MacBookPro14,2
Intel® Core™ i5-7287U Processor
TJUNCTION  100°C

So a temperature of 65-75°C is within normal operating range for the CPU.

If neither of these are the MacBook Pro model you have, then please provide the necessary information to properly identify the one you have.


Where can I get a closed loop iPhone carrying case/holster? Most of my older gear with belt carrying cases have a closed loop. In all but one (shoddy) iPhone case I've seen, there is no closed loop, only a clip that can slide off.

Are there any iPhone holsters/carrying cases which have an old-fashioned closed loop or other hardware that would prevent the case from accidentally sliding up and off my belt?

The Ripoffs CO-IQ holster can be ordered with a belt loop (which is technically a BL-IQ using the RipOffs model number system). This is a low-profile, plain black nylon holster with a flap covering/securing the phone. At one time Ripoffs also made a CO-IP model for the iPhone, but it is no longer listed in their catalog.

If you're looking for something more tactical, Maxpedition's 5" Clip-On Phone Holster can be adapted by using their TacTie Attachment straps as a belt loop. (You could also sew a nylon strap onto existing MOLLE loops to form a full-time belt loop.)

The 5.11 C5 Case-L can be snapped securely to a belt or attached to a MOLLE system. (The new style 5.11 tactical pants have a flap pocket especially designed for an iPhone that makes a belt case superfluous.)

Although I don't own any of these particular products, I've owned pouches, holsters and bags (and pants) from these manufacturers and am comfortable vouching for the overall quality of their products.

Check your local Police/EMS supply shops if you want a local source. You may find other options there too—secure carry of smartphones is definitely something of interest to LEOS, EMTs, etc.


Can iTunes pause a specified amount of time after a particular track? It's possible to get iTunes to start a song in the middle, say, after a long introductory section. (This is great for party mixes, where one doesn't want to interrupt the energy of a mix.)

In a similar vein, is it possible to get iTunes to pause for several seconds after playing a song? For example, in an album of several associated pieces, it would be nice if iTunes would pause for around 30 seconds after the last movement of one piece and the first of the next piece. (All within the same album.) This would be particularly useful for classical music, where each movement is its own track, but several such pieces are jammed onto an album.

You're asking two questions here.

  It's possible to get iTunes to start a song in the middle?

Yes, for each individual track, you can press CMD+I (get info) and get to this tab:

Where you can check Start Time, Stop Time or both and specify a time.
Part of a Gapless album is useful too, since it will not leave a gap time between tracks (nice when you have live albums or such).-

*Is it possible to get iTunes to pause for several seconds after playing a song?*

This is not natively possible within iTunes and you'll have to perform further research, try to find an App that does it and/or create some sort of Applescript. But doesn't seem like something natural to do, so it may not be easy to achieve (automatically).

A simple trick you could employ is to record a 30 second silence (you can probably find them if you google, it's used for ringtones) and play that in between your playlist.


Can I display the menu bar in full screen mode in Lion? Possible Duplicate:
  How to always show menubar with fullscreen apps?

Is there any way to always display menu bar in full screen mode in Lion?

I don't think so.

An alternative way is like, create a new Desktop, move the application you want to full screen into that new Desktop, and make that application screen as big as the Desktop.  So, you have a dedicated Desktop for that application, full screen, and with the menu bar.


Why do I keep getting this error message after updating to OS X 10.8.1? After I updated to OS X 10.8.1, I keep getting this error message when I execute purge:

  [ERROR]    The device-file for this operating system, 'osx-12.1.0.xml', was not found. An attempt to revert to a previous revision of the OS device-file: 'osx-12.0.0.xml' has been made. Please file a Radar report with Apple, on the 'CoreProfile' component, version 'X'.

Is there anything I need to do to fix the error? To what exactly is the error message referring?

The purge command is still executing correctly, but it looks like Apple forgot to update the file and it's kicking this error back.

The best temporary solution is the following:

Open Terminal
cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreProfile.framework/Versions/A/Resources/De vices/
sudo ln -s osx-12.0.0.xml osx-12.1.0.xml

This will add a non destructive symbolic link that is a reference to another file; in this case you're pointing the link 12.1.0 to the previous file, 12.0.0. Since this is only a link, if an update does roll out with this file it will just overwrite the link.

