Possible to change the visibility of a column in finder with AppleScript? When I change the visible property of a Finder column to false it does not have any effect even after closing and reopening the window.

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    set visible of column id kind column of list view options of Finder window 1 to false
end tell

It appears to be a bug. Any workarounds?

I do not believe it's a bug because if you look at the AppleScript Dictionary for Finder, it shows the following for list view options as a property:

list view options (list view options, r/o) : the list view options for the container window

The user cannot change a read only property, however there is a UI Scripting solution.

That said, I try to avoid UI Scripting whenever possible however, I have the daily need to open an external drive in a particular view, sorted by size and to do this a UI Scripting solution was this only choice I could find.

I've taken the relevant example AppleScript code from it to toggle the visibility of the Kind column:

tell application "Finder"
    if (current view of front Finder window) is equal to list view then
        activate
        my toggleCheckBox("Kind")
    end if
end tell

to toggleCheckBox(thisBox)
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "j" using command down
        tell window 1 of application process "Finder"
            click checkbox thisBox of group 1
            click button 2
        end tell
    end tell
end toggleCheckBox

Note that this particular UI Scripting solution does open and close the View Options for the front Finder window and is a bit of a visual distraction and one of the reasons I dislike UI Scripting however, sometimes one has no other choice to accomplish a given task. Note that I'm not saying it cannot be done any other way, just at the present time I don't know another way.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also Working with Errors. Additionally, UI Scripting may require the use of the delay command as appropriate, needed or wanted.


How do I get x360ce to work in Wine on OS X? I am having trouble getting x360ce to work with Wine and cooperate with my Steam game, specifically Rivals of Aether. I purchased a Mayflash GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii U & PC USB to be able to use my original GameCube controller on my Macbook Pro 13" retina display laptop. I have used Parallels and managed to get Steam and x360ce to work in that, but I feel that having the the entire VM running to play this one game is unnecessary, and also feel that using Wine would be a simpler and lighter way to play the game.

I have searched Google and Reddit for answers, but they have mostly been answers for Windows, Linux or Abuntu users.

So far I have referenced these for information:

https://askubuntu.com/posts/399662/revisions
https://www.reddit.com/r/RivalsOfAether/comments/3mlsv8/guide_getting_roa_working_on_os_x/

For the first one, I can't get past step 7 because I am not entirely sure of how to run the x360ce.exe...

I'm new to the Macintosh platform and need a lot of help  as you can see lol. If anyone could guide me towards the right direction or share some better suggestion for an application that will be able to read my GameCube Controller through wine, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

I'm assuming you could click on package contents on the wrapper you have now made and click wine, then go to install software, and etc. to run x360ce.exe. You then could have the file moved to the right location mentioned in the x360ce guide. Haven't attempted this yet though, but if this doesn't work out, you could always button map using enjoyable, the second guide has explains how to do that. Good luck!


Remapping keys in KeyRemap4MacBook, how do I find keycodes? I'm currently remapping some of the keys on my MacBook using KeyRemap4Macbook - in that process I need to remap the keys using this xml-file, namely private.xml, that is referenced here:http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/xml.html.en

This is an example of how private.xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Swap Space and Tab</name>
    <identifier>private.swap_space_and_tab</identifier>
    <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::SPACE, KeyCode::TAB</autogen>
    <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::TAB, KeyCode::SPACE</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Does anyone know where I find a chart of the keycodes referenced in the XML, the capitalized words (SPACE, TAB)?

Based on this answer, key codes which you are looking for are:

kVK_Tab                       = 0x30,
  kVK_Space                     = 0x31,

See lines 269, 270.

Also there is an application which can show you key codes in a more friendly way.


apps crash on iphone4 I have an iphone4 running the up-to-date version: 7.1.2 since the IOs software is no longer updated for an iphone4. Recently many apps simply crash: such as

chrome
google maps
shazam
IMDB

I assume that the app version is too high for my iphone4. If this is so, then why do such apps update automatically without first testing whether the hardware can support the newest app version? Are there ways I can stop this in the future?  Finally, can one downgrade the app version to something that works?

Its supposed that the apps that you can download should work well on your iphone, in the case where the app is not compatible with that iOS version it should pop you an alert, if some app does not work correctly the only thing you can do is:

What you are doing right now, restore the device and manage well your iphone storage.
Post an App Store review in which you describe yout problem..

This type of issues are not supposed to happen, especially with big developers like Google but..who knows.


What does System Preferences > iCloud > Mail do? Suppose I turn on the setting for Mail in the iCloud preferences pane.  What does this actually do?  I've never turned this on; I have a vague memory that I once did, and that bad/weird things happened with my mail (messages getting synced in ways that I didn't want or something).  But it's so long ago that I no longer remember, and now I'm wondering if I should just get over it and turn it on.

If this syncs the details of my mail accounts across my OS X / iOS devices, that'd be nice.  Does it do anything else?

This is the iCloud Mail service. Turning it on provides the iCloud mail account for Mail.app to use, nothing more. It is basically an automated method of entering the iCloud mail server information into Mail.app to configure your @icloud.com email account, per this Apple KB article:

iCloud: Mail server information

It does not sync other accounts in any way - settings or emails of other accounts are not affected by this setting, just your @icloud.com or @me.com account.

You can read more about iCloud Mail at this Apple KB article:

iCloud: Mail overview


How to clear iPhone's concact cache for text messages? My iPhone (model 5, IOS 6.1.2) seems to have some sort of contact cache which it uses when sending text messages: whenever I am sending a message to someone, I start typing the persone's name in te "to:" field, and the iPhone shows me all the contacts matching the letters I typed; but it shows up also contacts I have deleted long ago, and which I don't want around anymore.

How can I get rid of this?

Is this related to the infamous e-mail cache?

This has been FINALLY fixed in IOS 7. Now you can remove contacts from this cache.

As soon as the unwanted contact pops up while you're typing in the "to:" field, you can tap on a little "i" (probably for "info") icon on its right, and have a menu appear where you can remove the contact, or add it back to your address book if you feel so inclined.


How do I get my iPod touch to change the locked screen wallpaper? I just got a new 2nd-generation iPod Touch 16GB. I believe I had a 2nd gen iPod Touch 8GB before.. but back when I did if I played a song, the album art would show up for that song on my locked screen. However this new iPod Touch doesn't do that (it just shows the default wallpaper I chose) and I can't seem to find the settings I need for it. Not looking for a jail-breaking solution by the way. Thanks.

Have you tried:

Select your iPod under the Devices section in the iTunes Source pane.
Select the Music tab of the iPod settings. The iPod settings are displayed to the right in the main iTunes window.
Select the "Display album artwork on your iPod" checkbox.
Click Apply to save the changes. The iPod begins to update as soon as Apply is clicked.


AppleFontSmoothing Has No Effect On My ViewSonic VX2450 I've followed the advice in these questions and am not having any luck.  No matter what I try, the fonts are rendered so poorly on the external monitor.

My environment -

MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011
ViewSonic VX2450 External Monitor using DVI.

I've tried values for "X" (0,1,2 and 3) for this command without effect --

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int X

I've also tried each of these values along with various combinations of values for "Use LCD font smoothing when available" and "Turn off text smoothing for fonts sizes X and smaller" in System Preferences > General.  All without any luck.

Can anyone offer me some advice?  Thanks!

A couple things to consider:

Do you see a difference with the various AppleFontSmoothing settings on your main display?
Are you seeing this in all apps, or just one or two?

Some programs render fonts independently of the OS, so changing the global font smoothing won't make a difference in them

What is the physical connection between the MacBook and the Viewsonic?

mDP to VGA adapter?
mDP to DVI adapter?
mDP to HDMI adapter?

Analog signals on VGA might not support the resolution
Make sure any OSD controls for the port you're using have the correct settings

How have you configured the Viewsonic, relative to your MacBook's main panel?

Mirroring the internal display

Select a resolution for your main display that is an even factor of your Viewsonic's native resolution

Set as its own independent display

Choose the Viewsonic's native resolution

Hope one of these leads you down a path that ends in a pretty picture.


SH script calls Perl script. Works when I double click, but Perl script fails when I call from terminal Severe newb here.  I have a shell script that simply calls a perl script to create a file.  It works if I double-click the SH file, but fails if I call the file in a terminal. here is the entire SH file:

#! /bin/bash
# Run Will's JSON Script

perl /Users/j.douet/Documents/JSON/pbmJson.pl -i /Jaspersoft/tmp/output/hospicemed/hhcsys/hhcsys_hospicemed_201711251121140465.txt -m newPatient -n 1234 > /Jaspersoft/tmp/output/hospicemed/hhcsys/hhcsys_hospicemed_201711251121140465.json;

It really is that simple. No arguments yet as I am testing. When I double-click, my output file is created, but when I execute

sh runhmJSON.sh

I get errors within the perl script, all similar to:

/Users/j.douet/Documents/JSON/pbmJson.pl: line 3: use: command not found

Thoughts?

That error indicates your pbmJson.pl is being run by a shell, and not by perl:

$ cat someperlcode
printf "hi\n";
printf "there\n";
use strict;
$ perl someperlcode
hi
there
$ sh someperlcode
hi
there
someperlcode: use: not found
$ use
mksh: use: not found
$ bash
bash-3.2$ use
bash: use: command not found
bash-3.2$ exit
exit
$

As written, I see no error in what you've posted:

$ cat code
#! /bin/bash

perl someperlcode > output
$ chmod +x code
$ rm output
$ ./code
$ cat output
hi
there
$ rm output
$ sh code
$ cat output
hi
there
$


Change Snow Leopard Login Wallpaper w/ Terminal I know this is possible as I did it once before.

How do you set the login background wallpaper to something else using terminal?

The login screen background image is located at /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg — you can simply sudo cp another jpeg image to replace it (though I'd recommend backing it up first!).


