Unable to set live wallpaper in iOS 10 On iOS 10, when you go to select a wallpaper, you can select live photos. Then on the preview screen, there is a segmented control that allows you to choose from:

still
perspective
live

However, "still" is preselected and I can't tap on perspective or live. Tapping on the segmented control animates the live photo but it doesn't select what you are tapping. I have an iPhone 7 running iOS 10.0.3.

Is this due to some other setting or is it a really nasty bug? Force-quitting settings didn't help.

Do you by any chance have Low Power Mode on?

  Dynamic wallpaper and Perspective Zoom are disabled when Low Power Mode is on.

Go to Settings > Battery and disable Low Power  Mode to be able to select a Live Wallpaper and use the Live Photo or Perspective settings.


Safari 8.0 - 9.0 100% Cpu usage OSX 10.11.3 might be related to bookmarks / favorites I'm experiencing very weird issue as far I remember from Yosemite up to latest El Capitan 10.11.3 (15D21) and Safari Version 9.0.3 (11601.4.4) Actually it's started to become more annoying with time. Sometimes Safari goes up to 100% cpu usage, sometimes even more, but it's directly on safari process, all child processes stay at normal cpu usage including networking thread. I have started to debugging issue as far I can with closed source. I have tried to delete all cache,cookies,bookmarks and all possible data stored in relation to Safari.app including browsing and other databases. It didn't help much. I have created new test account on my macbook pro, then tried to reproduce issue with plain-set osx with safari, but after hours of usage couldn't reproduce the issue. Then I have imported Bookmarks.plist from my current account into cleanly set account, after less then 15 minutes, safari went up to 100% cpu usage again. I have also tried to use iCloud to automatically migrate safari data incase I have made mistake with manual transfer, but it seems icloud safari backup also made problem come back. My bookmarks seems normal, nothing to share here, few pages stored in favorites, one sub-directory in favorites, and couple more in bookmarks but more importantly plist file format does not seems to be corrupted itself. I couldn't find that issue is related strictly to one website, it seems it might be related to Favorites bookmarks. Does anyone have and workaround on this issue?

PS. I don't have any problems with other browser, such as Opera,Chrome,Firefox - but using other browser it's not the solution. If that might be helpful I have took part in developer preview beta program during Yosemite, I have went back to normal release with first public Yosemite release, but I don't really think this is source of the problem.

Safari process sample before 100% load

Screenshot with highlighted 100% usage of safari mother-process

Actually i have found solution of this issue. It seems apple didn't handled unusual cases with new Favorites tab introduced in Yosemite as far as i remember - but this is actually easy to predict, shame on you apple.

I have quite a lot pages in bookmarks (old styled, dropdown menu), and favorites tab, in favorites i have subdirectory with bitcoin exchanges. Some of those exchanges use cloudflare to prevent ddos attacks, and form time to time ask for captcha verification. It seems each time user click on URL Field in safari, favorites bookmarks appear, and safari try to download icons and maybe other meta data for each page, and then in case unusual response, it stucks safari and waste cpu on creating many threads for nothing, im not sure if it actually retry and try download again or it's strictly connected to processing downloaded metadata from page but it just make uncountable number of threads and block cpu with junk calculations. Im not exactly sure if it's caused by cloudflare check or by any other corrupted response. But finally i have moved all bitcoin exchanges subdirectory do old styled bookmarks, where obviously metadata or/and image is not being downloaded.

In case someone will need to fix it, just monitor bookmarks and safari cpu usage, and remove one by one from favorites, restart safari, and again until eliminate issue.


Export Notes from Entourage to Apple Mail Is it Possible to export the notes made in Entourage 2008 V 12.0.0 to Apple Mail notes? How do I do it?

You can Export your notes in Entourage by going to File > Export... or selecting Shift + Command + S, and then check boxing only Notes. When this is exported to a location of your choice (e.g. Desktop), it saves as a .rge. This file type cannot be opened in Apple Mail. Show Package Contents reveals a Notes folder with your exported notes encrypted inside that can only be opened via Entourage. I more or less ran into a dead end trying to figure this out for you.  As far as I could figure out, this cannot be done any easier way than the following:

Open Entourage
Go to Notes
Go to Edit > Select All (or Command + A) to select all of your notes
Go to File > Print (or Command + P) to act like you will print all of your notes
Select PDF > Save As PDF... and select a location of your choice (e.g. Desktop)
Try and import these into Apple Mail, and if unsuccessful import the PDFs you just created into Evernote
Rejoice or sulk depending on the situation and/or your mood

Let me know if you have any futher questions, and I promise that you'll enjoy Evernote if forced to use it. It's the business!


How do I generate a random even number with Applescript? I'm trying to create an Applescript that will change the MAC address of my router automatically. Some fields need to be even numbers but I can't figure out how to generate even numbers only. Heres what I have so far ..

set rand1 to (random number from 10 to 98) as string
set rand2 to (random number from 10 to 98) as string
set rand3 to (random number from 10 to 98) as string
set rand4 to (random number from 10 to 98) as string

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    open location "router-address/WanMAC.asp"
    tell application "System Events"
        delay 1
        keystroke "login"
        keystroke tab
        keystroke "password"
        delay 1
        keystroke return
        delay 1
        keystroke tab
        keystroke rand1
        keystroke tab
        keystroke rand2
        keystroke tab
        keystroke rand3
        keystroke tab
        keystroke rand4
        submit via javascript?
    end tell
end tell

Pretty rudimentary I know. But the basic idea is to fill in my login credentials, tab to the form fields that need to be changed, inputs a valid MAC address and then submits the form. Can anyone help? Thank you.

You can just multiply by 2:

(random number from 5 to 49) * 2


Is it OK to buy a refurbished MacBook Pro? I need to buy a MacBook for iPhone development, but I have budget constraints also.
I saw on Apple UK website that they are offering refurbished laptop(s).

So is it OK to buy a MacBook (refurbished) by Apple?

Here is one of the link of refurbished MacBook Pro.

They write on the refurb store:

  We test and certify all Apple refurbished products and include a one-year warranty.

They are even eligible to the AppleCare program if you buy it up to 1 year after your purchase.
So I don't see what problem you would face. It's a used device but verified, repackaged and certified by Apple.


Navigating huge tab lists in Safari Sometimes it is said that huge tab lists are counter-productive and may actually decrease focus. Still it is often unavoidable when researching a wide subject. I really miss TreeStyleTabs from Firefox then.

Anyway - does Safari have any shortcuts to simplify navigating tabs? For instance, some sort of 'Back/Forward' between tabs, or 'bookmarking' some tab location? Sometimes it happens that the new tab is opened in the rightmost position, and it takes time to locate the previously browsed tab. The only alternative i know is built-in in Safari is Show All Tabs feature. But still it doesn't give the tab browsing history, so to speak.

Do you guys have any ideas?

Thanks!

Key commands for Next/Previous tab are...

Next =  Ctrl ⌃   Tab ⇥
Previous =  Ctrl ⌃   Shift ⇧   Tab ⇥

There's a free/donationware Safari extension that can force some subtly different behaviour on tabs, might be worth a look - LinkThing


Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad in Macbook Pro High Sierra 10.13.5 I have a strange issue with this macbook. The built in keyboard and trackpad just all of a sudden died (no light in caps lock for example). Nothing works. But if I plug in a usb mouse and external keyboard they both work fine. Its not a hardware issue because If I use a linux live usb key and boot into it at start up the keyboard and trackpad work fine.

I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue. I've seen issues like this, but those are all from a few years ago at least.

I'm not sure what model MacBook you have, but Apple just recently issued a "Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro." Check out this link (https://www.apple.com/support/keyboard-service-program-for-macbook-and-macbook-pro) to see if your model is eligible. Hope this helps :)


Flash drive no longer visible within Windows I recently formatted a USB flash drive on my Mac (El-Capitan) and made a bootable Mojave installer drive. It worked great and there were no issues, until I needed to reformat it to use on Windows again. I've formatted the drive as FAT32 with a MBR partition and it reflects as such in the Disk Utility:

Drive:

Partition:

Windows Disk Management:

CMD Diskpart -> list disk:

For some reason, Windows doesn't even recognise that the drive is inserted into the PC. I'd expect to see a 16GB disk with no mountable volumes, instead I just see the same disk-listings that were there before I inserted the drive.

What frustrates me is that I've got experience with partitions and it's not usually rocket-science. The third image shows a hybrid drive with a MacOS partition (for my Macbook Air) that also contains a exFat partition for my media.

I've done this before many times over but can't, for the life of me, figure out why it's not working on this flash drive. Have I missed something really obvious? Am I losing my mind?

Try formating your USB flash drive again as HFS+ volume, first. Afterwards reformat it as FAT32.


Terminal does not accept root password (just changed it) Using dsenableroot I've just changed the password to a very simple one and terminal says

***Successfully enabled root user.

Then I run a command with sudo and it won't accept the password I just set.
Tried setting different passwords and opening new terminals but it doesn't help.

What can be the problem and how do I even debug this?

You need to enter the password of the current user (who needs to be in the admin group unless you changed sudoers) if you run sudo.

PS: as other people already mentioned in the comments: you don‘t need to enable root to run sudo, basically you don‘t need to enable it at all.


How do I restart my iPad mini? I can't restart my iPad mini by holding the power button and even in the powwr button in AssistiveTouch.Furthermore,I can't use any app that needed wifi.Lastly, my battery life is staying at 96% even after a couple hour.Please tell me how to fix it .tq

Try doing a "forced restart."

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201559

"You should force restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as a last resort, and only if it's not responding. To force restart your device, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for at least ten seconds, until you see the Apple logo."

When you see the Apple logo, release both buttons.


