Why the mail app takes a lot of space although there is no mails? Simply look at this. Mail consumes 2.5 GB. Why? I removed all messages, readded gmail account. Anything else?

iOS 10.3.3, iPhone 5, 16GB

The Apple Mail app likes to keep cache and data from your emails available offline. That is very helpful for viewing emails and their digital content when you dont have a strong signal, or have access to wifi.

There are some solutions that can help you out though:

Delete the mail account off of the iPhone. Then restart the iPhone and then re-add that email back to the iPhone.
Use the Gmail app for iPhone. The gmail app will keep the email size much lower than whats on your iPhone. The most I've seen the gmail app do for me is 400MB. Thats definitely a huge saving in contrast to 2.5GB.
Limit the amount of email that Gmail can allow the Apple Mail app to have access to. You will have to use the desktop to access this setting in gmail. You can log onto gmail.com, open the Settings page, click “Forwarding and POP/IMAP,” and activate the “Limit IMAP folders to contain no more than this many messages” option. Set it to lets say “1000” and the Mail app won’t be able to download more than the 1000 emails from your account. If you use multiple folders, then that 1000 emails applies to each folder.

These three should give you some options to test out and free up some of your storage that the Mail app is eating up.


Reduce the storage space taken up by "System" on my iPhone 6s without restoring and setting up iPhone as new I have an iPhone 6s with iOS 11 and I have just noticed that a large amount of my iPhone's storage space being occupied by "System" (12.27 GB).

I have tried the answers for the iPhone 4 explained in the question Why is so much "Other" space occupied on an iPhone 4? (except for factory resetting and setting the iPhone up as new as I need to keep my app data) however those did not solve the problem on my iPhone 6s. I have tried restarting and syncing with iTunes, but neither solved the problem.

No need to backup or restore anything !
I just spent some time with a good Apple Care advisors : this problem is caused by iCloud Drive. If you deactivate it, no more problem. It worked for me.


Copy file to iPhone app from Mac OS terminal Is there a way to copy a file from macOS into an iPhone app via Terminal? For example copy movie from Mac OS into the VLC Player App on iPhone.
Like iphone and mac os connected via cable, you run copy /macos/file.mov /iphone/vlc and it's all done.
Not share, copy, so it will be physically stored on iPhone and accessible anytime without internet.
I would prefer a solution through command line so as to be able to script it.

The feature you are looking for is called iOS File Sharing. You can copy files from macOS into an iOS app installed on iPhone/iPad if the iOS app supports File Sharing.
To copy files into an iOS app that supports File Sharing, you'd need to connect your iOS device to your Mac, and access the device via iTunes app (macOS Mojave and earlier) or Finder app (macOS Catalina and later)
Refer to the linked Apple Support document for detailed instructions:

macOS Mojave 10.14 and earlier:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201301

macOS Catalina 10.15 and later:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT210598


How do I install the VLC Web Browser Plugin in Firefox? I am running OS X Version 10.6.7 and Firefox 4.0.1. I am trying to install the Web browser plugins for 10.5 and later (release 1.0.5), there is not a newer version of the plugin at the moment. I downloaded the dmg, ran the installer with firefox closed, then rebooted. Launched Firefox and went to about:plugins. It was still not listed.

I went to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins and saw VLC Plugin.plugin which I assume is the location it is supposed to be in. I went ahead and tried the page I needed it for and it still says I am missing the plugin.

If it matters I am trying to use this with a Foscam Networked camera on my local lan. They added support for audio in firefox by using the vlc plugin (supposedly).

I am currently working on the assumption that I doing something wrong. Any suggestions would be appreciated, although I assume it is possible that the plugin is not compatible with the current version of firefox, or foscam has done something wrong.

After posting the question, I went ahead and tried it in Firefox 3.6.17 and it worked. So apparently the VLC Web Browser Plugin does not work in Firefox 3.6.17. The best solution at this point is to just feed the stream directly into VLC instead. It seems to work in my case.


very frequent CPU usage 100% for systemstats I have macbook retina pro 2013 version with 16gb ram and OS X 10.9.3.

This machine works just fine, except just one problem. systemstats hits 100% CPU usage very frequently, at least 6 times a day.

I've cleaned up database file for my spotlight and tried many solutions from google search result.

What is this systemstats and why is it using 100% cpu? I've heard that it indexes something..but even so..does it have to use 100% cpu??

systemstats profiles other processes. The information collected is used, for example, to populate the "Apps Using Significant Energy" section of the battery menu, and the Energy tab in Activity Monitor.
It is actively triggered by clicking on the battery menu, or opening Activity Monitor.
You can find more information on how to disable it in this article.


Location Based Alarm on iOS Yup. I fell asleep on the train and missed my stop. So next time I was smart and thought that I would set an alarm. Then I went to sleep with the alarm set for 6:09 instead of 8:09. So I missed the train stop yet again. Let me reiterate: smart.

Instead of dealing with setting an alarm for a different time every time I get on the train and then either waking up early (because the train, as we know, is always late), forgetting to set it, or setting it for the wrong time.

I am looking for a location based alarm app. I know that location based reminders in the Reminder app already exist but they only show up on your screen and don't make any sound when silent is on.

I need an app that will be similar to the default Clock app alarms that will sound even if the phone is on silent. Additionally, I would like to ring until I press stop, ensuring that I am awake.

You might want to look into both OmniBuzz and SleepyMe; they're both free IOS app which seems to provide the functionality you want. I've not personally used either before but I have a friend who gets the train to work at a ridiculous hour every day and raves about OmniBuzz.

From what others have said about SleepyMe; it seems that the app currently only supports audible alarms (i.e. no option for vibration only) which may be a concern if you don't want to irritate other passengers.

Let's hope you never miss your stop again!

Best wishes, Tom


Do I have a stuck pixel on my iPod touch 5? So, today I picked up my iPod touch 5th generation to use it as normal, and after a few minutes of use, I noticed that a there was a vary tiny white dot at the top of my screen, and about half way from the middle of the screen to the end.

I thought it might be a stuck pixel, but it's not always the same tone of white. It seems just to be a bit brighter then what it should be, not entirely white.

I did put a case on that has a built in screen protector, and I noticed this the next day when I took it off.

Do you have any idea what this is, and maybe how to fix it? (I would greatly like to avoid swapping it for a new device). Thank you very much.

I don't know how effective this is first hand, but I hear you can apply pressure to the stuck pixel. I found a guide here:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-fix-a-dead-pixel/


Problems while installing Python 3 on El Capitan I'm using homebrew as my package manager. While installing python3 with brew install python3 I am getting the following error

class RegexFlag(enum.IntFlag):
AttributeError: module 'enum' has no attribute 'IntFlag'

I've tried the steps outlined in homebrew Troubleshooting but the problem still exists. Any pointers would be helpful.

Once you have determined that it's not a homebrew problem using their troubleshooting guide my first suspicion would be that you are picking up the wrong version of the enum module. Make sure you are not setting PYTHONPATH anywhere (echo $PYTHONPATH at the command line will tell you) and try again.

The other possibility I would check is that you are running the right version of Python. which python should return /usr/bin/python (the version Apple installs), if not then you might want to check your PATH shell variable and temporarily set it to something else.


Installing Imagemagick using Homebrew does not give me the imagemagick command Hello I am trying to use homebrew to install Imagemagick and I use the following command:

brew install imagemagick

The installation finishes with no error and I do get the folder: /usr/local/Cellar/imagemagick/.
But the command is not added to my terminal environment and I cannot find the commandline tools binaries. I have the bin folder in the Cellar folder for imagemagick but not the convert and so on binaries.
Am I missing something?

I am running the newest update of macOS Catalina if that is relevant.

There is no imagemagick command. /usr/local/Cellar/imagemagick/ is the Homebrew folder containing the content of the package. To see the names of the installed commands run

$ ls /usr/local/Cellar/imagemagick/*/bin
Magick++-config     compare         display         magick-script
MagickCore-config   composite       identify        mogrify
MagickWand-config   conjure         import          montage
animate             convert         magick          stream


How to tell which Safari tab is consuming the most memory I'm on 10.15.2 Catalina, and my fans have currently been running steady for hours. I opened Activity Monitor, am viewing the CPU tab, and sorting by % CPU. Safari is at 102.6 as I type this.

Activity Monitor used to break down Safari by the open tabs, so you could easily identify the worst offender. Unfortunately in Catalina I just see "Safari".

How else can I determine which tab(s) is/are the main culprit?

From comments…

In Activity Monitor, if you set the View to "All Processes, Hierarchically" then all sub-processes of Safari [or anything] will be contained within the main process, aiding the task of discovery.


Sound turns off when Mountain Lion sleeps When my Mac (running Mountain Lion) goes to sleep, it turns off my apps. For example, I was listening to music with VLC, and when it goes to sleep mode, VLC stops playing. What can I do?

Sleep mode is designed to suspend apps so the system can sleep. (All apps and most of the OS stop executing and some hardware is turned off to save battery.)

There is no fix for this other than setting your system to not sleep. You can do this permanently in the Energy Saver preference pane or temporarily by using an app like Jiggler or a command-line utility like caffeinate.


Can I make a directory on OS X appear as a volume so I can backup using Super Duper? I use Lightroom and keep my library on an external hard drive. After I quit Lightroom I use SuperDuper! to back up that external hard drive to an identical external hard drive.

I also have two Transporters, one on-site and another off-site. I would like to backup to the on-site Transporter. The Transporter Library shows up as a folder. I would like to create a sub-folder and then use SuperDuper! to backup to that folder.

However SuperDuper only allows you to backup to a mounted volume.

Is there a way on OS X to make a directory appear as a volume so it would appear in the to: drop down of SuperDuper! or would the recommended way to be backup to a Sparse Bundle Disk Image located in the Transporter folder?

If you can share arbitrary folders on your Transporter you can then mount that folder across the network and SuperDuper will see it as a volume.

Failing that you may just want to create a disk image in that folder and have SuperDuper back up to that. That is how I do it with an external drive on a Mac that is always on. Several Macs back up to that drive, each to their own disk image via SuperDuper


MacBook Pro 2015 really slow since macOS Sierra / High Sierra [With maybe a start for an answer] Since macOS Sierra or High Sierra, macOS has become really, really slow.
Reinstalling El Capitan (even today) solves the issue.
GNU/Linux and Windows are also much faster, more like El Capitan was.

