Severe Bluetooth Connectivity Issues - OS X Yosemite+El Capitan Ever since Yosemite, Bluetooth connectivity on my very modern MBP w/Retina has been absolute garbage. My workspace includes the Apple wireless keyboard + Magic Trackpad, and I usually am also using Bluetooth headphones (specifically these August EP650's which have been fantastic when paired with other devices/Macs).

The problems begin with pairing these devices to the Mac, which usually is around a half hour process of the Mac not finding the devices/refusing to connect. Once connected, it is only a matter of minutes before the devices start to lag out. In the case of the Trackpad, I am referring to the fact that it will be jumpy when trying to scroll, and won't register clicks/taps. The audio on the headphones is even worse, making music or podcasts virtually unlistenable with the constant skips and lag. The keyboard tends to be the most stable of the bunch, but occasionally I will type out a sentence and not see it display on the screen, only to then see the entire thing spell out rapidly a second or two later.

I have filed an issue with Apple and they have been absolutely useless in resolving this. I send them Bluetooth Diagnostic Reports on about a weekly basis, but they have not responded in over 4 months. This is extremely frustrating as this never used to be an issue before Yosemite+El Capitan. I have wasted numerous hours trying to debug it, such as the following:

Holding SHIFT+ALT and clicking the Bluetooth icon in the top bar, which reveals the debug menu, and then selecting DEBUG>Reset The Bluetooth Module. This usually results in about a 5 minute 'grace period' before the issues arise again
From the same debug menu, I've tried "Factory Resetting All Apple Devices" which is also useless (and also a pain because I then have to re-pair which takes forever).
Disabling the Handoff feature (the one useful feature added in Yosemite). This was recommended around 4 months ago when Apple was responding to my bug report.
Resetting the SMC & PRAM - at first I thought this worked but alas no dice.
I've tried some other tips that involve setting some BluetoothAudioAgent properties via the terminal and they have (so far) not solved the issue.

I thought that El Capitan would resolve this but I was wrong. It in fact got noticeably worse. It is a work machine and the LAN/equipment technician guy here can't figure it out, and because it's not my machine I'm not able to just take it in to Apple (plus I'm not going to pay to repair a machine that isn't mine). On top of that, I don't think this is a repairable hardware issue, because the Bluetooth was working so smoothly before Yosemite.

Any suggestions you might have are greatly appreciated, I am at my wits end.

There is a lot of pain, but you have all the tools you need to isolate the issue:

Install 10.9 on an external drive.
Install 10.10 on an external drive.
Install 10.11 on an external drive.

It is important to get a totally clean install of the three items above. You can then use a notebook to write down the exact times and OS when Bluetooth if flakey. If it's really the software drivers, you will have statistical evidence of that after 10 to 20 data points. The down side of this, troubleshooting like this is expensive time-wise and we don't ever get that time back.

I hate to throw hardware at an issue, but wired devices or upgrading to Apple's newer hardware have helped in areas where I had clients with noisy 2.4 Ghz environments. The new hardware is Bluetooth low energy and superior to the old devices in terms of resilience and the amount of time to link back up when they inevitably disconnect. As a bonus, they work over USB in the case of the new "magic" keyboard and trackpad devices. Other third party options also exist with transmitters that don't depend on the Bluetooth stack.

Make a "budget" for your troubleshooting effort and buy a solution that you could return if it doesn't solve our issue. Since it happens so often, you should be able to know with Apple’s 14 day return window if the new hardware will solve your pain. (And if it's cheaper once you put a $ value on your time to troubleshoot the issue further.)

Reset Mac OS X Bluetooth service?

Also, this answer to the above question has some critical information on using the debug menu to factory reset things. You might try each of these (writing down what you do and when - leaving a little time between each option) to see if a reset helps. The logging and diagnostic report will also help if you need to engage Apple support to troubleshoot the issue. Sometimes looking at the logs has helped me identify a failure.

Best of luck - I'm curious what you find out.


Shrinking extremely large window I have a very large window on Mavericks. The window is so large that I can't seem to get the mouse to the lower right corner to shrink the size of the window. How can I reduce the size of this window? Is there some keyboard shortcut?

If you can see the top left corner of the window, there should be a Red, Yellow and Green circle.

If you click the Green circle, the window should resize so that its entirety is visible.  You can then drag any side or corner to the desired size.


ssh under tmux always asks for password Normally I give my passphrase for the private key on the first ssh invocation and then I am not asked for the passphrase (in this and all other bash sessions).

However, under tmux, I am asked for the passphrase over and over even in the same bash (same tmux pane).

I think the problem originated with the Sierra.

How do I avoid having to enter my passphrase repeatedly under tmux?

PS. ssh-add -l prints The agent has no identities. both with and without tmux.

PPS. $SSH_AUTH_SOCK names an existing socket under /private/tmp....

Open a new terminal window and run the following commands:

$ tmux new -s temp
$ ssh-agent
$ ssh-add

That seems to have fixed the issue for me; new tmux sessions now no longer ask me for my ssh key passphrase.


Is decreasing speaker volume of my iMac a Hardware Problem My iMac is just less than 1 year old.  I have ran the diagnostic that came with Apple Care and found no problem.  Recently, I notice that the max speaker volume of my iMac decreased after I switch on the machine on for quite some time. If I leave the iMac off a few days, the volume will sort of reset again but it is not as loud as before.  I believe this problem has nothing to do will software settings in OSX as I have tried all those settings.  Any recommendation, send the iMac back to Apple?

I recommend you make sure it’s not a perception issue and that the sound you’re using to test the volume is always the same.

Perhaps making a short “video” with another device of both moments (when it’s high and when it’s not), might help you make sure that this is not a crazy thing on your part. If the camera is left in the same place and the conditions are more or less the same, you should be able to clearly hear both videos and see a volume difference.

If you are sure that the volume tends to “go down” and is not a software issue, then take the machine to Apple as soon as possible, because I’ve never heard of decreasing speaker volumes. :)


Backup & Restore to fix GPT/MBR error Problem:

I had previously had dual booted my MacBook Pro (13" Mid 2010) with OS X 10.8.5 (Encrypted) & Windows 7 x64 with a separate FAT32 partition which I was going to install Kali Linux on.  While under Win 7 however I quickly started running out of space for what I needed to do, as a quick solution I decided I would just merge my Kali partition with Win 7 to create more space.  Despite the fact that I had read before that resizing a Win 7 bootcamp partition was difficult and should not be done I proceeded (without thinking) to do so.  Upon reboot however I encountered the expected,

  Error: No such partition.
  Entering rescue mode
  Grub Rescue >

Luckily I am able to still boot into OS X by holding down the "Option" key on boot.  I have fixed this problem before by manually fixing the MBR table using the method described here --> http://jonsview.com/fixing-mbr-tables-on-imac-or-mbp-triple-boot-setups

Unfortunately I have also erased my Windows 7 & Kali partitions as I was going to just start over from scratch using bootcamp and create a bigger windows partition so that guide is not as easy to follow since I only have my OS X partition left.

My Solution & Question:

What I have decided would probably be the easiest course of action would be to backup my OS X partition, do a complete reformat and reinstall from back up.  However I would like to retain my system exactly as is with the two user accounts, all their settings and apps still installed and operational.  I am thinking cloning my partition would probably be the easiest but I am unsure as to how this would work with an encrypted OS X partition and if it would still retain the MBR error.  My current choices of action from what I can tell is:

Cloning the partition
Migration Assistant
Time Machine Backup

If anyone could give me some ideas on which would be the best solution for me it would be greatly appreciated.

In my opinion, Time Machine is the best solution. If you do a full restore from backup, all your configurations are retained. You'll need to enable FileVault after the restore is finished. If you do a nuke-n-pave and a pristine install, migrating profile data, apps and settings invariably misses some stuff, e.g., VPN configurations, automatic wifi connections, current RVM environment, 3rd-party printer drivers, etc.

If you repartition the drive and lose the local recovery partition, internet recovery will be slow; as such, you may wish to download your OS X version from the App Store and use DiskMaker X to create a bootable installation USB or DVD from which to proceed. Note that a local recovery partition is not created unless you do the actual OS installation first, which'll burn a good 30 minutes of your day. After that, you can reboot to the USB and head into the restore process.


Configuring SSL with Apache under Lion Following on from my previous question (which I answered myself),

Configuring OS X 10.7 Lion Server to serve Rails Apps via Apache

...I'm now looking to set up SSL.

Again, I have the config working fine under Snow Leopard, but I want to set this up on a new i7 Mac Mini, so running Snow Leopard isn't an option.

I'm using the named virtual host kludge described in the link answer above, but I've been unable to get SSL working.

The Snow Leopard config I'm basing my Lion config is included below.

