App restoration on Macbook Pro - will these apps be reinstalled whenever Big Sur launches? Before I delete iMovie and GarageBand on a shared MacBook Pro (I'm the admin), if I upgrade from MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 to Big Sur (whenever it launches), will they auto-restore on Big Sur being installed?
I know that if I want to reinstall I can do so via App Store, this question is more about the workings of Mac OS X.
If I remove GarageBand and iMovie from my MacBook Air, can I restore them later? was the question I saw which related to this.
My question is not about should I delete them, but whether these will be automatically re-installed anyway on upgrade from new OS (I'm not talking incremental, e.g. from 10.15.7 to 10.15.8, but to a completely new OS).

I would expect automatic installs of apps like Garage Band and iMovie not happening when Big Sur is released.
I would plan on these being easy reinstalls from the App Store.

The iLife and iWork apps are not part of the OS. Apple pre-installs them when you buy a new Mac which can lead people to assume they are part of the OS.  You need to download them again from the App Store if you wipe a machine and only install macOS.
This has been how it works for every release leading up to Big Sur so unless Apple makes a late change, count on signing in to the App Store to download any apps you don’t migrate from a previous backup.


Assign and recall windows with keyboard shortcuts I would like to be able to assign numbers to windows with a keyboard shortcut like:

Cmd+1 (different numbers for different windows or desktops)

and then recall them with a keyboard like:

⌘+1

The specific modifier does not matter much. I used to do this with AutoHotkey in Windows. Can I do this in Mac OS X?

You'll need a Mac-based macro program such as Keyboard Maestro by Stairways Software. Although its interface is very different, it's similarly powerful, if not more powerful than AutoHotkey. The program includes a tutorial and comprehensive documentation.


My Macbook air won't go to sleep when I close the lid Since I have purchased my Macbookair, it has been going to sleep mode when I closed the lid and the apple logo on its lid would turn off. Randomly it started going to sleep mode after 15-30 mins later I have closed its lid and sometimes it never went to sleep. I typed "pmset -g assertions" in the terminal of my mac and these were the results:

Assertion status system-wide:
   BackgroundTask                 0
   ApplePushServiceTask           0
   UserIsActive                   1
   PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep    0
   PreventSystemSleep             0
   ExternalMedia                  0
   PreventUserIdleSystemSleep     1
   NetworkClientActive            0
Listed by owning process:
   pid 117(hidd): [0x0003be5000098b76] 00:28:29 UserIsActive named: "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294995445.11"
    Timeout will fire in 119 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease
   pid 331(useractivityd): [0x0003c4fb00018c32] 00:00:01 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "BTLEAdvertisement"
No kernel assertions.
Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

I didn't fully understand these results and tried several ways to solve my issue and I would very much appreciate it if someone could help me understand sleep and wake troubleshooting on the command line or from logs and settings.

Your output from pmset -g assertions matches mine perfectly - nothing there would prevent a quick sleep. To dig into this deeper, I like to open a command line windows/tabs and run two commands in different shells:

pmset -g pslog
iostat 5

You can change the 5 counter - I usually use iostat 60 or more to track long term CPU and IO trends, but sleep wake happens pretty quickly when things are running correctly with "out of the box" power settings and a fresh / new OS installation.

Here you can see the timing on the lid down and lid up:

2017-09-10 10:47:24 -0500 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...Sleeping...
2017-09-10 11:42:32 -0500 com.apple.system.powersources

2017-09-10 11:42:34 -0500 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...HasPoweredOn...
  Wake Reason = EC.LidOpen
  wakeType = UserActivity Assertion
2017-09-10 11:43:33 -0500 com.apple.system.powersources.timeremaining
2017-09-10 11:43:33 -0500 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=4128867)    100%; discharging; 3:42 remaining present: true

Here you can see the jump in the iostat 5 where the CPU was idle entering sleep (the 4.00    1  0.00   1  1 98 being low IO, and 98 % idle CPU) for the first two lines go together. Most of the values jump up the three "intervals" when I woke the lid from sleep and the CPU kicked in gear to run all the tasks needed to wake from sleep and resume apps / catch up on periodic activities missed while sleeping)

    4.00    1  0.00   1  1 98  2.66 1.92 1.55
    4.00    0  0.00   1  1 98  2.61 1.93 1.55
   12.02    0  0.00  16 30 54  3.60 2.14 1.63
   36.18   96  3.38  59 25 16  4.51 2.36 1.71
    6.50    2  0.01  51  9 40  4.23 2.33 1.70


Hidden folder without a dot at the start On any unix machine, Mac included, files and folders with dots at the start are normally invisible. However, it seems that the Mac has it's own type of hidden folder.

If I enable showing hidden files in Finder (defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES), there are 70 dotfiles in my home directory. However, there are two hidden folder without dots: Trash and Library. In the root directory, there are several (lost+found, bin, cores, etc…).

Is it possible to make one of these folders that is hidden in Finder while keeping it's path the same (AKA not adding a dot)? I use a utility that needs a ~/tmp folder, and I'd love to hide it in finder.

You can use chflags

To hide a file from Finder

chflags hidden /Path/To/File

To unhide:

chflags nohidden /Path/To/File


Large difference in reported free disk space I have a strange discrepancy in the amount of free disk space that's being reported.
The finder says:

My iStat Menus says:

Which is the same as df -h reports:
remco@Prosperpine ~  $ df -h
Filesystem                          Size   Used  Avail Capacity  iused   ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       148Gi  127Gi   21Gi    87% 33479179 5383643   86%   /
devfs                              187Ki  187Ki    0Bi   100%      646       0  100%   /dev
map -hosts                           0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0       0  100%   /net
map auto_home                        0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0       0  100%   /home

Why would such a large difference occur? I've checked the disk using the disk utility and it does not report having any issues.
Specs: Late 2011 MacBook Pro 17", non-Apple Intel 160GB SSD, OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.2

Check the Storage section of About This Mac. You will probably see the missing 15GB listed there as "Backups". These are Time Machine local snapshots, and Finder ignores them when calculating free disk space, because they get deleted automatically when your free disk space drops below 20%. In other words, they give up their space automatically as needed, so the number in Finder is the one you should pay attention to.


iPhone 4S using 3G to download songs from iCloud after iOS 5.1 update I have a limited 3G plan on my iPhone 4S and I also have iTunes Match service.

In order to keep the phone from downloading songs from iCloud, while under 3G connection, I had set 'Settings>Store>Use Cellular Data' to OFF. This seemed to work just fine until I downloaded the iOS 5.1 update.

A couple of days ago I was surprised to find that while listening to shuffled music, I had ran out of credit because the Music App had been fetching songs from iCloud using 3G, even though the Setting was still OFF.

I've been forced to turn off my 3G every time I want to listen to music on the go, which is really annoying.

Is this a known bug? Is anyone else experiencing the same problem? Is there a fix?

Thanks!

You need to turn off "Use Cellular Data" in the "Music" section in Settings. Then, when you go to play a song from iTunes Match when you're on 3G, it'll give you a message saying you need to be on Wi-Fi.


Can I create an iCloud account with a borrowed IOS5 device? An IOS5 device is needed to create an iCloud account. I have a Macbook and an iMac both running Snow Leopard, but no IOS device nor a mobile.me account. I want to use iCloud's calendar features.  I know SL doesn't officially support iCloud (yet) but there seem to be work-arounds (and the odd rumor of SL support coming later, but I won't hold my breath) and I want to try to bring it up now.

I'm interested in whether someone with an IOS5 device can use it to open an iCloud account, give it over to me, and then completely remove it from their device without either crippling the account or leaving the device or the account connected to the other.  (This is a question, BTW, not a request for someone to do it).

This question discusses having several iCloud accounts on one device, but not abandoning an account.

While you should be able to use an iOS 5 device to convert to iCloud, you can upgrade your MobileMe account to iCloud on a Snow Leopard machine at the following link:

https://www.me.com/move/


Native Google Reader clients for OS X? Are there any good Google Reader clients for OS X?

There are several RSS readers and some can sync with google Reader

This includes
NetNewsWire

Other clients include
Vienna RSS


All my music needs to be downloaded again? I went to play some music on my iPhone (iOS 7) but whenever I tap a track to play it just greys out and a little circle with a stop icon appears next to it (download indicator?).

Any idea why this is or how to fix it?

If you have the music on your computer, connect to iTunes and sync
again. If this appears, you should download all music from iCloud.


What does Using “MX Anywhere 2S” may affect Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity mean in iPadOS? On iPadOS 13.4, the Bluetooth mouse functionality is substantially improved. I have an Logitech MX anywhere that I purchased to test this, and I notice a warning that it may affect WiFi or Bluetooth.

  Using “MX Anywhere 2S” may affect Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity

I know that any Bluetooth device uses 2.4 GHz unmanaged spectrum, so interference is always possible, but I wonder if there’s something specific at issue here or if Apple has documented which mouse devices will not get this warning.

Is there an official explanation why this alert is present or a list of supported protocols, devices, driver upgrades to have the best WiFi and Bluetooth experience on iPads with Bluetooth mice connected?

Some mice, like the MX Anywhere, support both Bluetooth and wireless radio connectivity (this is the connection method where you usually have to use a small USB receiver). This wireless radio uses 2.4 GHz spectrum as well and may interfere with BT and/or 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi.