By slower, I mean twice (or more) the time to build a simple C project (from 5-6 seconds to 15 seconds), the whole system is really sluggish, I really think that it is a macOS issue.

For information, I tested mainly with gcc-9 and clang-10 with my school projects.
I also used tcc 0.9.27, built from source, with a dummy make+C project, see below.

I have already tried to reinstall macOS.

I am not sure about what to do, have anybody ecountered this ?

I need macOS for the iOS/tvOS toolchain, therefore I cannot switch.
Switching to a GNU/Linux distro would be nice if I could.

If anybody needs more specific data, do not hesitate.
Many thanks for your help !

Edit: I tried to replace a kext and got significant improvements, see below.

Things I tested always on the same computer with this dummy repo edrflt/build_speed :

tcc 0.9.27, built from source make -j5

Ubuntu 20.04 (fast)               0,94s user 0,53s system 342% cpu 0,428 total

Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10 (fast)    1,84s user 1,05s system 284% cpu 1,016 total

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 (fast)  3,04s user 1,18s system 316% cpu 1,332 total

macOS Sierra 10.12                4,70s user 2,64s system 265% cpu 2,769 total

macOS High Sierra 10.13           6,03s user 2,79s system 257% cpu 3,428 total

macOS Mojave 10.14 (slow)         8,30s user 3,09s system 231% cpu 4,912 total

macOS Catalina 10.15 (slow)       6,01s user 3,35s system 193% cpu 4,827 total

Build time is multiplied by almost 5 vs Ubuntu 20.04 which takes less than one second.

gcc-9

Ubuntu 20.04 - gcc 9.3.0 from apt

make -j5  10,15s user 4,69s system 361% cpu 4,111 total
make -j5  10,13s user 4,74s system 357% cpu 4,162 total
make -j5  10,27s user 4,54s system 359% cpu 4,119 total

macOS Catalina 10.15 - gcc 9.3.0 from brew

make -j5  13,95s user 10,55s system 298% cpu 8,204 total
make -j5  16,91s user 12,81s system 252% cpu 11,752 total
make -j5  14,05s user 10,81s system 295% cpu 8,412 total

Kext replacement - significant improvements

After some investigations, I found that IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext could be the culprit (or one of them).
I replaced the kext in my setup of Catalina with the one from El Capitan, ran the same tests, got these results (with tcc) :

make -j5   5.75s user 2.21s system 278% cpu 2.862 total
make -j5   5.78s user 2.13s system 278% cpu 2.837 total
make -j5   5.74s user 2.13s system 277% cpu 2.836 total
make -j5   5.74s user 2.14s system 288% cpu 2.736 total

What I understand here is that I got performances around the one I could get with Sierra. I am not really sure about the reasons.
I could see that Mac-E43C1C25D4880AD6.plist from X86PlatformPlugin.kext inside IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext changed (this file is related to my Mac model) but I'm unsure about this one.
I also saw that the binary X86PlatformPlugin changed but I did not any further investigation on it.
I will share any additional data I can find.

Notes :

My MacBook Pro is this one :
MacBook Pro (Retina 13, early 2015) - MacBookPro12,1
i5 5257U - 8GB

I am totally open to any tests, any suggestion.
I know I don't know enough about low level OS components and compilers, therefore if you have the time, explain me like I'm five.
I will take any time that would be needed.
This is not at all about macOS is better, GNU/Linux is better ... no no, this is about "I want my computer to get his speed back".

I have exactly the same issue than you:
First, I noticed that the entire system was being slower an slower after every upgrade. It could be because of the new improvements or the patched Meltdown and Spectre.

But, then I did my own research:
I installed GNU/Linux, and saw the same improvements as you: more responsive system, faster compilation. But, okay, GNU/Linux is known to be faster, but it's not normal to have such a big difference. And these are also patched for meltdown and Spectre.

Next step, installing El Capitan:
I remembered how macOS was faster in the past, so I decided to give it a try and install El Capitan on my Macbook, And yes, EVERYTHING was faster (and you need to play around to get it installed because apple has probably "forgotten to renew the certificates").

Now that I'm sure that there is a thing:
I talked about it to see if I'm the only one experiencing the issue.
I have a friend with the same Macbook as me. So we set up a Genius bar meeting. We went to an Apple store, showed them the facts, one Macbook on El Capitan, the other one on Sierra (yes it's a long time ago)
They saw we were right, and the Genius said: "I'm sorry, I see there is a problem, but I can do nothing for you, maybe try sending a Feedback"
We went out with no hope. But we sent a feedback, which was ignored by Apple.

The last thing, is more of a rumor, but I'm taking it into consideration because it explains why:
I spoke about my Macbook problem to my colleagues. And one of them, knew there is a issue on these Macbooks, so I asked him more details, he has a friend working as a developer for Apple, they are totally aware of the issue with those Macbooks, but the instructions are clear: "Don,'t talk about it, forget it"
Technical details:
It's apparently a kext issue with the SMC (or the power supply controller?), they used a cheap controller. This controller's job is to provide sufficient amount of power to the CPU (It's like a feature for improving turbo boost I think)
And his work is not done properly which is why we are experiencing these issues.
The controller is disabled on other operating systems because they don't have the kext. That's why we only have the issue on macOS
That's a pretty convincing reason: they blew the driver and don't want to repair their own mistake, so we have to buy a new one pretending our laptop is old. But there are only 5 generation of Intel processors between this Mac, and today. And we all know how minimal the improvements are.

If anyone has an idea that could make Apple/(more) people hear us, or find more proofs that Apple is duping us, please let us know


Migrate speech profile I've been speaking into my Mac for the last couple of years.

I'm starting a fresh OSX.

If I understand correctly, the speech recognition improves over time.

Is it possible to migrate my old profile, so it doesn't have to learn from scratch?

Assuming - and that's a big if - that your speech profile is user specific you could still try migrating but only migrating your home folder (e.g. via Time Machine or from Mac to Mac) instead of the full system.


How can I reclaim the partition's space from this shrunk volume? I've already reverted the CoreStorage volume. And I've resized my "Macintosh HD" volume (by dragging it) and want to increase the size of my "Yosemite" volume.

How do I reclaim the space (in grey) from the first partition.

This cannot be done in Disk Utility, or even while running the OS in the active partition.

I normally backup the partition to an external HD, then restore to the Mac.
This is easier if you have another OS, but you should be able to do it from the Recovery mode.

Another option is to remove the HD, and do it on another Mac.

There may be 3rd party utilities which can move partition, but none I have used let you move the active partition.


Has anyone had success uploading a video or photo to Google Plus from iOS? I'm looking for any way to post media to google plus using only an iOS device. I am able to get still photos into my linked picasa account, but fail at getting it posted to a circle (or the public) in google plus.

Still Pictures embedded into the stream is a must have.
Bonus points if I can control more than one or have a fancy album like posterous handles multiple pictures.
Video upload would be nice.
Sound or a combination of all three would be just way too cool.

It's fair game to ask me to sign up for any other sharing service and link accounts (even if I have to use a computer for the setup). Paid apps are fine. Web apps are fine.

I'm not looking for pretty - just something that when posted, will show a thumbnail and look almost like I added the media from the desktop version of google plus.

Thanks!

No, but the app from the store is out and will let you embed media better than the web app can.


Cannot install MacVim 7.4 on OS X Maverick 10.9.4? I have brew installed (v 0.9.5) along with Xcode (Version 5.1.1 (5B1008)). When I attempt to install MacVim like so I encounter the following error message:

$ brew install macvim
==> Downloading https://github.com/b4winckler/macvim/archive/snapshot-73.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/macvim-7.4-73.tar.gz
==> ./configure --with-features=huge --enable-multibyte --with-macarchs=x86_64 -
==> make
make[1]: *** [objects/os_mac_conv.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
1 error generated.
make[1]: *** [objects/os_macosx.o] Error 1
make: *** [first] Error 2

READ THIS: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/wiki/troubleshooting

These open issues may also help:
macvim failed to build on 10.9 because of x11 (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/30253)

How can I resolve this issue?

NOTE: Much of what I've found seems to state that I need to install some command line component to Xcode but I wasn't able to figure out what this actually entailed.

I solved this issue thanks to the following tip I found as to how to install Xcode from the MacPorts page.

excerpt

  2.1.1. Install Xcode on OS X 10.9 or later

  Download the latest version of Xcode from the Apple developer
  website or get it using the Mac App Store.
       Once you have Xcode installed, open a terminal, run xcode-select --install, and click the Install button to install the required command line developer tools. Don't worry if you see a message telling
  you the software cannot be installed because it is not currently
  available from the Software Update Server. This usually means you
  already have the latest version installed. You can also get the
  command line tools from the Apple developer website.

The key piece of information was to run this command:

$ xcode-select --install

After installing the command line tools you should be able to successfully install macvim using brew.

$ brew install macvim
==> Downloading https://github.com/b4winckler/macvim/archive/snapshot-73.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/macvim-7.4-73.tar.gz
==> ./configure --with-features=huge --enable-multibyte --with-macarchs=x86_64 -
==> make
==> Caveats
.app bundles were installed.
Run `brew linkapps` to symlink these to /Applications.
==> Summary
  /usr/local/Cellar/macvim/7.4-73: 1810 files, 28M, built in 30 seconds

$ brew linkapps
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/macvim/7.4-73/MacVim.app
Finished linking. Find the links under /Applications.


How do I set up a VPN on a DMZ'd iMac? I have an iMac set up as my server machine. On the network, it is in the DMZ. The rest of the computers in the network use an internal 10.0.0.x IP.

I have OS X Server's VPN set to give clients IPs in the internal network, and it seems to give the client the IP (connecting on my iPad and checking the connection status shows this), but I can't access anything on the local network or internet while connected. On a Windows 7 client, I get a "No Internet acccess" or "No network access" error.

I should also note that when I select IPs to give to clients in the VPN settings pane of Server, a slide-down dialog notifies me that there is an "Unknown Network In Range". I have the range set to 10.0.0.120 to 10.0.0.130.

EDIT: I should clarify why I have the machine DMZ'd. I have done this because Server wouldn't allow me to set up Open Directory without the host/domain name I had set linking to the iMac's IP, and because my router's port forwarding is rather awful. I should also note that I have enabled the firewall to keep things safe.

You have an iMac setup as a server, and it is DMZ'd?  Probably a very bad idea.  VPN provides protection.  With it in DMZ mode, all you need is Apple Remote Desktop and it's much faster.  Albeit, much less protected.

