How to export address book to mailchimp or CSV file? I want to export specific address book groups to mailchimp from a clients Mac computer.

The client have version OS X Lion (10.7) and the Mac she has is faulty and will be scrapped soon. Therefore it is not feasible to upgrade it.

It would be perfect if I could use Chimport but it appears that I need OS X Mountain Lion to use Apple Mac Store to get it.

Alternative do you know any programs that can export to CSV?

Export your contacts as a VCARD bundle from Contacts.app and then import them into a gmail account which supports the VCARD format.  Once in Gmail, you can then export them as a csv file.


How to open the Preview window maximised by default? Does anyone know how to open Preview.app with the window maximised by default, in order to automatically fit the screen?
Right now, the Preview window opens almost half screen and I think it is quire annoying to enlarge it manually. Thanks.

Only option is to use the key combination option (alt) + space to fullscreen the document.

**update: If you do alt+space you will go fullscreen, hold the alt button and you zoom 100% of the file


Aperture library won't sync through iPhoto to an iPad I used to work on Aperture in an old computer.  Then, I got a new Retina MBP, and decided to just stick with iPhoto and test it out.  Since now iPhoto could just natively open my old Aperture library, it was essentially no problem at all.

However, I am now trying to sync a brand new iPad with this Retina MBP, and can't do it.  I get the error that my iTunes library cannot be found.

I'm assuming this happens because it's, technically speaking, an Aperture library, not an iPhoto library, so as far as iTunes is concerned, there is no iPhoto library.  I also don't have Aperture installed on the new computer (and I'm not really planning on installing it), so I can't tell iTunes to sync with Aperture and its aperture library.

Is there a way around this? Converting the aperture library into an actual iPhoto library, maybe?  Is there a way to tell iPhoto to turn this aperture library into an iPhoto one? Or to tell iTunes to sync using the aperture library, open in iPhoto?

There are many facets to your question and I will try to answer all of them.

If the error you are getting is an iTunes library issue, then you should reboot itunes holding down the option key, and browse to the existing library file in /Users/username/Music/iTunes/ this reloads your proper library.
iPhoto can open your aperture library, however it's usage of RAW files etc, it limited.   this link has some more info about using Aperture library in iPhoto. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5260
As the file extension on the library should be .aplibrary you will need to choose aperture from the drop down under Photos in iTunes.  iPhoto is only acting as a viewer for this library, and is not "holding" these files.
You should be able to choose "import to library..." in iPhoto and choose the .aplibrary file and it will import these photos into an iPhoto library.  However, in case you decide to begin using Aperture again, save the aplibrary file. Note:  you may lose some, if not most of the edits made in Aperture.

Question:  Why would you want to revert back to iPhoto?  If you have a coveted aperture license, why not use it?  On the Retina MBP this program works even better, and looks amazing.


How can I determine if the screen is asleep in Mountain Lion, from the command line? I have a script that needs to run every so often, but only if the screensaver is active or if the screen is asleep (to make sure nobody is actively using the computer first). I need to have a way to determine whether the screen is asleep from the command line. (One-liner preferred)

I'm using "ps -acxw | grep ScreenSaverEngine | grep -v grep" to determine if the screensaver is running, which always worked fine in previous OS versions, but in Mountain Lion, the screensaver is disabled when the screen goes to sleep, so I need a way to determine that as well now.

Help is appreciated...

Though not directly answering your question this line will give you the time in seconds since the last user interaction which comes from what OS X considers to be an idle user. (independently of screen-savers or black displays.)

echo $((`ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | sed -e '/HIDIdleTime/ !{ d' -e 't' -e '}' -e 's/.* = //g' -e 'q'` / 1000000000))


iOS 6 SMS message delivery reports Is there a way to enable delivery reports on the iPhone on the Vodafone network in Western Europe?
This is a feature I sorely miss on my iPhone, being able to tell whether a message is delivered.
The functionality is available on my carrier network as I've enjoyed this functionality on my N900.
Thanks.

SMS delivery reports are a network feature, not a phone feature, so theoretically you might need to contact your carrier, to get more information and to check with them. Separately from it, confirmation has to be enabled/sent by recipient, I remember my old phone had this setting set to off.

iMessages, have separate notifications and format, as they are not real SMS, but are working between iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs. If Wi-Fi is unavailable, iMessages will be sent over cellular data. Carrier cellular data fees might apply.

Activate/Enable iPhone SMS and iMessage Delivery Report

Tap Settings on the Home screen and select Messages.
Tap the Off button within the iMessage section of the Messages screen so that the button reads On.
Tap the Off button in the Send Read Receipts section so that it reads On.
Tap Settings to return to the Settings screen and to save your preferences.


iOS apps cannot be downloaded or updated I tried to update my apps today, and there appeared a notice said that "iTunes terms & conditions have changed. Before you can proceed you must read & accept the new terms & conditions". I selected OK and agreed the terms and conditions. Then there was another notice said 'download now: ***will now begin to download'. I pressed Ok. Then the first notice about the iTunes terms and conditions appeared again. All the process repeated then and it became an endless loop. I cannot download or update apps.

This is a widespread issue affecting many iOS devices (with the exceptions of international stores). Apple has yet to respond/fix this bug.

update It appears that Apple has resolved the issue. You can now download iTunes media normally.


Books automatically deletes my books when offline, and when there is enough space on device There is something strange going on with Books on iPad and iPhone. It keeps deleting some books locally, keeping them in the cloud.

It's frustrating because it happens when I'm offline and I simply lose the access to them.

Why is this happening at all? And how can I stop it?

I enabled syncing things over iCloud Drive and everything, but I can't see an option to disable such optimizations.

PS: the same thing happens with Photos, Numbers and Pages. The Photos app has an optimize storage option. But there doesn’t seem to be such an option for Books, Numbers and Pages.

A clear example: just a few hours I was reading a book on Books, I took a nap, and when I opened the Books app, the book was not available offline anymore. Since I don’t have internet right now, it’s simply impossible to access the document.

I feel you. I've never been able to figure this out, and it is so frustrating. This might not be the answer you're looking for, however, I've migrated away from using iBooks and using iCloud for syncing anything besides things like the keychain and settings.

Since you mentioned you were reading a pdf ebook, I recommend an app called Bluefire Reader. It does ePub, PDF, and Adobe DRM. Of course, if you have a bunch of ebooks you've bought from Apple, well, that's another thing; DeDRM does exist, but that's really all I can say on that.


How do I trim first and last few seconds of a mp4 using AppleScript? I'm using Mac 10.13.3.  I want to trim the first second and the last two seconds from my mp4 (movie).  I tried writing an Applescript like so

trim output.mp4 1 from (0*60 + 1) to (32*60 +38)

but when I try and save it, I get the error

A identifier can’t go after this identifier.

Could someone provide some guidance on how to correct my script?  When I try and trim using the QuickTime GUI, I find I can't move the trim bars by just a second or two with my mouse (it seems to move in large increments), otherwise I'd use that route.

tell application "QuickTime Player"
    set d to duration of document 1
    trim document 1 from 1 to (round d - 2)
end tell

Changes from above are highlighted bold.

If the file you want isn't open already, you need to open it with the ‘open’ function.

tell application "QuickTime Player"
    set doc to open alias "Mac SSD:Users:path:to:your:file"
    set d to duration of doc
    trim doc from 1 to (round d - 2)
end tell

These scripts perform the trim but don't save the file back automatically. You'll need to call ‘save’ if you want to save your changes, or use the GUI with your opened document.

You need to tell the application that provides the trim operation. Wrap your trim operation in a ‘tell application’ block, which in this case is to tell QuickTime Player.
The trim operation takes a document and start & end points. The document is not a file name, but a document open in QuickTime Player. document 1 refers to the first document open.

Rather than hardcoded start and end points, you can get the duration from the video and take 2 seconds off the end to be used as the end point. This is what the d variable is used for in the code above.


USB-C to Lightning cable: Connecting iPhone to USB-C peripherals The iPhone 11 Pro/Pro Max come with USB-C to Lightning cables for fast charging, and the regular iPhone 11 supports them.

Regular Lightning supports HDMI output via an Apple dongle.

Does the USB-C to Lightning cable support HDMI output too? If I were to plug the phone and cable into a USB-C hub, would the hub’s HDMI output work?

If I were to plug the phone via Lightning to USB-C cable directly into a USB-C monitor, would that work?

No, plugging your Lightning to USB-C cable into a display with USB-C inputs would not allow the iPhone to send video to the display.  The Lightning to HDMI adapter actually has a small computer (as in small enough to fit in a single chip) inside to do the HDMI conversion.  Here's someone that tore one of those adapters apart:  https://boingboing.net/2019/07/29/teardown-of-apples-lightning.html
If you were to connect your iPhone to most USB-C docks then it's not likely to do much but maybe charge your phone.  Most USB-C docks rely on the connected host to provide a DisplayPort signal, and the dock has a chip in it (perhaps much like that Lightning dock) to provide the HDMI conversion.  Maybe a dock like you describe exists, I just have my doubts.
The Lightning to USB-C cable I have, which is not from Apple, can only charge my iPhone and provide USB 2.0 data to and from my MacBook.  I tried plugging in different USB-C devices and it doesn't appear to support attaching anything else.
This brings my own question to this answer...
Would an Apple Lightning to USB-C cable be able to do more?  Such as allow for USB 3.0 speeds to my MacBook Pro for things like being an internet hot spot, or move files back and forth?  Or allow me to connect USB-C drive and transfer files?
I'm rather disappointed with the Lightning to USB-C cable I have.  I was expecting far more than just a USB 2.0 cable.  I was not expecting HDMI out of such a cable, just something more than 12 watts charging and faster USB data than 480 Mbps.


Is it safe to add yourself to group 82 (_clamav) I want to have a similar group id on my host machine (macOS) and virtual machine (docker for mac) to avoid permissions problems. I wanted to create a new user/group with ID 82 but it's already exists – _clamav:_clamav. As I understand it's some kind of antivirus engine. Is it safe to add myself to this group?