Tips on configuring the equivalent under Lion would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

<VirtualHost 10.0.1.1:80>
  ServerName bonk.example.com

  Redirect / https://bonk.example.com/

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 10.0.1.1:443>
    ServerName bonk.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/Rails/deployed/bonk/current/public"
    RackEnv example_production
    RailsEnv example_production
    <Directory "/Rails/deployed/bonk/current/public">
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
      Options FollowSymLinks
    </Directory>

  SSLEngine on
  SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL
  SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData +StdEnvVars +StrictRequire
  SSLCertificateFile /private/etc/apache2/server.crt
  SSLCertificateKeyFile /private/etc/apache2/server.key
  SSLCertificateChainFile /private/etc/apache2/ca.crt
  SetEnvIf User-Agent &quot;.*MSIE.*&quot; nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

  RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Proto "https"

</VirtualHost>

Generate a host key

First, make a home for the new SSL files. I use /etc/apache2/ssl.  Open up a terminal window, cd to the new directory and issue the following command to create a host key file.

sudo ssh-keygen -f host.key

Generate a certificate request file

This command create a certificate request file. A certificate request file contains information about your organization that will be used in the SSL certificate.

sudo openssl req -new -key host.key -out request.csr

Create the SSL certificate

Create a self signed SSL certificate using the request file.

sudo openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in request.csr -signkey host.key -out server.crt

Configure Apache

Create a backup of /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.

Append the contents of /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-ssl.conf to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.

In /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, make sure the loading of SSL is enabled (remove the #)

LoadModule ssl_module libexec/apache2/mod_ssl.so

Also, edit SSL section to use the new certificate.

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/host.key

Check the config and restart Apache to try the new certificate.

sudo apachectl configtest
sudo apachectl restart

Thanks to the House of Ding and Matt Langtree for providing much of this solution.


How do I close window(s) in MAC without re-opening the window How do I close windows from dock or anywhere else without needing to open the window each time just to close it

If I have 10 windows opened(of the same application) and want to selectively close 7 of them belonging to the same app, is it possible to close them(without needing to re-opening those windows) by right clicking the app icon in the dock/mission control/App Expose/etc and then closing the ones I don't need? (I also have windows of other apps opened and I don't to want to navigate through them)

Re-Opening each window and then clicking the close button(or a keyboard shortcut) seems to be too much work. Looks like a useful feature that is missing in MAC

No, what you're asking is not natively possible.

In other words, an application's Dock Tile menu does not natively allow for closing individual windows the app has open.


What is com.onlineapplicationrequest.AppRequest? Along the same lines as this other question, I've found a user agent I don't recognize on my system.  The label is com.onlineapplicationrequest.AppRequest, and the command it's running is:

  "/Users/jstrout/Library/Application Support/AppCommon/AppRequest"
  --protect

The ~/Library/Application Support/AppCommon directory looks like this:

drwxr-xr-x   11 jstrout  staff      374 Dec 27  2016 .
drwxrwxrwx  195 jstrout  staff     6630 Apr 11 09:33 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff       37 Mar  8  2015 .cid
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff        6 Jan  7  2016 .cnid
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff       10 Aug 24  2016 .idate
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff       37 Mar  8  2015 .isn
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff        0 Dec 15  2016 .upgrade-ff-1.52.4
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff        0 Dec 27  2016 .upgrade-ff-1.54.2
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff        0 Dec 15  2016 .upgrade-gc-1.52.4
-rw-r--r--    1 jstrout  staff        0 Dec 27  2016 .upgrade-gc-1.54.2
-rwxr-xr-x    1 jstrout  wheel  1240620 Dec 27  2016 AppRequest

Again, the googles have completely failed me on this one.  http://onlineapplicationrequest.com/ exists but appears unused.  Is this more malware?

Oops -- I posted too soon.  I have since run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (thanks to a suggestion on my other post), and this file is identified as an instance of "Adware.Spigot".

I've been laboring under the belief that, as a Mac user who avoids the shady back alleys of the internet, I didn't have to worry about malware.  But apparently that's not quite true!


How do you hide specific or certain calendars in the Mavericks Calendars (iCal) App? I have multiple calendars from different services like Gmail, iCloud, etc.  All the calendars together take up too much room to view in the year view of the Calendars app. Also, some calendars are for a specific purpose and I do not want them to display with my "main" calendar listing all the time.  How can I selectively turn on and off individual calendars?

Follow this procedure:

Launch the calendars app
The default view when first setup hides the calendar listing pane. I am not sure if previous versions hid it by default also.
Click View --> Show Calendar List
A list of all calendars tied to your accounts will appear. Each calendar name has a checkbox next to it.  Just uncheck the ones that you do not want to display.

Also you might see some duplicate entries - for example in holidays.  One way this can occur is if you have a Google Holidays calendar and you also have the Apple Holiday calendar checked - you will see both. Just uncheck one of them to fix this.


Exporting pictures from iOS device without using a computer How can export pictures on an iOS device to an SD card or a USB memory stick without using a computer?

Since the iPhone and iPod Touch don't have an SD card port or the inherent ability to mount a USB memory stick, you'll need to purchase 3rd party hardware (and potentially software) to transfer data to either of these media types without a computer.

A Google search on the subject could help. I can't make a product recommendation, but one place to start is with some reviews like this one at Wired's Gadget Lab


How to integrate Third Party Sign-in without getting rejected by Apple? We are building an application where we have single sign on process in which the user from our app can use features of other websites.

For example: There is as image of a book on our application. When user clicks it app takes user to a Third-party website in a Web-view.

I did this before but my app got rejected.

You have not specified why your app got rejected and you haven't linked to the app in question - so it is possible for anyone to say why your app got rejected.

However, I can say that third party sign-in is not in itself a reason for rejection. Lots of apps do this in the app store without problems.

By the description of your app it seems you could be in violation of the "Minimum functionality" clause of the review guidelines. If your app has no other functionality than being able to sign in and show third party web sites, your app probably hasn't got enough functionality.

You app needs to have features, content, etc. that makes it more than just a WebView for a third party web site.


Reading RSS feeds in native iOS 8 If I click an RSS feed in Safari on iOS 8, ie. from this page, the Podcast app is mysteriously opened, showing the feed as if it were a Podcast. The feed cannot be read however.

I would expect the feed to open in Safari itself, since it has the same "Shared Links" section as Safari on OS X. But there seems to be no way to use this section for reading RSS feeds.

I can't even delete the Podcast app either, as it seems to be an integrated part of iOS now.

So how can I read RSS feeds using native iOS functionality (save from installing a third party RSS reader)?

It is apparently not possible to subscribe to a feed unless the page is coded to include that feed as an alternative to viewing the page.

In other words, if I visit (just by way of example) Daily Mac Tips, I can click the Bookmark icon at the bottom of the Safari window, then the @ (Shared Links) tab, then Subscriptions at the bottom, then Add Current Site at the bottom. New stories from the RSS feed on this site will now appear in the Shared Links tab in safari. The fact that Safari knows about the RSS feed for this site is a result of the way the site is coded.

However, there is no way to manually add an RSS feed to this list in iOS. So, from a page like you gave as an example, where there are links to various RSS feeds, the above steps don't work. The site is not coded to let Safari know about the RSS feed, because there are a couple dozen to choose from, and none of them are specific to the page you are viewing.

You can long-tap on an RSS feed link and copy it, then paste it into a third-party app of your choice, but there is no way to subscribe to it in Safari unless the site is set up as described above.

(Regarding it opening the Podcasts app by default, Apple has apparently reassigned handling of feed URLs to the Podcasts app, presumably because they don't have an RSS reader and have removed manual subscriptions from Safari.)


Free IP scanner for OS X? I am looking for a, preferably free tool that would scan current network (using the mark) for alive hosts.

It needs to be able to resolve hostnames and preferably to support bonjour too.

Don't forget about Nmap which is a must-have tool for any network admin or IT type - use the -sn flag for ping Scan, among many other options.


Can I upgrade the SSD drive in Mac Mini M1? Can people buy 256 SSD Mac Mini M1 and upgrade it later, or can't upgrade it like memory?

Both the memory and the SDD are not upgradable. Storage can be expanded by adding an external drive. Apple specifications state the internal drive has speeds up to 3.4 GB/s. Samsung specifications state the X5 Thunderbolt 3 SSD has speeds up to 2.8 GB/s. So storage can be expanded by adding an external Samsung X5 drive, albeit at a 18% drop in speed.
I am using a 2018 Mac mini with a 256 GB internal SSD. I quickly learned this was not enough storage. A 500 GB Samsung X5 SSD was added. The Mac was configured so macOS resided on the internal drive while the each user's home folder resided on the Samsung X5 drive. This allowed macOS to operate a maximum speed, while there was sight drop in speed when accessing user files.

Note: The Samsung X5 drive has TRIM support when used with macOS.

I should point out that at the time of purchase you can upgrade the 2020 Mac mini to an internal 1 TB SSD for $400. Samsung's list price for a 1 TB X5 SSD is also $400.
A user's home folder location can be set from the User & Groups pane of the System Preferences application. See the article Move Your Mac's Home Folder to a New Location.


Using python 3 when the default is python 2.7 I installed python3 with homebrew and can access it with python3 command in terminal.

I'm installing a command line app that needs python3. When I try to use it it says:

  Python 3.3+ required

When I do python --version it reports python 2.7.

How can I get the app to use python3?

OK, so if you already have python 3.3 or more, then:

Open the script in an text editor(TextEdit, vim, etc.)
Replace all python with python3
Save and exit

... or just do like @aircraft said, alias it if nothing else uses py2.


How to access Google Hangouts chat on Mobile Safari? I don't want to download the Google Hangouts app on my phone. Is there a way to access Google Hangouts chat using a mobile browser such as mobile Safari?