I'd UN DMZ that machine, and setup a proper VPN.


Can I use a USB to HDMI converter to set up 2 external monitors on my 2015 Macbook Air? Can the Macbook Air (2015 model) power a second external monitor via it's USB port (using a USB to HDMI cable)? I would also need to connect an external keyboard and mouse, so I plan on getting a USB hub to extend the second USB port on my Air. Will this setup work? I remember reading an article which said that the MBA can power only 1 external monitor. Is there any truth to this?

The MBA GPU may be limited to a single external monitor, but the USB to HDMI requires a driver installed on the MBA and that video/image is not using the GPU, it's using the CPU. So the limit is bypassed. Now it might be more complicated than this, but I think is this the basic premise. Be aware that for fast moving videos or games the USB connected display may disappoint. Also if the MBA is running near 100% CPU usage and then you add this USB display it may also disappoint.
If you looked to add more screen for email, YouTube it's likely to be fine.  The hub might be more of an issue, if the cable is USB 3 make sure the hubs too


Correctly removing the default Python installation I intend to replace the default Python installation with the one from Homebrew. Below is a list of steps that I want to take, but I first want to make sure that I'm not doing anything destructive, which is why I'm posting this question. :-)

The Python.framework folder is located in /System/Library/Frameworks. Is it okay to remove it? Being under System I worry that I might break something.
Remove all Python related files from /usr/bin. In my case (and probably everyone else's), I'll be removing everything given by ls -l /usr/bin | grep python:

python
python-config
python2.6
python2.6-config
python2.7
python2.7-config
pythonw
pythonw2.6
pythonw2.7

In my case I also have pip installed. The only reference to pip I found is in /usr/local/bin. To also uninstall pip I'll delete the files given by ls -l /usr/local/bin | grep pip:

pip
pip2
pip2.7

Is there anything else that I should be doing to do a complete and correct uninstall? Are there any dangers that I should be aware of?

What you're doing is destructive. Each apple update can and will either break or re-introduce parts or all of the python files to are about to delete.

Why don't you simply change your path so that the homebrew version of the tool is used?

The danger of hacking the core OS is that it's tightly bound into receipts and software update by Apple and you risk compromising the stability of the system when you're modifying it. Generally the skill level needed to augment the path is far, far less than that needed to continually manage and troubleshoot a custom OS where you've removed components from outside /Applications .

You can delete the pip files from /usr/local/bin since they are not Apple or system installed and you can re-download them or re-install them with brew once you pick your version of choice there.


iChat can't authenticate to Lion Server 10.7.2 I've enabled iChat and iCal Server through our local 10.7.2 Server which has DNS set up correctly. I can add the server account via a client's System Preferences (under other - Mac OS X server) and it authenticates with my shortname correctly.

However, when I load iChat, I get this error message:

Where the account is myusername@servername.ourdomain.co.nz.
The password and username is correct.

Console throws this error:

  22/11/11 3:03:31.135 PM imagent: [Warning] XMPPConnection: Error: Error Domain=XMPPErrorDomain Code=105 "The operation couldn�t be completed. (XMPPErrorDomain error 105.)" UserInfo=0x7f81bbe2a3e0 {XMPPErrorText=service requested for unknown domain}

DNS is set up correctly (it's working for Profile Management, Software Update Server and Web Services) but I can't get iChat to work correctly.

How can I get clients to authenticate?

FYI: It's probably worth noting that I get the exact same error messages when I use username@domain.co.nz instead of username@servername.domain.co.nz.

Also posted this question on Apple Discussion here.

This question was answered on Apple Discussions. In short, the server was misconfigured to have the Jabber Domain set to the local DNS name - rather than a FQDN.

The problem was fixed by issuing the following terminal command:

  sudo serveradmin settings jabber jabber:hosts:_array_index:0 = "servername.domain.co.nz"

You can check this discussion for full details. Thankyou sfatula on Apple Discussions for the solution!


What is the best way to set up a shared calendar in iCal? I am looking to have a shared calendar which my partner and I can access.  I have a MobileMe account and my partner has a Google account.  We both have Macs, I have an iPhone and she has a Blackberry.

I am looking for a solution where we can create a calendar that we both have access to from iCal (and maybe iPhone / Blackberry if possible) and that we can both edit.

So far however, I have not managed to get anything to work.  The logical solution seemed to be to create a Google Calendar on my partner's account and subscribe to it on my MobileMe account but I cant get any changes I make to be pushed back to the Google calendar.

Make a Google Calendar, and sync it to iCal.
Directions are in this Google article.


How do I add attachments in iPad Mail? My friend has an iPad 2 and we can't seem to find a way to attach photos to emails using the standard Mail software the device comes with.

What are we missing?

It doesn't work this way.

You can add images by

going to the Photos app,
selecting the pictures you want to add
(I believe it's a button on the upper right of the screen to switch to selection mode),
and tap on Copy, once you selected them,
then you can go back to your mail, tap where you want to add them
and select Paste


Apple said we can use iMovie to make App Previews, but I can't export the correct size using iMovie I'm trying to create an App Preview for an iPhone app.

I recorded a screen capture of the app in the native resolution of the phone.

Then I imported the video in iMovie and used iMovie to add transitions and text, and to arrange the clips.

According to Apple, App Previews should be 640x1136 for the iPhone 5 portrait size, but the export menu doesn't support this size or any custom sizes.

Apple said we could use iMovie, but this doesn't seem to work. How can I change the export size?

Make sure you go to File->New App Preview (available on iMovie 10.0.6 on Yosemite).


Can I use an Apple Homepod as a speaker and microphone for WebEx, Skype voice, etc? I spend a lot of time using my Macbook Pro with work-related web conferences. My ideal setup would be a high quality speaker and microphone that I can use via bluetooth/airplay/wifi with my Macbook for the audio portion of these web conferences. Added ++ if there's a physical mute button.

Can the Homepod function in this way?

Unfortunately no. It is not possible to use the HomePod's built-in microphone for recording audio to a Mac. You cannot Bluetooth pair the HomePod to a Mac in order to use it as a combined speaker/microphone either.

Other products exists that does what you're looking for. For example I'm using the Logitech Group speaker/microphone combination for web conferences. However, it is quite a different product from the HomePod.


How do I launch Bonjour? I'm a complete Apple newbie - just bought my first mbp two days ago.

I'm trying to connect to my WD my book live NAS (working fine under my existing Linux set-up). The set-up instructions from WD tell me to launch Bonjour from Safari - but I can't find any reference to Bonjour in Safari - or any where else, for that matter!

You have to include it yourself. In Safari go to 'Preferences' > 'Advanced' and select "Include Bonjour" where you wish to - either in Bookmarks or in your Favorites bar.


Does homebrew store tar.gz after package installation is complete? If so, where? If not, where does it downloads it for the time of installation?

I interrupted a package installation (brew install) and then restarted it. Do I have two tar.gz archives now? I thought, maybe, second download created a copy? I'd like to check if I have it somewhere.

Yes! The latest version of homebrew stores the artifacts used to install the packages in /Library/Caches/Homebrew:

> ls /Library/Caches/Homebrew
Casks                                                 gnutls-3.3.15.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  libusb-1.0.19.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz                ppl011-0.11_1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
Formula                                               gpg-agent-2.0.27.yosemite.bottle.2.tar.gz             libusb-compat-0.1.5.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz          protoc-square-2.6.1.square.1.2.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
brew-cask--git                                        isl-0.14.1.yosemite.bottle.3.tar.gz                   maven-3.3.3.tar.gz                                    pth-2.0.7.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz
cloog-0.18.3.tar.gz                                   isl011-0.11.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  mpfr-3.1.2-p11.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                 qemu-2.3.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
cloog018-0.18.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                libassuan-2.2.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                nasm-2.11.08.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   sqlite-3.8.10.2.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
colordiff-1.0.13.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz               libgcrypt-1.6.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                nettle-2.7.1.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz                 um-1.8.6.tar.gz
dirmngr-1.1.1_1.yosemite.bottle.2.tar.gz              libgpg-error-1.19.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz              p2-0.0.5.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                     vim-7.4.712.tar.gz
gcc-5.1.0.yosemite.bottle.2.tar.gz                    libksba-1.3.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  packer-0.7.5.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   virtualbox-4.3.26-98988.dmg.incomplete
glib-2.44.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                    libmpc-1.0.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   pcre-8.37.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                      virtualbox-4.3.28-100309.dmg
gmp-6.0.0a.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                     libpng-1.6.17.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  pinentry-0.9.4.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
gnupg2-2.0.28.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  libtasn1-4.5.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   pixman-0.32.6.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz

If you interrupted an installation homebrew will resume downloading the artifacts if they don't match the SHA values specified in the recipe for the package. If they SHAs match, it won't redownload them. You won't ever end up with two copies of the same artifact on disk. If it needs to re-download, it'll delete the existing artifact first.


Is iTunes uploading my music to the "cloud"? I notice that in my iTunes there is a blue cloud icon next to some of my music, for example:

Does this mean Apple is uploading my personal music to "the cloud"? (Normally I load music only via CD-ROMs that I have bought). If so, how can I stop it from doing that?

No, it means that song is available for download from the "cloud" to your local drive: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203564


Disable Spotlight Index on 10.8 on Specific Volumes To switch off indexing in Terminal I use:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

This disables it with the -a switch across all volumes and the -i off part turns "off" the indexing.

If connected to my iMac is the following volumes:

/Volumes
  /MacintoshHD
  /BOOTCAMP
  /NAS6TB

How do I specifically turn off the indexing service only for /BOOTCAMP and /NAS6TB? I tried following the instructions in the man page, but they weren't very clear.

From terminal type:

sudo mdutil -i off [mountpoint]

If you need to remove the index cache of a network drive that has been stored locally, then use the -p flag. Likewise, to remove the local cache of a locally attached volume, use the -E flag.

If you want to delete from /BOOTCAMP then you would use:

sudo mdutil -Ei off "/Volumes/BOOTCAMP"

NOTE: Quotations around the mountpoint of the volume are unnecessary if there are no spaces in the volume name or mountpoint. Otherwise you would need to use an escape character \ before each space.

e.g. sudo mdtuil -Ei off /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD for "Macintosh HD"


Ipad Air totally unresponsive I was just using it and I let the screen go off and now it will  not do anything. I tried plugging it into a computer. It won't turn on or off. The battery was not low.