Cmd+Tab remaps to Ctrl+Tab Please read my answer and bmikes comment before voting to close. Someone is going to come along and say I should just learn Mac shortcuts, but I must say I use Chromebooks, Windows, & Linux boxes and they all put the Control/Command key in the bottom left and right hand corner of the computer.  I'm sorry but Changing 1 operating system is way easier then changing the other three(especially considering Chromebooks native shortcuts can't be changed).

To alleviate the most common keyboard shortcuts I have the left control key mapped to the command key on my apple computer.  And have switched the right command and option/alt keys on the right hand side.  I then switched command and control again in iTerm a very well made application.

Now unfortunately Control+Tab no longer works to switch between browser tabs.  Well tabs in any application actually.

I would like Command+Tab=Control+Tab and Command+Tab+Shift=Control+Tab+Shift.

I am on El Captain using Karabiner Elements and would prefer to stay away from Karabiner(the older version).  There is a github issue also opened currently with this issue.

Here is the JSON to remap these keys only.

{
  "title": "Cmd+tab maps to Ctrl+tab",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Make Cmd+tab activate Ctrl+tab",
      "manipulators": [
     {
        "type": "basic",
        "from": {
            "key_code": "tab",
            "modifiers": {
                "mandatory": [
                    "command"
                ],
                "optional": [
                    "shift"
                ]
            }
        },
        "to": [
               {
                "key_code": "tab",
                "modifiers": ["control"]
               }
        ]
      }
      ]
    }
  ]
}


Finder freezes when downloading files in Safari I am experiencing problems when I download archives from Safari to the Finder. What happens is that one archive keeps downloading and it never ends. Then when I try to enter to the Downloads folder in Finder it gets frozen.

In order to have it working, I need to restart my Mac.

Is there anything I can do to fix this problem?

You don't have to restart your Mac. You can simply use Command-Option-Escape and Relaunch the Finder app. I have this same problem, but it only happens when I have a Finder window open to the Downloads folder at the same time I download a file in Safari.
If the Downloads folder isn't open, the file downloads and all is well. This problem started with OS X El Capitan on a Mac with a clean install of the OS and a disk that checks out with no issues under the Disk Utility.


"Directory not empty" sudo rm -r -i "file name" not working I tried moving some backup files to my trash so that I could free up some space on the backup drive. Using Finder, I was able to empty the trash can with the exception of one directory that remains even though emptying trash raises no error messages.

After searching around I found quite a few examples for forcing the trash can to empty. However I've tried several now and I'm getting the same message.

The directory looks like this:

Domain Users  102 Jan  6 10:35 .
Domain Users  102 Jan  6 10:35 ..
Domain Users  102 Jan  6 10:35 Local Storage

I ran this command to delete that Local Storage folder:

$ sudo rm -r -i Local\ Storage/

And this is the message I get:

rm: Local Storage/: Directory not empty

I also changed the permissions so that I own the folder but that didn't help.

This is the directory I'm working in:

/Volumes/BackUpDrive/.Trashes/862998330/2013-11-26-143907/Macintosh HD/Users/{user}/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1

I also tried deleting the entire "862998330" folder but that didn't work either so I moved onto deleting each directory and that's where I am now.

Machine stats:

• 27-inch, Mid 2011

• OSX 10.91

First, I would be sure no files are locked

sudo chflags -R nouchg Local\ Storage

Then, assuming you are sure about using sudo and rm -rf on your backup drive, you could tell rm to force things.

sudo rm -rf -i Local\ Storage


What Would Cause APFS Volumes to Show Up Under the Wrong Disk? I’ve got a pretty interesting APFS problem. There are two volumes on one, internal drive, and two that were cloned from it, on an external. All four volumes show up under the internal drive, even though they show up under the right device going by device number. So - you have disk1s1, disk1s5, disk8s1, and disk8s5 all showing up under disk1.

They are also showing up as belonging to disk6, which houses disk8. Disk8 though - it’s listed as “Uninitialized,” and won’t do a thing.

It started like this:

My system drive had an fsroot error when checked. It seemed to cause problems with booting and some hangs; I wanted to clone the drive to have a back up to my backups - to be super safe.
I couldn’t clone either the disk or the system drive volume. I’d end up with a single file on the target drive that said “tobeinverted.”
I used dd to clone the drive. The clone has the same “invalid fstroot tree” problem, of course.
After a reboot, the volumes that belong under the external drive are shown in the container disk for the system drive (internal). And after another reboot... unmounting and mounting again...

Meanwhile, I’m unable to get High Sierra reinstalled on the original system drive - it hangs with a completed status bar and the Apple logo. It does this even after I’ve erased it - First Aid / fsck checks out now that it’s wiped, too. So that’s confusing.

I’m going to get myself out of this mess, but since I can’t find anything on this weird issue, I think it could be helpful to someone else in the future.

I don’t know much about these aspects of disk and drive structure and so on, but if fsroot doesn’t stand for filesystem root, I quit everything.

So - the volume has corrupt information about which disk it belongs to? Is that how I ended up here?

They know which device they belong to... it shows up under the Device section, and using diskutil list, or df -h; whatever you like.

The Disk Utility First Aid errors:

error: invalid dstream.default_crypto_id (0x4), given apfs_fs_flags (0x1)
error: xf : INO_EXT_TYPE_DSTREAM: invalid dstream
error: inode_val: object (oid 0x1a24c0): invalid xfields
fsroot tree is invalid.
The volume /dev/disk/ could not be verified completely.

That’s it - if someone has encountered this problem I’d love to hear about your experience.

The plain answer is that APFS volumes (from two separate disks) show up under the wrong disk when the containers share a UUID. Of course when you clone a drive, the UUIDs come along - volumes and the container. Possibly it happens when two volumes have the same UUID as well.

I gave up trying to fix the problem with the UUIDs on the containers. The method I know is to use one of the filesystem utilities -

/System/Library/Filesystems/hfs.fs/Contents/Resources/hfs.util
or
/System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util

for example, and since APFS Container partitions don't have a filesystem, I got stuck there, and attacked my problem from a different direction.

To fix the UUIDs on individual volumes:

Say diskDsV and diskFsB (both APFS volumes) share the same UUID. You can change one of them by unmounting the volume and doing this:

./System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -s rdiskDsV

If this is a system drive, it's much more complicated. You have a Preboot volume, and you have to change the name of a folder in the root directory of that volume as well - the folder name needs to be the UUID of the system drive.

Even though 2 volumes are shown on the list, when you click on the disk you can see that there are actually 5. Preboot, VM, and Recovery were created automatically, and for the most part are hidden.

So, to take care of this, find the right UUID for the system volume like this (I'm guessing it's s1 - could be different):

./System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -k rdiskDs1

Then, diskutil list /dev/diskD - you'll see the Preboot volume; let's call it sp. Next sudo diskutil mount /dev/diskDsp, then ls /Volumes/Preboot/ and you'll see the folder. If the name doesn't match the UUID of the correct volume, change it.

Two final steps - see here for more - (diskDspNAME being the mount point under Volumes):

Declare where the boot files are:

sudo bless --folder/Volumes/diskDspNAME/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi

Update the dynamic linker cache:

sudo update_dyld_shared_cache -root /Volumes/diskDspNAME -force


No FaceTime app after iOS 8 upgrade Upgraded to ios8 on my iPad air. There is no FaceTime app on the settings page to turn or or off. How to I set up face time

Since this is a strange and unusal thing that I have never heard of, I can't offer a single solution, however I can offer multiple procedures to try and solve the problem.

Turn your iPad off and back on. Simple yes, but don't underestimate the power this procedure can do. It works wonders!
If that didn't work, try resetting all of your settings. This can be acheived by opening the settings of your iPad and navigating to General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings. This will not cause you to loose any data, however anything in the settings app will be set to their default settings, ranging from iCloud login, WiFi networks, wallpapers and even your ringtone will be set to the default. No data will be lost, but you will need to sit with the iPad for a solid few minutes reconfiguring it again to its proper settings.
Hopefully that worked, because if it didn't it's time for a device fresh restore. This is where you will need to get a computer and a USB to lightning cable and hook it up to iTunes. This procedure will force EVERYTHING to be removed from the device unless you restore it from a backup. So before you do anything, make sure you create a backup by going File -> Devices -> Back Up. Now that you have your backup this step splits into two options for you.

a) Click on the Restore button in the device summary page to wipe the device clean. Once installation is finished and while the iPad is still connected to the computer you may select Restore From Previous Backup. This will restore everything back onto the device, including apps + their data, photos and anything else, even your wallpaper at the time. If the setting STILL isn't there. Then there is no choice to do a full restore and keep it that way

b) The best way to go about is is enable iCloud and sync all of your contacts/calendars/anything else to it if you haven't done so already. Also, a nifty new feature is iCloud Photos where it stores your photos in your drive. You can use this as a first line of backup for photos but if you want you can copy them off your computer while its still plugged in (eg iPhoto if you are on a mac). Once all your important data is backed up somewhere other than the device, hit that Restore button once again. Let it finish and go through the step by step tutorial to setup as a new device.
Proceed to restore all your data by logging into iCloud/redownloading your apps/changing settings once more, but before you do any of this, check to see if the FaceTime setting is there again. If it isn't, you may as well restore from the iTunes backup once again and this time call Apple for support.

Hope it doesn't have to get anywhere further than option 1 but if all else fails I hope it works out for you. Good luck! :)


Connect iPhone to USB HardDrive I have a unique situation at my company.  We are trying to develop a mobile service app that connects to slot machines.  If you connect a PC to the slot machine, an external HD pops up in Windows and you can copy files to it.

We want to do the same thing through an iPad.

I know this would be all custom code, but I was wondering if it was possible for iOS to read an external USB drive through it's doc connector.

No. iOS/iPad is only able to act as a USB host with the Camera Connection Kit (Apple Store). Even then, it only works to import/export pictures and videos between the iPad and camera.


