BBM-like iPhone app? I keep hearing all this hoopla about BBM (Blackberry Messenger) and I want in on the fun. Is there anything similar to BBM out there for the iPhone? I heard WhatsApp was something like it, but just wondering if there were any others.

WhatsApp and PingChat are the major games in town.  I've also heard a bit about Cnectd

Nothing has really sold me yet, as I'm looking for proper delivery and read notification a la BBM.

Now if someone could figure out how to cross the impossible chasm to somehow connect into the BBM network, it would be a game changer.


Is Disk Partitioning User Data Sensible in Catalina? I'm a first time mac owner (coming from Linux and Windows) and so far I'm enjoying myself. =) Big fan of the Unix roots in a polished package.

I typically partition my system's "disk" drive to include a separate Data partition where I store all my active projects and personal data (on Linux, this would mean mounting /home to a separate partition).

I was about to do the same on my macbook, but realized there is already some volume segregation via APFS volume groups. However, I don't know if this has the same effects or not.

So my question is this: If I totally bork my OS somehow and want to completely reinstall from scratch, will the separate APFS volume be untouched?

It seems like the purpose is not for this but instead to prevent user apps from accessing the read-only system partition. So to me, it seems as if I should indeed create a separate partition so that any potential reinstall operations would not touch my personal data.

Thoughts? Thanks!

If I totally bork my OS somehow and want to completely reinstall from scratch, will the separate APFS volume be untouched?

You are talking About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina changes and no, the data volume will not be totally untouched.  If you completely reinstall macOS from scratch it will be overwritten.

The Macintosh HD - Data volume is not really analogous to /home as it contains caches, logs, /usr/local and other non-static parts of the OS.  The Macintosh HD read only volume contains only things that don't change (by definition). When you do a re-install all of this is overwritten.

Here is what the data volume contains (from The Eclectic Light Company Catalina Boot Volumes page).

  So to me, it seems as if I should indeed create a separate partition so that any potential reinstall operations would not touch my personal data

That is a matter of opinion.  If you didn't reinstall everything the same you could end up with things in ~/Library that no-longer matched what was installed. The same as could happen after reinstalling with regard to config files on Linux (after relocating /home) or %AppData% on Windows (after relocating /Users).

You may find it more convenient to simply use data volumes outside of /Users for your data or to restore your data from backup after a reinstall.  It depends how big your data are and how often you plan to reinstall I suppose.

If you want to though you can update the location of your users home directory to be on another volume.  This location is stored in the directory services database in /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/user and can be updated by either

System Preferences > Users and groups or
sudo dscl . create /Users/yourUser NFSHomeDirectory /new/path/yourUser or
Directory Utility

A new folder hierarchy will then be automatically created at the new location when the user next logs on.  See Relocating /Users folder in MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).

Then after a complete re-install it would just be a matter of updating the location again to point to the other volume containing your existing data.


Mac Launchpad icon jumps up I am running OS X El Capitan version 10.11.5 on a Macbook Air.

Recently, on two occasions, I saw the Launchpad icon in the Dock jumping up and down a few times and then it stopped.

On that moment I was not active on the computer.

What could be the reason?

Do you have automatic updates activated for apps in the Mac App Store? You can check this under System Preferences -> App Store. (Not in the non-existent Preferences in the actual App Store app, which might be confusing.)

The Launchpad icon jumps when an application has been updated.


reader mode on iOS Chrome? I miss Safari’s Reader mode’s ability to cut down on website cruft, for example Medium’s banners.

But I really don’t like Safari otherwise.

Can I get Reader mode in Chrome?  How? I tried chrome://flags/ but no luck.

getting Open in Safari option in Chrome’s Share menu would be OK as a workaround.  Right now it’s copy url, open Safari, paste url.

Firefox is my main desktop browser but not interested in it on iOS. I’d prefer Chrome be extended to perform this function, but I’m open to any and all third party browsers that can emulate the Safari reader mode function.

Someone suggested I use Workflow to address another question I had.
And it occurred to me that I could use it here as well (you'll need to be at least on iOS 11.x - Workflow is much, much, less powerful on 10.x.
You need to create an Action Extension workflow, set it up to only accept URLs and then choose Open in Safari as an action.
You may also need to enable Workflow in sharing.
configuration screenshots
Here's a rough series of screenshots, from when you've launched Workflow.  Sorry, it's a little bit complicated and fully detailing each step in the series would take a lot of little dialog screenshots, but hopefully you'll get the idea.
Also, keep in mind iOS 12 is apparently replacing Workflow with Shortcuts so there might be another way to do this later.
Final result:
The upshot is that I can pick Workflow in Sharing, then my Workflow, which I've saved to Safari.

Update:
confusingly it seems as if Shortcuts is only a rebranding of Workflow, so my instructions apply to it as well.
Last, you Firefox Focus has an open in Safari option.


iPhone dock connector problems, with and without accessories I started to experience problems with my iPhone that seem to be related to the dock connector.

Upon plugging my iPhone into my (officially supported) car stereo, I started to get the message  "This accessory is not supported by iPhone" on the screen.  Didn't think much of it as I only use it for charging purposes, and that still worked so I ignored it.  Then I bought a small ANT+ dongle, which is a little accessory you plug into the dock connector to allow your phone to receive data from various health/fitness devices like heart rate monitor, and cycle sensors etc.  It produces the same error message every time I plug it in, and the apps that use the dongle will not recognise it.

The dongle does officially support my hardware and OS level. I've checked that it is not broken by plugging it into an iPhone 5, an iPad 3 and an iPod of some description, none of which showed the error.  The supported apps find the device on the iPad, the iPhone 5 does not have the apps installed but offers to do so as soon as I plug it in, so I know the dongle is working correctly.

In addition to the above, when nothing is plugged into the dock connector, it still occassionally thinks that something is, resulting in a muted phone.  When it's in this state I am not able to hear anything or change any volume settings (music playback or ringer volume) with the physical keys. Going into the Music app shows that it thinks it's outputting the music to the dock connector.

Why is this accessory not working on my iPhone, and how can I get it working?  What causes my iPhone to think that it's docked when it isn't?

This commonly occurs when there is an issue with your dock connector.  It is likely dirty, obstructed in some way, or possibly even broken with a bent pin or something.  Very often this is not apparent, because with 30 pins to play with, chances are most of the time you only need the ones for charging and USB data transfer, leaving the rest unused such that you will not notice if they start working sub optimally.

There are 3 ways I would try to fix this, in order of most likely to fix:

Clear it out

Your first step is to check for any obvious blockage.  If  you have a can of compressed air, you can try to blow any debris out.  If you don't, then using a fine non metallic scraper (a plastic toothpick is ideal, a wooden one may leave small fibers behind) carefully clean out what you can - even if it looks clean you will be surprised how much crap and fluff you can scrape out. Take care to blow any debris out of the phone, and not into it - i.e. hold it upright and get at it from underneath, don't sit it upside down and work from the top

Clean it up

If there is no obvious obstruction then the problem may be more subtle, a coating on one or more of the pins that is preventing a neat conductive contact, or is grounding a pin against another one for example - perhaps there has been some contact with a liquid in the past etc.  You need to clean the pins to get rid of this.  You will need a couple of things things - 1) some cleaning agent, 2) a lint free cloth/piece of sponge, or an old toothbrush.

For a cleaning agent, 99% isopropyl is perfect, but if you don't have that kicking around you could try a very small quantity of the neatest and purest alcoholic drink you have in the house - I've used Vodka which is by and large 50/50 alcohol and water.  Don't use anything flavoured or anything that it likely to have anything other than alcohol and water in it!  Especially sugars or salt!.

Using a very small amount of your cleaning agent, and keeping the phone upright so any drips fall out, and not into the phone, lightly brush or wipe the dock connector, taking care not to be rough enough to disturb the pins out of alignment.  I've used a small piece of synthetic sponge and prodded it about with the same toothpick I used earlier.

Hit it

If this doesn't work, then the issue could still be a physical obstruction, although it may be beyond the dock connector and more internal.  Short of taking the phone to bits, there is not a lot you can do, and whilst you cannot clean the inside, you can try to dislodge anything that's stuck by using a combination of lightly tapping the phone on all 4 sides whilst playing about with the vibrate functions for alarms etc.

Using the first 2 methods above I solved the "Accessory not supported problem", but still had the intermittent docking issue.

Assuming I could not fix that one, I went to turn on Vibrate alerts (which I had previously turned off) as a workaround, only to find that after playing with all the vibrate "tones" etc it magically fixed itself!

Note 1 It's possible that the issue is not with the connector on your phone, but on your device/cable - you can try all the above on the cable end too if doing it on your phone does not yield results.
Note 2 If your device is failing to charge, or will only charge from a certain cable or dock, then the same fix potentially applies.


How to replace a tag with another tag system-wide? Say I have two tags, "Green", and "Green 1".

How do I replace all instances of the "Green 1" tag with the "Green" tag, across all files on my device?

I've had two 'Green' tags, though with slightly different names for quite some time, so I thought I'd see if I could find a workaround.

Best I can come up with is in effect a find, add, remove.
Fortunately it turns out I'd only a few 'other Green' so it was quite quick, but you can almost see the Finder 'thinking' as it ticks through them all.

From Finder Prefs>Tags, make sure both are ticked & then drop both your 'Greens' into the favourites at the bottom, circled.  You can only have 5 at once, so others will be removed. You can re-add afterwards. Leave this window open, you'll be coming back to it.

Open a Finder window & select your 'to be deleted' tag in the sidebar, to list all the files tagged with it. Mine was called 'In Queue'

 Cmd ⌘   A  to Select All.
Right click & assign the other green tag to the files, so they now have both tags.
Give the Finder time to finish - you can see it adding the second green dot…

Then - right click again & remove your unwanted tag.

Everything is now tagged with the single, wanted, Green tag.

Go back to Finder prefs & you can delete the extra tag altogether.