For your purposes, it's best not to add yourself to an existing group.

To discover what groups are on your computer you will find most listed in /etc/group - less /etc/group will give it to you. You can create a new group by adding it to this list. man group will explain the format of this file. I usually create a group with an id from 600 to 699. Apple seems to use ids above 700 for special groups not listed in /etc/group.

To discover what groups you are already a member of you can use the groups command. To list the ids of the groups you are a member of you can use the command id -G.


iOS and Firmware differences Is the iOS operating system the same thing as the phone's firmware? Basically, when reinstalling the firmware (such as with DFU mode), are the system files being reinstalled, or something else?

What is the purpose of the firmware on iDevices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)?

Heres a short overview.

The term "firmware" for iOS devices covers some or all of the following items dependant on the device:

the baseband (the phone code implementing the cell tower
communications for voice and data)
the device firmware (akin to the BIOS) otherwise known as the boot
ROM
the device software (iOS itself)

Devices like the iPod touch and the non-3G iPads don't have basebands, however the builds for the devices may cover both the WiFi only and 3G enabled devices so will include the baseband update.

Builds that target different generations of devices may contain multiple baseband's for different versions of phones since the baseband chip may be from different manufactuer's as in Qualcomm for the newer devices or Infineon for the older devices.

So when the phone turns on, the code in the Boot ROM runs, it activates the hardware (the phone and the baseband), and then proceeds to start the software (iOS)


Is there a way around "Error: Command Line Too long"? I am using a command line software for which I need to input a lot of arguments. Something like

./exec -A argA -B argB -C argC ...

There are so many arguments that I get the error message

Error: Command line too long (302110 >= 130592)

One solution would be to modify the software so that it reads arguments from a file. However, I don't have access to the source code.

Is there a way around this problem?

FYI, I am on Mac OS X 10.11.3 and use Terminal 2.6.1 (361.1)

Put the arguments in a file such as -A argA -B argB -C argC … (excluding the binary), then run:

cat /path/to/file | xargs ./exec


macbook shuts down immediately after startup My retina MacBook Pro, running 10.12.6, has an annoying habit.

If I close the lid on 50% battery, the next time I open it, it wakes, I log in, and then a few seconds later the screen goes black and it shuts down.

Pressing the power button enough brings up the 'flat battery' logo.

My assumption was that the battery is reporting 50%, but is in fact flat.

If I plug it in to charge, it then resumes where it left off, but if I unplug the power, it will continue to work for another couple of hours.  So it's not actually drained, it just temporarily thinks it is.

What can I do, other than replace the battery?

To verify your problem I need you to post the Battery status in detail.

Click About this Mack (top left) > Syst report > Power

then copy the battery information in your original post.

To preserve some power consumption, open syst pref > Energy and disable the Power nap in Battery mode.

To verify is some process is keeping your Mac awake (dark mode) and consuming power open Terminal and paste following

pmset g  and post the info here

also run pmset -g assertions and post it here

Under normal (perfect) condition the battery should last 1,000 cycles, but that is not always the case, so your are getting close with your 700 cycles


Can I distribute Xcode at my company internally through configuration management scripts? My company is slower to upgrade our developers' workstations and as such we often lag behind in Mac OS and Xcode versions. As such, developers often have trouble installing and configuring the correct versions for internal development.
I'm wondering if I can legally store specific versions of Xcode in an internal drive and have my configuration scripts vend it to developers so that they always receive the company-approved versions? I've tried diving into forums and Google but maybe I'm not searching the right thing.

Everywhere I have ever worked in 30 years of IT work it is perfectly fine to place an installer on a local/network drive for in-house installation as long as there are no licensing issues.
And since XCode is free to use for anyone with a compatible Mac, I would think yes, this is fine.
Also macOS Server has (I seem to recall) a caching option which stores software updates on your internal network for the very same thing.


iOS VPN On Demand with multiple VPNs I have 2 VPNs that I have created on demand profiles for. One is for an OpenVPN server that connects when my iPad is on cellular and disconnects otherwise. The other one automatically connects only on my school's wifi and is an AnyConnect server (only protocol usable at school).

Both of them connect and disconnect fine, but only when their respective VPNs are selected in the VPN settings. However, I have to manually switch them when switching networks--if the cellular VPN was in use, it will disconnect when I connect to school wifi but the school wifi VPN won't connect until I change the current VPN in the settings, which kind of beats the point.

Is there any way to have them switch automatically? Right now I have the settings in two separate profiles, would combining them make a difference? Or am I out of luck?

No, as of iOS 10.3, the VPN won't connect on demand, if it isn't selected in the VPN settings. Obviously, a non-selected VPN setting is meant to be completely inactive, including its on demand configuration.

I experience the same problem, and am hoping for this feature to be in a coming iOS version, but I am not too positive about it.

However, this answer applies to multiple VPNs of the same type. It seems that if they are of different types, multiple VPNs can be active and even connected at the same time, as described in this question.


display rotation: MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) gpu/cpu usage and fan I've got the most beefed up version of MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) from https://support.apple.com/kb/SP756?locale=en_GB.

I've got two monitors:

24" via HDMI using USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter
. Rotation: 90 degrees. Scale: 1920x1080 (standard).
28" via USB-C to DisplayPort 1.2. Rotation: Standard/None. Scale 2560x1440 (scaled down).

I am not sure if the rotation or something else is the issue here but my macbook fan seems to be very loud constantly. The rotation is being done on the GPU right? I sometimes use the screen on the macbook as well, this only makes matters worse and the fan gets loud. Strangely, my less powerful macbook (not pro) 13" 2015/2016 edition handles this setup just fine.

Anyone else have any clues as to what is going on here?

I would suggest you download 'Temperature Gauge 4.1' to see if fans are running at high rpm or if they are just noisy. Noisy fans could be a sign of trouble. This app will also show you the temperature of various parts of your Mac. This app is not cheap at $18. And is available here


GUID_partition_scheme not fully used after SSD clone I cloned a 750Gb HDD to a 1Tb SSD.
I can only access  750Gb on the SSD so 250Gb are wasted.
How can I include (assimlate?) the remaining 250Gb so they're not wasted, or create an accessible partition (I was thinking of installing linux).
Machine: Mid-2012 MacBook Pro running Mojave.
Thanks

edit
macOS recovery mode, output from gpt -r show /dev/disk

The output you posted shows 250 GB of free space. You could either use the space to install Linux or you could add this space to the APFS container. The command to add the space to the container is given below.
sudo diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0

If you want to use the free space to install Linux, then nothing needs to be done from macOS. You will need to allocate the free space for Linux partitions when you run the Linux installer.
You might consider booting to macOS Recover and posting the output from the command below. This command will not change your computer. The output will give a better idea if the drive was cloned correctly.
gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Update
If you enter the command diskutil apfs resizecontainer, the following documentation is produced.
Usage:  diskutil APFS resizeContainer <inputDisk> limits [-plist]
        diskutil APFS resizeContainer <inputDisk> <newSize> [<triple>*]
        where <inputDisk> = A Container Reference DiskIdentifier (preferred)
              or a Physical Store DiskIdentifier
              <newSize> = the desired new Container or Physical Store size
              <triple> = a { fileSystemPersonality, name, size } tuple
Resize an APFS Container. One of the Container's Physical Store disks will be
resized, and therefore the Container which it defines will be resized by an
equal amount. You do this by specifying a new Container size; to preview the
current available range, you can instead specify "limits"; no change will be
made. A new size of zero is taken as a request to do a grow-to-fit operation.
If the new size implies a shrink, you can specify ordered triples in the same
manner as `diskutil partitionDisk`, etc, to fill the partition map's free
space gap that would otherwise result. If there is more than one Physical Store
and you specify a Container Reference, the appropriate Physical Store will be
chosen automatically. Ownership of the affected disks is required, and all of
the Container's Volumes must be unencrypted or unlocked.
Example:  diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk5 110g
          diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 110g
          diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk5 0
          diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk5 1.5t jhfs+ foo 10g ms-dos BAR 0

In your case, your APFS container only has one physical store disk with identifier disk0s2.
The output from the gpt -r show /dev/disk0 command shows there is a block containing 48,8376,007 sectors of free space. This is 48,8376,007 sectors x 512 bytes/sector = 250,048,515,584 bytes of free space.


Turn off Skype 8.11 chat notification sounds I upgraded to Skype 8.11 from 7.x and found that I am now getting audio notifications when I receive a chat message. In the previous version of Skype you had fine-grained control over the notification sounds and I had almost all of them disabled. In this version of Skype that option appears to have been removed.

In my application settings I only have 'Chat notifications' enabled; 'In-app notifications', and 'In-app sounds' and turned off.

I have also turned off 'Play sounds for notifications' in Mac Notification settings:

I am running macOS High Sierra (10.13.1).

How can I disable these sounds?

Upgrade to Skype version 8.29.0.50

fixes that problem.


external disk still spinning after ejecting during encryption I was recently fiddling with my external drive and retroactively encrypting the partitions. I have two on there, one from my previous 2010 macbook, and my current 2015 macbook. For the 2015 one, I followed CCC directions and encrypted by using it as my startup disk and turning on FileVault2. For the 2010 version, since I am not using it as a bootable clone (I couldn't even if I wanted to because of hardware incompatibilities... unless I really had a strong urge to), I read that I could just encrypt it by right-clicking it from my desktop and selecting "Encrypt".

The problem is, I was spaced out and ejected the entire disk while encrypting the 2010 partition (2015 was completely finished). I have no way to tell if it was still encrypting but it was a couple minutes after it told me to restart to continue with the initial (2010 partition) encryption. Even though I didn't encrypt the FileVault2-way (again, for the 2010 partition), I presume it still takes a considerable amount of time. But, there's not indication of when it's done! Now, when I eject it, the disk won't stop spinning.

The good news is, I never physically unplugged the disk from it's USB connection. So perhaps it's still doing it's thing behind the scenes? Please help.