SFTP client for OS X for updating external website I do update a website for my company, and for that I currently have the following workflow:

Make a local mirror of the external website
Update files in the local mirror that is going to be updated on the external site
Verify that the files that are going to be uploaded to the external site is correct
Upload files using SFTP

Currently I use FileZilla to upload files. To verify that the update is correct, and that nothing more has accidentally changed, I would like to see the changes between the external and the local before performing the upload.

To perform the verification I need to download the file from the external site and perform a diff on the files.

My first thought was that there must be a easier way to do this, and that it might be that there are SFTP clients that integrate this "under the hood".

Are there any SFTP clients for OS X that let you compare and see the differences between a local file and the file on the server before doing an upload.

I use Transmit from Panic. It doesn't allow an actual file to file content comparison like a diff, but you can do a simulated sync to see which files will be replaced or deleted.

If you drag one file from window to window it asks you to verify and gives you the information on both files regarding modification dates and times.

You can try it before you buy it. I would think any good FTP client should do a simulated transfer.


Missing fullscreen arrows in Mountain Lion When I run iTap Mobile RDP on my Macbook Pro, I set the Windows resolution to "native", with "fullscreen" off. When I open a connection to Windows, the OS X window shows the usual "fullscreen" arrows in the upper right corner.

When I run iTap on my 27' iMac using exactly the same settings, the "fullscreen" arrows do not show, even though the application fills the viewing area (not including the dock and menubar).

Both Macs are running 10.8.5.

Any idea why they would be different? Is there a setting that I am missing on the iMac? I would like the "fullscreen" arrows to appear on the iMac.

UPDATE I am using iTap 1.1.10.23000 on both machines.

Are you using the same version of iTap? As this is a feature the application need to activate and implement.


Strange .userchain file on my Mojave desktop Mac Pro (early 2009) 4,1 -> 5,1
macOS 10.14.2 via DosDude1

I have a strange hidden text file on my Desktop called .userchain. It's 48 bytes long and consists of 3 seemingly random alpha-numeric 10 character blocks, the second and third of which are preceeded by a \ character. Each block is separated by a tab character and there is a final solitary \ character at the end.

The file is being used by something because the modified date is yesterday afternoon, though I cannot remember what I was doing at the time!

Running file on the file path indicates that it was created on Sun Sep  2 02:02:05 2018. I can't remember what I was doing then, although if I had to guess, I would think that I would have been asleep.

Can I delete the file or at least move it somewhere else without causing my machine any harm?

The most likely cause of the hidden .userchain text file is the installation of SampleTank software, up to and including version 3 (the current version as of this writing).

I'm not clear on why this is created by the software, but if you're continuing to use the software then I would leave it be as it's basically taking up no space and doesn't cause any known problems in macOS.

However, if you no longer use the software, it's safe to remove. If in the future you launch it again, it'll just recreate the .userchain text file.

Likewise, if you've totally removed the software, it's also safe to remove.


For iOS developers, are GM releases eligible for OTA updates on point releases? The iOS 7 betas are the first set of OS betas I've been through as a member of the Developer Program. Manually installing the beta releases is one thing, but now that a GM has been released will the 7.0.1 release be available to the GM build installed as an OTA update? Or will I have to install that from the image manually, and then get OTA updates for version 7.0.2 and onward?

Yes. Excluding any major issues, the GM release for developers is the same as the first release to the public. Future point releases can be updated over-the-air rather than through a manual image install.


Catalina: Spotlight can no longer launch many apps I just installed Catalina (10.15.2). I can no longer launch many apps with Spotlight: Terminal.app, Mail.app, Calendar.app, the dictionary, etc.

Some apps do launch, like Safari and Numbers.

It appears that there are now two Applications areas, and it seems that Spotlight doesn't index any that are in the /System/Applications area.

I have tried adding and removing the /System/Applications directory from the privacy settings of Spotlight (apparently supposed to cause Spotlight to re-index an area), rebooting, clearing PRAM, and the following commands:

sudo mdutil -E /
sudo mdutil -E /System
sudo mdutil -E /System/Applications

All of which has been to no avail.

I haven't been able to find similar complaints online. Is this just affecting me? Or is this a general problem with Catalina?

If just me, what else can I try to diagnose or solve this?

Edit (update):

OK, I tried the following sequence, suggested in the comments below:

sudo mdutil -i off -a
sudo mdutil -i on -a

Then I repeated it and removed a Spotlight file while it was off (still without success):

sudo mdutil -i off -a
sudo rm -fr /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100
sudo mdutil -i on -a

Can anyone comment if Spotlight is working for them on Catalina to launch apps under /System/Applications (e.g., Terminal.app)? I still don't know if this is my problem or a general Catalina problem.

This is a rare situation, but I’ve had great success making a new volume sharing the same APFS container and reinstalling a clean OS in a new volume to validate it’s not your disk that’s failing(failed). It’s not at all unique to Catalina and Catalina works great for spotlight in hundreds of machines we have. We’re seeing fewer spotlight issues compared to older OS in fact.

Back to what you can do - installing a new OS to the same container (to test). I would back up all your important filed before poking anymore, just in case. Once you have that system set up you can let spotlight run on the new OS and convince yourself it’s just that you have corrupt data on the old volume.

Once you know you have a working system, you can run some apps or just run Migration Assistant to bring the files over. If you lack space to have two copies of everything - boot to the old systems and clean / run a Time Machine backup and restore from there (or just erase and install if you already have a backup) knowing things will be fixed.

The commands you list are nice if they work once, but running them several times rarely patches up a system that’s broken in my experience so the sooner you can delete / walk away from the corrupt data / files / filesystem, the better.

If you really need to isolate the failure, I would run mddiagnose and review the files - it’s a ton of work the first 5 to 10 times you try to understand all the diagnostic files - like finding a needle in a haystack, but most failures can be identified from the diagnostic output.


iOS: Your passcode is required to enable Touch ID Occasionally, when unlocking my iPhone or iPad, I get the following message:

  Your passcode is required to enable Touch ID

Now this is not after a number of failed attempts or turning the device off. The device was used within the last 12 hours. Two of the devices are less than 2 months old, and one is a year old. Everything is up to date. It appears to be happening more-or-less at random.

Does anybody know why this message might appear?

There are certain rules that iOS uses that govern when your iPhone will prompt you for your passcode, and one of these relates to an 8hr period during which Touch ID has not been used. That alone would explain the scenario in your question (i.e. some nights you’re getting 8+ hrs of sleep, and other nights you’re not).

All of the Touch ID rules can be found in Apple’s iOS Security Guide. In summary though, the rules governing when a passcode is required instead of your fingerprint, are as follows:

The passcode has not been used to unlock the device in the last six days
Your fingerprint has not been used to unlock the device in the last eight hours 1
You have just powered up (or rebooted) your device
Your device has not been unlocked for more than 48 hours
You’ve unsuccessfully tried to use your fingerprint on five consecutive attempts
Whenever you add a fingerprint to your Touch ID settings
Your device has received a remote lock command

Regarding that last point, this refers to iCloud’s Lost Mode function. For more info you can read iCloud: Use Lost Mode.

See more details: http://www.macworld.com/article/3072181/ios/new-touch-id-rules-why-you-have-to-enter-your-passcode-when-you-wake-up.html

1 This is most likely the cause in your situation most of the time.


Can't delete empty partition I've searched around on here and viewed posts such as:

I deleted my Bootcamp partition but can't resize my OS X partition
Can't ever remove partition?

The second one looked most promising, however the solution doesn't seem to give me the empty partition when running diskutil cs list so I can't delete it this way:

diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 2BBFD1F3-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         447653191680 B (447.7 GB)
    Free Space:   106496 B (106.5 KB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume F3D5C9AC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     447653191680 B (447.7 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family FCEE4713-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Conversion Status:       Complete
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
        Fully Secure:            Yes
        Passphrase Required:     Yes
        |
        +-> Logical Volume C6735B8F-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          447300763648 B (447.3 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

This is what Disk Utility gives me:

As you can see the delete button is unavailable.

I have a Time Machine backup but that only gave me the option to restore to my 447GB disk (the drive is obviously a 500GB).

What are the recommended steps to reclaim my free space? I've tried repairing, and it found some errors in the partition table and supposedly "fixed" them. The situation came about when I created a blank partition and an error was shown. I've since then being trying to delete it with no luck.

Solved. I just had to boot into recovery and run

diskutil cs unlockVolume C6735B8F-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
diskutil cs resizeStack C6735B8F-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX 0g

The only strange thing is that Disk Utility shows a blue and white rectangle to represent the drive (unless this is simply showing used space):

Thanks goes to this post: Resizing or expanding a CoreStorage volume


Prevent Gmail signatures from syncing between iPhone and iPad I am trying to setup my email signature for my Gmail app on both my iPhone and iPad. However, whatever I setup on on my iPhone defaults on my iPad and vice versa.  Is there a way to work around this?

It looks like Gmail only differentiates between desktop and mobile signatures:

  You can create a mobile signature that will only be used when you send emails from the Gmail app. (Link)

Obviously, mobile signature applies to any mobile device with a compatible Gmail app.


View Mac app files like iOS apps using iFunBox I have some apps installed on my iMac and would want to view the contents of the app using iFunBox. I am having great difficulty doing so. I can view the contents of apps on my iPhone using iFunBox but can't seem to do same for apps on my iMac.

Do you know if I can do this using iFunBox or what alternatives do can you suggest?

You don't need any software for this.
Simply right-click the app bundle and select Show Package Contents.

To view app data, look in ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences
~ is the home folder, accessible through Finder. ~/Library is hidden — use the Finder's Go menu (hold ⌥).


Install Snow Leopard Server I'm considering buying Snow Leopard Server, however, the person I'm buying it from will be providing me with the server discs that came with his Mac Mini Server and a serial number. If I have an iMac already running Snow Leopard, will I still be able to take the server discs included with the Mini and install server on top? Are the discs compatible with the iMac? Thanks.