Problems exporting PDF from Pages and uploading to Jobvite I created my resume in Pages 5.2.2 and converted it to a PDF using the "Export to PDF" feature.

Overall, everything seems to work fine. However, I am having problems applying to jobs on Jobvite. When I upload my resume using the "Upload Resume" dialog, it appears to upload, but then the file input changes to "No file selected." and the site freezes. The dialog still says "Uploading" and I see these errors in my web console:

SyntaxError: unterminated string literal UploadOverlay.aspx:17
ReferenceError: init is not defined UploadOverlay.aspx:1

I thought the problem was on their end, so I emailed them about it and they said the problem may be caused because I renamed the PDF after I exported it. I was careful to export the PDF again and not rename it, but when I tried uploading it, the same thing happened. I told them about it and they said they would look into it, but I haven't heard anything from them since then. That was 3 weeks ago.

I reported the problem to Apple using the "Provide Pages Feedback" feature, but they said they would not be able to reply directly to me.

I used to make my resume in LibreOffice and it worked fine. I can continue to use LibreOffice for now, but I like Pages a lot more (apart from this bug).

Does anyone know why this is happening or what can be done about it?

I would recommend NOT to use the Pages "Export as PDF" file, since there might be inconsistencies with Adobe PDF format.

I would recommend you use the Pages- Print- PostScript.

Now open that file in Preview and save as PDF.


Upgrading iPod Classic HDD Can I put a 160GB (late 2009) iPod's HDD in my 6th gen 120GB iPod?  Will this work, or are there other things that I would need to modify to get more storage?

Yes, you can and it'll work.
Detailed guide for replacement here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iPod+Classic+Hard+Drive/564/1


Show username on mac terminal prompt My OSX El Capitan terminal prompt is "~$". As I am logged in as a user.
How can I get it to show the machine~user$ instead? Thanks

Assuming your shell is bash edit the /etc/bashrc file changing PS1='\W\$ ' to:

PS1='\h:\W \u\$ '

You'll need to use sudo, e.g., sudo nano /etc/bashrc

On OS X 10.11 you might also need to disable SIP in order to make the edit.

Otherwise setting it in your ̃/.bash_profile or ~/.profile file, either of which, you'd not have to use sudo or disable SIP to edit.

Explanation:

PS1='\h:\W \u\$ '

PS1 The value of this parameter is expanded (see PROMPTING below) and used as the primary prompt string.
=   equals
'   single quote
\h  the hostname up to the first ‘.’
:   colon
\W  the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
    white space
\u  the username of the current user
\$  if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
    white space
'   single quote

Examples:

MacBookPro:~ user$
MacBookPro:Documents user$
MacBookPro:~ root#

See the PROMPT_COMMAND and PROMPTING sections in the OS X Man Pages for BASH(1) for more information on the subject.


Set up background for laptop and plugged monitor I have a setup with a laptop and a ultra-wide screen. I seldom use both screens at the same time. I wanted to have different backgrounds for my ultra-wide and laptop.

But if I turn both on and try to set the background for one and another, when I close my laptop, the wide screen monitor gets the not-so-wide background.

If I set a ultra-wide background in my monitor with the laptop closed, when I open the laptop, it gets the ultra-wide background, and the monitor gets another background.

Can I sepcifically set the backgrounds for the monitors?

I use a MacBook Pro Retina, running El Capitán.

A similar question

You could try the following as a workaround that may meet your needs. Before proceeding, make sure you are also connected to your external display. Follow these steps:

Open Mission Control
If you haven't previously set up additional desktop spaces before, then click on the + sign at the top right of the screen to create a new desktop space
Now enter the new desktop space by selecting it (via the top of the screen)
Set the background image you would like for the ultra-wide screen on this desktop space
Open Mission Control again
Now enter the first desktop space by selecting it from top centre of screen
Set the background image you would like for your laptop screen on this desktop space

So far, what we've done is created an additional desktop space and allocated a unique image to each as a desktop background.

The trick that may work is to now assign certain apps to the space for the ultra wide screen. This is because if you use an additional screen and have apps running on it you will have an additional space for that screen.

So, in your case, let's say you usually use the ultra wide screen for iMovie. You can allocate iMovie so that it works on the second desktop space. Here are the basic steps to doing this:

Click on the app in your Dock and keep the mouse button down (if you don't keep it in your Dock, then just launch it first)
From the submenu move the mouse pointer to Options
You'll see you now have a number of options for where the App should display. In this example you'll want to select Desktop on display x (where x will be a '1' or '2').

The idea behind all this is that if you only use your ultra-wide screen when you're using certain apps, then you can automate some of this workflow. You can also add more apps to work on this screen by default.

Notes:

For this to work as described, ensure the Mission Control System Preference Pane has Displays have separate Spaces enabled.
This also assumes that Mirror Displays is off in your Displays System Preferences.

Hopefully you'll find something in all of this that works for you (or comes close). For more information on how this all works, see:

OS X El Capitan: Work in multiple spaces
Use Mission Control on your Mac
How to use Mission Control, Expose, Split Screen & Spaces on the Mac


How can I install Boot Camp drivers in Windows on an external SSD disk? I am going to install Windows 10 on an external SSD disk, so I will need the Boot Camp drivers. How can I install the drivers manually?

Open Bootcamp Assistant (In the Applications -> Utilities folder), then on the opening screen, click the 'Action' menu, then select 'Download Windows Support Software'.  You'll be prompted to select a location to save the downloaded files.  You can then put them onto a USB flash drive, restart into Windows and run the installer.

There are more details on the Apple Support website, here


Can I turn off IPv6 and just use IPv4 on my iOS device? I'm trying to use TeamViewer but have a problem when trying to access the network with IPv6 via GSM.

Can I somehow turn off IPv6 and use only IPv4? I am using an iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 8.3.

On a Mac computer, download Apple Configurator from the Mac App
Store
In Configurator, go to File > New Profile (or Command+n)
Fill out the General section, then go to Cellular and select Configure
Under Configured APN Type, select Default and Data APNs
Fill out the necessary data using your carrier's APN settings
Under Data APN Supported IP Versions, select IPv4
Sign and flash the profile to your phone


Permission errors, safari passwords disappear, dock resets and iCloud problems I've searched a lot and cannot find a similar question for High Sierra. Whats irritating is that I hadn't upgraded to 10.13.4 but it happened on its own one evening. Once my MacBook restarted - the first problem was that passwords and autofill information in Sierra stopped showing up - and all fields were empty (in preferences). I tried to fix that and the only workaround without a full restore was to completely unlink my iCloud account from my MacBook - which isn't ideal or feasible - and viola - my passwords show up in safari (I don't know how). When I login to iCloud again (on my mac-settings), THE PASSWORDS DISAPPEAR AGAIN! Next, I noticed the dock resets to default apps, including those I'd hidden, after every restart. An app that stopped working with a "invalid license file" issue was witopia. I tried a few reinstalls to no avail.

I've done the permission repair fix as advised for earlier versions of sierra. I've also used the HD permissions repair utility. Other than a full restore which will take me back by about 3 months, I'm at my wits end as to why all these issues started and how to fix them. The only point of reference for me is that 10.13.4 install which I didn't even initiate!

In summary:
1. I cannot use iCloud without breaking safari stored passwords and autofill
2. My dock resets every start and its getting annoying
3. Some apps are now broke and can't work (a new install fixed one of these problems but this isn't right)
4. Everything else seems to be working fine: mail, safari, word, excel and powerpoint, some media apps

I'd ideally like to avoid a full restore or reset. I would like to clean up things and that includes fixing my iCloud account/keychain access if it has problems. By the way, my iCloud passwords are fine on my iPhone. I also checked keychain access but don't know how to check/fix any issues (if any) with that.

This may mean that your data may have a bug in it. I would recommend try using a new user (admin) and then see if you are able to sign in there. Make sure you are not signed into iCloud on the main account. If everything works fine on that user then you may need to move your files over to the new account since the other account isnt producing the right results.


Shortcut to apply header style 4 (and 5, 6...) In Microsoft Office Word, one press ⌘⌥1, ⌘⌥2 or ⌘⌥1 to apply header style 1, 2 or 3 respectively. This is also documented by Microsoft (see: Aligning and formatting paragraphs). However writing a large document, I want to apply header style 4 (and 5, 6...) but there does not seem to be a shortcut available for that. Applying header styles is not an option in the menu bar, so I cannot create a custom shortcut through System Preferences > Keyboard (I suppose). How would I add a shortcut in this case?

Found it, although I did not expect the solution to be this simple. To do this, follow these steps:

Right-click the Heading 4 style in the ribbon and choose 'Modify' (Or through Layout > Styles > Heading 4 > Modify
In the left hand bottom corner, select 'Shortcut'
Assign shortcut ⌘⌥4
Repeat for Heading 5, 6...
Done!


Apple Mail: Apply Rule to a Folder I know how to setup basic rules to move emails in Apple Mail from the inbox of an email account into folders. Is it possible to do the same thing the other way around, i.e., to move emails that are already within a folder back into the inbox or some folder?

For example: I am moving potential spam emails into the Junk folder on the server and mark them as read before Apple Mail deals with them. Sometimes it happens that emails are wrongly classified as spam and in most cases I can recover those email simply by checking whether the sender is in my contact. Therefore, I would like to apply a simple rule to the Junk folder with Apple Mail and move emails back into the email account's inbox if the sender is in my contact.

Is Apple Mail capable of that?

I figured out it's at possible to apply rules to emails in drafts, sent, junk, trash, archive or other IMAP folders by selecting all messages and selection Message > Apply Rules.

The issue might have been that the spam emails are flagged as read on the server before they are loaded by Apple Mail and that Apple Mail doesn't apply rules to new emails if they are flagged as read already.