Check the offending process using Console.app. Inside of your logs, search for something like “mount”...


How to grant web app access to restricted file? I am running a Tomcat server via Eclipse.

I have a restricted file that contains information the web application running on Tomcat needs to perform its duties.

I understand how to grant/deny access to regular users, but how to for this web app?

Info:

Macbook Pro 10.7.5 (Lion)
Tomcat 7
Eclipse

The first thing you need to do is discover which user owns the Tomcat process. You can do this by typing ps axu -w at the command line. The owner of the process will be in the first column. On a standard Mac install the web server (the process called httpd) is owned by the user _www. I assume Tomcat is owned by the same user.

Now change the ownership of the file so it is owned by _www and then you will be fine. Do this chown _www filename replacing filename of course.

Once you've done that you should be right.


Installing Windows 10 on MacBook early 2008 without bootcamp - black screen blinking cursor I have tried to use the following method to install Windows 10 on my early 2008 Mac. Running OS X 10.7.5.  Intel Core 2 Duo. 4 GB.

How do I get Windows 10 installed on my macbook pro (late 2008)

Following the instructions using 64bit version of the Windows 10 iso and having bless the partition etc, when the time comes to restart the machine to install Windows 10 from the boot DVD containing the .iso file I get the two DVD option (Windows and EFI). On selected Windows it goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner. It freezes on this and nothing happens.

marks-macbook:~ markcollacott$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0
1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Mark's Macbook          1.2 TB     disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
4:       Microsoft Basic Data WINDOWS                 753.6 GB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:                            J_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US... *4.0 GB     disk1
/dev/disk2
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk2
1:                 DOS_FAT_32 NO NAME                 8.0 GB     disk2s1

marks-macbook:~ markcollacott$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: -1539437/4/63 [-387938128 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
        Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [      start -        size]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [          1 -      409639] <Unknown ID>
 2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [     409640 - -1861551096] HFS+
 3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [-1861141456 -     1269544] Darwin Boot
*4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [-1859870720 -  1471932416] Win95 FAT-32

marks-macbook:~ markcollacott$ sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         MBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640  2433416200      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  2433825840     1269544      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  2435095384        1192
  2435096576  1471932416      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  3907028992         143
  3907029135          32         Sec GPT table
  3907029167           1         Sec GPT header

Is there something I can change or how might I get around this roadblock?

I have not used any Windows version prior. Screen size is 13".

I assume you are trying to install a 64 bit version of Windows 10 because your processor is 64 bit. After Reviewing the web site Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp, I found Apple documents only 32 bit versions of Windows 7, Vista or XP are designed to run on your Mac Book (2008).
The computer used to enter this answer is a 20" mid 2007 iMac running 64 bit Windows 10 Pro. The same web site documents that my iMac can not run 64 bit versions of Windows, so this site can be wrong. On the other hand, just because I can do it does not mean you will be able.
The first thing I would check is the Mac's firmware. Current Apple firmware can be found at this site: About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers.
Neither of our Macs can boot the Windows 10 installer from a USB flash drive. So, there is no point to trying that method to install Windows 10.
My iMac can not boot from a standard 64 bit Windows installation DVD. This is because these DVDs contain both the BIOS/MBR and EFI/GPT methods of booting. When you tried your DVD, the icon labeled "Windows" was the BIOS/MBR method and the icon labeled "EFI" was the EFI/GPT method. If you are having the same problem as me, you would have to remove the EFI/GPT method from the DVD. Unfortunately, this requires a machine running Windows. The procedure is given at “Select CD-ROM Boot Type:” error during Windows install.
The XP, Vista and Windows 7 32 bit DVDs only contain the BIOS/MBR method of booting. I assume this is also true for Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. If you can find a 32 DVD,  you could test to see if dual booting is your problem. You can download a free 90 day trial of 32 bit Windows 10 Enterprise at this site.
Another option will be to install VirtualBox on you Mac. Since you are using OS X 10.7, you would need to download and install the last version 4.3 release of VirtualBox. This would allow you to test the DVD by booting from the DVD in a Virtual environment. You could also install Window 10 in the virtual environment, but I am afraid your Mac is to slow for this to be of any use. (If you do, be careful not to active the Windows 10. To be safe, maybe you should not be connected to the internet while using the virtual machine.)
You could use VirtualBox to just install Windows to Mac's Boot Camp partition  and then run a physical version of Windows 10 without the aid of VirtualBox. The difference between this method, and directly using the DVD, would be that you could remove the EFI files before booting the Windows 10 installer. The procedure would be a merger of the instructions given here and here.
I am sure I have not answered all you questions. Feel free to post comments with additional questions.
BTW, the partition tables you added to your question look good. The output from the command gpt shows the GUID Partition Table (GPT) used by OS X. The command fdisk shows the legacy Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table that will be used by Windows. The first entry in both tables is the (hidden) EFI partition. This partition always starts at different values in the tables, but ends at the same value. The next three are your OS X, (hidden) OS X Recovery and Boot Camp partitions. The negative values appear to be a bug in fdisk. The values are suppose to be printed as unsigned values. What is shown are signed values. You can convert to the correct values by adding 2 to the 32nd power (i.e. 4294967296). In other words:
fdisk value                gpt value
-1861551096 + 4294967296 = 2433416200
-1861141456 + 4294967296 = 2433825840
-1859870720 + 4294967296 = 2435096576


Location Services shown on menu bar even though all apps are disabled I have encountered a weird problem with my Macbook Pro (mid 2017/macOS Sierra 10.12.6). It shows the Location Services icon on the menu bar, many times a day, even after unchecking all application from location services except 'Setting Time Zone' & 'Find My Mac' (under 'System Services'). I have also unchecked 'Show location icon in menu bar when System Services request your location', that means 'System Services' can use location services without showing on menu bar.

Why does location icon show up, is there any app which is using location without my knowledge? I take my privacy seriously. or is it some malware/adware.
Please see images:

Looking at the screenshots above, the location icon is most likely showing up because you are allowing System Services to access your location. As long as every app in that list is unchecked, the only services that will use your location will be System Services.


Can I see the URL of an RSS feed on Apple Mail 4.5? Can I see the URL of an RSS feed on Apple Mail 4.5?

I cannot find the option.

Once an RSS feed is added to Mail, you cannot see the URL it retrieves anywhere within Mail :(

There does not appear to be any way you can read the configuration using Applescript, looking at the dictionary, the RSS feeds are not accessible either as a distinct entity type or as a Mailbox type.

The only place I can find this information is in ~/Library/Mail/RSS

Each feed is a folder with an .rssmbox extension and inside the folder, the Info.plist contains the URL of the feed.

edit: change reponse re: applescript after further investigation


Turning on FileVault with a symlinked directory Running Mojave (10.14.6). There's not enough room on my SSD for my Music, Pictures, and Movies. I have those on an external drive. I have not yet turned on FileVault. If I create symlinks for those folders in my home directory on the SSD pointing to the external drive, will there be any issue when I turn on FileVault? Will only the SSD folders get encrypted, or also the symlinked folders? And related question: will Time Machine automatically include those symlinked folders?

I've seen elsewhere the advice to just move the entire home folder to the external drive, but I want to keep it on the SSD to speed app launching (among other things).

FileVault only encrypts one volume so hard links and firm links are encrypted (but firm links are portals to another volume which isn’t necessarily encrypted). Symbolic links exist on the volume and are encrypted, but their destination files are not encrypted - just the link to the other file is encrypted.

Your plan to move some folders off is just fine, solid technically and you can encrypt both volumes using FileVault and keep everything encrypted at rest - just that there are two different volumes with different keys and you choose if you use the same or different pass phrases for both.


Mac terminal stop hard drive from spinning Can I stop hard disk drives from spinning using Terminal?

The reason why I want to know is because I have my Mac to backup at midnight however I do not want my HDD to be spinning all the time. I would also like a way to spin it back up again.

This is an external drive.

In a Terminal or script, you can use the pmset command to sleep/wake the computer and more.

From: man pmset

sleepnow - causes an immediate system sleep

sudo pmset sleepnow

Schedules the system to automatically wake from sleep on July 4, 2016, at 8PM.

sudo pmset schedule wake "07/04/16 20:00:00"

Note: I've added sudo to the above pmset commands as this is necessary unless running as root which under OS X is not the norm.

From: Quick Tip: Save Battery by Spinning Down Hard Drive Sooner

sudo pmset -a disksleep 5

sudo - allows a standard “admin” user to run programs usually reserved for the “root” user. These are usually processes that affect the system as a whole – like this one.

pmset - this is the name of the utility we’re using.

-a - this “flag” tells the pmset utility that we’re applying it to all power configurations: battery, charger, and uninterrupted power supply. If you want to affect JUST when you’re on battery power, change this flag to “-b”

disksleep - this is the parameter we want to change: disk sleep time. This parameter is for 10.5 and later; in previous OS versions, you should use “spindown” instead.

5 - this is the number of minutes the system waits before sleeping the disk. OS X’s defaults are 10 minutes. We halved it here, so it spins down faster, but not so fast that it’s always spinning up (which would be counter to our needs). You may need to adjust this number to a point that works best for you.


Water resistant MacBook or Air? My kid has so far poured my large mug of coffee into our Air, then barfed on it (yes, it got inside) and now another cup of coffee. That last one finally killed it. Apple says the mobo is gone and it will cost more to fix than its worth.

So now I'm going to either get another Air or maybe just the Book. In either case, can someone offer any suggestions on how to make it even slightly more liquid resistant?

You could use a keyboard protector to make the laptop slightly more resistant to spills.

For example a product like the Moshi ClearGuard Keyboard Protector.


Moving dock between vertically arranged displays in OS X Mavericks and later I have two displays, stacked vertically. The bottom display is my Mac's built in display, and the top display is an external monitor.

Here is the screenshot of my multiple display arrangement in Settings > Displays > Arrangement:

"Displays have separate spaces" is checked in Settings > Mission Control.