Unfortunately, the disks that come with a Mac are Mac-specfic. They have special drivers for the machine they came with, and usually don't include drivers for other machines. The serial number he's providing you with should still work with no issues, but the disks themselves will probably not work. I would suggest getting the Snow Leopard Server disks from another source and using the serial number you're buying.

As for installing Server on top of the existing OS, this shouldn't be an issue. I would still recommend having a backup, but it shouldn't erase any data.

Good luck!


What is the PDF rendering speed of the iPad Pro 10.5"? I want know the PDF rendering speed of new iPad Pro 10.5", most preferably in units of Megapixels per second.

I have an iMac which scored a score of 107.8 Megapixels/sec at single core and 343.6 MP/sec at multicore on Geekbench 4, but couldn't find the same test for the iPad Pro 10.5"

There's no generic "megapixel per second" speed for PDF-rendering - just to make that clear.

On the iMac you're running Geekbench 4, where the creator of Geekbench defined his own artificial benchmark for PDFs (this is the very nature of benchmark programs, not just Geekbench). Using that program you get a MP/sec speed, but it is not comparable with any other MP/sec speed rating except those obtained using the exact same method as Geekbench.

The method used by Geekbench is to parse and render a specific 29-page PDF test document using the PDFium library.

On the iPad, you're normally using Apple's own PDF rendering libary. As it is not PDFium, you cannot compare with Geekbench.


EFI and SMC firmware updates - how to determine if the downloadable version is more recent? I have a 15-inch MacBook Pro late 2011. System Information gives me the following firmware versions:

EFI Boot Rom Version: MBP81.0047.B2C

SMC Version (system):   1.69f3

Apple provides the following web site for downloading firmware upgrades: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518

On this website the following downloads are available for my system:

EFI Boot ROM version: MBP81.0047.2AB (2015-001)

SMC version: 1.69f3 (SMC 1.5)

The SMC version is the same as the one installed on my system, so no need to update anything.

However, there is a discrepancy with regard to the EFI Boot ROM versions (installed MBP81.0047.B2C vs. MBP81.0047.2AB). How can I tell whether the ...2AB version is a newer version than the ...B2C version on my system? Will the upgrade programme check during the upgrade process?  I

The updater program will check to see if you already have the latest version of the Firmware.  Taken directly from the Apple web page that you linked to:

  If you try to use a manual updater that's not designed for your Mac,
  or if it's not needed, the installer alerts you and the software isn't
  installed


iPhone 4 microphone not working in phone calls but working in other apps People cannot hear me when I make a normal phone call. When I use Skype or Facebook call it works but not during a normal call.
I have done a phone reset already but didn't work
Any ideas?

2 mics

You have 2 microphones on your iPhone:

One for normal calls, this one is broken in your case
One for environment sounds. This one is used for video conference calls, video's, sound recordings. This one still works.

My suggestion is to go to iFixit and replace your dock connecter. This replacement also fixes your mic.


Cannot Remove Configuration Profile On iPhone I worked at a company that used GOOD For Enterprise. I installed it on my iPhone 5s and now that I've left the company, would like to remove the profile. I've deleted the GOOD application, but I cannot remove the profile. There is no red "Remove" button like all of the tutorials show. I just did a full wipe and restored the phone with my iCloud profile and sure enough, it's still my one and only configuration profile on my phone. How do I get this off of here? Here are some images...

I believe you will have to wipe your phone and not restore from backup. Some configuration profiles allow the creator to prevent removal of the profile.

Apple's configuration reference lists the following key the creator of the profile probably used:

  PayloadRemovalDisallowed -
  Optional. Supervised only. If present and set to true, the user cannot delete the profile (unless the profile has a removal password and the user provides it).


Cannot connect iPhone to my machine as "the host is no longer paired with the device" I am getting the following message from Xcode every time I connect my iPhone to Mac OS X.

  The host is no longer paired with the device.

My iPhone doesn't even charge.

I really, really, really hate to say this; but, in my experience, it works for this kind of thing: Restart your iPhone (home+sleep for a few seconds) and try again.


Unknown Admin Password on New/Used IMac 2011 How do you Change the Administrator User Name and Password if you can not see it on the users list and do not know the previous one?

In short, you don't.
That's the entire point of having a secure computer.

The long answer is you have to wipe the machine & start over. Nothing on there belongs to you, not even the OS itself, & you would have to provide the old owner's credentials for any updates.

See Apple KB - What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac

If you are no longer in touch with the previous owner, you'll have to start from step 6. Fortunately you can actually just start from there on an old Mac. On a new one, you would need to get the original owner to release it first.


How can I move a photo from iPad Camera Roll to another Album? I've learned how to copy photos from Camera Roll (iPad 2 with iOS 5) to new or existing albums. Is it possible to move photos to new or existing albums from Camera Roll?

No, not straight from the iPad. The Camera Roll is like a smart folder: it contains all items that were stored as pictures on the iPad from apps. You can't move pictures from there to another album, just like you can't move songs from the iTunes library to playlist.

However, if you import the pictures on your computer, then delete it from the iPad (you didn't specify your OS there, but assuming Mac OS X: with iPhoto, it simply asks you whether you'd like to do so after the import is over), syncing the pictures that were in the Camera Roll back onto the iPad will make them appear only in the albums you've configured on your computer, not in the Roll anymore (since they were not added from the iPad).


Home button unresponsive after left inactive I run a small-time iPhone repair business. I have done almost 200 LCD replacements to this point so I am moderately experienced.

I replaced the LCD on an iPhone 6. The home button works fine while the phone is being used. However, when the iPhone is left inactive for a period of time ,at least a minute, the home button will "sleep" and not respond to touch. If I press the power button to "wake" the iPhone the home button will work. This is odd to me that it only works while the iPhone is being used.

Any ideas?

There are a range of possible fixes. Have you tried the following?

Recalibrating

Recalibrating the home button appears to fix the issue for a majority of the users. It happened with our iPhones here. When the home button gets a bit tricky and unresponsive, this is what we usually do:

Open an app. Any default iOS app. (Weather, Clock etc.)
Hold the Sleep/Wake button (Power) till the ‘Slide to power off’ appears
Now press and hold the home button till the slide goes away and you get to the homescreen.
(You’ll notice that the app is closed)

This should fix the calibration issues and make the home button work better. Of course, while the thing works well, the calibration appears to wane away after sometime. For some, this happens within a week or so. For some, this happens after several weeks or months.

Cleaning / Dusting

Sweat causes moisture. There’s dust all around. And with the kind of little spaces that the home button’s edge has, it is very much possible that the unresponsiveness is due to dust clogged in it. Usually, repair takes up a lot of time and money so you can try cleaning the thing yourself.

One of the best ways to clean the home button without having to play around with the screws is to just press the button and air dust it. This usually blows away some of the clog dust and helps you get back some good responsiveness with the home button.

If all else fails:

Reset: go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings. Have a data backup just in case.


Which iOS devices do not support iOS 5? What is the complete list of iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) that are unable to update to iOS 5.0?

Devices not supported by iOS 5:

iPhone (original)
iPhone 3G
iPod Touch first generation
iPod Touch second generation
AppleTV

Source: http://www.apple.com/ios/features.html . "iOS 5 is compatible with: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 3rd generation, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPad, iPad 2."


How Can I Mount "Macintosh HD - Data" in the Finder in Target Disk Mode? I attempted to install the latest Catalina supplemental update on my 2019 iMac, however, after it downloaded and the Mac restarted it got stuck on the update screen, and it's been that way for 2 days.
I tried restarting and resetting the parameter RAM, which didn't really do anything, and it won't boot into Safe Mode; the system restarts right back into the update screen.
I booted up from an external drive running Catalina, hoping that I might be able to copy files to another external. I can see the Macintosh HD volume in the Finder, but not the Macintosh HD - Data volume, so I can't access my files.
I then booted up an older iMac and put the 2019 iMac into Target Disk Mode, but it's basically the same problem: Macintosh HD - Data shows mounted in Disk Utility, but I don't see it in the Finder.
System Integrity Protection is NOT enabled.
Any suggestions on how to mount Macintosh HD - Data via Target Disk Mode or from an external drive?

For those who might still have this problem when in target disk mode. Right click on the Macintosh HD - Data volume in Disk Utility and click "show in finder"


MacBook Pro 2011 has faulty power button - How do I enable any key or lid open boot settings? I'm working on an Early 2011 MacBook Pro 13" which suffered a little water damage.
After cleaning the system I can get it to turn on by disconnecting the battery, then reconnecting it and connecting the charger.  It automatically turns on and everything operates fine.
If I do a shutdown though, I have no way of turning it on without repeating the battery/charge sequence (which resets the date and time).  It doesn't respond to the power button press, any keyboard key presses or lid open.
I was hoping there is a way to enable a "turn on when lid open and/or any key" type setting.  Is this possible?
The system is running MacOS X 10.12.6.

Opening the lid to turn on a Mac only works if the Mac is asleep/hibernating.  If the power is off, it will need to be turned on.
The reason you have to disconnect the battery is because although your power settings may call for "boot after power failure," there's never really a power failure if you're battery is connected (and has sufficient charge).
There's two ways you can address this:

Short the power pads.  This is a "stop gap" way to turn on a Mac so that you don't have to disconnect the battery.  Simply bridge the two pads with the blade of a slotted screwdriver or, if you're really daring, solder a wire loop (long enough to come out of the case) with a momentary switch to make it more convenient.  This way, you don't have to keep opening the back cover.  It's a total bodge, but it'll get you by.

Replace the keyboard.  I actually reference this exact keyboard in this question/answer:  Keyboard key stuck or not being recognized; how to fix.  Look under "Replacing Keyboard" in the Answer for specifics.  It's actually very inexpensive.  You may also be able to find the button by itself on eBay.