How to find connected Device ID through iTunes Please note: Although my question is tangentially related to iOS development, it is not a development question; it is an iTunes user question!

iPhone 7+ here. I'm a developer playing around with iOS development for the first time, and am trying to deploy a toy/hobby iOS app (that I wrote via XCode) to my iPhone.

It looks like the first thing I need to do is figure out what my iPhone's Device ID is. Following the instructions for finding Device ID through iTunes, I launched iTunes and then connected my phone to it. However, whereas (according to that link) I should be seeing a screen that looks like this:

I only see a screen that contains three fields:

Capacity
Phone Number
Serial Number

But I don't see a Device ID or UDID field like the document says. Do iPhone's not have UDIDs? Is the Serial Number a useable substitute for UDID?

Click on your phone in the top-left corner to show phone details.

From here, you can choose Summary in the sidebar, then click on your serial to show the UDID.


Purge command - Unable to purge disk buffers, error #-2? When I attempt to run the purge command, I get the same error every time.

[ERROR] <CPDevice.c:3816>   Unable to create new counter client.
[ERROR] <CPOSX.c:1172>  Unable to get user client so as to poke the kernel.
Unable to purge disk buffers, error #-2.

I've tried with and without sudo, initially thinking that perhaps it's unable to due to not having proper access, and they simply didn't program in a permissions check. It's the same error though.

I have a dual Xcode installation, which I believe may be the issue here. I have 3.2.6 installed to a custom directory (/Xcode 3) and I have Xcode 4.6.3 from the Mac App Store. I've installed the most recent (2013.4) Command Line Tools from within Xcode 4. I'm running OS X 10.7.4 Lion.

Before anyone tells me that I should let the OS manage inactive memory on it's own because it does it fine, no, it doesn't. Not in the slightest. Normally it works well enough not to bother me. But whenever I use any type of VM, I encounter issues with the memory never releasing.

For example, I can start an instance of an emulation VM. It'll use about 600 MB of memory. When I terminate the emulation entirely, the memory does not release. On top of that, if I go back and rerun the exact same emulation, the 600 MB sitting in inactive doesn't get reused like one might hope. No, it just sits there. And another 600 from the free pool gets used. And when that second emulation is terminated, I now have 1.2 GB of inactive memory. Now normally this would be fine, if the inactive memory released when all the free memory was used. But it doesn't. It just sits there and never releases. It'll swap to disk instead.

This issue is particularly annoying with virtualization VMs that use 4 GB or even more of RAM within my normal usage. Restart those more than once and new things slow to a crawl due to disk swapping.

I used to use the purge command all the time on 10.5 Leopard with Xcode 3.1.4, and issues on Leopard weren't nearly this bad with automatic memory management. I just used purge to get more of a clean slate without having to reboot. I can't even do that now. And unlike some people would tell you, it is a serious problem.

Any ideas would be appreciated. One more thing. I have used xcode-select to select Xcode 4.6.3 as opposed to 3.2.6. I only use 3.2.6 for development and compiling. Macports, Homebrew, and some other things, demand Xcode 4 to be installed and selected though, which is the only reason I have it. But if I remember correctly, purge also didn't work when I had Xcode 3 selected instead.

Privilege needed

On Mountain Lion purge can be run from a normal user account.

On Mavericks purge can only be run from root account (through sudo).
If you attempt to run it with a normal user account, you will get an error message:

Unable to purge disk buffers: Operation not permitted

Real function

purge doesn't act directly on main memory.
Its core function is to terminate all the IO pending which are using disk cache and then to
free all the occupied disk cache.

purge should free disk space to ease paging out and swapping out of main memory. Hence many people get convinced that purge was freeing main memory. This is an urban legend.

Real fault

This problem is clearly coming directly from the MacOS X kernel.
It might be caused by programs doing a lot of I/O on a system where the virtual memory is already heavily used. But these programs are false culprits.

You may find such a false culprit exhibited here: Mountain Lion Panic - decode

A kernel panic is a kernel fault. The type of error message is a kernel error message. It is a kernel fault.

From your actual context, I advise you to run sysdiagnose and open a bug case at Apple with the result. This tool will run for you all the relevant tools to analyze any misbehaviour of your system or anny application running on it.

Please read this professionnal answer: Apple sysdiagnose


What is the use of Login Window option in MAC after user logged in? What is the use of Login Window option in Mac. If user is already logged in, then what is the point of this option. When I select this option, it went to login window. Is it only to lock the Mac?

Well, locking the Mac is certainly one reason for it, and a good one.

Another reason would be if you (or someone else) needed to also log into another account without first logging out of the current one.

From your screenshot it appears that you do not have fast user switching enabled (probably because you may be the only user), but even if you had multiple user accounts and did have it enabled, the Login Window option would still be there as a way of locking your computer.


Sync directories without too much overhead I want to have a cloud-backup of my Documents directory; however, I'm not too fond of the idea of uploading the Documents in an unencrypted fashion. That's why I looked into the Cryptomator app. I do really like the idea of having a cloud-backup while still being sure that my documents are not analyzed by any storage provider.
The general approach would be to move the documents folder to the mountable Cryptomator drive and to save everything directly to this mounted drive. As I cannot be totally sure that Cryptomator will never end their service, and I also cannot be sure that there will never be any decryption issues, I don't like the idea of only having encrypted versions of my documents.
Hence, my optimal solution would be to keep my local Documents directory and sync it to the mounted Cryptomator drive, which will then upload the encrypted documents to my cloud storage. If a problem arises, I will still have access to the local copy; if not, great, I'll now be able to access my documents wherever I am, without fearing that any third-party can read my documents.
How should I go about the syncing of the directory? Can I do this with the functions present on macOS, or do I have to install additional software? Do you think that my plan is well thought out?

cron + rsync
Use rsync to sync the folders, and cron to schedule the backups. You can open up your cron table (list of scheduled commands) with crontab -e. First you can create your backup with:
rsync -a ~/Documents <backup folder path>

This will create a backup named "Documents" in the directory you specify. Then you can schedule this command to run at certain times with cron. For example:
0 12 * * * rsync -a ~/Documents <backup folder path>

This will backup your Documents folder to the backup folder path every day at noon. The format is:
# ┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
# │ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
# │ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
# │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
# │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 - 6) (Sunday to Saturday;
# │ │ │ │ │                                   7 is also Sunday on some systems)
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ │
# * * * * * <command to execute>

An asterisk means the task will run for every value of that time interval. So leaving all the asterisks would make it run every minute of every hour of every day of every month for every day of the week. In the example command I wrote earlier it would run at minute 0 of hour 12 (noon) of every day of every month for every day of the week.
It detects and updates only the edited, deleted, or added files so it will be very fast once you have already backed up the folder once.


Keynote Animations - Can they be random? I am stumped with a Keynote question (same problem in Powerpoint)—

I made a Jeopardy Board. I want people to choose questions randomly. When I click on the question, I have ANIMATED the 100, 200, etc, so the numbers fade away. Then I've hyperlinked to a slide with each question on it.

PROBLEM: Animations have to be set in a particular order! I want the questions to be chosen randomly. Do you know any way around setting up animations so they are not in order?

Any suggestions appreciated!! Thank you!

You may be able to achieve this behaviour using AppleScript. The questions below touch upon shuffling and randomising slides in Keynote:

How to randomize Keynote slides
Randomizing slides and duration for repeating Keynote

While Keynote is not intended for this kind of behaviour, you may have more success with other more flash card like applications.


Airports, Wifi Roaming, and Ethernet Backhaul According to Apple's Wi-Fi base stations: Setting up and configuring a roaming network (802.11 a/b/g/n), there's an implicit assumption that I want to use a wireless for everything. That is, the extended base station backhauls its traffic using Wifi.

Wifi is a limited resource, and there's only so much bandwidth in a channel. I'd like to reserve the wireless bandwidth for clients, and backhaul the extended base station traffic using ethernet. But Apple's article doe not discuss how to bridge the APs using ethernet through a switch.

How do I set up roaming between two airports and backhaul over ethernet using a switch (and not Wifi)?

Related (from James' answer below): in the upper diagram, the extended Airport is plugged into the primary Airport base station directly. That's not quite the configuration we have because we can't run the direct cable. We are in a historic building, so we can only use existing cables and run it to the basement and into a switch.

The diagram at the top of the article you linked to in the question seems to show exactly what you are trying to achieve; the extended base stations are connected via Ethernet, from their WAN ports, to a network port on the primary base station. Have you tried this configuration?


Problem in opening downloaded application I downloaded an application from internet but it won't open even after I changed the system preferences. When i am trying to open the downloaded app it is saying that "This application can't be opened". How can I resolve this?

Without more information I'll dare another stab in the dark, since the mentioned message comes close to what one sees in the following scenario (see screenshot).
If the application downloaded is not zipped, or packed into a dmg, etc., the executable might not have its executable bit set (or better can lose it).

One can then add the "x" (executable bit) by typing the following in Terminal (found in the 'Utilities' folder) with a space at the end and dragging the executable file onto the Terminal window to fill in the path to it, then hitting 'enter' (right click the application in question, select "Show Contents" and navigate to the folder "MacOS", where the executable lives in):

chmod oga+x

i.e. "change modification for owner, group and all, adding the executable bit"


Can ghost app updates be cleared in OS X? I have this Twitter application that shows on my Mountain Lion available updates list but I don't have any twitter app on my Mac. I had, but I have deleted it times ago.

Since then, every time twitter updates their app, I receive a notification that a new update is available.

How do I get rid of this ghost app update entry that haunts updates list in the App Store app?

In almost all cases, this is one of two things:

somewhere on your Mac, an older copy of the App is lying around and in need of an update (even though the version in /Applications is up to date)
spotlight is messed up

The first is much easier to fix, so eject all disks and network volumes and then quit and re-launch the App Store. If you still show an update, check for other copies of that app using spotlight.

Once you are sure it's not a case of more than one app, you can go down the more complicated path of spotlight triage/repair. I like to add all drives to spotlight’s privacy pane and delete all copies of the problem app and reboot. Then turn on spotlight for just the boot volume.