Starting page numbering on page greater than page #1 in Pages '09 I want to add page numbers to the header of my document in Apple Pages '09. However, I would like the page numbering to start on page five; i.e. I want pages 1-4 to have no numbers, and for page #1 to start on page five. Is there any way to do this? I tried creating section breaks, but that has no effect on page numbers.

This just worked for me.

Create your you four pages.

Click on the last page (4) and then 'insert' a section break.

Now with page 5 selected ( click inside page)

Go to the 'Layout inspector' and set it to:

Insert Autopage Numbers. Settings:

You can now insert more pages and the numbers continue.

The first 4 pages have no numbers. And page 5 starts from 1 with the rest continuing on consecutively


Can I upgrade my MacBook mid 2010 to 16GB of RAM? (2x8G) I bought a MacBook mid 2010 which I have upgraded to 8GB of RAM. But now, 8GB is not enough for me. I need more RAM for my work.

Can I upgrade my MacBook's RAM to 16GB? I know the new Macbook Pros can do it, but I am not sure about mine.

(Note: The original post said "No", which was right at the time it was written, but as of February 15th, 2014, the OWC page says that you can install up to 16GB of RAM on mid 2010 MacBooks (2.4GHz).)
It Depends.
OWC continously tests the max RAM which apple computers support - which is usually more than Apple officially states.
The mid-2010 MBP is size dependent. The 13" will support 16GB. The 15" and the 17" will not.
The following table shows that the max RAM supported by your Macbook Pro based off size (mid 2010) is 16GB (officially 8GB).


How to create USB Ubuntu boot disk in OS X so that it boots on *non-Apple* computer? While this seems like a straight forward task, the few methods I've tried so far don't create a USB device that my Dell computer will recognize as a valid bootable USB drive.

Here's what I've tried so far (using a cheap 2gb thumb drive, along with the 64-bit Ubuntu Desktop 13.10 ISO from Ubuntu's website):

Insert USB drive, and format it to MS-FAT32 using Disk Utility; then follow this How to create a bootable USB stick on OS X Ubuntu guide verbatim (update: I wasn't as verbatim as I thought! see comment under accepted answer).
Insert USB drive with existing formatting; open Unetbootin, using the same ISO, create a USB installer disk.

In both cases, when I explicitly tell my Dell computer to boot from the "USB Device", I get an error along the lines of "Can't find valid boot disk; press F1 to try again".

I ended up creating the boot disk with the same ISO using a different computer running Ubuntu, using the Startup Disk Creator -- thus I have confidence the ISO is fine -- but I'm stuck wondering, how can I do this with my OS X computer (currently with 10.8.5)?

For me it has always worked (albeit building Mint install usb pen drives DOS MBR partitioned) using Terminal , and as per the instructions on the Linux Mint website (http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744), which I copy below:

  Using the Terminal

  It is really simple. Go to a Terminal and type:

  sudo dd if=~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdx oflag=direct  bs=1048576
  Where '~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso' is the name and location of your downloaded image (located at the desktop in this example) and '/dev/sdx' is the target USB drive. If your system doesn't support 'oflag=direct', you can just leave it out as it is simply intended to speed up the process a bit.

  Remember, don't include an integer for the USB drive, e.g. '/dev/sdx1', as it would refer to the existing partition on that drive and not the drive itself.

  When the USB has been properly created by 'dd', there should be an output similar to this:

  sudo dd if=~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdb oflag=direct bs=1048576

  706+1 records in

  706+1 records out

  740601856 bytes (741 MB) copied, 91.7024 s, 8.1 MB/s

Hope it helps


Files have disappeared overnight - where are they? Yesterday I filmed an interview and copy/pasted the files from my SD card onto my iMac, then imported the files into Premiere Pro to view the footage. Everything looked good, so I ejected the card and formatted it for another shoot. The files and Premiere Pro project were fine. I imported my next project, no problem.

However today when I opened the first project to begin my edit, I found that all of my files and the folder they were saved in had disappeared:

/users/adam/documents/DSS/Amanda/Amanda Video/Rushes

The "Rushes" folder and its content no longer exits, and was instead left with an empty "untitled folder".

I've searched finder, trash, everywhere for the "Rushes" folder and "MVI_0538.MOV" onward (up to 0570).

If it weren't for the Premiere Pro file path it seems that there would be no evidence of the files ever existing - is there any way of recovering them or finding any trace of them? Perhaps by using the terminal?

Thanks,
Adam

Assuming the files are actually gone there are two potential solutions I can think of, neither of which necessarily rely on Terminal (which will allow you to see invisible files, but not deleted files).  The first of which requires that you are using Time Machine.  If Time Machine was connected to your backup drive yesterday after you imported your files, it would create a new backup every hour including any files that were new to the system since the previous backup.  Simply open Time Machine, navigate to the folder where your files were previously, and go back to a time when they were still there.  Highlight the file(s) and click the Recover button.

The second solution requires third party software.  When files are "deleted" they are usually only removed from the "catalog" or "index" of the file system.  This means according to the index the space where file X used to take up is now empty and available to be overwritten at any point in the future when it needs to save new files.  Data recovery software simply ignores this index and scans the actual blocks of space on the drive to see if there is any data there. I don't endorse any data recovery software in particular however, as its been years since I've used any.  Searching the web will find various titles, both commercial and open source, and you'll likely need an external HDD to recover found files onto.  Best of luck.


iPhone 4 requires previous Apple ID I bought a used iPhone 4, got the carrier to unlock to use, but I still can't use because I don't have the previous owner's Apple ID or password. Is there any way to unlock to use?

I am sorry, but you cannot use your iPhone without entering the code correctly. You may want to refer to this question here, as suggested by tubedogg: Activation Lock Ipod 5


How to add suite or apartment number to location in Calendar How can the suite number, apartment number, etc. be added to the location in Calendar on MacOS and iOS?

If an address is typed locations are suggested and Time to Leave alerts are enabled, but as soon as the address is modified Calendar no longer recognizes it as a valid address.

No Suite:

With Suite:

Entering the suite or apartment number on a separate line with a trailing comma, the address will display on the map as valid.

The Suite number can even be on the same line as the city and it will work but that just looks odd.

To add a new line use control+return


Deactivate 'Nike+' exclusive features form AppleWatch 2 - Nike+ edition For whatever reason* you decide that you want your Apple Watch Nike Plus to function just like a standard Apple Watch:

no more running notifications,
no ugly watch faces,
etc.

which are exclusive to the Nike Plus.

Is it possible to disable all NikePlus-exclusive features?

you really liked the Nike Plus band and can't get it any other way,
you broke your leg and no more running for you,
some other excuse

Because the AppleWatch Nike+ edition isn't available yet this information is not available .. BUT I do can tell your able to turn off the notifications, just like the 'breath' / 'you need to stand for 1 minute' (while driving your car) notifications. You can change your watchfases to normal version but won't be able to remove the nike+ app from your watch as it's bound to the exclusive Watchface.


MacBook Air - upgraded HD, now does not boot up Upgraded my hard drive from a 250gb to a 500gb. After reinstalling Mountain Lion, I did a restore from my TM backup. All seemed to go well, and was quick.
The system told me to reboot after the install and again all was good, but it won’t complete the boot. Apple symbol comes up, progress bar starts up, slows down, then stops. I am looking at a screen that is ready to start the GUI, but... it just sits. I tried restarting, no different.
Any ideas?

You can try starting in Safe Mode. Restart your Mac and immediately after your Mac starts (some Mac computers play a startup sound), press and hold the Shift key. Release the Shift key when you see the progress indicator. See if this works. If so edit your question mentioning that it works in safe mode, and leave a comment here.


Bootcamp + Windows 8.1 + Apple Macbook 2011 Recently I installed Windows 8.1 64bit on my Macbook Pro (2011). Everything went fine and I am able to duel boot using Bootcamp.

Only issue I am facing is poor performance in Windows. Its taking around 1-1.5 minute to boot, while another laptop of dell with i3 processor and 4gb ram is able to boot in 4-6 seconds in same OS.

My macbook configuration is not latest but it with 2nd gen core i5 and 4 GB ram it should be faster (OS X boots in 13-16 seconds).

Also when running Visual Studio in Windows noticed that my disk i/o goes to 100% utilization and that time macbook goes terribly slow. So somewhere it seems related to hard disk speed. However I want to be sure before investing in new hard disk.

So if getting a new 7200 RPM hard disk with 16MB cache can solve the issue or if its due to Bootcamp virtualization and for disk i/o Windows has to go through bootcamp drivers and thus making process slow. I already tried specifying Pagefile size in Windows with no noticeable change.

Yet if adding memory instead of HDD can solve issue then I would go for memory route.

So please suggest me, how to determine exactly what is not correct for Windows 8.1 on Macbook pro and what sort of upgrade can solve the issue.

Thanks

[Update]

I tried ReadyBoost option with no luck. I found a 16 GB brand new USB stick, dedicated that entirely for ReadyBoost in Windows 8.1 and yet facing similar performance (or might be even slower).

Also looking at task manager, it seems plenty of RAM is free for Windows but HDD is active 100% for most of the time and average response time is 810ms (doesn't sound good to me, yet not sure on that). CPU usage seems fair.

I can say it's not memory. I have a new MBP since 1 week, with a SSD under WIN64 8.1 and 16 GB of memory and exactly the same behavior, instead maybe it's not permanently, maybe 100 % during 10 s every 5 or 10 minutes.


My Font book opens every time I log in. Is it a virus? Every time I turn on my MacBook, the font book opens too in my dock. Is this a virus? How to stop this?