I advise the latter.  You may be able to get away with only replacing the button rather than the whole keyboard, but either way, it's a better, more reliable fix.


How to use screen capture UI standalone, to edit existing images? When doing screen capture in MacOS, you get a pop up in bottom right corner. If you click on it, you get UI for simple edits on this image. Nevertheless, I love it! It looks like this

But how can I use it for existing files?

By default, since macOS Mojave, when taking a screen shot a floating thumbnail briefly appears in the lower right-hand corner of the Desktop, which one can click on to edit the screen shot.

The editor which appears, because by default Show Floating Thumbnail is checked in the Options for taking a screen shot, can be used on an image file or screen shot afterwards by selecting the image file in Finder and then right-click on the image and select: Quick Actions > Markup

You can also, after selecting the image file, press the spacebar to bring up a quicklook view and click the Markup button.


How do I view or verify signed .mobileconfig files using Terminal? I need to troubleshoot problems with signed .mobileconfig profiles. How can I show the signature of a these files using Terminal? Is it also possible to verify the certificates that were used to sign the profile?

Is there a way to output the XML content of these files without the signature?

Apple's .mobileconfig files are signed using PKCS7. The signing certificate data can be shown using the following command:

openssl pkcs7 -inform DER -print_certs -in ~/Settings.mobileconfig

You can copy/paste ASCII certificate data from the output into a plain text file (with a .cer filename extension) to create copies of the certificates:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIElTCCA32gAwIBAgIBAjALBgkqhkiG9w0BAQswga4xQDA+BgNVBAMMN0tlbGxl
eSBDb21wdXRpbmcgT3BlbiBEaXJlY3RvcnkgQ2VydGlmaWNhdGlvbiBBdXRob3Jp
dHkxGTAXBgNVBAoMEEtlbGxleSBDb21wdXRpbmcxJTAjBgNVBAsMHE1BQ09TWCBP
...
q19fbG33zNwRhVHceYMpcbWG1MSqLxnPu4wo75OZFIJCaByZykfpKAzRZl9aa7rD
5bAuzZAziXBW7WWKce2a4hGN804W9RHco5HIGLsQAdg4pLZvENXF1+JNHtBVXjjL
WJrCDKjnCyS1DqmJqijk9KIDM8gP6iLLeQ==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

OpenSSL can be used to verify the code-signing certificate as well. Assuming that we've copied the signing CA's certificate text/data into ~/CA.crt, and copied the code signing certificate into ~/CodeSigner.crt.:

openssl verify -CAfile ~/CA.crt ~/CodeSigner.crt

Removing the signature from a file can be accomplished using this command:

openssl smime -inform DER -verify -in ~/Settings.mobileconfig -noverify -out ~/Unsigned.mobileconfig


Recover pictures deleted by syncing iPhone from different photo library Today while I was trying to transfer pictures from computer to my iPhone, I selected the folder I wanted to copy then a message appeared on the screen that

  Photos synced to iPhone from other photo libraries or folders will be removed and photos will be synced from this computer. Photos taken from iPhone will not affected.

I entered the option Remove and Sync.

Now the older pictures have been deleted and the new one's have been added.

How can I recover the older picture?

iDevices can only by synced to one computer running iTunes.
Syncing to a new computer/iTunes will erase all previous data.

If you still have the other computer that the iPhone was last synced to, then you might be able to retrieve them from your last backup. Alternatively, check your iCloud storage.

It would have been far safer to click Cancel & instead copy the previous photos to the computer using Photos.app or Image Capture, Mac or Photo Gallery [part of MS Essentials], PC.


Create clean install of MacOS, yet still have access to old install My goal is to create a clean install of MacOS, yet still have access to the old install (somewhere else like another partition) while I work on the new install to match the old one. I am assuming that I will miss some items initially and will need to refer back to the older install.

One path to accomplish my goal would be to have a dual boot (though not preferred). While I am working on the clean install, I would be able to reboot to the older version to perform work if necessary UNTIL the new clean install is ready. Eventually I would delete the older version.

Another path could be to create a virtual box install of High Sierra, time machine back up that, while I work on making that right I would still have access to the old install (host). Then once I'm convinced that I have everything ready I would backup and restore the new virtual install as a real install on my Macbook.

Does anyone have any advice to accomplish this?

My goal is to create a clean install of MacOS, yet still have access
  to the old install while I work on the new install. I am assuming that
  I will miss some items initially and will need to refer back to the
  older install.

This is the very essence of a (full) Time Machine backup and the proper application of Migration Assistant.

Another option is to use an external USB drive and make an image of your existing drive to that external drive.  Once you are certain that you can boot from it and operate properly, you can then do a clean installation on your internal drive.

To make a clone of your drive, you can use a commercial application like Carbon Copy Cloner or use dd in Terminal to make the copy:

dd if=/dev/diskX of=/dev/diskY bs=1M

Where X is your source (internal) disk identifier and Y is your target (USB) disk identifier.

Whether you use a commercial piece of software or the terminal command you need to make sure your target disk is the same size or larger than the source.


Can I pair an iPhone 4S to Apple TV? Can I pair an iPhone 4S to Apple TV (no longer activated with Verizon) or can I connect the iPhone directly to Apple TV to get an HDMI output?

As far as I know, that is impossible. But, you can use the Lightning to HDMI adapter or AirPlay to an Apple TV.


What is the purpose of the numeral to the right of Sent in Apple Mail? I realize this is not specific to Apple Mail, but recently someone asked me this and I had not a clue of its meaning. I also am having no luck searching Google or Bing for the answer. The closest thing I have found to an answer was "refresh the page until it goes away".

So if the numbers on the majority of labels means "unread" and the one in outbox mean "unsent", what does the number next to sent mean?

It means "unread".

Now that does not seem to make much sense, and I think it doesn't, but that is what it is. You can select a mail from your sent folder and mark it as unread, and the count will increase.


Is reassigning or disabling short-key possible? The finder has the Command-H assigned to 'hide finder'. Can I reassign the key to something else? Or can I disable the Command-H short key to hide finder only through menu?

Yes you can.

Open System Preferences, Keyboard. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab at the top. In the left pane, select Application Shortcuts. In the right pane, select Finder.app. Click the + at the bottom of this pane. For Menu Title, type the exact wording / spelling of the menu item in question: in this case Hide Finder. For Keyboard Shortcut, pick another keystroke combination to hide the finder (I use function key F1). Voila. Now go to Finder and look at the Finder menu; beside Hide Finder should be F1 (or whatever you chose).


Web and outbound ssh stopped working but ping and other network services work Our home iMac running 10.6 suddenly stopped loading web pages. Also when trying to do a secure shell login to another host in Terminal.app it gives the error

ssh: connect to host [hostname] port 22: Operation not permitted

It can ping [hostname] any site on the internet, printer sharing and file sharing still work, and I can log into it from a remote host by ssh.

It connects by ethernet and DHCP to a Zyxel wireless access point which connects with an ethernet cable to our housing cooperatives network, which has a firewall between our network and an optical fiber link to the outside world.

When connecting the same ethernet cable to a Macbook, everything on the Macbook works fine. Using a different ethernet cable to the Zyxel works with the Macbook but not with the iMac.  Bypassing the Zyxel and connecting to the wall jack to the cooperatives network does not fix it.

I added a rule to pass port 22 in /etc/pf.conf, started pf, and that restored ssh.  Then I added a rule to pass http ports and that didn't help.  Then port 22 stopped working.

Since I have been wanting to upgrade to 10.10, I did a clean install of 10.10 from a bootable USB installer, but in addition to restoring user files and applications from the Time Machine disk I also restored computer and network settings and the problem was still there.  I did another clean install without restoring computer and network settings and everthing started working.

Thinking the problem had been solved, I used App Store to update OS X, and after the next reboot the problem came back.

I ran extended Apple Hardware Test from a USB and no problems were found.

I installed Icefloor from a USB and configured it to allow outbound ssh in pf and that didn't help so I disabled it and rebooted.

To summarize, outgoing ssh and http packets don't work but many other network services do.

Has anyone solved a similar problem and have any suggestions before I take the iMac to the distant Apple Store or the local Apple certified repair place?

Thanks,

Alan

Fixed by removing old NetNanny extensions as suggested in
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2296455


How to install endnote x8 into Microsoft word 2016/2017 I have installed endnote x8 onto my mac (macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.3). Microsoft word was already installed and I cannot seem to link them together.

I have tried to install it through endnote -

Endnote X8 - Customizer
click "cite while you write box"

It then comes up and says "The customizer could not find Microsoft Word 2008, 2011 nor 2016 installed on this computer.
If you have installed Microsoft Word to any non-standard paths, or have changed the start-up file location, please click the customize button"

When I click this a table comes up with Version, Word Path & Startup File location. There is a little plus button which I clicked that comes up with all my documents. I tried selecting Microsoft Word but it says "the item you picked does not seem to be in a Microsoft Word installation directory"

Does endnote x8 work with Word 2016 for Mac?

Endnote x8 isn't always compatible with Word 2016.

Word had a major upgrade behind the scenes - the older version of endnote works with Word version 15.x and lower. A newer patched (fixed) version of endnote x8 works with Word version 16.x (and possibly back with some older Word, too).

I would update both Word to the latest version and endnote to the latest version and try the install again.

Details are here from the endnote vendor support:

https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Word-2016-Mac-version-16-Compatibility?language=en_US


Keyboard shortcut for Spotlight doesn't work in full screen Google Chrome on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) I've noticed that the Spotlight Search keyboard shortcut (cmd space) doesn't work if I'm running Google Chrome (12.0.742.122) as full screen application in Lion.

Is this a Chrome-related bug or is this inherent of some type of applications? Is there a way to fix it?

Chrome doesn't currently support Lion's full screen features. They are working on a version that does.

Until that is finished, you'll have to use Chrome's built-in full screen capabilities (not based on Lion's).