This is the best temp fix, and I'm sure it's been submitted a few times to their bug tracker. Hopefully it gets fixed soon! There is an Apple support communities thread about the same thing here.


As an indie developer, what do I put in the contact section of the "Agreements, Tax, and Banking" in iTunes connect? Not quite sure if this is the place to ask but I'm trying to set up IAPs in my app so I need to fill out the paid contract first. I have no idea exactly who I'm supposed to put in my contact section.

I'm not a company, and I do not have any people that serve Senior Management, Financial, Technical, Legal, Marketing roles. I need to fill this section out to continue but am stumped as to what exactly I'm supposed to put here.

I just put myself. I'm a student and the sole person with any responsibility for the apps on the account, so I simply put myself. I had no issues with this.


What are the differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+? I'm about to format an external hard disk drive (HDD).

What are the key differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+? Apart from the fact that one has journaling and the other does not, how does it affect the drive's performance (with numbers)?

My gut-feeling is that in "normal" use journaling would be the way to go, but are there any situations where non-journaling HFS+ should be considered?  Linux compatibility is one, since it seems that the kernel's hfsplus module supports read & write on non-journaled HFS+, but only read on journaled HFS+.

Anything else worth mentioning?

I don't have numbers to back up the statement, but using HFS+ non-journaled is a good idea in certain volumes that require absolute speed, without worrying (too much) about a possible "data loss" or "data corruption" in case of power failure or similar.

When is using HFS+ Non-journaled a BAD idea?

External (USB, FW, ESata) drives that are connected and reconnected often: It's usually a bad idea, since these drives tend to be accidentally disconnected very often and or their power sources unplugged.
Partitions where data integrity is important and protection from an unexpected power loss is a must. (Documents, Music, Videos, Backups, etc).

When is using HFS+ Non-journaled a GOOD idea?

Scratch, Temp, trivial storage and similar drives and partitions, where speed is > data integrity in case of power fail. You want your Final Cut scratch volume to be non-journaled (you do have an UPS anyway, don't you?). You want your Photoshop temp to be non-journaled. Drives to copy stuff around (a Pen drive for example if you take care of properly ejecting).
Any other drive that requires portability and compatibility like you correctly pointed out.

Remember, maintaining the journal adds a small overhead, but the benefit in case of improper volume dismount are important, no only to avoid a full disk "scan" at startup or re-mount, but also in terms of making sure that data is not corrupted in the first place.

Mounting a non-journaled drive that has been incorrectly unmounted, will cause a fsck scan, whereas the journaled drive will be able to be up and running in a shorter period of time (scanning the journal and applying uncommited transactions).

Regarding Speed and tests, I don't have much info to back up the above claim, however, as far as I know the speed difference not only is very small and even hard to notice, but in some case Journaled filesystem is faster than non-journaled.

Turn out that despite the overhead of the journal, some operations can be made asynchronously in the Journaled drive, whereas the non-journaled version has to perform things synchronously.

For reference I googled a little bit trying to find an old comparison (the numbers are probably valid since HFS+ hasn't really changed much since their first iterations in OSX, other than adding Inline Attribute Data records, and access control list file security and maybe something else.

Here's the website with the charts:

Comparison Between HFS+ Journaled vs HFS+ Non-journaled

TL;DR:

  The file copy/duplicate/copy sequence
  was pretty much equally fast for both
  journaled/non-journaled HFS. The same
  sequence with the folder was again
  somewhat faster with the journaled HFS

(emphasis mine)

Conclusion

I am somewhat surprised to see the above results, as I was kind of convinced that using Non-Journaled was really faster for some operations, but apparently the little cases where it can make a difference, it's overweighted by the "safety" of Journaling.


Is there a rhyming dictionary I can run on the OSX command line? Is there a rhyming dictionary I can run on the OSX command line?

I found these but don't know how to get them running on my Mac:

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/39651
http://osl.no.distfiles.macports.org/rhyme/
https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rhyme

It looks like the rhyme package is for Ubuntu. How can I get it working on OSX?

I put together a Homebrew tap for Rhyme. Please see:

https://github.com/shaunplee/homebrew-rhyme


What does the "cancel" icon in the volume prompt mean? I connected my earphone and when I tried to change the volume, I got a prompt like

Except that there was a small "cancel" icon in it (like this). I could not change the volume. I had to unplug and plug again the earphone.