Typically, you still follow the traditional steps which does let you charge it for at least 30 minutes just to be sure the battery indication wasn't stuck at an incorrect reading:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3274

If none of the steps there work, you'll need to take it in for hardware service or a replacement.


If Thunderbolt is a successor to DisplayPort, why can't it support DisplayPort multi-streaming? As a disclaimer: Yes, I know Thunderbolt (2) is multi-stream capable of up to 6 devices in a single chain. Yes, I know you can add a single DP monitor at the end of a Thunderbolt daisy-chain as an extended desktop. That said...

What prevents Thunderbolt from supporting DP 1.2a (mst)? I understand that the primary difference is Thunderbolt provides power along with its data connection. However, looking at articles like Wikipedia it makes it sound as though it shouldn't have any issue allowing a DisplayPort-only daisy-chain.

For example, currently you could create such chains via Thunderbolt:

Mac --TB(2)--> TB Display --TB(2)--> External RAID --mDP 1.2a--> DP monitor

Mac --TB(2) #1--> TB Display --mDP 1.2a--> DP Monitor
 \----TB(2) #2--> TB Display --mDP 1.2a--> DP Monitor

Mac --mDP 1.2a--> DP Monitor

But you can't do this:

Mac --mDP 1.2a mst--> DisplayPort Monitor --mDP 1.2a mst--> DisplayPort Monitor

through a Thunderbolt port and configure them both as extended desktops (the second monitor will mirror the first one).

You should be able to and it may be a limitation of the system you are on or any intermediary devices.

Here's my setup:  Dell Precision M3800 with nvidia Quadro K1100m graphics.  Connected out of the Thunderbolt port (by a mDisplay port cable) to a Dell U3014 monitor which is connected to another U3014 (by a full size Display port cable).  I had to enable DP1.2 on the monitor in the settings for it to work.

I'm looking to see if I can use the Elgato Thunderbolt 2 Dock in between my laptop and the first display to utilize Network, USB, etc... in addition to dual displays.


Start docker in background at boot I would like to autostart a docker container in the background at boot. I do not want it to start at login, but at boot (to serve a HTTP interface to all my colleagues on the LAN) before/without anyone logging in. I have tried to start the Docker App using a file in /Library/LaunchDaemons, but it seems like the Docker App requires the user to be logged in first.

When googling, I get a lot of solutions for old VirtualBox style Docker, but I would prefer to use the official (xhyve) docker.

Running MacOS 10.12.1. Docker installed by just downloading the Docker App dmg from Stable channel.

*    Under construction

Docker for Mac is launched sandboxed (or not, if disabled in the Docker prefs) while logging in by a LogInItem in the application bundle probably using this HelperApp method.

This is the reason why neither a launch agent nor a login item (in System Preferences > User & Groups > $USER > Login Item) is available.

Probably it's very costly to impossible to launch a user owned sandboxed container & webserver image to serve the wanted HTTP interface.

Maybe it's possible by using a classical method and installing xhyve & docker-machine-driver-xhyve with homebrew instead of a VirtualBox solution and linking the boot/user Docker environment and the user Docker environment.


Rearrange keycaps on '09 MBP? I'm kinda interested in using the Dvorak layout (if nothing else, people won't want to steal my machine as much), but it drives me insane that tapping a key types a different character than is written on the key. Is there a way to remove & rearrange the keycaps on an 09 MacBook Pro? What do I need to watch out for?

Rather than explaining it myself through text and possibly sounding confusing, I'll just link this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh88cn_rtLo

I've popped off keys before in the same way he did, and it works just fine. Obviously for rearranging your keys in a Dvorak layout, you'll want to pull up a reference image on screen of what a Dvorak keyboard looks like, in case you haven't memorized it. And then just pop all the keys off, put the mechanism parts that go under the keys back on, and then put the actual keys on in the proper arrangement.

And it sounds like you've already switched your system input layout to Dvorak, but in case you haven't, it's really simple. Just go into System Preferences, then to Language & Text, then the Input Sources tab, and check Dvorak. Then check "Show Input menu in menu bar" and in the menubar you should see a new icon, and it should be the flag of your country keyboard layout if you haven't changed it before. Click that and you should be able to select Dvorak.


How to identify each of the fans inside my iMac 2010 First of all thanks for the great job you make here. You´ve helped me a lot of times with success.
I´d like to identify each of the 3 fans inside my iMac. I run iStats gem and I can see three fans but wich one is the HDD fan, the ODD fan and the CPU fan? Below you can see the result:

--- CPU Stats ---
**CPU temp:               0.0°C**       ▁▂▃▅▆▇

--- Fan Stats ---
Total fans in system:   3
Fan 0 speed:            998 RPM     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Fan 1 speed:            1099 RPM    ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Fan 2 speed:            1198 RPM    ▁▂▃▅▆▇

--- Battery Stats ---
No battery on system

Additionally you can see the CPU temperature is 0. Why?

If I run iStats scan I can see too many unknown sensors and a extrange HDD temperature. Below the results:

Tm0p Misc (clock chip) Proximity: 50.94°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Tm0P Unknown:           50.94°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Tm1p Unknown:           55.25°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Tm1P Unknown:           55.25°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Tp1P Unknown:           54.38°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Tp2H Unknown:           61.38°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Tp3H Unknown:           55.75°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TA0p Ambient temperature: 25.88°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TA0P Ambient temperature: 25.36°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TA0V Unknown:           25.25°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TC0C CPU 0 Core:        57.77°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TC0H CPU 0 Heatsink:    50.38°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TC1C Core 1:            59.0°C      ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TG0p Unknown:           57.0°C      ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TG0D GPU 0 Die:         57.75°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TG0H GPU 0 Heatsink:    56.0°C      ▁▂▃▅▆▇
**TH0O Unknown:           1.0°C**       ▁▂▃▅▆▇
**TH1O Unknown:           1.0°C**       ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TLAV Unknown:           44.16°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TLBV Unknown:           40.94°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TLCV Unknown:           42.05°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TL0p Unknown:           50.94°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TL0P LCD Proximity:     39.08°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TL0V Unknown:           42.05°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TL1V Unknown:           38.92°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TL2V Unknown:           44.16°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TMCD Unknown:           60.0°C      ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TO0p Unknown:           43.31°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TO0P Optical Drive Proximity: 42.31°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TPCD Platform Controller Hub Die: 59.0°C      ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TS0V Unknown:           40.05°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TS2p Unknown:           42.63°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TS2P Unknown:           42.63°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇
TS2V Unknown:           40.34°C     ▁▂▃▅▆▇

Could you give some light?

Gracias!

There is a free app called Temperature Gauge which may help you.  This app will identify each fan.  This app runs in the menu bar. So after starting you should see a new icon in menu bar.


Numbers: How can I display negative values in a column chart? I am using Numbers '09 v2.1 (436) and I have a table having positive and some negative values. When in my project I add a column chart mapping properly data from that table it displays a chart without negative values. That is, "negative columns" aren't displayed in the chart, only "positive columns" are.

How can I display those negative values? Is it possible?

I tested this in Numbers '09 2.3 (554), and it worked for me without doing anything particularly special: see below.  Have I understood correctly?


Disable Photos auto-import when connecting memory card I use Lightroom and external CF card reader on a MacBook with 10.11.6. Every time I connect a memory card the Photos import dialog pops up, which is quite annoying since its starts reading from the memory card and often locks up.

How do I disable it globally?

You can disable the auto pop box in iPhotos , In the preference you can turn it off the auto import option. Link


How can I know if RAM is compatible with my iMac? I want to buy a new iMac:
Link

And I need to upgrade the RAM. How do I know wich RAM is compatible with the iMac, for example:
This RAM

I've used Crucial website for all my Mac upgrades and never had a problem.

You can specify which model you want to upgrade and it will give you all the available (safe) upgrades.

In this case: Link

Alternatively you can navigate to the Apple logo on the upper left side of your mac and select About this Mac. Then select the Memory tab and check the specifications for the RAM modules.


Updating SSD firmware in old Macbooks I'm upgrading the HDD in a MacBook7,1 (the white 13" unibody one) to a SSD.

I read somewhere that it's important to be able to update SSD firmware, but that some SSD makers don't offer update software that runs on Mac OS.

What's the story with this? Is operating system support for firmware updates an actual problem, and if so how can I tell which SSDs are Mac-friendly?

If you have a CD drive, you can update the firmware of Samsung's Sold State Drives (SSD). Samsung provide bootable disk images to update an SSD drive installed within a Mac:

  Samsung SSD Firmware Updates for Mac Users

  Below you will find the latest firmware downloads for recent Samsung-branded SSDs.
  ISO files may be used only via DOS using a bootable CD/DVD.

  … 840 EVO, 840 PRO, 840, 830 Series, and 470 Series …

The process is not friendly but it works. The disk image needs to be burnt to a CD, then you boot your Mac from the disc. The updating process takes seconds and is not complex.

The disc contains a cut down edition of Linux. The result is a text based interface:

I recently applied the 840 EVO update and while my update was not destructive, you must back-up first. The update process explicitly warns that it could wipe the drive.


No prompt for ssh passphrase I have two ssh keys, one for git (gitlab) and one for a server.
My ~/.ssh/config is :

Host private
  HostName x.x.x.x
  User username
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/server

Host git.example.com
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab

However when I try ssh username@x.x.x.x or git commands I just have a message Permission denied (public key). I have to do ssh-add ~/.ssh/server and ssh-add ~/.ssh/git in order to use the keys.

How can I have a prompt to enter the passphrase the first time the key is used instead of using ssh-add ?
Ideally I'd prefer to have to enter my passphrase after every reboot instead of having the passphrase saved.

I am on macOS Mojave 10.14.6 and I use iTerm2 with oh-my-zsh.

EDIT :
After the excellent answer from wisbucky I also tried :

Host private
  HostName x.x.x.x
  User username
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/server
  UseKeychain yes
  AddKeysToAgent yes

Host git.example.com
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab
  UseKeychain yes
  AddKeysToAgent yes

and

Host *
  UseKeychain yes
  AddKeysToAgent yes

for the ~/.ssh/config file but without results...

In the ~/.ssh/config, add these lines:

Host *
    UseKeychain yes
    # automatically add keys to keychain
    AddKeysToAgent yes

UseKeychain yes will use any saved ssh keys in the Mac Keychain.

AddKeysToAgent yes will automatically save ssh keys in the Mac Keychain after the first time you enter the passphrase. If you don't add this, you can use ssh-add -K to manually add keys to the keychain also.