It's very unlikely to be a virus, more likely a corrupt configuration file.

If you mean the Font Book app is actually opening, then the first thing to check would be System Preferences > Users & Groups. Select your user account and click the Login Items tab. If Font Book appears in the list, select it and click the "-" button to remove it.

If you mean it's just appearing in your dock, but the app isn't actually opening, you can simply drag it out of the dock and wait until the "Remove" tooltip appears.


Is there a way to look at photos by date taken in iPhoto? In Windows Live Photo Gallery, there's an easy way to view photos by date taken:

How do I accomplish the same thing in iPhoto '11?

Using the search functionality is usually the best way to find unknown options.

First select Photos from the sidebar. Then sort by date.


Why am I not able to run my startup script upon login? I’m using OS X Yosemite.  I’m trying to run an sh script upon login, but I’m having problems.  I created the following file in my /Library/LaunchAgents directory …

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  604 Oct 19 09:24 eXist.plist

The contents of the file are as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>eXist</string>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/Applications/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>UserName</key>
        <string>root</string>
        <key>StandardErorPath</key>
        <String>/tmp/eXistDB.err</string>
        <key>StandardOutputPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/eXistDB.out</string>
    </dict>
</plist>

However, nothing is getting run (at least no output files are getting generated) and I can’t figure out why.  I have verified the path exists.  How can I get my script to run upon login?

Edit:

To prove the path exists, here is the output when tryihng the path in the script versus what was suggested ...

Daves-MacBook-Pro-2:~ davea$ ls /Applications/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh
/Applications/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh
Daves-MacBook-Pro-2:~ davea$ ls /Applications/eXist-db.app/Contents/Resources/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh
ls: /Applications/eXist-db.app/Contents/Resources/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh: No such file or directory

You made some mistakes in your plist:

/Applications/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh probably doesn't exist if you have installed eXist-db 2.2
A valid path is /Applications/eXist-db.app/Contents/Resources/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh

StandardErorPath and StandardOutputPath are no valid keys
Valid keys are StandardErrorPath and StandardOutPath

probably the root <-> launchd problem already addressed by patrix

the plist doesn't have to be executable

To start the app after logging in with your user simply add it to System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Your user -> Login Items

To start eXist-db 2.0 at boot time and jetty after logging in your user you have to do the following:
If you haven't done this already, first enter:
sudo /Applications/eXist-db/tools/wrapper/bin/exist.sh install

to install a LaunchDaemon org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.eXist-db.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons/. If you want to add a StandardErrorPath and StandardOutPath modify the file with sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.eXist-db.plist.
It should look like this finally:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.eXist-db</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/eXist-db/tools/wrapper/bin/exist.sh</string>
        <string>launchdinternal</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.eXist-db.stderr</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.eXist-db.stdout</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Load the daemon permanently with:
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.eXist-db.plist

Now create a second file in ~/Library/LaunchDaemons/ named com.eXist.plist with nano. It should look like this finally:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.eXist</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Applications/eXist-db/bin/startup.sh</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/com.eXist.stderr</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/com.eXist.stdout</string>
</dict>
</plist>

A StandardErrorPath and StandardOutPath was added.
Load the agent permanently with:
launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.eXist.plist

Done.

Don't forget to set your (or the) JAVA_HOME variable properly. If you use a newer eXist-db release (e.g. 2.2) you have to add at least /Contents/Resources/ to the paths of exist.sh and startup.sh in the plist (please check the proper paths by opening the app bundle.

Hint: Don't use TextEdit to modify the plists: otherwise the plist files might be malformed.


Weird free spaces estimation On my MacBook Pro Retina late 2014 running OS X Yosemite, there's something weird going on.

If i look at the storage tab in the "About my Mac" menu, I use only 67 gigabytes of storage but it says 151 gigabytes are used on apps alone.

Maybe this screenshot is a better explanation:

Is someone else experiencing this problem?

This information is calculated based on the Spotlight index. If your index is incorrect, this information can be incorrect too. Try reindexing your disk:

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo elevates the command to root to allow full control on the system. mdutil is the tool for controlling Spotlight. -E is the reindex option and / specifies the path to reindex. For more information on mdutil, see the man page.


Restore Photos library from Time Machine Using my Mac Mini was like wading through treacle so I decided to perform a totally clean install, wipe it and start again. I made a Time Machine backup and let that run for a couple of days to make sure I had everything I needed. Now when I try to use the backup the drive partition that it is on is greyed out. All I need are the photos really, I can see the old Photos library in the backup and even copied it over into the new Photos package but they aren't recognised. Any ideas?

Are you trying to open the photo library directly from the Time Machine volume?  You won't have edit access to anything on that volume.  You should copy the entire library file over to ~/Pictures, hold down Option when launching Photos.app and select the library file in ~/Pictures.


Colors by file type in terminal (running bash) I'm new to Apple (coming from Linux) and have been stymied in every attempt to use my .bash_profile to get my terminal to color files by their extension (a process which was a single line in my .cshrc file!).  I've had some promising leads via google searching, but all end up having a fatal flaw (e.g., requiring dircolors, which in and of itself has led me on several seemingly doomed google searches, or tweaks on "export LSCOLORS" commands which don't seem to get any further than coloring directories, etc).

I'm on OS X 10.9.2.  I've installed coreutils and MacPorts.  Can someone point in me in the right direction?

Edit:  In case it wasn't clear, I'd like to be able to specify that, e.g., .tex files appear red, .txt files appear green, .pdf files appear blue, etc., when viewed in a terminal via ls.

Edit2:  Just to show I've done my research (or some research), here's the superuser question and answer which addresses this for Linux.  The coreutils idea for replicating this on OSX does not seem to actually give me dircolors, or suggest an option for progressing in its place.

https://superuser.com/questions/468966/colouring-output-of-ls-according-to-file-extension/468969#468969

Have a look at http://www.pixelbeat.org/scripts/l which sets up colors among other things in an attempt to give the same output on different platforms


Why would 2 sticks of 2GB RAM not work together, but work individually in my Macbook? I have an older Macbook, specifically this model, and when I am upgrading the standard 1GB that it came with. I bought DDR2 667 PNY Memory - 2 X 2GB. According to those specs, my unit can manage 4GB. I called Apple just to verify and they told me the same thing.

When I put both sticks into the unit, the machine doesn't boot up.

When I take out one, and put in the old 512MB, it boots up fine and when I get into OS X it tells me I have 2.5GB of RAM (which is right).

I have tried both sticks in both slots (all the possible combinations with the two original 512MB sticks). All combinations work (i.e. 2GB A with 512MB A, 2GB A with 512MB B, 2GB B & 512MB A and 2GB B & 512MB B), except with the 2 x 2GB.

Why is that?

I can't remember with certainty, but I think just the 2GB stick alone (with nothing in the other slot) does NOT work.

I am running memtest now on one of the sticks, to see if there is anything wrong with the actual sticks, so will update this once I have those results (could be a few hours though).

Any thoughts on what may be causing this and how I can fix it?

P.S. The PNY sticks are brand new.

This is down to a limitation in some memory controllers and how they handle memory sticks with different memory characteristics (also add into the fact that you have no control over these settings in EFI as you might have in a non-EFI BIOS)

When you put both new sticks in, the memory controller is trying to set up the memory according to the specs advised by the PNY SODIMMs, however it is having problems with that configuration and fails to initialise the memory.

When you put in a stick of the older RAM, it changes the configuration to use the slower RAM's settings and the second stick of RAM is actually running at the slower speeds and timings of the old RAM and these are invariably "slower" and more conservative than those the PNY sticks can run at.

The other posters are correct, the only solution is to get different RAM and try those. I would also advise to use a more reputable brand, the cost differences are minimal and the warranties are better.


After rebuilding LaunchServices com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist remains unchanged. Why? various quirks and derailments of LaunchServices have already been plentifully discussed here and elsewhere… I have recently excluded my external backup drive from Spotlight search and all seems to be well in „Open with…“ (so far).

One question I still have though to which I couldn’t find an answer yet:

I can rebuild LaunchServices (via Terminal scripts) as often as I like, restart Finder, reboot the computer, etc. - the date and the innards of com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist remain unchanged. The folder in which it lives (~ /Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/) updates its date/time stamp every time I rebuild LaunchServices but not the .plist file itself.

What gives?

(iMac late 2013, 16 GB RAM, El Capitan 10.11.6)

That file contains the bindings for some extensions to particular applications. But it is not the LaunchServices Database itself.

Its modification date will change if you change the default app for a given file type.


Buying AppleCare warranty in a different name than the original buyer's A friend has the opportunity to get a recently purchased Apple MacBook from a colleague in exchange for some work.

It was very recently purchased (< 2 weeks). The receipt is in the original owner's name.

The new owner would like to purchase an AppleCare warranty for the machine in their name so there's no trouble in case they would ever need the warranty.

Is this possible?

Is it enough to simply purchase the AppleCare, fill in a form with the new owner's name, and thus connect it to the machine for warranty purposes?

Is it necessary to purchase AppleCare in the first place? Here in the EU, there is a mandatory 2-year warranty anyway. I guess my broader question is how Apple deals with changes of ownership for their products. Would one have to expect any trouble when making use of the warranty if the owner's name has changed?

I called Apple Support with just this question two years ago.  They seemed completely uninterested me showing that the machine had been properly transferred to me; my claim that I had it was good enough.  I bought AppleCare for a Macbook from Amazon.com and registered it with Apple received the final paperwork from them promptly, no further questions asked (this was in the US).