Go to gmail.com in mobile Safari.
Hold the refresh button, and choose Request Desktop Site.

It will look exactly the same, but it actually did something.
Go up to the URL and delete everything after https://mail.google.com/.

The chat windows will be really small and barely usable, but you can at least read messages and probably send them too.

If you do things in a different order or try to use the button at the bottom of the screen to toggle between standard and basic HTML, you'll either end up going back to the mobile site, or you'll end up with the following error:

  You have been redirected to the basic HTML version because this browser is not supported. To use standard view please upgrade to a supported browser.

Ignore that message and try opening up a new tab and trying that same process above.


Making 2008 Macbook work with new SSD running Sierra I had an old late 2008 Macbook lying around (fully functional, just slow) and a Samsung 840 EVO available (also working) so I removed the old hard drive I had in there and replaced it for the SSD. However, I simply get a prohibited symbol on start-up like the one shown below:

To recap:

I used Disk Utility to format the SSD drive using my new Macbook Pro and did Mac OS Extended (Journaled);
Connected the SSD to the new computer and restarted the computer, hitting Cmd + R to enter boot mode;
From there, I installed OS Sierra in the SSD drive. The computer then started running from the SSD, I created the user account, and all that. Eventually I was just at the classic Mac homescreen, everything working fine.
Since everything worked fine, I then opened up my old Macbook, removed the old hard drive and connected the SSD instead.
I closed everything and turned the computer on, leading me to the prohibited screen mentioned above.

The old hard drive was working fine and the opening and closing of the computer was straightforward and didn't have any issues so I believe the SATA cable inside the computer is working. I've googled this a lot but haven't managed to find any answers. Help would be much appreciated!

Finally, I thought maybe installing an older OS could work. Could this be a solution? Ideally, I'd want Sierra though.

Sierra is not compatible with your 2008 MacBook1

Mac Supported Hardware:

MacBook (Late 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)
Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer)
iMac (Late 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Mid 2010 or newer)

As to why your machine is coming up as non-bootable is because your Mac cannot read the new Apple File System (APFS) which centers around security and encryption.2  Basically, your Mac's firmware cannot read the drive to boot from it.

1 MacOS Sierra - Technical Specifications

2 What MacOS Sierra's New APFS File System Means to You


Mail.app configured to access gmail, is there a way to sync "sent items"? I've decided I'd like to use only my @gmail.com email account.  I configured Mail.app to access my Gmail account and I can see the 'inbox' just fine.

However, when I send an email with Mail.app it does not appear in the 'sent items' at gmail.google.com.  And sending from gmail, it does not appear in the 'sent' folder of Mail.app.

Is there anyway to get the 'sent' mail to sync up in both clients?

Select the Sent folder for Gmail in the Mail.app sidebar (might be under a [Gmail] heading in Mail depending on how you set it up) then go to the Mailbox menu in the menu bar and look down near the bottom for the Use This Mailbox For menu.

Choose Sent in there and that should make the Gmail-based Sent folder the default place for Mail.app to save outgoing mail. It will also appear to move that [Gmail]/Sent folder out of the Gmail section and up to the top-most Mailboxes section below Inbox, etc.

After you do this you may notice you now have a section in the Mail sidebar for On My Mac folders, and a Sent folder in there. This is the folder that previously was containing all messages sent via Gmail but stored locally. Feel free to copy all the messages out of there and into the new default Sent folder (which will copy them all up to the Gmail server).

PS - This process works for Trash as well, so you can map the Gmail Trash to be used by Mail.app. You can also do it for Drafts but I've seen some weird behaviour where Gmail/Mail.app doesn't delete drafts after sending a message and you get a ton of them stacking up in Drafts, which is why I usually leave Drafts as a local-only folder.


Really Strange Behaviour on Trackpad/Keyboard Macbook Pro / Sierra /Model 1502

My Touchpad stopped clicking. I could move the pointer around but couldn't click. Then I plugged in an external mouse. Still couldn't click but the right click worked somehow on the external mouse.
After a lot of struggling I managed to disable the Touchpad by using this command
sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBMultitouch.kext . Then the external mouse started to work normally.
But now the keyboard started to act strange. Some letters don't work, some do work but very slowly. Then I connected an external keyboard and it works fine.

Now I am using external keyboad/mouse and have the Touchpad disabled.

Can someone help me to make the original keyboard/touchpad work again. What is the root cause of this weird behaviour.

p.s. I have tried all kinds of reboots.
  * Command+Option+P+R
  * Option+Control+Shift

This happens all the time for various reasons. Typically, you want to disable Bluetooth and disconnect all usb devices. Then verify that you only pair or connect one device at a a time.

  if one device has left mouse pressed down, you can’t ever get a left mouse up event from any other device.

Bluetooth interference or less commonly, faulty usb devices can overload the communications channel and you can isolate this by connecting devices one by one.

Why can't I left click on my Macbook Pro?

The last two times I had this affect me was a second Magic Trackpad pinned under a book on a bookshelf and an old but reliable (up to when it failed) USB 2.0 hub.


Touch ID not working after replacement of display unit of iPhone My screen was broken and Apple repair is pretty expensive (in Germany) so I chose to replace the display with one of the display units sold in the internet (GIGA Fixoo). After replacement the Touch ID including the touch functionality (double tap to bring down screen contents) button does not work anymore. The button I use is still the old one. What to do?

I read a lot of rumors in the internet. I read stories about people that spent several hundreds of euros for this. People keep telling that its hopeless and only Apple could fix this. In fact theres so much disinformation that I decided to write here in the hope to reach more frustrated users. Further there is common confusion with the "Error 53" when changing the home button. I dare to say that the cause of most of the nonfunctional buttons out there is the following:

The connector for the homebutton is floating. The short flex cable of the male connector below makes is hard to use directed force to plug the connector in. Since you don't want to damage anything you will just softly push it until it sticks. Therefore there is a high chance it is not connected correctly. I recommend using something as a pad below the connectors, e.g. the plastic scoop delivered with most of the display sets, to apply a counter force from below. This way the flex cable won't be damaged and the connector can be plugged in correctly.


Add ‘Good News' voice to "Say" commands I recall having 'Good News' and 'Bad News' voices for say commands on my older Mac, but now I don't have these. Where can I get them?

Voices can be downloaded from:

System Preferences... → Accessibility → Speech

Select the System Voice and click Customize...

There You can search for Good or Bad. Voices will be downloaded and will be available in say command as well. I've tested this a moment ago.


iphone WIFI behaviour I have setup a wifi network in a cafe. Some clients with iPhones have an issue. They connect to the network, then lock the screen and after 10 minutes (about) they unlock the screen. When they unlock the screen the iPhone is not connected to the wifi and they have to manually select the same wifi network and connect again.

This is strange because in other iPhones this doesn't happen.

Does anybody know the reason for this behavior?

When the iPhone locks (the screen turns off) it goes into power savings mode. Sometimes, because it does not always happen to mine, it re-connects to the wifi.

Now if this is an Internet cafe, yes you will need to login again, because the router will assign a new IP address to them - which brings me to my next point.

If an iPhone disconnects from the network the router releases that IP address and other devices can take its place. When the iPhone then reconnects it needs a new address. Some iPhones do this and others don't - it may depend on how many devices are connecting at any given time to your set up.

Short answer: nothing you can do about it - it's just the name of the game with wifi networks.

If however you have a regular device (say at home) you can assign it a dedicated IP address, but in an Internet cafe this is not relevant.

Hope this helps answering your question.


How does Time Machine handle an external drive shared between two Macs? I have a new MacBook Air (13" with 128Gb SSD) and my wife has an old MacBook (120Gb HDD) and we're planning to both use the same 1Tb external HDD to store our iTunes and iPhoto libraries and the same 2Tb external HDD for Time Machine backups (obviously only one of us can use the external HDDs at the same time).

If each of us sets the the 1Tb (music and photos) drive to be backed up by Time Machine will Time Machine back it up independently for each user, even though the data is the same? If so (which I suspect is the case) then I guess it would make sense for only one of us to configure the 1Tb ext HDD to be backed up by Time Machine, with the risk that any changes the other person makes won't be backed up until the one doing the backups connects?

Time Machine allows you to backup multiple macs to one drive.  You just plug it in, set it up, and you're good.  If you look at the file system, you can see separate backups for both computers.  At our home we currently do this with a Mac Mini and a MacBook.  The Mac Mini is always plugged in, and the MacBook gets updated every couple weeks.  We use a 1.5 TB drive from Western Digital.  Given your description, I think this solution with your 2TB drive should work well for you.

The data backed up by both macs will not be the same, as no matter how hard you try, both computers will wind up having subtile differences, so the data won't be "exactly" the same.  Backing up only one system doesn't seem ideal to me, but you can restore a MacBook from a Mac Mini backup.  It works fine.

Also, you realize that the drive must be connected for you to access the photos and music that you have stored there.  You'll have to factor that into your storage solution.


How do I setup application shortcuts to work without opening the menu manually? I have setup application shortcuts for my signatures in Outlook 2011 for Mac as described here.  However, the shortcuts don't work unless I first click the signatures dropdown.  It seems like the shortcuts aren't loaded until I click the dropdown.  What am I missing?

Neat trick, never thought about it!

So I tried this and I could repro your scenario, the signature will not be inserted until the "signature" dropdown is invoked.  I found that this had to be done every time you wanted to invoke the shortcut, which is a clear bummer.