What does that mean?

OSX Yosemite. Macbook Pro Retina Display, Mid 2014 model.

It means that you cannot change the volume for the selected output device. For example, if you connect your mac to a TV using a HDMI cord, you will not be able to control the TV's volume with your mac. You'll have to use the TV's remote instead.

This shouldn't ever happen when you connect something into the headphone jack though. Perhaps you have a faulty set of headphones?


An app similar to Gif Text? Is there any application that is similar to Gif Text but with more images and continous updates ? I tried looking in the appstore but I don't think the keywords I used were good enough. I'm sure gif text is not the only app out there.

Basically a library with gif images that I can click to copy and paste in iMessage.

I'm the creator of gif text, an update is in review right now, there are about 20+ new gifs, and I'm constantly making more.

Another option is that you can create a folder in your photo album, and email yourself the gifs you want that aren't in my app, then you have access to as many as you want.


Filter searches on the iOS App Store On the iPadOS App Store, there is a “Filters” drop down menu on the left side of the search bar that allows you to filter apps by what platform it supports, price, category, age, and sorting options.

However, in iOS on my iPhone, I don’t see this drop down menu when searching. Are there any hidden buttons or features that allow you to filter search results in the iOS App Store like you can on iPadOS?

No, there are not any hidden buttons or features to filter search results when searching from an iPhone.
It's done this way when viewing the App Store on iPadOS because iPhone apps can be run in iPadOS.  This is the default setting for developers using Xcode to create their apps.  Sometimes when searching, you just want to see apps that are designed only for iPads (developers determine if their app can be run on iPad only).
Because you can run an iPhone app on an iPad but not an iPad only app on an iPhone, Apple provides a way to search for only those types of apps.


Is it possible to use TotalTerminal with Go2Shell? I am using TotalTerminal. Now, I want to use Go2Shell, so that I can access quickly a terminal in the good folder.

But, when I click on the Go2Shell icon, it opens a usual Terminal and not a TotalTerminal shell.

Is there a way to use TotalTerminal with Go2Shell or to open in TotalTerminal a shell set to the current directory?

EDIT

The first shell that I open with Go2Shell opens in the Visor of TotalTerminal. But, then, if I just "escape" to close the Visor (instead of "command-W"), the next shell opens in a separate window.

So, my question boils down to:

Is it possible to have multiple windows (or tabs) in the Visor of TotalTerminal?

See also my other question on this topic.

Open TotalTerminal settings (Terminal → Preferences → TotalTerminal).
Create the Visor profile if it doesn't exist already:

Go to the settings tab, then the Visor profile.
Select the Shell tab, and enter the following:

cd "$(osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)')"

Quit and re-open Terminal.

Now, when opening Visor, it will cd to the directory in the current Finder window.


Local DNS circumvented when WiFi is active I am using Mac OS X 10.8 to connect to two networks through ethernet and wifi and I am experiencing a problem with local DNS resolution. I would really appreciate your advice.

I am simultaneously connected to two networks. A local network through ethernet (eth) and to the internet through my company's wireless AP (wifi). I would like to be able to query by name my local computers (like ping computer1) but also I would like to have internet connection through wifi.

In the Network Preferences I have the following priority:
First ethernet and then wifi.

By doing so, it works correctly when I ping local computers by IP. i.e. ping 192.168.1.1 works and I can access the internet as well. DNS settings for each interface are listed correctly in the Network Preferences settings. i.e. DNS for eth is 192.168.1.1 and search domain mydomain.com. For the wifi, DNS are also listed correctly with the settings my company provides.

If I disable wifi, local DNS works fine, when using ping computer1 or nslookup computer1. However, when wifi is enabled, I do not succeed in resolving names with the local DNS server. I have found that the resolv.conf file is overwritten when I enable wifi and therefore local DNS server is not contacted, instead my company's DNS is contacted. To be more specific, when wifi is enabled, the resolv.conf file holds only DNS information provided by my company  (even though I prioritised it second position in Network Preferences ):

So when WiFi is enable, resolv.conf has the following:
 domain my.work.domain.com  nameserver x.x.x.x  nameserver y.y.y.y  nameserver z.z.z.z

When WiFi is disabled, resolv.conf has the following:
domain mydomain.com.
nameserver 192.168.1.1

Similar issues appears when using scutil --dns.