Note: These options were added since macOS 10.12.2

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2449/_index.html


Can I charge 2006 or 2007 MacBook with a charger for iPad or iPhone 5? Can I charge 2006 or 2007 MacBook with a charger for iPad or iPhone 5?
Sounds little bit crazy but wouldn't be great if you could use one charger for any Apple device? ;o))))))

Nope. The iDevice charger has a very limited power output that would be insufficent for running the macbook, let alone charging it.
Going the other way around, however, is a little more doable, an adaptor could be made, but at that point you may as well just plug your iDevice into your macbook's usb port and be done with it.


I can't sync photos from my iPhone 3gs to my mac I can't to sync the photos from the camera roll on my iPhone 3gs to my mac. I have had slight water damage to the phone in the past yet it is still functioning. When I went to see someone about this problem they said it was because of the water damage that it did not work and they would have to fix it but may risk losing data on the phone hence defeating the purpose and being completely counterproductive. When I connect the phone to any windows or mac, it is not recognised by the computer but the charging icon appears on the phone. I have tried all of the options that can be googled but none of them help or are clear enough to make any sense. Could someone write a step-by-step explanation of some options that could fix this problem?

iCloud backup works if you have iOS6.  You must be connected to wifi and plugged into the charger for this to work.
http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/17/getting-ready-for-ios-7-how-to-backup-your-device-setup-ios-7/

iOS 5 should be able to backup / sync via WiFi  Google "How to Set Up Wi-Fi Sync in iOS 5"

If iCloud doesn't work for you... you should be able to save your photos using dropbox:  http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/08/15/back-up-iphone-photos/


How to control UI/Apps from shell? I have a jailbroken ipad (ios v. 7.1.1) and installed ssh, terminal and many admin tools. So far I am able to open/close an app from terminal and so much more... . Now I want to trigger UI events and control Apps(in effect touching a button, swiping, type a keyboard...) from terminal. Is there any (command line) tool that can help me accomplish that? I saw similar question here but it is more than a year old (some tools might have emerged lately).

There's not really an easy method for this. There's no AppleScript implementation for interactions on iOS, unlike OS X, so if you really want this you're probably going to have to make it happen yourself with your own custom app.

Even with your own app, there's no easy way of doing interaction.

  On Cocoa Senior (also known as "the Mac") we have methods like the gargantuan:

mouseEventWithType:location:modifierFlags:timestamp:
  windowNumber:context:eventNumber:clickCount:pressure:

  to generate events.

  Cocoa Junior on the iPhone doesn't have any methods like this, so we must work out how to achieve it ourselves.

This is outside the scope of this site, but see the following site for more information:

http://www.cocoawithlove.com/2008/10/synthesizing-touch-event-on-iphone.html


iPad Air 2 time-lapse maximum length? I'd like to record a two-day long time-lapse video with iPad Air 2.

How long can iPad Air 2 record (charging while recording) time-lapse video in iOS 8.1.2?

I would say until it uses up all its storage. How long it takes to do that would depend on the scene being shot and how long the intervals between taking photos are.


How does the iPhone 7 plus dual camera work? I just bought the iPhone 7 plus and of course the first thing i tried was to take some pictures with the new dual camera.

I was then wondering how the transition between the two cameras works since while zooming it looks as smooth as the standard digital zooming on any other phone.

So i tried to put a finger in front of only one camera to check when the transition occurs. If you put the finger in front of the right camera (watching the screen) you see your finger no matter how much you zoom, if you put your finger in front on the left camera then you will never see the finger.

At this point i thought that maybe the preview was taken only from the right camera and then when you actually take the picture it gets the image from one or the other according to how much you zoom.

But the picture that i took gave the same result that the preview did, finger on the right camera -> you get a black picture, finger on the left camera -> you get the image without the finger, no matter how much you zoom.

How does it work?
Is it an issue with my iPhone or do i just not get something?

Thank you everybody!

EDIT:
I tried both pinching the screen to zoom and using the "1x" button to activate the "2x" zoom, and i got the same result

You're probably just using the digital zoom and never switching cameras. You describe the zoom as "smooth" - this sounds like you're not switching cameras.

To switch between the cameras, press the "1x" circled button and it will show "2x". This is the secondary camera.

You can do digital zoom on either camera afterwards.


Is there a problem with closing the lid of a MacBook Pro when using an external monitor? I am using an external monitor and the only way (that doesn't involve jumping through hoops) to turn off the MacBook Pro monitor is to close the lid.

Does closing the lid causes any problems? I have read the following on another website:

  You can still run a single external monitor if you close the lid of
  your laptop, but that restricts airflow and exposes your display to a
  lot of heat. Not good.

Clamshell Mode

What you are describing when you operate your Mac laptop (Macbook/Pro/Air) is called closed clamshell mode or closed display mode.

In this Apple Support Article:  Use your Mac notebook computer in closed-display mode with an external display it goes into detail on what the requirements are and how your Mac will function depending on the version of OS X you are running.

But basically, you can hook up an external mouse, keyboard and display and use it like a desktop.  As far as what you can do with your Mac, pretty much anything you can do with it open, you can do with it closed

Ventilation

The vents on your Macbook are located in the rear and along the bottom - they are not obstructed when the lid is closed.

How heat gets dissipated is more determinant on where it's placed rather than if it's open or closed...

  Where you use the system may affect fan behavior and heat as well.
  Using the computer on a soft surface like a couch, pillow, bed, or
  your lap can trap heat requiring higher fan activity. Using the
  computer on a hard flat surface like a table or desk allows for
  optimal radiation of heat.

The vents are located along the back, not under the keyboard:

  Mac computers have air vents that allow heated air to exit. The vents
  are in the back of the computer on the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook
  Pro, and Mac Pro computers. iMac (Mid 2012 and later) models vent
  along the bottom edge of the computer. Make sure the vents remain
  unblocked to allow your computer to perform at its best.

There is also no need to continually monitor the temperature of your machine.  The only time you need to do this is if you are having a problem like it's slowing down significantly or shutting down unexpectedly.

  The System Management Controller (SMC) firmware on every Mac
  manages the thermal conditions of the computer regardless of the
  operating system.

Basically, if your Mac gets "too hot" it will automatically shut it down to protect itself.  But before that happens, it will slow everything down to a crawl.

Source:  Apple Support - Learn about the fans in your Mac


Homebrew install from a file I want to save my favourite application in a textfile and then install all of them using homebrew later.

How can I do this ?

This will be a synthesis of three things:

Making a homebrew formula that will dump the Applications you care about into the homebrew location. This will require some ruby knowledge and a short read of the homebrew wiki.
Making a script to copy/shove/move the files from the homebrew location to /Applications or ~/Applications or an alternate destination with administrator permissions
Learning enough about git to grab the tools. You likely won't be able to merge your "formula" with the homebrew repository since it's against their policy to re-distribute software you don't possess the permission (rights) for software code publication.

If you want to do this as a learning exercise, have a great time learning. There are far better tools to package OS X binaries like Package Maker, JAMF's Composer, or Iceberg.

If you were uncertain if homebrew was your best option, I'd start with Iceberg and a tutorial like this to handle the permissions.


Constant prompts for FaceTime Password, iCloud Password and iMessage Password I don't use any of these services. Currently there is a dialog box permanently on the screen prompting for a password. If I press cancel, it's replaced instantly by another dialog box, prompting for a password for one of these services, apparently randomly chosen.

Sometimes, it's the same service several times in a row. Sometimes there is a pause of maybe half a second before the next dialog pops up.

Is this a known issue with Mavericks? It's a 2014 rMBP.

I had same problem on my i-phone 6, so  went into 'Settings' and turned 'Facetime' off!  I don't use Facetime, so it seemed the best way to get rid of the annoying pop up.


FaceTime Front Camera Image Flickers I have an iPhone 4S 32 GB model.  It is not jailbroken, and I do not have any camera-specific apps installed.

Sometimes when I switch between front and rear cameras during a FaceTime session, upon switching back to the front camera the image that I am sending will either be flickering (occasional black frames) or it will be completely black.  This is confirmed both by me as well as the viewer on the other end.  Only by switching between cameras a second time can I get this problem to go away.

Is there a known bug/cause for this problem, or is it something I am doing wrong myself?

Problems like this are most likely in the software of the iPhone. When it happens with a MacBook camera, you can fix it most of the times by dumping the PRAM upon starting your computer (command option P R), but that's not possible on your iPhone of course. You can however try to simply reboot your iPhone, and that might even fix the problem. You reach the off-switch by holding the sleep/wake-button for several seconds.

If that doesn't work, we'll reach the next step for fixing most software-related problems: restoring your iPhone's software (what does not mean that you have to get rid of all your personal data). simply let iTunes run a full backup first, then click the restore-button on you iPhone information screen in iTunes. After restoring you will be asked if you want to put your data back, and the problem will probably be fixed.

If that does not fix your problem you might want to consider taking your iPhone to a Genius Bar (if available in your area) or send it back for repairs (if you are still in your warranty period).


Splitting a thunderbolt connection I have a MacBook air and want to attach a external graphics card but it's already attached to a monitor, so the thunderbolt port is in use so does anyone know of a hub-like device to make my 1 thunderbolt port have 2 plugs. For clarification I want to take the 1 thunderbolt port in my Mac and add a hub (like 100$ or less) so I can instead have 2 thunderbolt ports. (If it's not clear, I want you to submit possible hubs I can buy (off Amazon if possible))

To use an external GPU you need to have the connections in this order Mac > eGPU > Monitor. You should not use a thunderbolt hub, as support will become very limited (whether or not an eGPU can be run off of a hub), and performance will be greatly decreased (graphics need to go from Mac > hub > eGPU > hub > mac > hub > Monitor).


Sudo keeps asking for password, despite that NOPASSWD already set The following sudoers configuration used to work well in MacOS 10.8.5, several days ago I upgraded to Mavericks, NOPASSWD flag does not seem to work anymore:

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
howard  ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

Mavericks' sudo still asks for entering password.

Is there any resolution/workaround?

The group entry %admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL seems to override the user specific entry.
I found moving the user specific entry so that is appears after the group entry fixes this. Maybe sudo parses the entire file and it uses the last matching entry?

Changing your sudoers file to something similar to below should work.