Once spotlight is done indexing that drive, go reinstall the problem app. If things are clear, enable spotlight on all remaining volumes. If not, we can cover that bigger spotlight issue in a different thread.


How can I disable the dictionary for Google Chrome? Is there a way to disable the below shown dictionary integration inside Google Chrome?

The "Look up" functionality has coverage across the entire operating system, not exclusive to Google Chrome


Deleted items don't go into trash On MacOS, El Capitan, any file I delete from Finder does not go to the Trash, it is deleted completely.  When I delete a file the warning message says "you are about to permanently delete the file".

So it seems as though, the Trash has been disabled - how do I renable it?

The Mac is a Mac Mini, Core i5, 8GB RAM and 500GB SSD.

There are two likely possibilities:

First, you're accidentally holding down the Option key or it is stuck - do you get the same behavior if you use a different keyboard?

Second, the permissions on your ~/.Trash may have become corrupt; run Disk Utility from your /Applications/Utilities folder and verify permissions on the drive containing your home folder - if errors are reported, restart from Recovery Mode and run Disk Utility again.


How can I get a photo from an iPad (iOS 5) to my Mac? I am trying to get a photo from my husband's old iPad to my MacBook Pro. I have backed up his iPad to my computer and iCloud, but can't find the photos anywhere? I tried looking for a MobileSync file on my computer, but one doesn't exist. Any ideas?

You can use an app such as iExplorer to browse your iTunes backups.

Select Explore iTunes Backups.

Your photos will be in MediaDomain → Media → DCIM.


iCloud breach and what to do following it I have reason to believe that my iCloud account was recently breached and whoever did it is trying to lock my devices. I am aware that this is done through Find my IPhone and that they have set it to lost mode. However, when I go to Find my IPhone and I view the details of my mac, it simply says locked 6 minutes ago without an option to un-lost mode it. Is there any way to fix this / am I doing something wrong or do I have to go to an apple store and prove I own the device and such?

Thanks all,

Jimmy

You would only have to go into an Apple store and prove ownership if your device is "bricked" after iOS/macOS is erased (meaning you cannot login to it due to forgotten password and/or Apple ID email address). When iCloud.com says the device is "locked" it does not mean "bricked," it simply means the screen is locked, like with your pin.

It sounds like all you need to do is enable 2-Factor authentication in your Apple ID/iCloud account, plus change your password. This will prevent whomever "breached" the account from logging in again. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915


Can't access the startup manager from boot I have an old Mac Pro 3,1 running on El Capitan and I was trying to boot from a USB on startup only to see that nothing happens. I can go into Recovery Mode and Safe Boot Mode and my computer runs normally too but the one thing that I can't do is I can't go into startup manager, I've tried to hold the alt key before and after the power on and nothing happens.
Note: I've upgraded my stock graphics card to a newer one so when I boot I don't see the apple logo because the graphics card takes a while to start up, normally, I turn on my mac and hear the chime and wait for it to turn on but my monitor doesn't run, I just have to wait until the initialization has finished for the graphics card to finally start running and my monitor working. When I turn on my mac and hold down alt to get to the startup manager the computer starts up normally but my screen won't turn on and I can't hear my graphics cards fan running which is usually an indication that the start up is almost done so my computer says it's on, my graphics card isn't doing anything and holding alt is useless even for the longest times, I have a feeling it's at the startup manager but my graphics card is still asleep, I can boot normally after a restart.
If there's a solution to this or an alternative method to help me boot from my USB, Its been quite frustrating.

Are you using a wireless keyboard? To boot from USB  you will need a wired keyboard.

From Safe Boot Mode, or even from Recovery Mode, you can try to undo recent changes in the system, like the installation or removal of a kernel extension related to the graphics card. If that graphics card is one of the officially supported models, you can also  try to reinstall the operating system from Recovery Mode, without erasing the disk.


Big Sur: An error occurred while installing the selected updates I tried to update the macos from the 10.15.7 to the recently released Big Sur. Software Update has dowloaded the installation data and the following popup dialog appeared.

I found in Console's system.log the following message, but I'm not sure if it's related to my problem.
Nov 12 22:58:02 coolomet com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.SoftwareUpdateC.1617): Failed to bootstrap path: path = /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/SoftwareUpdateConfigData, error = 2: No such file or directory

I checked that the requested file exists in my system in the given location.
➜  Resources pwd
/System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources
➜  Resources ls -l SoftwareUpdateConfigData
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  42192 22 zář 02:25 SoftwareUpdateConfigData

How can I download the Big Sur from the scratch again? I cannot find the location of downloaded installer. I don't see the usually downloaded installer in the /Application directory.
➜  Resources ls -l /Applications | grep -i install
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   96 12 lis 22:54 Install macOS Catalina.app

Along with the comments to the post, this is still ongoing for some per Apple Support Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/AppleSupport/status/1327041964014002178
Apple is saying that the issue is resolved, but an issue still persists on my end.


How do I transfer videos I recorded on my iPhone 4 to my hard drive? My iPhone 4 is constantly low on memory when downloading large Apps from the App Store.
I always get a message saying remove photos and videos to get space for new App.
I have been to Apple to sort out problem but did not work. The video are very important with sensitive info. How do I move these videos to my hard drive?

This Apple Support article details how to transfer content to your computer.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083

  Connect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer. iPhoto
  should automatically launch into its import window with your device's
  images and videos listed.

  Select the images and videos you would like to import into iPhoto,
  then select the "Import Selected" option.


Why won't iTunes 12 add movies? I'm trying to add a movie file to iTunes 12. I've tried dragging and dropping and "Add to Library" from the iTunes File menu, but neither work. The movie isn't being sent to the "Home Movies" section, either.

Any ideas as to how I can resolve this?

There was no iTunes Library location set in iTunes preferences.


Name change in group thread I have a running group text thread with my 3 sisters.  From time to time instead of one of my sister’s name at the top, it will say her daughter or son’s name.  We’re suspecting that her daughter is somehow hacking into her phone, because they are on the same iCloud.  Is that possible and if so, how can we fix it?

You have to be very careful in this situation.
Any one of the participants in the group can have an address book entry that is wrong and send the messages incorrectly when adjusting group membership.
There is zero need for foul play here. First apply Hanlon's razor (Occam’s razor applied to people and technology) and substitute “stupidity” with “people are busy and don’t meticulously track which AppleID they use to sign in to their devices. People want to share purchases and don’t set up proper family sharing and separate their accounts between Messages and the App Store or effectively and regularly audit who logs in to their accounts.”
Compound that confusion on three to six devices per person and three to six people, and you can end up with an intractable mess when one name maps to a different AppleID that has multiple SMS and emails attached for delivery.
Back to your specific situation, are you sure the name of your sister’s children maps to a Message account or SMS number they access?


Why can't Siri show me pictures of my mom? In the Contact card for myself, I have set up a related name for my mother to point to her Contact entry. When I ask Siri to "Call Mom", Siri correctly starts dialing her. Recently I've been tagging photos of her in the Photos app under the People album by associating pictures of her to her Contact. When I ask Siri to "Show me photos of (my Mom's name)" it works as expected, however when I ask Siri to "Show me photos of Mom" (how I would commonly say it), Siri brings back no results. Did I misconfigure something, or is that feature not implemented for Siri and Photos integration?

Unfortunately it takes queries literally for now.

Currently Photos.app in iOS 10.0.1 does not support connections (my mom, my wife, my brother, etc.). Or, to frame it in another way, Siri does not even try to detect connections when asking for photos.

The same happens when you start a web search like "Search the web for (…)". Even if you include "my dad" in this command, Siri will not replace it with your dad's name.

You can (and should) send a feedback to Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback


Is it unsafe to put router into "DHCP and NAT" mode? When I was trying to get my Raspberry Pi online, in airport utility I put my router in DHCP and NAT mode and entered ports (80). Did I open up these ports to the internet? Would this be unsafe to do?

If I did not open up these ports to the internet, how can I open them up?
(just to know what I should not do).

Yes, by putting it in DHCP mode you did open up your router to the outside world. Assuming you have changed the default password on your router then when someone tried to connect to your IP Address then it would simply send them to your routers webpage. In theory you would be safe from 5 year olds but it is not recommended.
Just for some extra information you would only want to open Port 80, Enable DHCP Mode or enable Virtual server if you were planning to host a server from inside your network that you wanted access to from the outside.
Hope this helped!


My MacBook no longer connects to my iMac via screen sharing I have an iMac and a MacBook running Snow Leopard.

I used to connect from my MacBook to my iMac regularly with screen sharing.  Has worked great for over a year.

I recently got my hard drive in my iMac upgraded (from 250GB to 1TB), as far as I know the technician somehow "cloned" the drive, but I really have no idea what the process is.  All I know is the iMac works exactly as it did before, it now has a bigger drive,  except that screen sharing no longer works.

There were two "admin" accounts on the iMac.  "rob" and "user" (user was created by the technician during the hard drive upgrade.

When I connect via screen sharing with "rob/correctpassword" it says something like "connect failure, can't verify password".  As a work around I would try "user/blankpassword", same error, then try again with "rob/correctpassword" and it would work.  I had to do this same thing every time to connect.  Rob-fail, User-fail, Rob-success.

Eventually I deleted the "user" account because I never used it, and now I can never connect as "rob".  Screen sharing is on, and like I said, this always worked before, but there's an authentication error every time.

Does anyone have ideas what's wrong, or suggestions for how to fix this?

Things that have helped me with isolating the failure and eventually getting screen sharing working again:

isolate the network - turn off
WiFi and connect the two machines
with one ethernet cable. This
eliminates ports (other than
internal firewalls), DNS, and
network issues from mis-routing the
traffic.
Turn off screen sharing and remote management and set it up again changing the password to be sure the new password and sharing permissions are set for all users or your specific user.
Watch the logs in console app - the bonjour daemons, screen sharing daemons and network errors are all logged so you might get a clue if a program is having problems accessing a keychain or other issue
Add in a new user to isolate the desired user's preferences and files - it could be something corrupt in the desired user and you won't catch that unless you make a new account to isolate that potential cause.