I would like to transfer the dock to the top monitor. The usual way of moving the dock --moving the pointer to the edge of the display, as detailed in the Apple support documentation does not work.

Is this possible when the displays are arranged in this way?

I have had success with my vertical arrangement by hovering the mouse in the orange areas to bring the dock to the top screen. On the bottom screen you can hover anywhere on the bottom of the monitor.

In your case, where your monitors are almost the same size, it might be a bit tricky to find a spot on the bottom of the top monitor where the cursor wont slip through to the bottom screen and prevent the trigger.


Time Machine with only one internal disk Is it possible to use the time machine backup system without an external (or second) HD?
I know that the protection to disk failure will not be guaranteed anymore, but the file accidental deletion, the wrong edit etc. will be avoided...

Is there a trick to make Time Machine believes that he has a disk dedicated for him to do the job ?

Note : The situation is using a laptop on travel.

You can partition the disk and run the OS on one partition and Time machine on the other.

Disk Utility can repartition without losing data. but as usual take a backup first.


Why does Apple iCloud photosharing use googleapis.com? I found that my network monitor, Little Snitch, was blocking my Apple iCLoud photostream from my iphone to my Mac.  When I stopped the filter the photos were sharable.

Why does Apple iCloud photos use googleapis.com?

Why your device communicates with google is simple - it’s where the bits are stored (among other places).

It’s widely reported that Apple will encrypt and store iCloud data in anonymous fashion on several cloud platforms with Google cloud (GCF) joining Microsoft Azure and Amazon (AWS) as vendors to Apple.

https://www.engadget.com/2016/03/17/apple-icloud-google-cloud-platform/
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3045439/hybrid-cloud/apple-amazon-google-cloud-platform-itbwcw.html
http://www.zdnet.com/article/apples-hybrid-cloud-plan-google-aws-microsoft-azure-like-most-companies/
https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

The last Apple link/pdf explicitly acknowledges Apple uses AWS and Azure. I haven’t seen an updated doc publicly confirming that google cloud is part of the mix, it you are correct in seeing the traffic go there by design.

  Each file is broken into chunks and encrypted by iCloud using AES-128 and a key derived from each chunk’s contents that utilizes SHA-256. The keys, and the file’s metadata, are stored by Apple in the user’s iCloud account. The encrypted chunks of the file are stored, without any user-identifying information, using third-party storage services, such as Amazon S3 and Windows Azure

So my reading is that Apple keeps the hashes and keys and identifiers in their own datacenters and on your device but then farms out bits of encrypted files all over the place so that they can keep the privacy and security promises made in the iOS security guide.


I can't edit music on my ipod I was using ipod nano and itunes on my previous computer. Now I have new computer with itunes. But when I connect my ipod it doesn't show the sync button. The connection is working, but when I click on Music in itunes it doesn't show me the sync button. There is only a list of all of the music on iPod and I can play it, but I cant delete it or add new music. There is a button edit playlist, but even if I click it I still can't edit the music on my ipod.

Were you using an older version of iTunes on the old computer? They have made a number of redesigns in how iTunes works. If you see a little iPod icon show up near the top of the iTunes window below the play button when you connect the iPod, click it, and then at the bottom click Sync. Or go to File>Devices>Sync.


How to install Mac OS X without OS X Recovery or the DVD that came with the Mac? I'm having an issue installing Mac OS X on my MacBook Pro, here is what I have:

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.66 15" Mid-2010.
Mac OS X install DVD that is not for the above model I don't have the one it came with.
New 1 terabyte HD that I just bought and installed on the Mac. The original HD is broken and can't be recovered.

When I try to use the Mac OS X install DVD I get the following error:

  Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer

What I tried:

Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button.  When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button.

But this didn't work for me.

You don't indicate which OS X you are starting from, but your MacBook Pro shipped with Snow Leopard.

One course of action is to purchase the retail packaged Snow Leopard generic installation DVD and then the downloadable Lion from the Apple store for US$19.99 each. You will need to install Snow Leopard first from disc, update to 10.6.8, then download and install Lion. There are no Lion or later install DVDs available from Apple.


Apple Airpods - Android - When using for calls, does sound come through both Airpods, or just one? When using Airpods on an Android device (I am specifically using a Google Pixel 2), does sound come through both of the Airpods when making/receiving calls? Or, does only one of the Airpods play sound when on a call?

AirPods work like standard bluetooth headphones on non-Apple devices. You'll hear sound through both AirPods on calls.

I'd encourage you to visit your local Apple Store and do an in-store demo using your phone to see if they're right for you. Alternatively you can have them shipped to you and return them within 2 weeks if you aren't satisfied.

Set up instructions


Including virtual environment in bash prompt I am using bash on MacBook Air running macOS Mojave   and wanted to change the color of terminal prompt.

I was helped on this question on SO and this IBM blog after which I used

export PS1="\[\e[30;47m\]\W\[\e[30;47m\]$\[\e[0m\]"

which has colour, wrapping, working directory and $.

It changed the colour but the prompt doesn't have (base) or (ml) in it.
It is the virtual environment I created using conda. conda deactivate  removes it. Originally,

$ echo $PS1
(base) \h:\W \u\$           #original prompt with base.

$ conda deactivate
$ echo $PS1
\h:\W \u\$                  #original prompt with no environment.

$ conda activate ml
$ echo $PS1
(ml) \h:\W \u\$             #original prompt with ml environment.

$ export PS1="\[\e[30;47m\]\W\[\e[30;47m\]$\[\e[0m\]"
$ echo $PS1
\[\e[30;47m\]\W\[\e[30;47m\]$\[\e[0m\]    #new prompt with no environment
                                          #while ml is active

What can I include to have the (base) or (ml) there,  to make it like

$ echo $PS1
(base) \[\e[30;47m\]\W\[\e[30;47m\]$\[\e[0m\]    #expected result.

I didn't find any reference on bash manual for virtual environment under controlling the prompt section.

I need to find where the current active environment is. Either in any file or any command that invokes the env name, which can written in ~/.bash_profile  and then add that variable to PS1.

You can activate a virtual environment for conda by running

conda activate base

Replace base with whatever (defined) conda environment you want to use.

pse@Mithos:~$ export PS1="\[\e[30;47m\]\W\[\e[30;47m\]$\[\e[0m\]"
~$cd .tmp
/Users/pse/.tmp
.tmp$conda activate base
((base) .tmp$conda deactivate
.tmp$


Magic trackpad pairing issues with Lion The Question
How can I unpair the trackpad as a mouse and pair it using trackpad option instead?

Background

I made the mistake of pairing the Magic trackpad via System->Bluetooth->Bluetooth Setup Assistant.  By doing this the only thing I can use the trackpad for is pointing an left clicking.  I now see that it can be paired via the System->Trackpad->Set Up Bluetooth Trackpad... option.

What I have tried

Inside Bluetooth settings: Disconnected the device, then using the - button removed it.  Then powered down the trackpad and restarted the pairing process by holding the power button.

While the green led is flashing, I go to the Trackpad set up and find the device.  However it keeps failing when connecting to the trackpad.  I did notice that it fails immediately  after seeing the "Connected" message displayed on my screen.  At this point I can use the trackpad as a pointing device, but am unable to connect to it using the trackpad set up.

System Settings
OS X Lion
Using USB Overdrive (for a wired logitech mouse)

UPDATE
Following the advice of a comment, I used the XCode's Bluetooth Manger and reset every possible device.  The issue still persists.

To find the Bluetooth Manger (assuming you have XCode installed and using Finder): Browse to MacHD/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth

Turns out it was USB Overdrive.  Running 3.1 still causes issues with Lion.

When Overdrive is installed it only sees the trackpad as a mouse.  I uninstalled USB Overdrive and Lion detected it after reboot with no trouble at all.

This link was quite helpful as well.


Holding Down Control at Startup Manager (Boot Disk Selection) Screen I noticed that when I hold the control key at the screen where you select a boot disk (the screen obtained from holding down option at startup), the straight arrow below the selected boot disk turns into a circular arrow (similar to the Time Machine icon). I clicked this circular arrow thinking it would take me to the recovery partition, but the computer simply booted seemingly normally instead. What did the circular arrow do differently than clicking the regular, straight arrow?

It makes it the main boot disk so it will continue to boot from that disk. It's equivalent to the Startup Disk preference pane in System Preferences, only done in a different place so you don't have to boot into OS X.


How do I "unhide" or "show" a hidden login item on Mountain Lion? I accidentally hid a bunch of login items, some of which I meant to delete. How do I unhide these items once they're hidden?

Press command and tab to see the apps that are "running" and select the apps one by one to reveal the windows that the system hid for you.

Alternately, you could deselect the hidden check in the log in items preference and restart (or log out and in again).


How can I get a Fluid.app SSB to go back using a two finger swipe? When using Firefox and Safari, I have become accustomed to using a two-finger gesture to go backwards or forwards.

It's a drag that I can't get this to work on my Fluid.app SSBs.

Does anyone know a way?

I use the BetterTouch Tool application to handle two-finger swipe gestures with my Fluid SSBs. It works for me but you do have to set it up for each SSB, not just Fluid itself. Thankfully there is a copy gestures option.


Sharing itunes music between two computers My girlfriend and I both use iTunes for our music. We have separate accounts and have iTunes on two different computers (she has a mac and I have a windows pc). I believe at one point people were able to share and copy music from one pc to another across the shared music network within iTunes. I'm having trouble doing so and was wondering if it's still possible to copy music from one pc to another with iTunes 11.0.2

If we can't copy music between iTunes anymore I guess we will have to use an external hard drive. I'd like to avoid this if we can so please let me know if you have any information on how to share music between two computers using iTunes 11.

The feature you're looking for is now called Home Sharing. It's essentially the same as the original sharing feature, but it ties into your Apple ID to ensure that you can only share between your own computers.