When I have BOTH eth and wifi enabled, using  scutil --dns, I get the following:
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : my.work.domain.com
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x
  nameserver[1] : y.y.y.y
  nameserver[2] : z.z.z.z
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  reach    : Reachable

(Here are listed but removed by me the rest of DNS resolvers #2 - #7 that normally Mac users have for internet )

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : mydomain.com
  nameserver[0] : 192.168.1.1
  if_index : 6 (en2)
  flags    : Scoped
  reach    : Reachable,Directly Reachable Address

resolver #2
  search domain[0] : my.work.domain.com
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x
  nameserver[1] : y.y.y.y
  nameserver[2] : z.z.z.z
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  flags    : Scoped
  reach    : Reachable

When I disable WiFi and only keep ethernet, using  scutil --dns, I get the following:
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : mydomain.com
  nameserver[0] : 192.168.1.1
  if_index : 6 (en2)
  reach    : Reachable,Directly Reachable Address

(Here are the same as above resolvers #2 - #7 that normally Mac users have for internet )

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : mydomain.com
  nameserver[0] : 192.168.1.1
  if_index : 6 (en2)
  flags    : Scoped
  reach    : Reachable,Directly Reachable Address

Thank you very much for the time you spend for my problem. Kind regards !

I think the DNS settings for each device are independent, so you need to configure DNS in the Advanced tab of system preferences for each NIC (en0, en1, etc.)


Way for new Mac touch bar to behave the same as the Old keyboard The new touch bar is not very good for people good at keyboard shortcuts and development.

I used to be able to press Shift F8 to get iTunes to play without giving it focus.

How can I get the F10,F11 etc. keys to always display on Chrome without pressing Fn, on touch bar Mac?

This makes debugging annoying.

In the system preferences go to "Keyboard". Select the "Shortcuts"-tab. Select "Function Keys" in the left menu. Click the + and add the applications where you want the F-keys to always show.

If you never want the touch bar but the old F-keys with brightness, volume backlight and so on. Go back to the "Keybard"-tab and select "Expanded Control Strip" in the "Touch Bar Shows" drop-down menu.


Do I just need a VGA to RCA adaptor to stream video from my macbook to TV? I want to get the adaptor to stream videos from my macbook to my TV.

I already have the Apple adaptor from DVI to VGA: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA4Mw&mco=MTM3NTA3MDU

I know need an adaptor from VGA to RCA.. I guess this one: http://www.bzsell.com/product_pic/10/05/16/flag_129185411642265983.JPG

But the guy at the store, told me that it is not that easy. If the TV is old (and it is), I need a video converter... (around 50 euros)

is that true ?
thanks

You might need a converter, but I don’t think so. Bear in mind that all those conversions will degrade the image a lot.

Does your TV have S-VGA? in that case you could use this adapter from Apple. Better than RCA anyway.

edit updated with the right adapter. As already noted, please remember that this doesn’t carry audio.


Can iCloud see apps I download if i use a different Apple ID for theApp Store I know that I can use separate Apple ID's for iCloud and the App Store. However does this make them totally separate? In other words, if I am using different Apple ID's for iCloud and the App Store, will iCloud still be able to see the apps I download and will iCloud be able to see that I've logged into a different Apple ID for the App Store? (assuming I never backup my phone or restore a backup)

The logins are totally seperate. You can use one login for the app store and another for iCloud. There's no problems in that - iCloud wouldn't suddenly require the password for the App Store login or anything like that.


When using Volatility with a memory image, what is the Kernel version? The Volatility memory forensics framework github website lists these Mac profiles for OS 10.11:

Profiles
--------
MacElCapitan_10_11_15A284x64            - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11_15A284 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_1_15B42x64           - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.1_15B42 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_2_15C50x64           - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.2_15C50 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_3_15D21_15D13bx64    - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.3_15D21_15D13b x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_4_15E27ex64          - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.4_15E27e x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_4_15E39dx64          - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.4_15E39d x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_4_15E49ax64          - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.4_15E49a x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_4_15E65x64           - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.4_15E65 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_5_15F18b_15F24bx64   - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.5_15F18b_15F24b x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_5_15F34x64           - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.5_15F34 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G1004_15G1108x64 - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G1004_15G1108 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G1212x64         - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G1212 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G1217x64         - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G1217 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G12ax64          - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G12a x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G1421x64         - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G1421 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G1510x64         - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G1510 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G1611x64         - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G1611 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G17023x64        - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G17023 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G18013x64        - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G18013 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G19009x64        - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G19009 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G19ax64          - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G19a x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G20015x64        - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G20015 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G24b_15G31x64    - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G24b_15G31 x64
MacElCapitan_10_11_6_15G7ax64           - A Profile for Mac ElCapitan_10.11.6_15G7a x64