Using an sd card for extra space on bootcamp I finally got bootcamp working on my Mac so I could play windows steam games on it. The only problem is that I don’t have enough storage on bootcamp to download games from steam and I ran out of space on my Mac to put more space on bootcamp. I bought a 64 gb sd card to fix this, but I can’t figure out how to actually store the sd card storage on my mac. I converted the sd card to an external drive but that still didn’t solve it because I can only partition the sd card and I can’t add it to my mac’s storage. I also can’t add the external drive to my bootcamp storage, and whenever I try to use it on bootcamp (like installing steam on it or installing steam games) it won’t work. Is there any way to just add the external drive to my main Mac storage or to the bootcamp storage?

Sorry for the long rant it’s really frustrating me lol any help at all would be really appreciated!!

When working in Windows on Bootcamp, consider using the system entirely as a windows system. So you would want to format the SD card on the windows side. Then use Steam to save to the SD card itself.

Trying to merge the SD card with your internal storage on either Mac or Windows is going to be a recipe for disaster.

You may also want to consider the speed of the SD card when determining which games might play terribly off of it and which may do ok. You can get Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the App Store for free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test if you want to test it out. Format the SD card for Mac format first using Disk Utility. Test the SD card with Blackmagic. Then test your internal drive as well. Anything over 100MB/s should be reasonable for most games -- less and you may want to consider what to put on the SD card and avoid games that push the drive read/write speeds.

Once you're back in windows, erase the SD card again and use something like NTFS format so it's nice and fast.

Then follow some steps for Steam to save the games you want to the SD card. For example this video on Youtube talks about the exact issue you're trying to do (albeit not on a Mac using Bootcamp).
Save Steam Games to SD card
Here are the basic steps:

Make a folder on the SD card to store games in
In Steam, click Steam menu in upper left, choose Backup and Restore Games. Then click Downloads.
Click Steam Library Folders, then click "Add library folder" and browse for the new folder you created above on your SD card.
Right click the SD card option in that window and choose Make default steam folder. Then new games will be downloaded to the SD card instead of the internal drive.

Enjoy!


Ejecting disk from non-booting Macbook My Macbook does not power up for more than a few seconds, and I have declared it dead. The only issue is that there is still a disk inside of it of Snow Leopard. The MB doesn't power on long enough to push the trackpad button, or do the PRAM Reset, or press the Eject button on the keyboard before shutting down again. Any ideas how to MANUALLY remove the disk?

Get a standard USB mouse, attach it and press and hold the primary mouse button, while starting. This invokes the eject before the blutooth drivers are even loaded.


Safari AutoFill/Preferences My question is: where does one find this option in the preferences for Safari Version 7.0.3 (9537.75.14)? I cannot find this option anywhere: not in Mac OS X System Preferences or in Safari’s own Preferences. I would love to be able to save the passwords for these sites, so that I don’t have to keep regenerating and re-remembering them.

It's gone. Use this extension to work around it:
http://ozymandias.me/2013/05/08/force-autocomplete-on-in-safari/


Can I restart my Mac remotely via screen sharing if the screen shows only linen? I am currently in Norway.  My Mac mini is in my apartment in Australia.  I can access screen sharing via Back To My Mac.  It connects fine, but the screen has only linen - no menu bar, no dock, no anything else.  I am fairly sure that is what is actually on the screen and that it isn't a problem with the connection or anything like that (it's happened once before while I was sitting in the same room...)

I know the system is responsive because the one other thing that can poke through my router is the Transmission web interface, and that works just fine.  (Unfortunately I seem to have neglected to forward a port for ssh...)

Is there any way I can reboot or otherwise regain full use of the system via the limited screen sharing access that I have?

So apparently you can use the Back To My Mac infrastructure to get to SSH even if there's no port open on the router in front of the relevant Mac:

Find your iCloud account number by executing this command in terminal:

dns-sd -E

Example output

Looking for recommended registration domains:
Timestamp     Recommended Registration domain
23:45:15.660  Added     (More)               local
23:45:15.660  Added                          icloud.com
                                             - > btmm
                                             - - > members
                                             - - - > 123456789

(Make a note of the number on the last line, in this case 123456789 (this is just an example).

The hostname you need to use for ssh is <computer's local hostname>.<number above>.members.btmm.icloud.com.  Replace spaces with hyphens, and omit apostrophes (the default name is "Name's <type of Mac>")

The command I used therefore was:

ssh -2 -6 Jons-mac-mini.123456789.members.btmm.icloud.com

To complete the solution to my problem (rebooting), once logged in via SSH, I used the following command to restart:

sudo /sbin/shutdown -r now

(Sourced from here)


Best method to disable Radeon card in 2011 MacBook Pro? LangLangC has given a very detailed answer as to how to disable the discrete Radeon graphics card in a 2011 MacBook Pro.  It seems to be highly regarded, because it got a +97 score:

GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen

But there is also a Mac app called gfxCardStatus, which allows one to "Manually switch to Integrated Only or Discrete Only mode to force one GPU on or the other":

https://gfx.io/

Does LangLangC's method have any advantages over simply using gfxCardStatus?

gfxCardStatus disables the automatic graphics switching that macOS performs when a high performance application wishes to use the discrete graphics. When macOS boots, it detects both GPUs and uses software to switch to the discrete graphics when required. Since both GPUs are detected on boot, both GPUs are powered up, though the discrete graphics quickly switch into a lower power mode until required.
Disabling the discrete graphics using the kext method completely disables the discrete GPU so it doesn't power on. This is especially useful if the GPU has an issue that causing the machine to kernel panic. The gfxCardStatus method wouldn't prevent this, but the kext changes would.


Calculation in Numbers to figure out the date 5 business days from another date I have been going around and around but haven't quite grasped some of the key formula concepts.

I have a start date and want to add 5 business days to it. Start date + 5 doesn't take into account that one or two of those days may be a weekend.

How would you set that up?

Days and dates are always messy, so whenever possible, one should try to use someone else's hard work. In this case, Apple have done it for us.

Say your date is in B2, example forumla to add five business days:
WORKDAY(B2,5,)

You can read more about its usage and find the other date-related functions available in Apple's Numbers Functions Reference.


"Safari wants to use your confidential information stored in "website" in your keychain" I had to install Google Chrome on my Mac for some reason, but do not intend to use it as my default browser. After logging in with my Google account, the following happened:

All my saved passwords on Chrome now appear in Safari saved passwords. I have no idea how this has been done.
Each time I visit a website in Safari, there's a popup saying "Safari wants to use your confidential information stored in "website" in your keychain".

For the 1st problem, ok it's fine, although it should have asked for my approval before importing the passwords. The 2nd is really annoying. Please suggest me a way to get rid of those popups (without disabling Keychain of course).

Thank you in advance for your help.

Open Keychain Access.app in your Utilities folder. Highlight one of
  familiar keychain entries on the right side or type a familiar name in
  the spotlight panel.

  Then double click the entry. When the panel opens, select "Access
  Control".

  In the "Always allow access" panel, click on the +, then navigate to
  Safari in your Applications folder. Save changes.

  Just for good measure, go to the Keychains Menu>Keychain First-Aid and
  select "repair". If any errors appear, rerun until you get a clean
  pass.

  Close Keychain Access and restart Safari.

source:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2060870?tstart=0


Why are some fonts listed with ls shown in red and with a star at the end of the filename? I am trying to use some fonts in ImageMagick which are not showing up, despite me using the same script that works on another Mac. Listing the fonts in /Library/Fonts I can see that the missing fonts are listed differently when I use the ls -lahFG command.

What does this way of listing files mean?

It means the font files are marked as executable, i.e. they contain code which can be executed. This is clearly incorrect for what should be a font file with no concept of being executed.


Mail Quits unexpectedly every time it opens I have a serious problem with the Mail application. It just won't open. I've seen some 'remedies' for example, resetting rules and settings, but this can't be done if the app doesn't even open.

Process:               Mail [7832]
Path:                  /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
Identifier:            com.apple.mail
Version:               9.2 (3112)
Build Info:            Mail-3112000000000000~7
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           Mail [7832]
User ID:               501

Date/Time:             2016-03-27 13:50:44.435 +0800
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11.3 (15D21)
Report Version:        11

Time Awake Since Boot: 52000 seconds
Time Since Wake:       11000 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        27  Dispatch queue: Task Manager Serialization Queue :: NSOperation 0x7fc5c84d2430 (QOS: LEGACY)

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Attempting to perform a synchronous operation while on the serialization queue'
abort() called
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

Please help! Mail is a reasonably important part of doing business
(Full error log here).

  This is different from Mail.app crashes constantly, even after deleting mail profile and cache,
  because users are able to open
  the app to commence remediation activities there. As stated, I had tried
  this but each time the the app opens it crashes immediately. The
  resolution in the other thread is not possible to implement in this
  case.

I had similar problem. The crash report was:

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

If your crash note is  EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY, Then deleting all your accounts and re-adding them will solve your problem.


Enter standby manually on Macbook I have set my MacBook to forget the filevault password after going into standby (not sleep) after a few hours. This works great, but sometimes I don't want to wait that long for the system to go to standby. So is there a way I can force going into standby immediately?

I know the 'pmset sleepnow', so I was hoping there is something like 'pmset standbynow', but I cannot seem to find it.

Standby is effectively hibernate mode, one of the several versions of sleep. It's actually possible to set the sleep mode, then call pmset sleepnow.

Let's go over each of the sleep modes:

0 - Old style sleep mode, with RAM powered on while sleeping, safe sleep disabled, and super-fast wake.

1 - Hibernation mode, with RAM contents written to disk, system totally shut down while “sleeping,” and slower wake up, due to reading the contents of RAM off the hard drive. (Deprecated)

3 - The default mode on machines introduced since about fall 2005. RAM is powered on while sleeping, but RAM contents are also written to disk before sleeping. In the event of total power loss, the system enters hibernation mode automatically.