COUNTIF using two conditions from data inside and outside the dataset I'm struggling to use numbers to do a function. Specifically, I want to use COUNTIF to check two things within my data set table and put that information into another table that we'll call "query set". I want to check for one variable that is within the first column of the query set is the same as the first colum in the data set and that the value is the same as the query set's first header.

I just don't know how to do that because using COUNTIF("Raw::January::1st:31st", $A2) works for making sure that one query condition. I guess the question is how do I filter COUNTIF so that it uses the second query as a check as well? I kinda want to do something like this, want it to only COUNTIF(January::$A:$AE,$A2, January::$A:$AE,"$January::$A:$AE = B$1").

You can take a look at the spreadsheet here ...

https://www.icloud.com/iw/#numbers/BALRr1zYI0yyan4pV9yBoRCulAUCthE6_niE/Ask_Different

So what I want to do is check that the value of the cell is equal to $A2, and that the header of that cell is the day of the week I'm looking for as well.

It's probably easiest to add another column with:

AND(A1=1,B1=1)

and then use

COUNTIF(Table 1::C,"=TRUE")

You can hide the extra column if you want by selecting the column's drop-down arrow and clicking "Hide Column".

Minimal example: https://www.icloud.com/iw/#numbers/BAJy4qiGzoTh1VSmyA-BZ16VCStKBAKb9pSE/TEST (link will be removed in 1 week)

PARTIAL SOLUTIONS:

Example using Fudge Tables: https://www.icloud.com/iw/#numbers/BAI89SfR5AMJFjId3zyBzaZuxCGzy9uGo5eE/Fudge_Tables.numbers

Example using Subtables: https://www.icloud.com/iw/#numbers/BAJMsEi-8NDWoPbLaxeBsLTzYZ2Mqnmqo5eE/Subtables

Note that Subtables has a problem with zeroes (0000 translates to a number in the subtable). The best solution (as I did) is to put something like an "X" in every space that doesn't have a number in it in the main table.

Of course, be sure to check the data. The biggest problem with these methods is that they're very manual labor intensive and are very error prone. I blazed through them pretty quickly so I easily could have made a mistake. Just be careful. ;)


Netflix app on AppleTV crashes and restarts after beginning to play I have had this issue for several months, the AppleTV is up-to-date, I've even done a factory reset, but the same problem is happening, and it appears to be most common on Netflix.

After playing for a few minutes, the app crashes and the system restarts. After digging through the menu to get back to whatever was being watched, it usually plays after the point of failure, but sometimes crashes again at a later point.

I think I've ruled out:

Out of date software (keeping it up to date, auto updates enabled)
App data that is causing a failure (factory reset should fix that)
Hardware failure (since it's most common with Netflix)

Last week I turned on the feature to send usage data to Apple so that if a crash report was being generated in the background, it would go to Apple Developers.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Or does anyone have any ideas about how I can diagnose this problem? I can't find logs anywhere, I feel like I'm working in the dark here,

Try reducing the playback setting for Netflix to Medium. This needs to be done through the Netflix web site. Netflix warns this may take up to 8 hours to take effect. Also note it is supposedly profile specific. So make sure you are using the same profile on your Apple TV and for adjusting the setting. Seems to have helped for my frequent crashes.


How to enable third monitor in Macbook Pro 15'' mid 2015 model? I have Macbook Pro 15'' and have 3 external displays that I want to connect to it. However when I do connect to it using these ports:

HDMI
HDMI to thunderbolt adapter
DVI to Thunderbolt adapter

All three monitors have a maximum resolution of 1920x1080.

I am not able to see one of the monitors. It is no specific monitor. It is the one I end up connecting last. If I restart into Windows I am able to use three monitors. What can I do to fix this?

Apple doesn't support this configuration.    Per the Apple specifications, you can support up to two external monitors:

  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native
  resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on up
  to two external displays, both at millions of colors

(Emphasis added)


Three fingers gestures in Preview App how can I enable in Preview.app the three fingers gesture that shows the selected word in the dictionary?

This gesture works great in Mail.app but doesn't in Preview.app

Are you viewing a PDF? Unfortunately, the three finger tap gesture does not work with PDF files across the system (e.g. not in Safari as well).

The most convenient alternative I can think of is double tapping a word to select it and then two-finger tapping on that word to show the context menu in which you find the command "Look up word in dictionary".


Clone an iPad using different Apple ID I have 2 iPad:

• iPad A with Apple ID aaa@hotmail.com

• iPad B with Apple ID bbb@hotmail.com

Is there anyway for me to clone iPad A to iPad B without the use of iPad A's Apple ID (aaa@hotmail.com) in iPad B?

Additional Information:
I have this app which was already removed from the Apple Store and I am still using the product.

Although the developer of this app is happy to help, he is unable to assist me as this app is not longer available at his end.

Hence, I was thinking whether my iPad can be clone over to his iPad (we have the same iPad btw) for him to assist me on the matter.

The main aim of this is to have that app installed over to the developer's ipad.

Thanks in advance :)

I have another solution to this circumstance if you can avoid an option of cloning different Apple IDs. The main objective is to have an app on your developer's iPad.

Make Sure Your Device is Backed Up.

First, your iPhone or iPad should be backed up either to iCloud or to iTunes on your computer. If it's not, plug it in and launch iTunes. When you see your device in the sidebar, right-click on it and choose "Transfer Purchases from..." (if you have the sidebar disabled, click File > Devices > Transfer Purchases from....) to get those apps off of your device and onto your computer.

Copy the App to a Safe Place for Future Installs.

Once your purchases are transferred, visit the Apps tab in iTunes, find the app you want to back up, and right-click it. Select "Show in Explorer" (Windows) or "Show in Finder" (OS X) to reveal its file location. Then just copy the IPA file to Dropbox or any other location for safekeeping. When you're ready to install it again, sideload it. Just drag a copy back from that safe location back into the apps list in iTunes when your new device is connected. You'll need to log in to your Apple account (here you can change your password or you can log in by yourself), but once you do, iTunes will install the app on the next sync.

I hope this solution also makes sense for you as you are looking to have an old application install on other iOS devices.


Applescript to add sender of message to specific group in Contacts I'm trying to set up an Applescript to add the sender of a selected message in Apple Mail to a specific group in the Contacts app. By reconfiguring the code provided in this answer, I worked up the following but it isn't working. Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong?

    tell application "Mail"
    set theMessage to selection
    tell application "Contacts"
        set theGroup to "_TEST"
    end tell
    set theSender to sender of theMessage
    tell application "Contacts"
        set theName to name of theSender
        set thePerson to make new person with properties {first name:name of theSender}
        add thePerson to theGroup
    end tell
    tell application "Contacts" to save
    end tell

Try this, it will create a contact with proper first name, last name and email address:

tell application "Mail"
set theMessages to selection
if theMessages is not {} then -- check empty list
    set theSenderName to extract name from sender of item 1 of theMessages
    set nameArray to my split(theSenderName, " ")
    set theFirstName to item 1 of nameArray
    set theLastName to last item of nameArray
    set theEmail to extract address from sender of item 1 of theMessages

    tell application "Contacts"
        set theGroup to group "_TEST"
        set thePerson to make new person with properties {first name:theFirstName, last name:theLastName}
        make new email at end of emails of thePerson with properties {label:"Work", value:theEmail}
        add thePerson to theGroup
        save
    end tell
    end if
end tell

on split(theString, theDelimiter)
    set oldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to theDelimiter
    set theArray to every text item of theString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelimiters
    return theArray
end split

There were a few issues with your original attempt, here's how I worked around them.

For starters, selection gives you a list of items (even if it's just a list of one), so you need to pick the first element from the selection.
In mail, sender gives you a not very useful string with the name and email combined. extract name from and extract address from give you useful strings.
The name string is the full name, but Contacts.app expects separate first and last names, so I split that string (using a handy function found here) to make a decent guess at first and last names. This may give unexpected results from strangely formatted names in emails.

If you have any problems with this one, let me know and I'll see if I can fix them. In the future, it may be helpful to run the scripts in AppleScript Editor, and check the Event Log for details on what's failing (error messages are useful, if only to put into Google or give others a starting point for solving your problem).


Cannot play videos in in macOS Finder Upgraded on 2018/03/28

After restart macOS, Safari/Google Chrome cannot play embedded videos.

But...

In macOS I opened Finder and located a mp4 file, press space to quick view the content. I got a blank window with a loading icon. (This video can be played in this way yesterday.)

I use ctrl+click and select Open with, use QuickTime to play it. But QuickTime responded an error said The document "xxxx" could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (-101).

Original question

Safari/Google Chrome cannot play embedded videos in website. I can see the 1st frame of the video and I can drag the progress bar to move the timeframe, it shows the frames. But when I clicked play button the video does not get played.

In Google Chrome I have tried:

Disabling the hardware acceleration.
Disabling the Ad Blocker.
Clearing the browser data.
Disabling the QUIC protocol.

In Safari I have tried:

Allowed auto play for videos with sounds

The websites in question are not using Flash, just HTML5 video.

I am running macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 with Google Chrome 66.0.3359.45 (beta-64bit) and Safari 11.0.3.

After contacted Apple Support I got this problem resolved, by using the following steps.

Shut down Mac
Unplug all external devices. To me they are bluetooth keyboard and trackpad
Start Mac and hold on Command + Option + P + R immediately
Mac tried to restart (the screen turned on and off)
Release Command + Option + P + R, let Mac restarted

"Command + Option + P + R" cleared PRAM and let Mac re-exam all hardwares and build correct info into PRAM.