The Mac I am trying to analyze has this About box:

Here is the uname output:

users-Mac:~ user$ uname -a
Darwin users-Mac.local 15.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 15.6.0: Thu Jun 23 18:25:34 PDT 2016; root:xnu-3248.60.10~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
users-Mac:~ user$

I have tried all of the Volatility profiles and none of them work.

What does the string in the volatility profile after the 10_11_6_ mean, and how do I find it for my machine?

That string is the macOS build number. If you click on "10.11.6" in the About-box in your screenshot, it will be revealed right next to the version number.

You can also run sw_vers to get easy build / version / marketing information from the command line.


External Hard Drive no longer working I am on a MacBook Pro 13 running latest Sierra. I have an external Seagate solid state hard drive that was working and out of the blue stopped working. The only thing on it was my Adobe Lightroom images/videos. Not the LR DB files. I'm sure you have all heard this woe before, so I won't dwell on that. And yes, I back up to the cloud. AWS S3 specifically. Though I am traveling South East Asia for the last year, and staying in cheap hostels. So good internet is hard to come by sometimes. I can't back it up after every export. While most of it is backed up, there is some that is not.

Moving on. The symptoms seems to change every time I plug it in. The first sign was it ejected on it's own. I plugged it in again, and it wouldn't mount. Disk Utility recognized it, so did the command line diskutil list but it wouldn't mount. I rebooted and it worked for a second. Then I could only get to it from the command line. Then trying to frantically back up to my local what was not backed up to the cloud, it all failed. Basically just a cp -R [directory] [local-directory] command.

After some more frantic unplugging and re-plugging plus some command line manual mounts, I finally got it to where the Disk Utility would be able to run first aid on it. It failed. I don't recall the error. So I put it in a freezer. After a few hours I tried again. It is not any better. It still will not mount. Now Disk Utility sees it, but with no partition. I can't even give me information about how much space is used on it.

I have also tried it from a Windows machine. It did not mount. I have tried other cables. No success. As well as tried my other USB port. I also have another working external hard drive exactly like the one giving me issues. It works on all cables and USB ports.

I do have Docker running with a Ubuntu container, I'm trying to think of a way to see if I can try to get to the USB from there. I also have a USB that I have thought about running a live Ubuntu on there to see if I can mount and retrieve the data or fix the HDD that way. But if it will not mount, I doubt these will work.

Can anyone else think of any other tricks I can try myself to see if I can repair this or at least retrieve the data without paying for a service or software? If not, those suggestions are also welcome.

Update

I made the mistake in original post that it was a Solid State Drive. This is my mistake, it is actually a spinning disk hard drive. I bought them long ago and have been traveling with them for so long I just forgot. Question is updated to reflect this.
Now diskutil list does not show it at all. The Disk Utility app also does not see it.
Based on suggestion from @Allen I seeked out the USB to SATA cable. I did not quite find it, as my options are extremely limited where I am at. Though a local expat on a facebook group was able to help me with a empty 2.5 casing that I was able to extract the drive from original casing and put it in his blank case. It now mounts. Though it has the "click of death" sound to it. And data is not really reachable. While I can ls the directories and Adobe Lightroom does not have the exclamation mark when it can not reach the actual external files. Right clicking on the images and clicking on "Show in Finder" or any other variation of trying to get to the files through Finder or terminal, I have no success. It usually hangs and I get the spinning wheel. Since Adobe Lightroom imports these images into directories named by date, I am going to send the drive off to a data recovery service and ask to recover just unbacked up directories i.e. dates. Next time I will make harder efforts to backup and probably get an actual SSD.

I think this can be closed, due to my low reputation points I can not close this myself.

...any other tricks I can try myself to see if I can repair this or at
  least retrieve the data without paying for a service or software?