I also found that when composing a message right after Outlook starts,  if you select (from the main menu):

Draft -> Signatures (select nothing just let the menu go once the signature submenu is displayed)

Then the shortcut will work for all the messages you compose thereafter.

Not the best solution, but better than having to click that signature dropdown everytime.


Safe to post iOS crash logs in public? One of the iOS apps I use has been crashing a lot more than usual lately, so I'm posting about it on their forum.  I've got a bunch of crash logs.

Is it safe to post iOS crash logs in a public place?  Is there any PII in them?

I see a lot of hashes in them.  Are they completely arbitrary/random, or do they contain my hardware address or something?

Crash logs are safe to post in public. There is no identifying information about you in them. All of the random looking text you see are addresses of the various methods that get symbolicated by Xcode into method names. This lets the developers see the exact line of code that caused the problem.

Also know, it is harder to symbolicate crash logs that have been copied and pasted. It would be more helpful for the developers to get your crash logs in the original .crash file.
It looks like this is no longer the case, I had no problem copy and pasting a crash log and symbolicating using the latest Xcode.


Is there an FM radio app for the iPhone? I am planning to buy an iPhone, but the one thing missing is FM radio.

Is there a way to listen to FM radio on the iPhone?

There's no good public answer for this question. There is an FM radio in the iPod Nano, but leaving it out of the iPhone is clearly a design decision. There may have been issues with chip suppliers, but I suspect that had Apple wanted to have an FM radio in the device, those issues would have been dealt with.

It's somewhat more likely that Apple sees FM radio versus material it sells or rents via the iTunes Store as a zero-sum game. Consuming more of the former makes it somewhat less likely that the latter will be purchased.

Given the famous Apple disdain for focus groups and market research, it's probably most likely that someone in an iPhone design meeting said "Hey, who listens to FM radio?" and got no reply, so that feature was cut


How do I silence the "itunes needs to check for an update to the carrier settings for your iPad" message? I no longer use a cellular connection on my iPad. I am quite content with WiFi.

For this or some other reason, I am getting

itunes needs to check for an update to the carrier settings for your iPad

How do I silence this message?

iOS 9.0.2

To silence this message follow its instructions:

  Go to the Advanced pane of iTunes preferences and turn on “Check for new software updates automatically”.


Actually emulate another terminal type instead of just declare When I change 'declare terminal as' value in profile's advanced preferences in Terminal App my terminal declares itself as another type but actually always behaves as xterm-256color type e.g.

echo $TERM

gives

xterm-16color

but It's still able to display 256 colors.

Is there any way to make Terminal App also behave as declared terminal?

This is not possible with Terminal.app, as it does not support emulating older terminals.

You'll have to use a different terminal program in order to see how your output looks in terminals that do not, for example, support 256 colors.

Note that $TERM (the variable used to commmunicate to user programs which kind of terminal you have) is not read by the Terminal software itself to configure it - it is read only by user programs such as a for example top so that it knows what kind of commands it can use. Not all software supports it however.

Also be aware that the usage of legacy terminals is very, very low. Desktop and laptop computers have for ages come with software that supports modern terminals with support for 256 colors. You'll need to either setup your computer purposefully for a 16 color setup, or have a really, really setup in order to be limited there.


Store matching files in iCloud AND on Mac and Macbook I signed up for iCloud storage for added security (in case my local computers crash or are stolen), but am finding out iCloud is trying to only keep certain frequently used files also on my Mac (running 10.13.6) and Macbook Pro (running 11.1).
If I lose internet, power goes out, or iCloud gets hacked and everything gets deleted/corrupted, I think the cloud-only documents are vulnerable to loss. My goal is to always have safe and complete versions of the files and no “dehydrated links / stub files for download on demand data on my computers.

assume both Macs have more free storage than my iCloud storage quota
Assume both are online and internet is fast enough for syncs to happen regularly and efficiently

Is there a way to force iCloud to keep all files at all times current in both my local machines?

First and foremost: iCloud is not a backup service. In order to achieve what you want, you need backups!
You can use various forms of backups to realize your goal: For example you could use the built-in Time Machine software with external USB-drives in order to have a complete backup that you could store at a seperate location. You could also use a cloud service such as Backblaze, SpiderOak or similar.
That being said, you can avoid the Mac removing files from your local disk to free up space by opening up System Preferences, click Apple ID and then remove the check mark from Optimise Mac Storage.


How to merge two partitions How do I merge disk0s2 and disk0s4

I followed this thread and at step 3 I get the following error

Error: -69519: The target disk is too small for this operation, or a gap
is required in your partition map which is missing or too small, which
is often caused by an attempt to grow a partition beyond the beginning
of another partition or beyond the end of partition map usable space

You probably won't be able to merge them directly due to the present of BOOTCAMP partition in between.

I had a very similar issue while I had a "Recovery HD" partition created by OSX10.12 long time ago. Despite I can see the "free space" on the partition map, I cannot resize the Container1 to include it (I can only include it into the Recovery HD partition)

After hours of trial-and-error, I finally solved the problem by removing the "Recovery HD" partition and then I can have all disk space (except the tiny EFI partition) in Container1. And all these can be done through Disk Utility (in partition panel, by clicking + and -), no need to type commands in Terminal.

Try it, hope it works for you too.

BTW, in your case removing BOOTCAMP partition directly might be dangerous, consider using BootCamp Assistant to remove it.


How to install bitmapped *.fon and *.bdf fonts on Lion? I want to install some rare bitmapped1 fonts on a Lion2 system.  I have not been able to find these fonts in formats that Font Book will immediately recognize.  I would like to know if there's a way to convert or re-package these fonts in such a way that Font Book will accept.

One of the fonts ("pcsansi") is a single file with extension fon.

The other one ("Terminus") consists of multiple files with extension bdf.

(FWIW, at least one of these fonts, Terminus, is a  font, but for all I know both of them are.)

Is there a way to do what I'm trying to do?

PS: I am particularly keen on installing Terminus.  Of the two fonts, it is the only one for which I was able to find any documentation at all.  (See link above.)  In fact, it comes with a ./configure + make + make install installation procedure, but the latter step only gzips and relocates a set of *.psf and *.pcf files generated from the *.bdf files during the make step.

1 Yes, I am aware of the fact that not many people like bitmapped fonts.  I still want to install these fonts.
2 This is the latest OS X version that will run on the hardware.

You may want to try FontLab Studio. My brother used it a few years ago when he needed to design fonts for use on Mac & Windows machines. Website claims it can open .bdf files, but no mention of .fon files.


Mail, Contacts & Calendars crashes System Preferences; iCal and Mail also affected When I open System Preferences and click the Mail, Contacts and Calendars icon, System Preferences crashes. In addition, iCal crashes on launch and Mail crashes when I try to open its preferences. This just started happening today. I haven't recently installed any new software or any OS updates. I'm running the latest version of Lion with all available system updates installed.

In all cases, the crash logs indicate that the crashing thread bombed out on the same call. Here's an example, the top few lines from the stack trace on the crashing thread from a System Preferences crash.

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x00000001007e3a22 CFStringGetLength + 18
1   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x00000001007fb049 CFStringCompareWithOptionsAndLocale + 73
2   com.apple.AOSAccounts           0x000000011282d09c SaveAccountInfo(__CFString const*, __CFArray*, __CFDictionary*) + 218
3   com.apple.AOSAccounts           0x000000011282e624 ParseAccountInfo(__CFString const*, __CFString const*, __CFDictionary const*) + 1439
4   com.apple.AOSAccounts           0x000000011282e699 RefreshAccount + 65
5   com.apple.AOSAccounts           0x00000001128301fa ServiceProviderManager::LoadAccountProviders(__CFString const*) + 60
6   com.apple.AOSAccounts           0x00000001128306d2 ServiceProviderManager::Login(__CFString const*, __CFString const*, bool) + 76
7   com.apple.AOSUI                 0x00000001127a9158 -[MMAccountMgr init] + 577
8   com.apple.AOSUI                 0x00000001127a85cb +[MMAccountMgr sharedMgr] + 53

In all cases, I'm seeing the crash coming from within SaveAccountInfo from com.apple.AOSAccounts.

Stuff I've tried:

Repairing disk permissions (since it smells like one of those "some config file inadvertently became read-only" errors) - didn't help.
Deleting caches and mail- and calendar-related preference files - didn't help.

It seems as though if I could figure out where the AOSAccount code is storing its config data I could just blow that away, restart and re-enter my account details, but I've no idea where that stuff lives. Any ideas?

Update: this bug has been reported to Apple - radr://10636431 if you're at Apple and have Radar access.

Nailed it! In my case, I resolved this by deleting:

/Users/simon/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist
/Users/simon/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist.7gmTk7L
/Users/simon/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist.lockfile


Does the Apple Watch have more processing power than a Cray 2 Supercomputer? I remember growing up in the 80's and my parents would be astounded that the Commodores and Apple II's of the time would be as powerful as a computer that used to take up a room. (I didn't quite get it at the time). At that time the most powerful computer was a Cray.

Now the tables have turned. Moore's Law continues to march and now I'm the one who is astounded.

Assumptions:

In terms of metrics, I'm interested in instructions/calculations per second.