(FWIW, I did get a receipt and acknowledgment of the transfer of ownership to me from the seller in case it should ever become necessary, such as in an insurance claim).


Can I disable the Lion animation when switching to/from fullscreen apps? In Lion there is an animation when switching to and from full screen applications. Full screen apps are great, especially on a 11" screen, but this animation is getting very annoying. Is there a way to turn off these animations?

There is, at least, a way to speed them up with a SIMBL bundle: http://www.yllier.net/SUFSA.html


How to configure Apple Mail on iPhone XR (iOS 12.4) to download emails from mailserver but not delete them on it? I keep my mailfile on my laptop which uses a mail client to download and send email through my mailserver. When I download email it is then deleted from the server. I can also read and send mail using webmail access to the same server, but when I read it using that method it is not then deleted - it is only deleted later when I download it using my mail client. The mailfile is backed up but not synced, and nowhere is the cloud involved.

Obviously I can read and send mail from my iPhone using a web browser such as Safari.

My question is whether I can also configure Apple Mail to download mail from the server such that it is not then deleted on the server. The reason I ask is that I would sometimes like to read emails on my iPhone before I have downloaded them on the laptop. I would then eventually delete them by hand on the iPhone because they would later get downloaded and filed in the usual way on my laptop. But of course they can only get downloaded to the laptop so long as the contact with the server using Apple Mail doesn't cause them to be deleted on the server.

I suspect the answer is "No - if you want to handle your mail that way, then when you read it on your iPhone your should only use webmail access through a web browser". I may be wrong, though.

Sure. Have Apple mail client use IMAP protocol to leave a copy on the server and just don’t delete on iOS.

Next time your machine deletes things off the server, the next IMAP sync will clean up things on the iPhone automagically.


Why do I need to use sudo purge to free up memory and not doing it automatically? I bought a macbook recently with 16GB of ram and with no reason sometimes it is using more than normal memory and I run su purge to free up memory.
Is there any way we can make it do it by it's own?

Do not use purge
Just leave it reuse the memory is free :o)


Tile 2 windows side by side by keyboard shortcuts I am using Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2, often I like to display 2 windows side by side, does anyone know if there is any application which makes it possible to tile windows by simple keyboard shortcuts?

I use Better Touch Tool to do that.

Here's an example configuration that has a keyboard shortcut for resizing to the right half and one for the left half. I also have a shortcut that quickly maximizes a window.


Are non-Apple iPhone chargers safe? I discovered today that there are a lot of non-Apple low-cost iPhone (and iPad) chargers. The cost is very low, so I am concerned about the quality of such chargers.

Are these alternative chargers safe or can they damage the iPhone (or its battery)? It is better to buy Apple components or can we safely buy third-party components?

Most of the third party iPhone ones are mostly safe most of the time. However there isn't a good way to tell which ones aren't. Here is a teardown of an Apple one and a clone.

I say most of the time since some of the safety issues are only problems if there are faults. But in a poorly designed one, faults can cause fire and/or shock. Also poorly designed ones can get hot, which might be a problem in an enclosed space.

I personally would avoid anything that claims to be from Apple but is priced lower than theirs. That demonstrates the seller is willing to lie, so they are questionable to begin with. A reputable seller wouldn't try to pretend they are selling Apple chargers.


What does this statement about saving battery power on iOS mean? While reading the iOS 14 guide by Apple here, on page 78, In the Quit and reopen an app section

What does the highlighted statement mean?

Is it that on iOS, the apps don’t close(terminate processes is what I mean here) at all and are still active and the app switcher is just for the ease of multitasking.
Is it that the services(eg. in the mail app, the service to fetch mails and send notifications) are still on, but the app is terminated.

It is actually neither of the two. It is a third variant, namely that ordinary apps cannot run in the background. So when you're looking at some app, other apps in the background aren't consuming CPU time (which translates into battery power) - so quitting the app won't make it consume less.
In regarding to receiving notifications, which you mentioned, they will be received no matter if the app is quit or not. In some cases more battery power will actually be used here if you quit the app instead of leaving it be.
In general you should not be quitting apps unless you're experiencing some kind of bug or problem with the app where it doesn't work.


Switch vibrations for all notifications except phone calls in silent mode I would like to receive any type of notifications (e.g.: WhatsApp message notifications) without  vibration. I switched the vibration off under Settings → Sounds → Vibrate on silent, but now the phone calls do not vibrate anymore, and I therefore miss them while carrying in the jeans pocket for example.

Is there any way I can keep the vibration off while receiving notifications and keep it on while receiving calls with my device being in the silent mode?

iOS 9.2

Unfortunately, unless you jailbreak you iPhone, there's no way to do that. Turning off vibrations for notifications does that for all notifications, including Phone call vibrations.


How to keep mail messages on servers for Apple mail? My "late 2013" Mac Pro has a small internal SSD. Since Yahoo Mail and Google Mail have large storage on their servers, I don't see reasons for me to store mail messages on my local SSD. Can Apple Mail client be configured in a way that it only stores, say, 1 month of mail messages locally? Then it can fetch older mail messages on demand. Can I configure Apple Mail to do that?

You can begin with Setting the Download Attachments to None in you Mac Mail.

That is the biggest part of mails anyway, the rest is just text.

If you are up to the task you can then export all attachments out of your Local storage.

They are located in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads/

You can also Export all of the mail box, to for example iCloud.
It just makes a copy of it, so you can now delete mails on your Mac, and get them again later.

To do so right click on the mailbox and use Export.

Did you know that for $1/Month you can upgrade your iCloud to 50GB.

Now if you want to automate that, like keep emails for a month then Export, you will need a Automator process for that.


Local Items keychain and server-based accounts? We've been trying to figure out this issue for a long time, but haven't had any luck.  I have two examples of related issues.

Our environment consists of an Apple server that has many user accounts on it (50+).  We have 20+ iMacs updated to Sierra 10.12.4 that users can log in to with these network accounts.  The issue we're having is that certain passwords are being saved to these accounts' "Local Items" keychain.

For example, if I type in a mail password for user Bill at Desk 7, it will save to the Local Items keychain.  Any time Bill sits at Desk 7, his mail will work without having to type in a password again.  But if Bill moves to Desk 8, we have to type in his password again.  With 50+ users at 20+ gets, that's 1000+ times we have to type in a password for someone.  Originally, this wasn't a problem...I believe prior to Yosemite, Mail saved and checked those passwords in the Login keychain, which travels with the user no matter what desk they log in at.  The Local Item keychain does not travel with the user; it is local based on what desk they sit at.

With Sierra, another app is saving to the Local Items keychain.  Our users have SSH-keys created for their some ssh logins.  Originally, these saved to the Login keychain, and now they save to Local Items.  Same problem.  We have to re-type in the passphrase tied to the SHH-key at every individual desk in order for their ssh accounts to log in automatically.

So I ask you, is there a better way to do this?  It would save us a lot of micro-management if there was.

(New user, so if there is a better place to ask this, please let me know.)

We were encountering the same issue. Although we did not have any SSH payloads for the users, we do have Apple Mail setup for them.

After having a panic attack over the confusion wrought by this keychain change, I decided to use Profile Manager on the OD Server (ours is OSX) to configure the Apple Mail payloads (for individual users/ user-groups).

I believe it's possible to configure SSH Payloads in this manner as well. Apple seems to be relegating more and more functionality into PM akin to Group Policy on Windows.


Parsing or decoding .pluginPayloadAttachment files? Messages.app now stores links in the sqlite attachment database as files with ".pluginPayloadAttachment" extension.

I have no idea how to parse these.  Running them through xxd reveals some indecipherable binary/hex, except for an ASCII string at the top, "ICC_PROFILE", which I assume refers to color profiling, since "RGB" appears shortly after.

The pluginPayloadAttachment extension doesn't actually convey the type of the file, unfortunately. Depending on the file, you may be able to glean the type from the byte data it begins with. Some common types you might run into are listed here:

Byte Array
Type

89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A
PNG Image

FF D8 FF
JPEG Image

47 49 46 38
GIF Image

49 49 2A 00 or 4D 4D 00 2A
TIFF Image


Mac OS Software for Creating Video Presentations I have a MacBook Pro, and I'm looking for some software which can enable me to create video presentations. This would be similar to a set of slides containing text, images and videos (e.g. made in PowerPoint), but where the video plays the entire presentation (including transitioning between slides, and playing each embedded video within the slides). I have tried a few different software solutions, but each of them has its own flaws:

Microsoft PowerPoint. This is very nice to use and has lots of features, but with the following key flaw: if you are using PowerPoint on Mac OS, and you export the presentation as a video, then any embedded videos will not play and they will just be rendered as images. The videos will only play if you export using Windows. This seems to be a well-known problem that Microsoft are not willing to address.
Apple Keynote. This solves the above problem by enabling you to export as a video, and the embedded videos will play automatically. However, you have less control than with PowerPoint, particularly when it comes to the videos. For example, you cannot loop a video X times; you can either play it once, or play it forever. Other examples are that you cannot crop videos, and you cannot have complex triggers for the timing of when videos start.
Apple iMovie. This allows you to have detailed control over the length of individual videos, but it's very limited for making presentations. Most notably for me, you cannot have more than two embedded videos playing at once. And there is significantly less control over text and embedded images than with PowerPoint or Keynote.
Google Slides. This is fine for very basic presentations, but it is significantly limited when it comes to embedding videos. Furthermore, I don't think there is even an option to export a presentation as a video.