Based on everything you said, there are only two conditions that exist:

The USB enclosure has failed.  This is the least bad scenario.  The "enclosure" has a USB to SATA controller that is the interface of the drive.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that it "reports" back the drive, but refuses to mount/read/write/etc.
The SSD drive itself has failed This is the worst case scenario.  If the drive has failed, there's nothing you're going to do to force it to start working.

How can you find out which scenario is the one you're dealing with?  I wrote an answer to a similar question that addresses this situation exactly. It involves a cheap USB to SATA adapter to remove the enclosure from the equation.  If the drive works, it was the enclosure;  you get the added benefit of the adapter being a temp solution until you get the enclosure fixed (or another external drive).  If it doesn't work, then you know the SSD has died.


What are the under documented differences between iPhone 6s and iPhone 7? I know about Apple spec sheet comparison of the devices it currently sells (iPhone 7,6s, and SE) but I'm curious about what isn't usually on the tech spec sheet like RAM and battery mAH.

iPhone 7:

3GB of RAM (Plus only)
2nd generation Taptic Engine

iPhone 6s:

2GB of RAM
1st generation Taptic Engine


Two phone numbers on FaceTime We have 2 iPads, 2 iPhones and 1 Apple ID. How can I add the 2nd iPhone number? Would like to have my iPad FaceTime & messages associated with my iPhone; my husband's iPad FaceTime & messages associated with his iPad.

1 Apple ID is the problem.

You'd need to remove the ID as a contact source & just use the phone numbers.
Settings > Facetime

 Same settings for iPad, just laid out slightly differently


How can I retrieve files cached in the RAM? there are some applications that don't write cache files on the disk, instead they write into the RAM directly and thus you can't back it up, analyse it or do anything with it.

How can I retrieve (that is, save on the disk) the files they are caching in the RAM ?
I'll take any method: utility, script, Terminal command…

P.S. not sure if I should ask here or at superuser

EDIT: posted on superuser

Run sysdiagnose on the process ID and look over the leaks and allmemory commands to get a feel for the syntax. You will need to know a lot about the data structures for this to be feasible. With that, you can drop the program into the debugger and dump the required data structures to screen.


How to downgrade the OS to the original one on a MBA 2010? Continuing the thread about whether it's worth downgrading the OS on an  old MBA Late '10, I'd like to check the downgrade options.

I am not sure my daughter still has an original CD with the OS. I assume not. And she has not been using TimeMachine. So what she can actually do to install the original OS?

The MacBook Air came pre-installed with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which was available with a physical installation media only.

Here is what I would do in your situation:

Parts Replacement (USB Key Installation Media):
Contact Apple and ask if they still replace the missing parts (costs will apply, but I do not know how much).

Order a Replacement Disc:
Ask, if they still sell replacement discs.  The costs were reasonable the last time I heard (~$15-20).
NOTE: The MBA being a Late 2010 may require an installation media unique to its build.  So a general-purpose replacement disc of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard may not work with it.  Ask Apple specifically if it works with your daughter's model before you decide to buy it.

Create a USB Thumb Drive from a Replacement Disc:
Should the general-purpose disc work, knowing that the MBA does not have an optical drive, if you have a different Mac with an optical drive, you can create a USB drive from it by just cloning it over using Disk Utility.

Buying an Optical Drive to Use Disc:
If creating the USB thumb drive is not an option for you, you may want to look into buying an optical drive and use that with the disc (obviously only if the general-purpose disc is an option in the first place).  The optical drive can be used for other things as well and even used with a potential new Mac computer lacking an optical drive.  So, the costs of $79 for the drive would not be wasted for a single purpose.


iPod Shuffle (4G) dead, not charging, not detected by PC My iPod is dead, and whenever I plug it in (original Apple cable, firmly pushed in all the way) the LED glows red for 5 seconds and turns off. My PC does not detect it, and I've tried multiple PCs and USB ports. Resetting does not fix the issue.

What do I do?

here's how I solved the 5-second-light-no-charge issue.
You will need some patience though.

Plug your 4th Gen Shuffle into a high-power USB port (preferable the stock wall charger). Wait until the red light goes on and than off. Unplug. Repeat continuously until the light doesn't go off, which means the Shuffle starts charging. It took me about 15 minutes, however it may take longer depending on how low the battery charge is.