My question is: Does the Apple Watch have more processing power than a Cray 2 Supercomputer?

Thanks to the table on Experts Exchange, it would appear to be safe to say that the Apple Watch is more powerful than a Cray-2: Twice as fast, twice the memory.

2 excerpts from that table well worth a look in its entirety:


Why isn't iPhone Mail working right with Google Apps Email? I am having a big problem with my iPhone's Mail App. For some reason, emails are not going to my iPhone. I have all of my settings right and I have IMAP on in settings and this still keeps popping up:

I followed all of the steps on this page for Google Apps users and nothing will work, this used to work and all of a sudden it quit working. I have a lot of emails that are coming to my email account online but my iPhone mail hasn't been working for a while now. (hence the last update at the bottom in my screenshot above, 9/5/11)

Does anyone know what would cause this?

Have you tried removing the account and then adding it again? (This may help if some setting has become corrupted. doing so will force iOS to start a "fresh slate" for the account.)


Can I disable pinch to show all open tabs in Safari? Too often, when I try to move my cursor and click, or try to drag something or select text, and my two fingers end up on the trackpad at the same time, all my open tabs shrink into this view:

This is extremely disruptive as it makes me lose my focus and then I have to locate the page I was currently on, click it and then resume working.

I can't tell what this specific feature in Safari is called (I want to still be able to pinch to zoom in and out of a page), and couldn't find info anywhere on how to completely disable it.

Can I disable this? (or I can use another browser, obviously...)

You can disable this feature in Safari, but it will also disable "Zoom in or out" in all other apps.
System Preferences > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom

I actually had to check the "Zoom in or out - Pinch with two fingers" box to even figure out what you were talking about.
Limitation: This disables the gesture in more places than Safari.


High Sierra - Bootable USB - Can't make I have a problem with making bootable USB.

I'm getting this error:

Macintosh:~ **$ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app
Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the volume at /Volumes/Untitled.
If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: y
APFS disks may not be used as bootable install media.

On the same usb drive I had Yosemite, but for some reason I can't make it work with High Sierra. Also tried to erase it in Disk Utility(no errors).

Can somebody help?

I think the message is quite straightforward: It seems like your USB stick is formatted as APFS and the error message says that you can't.

Reformat the USB Stick using Mac OS Extended instead.


How can I save a bmp (bitmap) image file at 16bpp? I need to save an image as Windows Bitmap BMP A1R5G5B5 16bpp.
Source files are 32bpp image files (PNG and/or Windows Bitmap).

Preview saves bmp images at 32 bits per pixel (bpp).

XnConvert saves bmp images at 24bpp.

Imagemagick, Acorn, GraphicConverter do not support saving images at 16bpp.

Photoshop can do it, but I don't own it.

Any ideas?

GUI or command line is fine for me.

GIMP has the A1R5G5B5 option when using Export Image as BMP > Advanced Options

For images without any transparency A1R5G5B5 will be greyed out.
Use X1R5G5B5, also 16bpp format, for images without transparency.


I don't want ios 8 on my ipad mini running ios 6. Is there a way that I can update to ios 7? I have an iPad Mini running iOS 6.0.1.

I want to install iOS 7 instead of 8.

Is ther a way to do it?

The iTunes update shows update to iOS 8.4.

No, you can't do that. Apple only allows users to update to the latest software, as it fights version fragmentation. I recommend just updating to iOS 8.4.1. For the most part, whatever bugs existed in iOS 8 are fixed by now. You could also just wait until iOS 9 comes out in a couple of weeks, bug fixes and performance enhancements will be a major part of iOS 9.

This all is an effect of "code signing" where you need Apple to sign the version of code at the moment it gets installed. Since Apple no longer signs iOS 7 on that device, you would need to jailbreak or bypass that entire process.

Unless you're into the details of Jailbreaking you can stay at iOS 6 or upgrade to the versions Apple supports/signs.

I strongly recommend against jailbreaking, though.


Why can't I see the weather information in Notification Center? After upgrading my iPad 4 to iOS 7, I don't see the weather forecast in the new Notification Center. The calendar is there, and the bottom of the Notification Center has the Yahoo! copyright info for the weather data, but the weather information is not displayed.

Wi-fi is turned on, but I have the location services disabled. When turning on location services, the weather info is shown. What's strange is that on my wife's iPad, the weather info is shown even with location services disabled. Both of our iPads are Wi-fi only, no 3G.

Are you seeing the same behavior? What could be causing this inconsistency?

I realize that this thread is old, but there are so many issues with iOS7, that there are probably many who still haven't found a solution to this.  What worked for me: Settings > Privacy > Location Services -  Turn on Location Services (if it's not already), and also, scroll down to Weather and make sure that specific app is turned on.  After that, the text weather showed up under the date on Notification Center.  And I have my Weather app in a folder.

iPhone 4S
iOS7


Can Time Machine on a server use quota? We have enabled Time Machine on a Mac OS X server (10.6) with a big RAID drive. The server will be used by many users for their backup. How can we set quota so that every Time Machine backup takes up a limited amount of disk space?

We tried setting quota on the server with edquota but Time Machine on the client still displays all free space on the volume as "free" regardless of quota. Backup just fails on the client with a small message in the log file when quota is reached.

We also tried to set a fixed maximum size on the sparse disk image that TimeMachine uses but it gets reset to infinite size on every backup.

We don't want to partition and share the disk with one partition per user as that would mean hundreds of partitions (how many does OS X support? :-)

Any ideas?

Looks like you're trying all the right things.  I do this with a Drobo for a small number of Macs now.  I have a 2TB volume, but I don't want that to fill up with old TM backups so I just use the sparseimage trick and it works great.

It is unclear why this is getting reset for you.  Perhaps you should try this again.

I found these instructions useful: http://www.somelifeblog.com/2009/02/fixed-time-machine-backup-to-network.html


How to increase font size for Urdu Language? I am using the Urdu language on Mac OS Mojave and it appears very small. I have no issue with the English text. Is there any way to increase it?

Just to clarify, I am talking about the Urdu text I see on web page or written in Word document etc.

In a Word document (or any other similar text) you just select the text and then go to the area where it gives the name of the font and the size and change the size.

For a web browser you probably  have to use the zoom function (View > Zoom In for Safari).

Urdu is no different than any other language as far as increasing the font size is concerned.


Is selective upload to iCloud possible (i.e. apps only, no camera content)? My daughter has about 20 gig of movies and photos from her iPad which I backup to an external drive via Windows. I don't want all this content uploading to iCloud and syncing to my other devices, but I would like apps to do that. Is there a way to make this distinction with iCloud? Can iTunes do it?

In iCloud settings, you can select exactly what you would like to have in your iCloud Backup. Go to Settings → iCloud → Storage & Backup → Manage Storage → This iPad. There you can enable/disable various data sources that are able to be backed up by iCloud Backup.

For example, you can leave all the apps selected and simply disable the Camera Roll backup. Attempting to disable the Camera Roll backups after completing at least one backup will prompt you before deleting the existing Camera Roll backup:

For more granular control of exactly what is synchronised to iCloud other than app and device data, you can view and modify iCloud services sync settings by going to Settings → iCloud.

At the time of writing, there are 8 iCloud services that synchronise data: Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Safari, Notes, Photos, and Documents & Data. Each one of these services can be enabled/disabled independently. Tapping Documents & Data gives you granular control over exactly which apps can sync data through iCloud.

You can view exactly how much content is on your device by going to Settings → General → Usage. There, it details the cumulative space required by a certain app or service. Tapping on an app/service shows a breakdown of that space requirement. For example, tapping iBooks shows that the app is just under 60 MB, with the Documents & Data being almost 1.5 GB. If you selected to backup this app under iCloud Storage & Backup settings, then only the Documents & Data would be backed up - the app itself is not backed up by iCloud Backup. The second example shows an app where this is more useful: Real Racing 3. The app itself is almost 1.5 GB, however the data is 1.5 MB. During an iCloud Backup, only the 1.5 MB of app data is backed up. Since the app resides on the App Store, it is unnecessary for this to be backed up; during an iCloud Backup restore, the app is re-downloaded from the App Store.

iTunes shows you a brief breakdown of the content of your device as well. Connecting your device to iTunes (either by USB or iTunes Wi-Fi Sync) and going to the Summary tab shows you a graphical summary of the types of data, however (unfortunately) it does not give much detail about exactly what is in each category like the iOS Usage page does.

You mention that you don't want this content to sync to other devices - iCloud Backup will not restore data to other devices unless you specifically request it to. However, Photo Stream will upload your camera roll to iCloud and sync it to other devices. You can disable Photo Stream in Settings → iCloud → Photos → My Photo Stream.


Show icon to indicate microphone and/or camera are being used For privacy reasons I'd like to know when the camera and/or mic are being used by an app. Is there an app or a built-in feature to shows an icon to indicate that?

There’s a product called Oversight that does this. It’s a donation-ware product meaning it’s completely free but donations to support development are encouraged.
It’s accessed through the menu bar, but if something accesses a device, it will post a notification

I’ve used this before for users who who were concerned about malware accessing their camera and it worked well.  I haven’t tested in Catalina, but it should work though (IMO) it’s not necessary due to the security permissions model in Catalina. If you don’t grant an app access to a device, it can’t use it.