There are also "professional" level video editing solutions, such as Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro. However, these are firstly very expensive, and secondly far too complex for what I need. All I really need to be able to do is create a simple presentation with embedded videos, and then export this as a single video. I don't need to do complex video editing of the individual videos.

Effectively, I am looking for functionality at the level of PowerPoint, but with the ability to export to a video whilst working in Mac OS.

Any suggestions?

One product that I’ve used with good results is OpenShot Video Editor. It’s open source and cross platform (Mac, Windows, Linux) and best of all free.

I don’t know about incorporating actual Power Point presentations because the software includes its own mechanisms for transitions, but I was able to include images created (exported) from Power Point into the video.


Has file copy dialog disappeared in OS X Yosemite? I recently upgraded to OS X Yosemite, and I noticed that the file copy dialog in Finder seems to have disappeared. Instead, I am shown greyed out entries of the files being copied in the destination directory, with the successfully copied files turning to black.

How do I cancel a file copy, especially if the copy operation consists of multiple large files and I want to cancel the copy midway? The file copy dialog seems to have disappeared.

It turns out that Box Sync was indeed causing problems. I uninstalled Box Sync and the progress dialog in Finder reappeared.


How do I get Xcode 4 to NOT clear the log between runs? In Xcode 3, the console only cleared when you specifically asked it to. This was nice to quickly compare log output between runs.

In Xcode 4, the log clears between every run, and I'm looking for the setting (if Apple deemed it worthy of existence) that will switch this 'feature' off.

I feel the same way you do about this. That's why I've filed a radar at bugreport.apple.com. Please reference "Problem id: 9153445" when you filed your radar as the this will increases the incident count and making it likelier Apple Xcode team will prioritize a fix.

Since bugreport.apple.com doesn't allow you to search and view another's radar, I've copied the radar I filed at Apple at http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=1144401.

Thanks for reminding me that this regression needs people to start filing radars.


Can I hide purchased music from the Music app in iOS 10? At some point or another, I bought some albums on iTunes. In some cases, I've also ripped these CDs and imported them into iTunes. In older versions of iOS, I could hide purchased music from the Music app, but now that purchased music shows up, leading to duplicates like this:

Is there a way to hide purchased music in iOS 10?

This Apple Support page describes how to hide/unhide purchased music.

  Hide your purchases

  You can hide music, movies, TV shows and apps in iTunes on your Mac or PC. You can hide books in iBooks on a Mac or iTunes for Windows on a PC.

  To hide purchases on an Apple TV, use the iTunes steps.

  You can hide apps in the App Store on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch if you use Family Sharing.

  In iTunes

  Open iTunes.
  If you’re not signed in, sign in with your Apple ID.
  From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen or at the top of the iTunes window, choose Account > Purchased. If you use Family Sharing, choose Account > Family Purchases.

  If you’re using Windows and can’t see the menu bar, learn how to turn it on.
  Depending on what you want to hide, click Music, Movies, TV Shows, Apps, or Audiobooks at the top of the window, then click All. All of your purchased items appear.
  Scroll to find the item that you want to hide. Hold your pointer over the item and look for the x icon  in the upper-left corner. Click the   icon.

  When prompted to confirm that you want to hide the item, click Hide. The item hides.


Safe to use USB-C Charger (adapter) for Macbook Air 2013? Ok I have a company MacBook Pro that has a USB-C charger and a personal MacBook Air 2013. I have an adapter that I use to connect all things on Pro:

My Air charger stop to respond. Can I use the USB-C charger with this adapter to charge the Air?

No, it's not possible to do that. The adapter you have pictured is the Nonda USB-C to USB-A adapter. It is commonly used for connecting older USB-A hardware (such as USB pen drives) to newer USB-C computers.

One of the big differences between USB-A and USB-C is that USB-A does not allow for transferring enough power to charge a laptop (i.e. it is limited to only few watts compared to USB-C). In addition USB-A is used to charge devices from the computer - not the other way around.

I have seen multiple adapters for using old MagSafe chargers with new USB-C computers. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any for charging old MagSafe 2 computers with a USB-C charger.


Where is MySQL installed for the included Apache server? I'm trying to set up Web Sharing... phpinfo() shows MySQL is installed, but I can't find it. Terminal says "command not found" when I try mysql.

I have no idea what I'm doing, or even if this question makes sense.

MySQL is not installed by default, even though the included PHP is compiled with MySQL support. Check out this guide for MySQL installation.


WiFi or Bluetooth (or USB) for iPad Tethering How do the three tethering options for the iPad compare in the following areas:

Range
Security
Speed
Power usage (both laptop and iPad)

I'm mainly looking for the difference between WiFi and Bluetooth, as USB is pretty obvious except for the speed category.

Range

Wifi is the best
Bluetooth shorter
USB length of cable (there are 10' USB cables for iPad)

Security

USB is the best assuming you have decent physical security
Wifi is pretty good if you use WPA2
Bluetooth is the lowest probably

Speed (usually all better than your 3G speeds so a moot point for 3G)

USB is the fastest @ 480 Mbps for USB 2.0
802.11n tops out @ 150 Mbps
Bluetooth is by far the slowest @ ~3 Mbps

Power Usage

USB is the most power efficient, however the iPad will try to charge off your laptop
Wifi and Bluetooth are less power efficient than USB but I don't know how they compare

Bottom Line: USB is the best if range isn't an issue, If distance is needed use Wifi with WPA2


Is pinch and zoom functionality not available in iPhone 5 iOS v 6.0.1? I been using iPhone for almost 2 weeks and i am unable to pinch and zoom in the video camera whereas I am able to use pinch and zoom in camera. Is this multitouch functionality disabled on iPhone 5 running version 6.0.1(10A525) of iOS?

Yes - that feature is not available on any of the devices I tested running iOS 6.0.1. In fact, I've never known pinch and zoom to work on any iOS device while the camera is in video mode.

The video camera appears to be fixed zoom on the following:

iPhone 5
iPhone 4
iPad Mini
iPad (3rd generation)

Have you found somewhere that this should work? (Or some OS where you can zoom) I have always corrected the crop and zoom of video on post production using iMovie so perhaps I've missed this as a feature in the past.


Move using keyboard instead of drag and drop I wonder how I can move items/folders using keyboard instead of drag and drop. Like sometimes I'm opening a folder and there is an item in it which I want to move it to another location but I don't want to open another finder window and drag and drop.
I'm using macOS Sierra

You can Cut, Copy or Paste using the keyboard - though as Finder has no actual Cut command, you move files in a slightly different way from how you would do it on Windows.

Copy is  Cmd ⌘   C
Paste is  Cmd ⌘   V
very similar to Windows, however, cutting a file leaves the potential for losing it, if for instance you forgot, or had a power cut, or copied something else before you remembered to paste, etc.

So Finder doesn't let you do that.
Instead it leaves the file exactly where it was until you make the actual call to move it.
You do that with Copy, as above, then  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   V .
Think of it as 'Option Paste'.

That will securely move the file to its new location. That can be on the same volume, or a different one. It will execute the move differently for each of those scenarios, but the end result is the same, your file is now safely in its new location.

Amongst the methods for picking where it will go...

Open two Finder windows, so you can see source & destination simultaneously.
Use column view, which you can navigate using just the arrow keys.
Use Tab view, so you can have two or more locations ready in a single window.


screensaver that takes a screenshot I'd like to make my screensaver look just like an unlocked desktop.

The idea would be to take a screenshot just before activating the screensaver, and use that screenshot in the screensaver.

Has anyone done this before?

You can use ScriptSaver.

Set the AppleScript to a script containing the following:

do shell script "/usr/sbin/screencapture /path/to/folder/screensaver.png"

/path/to/folder must exist and be empty, or at least contain no other images
Set the screen saver to display after the AppleScript to Classic.
In System Preferences, set the folder for the Classic screensaver to the /path/to/folder.


App to sync local folder with Amazon S3 service storage? I have an account with Amazon S3 service storage. I also have the Transmit app which allow me to sync any local folder with Amazon S3. It works fine but I want this to be done in a scheduled way (let's say every day at 10PM). As far a I see Transmit can not do this.

I try with Automator + Calendar. I works, but in this way you don't get any notification if the sync fails.

Looking for something similar to Chronosync app.

I believe this is what Jungle Disk does.

https://www.jungledisk.com/personal/


Trouble setting up separate iTunes libraries for iPhone and iPod I've searched on here and elsewhere on the tubes on how to use separate iTunes libraries but it does not seem to be working.

My iPhone 5 has all my podcasts, about 4 albums worth of music, books, and some iTunes U stuff. It's library is on dropbox and the path is /Users/Admin/Dropbox/iTunes

My iPod classic has 50GB of music. I want it to have it's own library. Currently the library is located on my Desktop.

I Option+click to open iTunes and choose the iPod library but Preferences still points to the iPhone library on Dropbox. Also, even with "Prevent iPhones ... from syncing automatically" checked my iPhone is located via wifi and appears in the iTunes device section next to my iPod. I can't find any option to disable this. (ETA: Found the button to disable wifi sync. I swear it was missing all afternoon.) Maybe put my iPhone into airplane mode, then connect iPod? But that's kind of an annoying solution to have to do every time.

I'd appreciate any assistance in getting each device to reliably sync with it's own library/directory.

The library and iTunes media folder are two separate entities.
The media folder will hold everything contained within the library.
The library file will hold items such as playlists and preferences.
You could create the two libraries then go to preferences and edit the iTunes media folder locations.
You will need two separate folders with the specified media in each.