Here's a little technical background behind this process. When the device is not being used for a while, especially if it is not charged, the battery voltage falls below a certain threshold becoming insufficient to start the microprocessor any more. However, the processor is necessary to start the charging process, and the device gets into the deadlock. Basically, when you plug it in, it's being charged for only 5 seconds while the red light is on. When you constantly plug it in and out you manually charge the battery in 5-second increments until it's voltage is high enough  to start the processor.

I advise to unplug the USB from the charger, not the charger from the socket.


Seeking spam filter that uses a database shared by all its users One thing that's great about Gmail is that it uses the entire userbase to identify spam - if enough users mark something as spam, it's likely spam and gets marked for everyone as such.

Are free spam filter systems available for OS X and/or Linux that work similarly, so that I can use them with regular single-user IMAP mail accounts?

I realize that there are plenty of bayesan based filters, but those need training and do not work so well in my experience.

Note that I am not talking about providing mail filtering for a mail server with 100s of users. Instead, as an end user, I want to run a mail filter as a background process on my Mac, scanning my IMAP inbox regularly and moving likely spam to another folder. And when I mark something as spam manually, this process should share this information with a common server (which I'd pay to use) or a decentralized distribution system, and thereby identifying likely spam as a "hive intelligence".

The short answer to this is NO.

I think you are confusing Gmail's SPAM filtering methodology with single user methodology.  What you have to remember is that Gmail is a cloud based service and it IS providing mail service to billions of users.  So, even though you have a single email address with SPAM filtering, it's filtering for all users.

Additionally, SPAM filtering is a "learning" process - meaning the system learns what SPAM is as it goes.  The moment you take it from the cloud (or server) to your local machine, it can't learn from other email accounts.  (Which is why you want to share the database)

Once you have to create an infrastructure to start sharing the database to be able share what it has learned, you would have found it's easier and cheaper to set up a mail server and use a SPAM filter module.

My suggestion is to use a cloud based email provider.  I personally use hosted Exchange directly from Microsoft and I pay on $48 per year for this service.  In addition, I have a "private" email address I only give to colleagues and "disposable" email address I use when registering for websites, trade shows, and product downloads.  Using this technique I can easily identify SPAM; the result is that I have an extremely clean mailbox.


Folder automatic action to rename files added to folder with random names I'm creating a database on Filmaker Pro (FMP) of images that will be stored in a folder. I would like this folder to have an automatic action where I can, occasionally, drag one or more image files into the folder and their "basenames" will each be automatically renamed with unique random (ten) alphanumeric series string that will not clash with whatever filenames already in the folder.

Is there a clever AppleScript or other technique to get this done? I'm a mid-level user, I only know how to use Automator, where it can't be done.

Failing an automatic solution, I could use a random string generator and change filenames manually.

Okay total different approach.

Use AppleScript only.

Step 1: Create folders (input and output)

Step 2: Create script

on adding folder items to theAttachedFolder after receiving theNewItems

    set text item delimiters to "."

    set outputFolder to POSIX file "/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Desktop/random/output/"

    tell application "Finder"
        set all_files to every item of theNewItems as list

        --now we start looping through all selected files. 'index' is our counter that we initially set to 1 and then count up with every file.
        repeat with index from 1 to the count of all_files

            set x to ""
            repeat 10 times
                set x to x & some item of "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890"
            end repeat

            set new_name to x

            --using our index, we select the appropriate file from our list
            set this_file to item index of all_files
            set file_name_count to text items of (get name of this_file)

            --lets check if the current file from our list (based on index-number) has even any file-extension
            if number of file_name_count is 1 then
                --file_name-count = 1 means, we extracted only 1 text-string from the full file name. So there is no file-extension present.
                set file_extension to ""
            else
                --yup, we are currently processing a file that has a file-extension
                --we have to re-add the original file-extension after changing the name of the file!
                set file_extension to "." & item -1 of file_name_count
            end if
            --let's rename our file and add the file-extension to it
            set dupeFile to duplicate this_file to outputFolder
            delete this_file
            set the name of dupeFile to new_name & file_extension as string

        end repeat
    end tell

end adding folder items to

Step 3: Save script in ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/

Step 4: Right mouse click on input folder > Services > Folder Action Setup

Step 5: Connect script to folder.