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL
howard  ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL


install windows 10 via bootcamp not on the main drive I did repair my early 2009 mac pro 4.1; and after installing a gtx970 I did realize that I may use it also for windows gaming.

Although my main drive is just a boot for OSX, which is a 90 GB SSD drive; the rest of my home directory and application support is on a SATA mechanical drive. Is possible to install Windows 10 via bootcamp, on a drive that is not the main drive? I am running 10.11 (el capitan), which is the highest OS that my machine seems to be able to run.

EDIT
No, I am not using an external drive, but an internal drive (the Mac Pro has 4 internal SATA bay for drives)

Below is a quote taken from the Boot Camp
Installation & Setup Guide (copyright 2013).

  • If you have a Mac Pro with more than one internal disk and you want to install
  Boot Camp on a disk that isn’t in the first hard drive bay, remove the drives in the lower- numbered bays. You can reinstall the drives after you install Boot Camp.

So, it is possible to install Windows via Boot Camp, on a drive that is not the main drive. The maximum Windows that Apple officially supports is Windows 8.1 (64-Bit). Microsoft says you should be able to upgrade an existing Boot Camp Windows 8.1 installation to Windows 10.

Everything I have posted so far is by the book. However, you are proposing going off script by directly installing Windows 10. Officially, the answer is no, but unofficially the answer probably is yes. If you try, expect to encounter Scarecrows. In other words, expect error messages from Apple as some point during the installation that will say you can not proceed. There is usually are one or more ways to bypass any problems that you will encounter. You can try posting a problem here and see if anyone can suggest a solution.

Here is some advice.

Burn the Windows 10 ISO to a DVD. You may need a DL DVD.
Install a BIOS booting Windows.
Before installing, make sure the Widows Support Software has been copied to a FAT formatted flash drive.
Select the Master Boot Record partitioning scheme when using the Disk Utility to erasing the flash drive.

  BTW, you do not need a license to try Windows 10. You can download and install without a Product Key. If you choose to keep Windows 10, then you will need to purchase a license.

There is always the possibility that Windows 10 is not compatible with your processor. I assume the Windows 10 installer would inform you, if this was the case. I have encountered PCs where I could install 64 bit Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, but not Windows 10. Basically, the processor did not meet the requirements given below. (This was taken from the Microsoft web site: Minimum hardware requirements, Section 3.1 Processor)

Compatible with the x86 or x64 instruction set.
Supports PAE, NX and SSE2.
Supports CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW for 64-bit OS
installation

On the other hand, I came across the Microsoft website: Windows Processor Requirements, which states:

  Intel Xeon processors are supported on Windows 10 Pro for Workstations and Windows 10 Enterprise only

Apparently, you can download and try Windows 10 Enterprise for free. See the Microsoft Evaluation Center website.

If you do not use the Boot Camp Assistant to install Widows, then you should follow the instructions provided by Microsoft. For BIOS booting Windows, the instructions for partitioning can be found at the BIOS/MBR-based hard drive partitions website.

I would recommend placing the System partition on the first (main) drive and then placing the Windows and Recovery partitions on a second internal drive. You could combine the Windows and Recovery partitions, if you wish. This System partition is only appropriately 100 MB in size, so the partition should have minimum impact on the space for macOS.

  Note: The Microsoft instructions do no include the Mac requirement that any drives that share macOS and a BIOS booting Windows must by Hybrid partitioned.


How can I view finder file comments on iOS? Ideally, I'd like to see these comments in the iOS files app.

While it appears that iCloud Drive does actually sync file comments, the Files app unfortunately has no built-in way to read these. Instead, you'll need to use a third-party app to achieve this. The following is a free, fairly straightforward (but limited—see below) approach using Scriptable:

Install Scriptable from the App Store

Launch Scriptable and press the + button in the top right to create a new script

Paste the following:

const file = args.fileURLs[0]
const fm = FileManager.iCloud()
if (!fm.fileExists(file)) {
    QuickLook.present('Invalid file')
    return
}
fm.downloadFileFromiCloud(file)
const comment = fm.readExtendedAttribute(file, 'com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment')
if (comment === null) {
    QuickLook.present('Comment not found or failed to parse.')
    return
}
trailer = comment.slice(comment.length - 32, comment.length)
String.prototype.hexSlice = function (start, end) {
  return parseInt(this.slice(start, end).split('').map(c => ('0' + c.charCodeAt(0).toString(16)).slice(-2)).join(''), 16)
}
offsetTableStart = trailer.hexSlice(24, 32)
offsetTableOffsetSize = trailer.hexSlice(6, 7)
topObjectStart = comment.hexSlice(offsetTableStart, offsetTableStart + offsetTableOffsetSize)
topObjectLength = comment.hexSlice(topObjectStart, topObjectStart + 1) & 0x0F
if (topObjectLength === 0x0F) {
  lengthPower = comment.hexSlice(topObjectStart + 1, topObjectStart + 2) & 0x0F
  charsStart = topObjectStart + 2 + Math.pow(2, lengthPower)
  topObjectLength = comment.hexSlice(topObjectStart + 2, charsStart)
} else {
  charsStart = topObjectStart + 1
}
topObject = comment.slice(charsStart, charsStart + topObjectLength)
QuickLook.present(topObject)

Tap the settings/"toggle switches" icon , tap "Name," and give the script a name (e.g., "File Comments")

Tap "Share Sheet Inputs" and select "File URLs" (then navigate back out by pressing Back > Done)

Now, whenever you want to view the comment for a file in the Files app, you can:

Select the file and hit the Share icon

Choose the "Run Script" action and tap the script you just created (the file comment should appear in an overlay)

Unfortunately, you'll probably find that the script fails for certain comments. This is because Scriptable can't handle certain characters, and unfortunately there's no way to work around this. (The (brief) technical explanation is that Scriptable attempts to read all extended attributes as strings, but since the comment is actually binary data, it seems to stumble on certain bytes. I don't fully understand why it fails when it does—it's not just on Unicode strings—but the whole approach is a bit hacky to begin with.)
An alternative, much more robust approach would be to use Pythonista ($9.99) to directly access the extended attributes and avoid Scriptable's problematic string conversions. Here's a Python script that does what you want (create the script in Pythonista, then press the settings cog and add it under Share Extension Shortcuts):
import appex
import console
import plistlib
import ui

from objc_util import *

def main():
    fp = appex.get_file_path()
    if not fp:
        console.hud_alert('Error: Invalid file', 'error')
        return
    extd_attrs = ObjCClass('NSFileManager').defaultManager().attributesOfItemAtPath_error_(fp, None)['NSFileExtendedAttributes']
    if extd_attrs is None:
        console.hud_alert('No extended attributes found', 'error')
        return
    attr_data = extd_attrs['com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment']
    if attr_data is None:
        console.hud_alert('No comment found', 'error')
        return
    attr_bytes = nsdata_to_bytes(attr_data)
    comment = plistlib.readPlistFromBytes(attr_bytes)
    tv = ui.TextView()
    tv.text = comment
    tv.editable = False
    tv.present()

main()

(Note that os.getxattr is broken in Pythonista, hence the Objective-C workaround.)
For those who are interested, here are some references for the (very, very rough) manual bplist parsing I implemented in JavaScript:

https://medium.com/@karaiskc/understanding-apples-binary-property-list-format-281e6da00dbd
https://github.com/joeferner/node-bplist-parser/blob/master/bplistParser.js


Python Imaging Library (PIL) Decoder jpeg not available — how to fix? I've got error which is generated by PIL when I trying to process jpg-images: Python Imaging Library (PIL) Decoder jpeg not available.

How to fix this problem?

PIL is missing libjpeg library.

To install it:

Go to http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsrc.v8c.tar.gz
Unpack this package and cd to the unpacked folder cd ~/Downloads/jpeg-8c
Compile it:
./configure
make

Then install: sudo make install

But PIL still can't find library. Now you need to reinstall it:

Uninstall pil (if you instlled it with pip, just type sudo pip uninstall pil)
Download PIL, unpack it and move to source folder.
Now open setup.py in your code editor
Replace JPEG_ROOT = None with JPEG_ROOT = libinclude("/usr/local")
Enjoy! Now it works!


Can't a Macbook Pro work properly on integrated GPU only? For a couple of weeks, I've been having kernel panics in my MacBook Pro (Early 2011, Yosemite), mostly doing zoom operations using QuickView and Preview.

A couple of times, it had problems rebooting, until finally it only rebooted to a grey screen.

I installed gfxCardStatus to prevent it to switching to the discrete GPU at any time, and things seemed to go smoothly for a couple of days. But one day it had a kernel panic when waking up from sleep.

Booting in verbose mode showed no indications of what the problem could be, but I suspected it was a video card issue. I've known that this model of MBP had problems with defective AMD Radeon discrete GPUs. I know Apples is repairing eligible machines, but I live in a country where perhaps that wouldn't be possible.

I decided to prevent the laptop from using the AMD GPU and use the integrated intel chip instead, I moved this drivers out of the /System/Library/Extensions/folder:

AMD2400Controller.kext
AMD2600Controller.kext
AMD3800Controller.kext
AMD4600Controller.kext
AMD4800Controller.kext
AMD5000Controller.kext
AMD6000Controller.kext
AMD7000Controller.kext
AMD8000Controller.kext
AMD9000Controller.kext
AMDFramebuffer.kext
AMDRadeonVADriver.bundle
AMDRadeonX3000.kext
AMDRadeonX3000GLDriver.bundle
AMDRadeonX4000.kext
AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle
AMDSupport.kext
ATIRadeonX2000.kext
ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin
ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle

It wouldn't boot up after that either, so I moved this ones also:

GeForce.kext
GeForceGA.plugin
GeForceGLDriver.bundle
GeForceTesla.kext
GeForceTeslaGLDriver.bundle
GeForceTeslaVADriver.bundle
GeForceVADriver.bundle

After that it did boot up, but the screen shows thin horizontal blue stripes all over as well as some other glitches and overall sluggishness.

Detail of stripes (there's some unavoidable Moire pattern in the photo, but the thin blue lines can be appreciated in the darker parts):

I just want my Mac to use the integrated Intel GPU and forget the discrete ADM Radeon card altogether. Other machines, including Apple machines, don't have a discrete GPU, just an integrated one, and they work fine for day-to-day, non-graphic-intensive tasks

My question:

Is possible for this machine to work normally using only the integrated Intel GPU?
If so, how?
Are both my discrete GPU and my integrated GPU damaged?**

Just moving kext files won't disable your discrete graphics card, it will just make it work in a very basic mode.