You can change the keyboard shortcut to enter that the same way you'd change any other (System Preferences-> Keyboard-> Keyboard Shortctus-> [+] button


How to restore disabled iPad not visible in Finder on Catalina? This is similar to
"iPad is disabled, connect to iTunes"

I have a disabled ipad. Music in 10.15.1 does not see the device.
What recorse do I have to either get to touchpad or reset to factory settings?

It's not in finder either(I've just upgraded to 10.15.2).

I gave up and recycled that $400 doorstop.
Thank you apple. But no thanks for bricking my 4 quids.


Is there a way the be alerted of changes to a shared iCal calendar? I've created a calendar in iCal that I share with colleagues, who I have given permission to edit. Everything works fine except that I see no way to receive alerts or notifications when they make changes to events in the calendar. They all report that they were given the option to see alerts when they subscribed, but I (as creator of the calendar) was not given any (that I saw).

Is there a way to configure a shared calendar so that the creator of the calendar can be notified when other users make changes?

When viewing your calendars at iCloud.com, click the "shared calendar info" button next to the calendar of interest (Button is white for unshared calendars, green for shared). In the new window, check the "email me when this calendar is changed" box.

Now, whenever someone else updates the calendar you will get an email with the change.


Trigger something on another Mac Imagine I have 3 or 4 Macs on a long bench.
(Assume same wifi network, whatever needed.)
In short, I want to do something on Mac1 which makes something run on Mac2, 3, and 4.
So, it will be running known app X and doing known function Y - and that's it.
Is there a standard sort of approach?

There are a huge number of orchestration technologies out there from the trivial to the very complex (and expensive) running enterprise workloads across many other systems.
As per several of the comments, the easiest way would be to write 2 scripts:

To run on Mac 1 that tells Macs 2, 3, and 4 to run your second script
Runs your actual task, or, triggers and controls the app which runs your task.

The first script will run and connect via ssh, using pre-defined keys) and trigger the scripts.
It would help to have more details on the specific task you trying to run, but script 1 can be as trivial as:
#!/bin/bash

ssh user@mac2 'script2.sh'
ssh user@mac3 'script2.sh'
ssh user@mac4 'script2.sh'

and script 2 being something like:
#!/bin/bash

/run/some/app.app

Your original question was just "can you do this, and what's normal" - which is described above, so I don't want to go into a treatise on good scripting practice, especially without knowing your abilities and experience here.
There are also numerous answers on how to setup SSH keys for your Macs (eg. this ). In the above you'd need DNS to work, so maybe IPs would be simpler, and obviously user needs to exist as a user on the other macs, with the keys in place.
In recent macOS version zsh is the default not bash, but bash is there and functional as a scripting shell.


User defined menu shortcut doesn't work with Safari I want to add a shortcut to "refresh" the web page in Safari (5.0.2).
I added a shortcut definition in the System Preferences.

I disabled the usage of the Fonction keys by the System.
I have "F5" shown next to "Reload Page" menu item. But, this does not work.

What went wrong ?

As other commenters have said, it works once the menu has been shown at least once. Safari seems to build its menus differently from other apps, and seems to do it dynamically when you open them the first time. Hence, the system has no way to know that such a Refresh menu item exists unless you've tried opening the menu once.


Controlling which group new contacts on my iPhone end up in I am trying to figure out how to control what group a new contact entered on my iPhone 4 ends up in. I have a couple thousand business contacts that are organized by type. However when I enter a new contact on my iphone it ends up in the all contacts group along with all the rest. There is no default setting available in contacts' settings.

My goal is this: When I take a call in the field and gather a new contacts info (client, vendor, etc.) the office can go through the group called "new contacts to be organized" group and put them in their rightful place for marketing etc.

The iPhone (iOS) allows for very little control over contact groups. There is no way to create a group on iOS but there is a way to create a contact in an existing group. This is done by tapping the "Groups" button in the upper right corner. There will likely be several options here for groups. Tap the one you want to create your contact in, and you should see checkmarks on the other groups turn off. Then tap the "Done" button. You can now tap the "+" button to create a new contact which will be added to the group that you are in.

Note: the following instructions work if you use iCloud for managing your contacts.

To edit groups you must either use iCloud.com, or have a Mac and then use Contacts.app. So, you can accomplish your stated goal by:

Going to iCloud.com, logging in, and selecting "Contacts".
Select the red group icon towards the right of the left page.
Click the "+" button on the bottom right of the left page.
Enter the group name.
This new group should appear on your device.
Tap the "Groups" button in the upper right corner of Contacts.app on your iPhone.
Select the group you just created.
Tap done.
Create your contact.

Someone can then log into iCloud.com and change the group that the contact is associated with.


What's a good key binding for tmux on OS X? The default tmux binding is ctrl+b, which is pretty awkward to hit on a Mac keyboard, because there's no right control.  C-a was the default in screen, but that's the default in OS X for going to the beginning of a line (my shell uses vim mode, but it's inconvenient when ssh'd to other machines).  You can't use alt as a meta key, and cmd+a is already used to select all text.

So - what are others using that doesn't override default OS X behavior that works well?

I've been using Ctrl+s for some time. It does not shadow any shell command I know of, and is quite convenient to hit if you also have CapsLock mapped to Ctrl (this can be done from within System Preferences->Keyboard->Modified Keys).


Is Time Machine also backing up my Windows data from Bootcamp? I don’t know how to check whether my windows data is included when I set up time machine. I would love an answer that explains how I could tell this if possible, but if not, the main question follows.

Does Time Machine back up Bootcamp data by default?

No, the BootCamp partition is not backed up by Time Machine.

You'll need to install a separate backup system for that. Either a Windows backup systems running on Windows when you use that system, or a Mac backup system that supports the file system you've used for Bootcamp (usually NTFS).


First time using an iPhone This is the first time using an iPhone!

I used to own a Samsung Galaxy starting with the 5.5.1, S2, Note 2, S4, S5, etc...so I'm defently not used to this iPhone! With the Samsung's I used the Google Play store & or Market, or the Galaxy Apps store to download my music, apps, & games.

Can the Google play store be downloaded on the iPhone with my Google account? If not how do I download games & apps & what do I use to do it?
Do I have to have an iCloud account or iTunes account?
Can I use my Gmail/email account or do I need to have a Apple email account?

Can the Google play store be downloaded on the iPhone with my Google
account?
Answer: No you can't download Play Store in any Apple device.
If not how do I download games & apps & what do I use to
do it?
Answer: You can't access your Google Play purchases, so you will need to use App Store to purchase/download again any app you want, iTunes app to purchase music, iBooks app to purchase books...
Do I have to have an iCloud account or iTunes account?
Answer: You have an Apple Id and you will use that to log in into iTunes and iCloud, you have some 5GB free storage, if you want more you need to pay.
Can I use my Gmail/email account or do I need to have a Apple
email account?
Answer: You can download Gmail app from App Store, you don't need to use Apple accounts, although you get one when creating your Apple Id account.

Finally, you can easily get step by step tutorials for any of this topics if you search in Google like How to... setup iCloud Account, create an Apple Id, etc


Big sur 11.2.2 very lagging on 2019 Macbook Pro I have a late 2019 macbook pro (the base model). I've been running Catalina until yesterday when I upgraded to Big Sur 11.2.2. It's noticeably laggy. Has anyone experienced this? I'm not sure if 11.2.1 was laggy, so I was considering downgrading. Does anyone know how I can downgrade to 11.2.1, and possibly back to Catalina?

Here is how I would back date a newer Big Sur system to 11.2.1
If you have a Time Machine Backup from before you ran the upgrade. That means you can erase the Mac - get the installer for 11.2.1 and then erase / install in a fairly straight-forward manner.
Once 11.2.1 is running, migrate data from the Time Machine snapshot or backup interval before the upgrade (or whatever your custom backup procedure entails). If you don't have a backup - make one now so you can hand migrate some of the easy apps and files that are compatible with a downgrade - some apps like Photos databases don't necessarily work backwards so you'd need to handle those errors and issues one by one.
Also - Catalina may have made a snapshot of your system that’s usable as a backup, so you would just boot to recovery and restore the system to that shapshot and not even need to worry about an installer.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

And in macOS High Sierra or later, another snapshot is saved before installing any macOS update.

If you need to make a bootable 11.2.1 installer, here's how:

Delete any Install macOS Big Sur apps you have in /Applications (or copy them to an external drive)
Open terminal.app or another tool to get to the command line and issue this command

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 11.2.1

Once the installer is there, follow this guide to make an installable USB for 11.2.1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Then follow this guide to erase install.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496


How to export Safari history to either Firefox or Chrome? The title pretty much explains. I've tried searching and couldn't find any reliable info. Almost all posts in the internet are asked many years ago.

Quick script:
https://github.com/Roman2K/hist_safari2chrome

Move Safari's history database at a convenient place.
Create a database for Chrome using this script and replace the Chrome's under ~/Library with the new one.
Increase  Firefox limits of import using https://superuser.com/questions/1635171/firefox-doesnt-import-all-history-from-chrome/1635172#1635172
Import history from Chrome in Firefox.

Edge can import Safari history. Give it Full Disk Access, and then import history, bookmarks etc. Remove FDA now.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/import-browser-data-from-safari-to-microsoft-edge-in-macos-mojave-6e39ccd9-7d8a-8d79-1574-87083b316bb4

Then Firefox can import Edge history: create a new profile (or not, if it's a new download), import data from the appropriate Edge profile.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/import-data-another-browser

Then Chrome/Brave can import from Firefox profile in the same manner.

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019782291-How-do-I-import-or-export-browsing-data-

Delete the bookmarks folder and history items added by Firefox though.