For more information about it please refer https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1788029


Startup Sign in screen MacBook Pro - Strange option box says Home - Switch with options of Keyboard, Pointer, or Location. What is this? When I restart my MacBook I get the sign in screen or the Startup Sign in screen and lately a small window I guess it would be Called is sitting on top with its own x to close out but it is a  Strange option box that has a black back ground with white writing and it says Home - Switch  with 3 options under that have a icon and one says Keyboard, middle one says Pointer, and last one says  Location. What is this?

You have somehow enabled Switch Control, a macOS Accessibility feature.
Follow the instructions on the page above and figure out how to disable it, or configure it to something that may be useful for you.


Creating a OS backup image for an easy restore on a new system I have set up my macbook with all the files, apps and configurations I like. In about a week, I am upgrading to the 15" model. Is there a way to create an easy-to-restore backup file / iOS image that I can put on an hard drive and then use for a quick and painless restore after I get the new macbook?

Appreciate any suggestions, thanks in advance

The easiest way to copy your old setup (including your data) onto your new machine is to use Migration Assistant on the new model. This requires both computers to be connected "somehow" (with this "somehow" being as fast as possible, so a LAN is usually better than WLAN for instance).

If you don't have access to both machines simultaneously, I would use an external drive, use Disk Utility (or CCC or SuperDuper!) to create a full backup of the old computer and then use this backup as the data source for Migration Assistant. Creating a full image usually is faster than using Time Machine, you can then use the drive as a Time Machine destination after the migration.


About this MAC/Storage showing incorrect SYSTEM size I have a 250GB SDD, and AboutThisMAC is showing 191GB available, but ALSO showing the SYSTEM taking up 159GB.  I've scoured the forums and cannot find an answer to this strange occurrence.

I already rebuilt the Spotlight cache (add HDD to privacy, reboot, remove HDD from privacy, reboot)

I also check the TimeMachine, but since I haven't used it, it had no backups

Help?! (and thank you)

It seems illogical but it is really not. The important distinction to note is that the screenshot does not say "192.29 GB free", rather it says "192.29 GB available".

This is because the system part (shown as 159.77 GB) includes disk caches. Most of these disk caches are purgeable, meaning that they can be automatically freed up when space is needed.

So you have 191.29 GB available for you to use when you want - but while you're not using them, the system is using them to speed up operations using caching.


Keyboard predictions when typing in Safari address bar (iPhone) When typing something into the search / address bar in Safari or Firefox, the predictions and autocorrect are disabled. This means I don't get suggestions to complete the current word I'm typing either.
Is there a way to enable this functionality? It does seem to work in a lot of places e.g. iMessage, but also realised it doesn't work in the app store search bar.
I've just moved over from Android, so apologies if this has an obvious answer.
Phone is running iOS 14.4.2

The QuickType predictions don’t show when the text field has autocomplete disabled.
This is most often seen in inputs where completions appear as part of the text entry in the app. For example, regular QuickType predictions don’t appear in the Safari address bar because Safari shows autocomplete suggestions from your selected search engine. This is the same for App Store search, Spotlight, and others.


How do I make sure that the Yosemite icon for the Time Machine Disk on my desktop shows the updated version and not the Mavericks version? As you can see in the images the icon for the external drive Quetzalcoatl has update to the Yosemite version, however the Time Machine disk hasn't. Is it possible to force the use of the new icon?

Edit: There is nothing wrong here.

Under /Volumes/, there are two type of mounted volumes associated with Time Machine:

First is the hard drive the backup sits on. If you use Time Capsule, the hard drive inside is by default called Data. Because it's access through network, the volume in the picture has a Shared Disk icon. If you use an external drive through USB, the volume would have a USB/External icon.

Inside, there is a file with name like Someone's Macbook Something.sparsebundle. When backing up, Time Machine would mount this file and create /Volumes/Time Machine Backups. This volume is covered with Time Machine icon, and it only appears with TM is running. The name cannot be altered as far as I know

My conjecture is that Budda in question is a volume of a hard drive, not the mounted volume of the sparsebundle. Like other files, volumes can have its icon changed through Get Info window, which is probably why a generic disk got a TM icon in the first place.

Cut and paste the new icon from the location below, and you will have this resolved.

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/


Keynote won't update I'm trying to update my version of Keynote to 6.6.1 (it's now 6.2.2) so I can open presentations created in newer versions, but every time I click the "update" button on the App Store, all I get is the spinning wheel thing in the top left corner, which says "checking for updates" by it.  Nothing downloads, nothing happens.  Any suggestions?

I've just updated to El Capitan 10.11.3

Most likely this is down to the fact that your OS is not updated.  The current version of Keynote requires macOS 10.12.  You can confirm this by deleting Keynote from your applications folder, starting AppStore and installing Keynote.  You will get an error message that a later version of your operating system is required.


Mac Pro (10.11.5) can't log in, doesn't display screens I have an old Mac Pro tower (2009; firmware 5,1). I just updated to the latest El Capitan OS X 10.11.5 from 10.11.4. Since the upgrade, the computer has not been displaying screens (I have an Nvidia Quadro K1200 graphics card). However, if I use screen sharing from a different computer I can see the log in screen. However, if I try to log in, I can not. If I type in an incorrect password, the little typing window immediately bounces left/right. If I type the correct password, the typing window disappears, to be replaced by this spinning wheel (shown here in very low quality):

This spinning wheel usually means a successful login. It spins for about 5 seconds and then gets replaced by the login window again.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I figured out a way to solve this problem without too much trouble. However, it only works with a second mac computer.

Put the Mac Pro into target disk mode.
Use a cable to hook it up to another mac computer (I used a firewire 800 to thunderbolt cable)
Restart other mac computer and hold down option to see boot options.
Boot other mac computer from Mac Pro's startup disk.
Follow startup/login process as usual.
Restart both mac computers.

The Mac Pro now runs as usual.


White bar over menu bar? I'm experiencing this weird bug on OS X El capitan.

There is a white bar over most of my menu items in the top right of my screen. The items are still there and are interactable.

Anyone got any ideas? A quick google search didn't seem to give me any ideas for it.

For me this happened on one of the monitors that I was extending my macbook pro's desktop to, not all of them though.

Easiest fix, expand a program to full screen and then minimize it again, somehow the animation of expanding fixes it.


Macbook pro 13 - Sound comes from speakers instead of headphones Recently there appeared an issue when I plug my headphones into 3.5 output, the sound does not come from headphones instead it comes from the internal speakers.

The strangest thing is that Mac recognizes headphones when I plug them and changes the output in the settings automatically as it should, from speakers to headphones. But still for some reason sound comes from speakers.

I have also tried manually changing outputs, it seems to have no effect.

Mac OS 10.15.2

The problem was fixed by itself. Mac froze for some reason, I forced it to reboot, the problem was fixed.


Accessing ~/Library in Open/Save dialogs Sometimes, I want to save a file somewhere in ~/Library/. I can think of two ways to do this: either go to it in Finder and drag the folder to the dialog, or use a tool such as Default Folder to make the folder a favorite.

Is there any way to navigate to ~/Library/ within a Save dialog on Lion without using a third-party app?

You have several options:

Make the ~/Library directory permanently visible in Finder and add it to your favorites in the sidebar. Then you can simply click on it in the Open/Save dialog. To make the Library folder visible, type the following commands in the Terminal.
 chflags nohidden ~/Library

You can navigate in a bash-like manner with tab completion. In the Open/Save dialog invoke Go to Folder... using:
⌘+⇧+G.

You can show hidden files in the Open/Save dialog. This way you can navigate to your Library via a parent directory which is in your sidebar. To toggle hidden files press:
⌘+⇧+.


Have hearts replaced star ratings in iOS 8.4 with Apple Music/iTunes Match? I have been rating songs for a VERY long time, have several playlists using star ratings, etc.

You used to be able to click on an album and 'flip' it in iOS and could see the ratings of your music. This seems to be completely gone, and only have the option to 'heart' the item. Is there a way to edit the star rating of a song on iOS 8.4?

No - the controls are moved, though.

Click the song title in the now playing screen, it will change to a set of stars where you can see and change star ratings.


How to stop transfer of files to iCloud I accidentally copied a very large folder on my desktop. I saw that iOS started copying my large folder to the iCloud

I googled and found that if I removed the folder it should stop copying. So I went to the terminal and did a "mv" command to move the folder back to its original location

But iCloud is still copying that folder and the dialog above cannot be dismissed because the "x" sign at the end of the status bar is greyed out. I cannot stop this copy operation in any way.....

If you just can't wait for it to finish (I would just ignore and wait), you could disconnect from the network and then restart.

The iCloud sync respects the local filesystem, so any change there should be immediate once the network / restart changes.

You can log into iCloud.com as well once you clean things up / re-enable the network and give iCloud upload process a few tens of minutes to react and clean up.

I've had 10 GB go up one day, so as long as you aren't paying for the bandwidth and are close to an Apple data center (same half of a continent), 4 GB shouldn't take that long either to get uploaded and then delete.


How to solve it when the iPhone is going to be locked for 48 years? A mom gave her iPhone to her kid to play with (or possibly watch cartoons on YouTube), and the phone was auto-locked probably due to some time of inactivity.

Then the kid just randomly entered some passwords and then when the mom saw the phone again, the phone showed it would be locked for 25,114,984 minutes, before the user can try to enter the password again.

That's 48 years. How can it be solved, if the mom doesn't want to wait for 48 years?

This is very unlikely a security issue. This insane amount of minutes message is usually due to the iPhone clock being reset. You should be able to solve it by rebooting the phone (might need to do it a couple of times) with a working SIM card in that has data. When the phone boots it should sync the time and unlock everything.


Install 2 different OS X versions on the same machine/hdd OK, here's my situation :

I am a developer needing to debug under different OS X versions
I currently own 2 macs : a MacBook Pro and an iMac
the iMac has Snow Leopard (10.6) on it - it came pre-installed
the MacBook has been upgraded to Lion and then to Mountain Lion (10.8)
I have purchased Lion & Mountain Lion via the App Store.