5 - This is the same as mode 1, but it’s for those using secure virtual memory (in System Preferences -> Security). (Deprecated)

7 - This is the same as mode 3, but it’s for those using secure virtual memory.

25 -  The
     system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and
     will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image.

You can get more in depth information from the man page. Please read it, it contains more in depth info.

You're probably after 25. It's quite easy to set your sleep mode.

Just in case, first note down the current sleep mode in case something isn't working later. pmset -g | grep hibernatemode will tell you. Note this down somewhere. You can then set the sleep mode using sudo pmset -a hibernatemode MODE, which in you case would be sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25.

If you want something that will hibernate without keeping the sleepmode as 25, you can use DeepSleep to hibernate on demand.


OSX VM running 10.10 on a machine running 10.12? Ive got some hardware that i need to configure. The hardware has proprietary software to configure it that can only be run on a machine running OSX 10.10.

Im a currently running OSX 10.11.

Is it possible to run an OSX programme in compatibility mode ?
Is it possible to install OSX 10.10 on a VM that i can run on my machine running OSX 10.11 ?

Yes - we do this sort of virtualization all the time at work. We use VMware Fusion, but Parallels is also quite good and some prefer it over Fusion.

Most people are licensed for non-commercial use of 2 virtual OS per copy when running on Mac hardware as part of the normal EULA:

https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/

For commercial purposes, you'll want to work with your legal and/or licensing team so they know what you've set up.


Can Ipad 4 bought in USA work with other mobile operators in Europe? I need information and explanations how Ipad 4 with mobile card can work in Europe
(Alcatel,, Wodafone or others)? Can somebody help me and explain what and how I can change its settings in order to work with the local providers?

In general, yes. Apple has a very easy to read page listing all the LTE channels each iPad supports.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/LTE/

Since no iPad is locked to a carrier, you don't have to jailbreak or unlock them - just pop in the Sim card for whatever carrier you like and you'll be pretty much ready to go. You should also check the non-LTE radio frequencies for each model by looking over the technical specifications page.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

In the US, the Verizon & Sprint models also speak CDMA as well as operate on all the typical GSM data frequencies - so you might prefer a pure GSM model or one that can work on CDMA if needed, but this won't make much difference for many that want to use an iPad in Europe.


Hombrew is asking me for a version of Xcode the OS doesnt support I need to download certain apps through homebrew, one of them being pygtk, but when putting the rather simple command that should install it homebrew says my Xcode (6.4 because I am on Yosemite) is outdated and that need the 7.2.1 which I can't install because it's not supported in Yosemite. How can I fix this?

This may mean that you can't install pygtk through homebrew on Yosemite. You may still be able to compile from source, even with your version of Xcode.


Does memory need to be installed in same-size pairs in the Mac laptops of recent years such as MacBookPro8,1? In the old days memory needed to be installed in pairs of equal size such as 2 X 2 gigs for a total of 4 gigs. Installing say one 2 gig module and one 4 gig module for a total of 6 gigs would either not work or would cause slower operations than if a same size pair were installed.

Is that still the case?

For example an a MacBookPro8,1 (Late 2011) might we install one 2 gig module and one 8 gig module for a total of 10 gigs without problem nor penalty?

According to Apple's official site:

  For best performance, fill both memory slots, installing an equal memory module in each slot.

I believe it is technically possible to install RAM of different sizes, but Apple doesn't officially recommend it.


Reinstall OSX without having firmware password (but having root access to osx) I know that the question can sound suspicius but let me explain. I've installed in end 2015 a frash mac osx. I setted up the firmware password and never used again. Until today. The problem is: I forgot that. I know that I can go to an Apple Store or a certified shop and have it restored, but this requires me a lot of time (I'm far away from Apple Store and the neares shop told me they have to keep it for 10 days beacuse they have other pc to repair first..).

My goal is to reinstall a fresh Mac OSX (I do every year). Is this possible without having the firmware password? I usually do the Command+R and the proceed from there, but I can't beacuse I don't remember the password.

I was wondering: if I download sierra installation can I run a fresh installation and erase all data?

PS: With the find my phone I can reset pc, but can I also reset the firmware password (I dubpt so)

There is nothing nicer than a fresh install, and the FW password was also an obstacle for me on my Mid-2012 Mac. After tinkering, I was able to erase my Mac to factory default and fresh install, but, this method does not reset the FW password.

You will need:
- An internet connection
- A second apple device connected to an Apple ID
- Your Mac, connected to the same Apple ID with Find My Mac enabled.

Connect iCloud "Find My Mac"
Using another device, locate your Mac and find the "erase" option.
Once your Mac has been erased, you should be taken to the recovery menu by default where you are able to install a fresh version of MacOS without the FW password.

This method will erase and restore your Mac to factory defaults, as if it were just out the box!

This was also my ultimate goal (security paranoia) and was relieved I did not have to go to apple and wait 10+ days for repair.

Unfortunately, after days of googling, tinkering and having faith I would be the first to break the code.... I do not think there is anyway to reset the FirmWare PW unless you visit Apple.


pfctl to add rules at runtime WITHOUT editing /etc/pf.conf? I have an app that (while it is running and only while it is running) needs to make changes to the packet filter (pf) so that it blocks or allows certain traffic. These rules should be in addition to the user's own rules in /etc/pf.conf - but i do not want to directly edit /etc/pf.conf as this is extremely intrusive.

I can do this trivially in linux using iptables and even in windows using wfp without altering any on-disk files, can i accomplish the same thing in osx with pf ?

Solution only has to work in yosemite (10.10) and above

I solved this myself.

cat /etc/pf.conf my_rules.conf | sudo /sbin/pfctl -Ef -

Where my_rules.conf contains our own rules, these get concatenated to the pf.conf rules but take precedence due to them being appended after pf.conf in the cat command.

Also note we use pfctl -Ef -  the - forces pfctl to read from stdin

We can take this solution a step further and load our own rules from stdin by using this:

echo "block out all" | cat /etc/pf.conf - | sudo /sbin/pfctl -Ef -


Service to underline plain text with a line of dashes I am looking for a text service that I can call from a plain text editor (BBedit for example) and will operate the following modification:
Before:
This is a line of text

After:
This is a line of text
----------------------

Thanks !

BBedit can execute shell commands on selected text, so adapting something like
echo 'This is a line of text' | sed -n 'p;s/./-/gp'

to make it work when called from BBedit should work.

sed -n runs sed without echoing its input automatically
p is the first command applied to the input, it just prints the input (technically the content of the pattern space)
s/./-/gp is the second command, it replaces all characters in the pattern space by - and prints the result


Why is Convert to APFS Failing? I have an SD card formatted as Mac OS Extended that was imaged with the Apple Diagnostics disk image. Holding option to boot to this SD card on a Mac works as expected.

I tried to use Disk Utility to convert the only volume on the SD card to APFS, and Disk Utility presents the error

  An internal error has occurred. Operation failed…

Is there an alternate way to make this work or otherwise a way to figure out exactly what's going wrong with the APFS conversion? Thanks!

Just as an update, with a Mac OS Extended USB drive connected, this is the output of diskutil list.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            240.1 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 19.7 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *15.8 GB    disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS AppleDiagnostics        15.5 GB    disk3s

The only macOS version that can boot from a APFS container is High Sierra. In your case, the Apple_HFS volume does not contain not High Sierra. There is no way to convert to APFS and remain bootable.


Complete system hang, graphics-card related ("IntelAccelerator: bad busy count (255,1)") I have just upgraded my machine to Yosemite (as of three hours ago), and I have encountered my first hang (on this laptop, which is about a week old). The system locked up quite hard, with only the mouse pointer movable; after a few seconds, the mouse pointer stopped moving too.

After waiting for the fans to spin down, I rebooted and was told my GPU crashed. The system console log shows endless repeats of the following:

10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: Trying restart GPU ...
10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: IntelAccelerator: bad busy count (255,1)
10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: Backtrace 0xffffff80008aff15 0xffffff80008afcd3 0xffffff7f822cd564 0xffffff7f822a6936 0xffffff7f822ae1c1 0xffffff7f822ae15d 0xffffff7f822c2999
10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(156.4)[20DDCE61-E3EC-3CC1-8B79-170CEF2B603A]@0xffffff7f822a4000->0xffffff7f82310fff
10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[766FC23F-452C-3B74-951C-598BB17BCF06]@0xffffff7f80b24000
10/17/14 5:30:57.000 AM kernel[0]: dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[6D99A3BE-D531-3780-880B-13F2FC894A4A]@0xffffff7f80eb0000
...
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: SYSCONFIG_GTVTD13                   : 0xffffffff
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: SYSCONFIG_GTVTD14                   : 0xffffffff
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: SYSCONFIG_GTVTD15                   : 0xffffffff
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: ===========================================================================
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: End Hang Analysis
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: ===========================================================================
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: Trying restart GPU ...
10/17/14 5:30:58.000 AM kernel[0]: IntelAccelerator: bad busy count (255,1)

Evidently, it was attempting to restart the GPU once per second, to no avail.

Has anyone previously encountered this issue? Are there any known workarounds?

This is related to graphics card switching. As @nneonneo said, disabling "Automatic graphics switching" is one option but the better option is to use "gfxCardStatus" application and make Yosemite stick to integrated (Intel) card which will prevent auto graphics switching and won't drain your battery and run hot as it would if you did the "Automatic graphics switching" way (because it sticks to discrete card).

BTW: I can reproduce the problem on my MBPR Jun 2012. Go to this website in Safari, which triggers the automatic graphic switching. Refresh the page a few times and you will crash Yosemite. It seems to happen when it switches to discrete and back to integrated in quick succession.

Edit:
Using that website, it won't crash as often as before. Because it was a WebGL component causing the switch and one of the updates did something related to
WebGL.