What's the difference between Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport? Following the pricing announcements on Apple Watch, it seems that the "Watch" edition is priced 200$ above "Watch Sport" ($349 vs $549 for the 38mm model).

I can read the spec sheet but apart from different band options and another type of front glass and don't understand the differences.

In addition to the aluminium vs stainless steel case, The Apple Watch has a Sapphire crystal cover as opposed to the Apple Watch Sport's "Ion-X Glass" cover.

In addition, there are more options for bands that can be used with Apple Watch. Specifically, while the Apple Watch Sport is sold just with the Sport band, the Apple Watch is available with the Sport Band, the Classic Buckle, the Milanese Loop, the Leather Loop, the Link Bracelet, and the Modern Buckle.

However, you can purchase any band to go with your watch as every band will fit every watch. In effect, you can get the Apple Watch Sport model and then purchase the Milanese Loop to wear with it. Changing bands on all models is easy.


Using Spotlight index on a file share on Server.app I have a Mac mini server (Server.app 5.0.15 on El Capitan 10.11.2), and that connects to a file share on another Mac mini, also with El Capitan 10.11.2.

Spotlight indexes for the file shares are not available on the client, so I can't do efficient searches on the file shares.

What should be done to enable file share indexes, and where:

on the server El Capitan?
on Server.app?
on the client?

I have seen lots of discussions about successful mdutil trickery, but all are with OS X before 10.11 and Server.app before 5.0.15. My research of Apple Server Help seems to be absolutely quiet about spotlight or indexing.

What can I do have the Mac mini client index the share on another Mac that runs Server.app?

It looks like mdutil can see that server search is enabled:
$ sudo mdutil -s /Volumes/YourNetworkDrive
  /Volumes/YourNetworkDrive:
           Server search enabled.

Also the mdutil manpage has this information for the -p option:
-p  Spotlight caches indexes of some network devices locally.
This option requests that a local caches be flushed to the
appropriate network device.

However, for me this does not seem to work, and it doesn't show remote search results anywhere when using SMB network mounts (This is in macOS Sierra).
There is one officially supported way to query remote Spotlight indexes, by using the Apple Remote Desktop application. Apple Remote Desktop is not free, but can be purchased through the Mac App Store ($79.99).
However, this a separate app and it does not integrate the remote index with local Spotlight searches. It works well though.
From the features page:

Remote Spotlight search
Leveraging the revolutionary Spotlight technology in OS X, the Remote
Spotlight capability in Apple Remote Desktop can perform
lightning-fast searches on remote client systems. Summary results for
each client are updated instantly as results are returned. View
details on results, or refine searches even further using additional
qualifiers. Results can be viewed on remote client systems, copied
back to your administrator system, or deleted.

A screenshot from the product page:


How can I remove errant podcast entries in iTunes? I am using iTunes 10.6.3 on OS X 10.8

On my second generation AppleTV there are 8 podcasts showing that I have long since deleted. When I look in iTunes there is nothing there. I then created a smart playlist that would show only podcasts and it listed the 8 podcasts just as the AppleTV did. The problem is, in the smart playlist all 8 of the podcasts have exclamation points showing that iTunes does not know where the actual files are.

Seeing that I closed iTunes and edited the library xml file to remove each of the haunting podcasts. Upon opening iTunes the same entries show up again. It appears that the itl library file keeps adding them back to the xml file. Is there anyway I can remove these entries from the itl file directly? If not, how can I get these things not to show up on my AppleTV?

In iTunes, edit the bad podcast (Right click on it and select 'Get Info'). It will give an error and say it can't find the file and ask if you want to locate it. Say Yes and point the podcast to one in your recycle bin that is already deleted. Actually, any mp3 file will work. You could also make a copy of an existing one to use. Then you will be able to delete the podcast and send the file to the recycle bin. You can then use the same file for the next errant podcast.

If you are deleting the podcasts from a (smart) playlist, then use Shift+Delete (on Windows) or Option+Delete (on OS X) to remove them from both the playlist and the library.


Macbook Pro 2018: No Sound over Displayport after sleep i use a Macbook Pro 2018 13" with the last Mojave Version. For better work, i use the LG 34WK95U-W as external Monitor over Thunderbolt 3. Always is fine. The Macbook is still loading over the Monitor and i have a great big Display. But i can't use the Sound-Speakers from the LG-Monitor. When i restart the MacBook and i am logged in, i can use the speakers. After the Macbook was sleeping, no sound over the LG Speakers. When i restart the Macbook again, it works.

Where is the issue and how can i fix that?

Thanks for your help...

Have you updated macOS to 10.14.4? It supposedly addressed some issues with LG monitors.
And one question: how long does it take the monitor to wake up from sleep?


Adding page numbers and running head to a pdf file I have several documents that I need to combine into a single pdf. I know that I can do this with Preview. However, it would be really nice if I could add page numbers to the resulting pdf, as well as headers and/or footers on each page.

Is this possible using pre-installed or freely available software on OS X? (Just being able to add page numbers would be great; being able to add a header as well would be perfect.)

I'm using Mountain Lion in case that makes a difference.

I used iLovePDF's on-line tool to add the page numbers to a non-sensitive document.

https://www.ilovepdf.com/add_pdf_page_number

I say "non-sensitive" because you have to upload the source material, and then download the result, so in theory they could do something with the original. However, I can't find anything that says iLovePDF isn't safe.

iLovePDF have several other PDF tools: https://www.ilovepdf.com/

An alternative is to download PDFPen from the App store or here:

https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen

Though I've not tried this tool, I have heard good things.


Is there a canonical guide to replacing the hard drive in a MacBook Pro? I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro 7,1 that I have kept up to date over the years, currently running the latest version of Mavericks.

I am planning to replace the 250 GB Toshiba hard drive it came with. The new hard drive will be larger capacity. When I did these kinds of upgrades with my Windows machines, I would just boot from a Linux USB drive, and use dd to clone my partition images. This way, I never had to deal with re-installing anything.

This will be the first time I upgrade a hard drive on the Mac. Is there a list of recommended procedures, so that I can attach the new hard drive via a USB enclosure, clone the existing set up, install the new drive in the bay, and just boot up?

I would like to avoid installing Mavericks from scratch, restoring from backup etc.

Here, courtesy of iFixit, is your step by step guide to replacing your HDD, photos included at each step.

Also, see this ASC user tip if you plan to upgrade with a SSD/need advice on how to go about backing up the data on the existing drive before replacing it.


USB keyboard and USB mouse with Mac mini I was told by the salesman that I cannot use USB keyboard and mouse with my Mac mini, so I have to use wireless keyboard and mouse.

Is there anything I can do to use USB keyboard/mouse?

Apple's Mac mini is the "budget" line of computers and actually does not come with a mouse and keyboard and instead, Apple tells you to "bring your own".

From the current (2017) product page on Apple.com:

  Mac mini is an affordable powerhouse that packs the entire Mac
  experience into a 7.7-inch-square frame. Just connect your own
  display, keyboard, and mouse, and you’re ready to make big things
  happen.

Nowhere on Apple's site does it state that it "only works with wireless keyboards."

Going all the way to the other end of the timeline, MacWorld.com has an article from 2005 that reviews the Mac mini.  In it, it states:

  Apple touts the Mac mini as being compatible with any USB keyboard...

If you cannot use a USB mouse and/or keyboard on your Mac mini, it's time to do some diagnostics to see if those USB ports are functional.


What are the right post-installation procedure after installing git using Homebrew? I installed Git using Homebrew:

brew install git

and then it gave some outputs

$ brew install git
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/git-2.4.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring git-2.4.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
The OS X keychain credential helper has been installed to:
  /usr/local/bin/git-credential-osxkeychain

The "contrib" directory has been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/git-core/contrib

Bash completion has been installed to:
  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

zsh completion has been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions
==> Summary
  /usr/local/Cellar/git/2.4.0: 1368 files, 31M
$

Do I need to do any additional post-installation configuration to have all these work?

You should at least create a file called .gitconfig and possibly also one called .gitignore_global in your home directory.

.gitconfig:
specifies some default settings; at the very least:

[user]
    name = your_name
    email = your_email_address
[core]
    excludefile = path_to_your_home_folder/.gitignore_global

.gitignore_global:
files you always never want to track / put under version control in any of your projects; mine looks like this:

.DS_Store
.localized
*.swp
*.pyc

The first two are files, which OS X might put into a folder; *.swp files are vim swap files and *.pyc are precompiled Python scripts.
After that you should be ready to go.

The "caveats" are actually information, not really warnings:

git-credential-osxkeychain is a tool that helps you managing your GitHub credentials; the "caveat" simply tells you where you can find the tool
the contrib folder contains stuff that "others" have added to git; in my installation the folder only holds the "shell completion" code that is mentioned in the next two caveats you got at the end of the installation; again this is merely an information where you can find the contrib folder
the "shell completions" mentioned in the last two caveats provide code to "tab complete" the names of branches and tags when you run git commands in your shell of choice. This is similar to how you can "tab complete" file and folder names in the shell. Once again this is just an information not a warning.

So, long story short: these "caveats" simply provide additional information about your git installation, but you do not need to do anything about them to make git work.