Calendar open file while sleep I have a calendar event set to open an application at an early time. However during this time, my Mac is at sleep. Will the calendar wake the Mac to open the application? If not, how can I make it so that it will do that?

OS X's Calendar.app will not wake a sleeping Mac to open your file.

There are three ways to have your Mac wake up at the appropriate time:

You can use OS X's built-in Energy Saver settings to schedule your Mac to wake
up.

You can use pmset on the command line to schedule more events.
You can use a third party tool like Power Manager to schedule more sophisticated sequences of wake and power-on events.

Disclosure: I am an engineer who works on Power Manager; so feel free to ask technical questions.


Bizarre Wi-Fi connectivity issues The problem started a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that when I had Google Drive actively syncing the Finder would frequently "refresh"; if I paused the syncing, this stopped. Moreover, if I left it syncing/refreshing for too long, the Wi-Fi would stop working, or the computer wouldn't wake from sleep. I was running Lion for I thought these issues might go away if I just upgraded to Sierra.

I uninstalled Google Drive; made Safari, not Chrome my default browser; and proceeded to make a Time Machine backup before the upgrade. While the Finder "refresh" issue has stopped, the connectivity issues have only gotten worse.

Basically, any time my Desktop tries to send/receive a large amount of data, it quickly slows the Wi-Fi to a trickle, and eventually makes it stop altogether. This includes:

Transferring files via "File Sharing" from my Desktop to my Laptop.
Downloading the Sierra update from the App Store.
Trying to re-sync my 900GB of Google Drive files.

Let me explain the symptoms. At first the Wi-Fi is working fine, and I can see all the signals around me:

Then after a while the transfer will become incredibly slow, and suddenly the list of networks around me becomes almost empty:

What is most strange is that some webpages will continue to load, and Dropbox will still sync. If I use terminal to ping (say google.com) it is around this time that I start to lose data packets, usually around a 2% loss rate. When this has happened for an extended period of time, or if I turn the Wi-Fi connection off and then on again, the list of signals becomes completely empty:

Nothing I do will reestablish the connection. Nothing will load, and I cannot access the internet until I have rebooted the entire computer:

I managed to hobble along and get everything backed up, and even got Sierra installed. However the issue has still been plaguing my Google Drive. I even re-installed it, and made sure Chrome was updated. I'm not sure if this is an OS X or Chrome/Google issue, as it seems to have a lot of symptoms in common with other peoples' issues for both situations.

I really need to access my Google Drive. Please, any help you can offer is very appreciated.

Not much of an "answer", but I eventually tried connecting the machine directly to the modem via an ethernet cable, and turned the wireless off altogether.

This solved my connectivity issues immediately. Since I tried troubleshooting everything I could find online, I am left assuming it must have been a failing wireless card. Unfortunately the Hardware Test diagnostics do not run on my computer (this machine has lots of problems...) so I can't tell for sure without simply getting a new card installed.

If anyone else is ever experiencing the same symptoms I was, maybe this is also your problem.


Autocomplete for MacOS What applications can add a general autocomplete feature to all text fields in MacOS?

There're text expanders, like the built-in one and TextExpander, but they don't suggest things while typing and do not learn from the previous input.

iOS has both of these features, but I didn't find similar apps for MacOS.

This has been possible for some time on the Mac OS (since 10.6), just hidden. In almost any text field or app you are typing text into you can hit F5 or Option-Esc to bring up the equivalent of the iOS autocomplete list. This is different than the auto spellchecking system built into the Mac.

This is similar to the answer given by @Greenonline, but works in almost any app that was developed using Apple compliant text fields. Just as an FYI, the Firefox web browser is an example of an app that DOES NOT comply with this, as well as many web based Javascript text editors that watch for special key inputs (like the ones found on this web site).

If the auto spellchecking is NOT turned on for your system for some reason you can enable it by going to:  menu -> System Preferences.. -> Keyboard -> Text tab and checking Correct Spelling Automatically to on.

If you are looking for an alternative to the built in functionality, then you could look at BBAutoComplete as an alternative.

It was created years ago as a free plugin for BBEdit (no longer needed since version 9 on has autocomplete built in). But the plugin can be used with any scriptable application including Word and TextWrangler.

If you are looking for a writing app specifically then I would look at Scrivener.

The cool thing about Scrivener's autocomplete is that it lets you set up separate autocomplete list for each project. This comes from the fact that it was designed for writers working on projects that might need to have specially created autocompletes for fictional characters or locations that aren't in a standard autocomplete system.

I hope this helps!


Recording multiple midi inputs to separate tracks on garageband Is there a way to record multiple midi inputs to separate tracks simultaneously using garageband?

I'm holding an interview tomorrow and want a microphone for the subject and myself. I need to separately edit the tracks.

Update: Found that the 'Show Record Enable' function had been disabled.

To enable it, right click on a track, Track Header Components > Show Record Enable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UrRzbLvsqc#t=36

You can then click the record button for each track you want to record simultaneously.


How do I install hp officejet printer 4610/4620 onto my apple 4th generation IPad? I have an HP Officejet 4610/4620 attached to an OSX machine, and I would like to print to it from my 4th generation iPad Apple - how can I achieve this?

This should be as simple as downloading and installing Handyprint (previously known as AirPrint Activator) which will share out an OSX printer on your wireless network as if it was an Airprint one.  Check it out here.


How to retrieve data from iphone 4s when connector/charger is broken My iphone 4s charger/connector broke.  My phone ran out of battery, is unchargeable and unbootable.  It also will not connect to any computer or other device.  I took it to the Genius bar and they said there was nothing they could do to restore the phone or retrieve the data.

The problem is that I have important photos on the phone which I need access to.  How can I get access to it?  Are there services for that?  Is there a way to read the hard drive similar to a hard drive enclosure?

You can take it to any of the various iPhone repair kiosks that appear throughout most malls.

I took an old iPhone there and had the charger replaced for $45.


How do I tap multiple images to share them all at once with iCloud Photo Sharing? I can't reproduce Apple's first tip on their iPhone tips and tricks page. When they say tap multiple images I assumed them mean tap the 'Select' button in the upper right then select photos one by one but their screenshot shows photos selected while not in selection mode. The only way this screenshot makes sense to me is if they photoshopped the nav bar with the rest of the screen while in selection mode. Am I missing something?

Indeed, the screenshot does appear to have been edited.

The correct way to select multiple photos is to press the Select button, then tap the pictures.

As far as I know, it is impossible to select images without pressing the Select button, and pressing the button changes it to a Cancel button, and the navigation bar title changes to Select Items (or the number of items selected), as well as removing the back navigation button.

On the left: Apple's screenshot; On the right: how it should appear when selecting multiple pictures.


Safari: save webpage with CSS / images folders I'm trying to save a webpage to my computer, and I'm not having any luck doing it with Chrome... so instead I'm trying Safari.
I would like it so that it saves all the CSS and images in their respective folders, aswell as a separate .html file.
I only seem to have the following options:

Save a 'webarchive' file that has all html / css / images combined into one
Save just a .html page with all the html / css linking to those on the live site

Is it possible for me to do this using Safari?

The free tool WebArchive Extractor by Rob Rohan can extract the individual files from a .webarchive. Hope this helps!


How to completely remove Folx on Mac OS X? I installed Folx download manager on my MacBook Pro. I didn't like it, so I removed it from the Applications folder. I also searched for its dependent files in /Library/Preferences, but I found nothing related to Folx.

Now, when I try to download files, it tries to download using Folx—but Folx doesn't work. How can I fix this problem?

For prior version than Folx 4

Go Download the Folx.dmg from their website, and open it. In the dmg image, there will be a package file called uninstaller. Run that.

It is only for prior versions than Folx 4, as said by Eltima Software. For Folx 4 or newer, it is mentionned on their website that it is enough to remove Folx.app to permanently remove it.


Is there a way to see the time that a photo was taken on the iPhone? Sometimes I took a photo using my iPhone, and then later on, I wonder how long I have been there at that location, I thought of checking when the last photo was taken, and can tell the time when I arrived, but I found it wasn't easily possible to see what time the photo was taken.

Is there really a way to see the time that photo was taken, be it 1 hour and 20 minutes ago, without using any third party app and without importing the photo to a computer?  I thought this might be a simple photo info thing that might be invoked by some easy way?

You are not missing anything, the iPhone has no mechanism to see that information natively. However, if you search for EXIF on the App Store, there are a few (some free) apps that will happily do that in the device itself.

You must note that, due to the way iTunes work, pictures coming from iTunes will not have their metadata associated. Sad but true.


Cannot remove startup items I cannot remove the WD items from the startup list. The delete button is not active (greyed out).

I looked for entries in:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/
/Library/LaunchAgents/
~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/StartupItems

But without luck, no WD items found. Any ideas where I have to look?

(All Users)-login items are stored in the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist. Normal user login items are saved to ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist.

Some WD apps add login or startup items to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist and /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist.

The WD installer apps (e.g. WD Access for Mac) usually provide an uninstall feature which removes the respective app as well as login items or other installed files. The plist files itself won't get deleted though even if it was created by the WD installer.

If the uninstaller doesn't remove unwanted items you can do it yourself by either editing the global plist file or removing the complete plist.

A default file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist or ../loginwindow.plist doesn't exist (in Sierra) but may have been created and modified by other installers. You can get the content by executing sudo defaults read /path/to/plist in the Terminal.app window.