In iTunes, just go to File > Home Sharing > Turn On Home Sharing and enter your Apple ID and password. Repeat the same steps on any computers you want to share with (up to 5) using the same Apple ID. Once you do so, all enabled computers will "see" each other and let you stream or copy music between them.


I am not able to see the website title in Safari on macOS I open a website in Safari by entering the website address in the address bar. But I am not able to see the title of the website.
When I open the same website in Google Chrome I can see the title for the website such as "Online Shopping site" in the title bar. But I want to use Safari because I think my MacBooks battery drain very quickly when I am using Google Chrome.
Is there not way to see website title in Safari like in Google Chrome?

Safari displays the website title in what it calls the Tab Bar. You apparently have the Tab Bar set to hidden.
To show the Tab Bar, open Safari on your computer, select View → Show Tab Bar in the Safari menu and the Tab Bar should now appear.

Selecting Show Tab Bar would enable Safari to always display the Tab Bar. It would work even after you quit and relaunch Safari.
You should now be able to see the website title easily.


Bluetooth printing from iPad? The company I work for had people out in the field doing data entry on their iPads.  We would like them to be able to print from the iPad to a bluetooth printer in their car, but I'm not sure if this can be done.  We tried using the HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer, but while we can connect using bluetooth we have been unable to print.

Has anyone done this?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

@Jason's link to SO is correct - the out-of-the-box iPad will not support Bluetooth printing. However, there are receipt printers like Blue Bamboo or the Star Mobile printer, but these solutions might not be what you're looking for.

There are iBluetooth apps now in the iOS App Store - it's possible that the vendor no longer supports the Cydia version.

Another possible solution is an app like PrintCentral, which allows for printing wirelessly over 3G and WiFi.


What is the risk of changing my user account's "full name" mac os x? Why the warning of "might damage this account"? I want to safely change the "full name" for my account. (I only want to change the "full name" – not the "account name" aka "short username").

But, after modifying the field (shown below) and before clicking "OK", this warning shows up:

  WARNING: Changing these settings might damage this account and prevent the user
  from logging in. You must...

How and why would/could this damage my account?

There is no danger in changing the user's full name in this dialog.  Some of the settings on this pane could mess things up. For example:

It's possible to change your shell to something that doesn't exist
Changing your user id can mean that you can't access your files, since they are owned by the old id
Changing the short username might affect all sorts of weird things, since many apps may depend on your username staying the same.


What are the “~orig” files in OS X? In the /etc folder of my system (OS X 10.8.2) I see a bunch of files named with the "~orig" suffix (e.g hosts~orig, passwd~orig, etc). What are these?

Those are the leftovers of OS upgrade.

The OS X upgrade saves previous configurations that's going to be changed.

The date of ~orig file should correspond with the OS upgrade.


How do I browse logs in /var/log in Console.app on Catalina? Up to and including Mojave, /var/log was listed in the sidebar of Console.app, allowing me to browse subfolders and, for instance, look at /var/log/powermanagement logs for previous days.
But in Catalina, there are no directories listed in the Console sidebar.  Is there some way to browse these folders using Console in Catalina?
(I tried adding them by finding the folders in Finder and then dragging them to the sidebar like one would with the Finder sidebar, but to no avail.)

In Catalina the interface for Console got a revamp, in my opinion not for the better.
If you click on "Log Reports" in the left hand bar you will get a list of the logs in /var/log. (You may have to click on the icon that toggles the bar's visibility first.) Click on a file and the log can be seen at the bottom of the window.


How to make finder launch to the previously closed location, on startup? My wife has just updated her OS to Mojave. She believes that prior to this update, she could close finder window, reopen it and find that all her tabs were restored. That is, she thinks that Finder was saving her "session", allowing  for her to close finder, only to have that last session restored.

I am not sure about this - I do not remember this feature, although my memory is rather... what was I saying?

Anyway, if any of you have some insight/knowledge or solution I'd appreciate hearing it.

Here is the solution to the OS Mojave, Finder problem

Click on top-left Apple icon
Then click on System Preferences
Then General
And then uncheck the box saying, "Close windows when quitting an app"
It will save your session of Finder and when you restart your system it will show you last opened tabs of the session

  NOTE: before Shut Down or Restart of the system, don't close the
  Finder


Error while installing Mavericks in a clean hard drive I've decided to reistall osx Mavericks on my MacBook, so I restarted my Mac clicking cmd ⌘+R. In recovery mode I erased the main hard drive so I can have a clean install.

Then I selected "Install OS X Maverics" and after asking my permission to "verify the installation with apple" I got this error:

An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.

I restarted, and then it started the "Internet Recovery" mode, which now gives me the option to install OS X Mountain Lion instead of Mavericks, and gives me the same error every time.

I've checked the date through the terminal, and it is correct, but I am not in "PDT", I'm in "IDT" time zone.

I know it's late, but if anyone coming here for macOS 10.10+ I did the following:

Reset Drive

Boot in recovery mode (Cmd ⌘ R)
Select Disk Utility
Choose Macintosh HD
Verify Macintosh HD
Erase Macintosh HD

Reset Mac time and PRAM

Restart and hold Cmd ⌘ Opt ⌥ P R (Resetting PRAM as stated above)
After second chime, hold Cmd ⌘ R to boot in recovery mode
Select language
Enter wifi information (or plug in ethernet cable)
Select Utilities from the task bar
Choose Terminal
Enter date mmddHHMMyyyy where mm = two digit month, dd = two digit day, HH = 24 hour, MM = minute, yyyy = 4 digit year (time zone was incorrect for me, but didn't seem to matter)
Exit Terminal (Cmd ⌘ Q)

Reinstall macOS

Reinstall Mac OS X (or macOS)

It worked only after doing all of these.

Source:
https://blog.macsales.com/31640-tech-tip-an-error-occurred-while-preparing-the-installation-fix


Can I compile mpich 3 with gcc 4.9 on Mavericks? I am trying to compile mpich 3 on a Mac Pro with Mavericks using gcc 4.9. Has any one had luck doing this?

My machine is hanging on configure step.

Yes, luck was had!

Why not install homebrew and let that handle the compiling for you?

That would be the easiest way to install mpich.

If you insist on compiling manually, you would have to provide information on where the configure programs hangs. I.e. what is the output of the program (take a look in the configure log).


Activate desktop using Applescript Basically, I have this short script to "clean up" the desktop. This is the code:

tell application "System Events"
    tell application "Finder" to activate desktop
    delay 0.1
    tell process "Finder" to click menu item "Clean Up" of menu "View" of menu bar item "View" of front menu bar
end tell

The script works fine when there are no Finder windows open. However, if there is at least one Finder window, when the line tell application "Finder" to activate desktop is run, it will make that window active, rather than the desktop.

What is the reason for this? And what is the correct way to put the focus on the desktop (same effect as clicking on the desktop image)?

(Doing this on El Capitan)

You could tell Finder to minimise all it's windows by:

tell every window
    set collapsed to true
end tell

Then activate desktop and the usual.


MacBook Pro - not booting - going around in loops? After a harrowing couple of days, I found this site and am hoping someone can help.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro which has recently started having problems booting. During a game session (SIMMS), it suddenly shutdown and refused to reboot, and since then I've been unable to use it at all. The MBP has a new install of El Capitan on it but it's been working fine for the last couple of weeks since the install.

I tried Safemode, Recovery mode etc, but it wouldn't boot into any of these either. Eventually I set it to Target mode, and reloaded El Capitan from another "Companion" MacBook Pro. This process went without a hitch.

After loading it, I booted from the "companion" MacBook to make sure the OS was working OK, and it was!

I restarted the "Companion" MBP and ejected the faulty MBP, and tried to restart it normally. No go, still wouldn't boot even with the new OS.

I've tried a number of things to get it to boot, following this fresh install, but all that happening is that it'll get to the Apple Logo, try to boot, shutdown and then go around in circles.

Eventually it'll stop on the gray screen and the fans will startup and keep running.

I'm at the end of my knowledge, so any advice would be welcome!

Thanks

Have you had a luck with it yet?

Sound like it may be similar to mine. Logic board for Mac Book Pro's sold between late 2011, whole 2012 and start 2013 are under Apple's Extended Warranty Program. Your symptoms are the same as what I had before mine completely died. Going in tomorrow to have my logic board replaced for free. Thanks Apple.

Please see the link below.

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Hope this helps.


Is it possible to temporarily skip media restore in WhatsApp? I use WhatsApp on an iPhone X. I have chat history and media backed up on my iCloud. The total size of the backup is around 6 GB.

I had to send in the iPhone X for repair, and I’m using a temporarily loaned iPhone 6.

I restored the WhatsApp chat history from iCloud, but the iPhone 6 is a 16 GB variant. I’m unable to restore the media onto this phone since “system files” are around 11 GB. If I turn off iCloud Drive, it goes down to 7 GB but with that turned off, I can’t backup/restore WhatsApp. The only thing enabled in iCloud Drive is WhatsApp so I don’t know why it’s consuming 4GB on the phone when I haven’t restored media.

Is WhatsApp backup cumulative?

If I skip the media restore, and continue backing up the chat history, will I be able to restore the entire chat history and media on my iPhone X when I get it back?
Will the media part of the backup be erased from iCloud if I skip media restore and do a chat history backup on the temporary phone?

The important thing is that you restore the backup on the iPhone 6. Once restored, it disables the backup of that iPhone 6 so that it does not replace the original copy of the iPhone X. Then when you have your iPhone X again, you will be able to restore the copy original.

On the other hand I recommend that you make a backup in iCloud of all the content and a backup in iTunes.


How to sync fonts across Macbooks? Extended question I'm bouncing on a question posted here a while ago: How to sync fonts across Macbooks?

The question is about how to store all fonts on a cloud folder (i.e. Dropbox), and load these fonts on other Macs, using this cloud folder as a "font repository".

User ProGrammer had posted a great answer based on the following this blog post.

I did this on my source computer and successfully moved my fonts to dropbox. I then plugged a map, and folloed these commands:

  DESTINATION MAC
  (Any Mac you want to copy your Fonts folder to. NOTE: This will DELETE your user Fonts folder.)