OSX won't search deep enough on external drive When doing a search on my external drive (SSD) using Finder it only searches like 1, 2 or maybe 3 folders deep. I have to manually navigate deeper into folders, in order to increase my reach.

I can't find anything about this online. Any ideas?

Have you tried rebuilding the Spotlight index?

This link to Apple support shows how to do it.

Apple Support: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac


Change Keyboard Layout on Lock Screen I've been struggling with the following problem:

I am writing something in German during the day, therefore I change my keyboard layout to their QWERTZ style.
When I lock the screen or close my MBP it somehow locks the keyboard style as well.

When I come back and try to type my password, no success. My password has a certain special symbol that cannot be typed on the US keyboard using German layout.

I try the shortcut to change layout and nothing happens. At the top of the screen I can't see the flags either.

Is there a way to change keyboard layout on the Lock Screen?

Everytime this happens I have to reset the computer using the power button, which is bad to my open applications.

Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups.

Click Login Options. Check the box next to Show Input menu in login window

You will then see a keyboard icon when your screen is locked.

Command + Click the keyboard icon should allow you to change the input.


Restore Time Machine backup from Mac Mini to Mac Pro? I need to restore a TM backup from my old Mac Mini to my new (new to me) Mac Pro 5.1 tower. Do I really have to remove the drive from the Mac Mini? It's a pain, so I'd prefer to keep the drive in the Mac Mini if I can. Can I use?

Target disk mode?
Copy over the network?

Edit: Migration Assistant is failing on the Mac Mini - it just immediately logs me out when I try to connect to the MP. Any ideas? The MM is on High Sierra, the MP is on Mojave. Both on a flat LAN beside each other, no firewall or anything.

Yes, you can just use Migration Assistant to transfer your files from the old computer to the new. There's no need to create a Time Machine backup first in order to migrate data and settings.
It does not matter that one is a Mac Mini and the other is a Mac Pro.
Migration Assistant will be default allow you to transfer the data over the network. Both computers need to be on the same local network. It doesn't matter if it is a wired connection or a WiFi connection - however a wired connection is often fastest.


Backup Disk 'doesn’t contain an EFI system partition' I have a 750GB Western Digital external HDD which I use for Time Machine backups (MBP, OS 10.10.3). Today I had the need to boot to recovery, which I did from said backup. But I was unsuccessful in doing it again, whenever I booted with ⌘-R, OSX went straight to internet recovery. I can still boot to recovery from it by holding ⌥ at boot and choosing the disk.

Now, when booting from my internal disk and running a Verify Disk on the backup drive, it says

Error: This disk doesn’t contain an EFI system partition. If you want to start up your computer with this disk or include it in a RAID set, back up your data and partition this disk.

Meanwhile, running diskutil list reveals

/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.1 GB   disk3
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk3s1
   2:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS WD                      749.6 GB   disk3s3

I never bothered to check it before, so I do not know if something has changed there, but firstly, I do not know where the Microsoft Reserved partition comes from, or what it is, secondly, I can see the EFI partition, so why does Disk Utility ignore it? And how do I make it useable for recovery without erasing all data?

Unless I'm missing something here it shouldn't be much more complicated than booting into your recovery partition (assuming it's working correctly), reinstalling OS X and then restoring your data from the TM backup on your WD drive when prompted at the end of the OS X installation process.

If you have issues with the recovery partition go for Internet Recovery instead, using Disk Utility to erase your drive before attempting an OS X installation. This will allow the OS X installer to create a new clean recovery partition that should be accessible from CMD + R.

The WD drive should be usable for recovering your data in its present state as Time Machine will alert you the first time you try to use a drive if it has an incompatible file system. As you've made a TM backup the drive must already be correctly formatted. The EFI issue should only really affect you if you are trying to boot from the external drive, which you're not as it doesn't have OS X installed on it. If you've any doubts about your external WD drive then repartition it once you've restored your old data, this should flush out the Microsoft system partition and create a new EFI partition in the correct location on the disk.


Location of Message Attachments in iOS 6 Backup? I'm trying to get all my Messages (not E-Mail) and connected attachments out of a iOS 6 backup. I know there are tools like Wondershare Data Recovery for iTunes but they are not cheap and I'm trying to do this by my self with a self written python script.

I already know that the backups are stored here:

  ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

And in a specific backup (XY) the messages are stored in this file:

  ~/Library/Application
  Support/MobileSync/Backup/XY/3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28

This is a SQlite database file, so I can access it in different ways (e.g. SQLite Manager add-on for Firefox).

Now where are the attachments? In the messages database file above I found a table called "attachment" and "message_attachment_join" which helps to get the right attachments to a single message. But the path in "attachment" is like:

  /var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/5D58C5EE-8F51-445C-A3FC-D6X94B6B6932/IMG_1230.png

I think this is the path on the iPhone. Where are all this files backuped to? In a backup directory I found three big files about 1.5 to 2.5 GB. Maybe they are stored there? But in which format, as a ZIP or TAR?

Does somebody know where I can find this files?

Given your file:

/var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/5D58C5EE-8F51-445C-A3FC-D6X94B6B6932/IMG_1230.png

Replace the var/mobile/ with MediaDomain- so that you end up with this:

MediaDomain-Library/SMS/Attachments/5D58C5EE-8F51-445C-A3FC-D6X94B6B6932/IMG_1230.png

Take the SHA1 hash of the above filename and that should be the name of the file in your backup: e6f11db0844899e5f8a04a796c74c234a3dcc5bc

To get the hash for testing, try the following link: http://www.fileformat.info/tool/hash.htm


Watch folder for Photos When I'm on my iPhone, pictures downloaded from the Internet are automatically uploaded to my iCloud Photo Library.

I want the same thing to happen for pictures downloaded from the Internet when I'm on my Mac. Let's say I want to upload to the Icloud Photo Library every new image in the folder Downloads.

Is there a way to do it seamlessly ?

Add Photos actions to Automator using https://photosautomation.com/
Construct the following Folder Action in Automator

I'm still not 100% satisfied, since folder actions are not super robust so I welcome other answers!


How to remap right Control key to Command/apple key? Similar question over here does not provide an answer.

tn2450 gives no option to address apple/command key.

System settings do not allow to remap only right Control key.

Is there a way to make right-Control key to act like Command key while leaving left-Control alone?

Karabiner should be able to do that for you.

If this is a USB device, you might be able to do use Keyboard Maestro too.


How to mute accessibility options voice over? Sometimes when I double click the power button, I hear a voiceover for accessibility options.
How do I disable this and all other potential voiceovers?

A triple-click on the power button will show the accessibility shortcuts window. In macOS Catalina, you can disable this in System Preferences → Accessibility → Shortcut (at the bottom of the sidebar list) by disabling all the checkboxes in the list. Prior to macOS Catalina it is not possible to disable this action.


Icons not appearing on High Sierra I updated to High Sierra on my Macbook Pro when it was released.
Since I have updated, a lot of my applications show the attached icon when I open them.
Does anyone know a fix to this?

Give this a try.

sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.iconservices -exec rm -rf {} \;
sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store
killall Dock

After running the commands, I had to remove the app from the dock and add it again. It worked for me but YMMV.


Disable Esc shortcut to quit Fullscreen Some apps (Safari, iTunes...) quits fullscreen mode on Esc keyboard shortcut. Is there a way to disable it? It interferes e. g. with web apps control resulting in unintentional quitting fullscreen when you just hit one more Escape than you should.

Good question. Before browser makers figured out cmd-q was awfully dangerous without at least a prompt that the user really wants to close 60 tabs, I always changed the keyboard shortcut for the Quit command on my main browser. You can disable shortcuts via Keyboard Shortcuts.

Open System Preferences: Keyboard.
Click Keyboard Shortcuts in the top pill shaped tab.
Click the Applications Shortcuts icon in the left hand column.
Choose Safari from the drop down menu of offered applications (looks like the default list is applications which have been opened in the last  three months).

Enter the exact name of the menu item you wish to disable. In this case "Exit Full Screen".
Add an alternative keyboard shortcut (in this illustration, I added Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-c)

This is what the finished result looks like.

Test (alternative Application Shortcuts do now always work exactly as planned).

You can do the same thing with Keyboard Maestro (and much much more). Apple's feature is probably taken/adopted from Peter N. Lewis's implementation (which existed for many years before Apple came up with the feature in Snow Leopard). In Keyboard Maestro, you can also assign the same shortcut to multiple applications. In Keyboard Maestro, you can also take over keyboard commands which do not have menu items (complex applications like Photoshop come to mind: there are so many commands that many of the commands have no menu equivalent). It's also easier to move these preferences around from computer to computer if you are using Keyboard Maestro.

On the other hand the Apple version exists on all Macs past 10.6.8, including your less technical girlfriend's MacBook Pro. I use both depending on whether I want a quick fix or if I'm building permanent tools/shortcuts for an application I use professionally on multiple computers. Keyboard Maestro does far more than just substitute keyboard shortcuts: you can write sequential macros with pauses to automate what would otherwise be five or ten keypress and click type actions, i.e. redirecting, address and send email to someone else in the company with a single keyboard command.


How can I configure my iPad so that it doesn't stop uploads after getting auto-locked? I'm trying to upload a file to Google Drive and SendAnywhere, which would take over an hour. However, I cannot disable auto-lock on my iPad (iPadOS 13) (the maximum auto-lock period is 15 minutes), and whenever the iPad gets locked, uploads are stopped.  How can I configure my iPad so that it doesn't stop uploads after getting auto-locked?

Unfortunately there's no setting like that to configure.
You can ensure that your iPad is not set to Low Power Mode (check in Settings > Battery).
Besides that, the rest is up to the app developer.


Does Google Chrome have a significant impact on MacBook battery life compared to other browsers? I've been reading , a bit about users noticing a severe drop in battery life when using Google Chrome.