What I need :

Install OS X 10.7 along with some of the other installations (in a different partition? via something like Parallels? I don't know... Ideas?)

Questions :

What's the best way I could achieve that? (I don't care if 10.7 will go with 10.6, or 10.8)
Where can I find an installation package for 10.7? (remember, I've already bought it)

Note : I'll most likely do it using partitions. The core of the question is : WHERE is my 10.7 installation file???

This is entirely possible. I use either of both of the following variants depending on what I'm trying to test:

Virtual machines

You can run OS X 10.7 and newer inside recent versions of Parallels and VMWare Fusion. You can also run the server variants of older OS X versions this way; these older server variants also work on VirtualBox, which is free for personal use.

Advantages:

Run multiple versions of OSX at the same time
Should be easier to automate (script) testing
Snapshots for easy rollback to previous OS states (e.g. different patch levels, etc.)
No need to repartition your disk

Disadvantages:

Noticeably slower than natively installed OSX.
If the software you want to test uses 3D acceleration or other non-USB hardware features, you will likely run into problems. Even USB devices may or may not work properly.
Parallels and VMWare Fusion cost money (but realistically, it isn't much)
Requires lots of RAM. It's just about doable with 4GiB, but I'd recommend 6-8 or more. RAM is pretty cheap, but some Macs are limited to 4GiB or non-upgradeable.

I don't have Parallels, but when I tried it, installation was pretty straightforward. VMWare Fusion just requires the Lion Installer.app (or Mountain Lion Installer.app) from the App Store for setting up a VM. When it asks for a disk or disk image, just drag the installer .app from Finder into the assistant window.

Multi-boot

You can install additional instances of OSX on your computers, and easily switch between them, either via Startup Disk in System Preferences or by holding the Alt/Option key when you hear the boot chime.

You can either repartition your existing disk - shrink it via Disk Utility and add an extra partition during setup - or install onto an extra hard drive or SSD. This can be an external USB or Firewire drive. Some Thunderbolt drives are also bootable.

The Installer.app

It's a good thing you've already purchased Lion, as you can no longer buy it from the App Store. The easiest will be to download it on your Mac running Snow Leopard: open the App Store, ensure you're logged in with your correct Apple ID and click the "Purchased" tab. You should be able to download Lion there.

When the download is done, it'll be an App in the Applications directory. Do not run it as that would upgrade your Snow Leopard install. If going the VM route, you can use the .app directly, otherwise you'll need to extract the InstallESD.dmg from the .app bundle and "restore" it to a USB stick (min 4GB) via Disk Utility. You can then boot from this stick by holding the Alt key when you hear the chime.

I also recommend backing up the installer app, as re-downloading it from the App Store from Mountain Lion is not possible out of the box. There are work-arounds, but I wouldn't rely on them continuing to exist.


Console log is telling me that database is locked for many apps. How do I unlock? I'm trying to diagnose a MacMini that is painfully slow to start up.
I already check the filesystem (fsck) and the disk (Disk Warrior).
I am running High Sierra.

My Mac is fine once it's up and running but something has to be going wrong during boot up.
Looking at the console log, I'm seeing a ton of "database is locked" messages for numerous apps including CalendarAgent, AddressBookSourceSync, soaagent, routined and so forth. Where are these databases and how can I unlock them?

The items I've found online regarding sqlite databases have been for Windows and Linux, not finding anything anywhere on this specific issue.

How may I analyse this problem and unlock these databases?

Just ran into this issue on a relative’s iMac and this worked:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203538


Can I restart macOS Sierra in safe mode remotely? I want to restart a MacMini with macOS Sierra in safe mode, but I have only remote access.

You can do this with this:

sudo nvram boot-args="-x"

(source: https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT201262).

But for macOS Sierra this gives an error:

  nvram: Error setting variable - 'boot-args': (iokit/common) not permitted

You have to start in RecoveryMode to be able to do this.

Is there a way to restart in Safe Mode remotely?

This is similar to Trying to set boot-args with nvram gets "general error" on Sierra. I have the same situation - you must be in Recovery mode to set nvram variables, so you cannot start in Safe Mode remotely, unless you have disabled SIP.

I've been able to set nvram variables remotely after disabling SIP (csrutil disable), but disabling SIP requires you to boot to Recovery mode.

However, if you have something like DeployStudio in your environment, you can:
1. Create a DeployStudio workflow that runs a simple bash script to disable csrutil
2. Configure your NetBoot set to auto-run that workflow for that machine
3. Configure the machine to reboot to that NetBoot set and reboot to kick things off.


Can't install inkscape on Yosemite with homebrew It seems like I should be able to install inkscape with something like

brew install inkscape

based on what I've seen online. Unfortunately, when I try this I get

Error: No available formula for inkscape
Searching formulae...
Searching taps...

What am I doing wrong?

Update 2017:

The preferred method to install Inkscape with homebrew in 2017 is:

brew update
brew cask install xquartz
brew cask install inkscape

Previous Answer:

Inkscape is a cask that you need to tap first before installing.

I tried a few of the suggestions given on this page, and the only thing that worked for me is a minor variation to jherran's answer:

$ brew search inkscape
$ brew tap homebrew/gui
$ brew install inkscape

At that point, I got the response Installing inkscape from homebrew/homebrew-x11 and the installation completed successfully. The result from the brew search command has changed a few times so be on the guard for it to change again and just tap the correct reply from the search command if it's not homebrew/gui next time you search.


Can I transfer photos that are not in my iPhone's camera roll to my computer? My iPhone was linked to my main computer and it has all my photos stored on it, but not in the camera roll. Since my husband blew the main computer up, my precious photos appear to be in limbo. It does not appear that I can import them anywhere. I could email all them one by one but that seems a little low tech. iTunes tells me that if I upgrade iOS I will lose my photos that are not in the camera roll. Also, the same would seem to be true if I deauthorize my main (now usless) PC. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, you can get the photos back on your computer that you synced to your iPhone. However, they will be a lower quality as iTunes automatically resizes them when it syncs them onto your device.

One way to copy photos off an iDevice is through a program called iExplorer (previously iPhone Explorer) that lets you access some of the filesystem on the iPhone.

Install the program from the website, then open it. You will be presented with a screen where you should find your iPhone listed. Here are the locations of the photos:

Camera Roll Photos:
iPhone -> Media -> DCIM

Previously Synced Photos:
iPhone -> Media -> PhotoData - > Sync

To get the synced photos off your iPhone drag the Sync folder into a folder on your computer and wait for them to copy. The same applies to the camera roll photos if you want to grab them at the same time.


Starting airplay from command line, to send output of 'Say' Mac OS X command to airplay Ok, Sunday question :) Trying to make a little joke...

if you open a terminal, and type "say -a ?", Mac OS X will give you the list of devices it can send spoken words to. On mine, it says:

39 AirPlay
47 Built-in Output

I have a Denon airplay-ready received in my living room and I'm trying to send spoken words to my wife downstairs... I can send music without any problem using iTunes so, from an infrastructure standpoint, I'm all set.
I want my computer to say (out of the blue) "Honey, why don't you bring me a cup of coffee". I can make it say that locally on my internal laptop speakers, but I can't seem to send that to device 39 successfully.

I am suspecting that there are a few other things that need to be setup before it works, i.e. setting up airplay output to "denon", maybe opening a channel and reserving it. I don't know.

Has anyone played with this? Is there a way to setup airplay from the command line? That would be awesome :)

I was playing with this a couple of weeks ago.

To send to my Apple Tv via airplay I used

 say -r160 -a "AirPlay" "Hover over a Method name while holding down the Option key until a question mark  appears"

One thing I noticed at the time was that I sometimes would have to run a second command to switch the audio back to the computer.

 say -r160 -a "AirPlay" "Hover over a Method";say -r160 -a "Built-in Output" "I am back"

*update
Just tested using the numbers and they work just as well in place of the device name.


Global Shortcut To Open Safari Is there a way to set a global shortcut Key to Open Safari in Mac OS?

After doing a bit more research I found this video on Youtube which provides a simple easy to implement solution. https://youtu.be/oR8FsCQQH9Y


Why is the Recovery volume's version of Disk Utility more powerful than that on the main volume? I'm running MacOS 13.2 on a mid-2014 MBP (11,3). I have a 2 TB external HD (Seagate Slim, spinning disk, GUID format) that was partitioned into two 1-TB volumes.  Recently, using my main volume's Disk Utility, I deleted one volume and expanded the other to 2 TB.  This action corrupted the drive: (1) while the partition map said the volume was 2 TB, Finder's info. window said its size was unchanged, at 1 TB; (2) Disk Utility's sidebar incorrectly depicted the volume as a separate device, rather than a volume on the existing device (it didn't indent it); and (3) First Aid failed.

I thus attempted to erase and reformat the drive.  That also failed.  I called AppleCare, and the advisor told me I should instead boot into the Recovery volume and try that operation from within its version of Disk Utility.  That succeeded, on the first try. The disk is now behaving properly.

Questions:

1) Why was the version of Disk Utility on the Recovery volume able to succeed where the standard version failed? The AppleCare advisor's confidence in the Recovery volume's version suggests this was not a fluke—i.e., that it's understood the latter is more powerful (and/or that it's somehow able to operate more powerfully from within the Recovery volume).

2) Given that the Recovery volume's version of Disk Utility appears to be superior, is it generally advisable for me to perform any future operations to modify or delete volumes using that version, rather than the one on my main drive?

Disk Utility is the same between the regular OS and maOS Recovery, but the environment it's running in is different, and that affects what it can do. The biggest constraint is that Disk Utility can't do much to things (e.g. volumes) that're in use. My guess is that some program had a file open on the volume, so it couldn't eject the volume, and therefore couldn't repair or erase it. In my experience, the background process that scans and indexes documents for Spotlight searches tends to be a culprit here.