Quadruple contacts on my iPhone 4S I sync'd the contact of my old iPhone 3G with my yahoo mail contacts. That worked ok for while, then at some point all the the Yahoo contacts were duplicated (every contact appeared twice in my contacts list) on the iPhone. This was annoying, but I could not find a quick fix, so I lived with it.

Yesterday I bought a 4S and set up my various accounts and set up iCloud. Now the phone has 4 copies of my yahoo contacts. I don't know that point during the setup the contacts got duped(again).

Now I want to clean it all up. How?

Edit in response to comment. There are two copies of each contact in the yahoo account.and two copies in the iCloud account. And 4 copies in "all contacts".

You can sign up to google voice and sync with google voice and them go on desk top link onto your gv account and press get rid of duplicates


PackageMaker alternative? I am looking for something to create .pkg files to use with System Image Utility. The old school PackageMaker that was included in Xcode Aux tools make be causing errors in Yosemite so I am wanting to test this with another tool.

Goal:

Create a .pkg that will contain Firefox, Chrome, other software to installing during the imaging process

There's two alternatives I'm aware of for PackageMaker that would work in this situation:

A third-party tool named Packages
Apple's pkgbuild and productbuild tools working together.

If you're planning to add packages to a NetInstall set, you should be aware that Apple made an undocumented change in Yosemite. If you add any additional packages for installation as part of a Yosemite OS install/upgrade (like you would with NetInstall), they must all be distribution-style flat packages.

Bundle-style packages (like those created by PackageMaker) will not work when added to a Yosemite OS install/upgrade and component-style flat packages also will not work.

For more information, see Further note on additional packages and Yosemite.


Recover GoodReader data after iOS 7 upgrade? Today I upgraded to iOS 7. I did a backup to my computer (Windows 7) using iTunes first. Later when I restored the backup to the phone, I found all apps were gone. I then went and downloaded GoodReader (once again). I expected the GoodReader app's data to be back after the reinstallation but it didn't.

I also updated iTunes after the upgrade to iOS 7. I tried an app called Dr. Fone but that only gives me photos, contacts, etc. How can I get back my GoodReader data?

This is not exactly answering to my own questions. But for those who knows programming, there is a way to get away with it. For me, I wanted to restore all photos I put in my GoodReader.

I get into the backup directory. Used the bash command:

ls * | xargs file {} | grep image\ data > /Desktop/backup.txt

to list all files and it was printed like this (the first few rows):

2:0006c6f73a741907373e2eabcb3763bebf17bdc8: PNG image data, 25 x 15, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced
3:000bb4a992491782ef65642e1298244242883c66: JPEG image data, EXIF standard 2.21
4:001c384e486a787bb376cee192ee763858e00274: JPEG image data, EXIF standard 2.21

Then I am using Python to rename those files back to Jpeg or PNG files. There are not the same names as they were originally but this has been good enough. There is a Manifest.mbdb file in the same backup directory. I didn't have much time digging into it but this file looks like to contain information which one can use to restore all information.


What is the recommended headphone hardware spec to pair with Apple Watch Series 2? Does Apple Watch Series 2 support all bluetooth headphones, or do I need to check for specific bluetooth requirements before buying?

Most of the sites suggest Beats Jaybird. Will the watch not work with common bluetooth headphones?

According to a support article from Apple the Apple Watch Series 2 has a Bluetooth 4.0 chip. So common bluetooth headphones should also work with the Watch.


How long does it take to enroll in the Developer Program (Organisation) How long does enrollment take as an organisation? I have been waiting for over a month and the only feedback from Apple has been:

"Hello,
We are requesting an update of your D&B Report. The current turnaround time will vary based on the country. We will be sending you an e-mail once it is complete. Your request ID is: XXXXXX
Thank you,
D&B Customer Support"

The registering organisation is in South Africa.

Apple makes an API call to D&B to look up DUNS numbers, so it's basically instantaneous. It's pretty clear from the wording of the response that Apple isn't the hang up here.

When DUNS is already set - registration takes me a day or so typically to enter everything in Apple - see that the API call matches - clear up any issues with zip code or business name between how I entered the company name in D&B and how it's entered in Apple (a space before a comma can break the API lookup - it's very precise in my experience and fails if you don't have every character exactly matching in the two systems).

Assuming you haven't made a clerical error that's causing the DUNS lookup to fail, You'll want your business manager or corporate legal department to contact D&B and expedite the listing. D&B does accept money to expedite their listing process so you could always pay your way to an official "credential" from them if it's taking too long to go down the "I'm a small business and want you to verify my credentials for free when you get to it" path.

If you are a solo developer, you might find it easier to just make a personal account and sell your apps without needing D&B if you won't use that listing for other reasons. This really is a business decision about how your LLC or incorporation is set up and not really an Apple question other than this is one of several hoops they require businesses to jump through before they enter a legally binding agreement with your business.

I would add, that joining as an enterprise takes far longer, weeks to a month if you have your legal council ready, records match and add month or two if there are hiccups like someone already signed up your company or an account is frozen or locked.


Mavericks Dock icons have become corrupted. Is there a cache to flush or a database to rebuild? I'm running OS X Mavericks 10.9.1. Some of my Dock icons for running applications, including the Finder icon, now appear blank and empty, or as a square filled with random noise pixels.

I have tried "Verify Disk" in Recovery mode, and it detects no errors. I have Repaired Permissions and rebooted.

Is there some cache to flush or database to rebuild that could fix this seemingly harmless but annoying anomaly?

In case you don't want to use some "cache cleaner app" then just try doing it manually from the terminal with these three commands followed by a reboot:

sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.dock.iconcache -exec rm {} \;

sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.iconservices -exec rm -rf {} \;

sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store

or

Alternatively a single boot into Safe Mode once could/should clear out some caches.

Worked For Me™ in Sierra (10.12)


Problem downgrading from high sierra to original (shipped) OS I recently got a broken MacBook Pro mid 2010 model from an acquaintance. The hard drive was broken so I switched it out for an SSD. I installed high sierra using an installer usb created by a friend of mine. High sierra is quite heavy for this older laptop so I want to downgrade to an older version of osx. I tried using shift + alt/opt + cmd + r, which is supposed to give the user access to the installer of an osx version as close as possible to the original shipped os. I only get the option to install high sierra. Is there anything I'm not doing correctly?

Go to Apple Store and Download OS X

Click on Purchased to see what is available to you

create bootable disk with that OSX

Plug the new bootable installer into your Mac.

Restart your Mac, holding the Alt key and, when you see the option, choose the bootable install disk.

Launch Disk Utility, click on the disk with High Sierra on it (the disk, not just the volume) and click the Erase tab.

Choose Mac OS Extended from the Format menu, then give the disk a name. `Click Erase`.

When the disk has been erased, restart by holding down Command-R and wait for the macOS Utilities window to appear.

Choose Reinstall macOS and select the disk you just erased – your Mac’s regular startup disk. Follow the onscreen instructions and wait for your Mac to restart.

When it restarts, ignore the option to migrate data from a backup.

Optionally --Re-install the backup tool you used to backup your Mac before you upgraded to High Sierra and then use that to restore data from that backup.


Google Chrome 68+ doesn't work behind corporate proxy on macOS This started happening after my company pushed Chrome 68 update (we were using Chrome 65 until then) almost a year back. If I start Chrome up, it runs all well for a while (ranging from 5 minutes to a few hours). Then Chrome stops responding. It won't load any pages. Funny thing is, after that  if I try to access Safari, even that stops responding until I restart the system. If I switch back to the Chrome 65, everything starts to work fine.

This is happening with all Chrome versions that have been released ater Chrome 65. I have seen this issue on both High Sierra and Mojave.

My company uses a PAC file for automatic proxy configuration.

Google Chrome has stopped supporting PAC files for proxy configuration. The decision is definitive, as explained in this issue comment:

  [...] marking this as WontFix to indicate that the deprecation will stick -- we will not be supporting file:// URLs when the Network Service is enabled, and will be deprecating support completely in the future.

  The current usage is primarily from file:// URL in system proxy settings, which is an incorrect interpretation of the settings on macOS and Windows.

  Instead of file:// URL in system proxy settings, one can set a PAC script from local sources using Chrome's internal proxy settings. The emphasis moving forward will be on exposing a common set of capabilities through Chrome's settings rather than inconsistent capabilities from system proxy settings.

  The biggest limitation is that there is currently no UI for managing Chrome's proxy settings (noted in Issue 937413). So one must install a Chrome extension to modify these settings if not using the system proxy settings.


Hiding Apple ID from Whatsapp For privacy purposes I use different email accounts for different tiers of services and correspondence, including social media. My Apple ID address is NEVER used or given out and I use alias’es for my iCloud email correspondence.
I know that Facebook links profiles among their different services, in many cases through the phone number, so they basically know that it is the same person in Facebook/Instagram than the one on Whatsapp.
My question is:
Does Whatsapp have access to my Apple ID address? Or is the address not shared on iOS, although Whatsapp may use the account to do the iCloud Backups? I’m askimg because by no means I want to be a linkage between my social media email accounts (or any other address) to my Apple ID address.
Also, when an app tries to use Apple ID to create an account on iOS, you always have the option to “Hide email address” from the app. Hopefully thats the case for Whatsapp (but what about the iCloud backups?)
Thank you

Short answer; no. If you want to know what the app does share its linked under the privacy portion of the app's page:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/whatsapp-messenger/id310633997
From what I can see there, your Apple ID isn't even shared with the app's devs.