Yosemite Mail.app is playing sounds for non-inbox mail I have some filters set up in Gmail, for things like mailing lists. Messages skip the inbox, get tagged, and go straight to archive. This was not a problem in Mavericks, but now I'm getting the "new mail" noise all the time, when really it's a new message in the archive, from one of these filters, but nothing is new in my inbox.

The setting in my preferences is still: New message notifications: Inbox Only.

Any ideas? A bug in Mail?

My workaround…

Switch off the new message sound in Prefs > General
To the end of every rule, or at least the end of all possible paths, add a new Action -  'Stop Evaluating Rules'.
Add one more Rule at the end, like this…

Anything that gets that far through the Rule list will play the sound, anything diverted on the way will not…
...or you can selectively add that or any chosen sound at the bottom of earlier Rules, for instance if you wanted to differentiate or highlight any particular incoming path.


How to set an application to be open in max window size? I want to set that by default an application I open (specifically Preview) will be opened in maximum window size.
Note that I do not want it to be in full screen. I want the window to take the maximum size - leaving room for the top-bar and the dock.

As Preview (and or macOS) does not have a preference setting that always opens windows of an application in full desktop (not to be confused with full screen), here is an alternate answer that provides for a keyboard shortcut in Preview to resize the frontmost window in Preview.
This uses no third-party anything and can be done using macOS default applications and some AppleScript code without having to mess with System Integrity Protection.
Create an Automator Service/Quick Action with settings as shown in the image further below.
Add a Run AppleScript action replacing the default code with the following example AppleScript code:
tell application "Finder" to ¬
    set {missing value, missing value, ¬
        desktopWidth, desktopHeight} to ¬
        the bounds of window of desktop

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell application process "Finder" to ¬
        set {missing value, menubarHeight} to ¬
            the size of menu bar 1

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell application process "Dock" to ¬
        set {missing value, dockHeight} to ¬
            the size of list 1

tell application "Preview" to ¬
    if (exists front window) then ¬
        set bounds of front window to ¬
            {0, menubarHeight + 1, desktopWidth, ¬
                desktopHeight - dockHeight}

Assign it a keyboard shortcut in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services
I used ⌥⌘F as it is not currently assigned in Preview.

Testing in macOS Catalina, the first time I used it I had to click the OK button on the message box shown below.

Notes:
The example AppleScript code shown above assumes the Dock is always visible and additional coding is required if the Dock is hidden.
If you are one that likes to have the Dock hidden, then use the following example AppleScript code instead of the previous example AppleScript code:
tell application "Finder" to ¬
    set {missing value, missing value, ¬
        desktopWidth, desktopHeight} to ¬
        the bounds of window of desktop

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell application process "Finder" to ¬
        set {missing value, menubarHeight} to ¬
            the size of menu bar 1

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell application process "Dock" to ¬
        set {missing value, dockHeight} to ¬
            the size of list 1

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    set dockIsHidden to ¬
        autohide of dock preferences

if dockIsHidden then
    set windowHeigth to desktopHeight
else
    set windowHeigth to desktopHeight - dockHeight
end if

tell application "Preview" to ¬
    if (exists front window) then ¬
        set bounds of front window to ¬
            {0, menubarHeight + 1, ¬
                desktopWidth, windowHeigth}

If by chance you want this to act on all windows in Preview then change the tell application "Preview" command as the last command in the code to the following example AppleScript code:
tell application "Preview" to ¬
    if (exists windows) then ¬
        set bounds of windows to ¬
            {0, menubarHeight + 1, ¬
                desktopWidth, windowHeigth}


Process "accountsd" has over 500% CPU usage I'm on Catalina 10.15.6 on a MacBook 2019 (16-inch) and one hour ago after startup my mac started  with an extremely loud fan and overheating. As Im writing this even the typing is lagging behind.
Does anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it? I closed all apps running already and restarted several times, but nothing seems to work.

Alright after several unsuccesful restarts, Diagnostics (starting mac while pressing D), recovery and safe mode starts. I did a "force quit" of this accountsd process and after that, I made a hard shutdown of my mac (holding power button for 10 sec). Apparently this seems to reset the SMC of the Mac.
Now everything is working fine again. The accountsd process is at 0% CPU and I can use my mac in the usual way.
What I cant say is: Did the "force quit" of said accountsd process resolve the issue or the SMS reset?
For anyone having the same issue and finding this thread: I would try both and see if it works for you.


Recycle a Macbook Pro into an external monitor I recently bought a new Retina Macbook Pro and I would like to know I could in some way recycle the old one into a external display.

So is there some way to use a Macbook Pro as an external monitor?

I know I could use ScreenRecycler, but I'd prefer a "wired" solution.

Use target display mode and a hook the two together using your Thunderbolt port (on new Retina) and mini-displayport on old macbook.

See more here: Target Display Mode


Issue when typing some characters in OS X El Capitain In OS X El Capitain when I'm trying type for example ~ (tilda), I'm getting ˜ instead of proper ~, it also highlighted by yellow while typing:

How do I disable this default behavior?

You seem have the US International PC keyboard layout active.  Go to system preferences/keyboard/input sources and make sure that US is the only one on the list.


MacBook Air not booting, Boot loader not available, Internet recovery not available Recently I tried to factory reset my Mid 2012 MacBook Air. In order to do that:

I booted into Recovery mode with Command + R.
Then navigated to Disk utility and Erased Macintosh HD.
Then I restarted the Mac and booted into Recovery mode again (Command + R). Now clicked on Reinstall macOS.
It asked me to log in with Apple ID. I logged in with my Apple ID. (Before resetting, MacBook is running OS X El Capitan, and logged in with my friend's Apple ID).
After logging in, it shows an error: This Item is Temporarily Unavailable.
I tried to install via Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R). But not able to enter Internet recovery mode.

I also created a bootable USB drive and tried to install macOS High Sierra. Tried to open boot options by holding Option key while starting the Mac. But still boot option was not available.
I really ran out of options, so I followed the procedure outlined in the link, which involves simply making a bootable USB drive and restoring it to Macintosh HD.:

https://www.siliconsquad.com/how-to-fix-macbook-error-this-item-is-temporarily-unavailable/

Then I tried to boot again, got prohibitory symbol.
Then tried to boot into recovery mode, but unable to boot into recovery or to macOS.

Now, I do not have any other option to fix my Mac. Please advice on how can I fix this. I'm in desperate need to fix this.

I tried all the above using an external USB keyboard as well.

Updated:

I even tried to clear NVRAM with Option + Command + P + R. but not luck at all.

Looks like most of the key combinations are not working while booting.

I think I had one such MacBook Air. It was permanently resolved by replacing the LCD assembly at AASP as the warranty was active - it did essentially qualify for DOA (wtf? - still do not know the possible answer to that)

Workaround was to get the system in the target mode (T at startup and connect with a Thunderbolt cable to some other Mac) and install the MacOS from a good source.
ASD may help to point the finger to the dead part in need of replacement.


iTunes smart playlist not syncing to iPhone My smart playlists created in iTunes are not syncing to my iPhone.  I have resolved to copying the songs that are in the smart playlist to a regular playlist to get the playlist onto the iPhone.  Why is it that smart playlists won't sync?

I had the same problem, try:

right click the playlist
click 'duplicate'
delete the old playlist
then re-sync your iPhone/iPod or whatever

This worked out fine for me, i then just renamed the playlist taking '1' off the end (you'll know what i mean) - hope this helps!


How do I install GCC and make on a mac without administrator access or using Xcode? I'd like to install gcc and make on my Macbook Air, but I don't have root access on it. I found this link through searching on google, but I have no idea how to set up the prefix's so that the actual gcc executable can find the libraries. I have a directory set up with node.js and git installed at ~/usr/local and I'd like to install GCC there also. I have no idea where to start with make. Can anyone help? :D

If you don't have administrator access to your machine, you are still be able to install pre-compiled binary software inside your home directories. Create a folder in your home directory called usr and a directory inside that one called bin, if you want to match the standard directory structure of where make and gcc usually reside.

you can find a gnu make binary for os x here

about make

you can find a download link for a gcc binary for os x here

about gcc

Using these tools successfullly without sudo (admin or root) access is altogether another thing... and you didn't ask about that, and I can't answer that, anyway. It seems like it would be easier to gain admin access through various methods available on the web than to try to build software without admin access. But this, of course, is not part of your question. Best of luck!

(and FYI, I'm pretty sure Brew requires xcode, and if you can get xcode installed, brewnistas enthusiam for Brew notwithstanding, MacPorts is far far more resiliant and mature than Brew)


Does Bootcamp modify contents of the USB used? If I'm planning to install Windows 8 using Bootcamp, will it modify the contents of the USB I use without my permission? I just plan to download the ISO and place it in a folder inside the USB/EHD.

I'm debating whether I should use my External Hard Drive which has some important data, or if I should go out and buy a USB stick for this.

When using a USB device, whether a stick or a external HDD, Bootcamp will format the device before using it for the Windows installer image.

Thus, you'll need to use a device that you don't mind getting erased.

Simply copying the .iso file to a USB device won't work. Also, keep in mind that the Bootcamp app also adds a bunch of Apple-provided drivers to the device, as well as help you prepare a partition for Windows, among other things.


How is $PATH created? I am still relatively new to the workings of the Mac OS but have extensive knowledge of Linux.  I updated my php on Mavericks using the php_osx and the instructions stated to use export PATH=/usr/local/php5/bin:$PATH to have the new php version used.