You can achieve that modifying certain EFI variable. I answered this other question with the full procedure to permanently disable discrete graphics card on startup and have a fully functional machine.


How do I troubleshoot a lockup that occurs when plugging in an external monitor? Since installing Lion, nearly every time I plug my 13" MacBook Air into my 27" Dell display, the Mac locks up.  (The mouse pointer stops moving.)  I can't do anything except shut it down and reboot.

How do I troubleshoot this?

Update: It looks like my DELL U2711 is broken...

I got a kernel panic on my MBA, and since rebooting, each time I plug in the Mini DisplayPort cable the display shows a DisplayPort icon and then goes into power saving mode.  The same thing happens when I try Detect Displays on my MBA.

I tried a different DisplayPort cable (full-size DisplayPort plug on each end) with my DELL laptop running Windows 7, and saw the same problem.  And then same thing happens when I try Detect Displays.

So it appears the problem is with my cable or my MBA, but the display.

Nonetheless, it's still an Apple hardware and/or software bug if my MBA locks up when I connect a defective monitor.  But it's unlikely to be fixed since it's unlikely to be reproduced by an Apple engineer.

Update #2: I got a new DELL U2711 display (which works with my MBA using a the Mini DisplayPort cable).  My MBA is locking up again when I plug the cable in, unless I reboot first and plug in before logging in.

I submitted Problem ID 10259810 on https://bugreport.apple.com/.

Update #3: I just tried connecting the DEL U2711 without rebooting first, now that I'm running OS X 10.7.3: my MBA did not lock up. (They may have fixed it prior to 10.7.3—I haven't tried to reproduce this problem for quite a long time.)

Since the mouse pointer gets frozen, you can be pretty confident that the lockup is happening deep down in the system - kernel extensions, hardware interrupt type things.

Assuming you have a great backup and don't mind futzing a bit (and I'll also assume you haven't extra cables, monitors, macs to just eliminate one thing at a time) you can surely try booting again in Safe Mode.

To boot in Safe Mode, hold the shift key down - it will bypass all non essential kernel extensions and may or may not help you isolate the issue.

It's best to be systematic when troubleshooting - so I'd try that one guess, then be more logical about it.

Why not start with the "bible" on Isolating issues in Mac OS X?

Don't forget you get 90 days of support from Apple - you can hit them up on AppleCare (800-APL-CARE or online - express lane) - they have a standing exception for people that cover software purchases for support - even if your hardware is out of the free software support timeframe.

The wisdom to isolate software before hardware is probably the best call here - even though it's a monitor and clearly buggy. What are the odds that Lion and the hardware failed at the same time? It's possible and you might be able to take your Air to another monitor with your adapter / cable and rule that out.

Good luck, and happy hunting - partner!


Is FCP X 10.1.1 hanging because of older hardware? I'm weighing the value of upgrading my machine because FCP X 10.1.1 is constantly hanging—more than once per 5 minutes—and I'm at a loss what to do. Is this just because I have older (Mid-2010) Xeon processors? Could there be other hardware issues contributing to this?

Choose your own adventure in answering my question:

If I can get more life out of this machine, that would be great. In that case, please share any troubleshooting next steps.
On the other hand, if I'm being unrealistic to try to keep this machine alive, convince me.

My projects are stored on the boot disk, an internal 3rd-party SSD. I'm running a high-powered albeit older machine with the latest version of FCP X and OS X. Hardware specs below.

The issue is sometimes concurrent with this error message from the Console: Final Cut Pro[3457]: * OpenGL error 0x0506 (invalid framebuffer operation) in function "GL_CHECK_CURRENT_ERROR"

I've submitted feedback to Apple's development team.

Detailed system information:

Model Mac Pro Mid 2010
Processor  2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon [8-Core]
Memory  16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics  ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
Software  OS X 10.9.3
Storage Physical Drive:
  Media Name: Crucial_CT480M500SSD1 Media
  Medium Type: SSD
  Protocol: SATA
  Internal: Yes
  Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

I think my hardware is just fine. Upgrading to FCP X 10.1.2 solved the issue for me.

In case it helps the next person, here's Apple's troubleshooting steps for Final Cut Pro x 10.1 and beyond: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3893


Mac Sierra - Batch Convert Pages to Plain Text Trying to batch convert pages to plain text but I keep running into issues with file permissions. (Using Sierra 10.2.3 after upgrading from 10.2.2)

  filename could not be exported. You don't have permission.

Two methods so far:

on run
    tell application "Finder"
        set mfolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:convertme:"
        set theFiles to name of every file of folder mfolder
    end tell
    set theFolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:converted:"
    tell application "Pages"
        activate
        repeat with aFile in theFiles
            open aFile
            set sourceFolder to POSIX path of aFile
            set newsourceFolder to characters 1 thru -8 of sourceFolder as string
            set theFolder to newsourceFolder & ".txt"
            export front document to POSIX file theFolder as unformatted text
            close front document
        end repeat
    end tell
end run

Also tried with Automator: on Ask for Finder Item

function run(input, parameters) {
    inFile  = Path( input );
    outFile = Path( input.toString().replace(/\.[^\.]+$/, '.pdf') );
    pages    = Application('Pages');
    document = pages.open( inFile );
    pages.export(document, {to: outFile, as: 'PDF'});
    pages.close(document, {saving: 'no'});
    return outFile;
}

Permissions on folder set to: everyone read&write

This script works for me, tested on MacOS Sierra and Pages Version 6.0.5

set mfolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:convertme:"
set destFolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:converted:"

tell application "Finder" to set theNames to name of files of folder mfolder

tell application "Pages"
    repeat with aName in theNames
        set theDoc to open ((mfolder & aName) as alias)
        set newFile to destFolder & (text 1 thru -7 of aName) & ".txt" -- concat destFolder and the name without the ".pages" extension
        my makenewFile(newFile)

        export theDoc to file newFile as unformatted text
        close theDoc
    end repeat
end tell

on makenewFile(thePath)
    close access (open for access thePath)
    -- delay 0.5 -- use the delay command, If you still have a permission issue,  increase the number of seconds
end makenewFile


I deleted every mail on my iPhone - but why does Mail still eat up my memory? I deleted every single mail from Mail.app on iOS 8.3 (inbox, sent, trash). However, Mail still occupies 798 MB for "mails and attachments" according to the memory overview. How can I clear this memory?

According to OS X Daily, you can try removing the account from the mail app and adding it again. Source


Thunderbolt -> Triple Monitor Mac Mini? It seems the new Mac Mini uses both HDMI and Thunderbolt, but bandwidth limitations of Thunderbolt may prevent using 3 daisy-chained Thunderbolt high resolution monitors such as the newly released Apple Thunderbolt 27" Display, limiting you to two instead of three.

If this correct:
1. What occurs to the 3rd monitor in a triple daisy-chain? Black screen? Reduced available resolution up to the bandwidth limit of Thunderbolt?
2. Are there HDMI to mini-displayport adapters for connecting the HDMI output of the Mini to the Thunderbolt input of an Apple Thunderbolt 27" Display? Would that even work?

If you get the Mac Mini with the AMD graphics it can support three monitors.

From MacRumors

  Mac mini (Mid 2011): Two Thunderbolt displays. Mac mini with AMD graphics can support a HDMI compatible device on its HDMI port when using two Thunderbolt displays.


Why am I getting a 31 character limit on file saves from Mail all of a sudden? Is this because I installed macOS Sierra from Yosemite a couple of months ago, it's on my B Mac so don't use it so much.

From the screenshot I am assuming you're trying to save an attachment directly from Mail.

If so, there is a known issue that a corrupted Mail index causes this odd 31 character file size limit when saving from Apple Mail. The best way to correct this is to follow Apple's instructions for rebuilding your Spotlight index.

If my assumption is wrong (re the Mail app), let me know and I'll update my answer with broader solutions beyond just the Mail app issue.


iPhone not syncing old iCloud photos Our iPhone doesn't sync with old iCloud photos.  It only syncs the past 5 years or so.  How can you force a full sync?   My devices have a lot of space I believe.

I would check the actual space settings on your phone. iCloud can show how much space might be needed.

Also, I would turn save space option to see if that makes the device more willing to sync down at least all the thumbnails needed.


How to search Google from iPhone Spotlight When I go to search, it says, "Search iPhone" in the box.

How do I change that to search Google?

Also consider the excellent Google Search app.


Hotkey script manager for Mac? I always forget keyboard shortcuts to scripts I write (or sometimes the keyboard shortcuts I use don't work in a certain application). I'm looking for a service that I can remedy this by allowing me to use a certain hotkey, which brings up a window which allows me to write the first part of the name of one of my scripts (say, get_date, which just returns today's date in mm-dd-yy format), and it allows me to then invoke it for the functionality I need. I can't seem to find this, and I'm getting ready to embark on writing my own if I can't find one. Anyone know where to find something that I can use to do this?

Alfred can at least get very close to what you want. You do need the Powerpack license to use workflows in it (~£19).

It is somewhat manual, but to me it doesn't seem too cumbersome...

Give each script two triggers: Keyword trigger and Hotkey trigger and you can then write what the shortcut is in the subtext field of the Keyword trigger (for example). This way every time you use the keyword trigger ...probably because you forgot the shortcut, you still get a reminder of what the shortcut key combo is.

Because the keyword I chose was similar to the Date and time preferences, it shows up too, but Alfred does adjust the order based on use, so after first use, the script would show up above the preferences given that I've never opened date and time preferences through Alfred. You can also exclude files from showing up in Alfred. For example,
 I got a workflow that opens dropbox folder... so I excluded Dropbox.app from Alfred because it is set to open on startup so I have no need to open it through Alfred.

Obviously every time you change the shortcut, you have to edit the subtext too.

If you want to trigger automator workflow from alfred, I believe this is still the best method: link. It's been a while since I looked into it so there is a good chance my info on this is outdated.


How long should my MacBook Pro battery last? I have brand new Macbook Pro (15", i5 2.4GHz, 4Gb RAM) purchased at the end of May 2010 and Apple advertises up to 7 hours of wireless web battery life, however I consistently getting only about 4 hours when I use it normally, i.e. WiFi is turned on and quite a few apps are running, but nothing too resource hungry like games or Photoshop. I tried to figure out if my settings are incorrect or if I'm using some apps that really drain the battery, but can't find any obvious issues, so I wonder what other MBP owners typically get from their batteries? Is 4 hours a typical or I need to replace my battery or do something with my setup? When Apple states up to 8-9 hours, must you turn off all wireless, dim your screen to the minimum and perhaps the only app running be Terminal?