Left part you add your input folder, click on folder in the left list.
At the right list you choose your script.

Step 6: Add a bunch of files in the input folder. They are getting random names in the output folder and are deleted from the input folder.

Do not forget to change the outputFolder value inside the script!


Where can I find the old version of the Mint app for iOS 4? I'm on a jailbroken iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3.5. There is still not an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5, so I am not able to upgrade yet.

Mint has gotten a bit ahead of themselves and released a new version of their iOS app that requires iOS 5. The old version supported on iOS 4, but it is no longer available. There has been some talk on their support forum about the issue, but there doesn't seem to be a solution.

Where can I find the old version of the Mint app that supports iOS 4?

Unfortunately, This is not possible due to current App Store limitations unless someone else with a jail broken iPhone that you trust has a copy of it that you can grab. One problem with dealing with the Apple App Store is that older versions are forever lost due to Apple's App Store polices. We should be giving concerned feedback to Apple to address this issue too, not just the app developers. So it looks like your best option if you need to have the Mint app, is to read up on the latest jailbreak, and insure your jailbreak path, then update your iPhone to the latest iOS, and then re-jailbreak it. The good news is that there is a untethered jailbreak for both iOS 5 and iOS 5.0.1 for the iPhone 4 as referenced in my comment above.


Force terminal to use binary from a different path I have installed pandoc using homebrew and the Anaconda python distribution using pyenv. I've just found that Anaconda comes with its own pandoc binary and since the pyenv shims come before homebrew in my PATH, I cannot use the homebrew (and newer) version of pandoc.

This is my current PATH

➜ ~ echo $PATH
/Users/marco/.pyenv/shims:/Users/marco/.rbenv/shims:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin
➜ ~ which pandoc
/Users/marco/.pyenv/shims/pandoc

Is there a way to force the terminal to use the homebrew version of a binary without breaking the PATH?

You can always provide the full path to the binary instead of using the PATH at all.

$ /usr/local/bin/pandoc

To make multiple executions easier, you can create an alias.

alias pandoc=/usr/local/bin/pandoc

$ which pandoc
/Users/marco/.pyenv/shims/pandoc

$ alias pandoc=/usr/local/bin/pandoc

$ which pandoc
pandoc: aliased to /usr/local/bin/pandoc

To make future executions easier, put this alias in a .profile.

To bypass the alias without removing it, prepend a \.

$ \pandoc

The ‘right way’ is still to modify your PATH.


Can you change your email name without making a new account I was wondering can you change the name on your email with out having to make a new account ? For example my email is kendrabarry@icloud.com and I'd like to change it to My married name but I don't want to make a new account and have to send it out everywhere..

You can create a new iCloud email alias. Here is the guide from Apple: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph2622


How can I screen share and use Pages? Via Remote Management (VNC) I am connecting to a virtual display on a Mac running Lion. VNC is working as expected, except Pages '09 documents show up blank. If, however VNC connects to the Mac and controls the physical display then Pages documents show up as expected.

Is it possible to use Pages using a virtual display over VNC?

VNC Clients that I've tested are: TightVNC & RealVNC running on Windows, or Apple's Screen Sharing app on Lion.

Excuse the large picture, but I have used Screen Sharing to share the screen of an iMac running Lion and Pages '09 over the virtual display, and it works just fine.  I suspect that the assumed problem of with pages inability to work over a virtual VNC connection is not accurate, but there is something more local to your machine that needs attention.


How to get 1080 HD videos from itunes? I have changed both settings in iTunes to download 1080 HD videos but for example I just bought Beyonce's visual album and the videos are like 88MB, which is not HD.

Please help

Glad to see you know about those settings because they are a bit hidden in my opinion. To answer your question, the music videos are in the quality they were published by Sony Music Entertainment (in this case). Music videos haven't gotten the same amount of TLC like films and TV shows. In music videos, video quality hasn't taken a priority as much as sound quality so most companies decide that it is important for a lot of music videos to fit on a devices as fewer high definition videos. Looks like most music videos are standard definition (sub 720p) and it will probably stay that way until 16 GB devices go out of style.

Who knows, maybe by then there will be a simple option to download HD versions of previously purchased music videos. Sorry for the bad news but I wanted you to know that you aren't doing anything wrong.