In Recovery mode, almost nothing is running (including no Spotlight indexer!), so Disk Utility is much less likely to run into this sort of conflict.

BTW, there are some things that Disk Utility can do when running from the regular OS but not in Recovery. One I've run into is resizing the startup volume (if it's MacOS Extended format -- not sure about APFS). The reason for this is that the Recovery HD partition is right after the startup volume, so it needs to be moved if the startup volume is resized. But you can't move it if you're running from it!


How to delete (tmutil delete) all old backups from TimeMachine - keep only current full backup How to delete (with CLI tmutil delete) all old backups from TimeMachine. I wish to keep only current backup.

I wish to put that into crontab.

Found How to Delete Old Backups from Time Machine on Mac

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBook\ Pro/2015-07-13-150021/

I don't like to specify Timestamps. I wish to have only one current full backup. This means remove deleted files and versions from backup disk.

#!/bin/bash
latest=$(sudo tmutil latestbackup)
sudo tmutil listbackups | while read backup; do
    if [[ "$backup" != "$latest" ]]; then
        echo sudo tmutil delete "$backup"
    fi
done

Remove the echo once you are sure that the output is correct.


Cannot install macOS update with error "cannot verify this update" While installing the macOS 10.12.6 Sierra update from the Mac App Store, my system rebooted with the error, “Cannot verify this update.”

I’m trying to upgrade from macOS 10.12.5 to 10.12.6.

Try downloading the macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Combo Update instead. Then open the dmg file and run the installer.

The combo updater includes all minor updates since the .1 release, and it is therefore larger than the delta update. However since it reapplies any system changes brought on by previous updates, it should resolve any issues that came up during regular updates.


Re-use Mavericks install file I have three Macs I want to upgrade to Mavericks.  Is there a way of re-using the install files, so I don't have to do three separate 5gb downloads?

Download the update from the App Store. Once the file has finished downloading, check your Applications folder for the "Install OS X Mavericks" icon. Copy this installer to your other computers before going through the install process. The installer will delete itself after the install is finished.


Set audio output device hierarchy? Is it possible to set a hierarchy for audio output devices?

I have a home and work office and move my MacBook Pro (13", Touchbar) between them. When I'm at work, I connect to an Apple Thunderbolt display with built-in audio. At home, I connect to an HDMI monitor with horrible built-in audio, so I prefer to use the MacBook's speakers.

Despite manually changing the output device in each environment, the MacBook can't seem to make the right (or even consistent) choice on its own.

For example, at work, instead of choosing the Thunderbold display's speakers as an output device, my MacBook will choose it's internal speakers. At home, it will choose the HDMI monitor's speakers.

It would be great if I were to be able to put the output devices in a hierarchy, so, if a device at the top of the list exists, it would be selected before any others… similar to how you can drag Wifi networks into a specific order:

Try using your Audio MIDI Setup application under the Utilities folder. I don't have multiple outputs to test, but it looks like you may be able to adjust the order of preference.

Also as an alternative workaround you could use a VGA or DVI cable instead of HDMI, which will only transfer video and no audio.


Is there an iPad app like Snagit for marking up screenshots or pictures with arrows, callouts, dropshadows, torn edges, etc.? I LOVE Snagit.

I know that captures can only be done in iOS with the built in Home-Power screenshot function.

But I'm looking for an app that will allow me to edit those shots and add arrows, shadows, edges, callouts, blur, freehand circles, etc.

Is there something that does this well, with a focus on annotation?  (So I get that I can do this in Keynote an other apps, but since they're not made for it, it's painful, they can't export the picture back to the photo roll, etc.)

I you are looking mainly for annotation then Skitch could be worth a look.
It lacks the more fancy features you asked for (torn edges, blur, etc.) but for basic annotation (arrows, text, freehand) it is quite good.
Although it was acquired by Evernote it is possible to save the annotated image back to the camera roll.


Backing up an iPhone 6 too damaged to be able to be unlocked Having searched through other Q&As on backing up damaged phones, I can't seem to find a solution for my little problem, so I'm really hoping that by asking directly someone will have an answer!

I dropped my phone and the screen has smashed quite spectacularly. I can still view half of the display (notifications are still showing, etc.) but all control of the screen has been lost. Unfortunately, so has the touch unlock feature.

I'm desperate to be able to back it up before I send it to iPhone heaven, but am having real difficulties. I've tried a couple of the apps such as DrFone, but they all require a passcode.

Has anyone got any ideas please?

Unfortunately, there are not many options available should the screen be shattered. Depending on how valuable the data on your phone is (photos, texts, etc). then you might want to check into having the screen repaired.

An iPhone 6 screen can be repaired Out of Warranty by Apple for $106 + tax at a local Apple store, and there are also Service Providers (authorized) and third-parties which will also fix the screen at similar costs which may be closer to you. I'd recommend you look into that option, as

you will be able to retrieve your data (assuming no further damage than the screen)
You won't have to get a new phone over the issue, since the old one would be fixed

Beyond a physical repair of the device, your options would be limited. I might also suggest reaching out to a local third-party service as they might be willing to hook up a spare screen to your phone for the purpose of unlocking and backing up the data, but not a repair, at a lower cost should the full repair be too expensive. Of course, note that any 3rd-party repairs done by a non-AASP and/or non-Apple would void the warranty, should you have one.


What iTunes menu bar? When I open iTunes I don't see anything that says "file" so I can't select "transfer" in order to transfer files from my devices (iPhone or iPad) to my iTunes library, which should be done before I can update the devices.  When I open iTunes the play, rewind, and fast forward arrows are on top.  under that I see the music, movies, and tv icons, followed by my device icon and a battery life indicator.  No "File"  So, why doesn't my iTunes menu bar have "file" for me to click on?  It's not anywhere on the iTunes page that I can see.  I've been trying to update my devices for quite a while but I always wind up with the same dilema

Looks like that you are using iTunes for Windows. The menubar is hidden in iTunes. In order to turn on the menubar follow the instructions provided on Apple support page link given below. You can turn on and keep it temporarily or permanently.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202662


I can't find a list of all apps I've ever purchased ( paid $ free). From my iPhone I'm trying to find a certain few apps that I know I purchased but I can't remember the name of. I don't have access to my computer right now & there's an app that I really could use right now but I forgot the name of it so I can't just go to the app store and re-install it simply because I can't find it.

I don't, and won't have access to my computers iTunes for a few days. Otherwise I could just plug in my iPhone to my PC boot up iTunes and go through my list of thousands of apps that I've purchased and sync it to my iPhone. So if anyone knows ho I can get a list from my iPhone of every app I've purchased it would be very helpful.

If you are running at least 4.3, you can use the iCloud beta to see every app you ever purchased. If you open the Updates tab of the app store, there should be a Purchased button at the top. Tapping on this will give you a list of every app you purchased on your current account. I would suggest choosing the "Not on this iPhone" tab so you don't have to look through as long of a list. Once you find the app, tap the cloud icon to download it.


Sync voice memos for the first time I recorded a long and important voice-memo on my old iPhone which is not synced anymore to any iTunes. I wanted to retrieve the memo using the advice here, however choosing Sync Music in iTunes brought up this warning:

I tried to click Sync Music and the capacity bar at the bottom indeed indicated that all music, and presumably the voice memos too, would be deleted next time I sync the iPhone (the blue Audio bar was completely gone). I immediately reverted.

How can I retrieve the voice memos?

The other options in the question linked above include:

DropVox - which costs money and forces me to have a DropBox account
Macroplant iExplorer - which is a freeware that doesn't work for me

Try this way of syncing. You can also manually update songs if you don't want to lose songs.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/6403/iphone-transfer-voice-memos-from-iphone-to-computer/

Another option would be to email them to yourself.


Mail on OS X: Choose which X.509 certificate to use for signing mails I've got multiple X.509 certificates from different CA's for different purposes -- for example, one from CAcert.org, and another one from my university. Both have different advantages and disadvantages, and I want to decide which one to use in a by-case manner.

Sadly, I cannot find any preferences, not even for selecting a default. In the account settings there is an option for a TLS certificate, but this is only for authentication against the mail servers. How to either

select a key/certificate when composing an email (preferred) or
select a default certificate per mail address or give some certificate ranking?

Currently my only option is removing the one I don't want to use which is rather frustrating.

You can exactly specify the certificate to be used for sining outgoing emails by following these steps:

Open your keychain. Then right click on the list of certificates and pick the first item on the context menu (In English it is labeled New Identity Preference):

Then type in your email address and select the certificate from the drop down box to use for that address:

The next email you send from the email address typed in above will be signed with the selected certificate.


What is AirDrop in iOS 7? In the iOS 7 Control Center, there's an "AirDrop" option which gives me options to make myself "discoverable" to either contacts or everyone.

On OS X there is a feature called AirDrop that lets you share files between computers. How is this related? What can I share, and how? Does it require Bluetooth or Wi-Fi?

AirDrop

AirDrop for iOS is similar to the OS X counterpart. It allows you to share files over WiFi1 to nearby devices, such as photos, contacts or Passbook passes/tickets.

The 'Contacts Only' setting requires that you be logged in to your iCloud account, and you must have the sending device's Apple ID in your contacts.

The receiving device must accept a share, similar to OS X. A popup notification will appear when someone attempts to send you something.

1 (however Bluetooth must be powered for the initial connection to begin -  the device sends files through WiFi, however the secure connection handshake is achieved through Bluetooth)

  Sending a photo or a document to someone via text or email is fine. But if that someone is right next to you, a text or an email suddenly feels like too many steps. Enter AirDrop for iOS. It lets you quickly and easily share photos, videos, contacts — and anything else from any app with a Share button. Just tap Share, then select the person you want to share with. AirDrop does the rest using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. No setup required. And transfers are encrypted, so what you share is highly secure.