Command in shell script to minimize particular window of an open app? How can I include in a (zsh) shell script a command that will minimize one particular window among several windows open in a specified app?
I already know how to include a command that opens an app with one or more documents open in it, e.g.:
open -a textedit.app .profile .zshrc

What command can I use from Terminal to minimize a specified one of those just-opened windows?
I presume that something involving osascript is involved, such as in Is there a way to minimize open windows from the command line in OS X Lion?. But the method given there in the Edit by the original poster: (i) minimizes all the windows; and (ii) does use osascript which, as I recall, is not so simple to call from within a shell script.

You referenced this page, which is only one example but a decent starting point. (You might also try more general search terms, such as “AppleScript window management”.)

In most Applications, each window has an ‘index’ property that one can use to determine, for example, which is frontmost or which was created first. Depending on the complexity of the AppleScript dictionary for that particular application, it should often be possible to act on windows based on other properties, such as title.

To minimize multiple (or all) windows, one could run a loop that queries the ‘id’ or ‘index’ and ‘visible’ status of every window, and then act on them as desired. (I have done this in the past with web browsers to iterate through every window and tab for the purposes of exporting and logging.)

As far as running ‘osascript’, invoking it from a shell script file will let you call it using whatever shell (e.g. sh, bash, maybe even osascript itself) that makes quoting the easiest (or whatever shell the example you are copying was written for), even if you are using Zsh as your interactive (user) shell.

Regardless, I strongly recommend getting your AppleScript working first in AppleScript Editor before attempting to run it from a terminal shell.


OSX 10.10.3 Update - App Store icon image missing After installing the 10.10.3 update I noticed my App Store no longer has an icon image, it's just a blank space now in the Applications folder and dock. This persists after a reboot and I'd like my icon back.

Clicking on the App Store text loads it just fine, just missing the icon, anyone else come across this or know how I workaround this other than a Time machine restore?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6983727

Resolved it from this workaround:

Click informations on the blank icon.
Click on the library icon in the left corner of the informations window and copy it.
Open Preview.
Paste the copied icon and save it on desktop.
Now, just drag and drop the new icon to the old icon of the informations window of the broken Library icon.


Does screen sharing work when not on the same local network? Does screen sharing (System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing) work when the computers are on different networks?  For example, if computer A is using Wifi in Texas and computer B is using Wifi in New York, will this still work?

Yes. And you can make it work through most firewalls if you're both using Messages. Messages will broker the handshake to start the session and then turn it over to the screen sharing app.

Start up Messages and make sure Screen Sharing is enabled:

Find your buddy in your contact list in Messages and click on them. Then select Buddies -> Share My Screen with Buddy... or Buddies -> Ask to Share Buddy's Screen... from the menu bar to initiate a screen share session. You can share control with these sessions.


Access an iPad's Photos via the Web or a Linux Computer? I have earlier used AirDroid but its quality is unexpected, more here so now looking alternative solution.

I have iPad but I have no other Apple products. Can I somehow get the images from iPad to my Debian computer with the iCloud.com website? If not, how can I get them from iPad to my computers?

iCloud.com doesn't have an interface to access your Photo Stream. However there are other ways to access the photos if you don't have access to iTunes for syncing.

Dropbox

The iOS Dropbox app has recently been updated with a feature that can automatically upload all the new photos from your Camera Roll to Dropbox when you open the app. I believe you can even get bonus Dropbox storage for using the feature.

Once the photos are in your Dropbox account, you can access them through the web interface on Dropbox.com or the Linux client.

AirSharing

The AirSharing app ($9.99 on the App Store) is essentially a general purpose file transfer client. It supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Google Docs, Dropbox and more. You can use it to transfer photos from your iPad's Camera Roll (or other albums) to your Debian machine via (S)FTP or a WebDAV folder running on your iPad. If you prefer to avoid a cloud solution like Dropbox, this is probably the way to go.

These are just a couple options, there are certainly others out there (the Google Drive app would probably work similarly to Dropbox, and there are other apps similar to AirSharing).


What's the most complete calendar app for iPhone? I (and I think many of you) would like to find an iPhone calendar app that lets the user add an new event by touching the hour (no the day-view mode) and delay an event, instead of needing to enter, edit, change the time and finally save.

Is there such an app?

I'm a big fan of Calvetica, which can do the things you're looking for. And it's much prettier than the default iOS Calendar app.


How to move a folder containing aliases to another machine without breaking the aliases? I've got a large folder of music with lots of aliases to tunes that are spread throughout subfolders of the main tunes folder. For example I might keep the original files sorted by artist, and then have a folder for a genre with a bunch of aliases to tunes (or folders of tunes) for that genre, like a playlist.

Now that I've got a new laptop how can I transfer the whole folder without breaking the aliases?

I tried using the symbolic link options of rsync but that doesn't seem to work with OS X aliases.

BTW I'm not interested in replacing the aliases with a copy of the original, I really want to keep the aliases :)

Is this something Time Machine can help with?

Thanks!

Aliases are not the same as symlinks.

Symlinks just point to a path (relative or absolute).
Aliases first track the file's unique ID and then the path.

Since there are two pieces of information stored in an alias - they are more robust and will follow a file that's moved based on the unique ID. The downside is that the unique ID is based on the file system so copying the file elsewhere mints a new ID so the alias doesn’t map to the new location by design and implementation (currently at least).

Finder (or the very powerful ditto) are your best bets for moving aliases intact. Worst case you could use disk utility to make an image of a folder that contains everything needed as a subfolder and then move that to preserve the relative locations of the files and isolate the effects of a short name change (/Users/whatever) in case you wish to change that. Once the original mac is disconnected from the new mac - the aliases will reconnect as desired to location of the files on the new mac.


Need menu bar app to show output of Terminal command every 60s I need a menu-bar app* which will show me the output of a terminal command, and run that Terminal command every 60s or so.

Or I need a menu-bar app which will read the contents of a file, and update whenever that file is updated.

(The output would be no more than 3 or 4 digits)

Are there any such apps?

* neither the Dock nor the Desktop are workable alternatives. Needs to be the menu bar.

Update 2014-06-16: The answer from Jun 9 '12 at 2:15 did not end up working for me after all, so I'm still looking for a solution.

2020-04-04

I forgot all about having asked this question. For the past several years I have been using TextBar which is the perfect solution that I had always been looking for.

See also:

TextBar Puts Your Text into the Menu Bar - MacStories

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require "osx/cocoa"
include OSX

app = NSApplication.sharedApplication
statusitem = NSStatusBar.systemStatusBar().statusItemWithLength(NSVariableStatusItemLength)
while true
    statusitem.setTitle(rand(999))
    sleep 1
end
app.run

(If anyone who actually knows Cocoa wants to improve this, feel free to edit.) I more or less just copied the script from taw's blog: Personal experience points and OSX menulets, which was mentioned in display - Is there a way to have AppleScript output displayed in the menubar? - Apple.


How to zip a script-file for MacOS under Windows and give it correct attributes? I am working under Windows 10 and am putting together a few data-files and a simple bash-script that I want to share with Mac-Users. (I am just learning MacOS, so may have drawn wrong conclusions somewhere...)

When I tried to use that stuff on a Mac, the script would not execute after unzipping and I needed to set its attributes to allow execution.
Is it possible to do that already under windows so that the file unzips with desired attributes set?

I haven't used Windows in to many years; however, I understand there is a new Windows 10 feature called Windows Subsystem for Linux. Have a look at Everything You Can Do With Windows 10’s New Bash Shell and How to Install and Use the Linux Bash Shell on Windows 10. Maybe using this feature will enable one to create and zip a bash executable and retain its attributes once unzipped on a Mac. I haven't tested it, so this is more informational then a working answer.

There are quite a few steps in the two linked articles and so as not to make this a so called link only answer, since I'm not quoting any of the steps, let me tell you something you can do from Windows that will work for sure...

Install Linux in a Virtual Machine and do your scripting, make it executable, and zip it up in the Linux VM. A zipped bash executable from a Linux Virtual Machine will be executable on macOS when unzipped.


How do I transfer pictures from my iPhone 6 to my Mac while phone is water damaged? My iPhone 6 has been water damaged causing me not to see my screen, I can't unlock my phone because of this. Is there a way I can transfer my photos to my Mac without unlocking the phone?

If your iPhone has trusted your Mac, turn your iPhone on, plug it into your Mac using an USB cable, start the application Image Capture and from there you can import all your photos.

I have tried now on my iPhone and does not ask me to unlock my phone or any other stuff like that.

I guess the only condition is that your iPhone has been connected to your Mac in the past.

Please let me know if that worked for you.


Adding to "Open with" list [OSX 10.9.2]

My Mac doesn't think Audacity can open mp4 files, so when I want to do so using "Open with", I have to switch from "Recommended Applications" to "All Applications" so as to select Audacity.

This is only for when I want to extract the audio; I do not want to make Audacity the default app. I am fine with Quicktime being the default.

The question is, can I identify Audacity as being capable of opening an mp4 so I don't always have to switch to "All applications"?

You need to edit Audacity's Info.plist file and add mp4 to the list of files it handles.

Using a text editor, open /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/Info.plist (this is assuming Audacity is installed as Audacity.app, it might be slightly different).

Then, find the section for CFBundleDocumentTypes which should list the supported types like:

<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
    <array>
        <string>...</string>
        <string>...</string>
        <string>...</string>
    </array>

Then just add a new line for mp4: <string>mp4</string> and save the file.

To get the LaunchService to pick up your change, you have to run (in Terminal):

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

After that, Audacity should show as a Recommended Application for mp4 files.


My iPhone 6 has white streaks lines and blue spots, can I fix it myself? My phone got dropped in the snow and now has white streaking lines on the screen and blue patches but no lines. Can this be fixed? Is it permanent or can I easily fix it myself? It's an iPhone 6 and I am on a plan where I can't replace it for a while.

In general, no. iOS devices that come with adhesive seals need some special tools and training to repair.