I'm curious if this is a real issue - and attributed to the rendering/flash engine it uses.

Battery Life is different than Battery Duration. Battery life will be tied to the maintenance and usage you give to a battery. To put it simply, if your battery is designed to be charged 100 times before it dies (cycles), then using the 100 charges in one month will be the same as using them in 1 year. (or almost the same, since there will be a small loss of power when the battery is idle).

What I mean is, the battery life shouldn't be greatly affected by any application's usage pattern. But…

The truth is that battery duration is definitely affected by the power consumption. In other words: the more the power your computer uses, the less the batter will last with charge, before it requires to be recharged.

With that logic in mind, Chrome is a moderately CPU intensive application on its own (a tradeoff that is inherited by its One Process Per Tab design). It taxes your hardware a little bit more when creating new tabs and it uses slightly more RAM in order to keep things smooth. In exchange, you have a very solid -hard to crash- browser that will be able to keep working even if some of its tabs are literally dead.

Despite that, however, Chrome has Flash (as an extension you can disable). It uses the "same" Flash, but bundled internally. If chrome uses some more battery (something that I have yet to see in real life), Flash uses probably all the battery you can throw at it, but not because Flash needs battery, it's because it needs CPU power, a lot, all the time. CPU power needs electricity. Batteries have Electricity. In the absence of a power outlet, guess who's there to provide juicy power to that hungry CPU? Yes, mamma battery.

So Flash will definitely decrease your battery charge duration (and in turn, it will force you to cycle charge your battery more often, therefore decreasing its life), but this will also happen on Safari, Camino, Firefox and possibly other applications or browsers that use Flash.


Lost Launchpad configuration If I move an app in Launchpad and then I "killall Dock" from the terminal, the Launchpad sometimes gets its previous configuration so my changes are lost. How can I restart the Dock without losing the Launchpad configuration?

Something like osascript -e 'quit app "Dock"' might work. If not, you could also quit and reopen Dock by logging out and back in.


How do I setup Apple Mail to automatically move old email to the Archive folder? I want Apple Mail to automatically move all email, read and unread, to the Archive folder IF it's past a certain date. I want this move to take effect on ALL my devices (mac,iPad,iPhone,etc). How can I set this up? Can I set this up from the iPad or only on the Mac?

"I have a me.com email address." queued me in that you are probably on IMAP. Simply put IMAP syncs your mail across all your devices, instead of having to delete a particular email three different places.

So, to do what you desire, you will have to create a rule on your Mac:

Open Mail Settings and go to "Rules".
Click "Add Rule" and type in your description.
Create the Logic:

Date Received :: Is Greater Than :: [Arbitrary Number Chosen by You]

Under perform the following actions:

Move Message :: to mailbox :: "Archive" -> "iCloud"

Click "OK", then "Apply".
The changes should be reflected on your iPad and iPhone counter-parts after refreshing inboxes there.


iMessage and FaceTime not working after changing apple id Last time I got macbook and iphone from my brother. These devices were always connected with one apple id. I wanted to keep all apps and settings, so I did not create new apple id, I've just changed password, email, name of current apple id, so now it is only mine, not my broter's.
And I don't know why, but imessage and facetime not working, on both devices. I can log in icloud, and everything if fine, but when I'm trying to log in on imessage or face time this appears :

  "An error occurred during activation"

Before change everything worked.
I have tried almost everything. Please help.

it's hard to tell what could be the problem without knowing what happed exactly. You can use below link to check some solutions to your problem. If that wasn't help I suggest to contact apple support team.

https://support.apple.com/en-lk/HT201422


Is it possible to see an ad for Tinder on lock screen if Tinder is not installed? An ad for Tinder appeared on lock screen of BF's phone. Says he doesn't have the app but did he used to? I know I only get ads/pop up notifications from existing apps.
I'm not tech savvy enough to know.

It's possible to get text messages from a service after deleting the app, but if the notification is branded like the app on the lock screen (with the logo), then the app is still on the device. It's not possible to get those kinds of notifications without the app being currently installed.

You can search for apps from the home screen by swiping down. That should allow you to search for the Tinder app by name, instead of browsing around for it.


How can I create an event that recurs every other day in the iPhone calendar? How do I create an event on my I phone calendar that would occur every other day without manually putting in the
Event on each day in the calendar?

If you sync your iPhone calendar with your Mac, either through iTunes, MobileMe, or a free iCloud account you can just set up your event in iCal on your Mac. Choose for repeat Custom. Then choose for frequency Daily and set it to Every 2 days.


MacBook Pro won't wake up sometimes Every once in a while when I plug in my MacBook Pro to my Thunderbolt Display and then press some keys on my external keyboard (laptop lid is closed) to wake it up, the computer won't wake up properly. The screen will either stay black or I will see a black screen and the beachball mouse cursor.

If I open the laptop lid in this situation nothing changes. If I then unplug the monitor nothing changes either. The laptop display is blank.

The only thing I can do at this point is to hold the power button until the machine turns off and then turn it back on.

This seems to happen about once or twice a week.

I'd rather not wipe the machine because it will take a while to reinstall everything.

Any ideas how to prevent this from happening?

Specs:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

For me upgrading to macOS Sierra resolved the issue. I tried resetting NVRAM and SMC but that didn't help.

Update 8/2/2018: turns out this issue is still happening to me now, just much less frequently, about once every few months.


How do I compile Doom3? Has anyone compiled doom3, released here:
https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl ?

I have never done something like that before (compile c++/xcode project) and a how-to would be more than welcome.

Also how do I know if it can run in my macbook?

Why would you compile the engine? It is not the full game, so you wouldn't be able to play after compilation.

Anyway, if you're still interested, there's a thread on Hacker News speaking about it, they also mention how to compile the project if you don't have Xcode 3.2

Edit: for what is worth, here the instructions for Xcode 4.


osascript changes case in OSX10.12.1 osascript is behaving weird after upgrading to 10.12.1. Prior to this version, the command works as below:

In 10.12, the output is in whatever case the input is:

deppfx : ~ $ osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"Hello\""
deppfx : ~ $ Hello

In 10.12.1, the output is forced to uppercase:

deppfx : ~ $ osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"Hello\""
deppfx : ~ $ HELLO

Does anyone know what's going on here?

Caps-lock is probably on. This inputs the text as if you typed it yourself, so it's affected by holding shift down, or having caps-lock on.


How do I remove the iCloud symbol when trying to download an app? I've searched and found the Find My iPhone app in the App Store. However, I can't download it as there is an iCloud Symbol and I can't get rid of it. How do I get the desired app on my iPhone 6?

Tap the cloud to download. The iCloud symbol just means you can download the app from your purchase history.


Late 2008 MacBook Pro loose Battery cover fix I acquired a Late 2008 MacBook Pro. The bottom cover is a split bottom design. The battery cover is loose around the edge of the laptop. I'm guessing there was a magnetic strip holding it along the edge. It looks like there was a metal strip previously lining the edge but it is missing. The latch is only toward the inside (middle) of the laptop. Could someone confirm/explain how the edge of the cover is held in? I'm hoping I can get some magnetic tape to line the edge of the battery cover.

I'm trying to avoid spending $15-$30 on a replacement cover.

This is what the battery cover looks like.

The battery cover is held in place by four metal hooks on the outer edge as shown in the image:

Source: Macworld/Jason Snell, First Look: MacBook and MacBook Pro


Sharing single instance of iTunes with iPad and iPhone I have been using iPhone since last 2+ years and recently I got an iPad. Is it possible to share single instance of iTunes with iPad and iPhone? I only got on PC at home.

I wanted to have only iTunes account as well.

Please let me know.

If your iTunes library is small enough to fit completely on each device, then yes, you can manage and sync both devices to the same PC through iTunes on that PC and a sync cable.  You can even create separate playlists in iTunes on your PC and sync a specific playlist to each different device.

Another option that you would want if your music library is larger than your devices, is to invest in an "iTunes" Match subscription with Apple:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

Then, your entire music library from your PC will be available from the Apple "Cloud" and can be streamed to any of your iOS devices.

Just make sure that your PC, iPhone, and iPad are all logged into the iTunes Store using the same AppleID and you should not have any problems.


How can I download book from Kindle app to Kindle Volume? How can I pass content I've bought on Amazon to my Amazon Kindle (Paperwhite)? Because it turned out that it is not that easy. Actually, it is really hard.

What I've tried so far:

Shared Wi-Fi from iMac, but Kindle says that "Peer-to-peer networks are not supported by Kindle". Fail.
Installed Kindle for Mac app, tried to find something like download to device. Fail.
Installed "Send to Kindle app" and realised that it solves completely different task.
Found path where Kindle for Mac stores downloaded books, copied files to Kindle's Volume document folder. These books are seen but Kindle refuses to open any of them claiming they are not mine.
Downloading to my good old Kindle DX, trying to copy to Paperwhite. The same shit as in previous attempt.

My MacOS is 10.8.2 if that helps.
I'll appreciate any kind of advice. Whole this situation is making me annoyed. I mean, it is my content, I've bought it.

I would use a different book manager on your mac. I would install something like Calibre to manage your e-books.

Calibre is very flexible and there are plug-ins which allow you to remove DRM. This then allows you to share your content across devices without having to have the device registered with Amazon.

I would then download your purchased e-books from Amazon using the "transfer via USB" option. You only need to have one device registered with Amazon for this method to work.  However if you have your paperwhite registered you can also do the transfer via USB with DRM in tact, as stated in the other answer.

When you import them into Calibre the DRM is removed and you can then move the books via USB to any device you want.


After updating my iPhone to iOS 13.5.1, I can't login to my Apple ID - "Verification Failed '' error I had this problem after updating my IOS device iPhone 6 to 13.5.1 - I have not used this phone for about 4 months and I'm trying to get it working.
Internet is fine but my emails and Google service also stopped working.
I wanted to wipe the device but I can't since I have to turn of the 'Find My iPhone' option which I couldn't since I can't pass the Apple ID verification step.