  Launch Terminal in Applications/Utilities/
  Run cd ~/Library to open your user Library.
  Run sudo rm -r Fonts to delete your user fonts folder.
  Enter your password when prompted.
  Run ln -s ~/Dropbox/Fonts to create a symbolic link in your User Library.

Point 5 is what I suspect tells the mac that my fonts are not in the Library/Fonts folder, but in the Dropbox/Fonts folder; here's what happens:

On my source Macbook, when i install a font, it properly goes to the Font Book, and the font file goes  Dropbox/Fonts folder
On my iMac though, when i install a font, absolutely nothing happens. Nothing is added to either the font folder nor Font Book.
Edit When i drop a font on the Dropbox/Fonts folder, it becomes accessible to all machines through Apps such as Illustrator, etc...

I can't seem to figure out why...!

EDIT: (Reply to comments from @nohillside & @benwiggy)

One of the iMacs gives me this, after i run the ls -l ~/Library/Fontscommand (note: Dropbox on this one is installed on an external drive - other iMac is local and has same issues)

lyly@Ly-iMac ~ % ls -l ~/Library/Fonts
lrwxr-xr-x  1 lypnguyen  staff  65 Mar 11 15:13 /Users/lyly/Library/Fonts -> /Volumes/3TB/Dropbox (GCPH)/Sales & Marketing/Art Direction/Fonts

Also, both iMacs were having a sort of random behavior on building font lists, with irregular installed font numbers, disappearing fonts, etc...

Implemented a shared font resource may not be as easy as just syncing the entire font folder.

The user font folder may contain font management files, such as encodings.dir, fonts.alias, fonts.list, fonts.dir, fonts.scale.

One of these files, fonts.list, contain full pathnames to the fonts, so if the user names on the shared machines are not the same, this will confuse the font manager.

Also, like many parts of macOS, font resources are cached, so violent changes to the Font folder may require emptying the font cache.

You may be better off just copying the fonts library to each computer and then managing them locally with FontBook, or with a third-party font management app.

You should also check the EULA of the fonts you're using to confirm that you are operating within its terms.


iMac FD 16GB 21.5 inches Retina My old Mac crashed badly and I had to sell it.
Had a Mac TimeMachine Backup.
Bought this new iMac and it came loaded with Sys and a few apps.
I want to get my old email from Time Machine back.
How do I import that and put it into this Mac?

In Finder go to Applications → Utilities, and run Migration Assistant app. It will help you restore your backed up data including email.


Why does my Gmail signature on my iphone default to my gmail app on my ipad I just realized that I sent an email from my g-mail app on my iPad signed "sent from my iPhone". So I reset my iPad signature to "sent from my iPad".  Guess what? An email Is sent from my iPhone g-mail app was signed "sent from my iPad". Does anybody have a fix aside from just using the signature "sent from my iPhone/iPad"?

The Gmail app syncs your signature to your account, not just your device. One solution would be to use the Gmail app on one device, and the default Mail app on the other. The Mail app stores the signature only on your device, so you can keep it separate from the one synced to your Gmail account.


How can I trim a very large video file? I made a screen recording, but then accidentally left it recording overnight for an extra 6 hours. In total I think it’s around 9 hours - and the file has hit 15GB.

Luckily it managed to save to the desktop, but I’m struggling to open it to trim it down.

Finder QuickLook just becomes unresponsive and has to be force quit. QuickTime simply doesn’t open it (or at least hasn’t - but I’m pretty sure it’s not trying because it’s barely using any system resources).

I have iMovie installed but I’ve no idea how it will cope with a 15GB file - will it even be imported in a sensible amount of time?

I’m thinking the best way it to split the file into ~30 smaller files. I could then reassemble the desired ones.

Equally I’m fairly confident of where the useful content ends - around the 2:30 mark. I could calculate it more accurately if needed.

Could I do either of these things with a tool which doesn’t load the entire video into memory? I’ve used ffmpeg on Ubuntu before but I do not know if it can do something like this.

ffmpeg

Use ffmpeg to trim the video. It will take a while but should get the job done:

See Alexander Refsum Jensenius's Trim video file using FFMPEG example below for extracting 1h 10s 27 to 2h 18s 51:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 01:10:27 -to 02:18:51 -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4

See also How to trim a large video with ffmpeg? where the question involves a 75GB movie file. In this case the command extracts 7 seconds from a specific starting time:

ffmpeg -ss 01:21:24 -i input.mp4 -t 7 -c copy output.mp4

Movie Splitter

You could also try my Movie Splitter but I expect if QuickTime is struggling, so will the shared AVFoundation code Movie Splitter uses. Still, give it a try as it does work with multi-gigabyte MP4/h.264 files.


Applescript to Unmount Volumes Matching a Pattern I have several backup offline and bootable backup volumes on a disk , and I would like to unmount all of them at startup. They all start with the name "Backup"

I've found the following Applescript courtesy of https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5102909, which is very efficient, but would appreciate help to add in wildcards. I would like it to unmount any volumes that being with "Backup"

set volname to "Backup" -- # name of target volume

set p to (POSIX path of (volname & ":" as alias))'s text 1 thru -2

set sh to "diskutil umount " & quoted form of p & " &> /dev/null &"

do shell script sh

I feel like it should be possible, but always get messed up with the correct syntax. Your wisdom would be very appreciated!

*** Edit
My disk & volume structure looks like this:

disk2s1 EFI
disk2s2 Backup System 10May19
disk2s3 Backup Archives

I unmount the volumes at startup, so the disk can spin down. Chronosync automatically mounts/unmounts as needed during backup operations.

This is how I'd do it... The following example AppleScript code will unmount any mounted disk that starts with "Backup":

set listOfDisks to list disks
set listOfDisksToUnmount to {}

repeat with thisDisk in listOfDisks
    if thisDisk starts with "Backup" then
        copy contents of thisDisk to end of listOfDisksToUnmount
    end if
end repeat

if listOfDisksToUnmount is not {} then
    repeat with thisDisk in listOfDisksToUnmount
        do shell script "diskutil unmount /Volumes/" & thisDisk's quoted form
    end repeat
end if

Note: If you have an issue with the unmount verb with diskutil, try unmountDisk instead.

Note: contents in copy contents of thisDisk to end of listOfDisksToUnmount doesn't copy the contents of the disk, it copies the contents of the list item, which is the name of the disk.

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, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Network Share set permissions don't work I'm trying to use set default permissions for directories and files but not having much joy. What I am trying to share a specific directory on a local external drive connected to the server internally. Everyone in the group has access to the drive and can view all the files.

However once a new file is created by mac08, the group permissions are not set and only that user has access to modify it.

Here is an example of two txt files. The one created by mac08 has 644 permissions and all other users like mac07 etc. can't write to the file.

I have a group called staff and have added everyone to it, but new files created don't follow.

drwxrwxrwx+ 159 root  wheel  5406 22 Aug 11:08 PROJECTS
 0: group:Staff allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

New file created:

-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 root   wheel     351 22 Aug 23:17 test4.rtf
 0: group:Staff allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
 1: user:aserver allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:ckadmin allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac08  wheel     352 22 Aug 23:26 testet11.rtf
 0: group:Staff allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr

I can manually update the permissions through the Get Info window but this requires me to reset permissions every time a person saves a new file to the drive. Any idea what it could be?

To create a properly working Projects share do the following:

On your external disk create a folder "Projects". Share this Projects with default permissions in Server.app > File Sharing. The default permissions are 755, the default owner is the user who created the folder and his primary group (e.g. adminuser:admin):

drwxr-xr-x+   6 adminuser  admin  -       204 Aug 23 10:54 Projects
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit

In this folder create another folder with the name Projects. Change the permissions to 770 and the group to staff:

mkdir Projects
chown adminuser:staff Projects
chmod 770 Projects

The permissions now look like this:

drwxrwx---+   6 adminuser  staff  -       204 Aug 23 10:54 Projects
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit

Then add an ACL for the group staff:

chmod +a "group:staff allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit" Projects

with the result:

drwxrwx---+ 2 adminuser  staff  -   68 Aug 23 11:09 Projects
 0: group:staff allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 1: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit

The complete path to the Projects folder (containing a test folder and a test.txt file - Data is the name of my volume on the external disk) is then:

/Volumes/Data/Projects/Projects:
total 0
drwxrwx---+ 4 adminuser  staff  - 136 Aug 23 11:24 . #this is /Volumes/Data/Projects/Projects
 0: group:staff allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 1: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
drwxr-xr-x+ 6 adminuser  admin  - 204 Aug 23 11:09 .. #this is /Volumes/Data/Projects
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
drwxr-xr-x+ 2 adminuser  staff  -  68 Aug 23 11:24 test
 0: group:staff inherited allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 1: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
-rw-r--r--+ 1 adminuser  staff  -   0 Aug 23 11:24 test.txt
 0: group:staff inherited allow read,write,execute,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
 1: user:_spotlight inherited allow read,execute

Now any subsequent file and folder of /Volumes/Data/Projects/Projects can be modified by any user in the group staff. You may tweak/tighten some of the permissions by not adding them (e.g. readextattr and writeextattr)


Remove macOS and Install Windows 10 Only How do I remove macOS completely from my MacBook Air 2015 and install Windows 10 only after?

I have tried formatting my drive to GPT and tried booting a Windows Installation USB however I'm stuck at the installer not being able to find any drives.

Download the Boot Camp drivers to a pen-drive, format the device using the Windows installer before installing. Run the bootcamp.exe once Windows is up and you'll have all the drivers you'll ever need. Make sure you get the right drivers for your device.


Disable double-click to maximize in OS X Yosemite In OS X Yosemite, a new feature is that when you double-click on the title bar of an application window, the window will maximize: http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/28/maximize-zoom-windows-os-x-mac/

Is there a way to disable this behavior?  I am accidentally double-clicking and maximizing terminal and VirtualBox VM windows, and this sometimes causes problems.