Most people can work odd jobs, cook meals at home, do other things to get paid for less time and money than taking the device to a repair shop to have someone do the work that is:

already trained
already purchased all the tools
already knows where to get parts (and probably gets them in bulk for cheaper than we can)

That being said, don't let anyone say you shouldn't roll up your sleeves and try to learn / fix / break something. We all start somewhere and it's only money if you break your phone completely. Who is to say the experience you gain now isn't worth using a $45 flip phone for how ever many months it takes for you to save for a new iPhone? (A: not me.)


Reinstall OS X due to compromised OS X partition whilst keeping Boot Camp I have an iMac with OS X and Windows 7 dual boot (which was installed via Boot Camp). Recently, the OS X partition has been compromised, but the Windows one works great. I have created a bootable USB with OS X Snow Leopard and I want to reinstall OS X. I have 2 questions: Will I lose any personal data after reinstalling OS X? And will Windows 7 still work after reinstalling OS X considering that it has been installed through Boot Camp?

You can reinstall your Mac OS. It will not loss your data which stored in your partition until you not format your drive. For reinstalling your Mac Os no need to format drive, just install new Mac Os into same partition and it will overwrite it. For that i am sure.

But regarding Boot Camp - window OS, i am not sure as i have not used boot camp for dual boot. I am aware of it. I think it will work. But make sure before go with it.


Set default image for a person in Photos There is one question that has an answer that seems to mention a process for this in a previous version of Photos, but I'm not seeing how to do this in Photos now (version 5.0 on macOS and whatever it is on iOS 13.2)

Go to people tab and open the person you're wanting to change the key photo of. Find two tabs "Photos" and "Faces".

In Faces, find the face you want, right click and in the end, choose "Make Key photo".


Wrong keycode on macOS. How to fix? For some strange reason when I try to type these keys:

Grave =  `  = keycode 50
Or shift + Grave = tilde = ~ = I don't know the keycode

I get different chars, for the grave I get this = §
and for the tilde I get this: ±

My keyboard is:

My PC is configured right as you can see in the image of the virtual kb:

I don't have a clue why! Someone how to solve this ?

It sounds like your machine thinks you have an ISO keyboard (which has an extra key to the left of z for grave/tilde) instead of ANSI. Some possible fixes are at

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2009/12/fixing-keyboard-type-problems.html


Administrator account apparently lost after forced reboot of OS X Yesterday I ran into one of those rare problems with OS X (10.11.4) where I thought I had to reboot my MacBook. The cursor wheel was constantly spinning and I was unable to quit any apps or even access Force Quit .... (This was triggered inside Firefox.) So a reboot seemed like an easy way out.

Unfortunately the reboot seems to have corrupted the setup in a bad way. I normally have two user accounts on the MacBook, like A and B, where A is also the administrator account.

After the reboot A now seems to have disappeared. It e.g. does not show up under System Preferences | Users, nor in /etc/passwd. It is also no longer available as a choice in Login Window .... The lost account's files still seem to remain under /Users/A/, but I can no longer access them because I no longer have administrator privileges.

I this a know problem (perhaps even an indication of malware)? How can I restore account A and its administrator privileges without risking corruption of its (presumably) remaining original files in /Users/A/? (At least I do have recent Time Machine backups and can log in as B.)

Turns out I was lucky. Booting into Single User Mode (for obtaining administrator privileges as described here) apparently caused some extra disk check. This presumably led to the restoration of some corrupted piece of (meta)data and in effect my account A, including its previous administrator privileges.

Looks as if the system is back to normal now: much relief!


What is the difference between HFS+ and EFI System Partition (ESP)? I'm familiar with manually installing certain files. In this case, I am installing rEFInd Boot Manager, see http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html

Yet when manually installing software on Mac OS X, I often run across directions instructing users to choose between installing "on the ESP" or installing "to an ordinary HFS+ volume". This is a good example.

I've never noticed a difference between the two installation methods. So, what difference do the two different installation methods make? Maybe I don't understand the difference between HFS Plus and EFI, so this could be a very stupid question.

The ESP is normally used for the boot loader on ‘normal’ EFI systems, however on a Mac the ESP is not—it is usually empty, but has been used as a staging area for firmware updates.  A Mac will initially look in the ESP for anything to boot from, but if it is empty or non-existant, it will look for the root file system to boot from.


Make gmail in chrome the default email application for Yosemite I love my MacBook but I'm not a huge fan of Mail. Can I make GMail in Chrome the default email application for Yosemite so that when I click on email links I am sent to a new draft there?

I've done this before on other systems.

To Set default protocol handler in your chrome browser, visit any web app or website which support protocol handlers (For ex: Gmail for mailto:, Google Calendar for webcal: ) and you’ll see Protocol handler icon <<>> on right side of your address bar, click that icon to set default handler.

http://www.ashout.com/complete-guide-to-google-chrome-handlers/


Getting the Mac to read PDF files aloud I tried previous suggestion to have my MacBook to read PDFs with speech. I tried Edit -> start speaking in Preview. I also tried the regular way of of using a shortcut key preset in System Preferences for a highlighted section. Nothing happens.

I checked to make sure it reads using other documents and/or screen text.

My eyes need a break and I would like to get speech to read aloud the PDFs. What other suggestions do you have?

Preview voice reading will happen after selecting the text you require to be read first / as mentioned above it needs to be selectable and recognisable text - then proceed with previous steps: Edit -> Speech -> Start Reading

Hope this helps


Please restore the device to a version of the OS listed below I'm getting the following message when tethering one of my iPads used for testing. Its telling me to "Please restore the device to a version of the OS listed below...", but it does not provide the list:

The image above was cropped to help with presentation, but not text was removed from the image.

What is the list of OSes that Apple recommends I downgrade to? They seems to have forgotten to provide the list.

Related, how does Apple recommend I do it? As far as I know, effectively downgrades can't be performed.

Oddly, iTunes can work with the everything just fine (my OS X version and iOS version). So it seems Apple is more than happy to accommodate the non-latest OS X and iOS when it comes to selling me stuff...

The latest version is iOS 8.3. It would seem it's time to upgrade.


Keyboard shortcut for stopping and restarting a command line application To stop and restart a Rails application that's running on the command line, I usually do Control + C, and then use the up arrow to get the previous command for running bin/rails s.

Is there a keyboard shortcut like Control + C that tells the application to stop, and start up again anew?

I'm currently using Terminal.

You mean in a single keystroke?  No.

Depending on whether the daemon supports restarting itself/reloading its configuration, you might be able to restart it with a HUP, e.g.

sudo killall -HUP httpd

but A. that's not a keystroke, and B. it requires the daemon to have code to support doing that.


Mail.app not showing the "synchronize" option for an IMAP account I have 6 different IMAP accounts configured on Mail (all of them for gmail / google apps accounts).

All of them, except one, have a "Synchronize" option in the menu that appears when right-clicking any of the inboxes or other IMAP folders in the left pane.

This one account which doesn't have this option also has occasional major lags in syncing with the server.

ALL of the account settings are identical (including enabling of IDLE).

Any ideas what could be causing this and how to resolve?

Look for it in the Mail--Mailbox--Synchronization

if not there..

Sounds like when setting up that account something went wrong

reset that account

remove it and add it new


Changeable desktop pictures In changeable desktop pictures I use the pictures in iPhoto. Occasionally there shows a picture that I'd like to see in iPhoto. Is there a way to get the picture info while it shows as the desktop?

I'm afraid you can't. Your desktop just uses your iPhoto library to generate the background randomly.
So, the shown background is just a one-way link to the picture in your iPhoto library.


If I delete 1 Apple ID (email address) will the same email addy become available to use again? I have my own AppleID ("Bob") but I don't use this email addy "Bob" anymore. I want to add my current, daily used email addy ("Jim") to my ID, or better yet, make it my only AppleID and delete "Bob". BUT...
I already used "Jim" for an AppleID for an older friend who had no email address, so set it up for him on mine, "Jim".

My older friend now has an email address ("Ivan") so can I

add "Ivan" to his AppleID, make it the primary email address, and then delete "Jim" from it? Or...
delete his AppleID and create a new one for him "Ivan" knowing he would lose his minor purchases

And most importantly, this would all be pointless unless:
- will deleting/removing "Jim" as linked to my friend's AppleID then make "Jim" available for me and no longer registered to another account?

The short answer is "Yes".

If you go to https://appleid.apple.com/ and log in the "Jim" AppleID. You should start by adding the "Ivan" address to the "Jim"  AppleID then make it the primary email address. Confirm that it works for logging in. Now delete the "Jim" address from the now "Ivan" AppleID.

Repeat the above for the "Bob" AppleID with the now freely available "Jim" email address.


Why does my iOS device beep and vibrate even after turning off "sounds" in every app? Why is my iPhone making a mystery tritone sound when the sound is on, and a mystery vibrate when set to silent? Yes, yes, I already read this answer: Why does my iOS device beep at noon every day?. I learned the same thing at the Genius Bar. But I've already turned "Sounds" off in every app that doesn't appear in my notification center. So, now what?

It turns out that there is one app that does not have a "Sounds" setting, but still produces sounds and vibrations: Calendar. It's easy to overlook the all-important setting "Calendar Alerts." Tap that, tap vibrate, scroll all the way to the bottom, and set vibration to "None." That should solve it.

Here's your problem right here:

Just turn vibration off:

That's right!


How many times can i charge iPad2 Battery? I want to know how many times can i charge iPad2 Battery.
I heard that iPad Battery can recharge 1000 times.
if recharge 1000 times over,that battery will be damage.
Is that right?
Please tell me about ipad battery.

Apple has a great page on batteries and it does say that they are designed to still have 80% of their capacity remaining after 1000 charge cycles.

Not all batteries are perfect, so you could have problems even on the second charge. Heat, always having it charged and deep discharge can also cause them to fail or wear out before you get to 1000 charges.

Don't confuse an isolated failure or anecdotal evidence for the overall statistics for a million devices seen as a group. Also, damage like wetness or other failures of the electronics can bring down a perfect battery so it's hard to know what might cause a specific failure without taking it apart.