I would set aside the phone that’s not working and get control of your AppleID using a web browser on any convenient and secure computer.

https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage

By design it is difficult to bypass activation lock unless you are the original purchaser of the phone and can provide proof of purchase to Apple Support.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365


How much video RAM to run 'Final Cut Pro' on a Mac Pro (2013) I'm using Final Cut Pro and my friend and I are disagreeing on whether 2GB of video memory with the Dual AMD Firepro is enough or should I go with 3GB? If I go 2GB is the video memory upgradable? I haven't bought the Mac Pro yet.

The minimum amount of VRAM Apple recommends for running Final Cut Pro X is 256 MB. As a Final Cut Pro user myself (albeit a very light user), I find that 1 GB is sufficient, though I rarely put the program "through its paces," and the work you will be doing will likely be on a larger scale. 1 GB also happens to be Apple's minimum recommendation for editing 4K video and 3D titles.

Ultimately, it depends on how intensive the work you're going to be doing is. Are you going to be doing intensive work with 4K content? Or are you going to do smaller home video-style projects? It may be useful to use Apple's recommendations as bases for comparison as you make your decision (see below).

To view the entire list of minimum system requirements, see Apple's Final Cut Pro X Tech Specs page. This Apple Support Communities discussion also has some interesting details about VRAM and how it applies to Final Cut Pro X.


Cannot seem to download command line tools I'm trying to download and install Command Line Tools for my Mac through Xcode, but it is not in the downloads section like youtube videos tell me to go. So, I manually download it and install it, and it still does not show up. I need this so I can download MacPorts. Any suggestions on how to get it? Or how to see if I already have it? Thanks!

Run xcode-select --install

This will prompt you to download and install the CLTs using softwareupdate.


Single key shortcut to invoke Launchpad or Spotlight I've just switched to macOS. I'm wondering if there is a way to show Launchpad and Spotlight using single button shortcut, like Windows does with Window key and the Start bar?

It would be very handy to me (possibly without external softwares..).

MacBook keyboard and Apple Magic keyboard comes with dedicated key to invoke Launchpad. The special functions are labelled on the row of function keys (and equivalent in case of MacBook Pro equipped with Touch Bar). Look for key labelled F4 on your keyboard.

If you are using a non-Apple keyboard, go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Launchpad & Dock and select the checkbox next to Show Launchpad. You can also double click on the keyboard shortcut and change it to something else.

You can also define custom keyboard shortcut(s) easily by going to System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts. Since you are essentially looking for single key to invoke the desired operation(s), you can do so by creating a single key shortcut (if not natively provided by macOS).


Where can I find *all* screensaver files on MacOS Sierra? When I go to "Desktop & Screen Saver", I see about 20 different screensavers. All online resources I've found have directed me to one of these locations, none of which contain ALL of the screensavers. In particular, I just want to edit/poke around in the .saver file for the Floating screensaver.

I can only find the abstract art screensavers like Flurry, Arabesque, Shell, Word of the Day, Random. There are other screen savers I can use, like Floating, Flip-up, Reflections, Origami, ...

Where are all of the other screensavers?

I've looked in these folders:

/Library/Screen Savers
    (only contains a folder with a bunch of pictures)
~/Library/Screen Savers
    (empty)
/System/Library/Screen Savers
    (only contains abstract screen savers mentioned above)
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources
    (contains a bunch of irrelevant files)

In Mojave you have two kinds of screensavers:

The abstract ones (these are the ones you already found: /System/Library/Screen Savers)
The slideshows: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Slideshows.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Content/Styles


Does Family Sharing consumes extra storage? I already have my images uploaded to iCloud using Photos.app on my Mac and iOS devices. If I share some of that photos with my Family album, they will be re-uploaded (consuming more storage on my iCloud account) or they will be shared with some kind of "link" to my original photo?

Also, if the photo is re-uploaded, does that results in some kind of compression or quality loss?

All Albums in the Apple Ecosystem are only references to the main photos album (Camera Roll or All Photos).


Suggestions for a safe-n-fast charger for a bunch of 6th gen iPod Touch Devices? I have about 30 iPod touch devices that connect to a charger with multiple ports on it.

There are 4x 5V/2.4A ports and 4x 5V/1A ports on the device that charges them.

It seems as though the the 5V/1A devices never get charged but I read that the for the Apple cube chargers that come with the devices they are actually the correct ones.

These devices are used until their power is drained and then returned to the charger as evidenced by how many of them I pick up on the charger read please enter pin number after restart.

The 5V/2.4A charger seems to charge them faster, but the 5V/1A appears to be the correctly rated ones.

The voltage (a.k.a. electrical pressure) going into the devices is the same on both port types, but the amperage (a.k.a. the amount of electricity in the circuit) is much greater on the 5V/2.4A ports;

As I understand electricity, it's a bit like plumbing where too much water will cause a pipe to burst, and in electrical systems, too much electricity (amps) will cause a wire to catch on fire, they are sort of analogous.

I also know that if a battery is fully charged, you really shouldn't leave a device plugged in, it's bad for the life span of the battery.

So my question is:

Is it dangerous to be using a charger that uses more than the recommend amperage, or can you get away with a little bit more?
How can I ensure that these devices are taken off the charger when they are full?

Excess amperage cannot "force" its way into a device (that's the danger of excess voltage).  A device will only receive what it draws.
That is an interesting question with a more nuanced answer:

'Smart' USB chargers, like those found on Amazon, determine the amperage they provide based on the draw trends of the plugged-in device; as long as the device is drawing, they will provide.  However, some can detect and identify the sharp drop-off of draw that accompanies the end of the charging cycle and cut power from the port.

You can find more info about this kind of thing from this answer:  https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/121366/how-do-usb-charging-and-smart-charging-ports-e-g-ankers-poweriq-work


What are the default QuickLook plugins in /System/Library/QuickLook/ under OS X 10.8? I want to see if I have any extra .qlgenerator files there, or if I'm missing any.

If someone with a recent or (better yet) new clean install could list the files in that folder, OR if anyone knows where I could find an official list from Apple, that would be great.

I try to do what I can, unfortunately I did not exactly 10.8, I would like to point out that the following list is for

System Version: OS X 10.9.3 (13D65)

Audio.qlgenerator
Bookmark.qlgenerat
Clippings.qlgenera
Contact.qlgenerato
EPS.qlgenerator
Font.qlgenerator
Icon.qlgenerator
Image.qlgenerator
LocPDF.qlgenerator
Mail.qlgenerator
Movie.qlgenerator
Notes.qlgenerator
Office.qlgenerator
PDF.qlgenerator
Package.qlgenerato
SceneKit.qlgenerat
Security.qlgenerat
StandardBundles.ql
Text.qlgenerator
Web.qlgenerator
iCal.qlgenerator
iChat.qlgenerator

Then in addition to /System/Library/QuickLook/
there is also /Library/QuickLook/
where I found:

iBooksAuthor.qlgenerator
iWork.qlgenerator


Why does dictation reload after not using for 10 minutes? The integrated dictation software on my Mac (whose hotkey is pressing function twice) takes 10 seconds to initialize after not using it for around 10 minutes. It's a minor nuisance, but still a nuisance. Is there documentation for changing the settings?

MacBook OS 10.11

By default, Enhanced Dictation waits 7 minutes (420 seconds) before quitting its processes. You can override this default by writing a different value to its preference file.

For example, if you want Dictation to wait 60 minutes (3600 seconds), open Terminal and execute the following command.

defaults write com.apple.inputmethod.ironwood DelaySecondsUntilTerminatationOffline -float 3600;killall DictationIM

If you want to return to the default value, you can remove the override using the command:

defaults remove com.apple.inputmethod.ironwood DelaySecondsUntilTerminatationOffline;killall DictationIM


Is there an utility which can profile and report on the activity of a single process? Activity monitor can report on a single processes's disk and cpu usage at a single point in time.

The "Sample Process" feature is good for debugging, but doesn't provide easily digestible information.

Apps like iStat are just pretty layers on top of activity monitor.

Is there an app for OSX which will sample a Processes's resource use over time and then provide a report with nice graphs?

Something like DaisyDisk but for cpu and disk usage for a single process over time?

I think BigTop is what you're looking for. It comes with the Developer Tools (which are on the install disc that came with your Mac)


How can you email an address book group to another Mac user? If I have an OS X Address Book group of people I want to email periodic updates to, and I want to send that list to a second person who wants to email updates to this group as well, how can I do that?

If I drag the group to a Mail.app message and send that to my friend, they can open it and import all those contacts into Mail.app... however, it does not import the group, just the people. Since we know some of the same people, my friend will have some of the people from this group already in her address book. If she does and she chooses to not update her cards with my cards, then they won't even show up under "Last Import".

How can you email an address book group to another Mac user so that it shows as a group in their address book?

Without some sort of mailing list software, I'm not sure you'll really get the functionality you want.

As a workaround I would try setting up a custom tag, using an existing unused field, or something in Notes, and then creating a Smart Ground around that.

For example, all the contacts you want in your group, put 'mailing list' into their notes. Then create a SmartGroup to show those contacts.

Send the contacts to your friend, and they can import and merge the data. If they setup the same smart group, you should have the same contacts, with the same info, in that group.

The other option would be to stop her importing anything, and just use a Shared Addressbook, and maintain everything there. Google, Exchange, LDAP etc will let you use a remote address book, that isn't automatically synced to your local address book, but all contacts are accessibly, so you can both use that. In the groups page of the address book you'll see your local contacts, and remote contacts as distinct lists. Then, you'll just know to send to everyone in that shared address book.