While I haven't found a way to turn it off completely, you can make it minimize instead by enabling:

  System Preferences > Dock > Double-click a window's title bar to minimize.


How to reset default permissions after the result of running the chown command I ran this line in Terminal:

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local

Now I want to reverse it to the default permissions. How do I do that?

(I think the default owner is system)

There is no standard way to do this. Easiest approach would to to restore the /usr/local hierarchy from your most recent backup (and manually reapply all changes/installs made later).


Run iTunes without it being in the dock I'm trying to keep my dock simple - just Chrome, MacVim, and the terminal. Is there a way to run iTunes without it being in the dock (i.e. just show the icon in the menu bar)?

The only way for an application to not appear in the dock (while also keeping the menu bar) is for the developers to place that functionality into it. I don't use my dock as a launcher, using Butler instead (which is a dockless application, btw).

You might try backing up a step and asking why you want to remove the iTunes from the dock and see if there's another solution. For example, I often listen to tunes on my iPhone rather than iTunes. If it's to keep the dock clean, try a different launcher than the dock and hide the dock instead.


Only Macintosh shown on Startup Manager after Windows 10 32-bit Boot Camp install I installed Boot Camp with Windows 10 32-bit, but it doesnt give me the option to switch my Mac into Windows. Any help? I've tried holding option when restarting it but only the Macintosh box appears.

32-bit versions of Windows 10 are not supported on any Mac model. You need to install the 64-bit version.

From Apple KB: How to install Windows using Boot Camp

  Before you begin, make sure you have everything you need:

  An Intel-based Mac
  A Microsoft Windows installation media or disk image (ISO) containing a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows 8 or later

See this list for which Mac models support Windows 10.


Upgrade personal iPhone to iOS beta 5.0? I currently have an iPhone 4 (GSM) and I'm signed up to the iOS development program, meaning I can install iOS 5.0 on it. The problem is that I use this same phone as a personal phone, I'm wondering if it's a good idea to install a beta OS on it or not. I'd really like to be able to take advantage of some of the newer features that iOS 5.0 introduces right now rather than having to wait until the fall.

The main things I'm concerned about are:

Major limitations (e.g. if an entire app or one of its major features doesn't work on the beta, I'd want to know about it).
Data loss
Being able to sync with Google Accounts (I currently use Google Sync to synchronize as much data as possible, ideally I want to keep using it in addition to Apple's new sync/backup service. Is there any way to do this or are they mutually exclusive?)
Any other issues you can think of which should cause me to be wary.

Apple actively states that you should in no way install development releases on any hardware you rely on. More specifically they state that "you should install this on dedicated development hardware" meaning a second phone.

If you are even the slightest bit concerned about stability, don't install it.
If you are not going to use it to develop/test against, don't install it.

And, my personal favorite:

If you have to ask this question, don't install it!


Cannot reinstall OS X. Will Apple Store do it on the spot? I installed Windows on my MacBook Air 2015 and erased the SSD in the process because it's only 128 GB and because I thought it would be easy to create a bootable USB key to reinstall OS X should I need to do that.

I then found out that power management under Windows is lacklustre to say the least. Right after that I had to realize that creating a bootable USB key from Windows is difficult to say the least requiring (paid) third party software. What is most strange though is how difficult it is to get the actual file from a Windows PC. I had to download one for OS X El Capitan from a shady website.

The stick I created with TransMac did not show up as a boot option even though I made sure it was formatted the right way (as per an online guide). Internet Recovery gives me error "-4403F" which Google doesn't seem to know.

So I'm stuck.

My question is if any Apple Store (I'm in Germany now but will be in Thailand next week) will reinstall OS X for me on the spot (as I would think they'd do) if I just walk in with my laptop?

On startup hold Command+Option+R. You can now use Internet Recovery to install OS X. Don't download from shady sites. You are compromising your security this way.


How to burn a dvd on 10.8 I have a .mp4-file I want to burn to a DVD to then watch on a dvd player and have automatically loop infinitely (can you program that into the dvd or is it to do with the dvd player?)

What would you reccomend I do?

Use Burn. It will convert your MP4 into a MPG and write it to the DVD as playable. (And yes, you can make the DVD loop automatically. See below.)


How to drop files from Desktop to Finder windows in a sane way? I know this question looks like a joke, but I've been using Macbooks for a few years and I've never found the right way of dropping files from Desktop to other windows.

Imagine this scenario: I'm on Yosemite, talking on Slack, having some files on Desktop I want to share with on my Slack channel, how do I drag these files from desktop to Slack window? Normally I have to:

go trough all the windows that are below the Slack window & minimize them (pain in the a...), this step is not actually a step but usually like 30 steps as I have that many apps working in the background,
resize Slack window to half the screen so I can see the Desktop,
drop the files from desktop on Slack.

While on Windows 7/8 it looks like:

click on right bottom corner,
click on Slack window,
resize Slack window,
drag & drop.

I tried to use the same flow on OSX, so I have "Show Desktop" set as a hot corner, I move to that corner, I can see the desktop but this feature is useless compared to the same functionality in Windows as if I click any app all the windows come back to their places...

How do you do that guys? Can I somehow set hot corner to minimize all windows instead of just showing Desktop for a second? How's that useful?

There are multiple ways to achieve it.

Using hot corners

Slide Your mouse to the hot corner to show Desktop
Drag Your file (do not drop)
Slide once again to hot corner
Drop the file to the app

Using keyboard shortcuts

Show Desktop with ⌃ CTRL+↓ Down arrow
Drag the file (You may need to click on Desktop first to activate Finder)
Then ⌘ CMD+⇥ TAB to previous app and drop it

Using the trackpad

Show Desktop with gesture (spread four fingers on trackpad)
Drag the file
Slide on top of the app icon on Dock
Slide on top of the window You want
Drop the file


Automator application that asks me for a YouTube URL before running the command I'm trying to make an Automator application that runs this command:
youtube-dl -x --audio-format wav -o "~/Downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s" 'youtube file url'

but I’d like for it to ask me for the YouTube URL before running. Have been unsuccessful so far, would appreciate any help.

Through lots of trial and error I finally managed to actually download and extract the audio. However I'm getting an error message: "ffprobe/avprobe and ffmpeg/avconv not found. Please install one." Thing is my ffmpeg is fully up to date. I even reinstalled it just in case. My "youtube-dl" is also up to date.

Addressing your comment...
The default PATH passed to a Run Shell Script action in Automator is:
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Add a PATH statement at the top of the code in the Run Shell Script action,
To determine what the normal PATH is, in Terminal run echo $PATH and then for the Run Shell Script action use whatever it outputs, e.g.
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

for f in "$@"; do
    /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -x --audio-format wav -o "$HOME/Downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s"  "$f"
done


eclipse wrong VM related to java 1.7 So I have been searching for hours on this.

So I installed java 1.7 on my mac before I realized I wanted/needed to use 1.6. I have managed to change everything so that the command line sees version 1.6. My issue is that whenever I try to compile something in eclipse it is saying "Specified VM install not found: type MacOS X VM, name Java SE 7 [1.7.0_45]"

I tried to reinstall 1.7 to see if that would fix things. It hasn't.

I am in OSX 10.8

EDIT:

The solution for now was to blow away my workspace and check everything out again

Eclipse is not good at updating its configuration :). go ahead and check for the right JRE in the following spots:

Eclipse global preferences (Eclipse preferences > Java > Installed JREs)
Project properties > Libraries

I had the same problem using ant build. The way to fix it there is by going to Run > External Tools > External tools configurations... and adjusting the JRE on the JRE tab


I cannot open system preference panes I am using Big Sur, and am unable to open the system preference panes. Instead, I get the error message "Could not load ____ preference pane". I have tried deleting the com.apple.systempreferenes file, and I have tried using the disk first aid, but the error message keeps showing up.

Try booting in safe mode. If that works, then you have a process that makes System Preferences show this error. If that doesn't work, create a new user account and check if you can open System Preferences with it. If you can, it's a problem with your user account.


remote connection and graphic problem I  need to be able to remote control many headless (without monitor) macs.
All the macs are on different locations, on different networks and with different router settings.
These are the informations i have at any moment about every machine:

Computer name
Local IP Address
Public IP Address

BUT I cannot access the router confirguration those devices connect to (for, like port forwarding).

I tried several free services (my company does not want to spend money on commercial applications) like Chrome Remote Desktop and DWService but hey all have problems rendering the pages.

Since the macs are headless, the graphic card does not kick-in, resulting in a lot of white windows and many GUI being unavailable (like many elements of the menubar)

I could use HDMI dummy plugs that simulte a monitor, solving the issue of blank windows, but still that would require my company to spend ~6 $ for each machine and they asked me to find a solution, if there is, to do that without extra hw.

I spent the last three days finding for a solution, without success.
But maybe some of you guys can direct me to a solution, if there is one!

Thanks!

Buy the dongles. I worry your company is able to secure these if it isn’t budgeting for training and support let alone very inexpensive adapters.

There’s being frugal and then there’s “we’re not even thinking about selling one Mac” to fund to what needed to run the rest of the fleet.

If your labor is cheap, make cakes and cookies and sell them to fund your business. Good luck, I don’t mean to insult, but the reasoning in your question doesn’t add up.

Also, solve your network issue - the business and you are toast if you can’t get control of the network (we’re back to security and priorities).


Set custom date format on iOS I am using the iOS 9 beta and I am trying to change the date format to
dayofweek-dayofmonth-month-year.

For example today would be:

  Tuesday, 25 Aug 2015

In Settings I have looked under ‘Language & Region’, and at the bottom of the page there is something that shows ‘Region Format Example’, but I cannot find a way to set a custom date format without changing my region (which still doesn't allow custom, but it will change it).

Under ‘Date and Time’ there isn't anything either.

It's currently not possible to set a custom date format on iOS, unlike macOS. On iOS you can only change the date format by changing the region as you discovered.