It's likely that you are running something in the background (such as Skype) which is triggering your dedicated graphics card, despite it not actually doing anything graphically intensive. This is a known issue in Apple's graphics card switching technology.

Download and run gfxCardStatus and see if I'm right. If so, close the problematic program or use gfxCardStatus to manually switch to the much lower-powered integrated chip. You should get longer battery life after that; I haven't directly measured it but I know I get at least 30 minutes to an hour of extra life.

And of course it also depends on what you're doing with your computer, what background programs are running, the brightness of your screen, etc.


How to prevent calendar alerts from becoming Drafts (???) in Mail.app? I don't know the rhyme or reason to it yet, but random calendar event notifications in Lion turn into drafts in my Mail.app drafts folder. I usually find these when I wake the machine up after it's been idle for some time.

Why would an alert become a draft in Mail.app at all? It makes no sense.

The calendar items are from a shared Google calendar. The draft is marked "no recipients", and just has the basic info from the calendar entry. The subject is like this:

"Alert - Piano lesson"

and the body is like this:

"September 5, 2012 1:45 PM : Piano lesson"

My wife enters those in HER gmail account calendar but I subscribe to it.

Any ideas?

Calendar invitations are delivered via email, so perhaps Mail app is preparing things for you to "accept, tentative, or decline" the invitations as part of the routine processing of a mail message that gets diverted from the inbox and places in another application (Calendar in this case, or iCal for those on Lion and earlier).

You could also just configure Calendar to not retrieve CalDAV events from Mail in the first place and let mail handle things in the inbox rather than having the system try to process things for you.

  Calendar -> Preferences -> Advanced

Deselect the box next to Automatically retrieve CalDAV invitations from Mail


How can I give an app permanent permission so it doesn't ask for my password every time? I am using an application called Hostbuddy to manage entries in my hosts file. It works great, the only problem is that is asks for my password every time I use it, which adds up to a lot of inconvenience. How can I permanently give Hostbuddy the permission it needs? The two things it asks for the password for are to modify the hosts file and to flush my DNS cache.

PS, I understand the security implications of this, and I trust the app.

I do not think this is the app that requires the password, but the host file itself. The host file is owned by root and requires a password to edit. Hostbuddy is probably just requesting the password in order to modify the file. A way to fix this would be to take ownership of the file (not recommended due to security reasons). Another way would be to run Hostbuddy as administrator (but I believe this requires a password anyway just to start it).

If you for some reason want to take the security risk for convenience you should take ownership of the host file OR run Hostbuddy as administrator.

EDIT: IMPLEMENTATION

In order to achieve this I believe you must set the setuid bit on the application. To do so I suggest making a new user group that only you are in and using that to gain root access to the app. To do this start by opening System Preferences and going to Users and Groups. You are going to want to make a new group by selecting the '+' button at the bottom left of the window. Go ahead and create a new group by the name 'HostBuddy' Without the quotes like so:

Next you need to set yourself as a member of this group like so:

Finally we need to do some work within the terminal. Go ahead and open up Terminal.app and navigate to where HostBuddy is (probably /Applications) like so:

After doing this we set the setuid bit for the application itself under your group name and set permissions with two more commands like this (remember it is cAsE SenSiTIve!):

This should allow you to click and run the app as root without needing a password. Since we added a group to the mix this also means other users on your computer do not have that privilege. They must enter a password each time. Only your particular user (or others in the HostBuddy group) get a password-free experience.


Can the Location Services tell me where my iPhone was this morning? Since my boss requires timesheets, it'd help for me to know exactly what time I got to the office in the morning, since I'm woefully bad at keeping track of this on my own.

I can't seem to find any info on Google (most results involve good morning and otherwise led me this community). Was hoping someone here could shed some light on it for me.

If location services are enabled, your iPhone maintains a log of Significant Locations. You can find them under Settings app → Privacy → Location Services → System Services → Significant Locations. Check for History section. Tapping on History will list the locations recorded by your iPhone.

You also have the option to view and delete the individually recorded location data.

If you are concerned about your privacy, you can also choose to clear the location data any time. This data is sensitive and handled very carefully by Apple. It is not shared with 3rd party apps, is encrypted and cannot be read by Apple.


Why does text appear blurry when zooming in Safari until you release your fingers from the trackpad? This has been bothering me for a while. When you zoom in Safari (Mac) using the pinch gesture, the text is only anti-aliased after finishing the gesture, not in realtime. Why not?

Probably to give a smoother and better user experience while browsing the web. If it did it in real time all systems wouldn't be able to handle it that well.


Why does my friend iphone 6 calls show on my phone My friend and own Iphone 6 and share the same apple id . when he makes a call it gets listed in my list of calls. How can i change this?

The Apple ID is how the iCloud system identifies you. If you share an Apple ID, then iCloud thinks you are using both phones. If you don't want the calls to show, then don't share the Apple ID.

Why are you sharing an Apple ID? Is it to be able to share purchases from iTunes/App Store? If so, you CAN use a different Apple ID for the App store than your Messages, iCloud, backups etc. Simply use the shared Apple ID with the App Store login, but for iCloud, use a personal Apple ID. That way, calls won't show up on your phone, but iTunes/App Store purchases can be shared. Or, use Family Share, as Family share allows you to include personal Apple IDs in a purchasing 'group'.


Strange path environment Is it normal to have all this stuff in my path environment?

  /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/texbin

It seems I have included the same path many times. I have installed and uninstalled Python 3.4 and Python 3.4.1 a few times because I am still having problems in making the IDLE work correctly due to Tcl/Tk libraries compatibility and stability problems with Mac OS X. Is this maybe the reason of having apparently the same path repeated?

The issue is how you have uninstalled python. Deleting the app does remove the code but does not affect anything you have changed elsewhere will not have been undone. In this case the changes to the path have not been undone and as the installer is a simple one it keeps adding the new bit of the path to the existing path.

To fix the path you need to find the file where the PATH environment variable is altered. If you are using the bash shell (the default in recent OSX) then. . ideally it should be ~/.bashrc but probably ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile. See other questions or manuals on what startup file bash uses) Then edit this file so that you have only one Python in it, the lines changing PATH will begin export PATH=

In general things are uninstallable if only you know exactly what they changed in install and what they write to at run time. There is no generic way to do this. The best apps have uninstallers which will do the best. You can stop the app running by deleting the .app bundle and most configuration takes up little disk space so the cost of leaving it is not high. Also most .apps do not need edits in bash files so are more self contained.


How do I get automator to act on multiple folders? I have a number of folders in the following format:

Folder_Name_1
    Converted_Files
        file1.aiff
        file2.aiff
             :
             :
        fileX.aiff
Folder_Name_2
    Converted_Files
        file1.aiff
        file2.aiff
             :
             :
        fileX.aiff
  :
  :
Folder_Name_nnn
    Converted_Files
        file1.aiff
        file2.aiff
             :
             :
        fileX.aiff

I have written a bash script that will move file1.aiff, file2.aiff, etc. up one level into Folder_Name_n and then delete "Converted_Files".

Automator will only act on one Folder_Name_n at a time.

What I want to do is have automator act on Folder_Name_1, then Folder_Name_2, all the way up to Folder_Name_n.

Here is my automator script:

Here's the bash script as text:

cd "$1"
cd Converted_Files
mv *.aiff ..
rm .DS_Store
cd ..
rm -r Converted_Files

Thanks.

As you were not too clear on the type of Automator workflow you've created, I'm going to focus primarily on the code you're using in the Run Shell Script action.

The following example Automator workflow was created by File > New > Workflow in Automator with a Get Selected Finder Items action and a Run Shell Script action added to it, with the settings as shown in the image farther below.

Testing was done with a selection containing both files and folders which included both the real targets of the Automator workflow's Run Shell Script action, and others as if accidentally selected if you will. With the following files and folders selected in Finder:

.
├── Archive.zip
├── Folder_Name_1
├── Folder_Name_2
├── Folder_Name_3
├── Foobar
└── Foobar.txt

The following expanded tree view, of the selected files and folders shown above, obviously contains both files which are not the real targets of the workflow as well as a folder not containing the expected contents. This was done to test that the example bash code works as expected.

.
├── Archive.zip
├── Folder_Name_1
│   └── Converted_Files
│       ├── file1.aiff
│       └── file2.aiff
├── Folder_Name_2
│   └── Converted_Files
│       ├── file1.aiff
│       └── file2.aiff
├── Folder_Name_3
│   └── Converted_Files
│       ├── file1.aiff
│       └── file2.aiff
├── Foobar
│   └── Barfoo
│       └── More Foobar.txt
└── Foobar.txt

8 directories, 9 files

After running the workflow from Automator on the selected files and folders in Finder, the following shows the new expanded tree view of the original selection expanded tree view:

.
├── Archive.zip
├── Folder_Name_1
│   ├── file1.aiff
│   └── file2.aiff
├── Folder_Name_2
│   ├── file1.aiff
│   └── file2.aiff
├── Folder_Name_3
│   ├── file1.aiff
│   └── file2.aiff
├── Foobar
│   └── Barfoo
│       └── More Foobar.txt
└── Foobar.txt

5 directories, 9 files

As you can see in the image below, and in conjunction with the information presented above, the Automator workflow completed without error and only processed the appropriate target folders even though additional non-targets were sent to the Run Shell Script action as shown above.

Also note that additional testing was done with the target folders /Folder_Name_N/Converted_Files/ containing non .aiff content to insure that other then the moved .aiff content did not have to be explicitly deleted, e.g. rm .DS_Store was not necessary, as the -r option of the rm command will attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument. You might also consider using the -f option too. (I've already added it to my example bash code, so remove it if you don't want to use that option.)

Example bash code for the Run Shell Script action:

for d in "$@"; do
    [ -d "$d" ] || continue
    if [ -d "$d/Converted_Files" ]; then
        cd "$d/Converted_Files" || exit
        for f in *.aiff; do
            mv "$f" ..
        done
    fi
    cd ..
    rm -rf "Converted_Files"
done

Note that the example bash code is just that, and may not contain all error handling as may be appropriate/needed/wanted. The onus is always upon the user to implement any appropriate/needed/wanted error handling with whatever code one chooses to use.

Testing was preformed under macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.