How to Record Both Mic Audio and Speakers while using headset I'm trying to record my screen with sound at the same time, but right now, my jack stopped working (it's with the red light) and I have to use a headset so that I can have sound on my Mac.

So my question is: Can I record my screen, my audio input (me babbling) and the supposed audio output that should come from speakers (that now its coming out from my headset).

Is there a way, Or is it just impossible?

I've seen many questions like this. The simple solution is Soundflower. You can download it for free at http://cycling74.com/products/soundflower/. As to where you're recording, you would need to select the Soundflower (2ch) or Soundflower (16ch) as your input.

Input 1 = your microphone's audio/your babbling
Input 2 = your speakers' output


How to fix Outlook for Mac search Microsoft Outlook for Mac (version 16.21) is frequently unable to find email messages using the search feature, even in the case of emails that were sent relatively recently. I presume that the search index is broken.

Solutions are available for PC, and I have even installed a Mac-specific tool called "OutlookSearchRepair.app", but this doesn't ameliorate the problem.

Are any other solutions available?

Edit: There is little else to say (to increase the detail of this question), save that the emails that aren't found are seemingly at random, and are not found on subsequent searches either. I have not limited my search results in any way.

Outlook and macOS's Spotlight (the indexing app) have notorious problems working together. With previous version I had success with the Repair tool that you mention. With Mojave & Outlook 2019, however, I had to try many other methods. This website seems to have the most comprehensive guides for troubleshooting this.

In my case, I finally found that "alternative method 6" from that guide worked. That means:

Backup!
Quit Outlook
Go to the folder ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data (in Finder you can press cmd+shift+G to get there)
Move the Outlook.sqllite file e.g. to the Desktop (to keep it around until the restore is successful)
Launch Outlook.
Outlook will prompt you to repair your database. Click "Repair". Outlook is now forced to restore its database and rebuild the index, etc. In my case this took about 2–3 hours on a speedy MacBook Pro.
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/ will contain backups of your previous database. To free some disk space you may want to archive or delete this.


Force Outlook for Mac to sync I am trying to sync a 60GB mailbox on Outlook for Mac v15 over a VPN connection. Sometimes the VPN drops out and the sync is interrupted. When I come back to it and check the Sync Status window, it shows nothing, ie sync is complete and the main windows status bar says all folders are up to date.

When I look at the Identity/Profile folder where the data is stored, the size does not reflect at all what the Exchange server is reporting.

If I come back later and try again, it might start syncing folders again and the status windows shows for example 1/2000 in a given folder are syncing.

How can I get force Outlook for Mac to get on with the sync and complete it instead of these dribs and drabs?

Every sync is a full one, so there’s no “force” option. Two things I might try are resetting the local cache (which will purge all the downloads that happened so far) and verifying you don’t have download headers checked.

Your main mailboxes sync by default and your shared mailboxes do not sync, so opt in to sync those if you have any and need them local as well.

The built in help and support would be my next suggestion if clearing the cache and toggling the Download / Sync and then saving prefs and then toggling again with a sync / check.

If you don’t have sync errors and see sync progress (Command 7 and Command 8 menu items), then the issue isn’t on your end, it’s on the server end and you’ll need your exchange admin / help system to engage there.


I can't upload certain images to Photos If I take a screenshot on my desktop or save an image from Preview I cannot upload these images to my Photos. If I drag them into the Photos app on Mac they will not sync to my devices. I also tried uploaded them using the iCloud website but the website won't accept these images. They stay grayed out when I choose to upload images. Does anyone know how to resolve this issue?

I had a issue like this and I do not know exactly how this fixed it but I went to the Apple in the left corner clicked it, then About this Mac. Then clicked the tab Storage. Then clicked Recommendations and did what it said there.Then made sure all the settings had a green dot. That did make my iCloud photo and MacBook Pro work better together again. I also upgraded my storage space.


iMac 2012 vs Mac Pro 2008 Is a new iMac 27" 2012 a viable upgrade compared to my current Mac Pro 2008 (quad core, 2.8Ghz 14GB RAM)?

I am a professional photographer and my workflow (Lightroom 4.2 +Photoshop CS6) has become increasingly slow over the last year or so. The specs of the new iMac seem promising – although I am a bit skeptical about using an iMac as a workstation. I currently run OS ML and apps off an SSD (128 Gb) and store the LR catalog + RAW files on an internal 2TB 7200 HDD (WD Caviar Black).

So, my question is, in theory, will the upgrade to a maxed out iMac provide a significant performance boost?

Thanks!

Based upon the specs on Apple's website, a new iMac would provide a significant boost over your older hardware, however whether it's enough to justify it is a personal decision. The new iMac maxed out would have a 3.4 GHz quad-core i7 (turboboost to 3.9) compared to 2.8 quad-core, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 ram vs 14GB 800 MHz DDR2 (yours also maxes at 32GB), SATA version 3(6GB/s) vs version 2(3GB/s), USB 3.0 vs 2.0, Thunderbolt vs. firewire 800, and increased (depends on your card) graphics performance from the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX. So yes all that will outperform your current Mac Pro in its current arrangement and in a nice compact package with a fancy new 27" screen. But...

While all this sounds great, it's as far as you can go with it of course. You can upgrade no more past those specs on the iMac unlike the Mac Pro. I'm of the opinion that a refreshed or new Mac Pro is coming soon, so if it was me I would wait if possible. Even it was 6 months or so, I would wait. Only you know what you need however. If those specs seem good enough to you then do it. But if you need to be able to upgrade the graphics card, add a PCI-X card, want more than 32GB of ram in the future, need an optical drive, firewire(maybe), RAID...the list could go on... then waiting for the next Mac Pro is your best bet, but you probably already knew that.

Another option is going ahead and buying the iMac how you want it, use it until the next Mac Pro is released, then sell the iMac to recoup some cost after purchasing the new Mac Pro. It's more hassle, but possibly worth it if your current set up just isn't cutting it anymore. And since they both would likely have Thunderbolt, transferring data should be relatively quick.

Also...On the topic of upgrading, I'm not sure, but it may be possible that the motherboard of your Mac has an open slot for another Xeon processor (although you'd need a matched pair). So with some work you could potentially upgrade your existing hardware to have 8 cores. Might be worthing looking into... I don't know.
Mac Pro specs at Apple

2012 iMac Specs at Apple


Messages on OS X: control the default account for contacting a person? For several contacts in my address book, I have both a Google Talk and an AIM handle. Messages on OS X (10.9.2) seems to always default to the AIM-based account for these people when they're signed into both, but I'd like to change that to use Google Talk by default. I can't find any way in the contact's Info window to change this.

Figured it out: under Messages' Preferences: Accounts options, the sort order of the accounts controls the ordering when sending a message. Dragging and dropping my Google Talk account above AIM fixed it (though this applies to all contacts, I can't find a way to change it on a per-person basis.)

Preferences:

Before:

After:


Unable to restore iPhone 5 after it dropped I have dropped my iPhone 5 last night and since then its either been flashing the apple logo on and off or just stuck in recovery mode. I have tried restoring it, but I just get error 21 or error 2002. I have tried using reboots, holding the home button and the on/off button and nothing seem to work.

How can I restore the iPhone?

Error 21 indicates issues with the power source/battery, error 2002 usually is a connection problem. Given the fall your phone did, it's a safe guess that something broke or got disconnected on the inside.

It's probably best to go to your nearest Apple Retail Store (if this is an option), your vendor or a local iPhone repair shop. If you are used to fixing electronic devices yourself, you may also find instructions on ifixit.com (search for the error number).


Icons crossed by horizontal white lines My friend's Macbook Air (latest High Sierra) suffers from icons crossed by white lines. It's like couple of lines of pixels missing completely or moved one pixel up.

The Wifi icon in the menu bar shows this glitch when it's alone, but draws properly when we select it. The clearest images go this are finder sidebar  icons (AirDrop, Documents etc) and menu bar icons (wifi, battery etc).

Some things to note:

We installed vanilla High Sierra and it still shows up.
Booted to Recovery Mode everything looks fine.

What might cause this so we can fix it or simply know the cause?

This is absolutely sounding like a graphics card issue (VRAM failure or part of the accelerated graphics pipelines have failed within the GPU itself). My thinking is that when you boot to recovery or safe mode, the graphics driver is operated in a very slow and limited manner (likely deactivating shader and vector processing optimizations, etc...). When that cures glitches you’ve got a very few things to consider now.

You've already installed a totally new copy of the OS so unless you didn't apply all updates to that OS - you've brought the latest drivers, no corrupt apps or add-on or user settings and proved the current OS and hardware fail to work. Excellent triage there to be sure it’s not software corruption or a preference issue.

Since Apple repairs MacBook by swapping in a new logic board - you would expect a $300 flat rate repair to fix this out of warranty but get a quote from them to be sure. Before spending money to fix, I'd probably be sure a safe mode boot confirms it's GPU related and be sure you have a good backup.

I dismiss it being the LCD or the connecting cable (but it could be either as well - even just the connecting cables are loose) since most of the time, that would cause lines no matter what was drawn and your WiFi icon curing itself on screen when the image changes makes me think the computer is generating the wrong image and the wrong image is being faithfully displayed as opposed to a good image from the GPU being corrupted by the cables and/or display.

Short term, you could increase the size of the elements to minimize the pain to see things or try using an external screen when you can.