Converting a float to hours:minutes in Numbers Probably this is a very easy thing to do, but as handicapped as I am using Apple's iWork applications, I just can't find it.

I have made a calculation in Numbers which results for example in 14,25 or 16,5. All I want to do is to have this output formatted in hours like 14:15 or 16:30.

I just can't find where to do it. I've tried to change the valuetype to 'duration' ('Duur' in Dutch). But that doesn't help. When I try to use =HOUR(value) it's not giving the correct output and it says the value is not a valid date.

I was trying to do the same thing to represent X seconds in a time format.

=CONCATENATE(A0,"s")+"0s" which A0 is seconds


How to install Gnuplot on mac 10.5.8? I use Mac OS 10.5.8 and I want to install Gnuplot. I have found some advice on the net but it is not useful for me. Can anyone give me some clear steps of what is needed? What programs do I need and where can I find them exactly? A step-by-step solution invoking terminal commands would be appreciated.

http://brew.sh/

Install brew. The website lists the requirements, and the step by steps command line instructions. In short, it's:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL --insecure https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

Then:

brew install gnuplot

You're on 10.5.8 so installation requires '--insecure' as the older version of curl didn't have the CA secure certs packaged in.

Brew is also very handy for installing software in general. It's a unix package manager in the style of apt.


How can FileVault encryption process be stopped/disabled? I enabled FileVault on my Mac running High Sierra in the Security and Privacy System Preferences tab. Now my computer is extremely slow, I can't even use it.
FileVault is still in the process of encrypting my files (and will be for a very long time)  and I would like to just halt the process and disable FileVault ASAP. I have tried
sudo fdesetup disable

on the Terminal many times, receiving just the following message:
FileVault was not disabled (-69573)

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong because everytime someone tells me to do this online, they tell me that the message I should get should read "FileVault disabled".
I am open to any suggestions on how to stop the FileVault encryption process and keep FileVault off.

Unfortunately it is not possible to stop FileVault encryption midway.

Your only options are to let it continue, or to erase/format your drive and restore from backup.

The encryption process takes place in the background allowing you to use your computer while encrypting. Usually it should not make your computer extremely slow, so it might be worth investigating if you have something else running that is making your computer extremely slow. Take a look at Activity Monitor to see what the cause might be.


Resolution 2880 x 1800 not available in Windows 8 (VMware Fusion 5) I've installed Windows 8 in a VMware Fusion 5 virtual machine. Actually, I upgraded the virtual machine from VMware Fusion 4.

I'd like to set my retina MacBook Pro's resolution to the display's native resolution 2880 x 1800, but Windows doesn't offer the option for that resolution. The maximum is 2560 x 1920 (or 2650 x 1600).

Is there a way to let Windows know that I'm using a 2880 x 1800 display? Do I have to install a monitor driver in Windows?

Per VMware's Retina KB article, you can enable 1:1 pixel mapping for a Fusion 5 VM by going to Settings → Display and checking Use full resolution for Retina display.

If after that you don't see the 2880x1800 resolution, you need to make some manual tweaks, following this KB article:

Open the .vmx file in a text editor.
Add the line svga.autodetect = "FALSE"
Add (or update if it already exists) svga.vramSize = 20774912
Add (or update if they already exist) svga.maxWidth = 2880 and svga.maxHeight = 1800
Save the file and open your Windows VM.
In the Windows registry (Start → Run → regedit) search for the vmx_svga key. Per the article, "The correct key has several sub-keys, but it is the main key that should be edited."
Create a new string value (REG_SZ) named Resolution.x, where x is one higher than the highest number listed.
Enter 2880x1800 as the new value.
Restart Windows.
Open the Display Control Panel to change to your new resolution


How to use my iMac 2017 as a second monitor for my MacBook Pro mid 2012? I want to use my iMac 2017 running "Mojave" as a second monitor for my MacBook Pro mid 2012 running "Yosemite".

I can't find any tutorials for such age difference. Any help or tips are very appreciated.

Thank you!

I don't think there's a built-in way to accomplish what you're going for. But there are some products (hardware and/or software) you can purchase to help.

iMacs used to have a mode wherein they could act as a secondary external display. Even though current iMacs no longer offer that functionality, this product provides functionality to turn a Mac into a secondary display. I've heard very good things about it, but I've never tried it myself. It requires a hardware dongle plugged into the source Mac (where the video is coming from):
https://lunadisplay.com/pages/meet-mac-to-mac-mode

And here's another that advertises similar functionality. Unlike Luna Display above, it doesn't require a hardware dongle:
https://www.duetdisplay.com/air

(I don't have any relationship with either company or product.)


Is it possible to run VMware Fusion in the background to hide the windows and icons it produces? I have multiple virtual machines setup in VMware Fusion.

Some of them are only servers (like Ubuntu), which I want to run without seeing the VMware Fusion icons or windows, a little like VMware Server does.

Does anyone have a solution?

It appears you can start Fusion headless by executing the following:

  /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmrun -T fusion
  start ~/Documents/Virtual\
  Machines.localized/[IMAGENAME].vmwarevm/[IMAGENAME].vmx nogui

You could also add /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library to your $PATH or create an alias to have easier access to the vmrun command.

You can find more info on the vmrun command in this PDF. While a bit out-dated, it should still contain relevant information on how to start and stop your server.

If you are interested in running headless Linux servers for your development environment etc, I can also highly recommend to use VirtualBox instead. It is free, has extensive command-line support, and while running headless VMs Fusion loses most if its advantages (seamless GUI integration) over VirtualBox anyway. What's more, tools like Vagrant can even facilitate running these environments to a much greater extent. With the addition of a paid add-on ("provider"), Vagrant can control VMWare as well as VirtualBox for you3.


Where did Mail.app just put my email? Mail.app seems built to punish us for not having inbox-zero.

I hear a chime telling me new mail has arrived, but with a list of mailboxes that look like:

how can I possibly tell which one has new new mail, as opposed to the old new mail? Or better yet, is it possible to make an email's newness expire after a certain period?

Create a Smart Mailbox with "Message is Unread" and sort it by Date Received.
I have this setup as my default mailbox for processing my email. I also have the Mail.app dock icon badge set to point to this Mailbox so I can see how much unread mail I have, though in your case this won't be an advantage.

Pro Tip. Just mark all those messages as unread read. You're never going to read them.


Where does apple keeps a copy of files when I turned off iCloud drive? I turned off iCloud drive and gave me a popup stating that all documents stored in iCloud would be removed from Mac and presented three options:
Keep a copy, cancel and remove from Mac.

I selected "Keep a copy option" and can't find files in both my mac and icloud.

Where would mac be keeping a copy of my data?

Any help would be appreciated.

Check your home folder for a folder called iCloud Drive (Archive).

Apple support document says the following:

  If you turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud, you have the
  option to keep a local copy of your files that are in iCloud Drive.
  Whether you decide to keep a local copy or not, a new Desktop and
  Documents folder is created in your home folder. If you choose to keep
  a local copy, your files in iCloud Drive are copied to a folder called
  iCloud Drive (Archive) in your home folder. Then you have the option
  to move any files that were in your iCloud Desktop and Documents, back
  to your new local Desktop and Documents.


How to identify 32bit applications on macOS without running each one? With macOS 10.13.4 Apple will start to show a warning if a 32bit application is started, and it is assumed that with 10.14 32bit applications will not run at all. Starting each application to see whether it is 32bit might be cumbersome, so if I want to prepare for the migration early how can I easily (via GUI or Terminal) assemble a list of all 32bit applications on my system?

System Information uses the Spotlight index to find all applications accessible on the system.

Open the app (/Applications/Utilities/System Information.app
or Apple menu → About This Mac → System Report…).
Choose Applications under Software in the sidebar and wait for the data to load.
One of the columns present on this list is ‘64-Bit (Intel)’.

Clicking on the column header sorts the column by the Yes/No values within.
Inspecting the apps listed as ‘No’ will tell you which apps are not 32-bit.

You can also use Spotlight's CLI tool, ‘mdfind’ (/usr/bin/mdfind) on the command line. Run the following in Terminal:

mdfind "kMDItemExecutableArchitectures == '*i386*' &&
  kMDItemExecutableArchitectures != '*x86*'"

which returns paths to the application, such as:

/Applications/KeyBindingsEditor.app
/Applications/Impactor.app
/Applications/DVD Player.app
/Applications/Tuxera Disk Manager.app
/Applications/LICEcap.app
/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager.app
/Applications/Compressor.app
/Applications/JPEGmini Pro.app

Currently in macOS 10.13, the following Apple first-party apps are 32-bit and still need updating or removing in 10.14:

/Applications/DVD Player.app
(probably being removed)
/System/Library/Input Methods/InkServer.app
(for the Ink support i.e. graphics tablets, probably being removed)
/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Versions/A/Resources/quicklookd32.app
(a 64-bit version already exists, quicklookd.app without the 32 in the name)


13" Macbook Pro running Lion loses battery fast? I bought my 13" MacBook Pro last March 27, 2011. It's 5 months old now. coconutBattery shows that I've lost 12% of the original battery capacity in just 5 months with 238 load cycles. I read in some of the questions here that one MacBook user just lost 1% of his battery capacity in 2 years! How could I have lost such a large percentage of my battery capacity in just 5 months?

Battery life depends greatly on use. 238 charge cycles in 5 months by most standards is pretty high. More importantly if your following the guidelines Apple has published for their battery use are you getting usage times that are in line with their estimates? Coconut battery isn't always accurate, its best to trust the built-in tools for diagnostic information.

You can also check System Information (Lion) or System Profiler (10.6) under power to get an idea of the stats on the battery. Double check to see what your Full Charge Capacity and the Charge Cycles are.

Any Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider can run diagnostics on the battery as stated by Wheat Williams. If it is faulty it's covered by your one year limited warranty.

Also check for run away processes you can check Activity Monitor, these could be draining the battery faster and driving up charge cycles.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473