AdobePDFViewerNPAPI shows up in Mission Control When I open a PDF document in Safari and then go into Mission control, I see a window with
different kinds of artifacts (e.g. horizontal black lines on a white background) and it's titled AdobePDFViewerNPAPI (Safari internet plug-in). This window is probably related to the Adobe Reader plug-in that Safari uses. Is there any way to have this window not show up in Mission Control?

The easiest way is to just use a different PDF plugin for Safari. There are instructions on how to do that here.


Setting "open with" default app forever There is a nice option in MacOS X that you can right-click on a particular file, select "open with", then select the app that you want to use to open the file type and check the mark "always open with".

So far so good, this works very well. However, this association resets itself after time (or after a system restart for example). How can I achieve it that a particular file type stays associated with my selected "always open with" app?

Press ⌘I, select an application, and press the Change All button:

Another option is to use duti. Download the installer and run /usr/local/bin/duti ~/.duti after saving a file like this as ~/.duti:

org.videolan.vlc .mkv all
net.sourceforge.skim-app.skim .pdf all
com.apple.TextEdit public.plain-text all
com.macromates.TextMate.preview public.unix-executable all


Why does my phone say my photos are like 9Gb out of my phone yet I've deleted thousands of it and I still have no memory left? Is it because I have 40,000 pics in iCloud? But I still have 1 terabyte of storage. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how iCloud works. My phone will randomly gets rid of a whole photos albumn but then only a fraction of the pictures are left. Also I CANT SEE MY PHOTO ABUMS IN THE ICLOUD APP only online   Someone please help me. I would like to be able to download apps and have my music play without stopping because it "cannot download song". Thank you ☺

You've got some different questions here. The iCloud app isn't meant to show your photos; that's what the Photos app is for. When you delete photos, it doesn't actually delete them; it puts them in a folder called "Recently Deleted" where they are retained for 30 days before actually being deleted. You have to delete them again from that folder if you want to delete them before the 30 days are up.

To see what's using space on your phone, go into Settings / General / Storage & iCloud Usage / Manage Storage (the first one, under "STORAGE" not under "ICLOUD").


Count pages in PDF (for non-technical, mac using person) I have a person who is looking to count pages of her perhaps 2-3000 PDFS. Unfortunately I am away and not sure what to do. She is non-technical. She needs a total count, of all the pdfs, combined (it will probably some something like 20,000 spread across the 3,000 PDFs) - no other details are necessary.

I considered adobe combine and then get a page count, but just testing on ~500 files, it is pretty slow going!

Adobe is an option.

I suppose terminal is an option too, but I'm not sure how to explain this to her. I think most of these work via spotlight indexing.. not sure about that. Not sure they are all indexed, or that this is the actual way it works.

Worth mentioning you used to be able to open multiple pdfs simultaneously in preview and get a page count! Used to work pretty well even across 2-300 files!

Thoughts?

Simple.

Create an Apple Script and export it as an Application and then send the Application to her.

AppleScript Code:

set totalPages to 0
set numDocs to 1
set myFiles to choose file with prompt "Select all PDF's" with multiple selections allowed
set nummyFiles to length of myFiles
set progress total steps to nummyFiles
set progress completed steps to 0
set progress description to "Processing PDF's..."
set progress additional description to "Preparing to process."
repeat with i in myFiles
    set progress additional description to "Processing PDF " & numDocs & " of " & nummyFiles
    set progress completed steps to numDocs
    set myfile to POSIX path of i
    set pageCount to (do shell script "/usr/bin/mdls " & quoted form of myfile & " | /usr/bin/awk '/kMDItemNumberOfPages/{print $3}'") as integer
    set totalPages to (totalPages + pageCount)
    set numDocs to (numDocs + 1)
end repeat
display dialog "There are " & totalPages & " pages in this PDF"

Open /Applications/Utilities/Script Editor.app
File>New
Copy and Paste above code
File>Export
File Format: Application
Send Exported Application


Should I disconnect my MacBook Pro's power cord when the battery is fully charged? My friend told me that I need to disconnect the power cord when the battery is fully charged. Otherwise, I will shorten the life of the battery.

Other people say you should drain it once a month or point out that for long term storage, you should charge it to 50% and then periodically (3 to 6 months) bring it back to 50% and store it again.

I am going to use my laptop at home 90% of the time. So, I plan to have the power cord connected all the time.

I'd prefer to just plugging in my MacBook Pro and letting it be on charge long term and occasionally taking it away from the charger when I'm not at home or my desk.

Are these specific recommendations worth the inconvenience?

You do not need to disconnect your MacBook Pro's battery. Your battery will stop charging once it is full. Apple's modern batteries are much smarter than previous designs.

To get the most out of your MacBook Pro's battery, follow the Notebook Battery advice from Apple: unplug and use your battery until empty about once a month, then charge back up to full.

At the time of answering, Apple's advice read:

  For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing.

If you need help following Apple's advice, use Battery Guardian; it is free and will remind you when to deplete your battery.


Terminal has 2 status bar When I launch terminal, I see 2 status bar attached. Normally second status bar should be visible if I open a second tab on the window. However it even appears on the very first tab.
Visual is below:
I have created a second user on my Mac. On this second user, it is just fine. Terminal starts with one status bar.
I don't know what to do, I have searched all over the internet, nothing helpful. Last time this happened, I had to wipe everything and re-install the OS, I don't want to do it now :/

In Terminal, select View -> Hide Tab Bar or type ⇧⌘T. That setting is sticky and is used for every new window you launch.


When mirroring my Macbook Pro with an ultra-wide external display, can the resolution be set to the external's native resolution? To emphasize again, this question is about mirroring. I'm looking at buying a 3440x1440 (or higher) resolution monitor, and I'd like to use it as the only display with my MBP while keeping the MBP open. From my research, it doesn't seem possible to do this. The workaround I found, was to mirror the displays. So, if I do that, will the resolution match the external display?

Yes. When mirroring, you can choose which display to "optimize" for.


How can I disable visual effects in Lion? I've just installed Lion on my 24" iMac from 2006 and do have again problems with screen-freezes due to overheating. This is a known issue with the 2006 iMacs since OSX late 10.5 / 10.6. While for (Snow) Leopard it was possible to overcome this problem by deactivating a kernel extension of the graphics card driver, this does not seem to have any effect with Lion.

How do i disable visual effects with Lion, such as smooth window-moving, drop-shadows everywhere, window-animations, smooth video playback etc.?

Thanks so much!

UPDATE

I just wanted to make clear, that I have already tried some UI tweak applications like Cocktail and iTweax. While they are able to disable some animations, the most "expensive" effects are not turned off (at least not as far as I know) like smooth window moving and drop-shadows.

The place to go to disable animation is in the Secrets preference pane. You can disable a lot of the animations. Has a few Lion preferences and is updated in realtime from the community.


Upgrade OS X operating system from the command line You can upgrade software with sudo softwareupdate --install --all. Is it possible to upgrade the OS itself from the command line?

Wouldn't appear to be, looking at the man page; unless it appears in the --list arg

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/softwareupdate.8.html

     --l | --list
                 List all available updates.

     -i | --install
                 Each update specified by args is downloaded and installed.  args can be one of the follow-ing: following:
                 ing:

                 -r | --recommended
                             All updates that are recommended for your system. These are prefixed with a *
                             character in the --list output.

                 -a | --all  All updates that are applicable to your system, including those non-recommended
                             ones, which are prefixed with a - character in the --list output. (Non-recom-mended (Non-recommended
                             mended updates are uncommon in any case.)

                 item ...    One or more specified updates. The --list output shows the item names you can
                             specify here, prefixed by the * or - characters.


How to install imgcat on iTerm2? Question
What do I do with the script? Please explain in plain English in step-by-step fashion.
Background
I saw that you can display images inline in iTerm2

But when I clicked on the link to Download imgcat here it just took me to a url that had the script. But what do i do with it? copy somewhere? run it after?

Just install "Shell Integration" and it will be automatically installed for you.

On the iTerm2 Menu, just click "Install Shell Integration"

You should then see the output indicating that imgcat is installed:

$curl -L https://iterm2.com/misc/install_shell_integration_and_utilities.sh | bash
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  2694  100  2694    0     0   2890      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  2890
Downloading script from https://iterm2.com/misc/bash_startup.in and saving it to /Users/allan/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash...
Checking if /Users/allan/.bash_profile contains iterm2_shell_integration...
Downloading imgcat...
Downloading it2dl...
Adding aliases...
Done.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next time you log in, shell integration will be enabled.

You will also have these commands:
imgcat filename
  Displays the image inline.
it2dl filename
  Downloads the specified file, saving it in your Downloads folder.


How do I restore learned spelling from a backup? I have an old backup of my user Library and need to restore its previous learned spelling values. Where do I find it within that old backup library?

The user dictionary should be located in ~/Library/Spelling (/Users/You/Library/Spelling). Are you unable to restore that folder from your backup?


How do I set a recognized Apache DocumentRoot under Lion? I have a fresh Lion install, and to configure Apache, I've edited all of the references to DocumentRoot (and the Directory entry for DocumentRoot) to "/Users/jonathan/mirror" (with or without quotes as the original path was with or without quotes). Pointing my browser to localhost gives a 404:

Not Found

The requested URL / was not found on this server.

Apache/2.2.20 (Unix) DAV/2 Server at localhost Port 80

How can I up /Users/jonathan/mirror with appropriate permissions?

Things do doublecheck:

1. File permissions

The specified path for the new document root should allow at least read access for the Apache user, which is _www by default. You probably want to chmod 755 /Users/jonathan/mirror if the file permissions are too restrictive. What are the actual file permissions on the directory and files?

2. Virtual hosts

When you enable name based virtual hosts, the document root in the main config is ignored. Instead the root for the matching hostname will be used, and if none match it will default to the first virtual host.


on MacOS, how to switch to different windows of the same application EASILY? I found it very frustrating that CMD+TAB switches only between applications and not between windows of the same application.
If I have several windows of Safari open, CMD+TAB will show only ONE instance of Safari.
I know that SOME applications support CMD+` or something like this, but not all of them, some applications have also different keys shortcuts.
I usually set up my key shortcut in preferences as "Move focus to next windows" and sometimes work, but for example, Terminal doesn't accept it.
It's very frustrating, is there a way do move fast between windows?
I also thought that swiping to another desktop was cool, but again, one application with all its windows can stay in only one desktop...

Use Command + ` to rotate between windows of the same application.
Use Command + Tab to rotate between applications.
I'm not quite sure why you find some apps don't support it - I've just tested and it works for me - perhaps it's bound to another action for those applications?


How do I trigger reachability in iPhone X? As we all have seen that the iPhone X is gorgeous with all its bezel less design and no home button. But it adds to the question of how do I go about reachability? There is no home button on it right, I can’t double tap on it now. The screen is big and how can one reach the top of the screen?

iPhone X now supports Reachability

Just pull down on the bottom indicator to activate Reachability after turning it on. Also note that Reachability works with Control Center access so you don't have to reach that top of your phone to get to Control Center.

To turn on Reachability: Settings > General > Accessibility > Reachability

Source: Rene Ritchie's review.


Document displayed at the top of the Finder window I own a MacBook Air. I've recently been having this problem where I'm not sure what I click, but after viewing a document it will stay at the top of my Finder window. I have no idea how to get rid of it (not trash it, I mean just take it off the window).

Here's a picture of the problem:

The name of the document that is at the top of my window (obviously) is highlighted. I just want to get rid of that.

I suspect you are dropping documents on the Finder toolbar without realizing it.

A document, a folder, an application, any item can be dropped on the toolbar to act as a shortcut, a navigation aid, an alias to a Finder view. Perfect place for a Trash button. Hold down Control and click on the toolbar to see choices about what appears, as well as Customize Toolbar.

To remove an item from the toolbar, press Command while dragging it off. Poof.

Or should I say, Boom.


Can I run a program whenever I open the lid of my MacBook Air? Possible Duplicate:
  Run AppleScript after waking from Sleep?

I have a program, InstantShot!, set to launch at logon and start taking a screen shot every 10 seconds.  Unfortunately, when I close the lid, it stops taking screenshots, rather than just being suspended, so I have to manually have it start doing so again each time I reopen the lid.  I'd like to create an automator app or Apple Script that would do that automatically every time I open the lid.  Can that be done?

Use SleepWatcher. After downloading, read the ReadMe. It says how to install and use.


In countries where the Emergency Services can be called without a SIM card, what caller ID is shown to them when called from an iPhone? In countries where it's possible to make calls to emergency numbers (911/999, etc) from an iPhone that has no SIM inserted, how is it possible for the emergency services to track a device - would it be possible for them to call you back, even if the phone didn't show a caller ID due to one not being present?

No - when you don’t have service, they can’t call you back.
Yes - you can call out and the only location data will be which cell tower data is provided to EMS / Emergency Services - not the GPS or location of the device doing the calling.

In more details:

A SIM doesn't determine if you can connect to a cell tower, the phone's antenna determines it.  The SIM only has your phone number and carrier info so you can make emergency calls without it.  In the case you've mentioned, the call will go thru but the phone number and location will not be sent. 1

So in this context, whether you have a SIM inserted or not is irrelevant.  Calls to emergency centers are treated the same with or without a SIM.

Emergency calls are routed to a Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) for all carriers. Location data is sent with accuracy between 50 and 150 meters depending on if it's using cell tower triangulation or mobile-based location (GPS chip). 2


Why did my iPhone Notes stop syncing with Gmail? I just logged into Gmail and noticed that the last note to sync was from 6 days ago, even though I have newer notes on my iPhone.

When I try to test it now by deleting, updating, or adding a note, it does not sync with Gmail. I have 355 notes on the iPhone, and 350 in Gmail.

I seem to recall that after pressing the done button in the Notes application, the working indicator would appear showing that there is network activity (i.e. that it's syncing with Gmail). It no longer shows the spinner when I press "Done".

I tried restarting the phone to no avail. I tried deleting an email in Gmail in case there is a 350 limit, but that didn't help either. I also tried deleting notes on the iPhone so that it had less than 350 (in case the iPhone had a 350 limit), it didn't solve the problem.

I didn't change anything with the account setting on the iPhone nor on Gmail. I'm running an iPhone 4 with iOS 4.2.1. My iPhone is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.

The problem is that Google's implementation of IMAP isn't really 100% IMAP, so it doesn't really support notes. I've been trying to get it to work for quite a while which ended up with me losing all my notes (although they may still be in the Google Mail archive somewhere).

I've actually given up trying to sync notes between my Mac/iPhone/Google and have gone for the Plain Text app which stores the notes on DropBox, this seems to work so much better. Now if only I could delete the Notes app from my iPhone.


OSX Preview: is able to display DRM protected PDF files? (mainly concerned about Adobe DRM) I would like to know if the Preview application (last release) is able to open PDF files that are DRM protected, for example by Adobe DRM system.

Preview.app cannot view DRM protected PDFs, the only way to view these files is to change the Default Program for PDFs to Acrobat.

Personally, I would not advocate this due to the unsecure nature of Adobe Reader on OSX (and Windows) and would go through the onetime process to remove the DRM restrictions on each PDF


How to get the system language or the language that was selected when Mac OS X was installed I know the common sudo languagesetup to set the system language. Does someone know how to get the system language or the language that was selected when Mac OS X was installed?

The left part of osascript -e 'user locale of (get system info)' is the language selected in Setup Assistant (I think).

The language at the top of the list in the Language & Text preferences should be the second line of defaults read -g AppleLanguages.


iPhone 4 won't charge Tried plenty of other cables and plugs but it won't charge.

I tried plugging it into a Mac and it's not even detected.

It has had no major water damage; it just simply stopped working.

Replaced battery with new battery, also replaced the dock connector with a new replacement but still no change.

Could this be the logic board? Or is this a lost cause?

Had you previously disassembled or repaired the phone prior to it stopping charging? Why not take it into an Apple Store to get them to fix it?

Assuming you've not made a mistake in your repairs between the battery and the dock connector, yes, it's probably the logic board.


Developer Program for Viewing Passbook-Related Pages I have a registered Apple Developer account. However, I cannot view the following pages:

iOS Provisioning Portal
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Reference/PassKit_Bundle/Chapters/Introduction.html
https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action?name=Passbook

Do I need to join the iOS Developer Program ($99/year) just to view those documentations?

Yes - those links are pre-release and protected to iOS registered developers. You might get by with an educational account - but most developers use the $99/year plan to gain access to the Provisioning Portal.

Provisioning devices for testing your application on real iPhones rather than the simulator does require a membership, as does any pre-release software or documentation. However, Passbook is not pre-release documentation any more; with the release of iOS 6, they have published public documentation, so you can view this. If you need more information as to what the $99/year membership gives you access to, view their iOS Developer Program page.


How to convert a .cer file to .p12 without the keychain password? I have to "codesign" a distribution certificate inside a .ipa file to deploy an in-house application for a company.

I have access to their developer account. The new provisioning profile had been successfully added at this point and then:

I download the .cer file from the company developer account
Add it to my keychain by double click on it
Right click on the certificate to export it to a .p12 file...

At this point, the option to export the file to .p12 is greyed out. I have looked for many way to do it on the web but I am still stuck.

I have no access to the keychain password of the file.

Do I have to recreate a certificate from my mac to get keychain access to it?

What is the right way to have this certificate as a .p12 file, ready to be codesign to my .ipa file using this command line?

codesign -f -s "iPhone Distribution: Company Name" Payload/MyApp.app

Private Key

You will need the password for the Keychain to export the private key associated with the certificate.

Alone the certificate can not be used to sign. You need the private key as well.

The private key was probably created along with the original CSR (certificate signing request) sent to Apple. By default, the private key is stored in the user's Keychain.

The certificate is public and often stored in an unencrypted .pem file.
The key is private and often stored in the Keychain or an encrypted .p12 file.

New Certificate and Key

You can ask Apple for a new signing certificate, using a new private key and CSR. This does not require administrator access or access to the existing Keychain. You will need access to the online Apple Developer account of the company.

As a precaution, consider creating a separate Keychain for the company - marked as Default while creating the CSR. The private key will then be saved into the separate Keychain and can be passed to codesign as an absolute path with the --keychain flag. You can also store the certificate in this Keychain file.


Upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion but not Mavericks I have to downgrade from Mavericks to Mountain Lion due to some software required for work. I used the Internet Recovery method to downgrade, but it is not Lion. I would like to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but there is only Mavericks available in the Mac App Store.

You can purchase OS X Mountain Lion still via Apple online:

Buy OS X Mountain Lion

Once you buy it for $19.99 they will send you an App Store link.


can't download Xcode 9.3, disk is full in fact it is not I want to update my xcode from xcode 9.2 to 9.3. but in the App store when I press update button, it shows the alert like the picture above.

even though in fact I have a lot of space

it is only xcode, when I update the itunes, it can update smoothly.

what should I do? really need your help :(

If there is a partial download begun of the app/purchase, deleting the partially downloaded file and starting from scratch may help. (Check in your Applications folder or downloads area for this partial file. It may end in .partial or .part.)

I also had to download the installer from the apple site, not through the App Store, when I recently installed xcode:
https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

For reference, older downloads may be available here:
https://developer.apple.com/download/more
Warning: if you aren't logged in when you visit the 'more' link, it will redirect you to the latest download site once login is complete. Don't be fooled and just re-enter this URL again to go to the archive.