Through my attempt to update php I found references to the following files:

.bash_profile - I can not find this file.
.bashrc
paths
path_helper

Can someone please provide a simple understanding of how $PATH is created in Mavericks and help me understand where the export command put the edition to the path and how would I remove it if I want too?

On OS X you'll have following :

The base PATH used is located in /etc/paths. It is used to set $PATH.

By default, the file contains :

/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/usr/local/bin

It will also load the paths located in /etc/path.d/.

When opening the terminal I will load :

~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login, (if .bash_profile doesn't exist)
~/.profile (if .bash_login doesn't exist).

These files can load some other files, for example .bashrc.

If you want to expand your path you can do it in one of the files by adding your  export command you gave in your question.


Upgrading Mojave to Catalina failed When i try to upgrade to Catalina from Mojave, the error message showing as

  "you may not install to this volume because your home directory is in incompatible location, please log in to another user to change its
  location"

So what all steps should i take to accomplish this?

Finally solved, just posting as it might help others:

The problem: my home directory was in root folder.
So it was to be moved to /Users folder or some other drive.

I moved mine to /Users folder: Just drag and drop home folder with home icon to /Users folder. After copying is complete, log out and log in to some other administrative user (create a new user if not existing one).

Then take Users & Groups, click on "Click the lock to make changes". Enter your password.

Then right click the on the user you want to change the home folder, then take Advanced options.

The click on "Choose" for the Home directory. Then select your new home folder location.

Then save it and reboot to your user. Check everything is working fine.
Then upgrade to catalina.

And one more thing i just want to notify is that my old home folder was automatically vanished after catalina upgrade without manual delete. So take care of your old data.


Decimal comma in Spanish keyboard layout I have a Spanish layout keyboard (in Snow Leopard). Whenever I use the dot, or comma, in the numeric keyboad (right of the 0) it always shows a comma, but I'd prefer if it entered a dot, just like PCs do. Otherways, entering IP addresses, or decimal numbers when coding is a PITA. How can I do that?

I have tried altering my regional settings so that the decimal separator is a point and the thousands separator is a comma, but that doesn't seem to affect text entry.

I'd prefer changing some regional setting rather than remapping the keyboard, but I'll accept any answer that works - short of changing the regional layout of the keyboard, I really need my diacritics there.

You need to change the layout of your keyboard. Not to another one, but to a new one that has been modified by an utility like Ukelele (there might be others).

Download the tool, drag the App to your Application folder. Notice that in the Disk Image, there’s a folder called System Keyboards/Roman/, copy that to you desktop (it’s temporal).

Launch Ukelele and from the File menu select: “New based on…”

Open the file Spanish-ISO.keylayout (found in the Roman folder that you saved to your desktop).

You’ll see a big blue keyboard representing your current Spanish-ISO map (if you brought your computer in Spain, that’s they keyboard you should use).

Double click on the “,” that you want to modify (or any other key) and you’ll see this:

Replace the “,” with the “.” (dot). And go to Keyboard Menu -> Set Keyboard Name. Rename the Spanish - ISO to something like: Spanish - ISO2.

Now save it, the name will be Untitled, but you should put Spanish - ISO2.

Where do you save it?

According to Ukelele’s User Manual, you have different choices (and I suggest your read section 3.3 of the manual). Short answer is within the Keyboard Layouts sub-folder of the Library folder in your home folder. This can be created if it doesn’t already exist. If you do that, only your user will see (and be able to use) this Layout.

After installing the keyboard layout and logging out and logging in again, open the International pane of System Preferences (Language & Text on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and later). On the Input Menu (Input Sources in 10.6 or later) tab, your new keyboard layout should be listed there. Enjoy your faster IP Address typing.


How can I restore deleted system cache in `/BuildRoot/Library/Caches`? I cleaned disk space and deleted some caches. Seems like some of the stuff in the cache folder has been used by the Mac OS (Sierra).
The Mac OS is working, the only thing is not working (I noticed so far) is the rsync, a command line utility app. When I try to run rsync I see the following error:
rsync: Failed to exec xclude: No such file or directory (2)
rsync error: error in IPC code (code 14) at /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/rsync/rsync-51/rsync/pipe.c(86) [sender=2.6.9]

How can I fix the error and restore the content of the cache folder? (I don't have Time Machine).
P.S.
If that matter, I believe the cache I deleted had different path, it didn't something like /Library/Caches and I don't have the /BuildRoot dir at all on my machine.

Let’s assume your Mac can boot and run Safari.
Go here, and download Sierra and reinstall on top - that drops a functioning system on top of your accounts, files, apps.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

Assuming that didn’t work, we would need to understand the rsync command in detail and perhaps troubleshoot that, but since rsync comes with macOS - you likely have that from the system.


Mountain Lion Broke MacPorts - Cannot Update I am trying to update MacPorts but get the following error.

sudo port selfupdate
Password:
--->  Updating MacPorts base sources using rsync
MacPorts base version 2.1.1 installed,
MacPorts base version 2.1.2 downloaded.
--->  Updating the ports tree
--->  MacPorts base is outdated, installing new version 2.1.2
Installing new MacPorts release in /opt/local as root:admin; permissions 0755; Tcl-Package in /Library/Tcl

Error: /opt/local/bin/port: port selfupdate failed: Error installing new MacPorts base: command execution failed

When I follow
https://trac.macports.org/wiki/Migration

At stage 3 I get the following error. Is this important or can I continue with it?

Error: Unable to open port: can't read "build.pre_args": can't read "build.cmd": Failed to locate 'gnumake' in path: '/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin' or at its MacPorts configuration time location, did you move it?

Based on the error in your update, it appears that (as Nathan said) you haven't installed the Xcode commandline tools yet. You should be able to finish the update process after you've done that.


Clear all messages on iOS 8 Due to the effective. Power bug, my iMessage app CAN open, but if I scroll down to a particular conversation (the recipient name won't load without crashing) the app suddenly closes.
As well as fixing this I just want to clear my messages to save storage space.

Is there a way to clear all my messages without selecting and deleting them in the app?

Short of resetting or jail breaking your device, there's no fast way to do it.  But, maybe you can use the Message History option under the Messages app setting to your advantage.  Assuming you don't already have it set to 30 days, change Keep Messages and have iOS automatically get rid of a majority of your messages.  Then, you can proceed to delete the rest manually, which should be a lot less.


How can I add new folders to the Favorites in the Finder sidebar? I'd like to create a new Favorites folder item in the Finder, how can I tell the Finder that I would like a particular folder to appear in my list of Favorites shown on the left hand sidebar of the Finder window and in dialogs to open a file in an application?  I expected to find this in the Finder's Preferences, but the Sidebar tab of the preferences only allows you to toggle the visibility of your existing Favorites, not add new ones.  I see that applications like DropBox are able to extend this Sidebar, so what about an end user, how can I extend it?

Drag the folder to the desired position in the sidebar. This adds the folder to the sidebar in every current and future Finder window, as well as Finder Open/Save windows/sheets.

Removal is done by dragging the folder from the sidebar out to the side.


how to see all media in one place in an iphone I am a new user of iPhone and seek any way of seeing all media on my iPhone in one place.

This basically includes the songs, pics, videos etc... even from social apps like whatsapp etc. On Android this can be done in the Gallery app or even using any File Manager.

Is this possible on iOS that run on iPhone 7?

Apple iOS runs each app in a sandbox, so in general, no app can see data from any other app. Enhanced security and privacy on iOS over android does come at a cost of data interchange. This design decision also enhances performance and saves battery life since every app isn’t trolling all the others for updates or plundering data it can then upload in efforts to track everything you do and store on your device.

That being said, there are several common file storage API on iOS. If every app you use did store the video/image/data in a common place, there’s no technical reason why you couldn’t have the same unified view.

In practice, you’ll need to manually curate or save off media you want on a case by case basis since most “free” apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook have business models that make sharing content against their best interest. Since consumers are the product instead of the customer of those apps, I don’t foresee huge or quick adoption of common storage on iOS anytime soon - even with iOS 11 making it far easier to use the “generic searchable file system” idiom you mention that common on computers and android os.


Any fixes for Dock not following the mouse to move to different monitors in Mavericks? Just installed 10.9.2 and none of the bugs listed here are fixed for me. Especially the responsive scrolling bug (that for me occurs in the Mac App Store app) and the Dock not following the mouse to move to the active monitor.

I still haven't found a solution that fixes the responsive scrolling issue.

The workaround for fixing the Dock issue is not that elegant either:

  Mavericks introduced the ability to have the Dock and Menu Bar appear
  not just on the primary display, but on your secondary displays, as
  well. Unfortunately, after having lived with this functionality since
  release, I’ve found its implementation more frustrating than useful.
  With the dock set to auto-hide, it’s sometimes impossible to actually
  cause the dock to appear when and where you want it.

  The way this most often manifests is that the Dock will decide—in what
  feels like a very arbitrary fashion—that it will only appear on one of
  the two secondary displays. When I mouse to the bottom of the primary
  display to summon the auto-hidden dock, nothing happens. If I mouse
  over to the bottom of one of the secondary displays, the dock pops up
  just as it’s supposed to, but returning the cursor to the bottom of
  the primary display does nothing. The workaround appears to be to move
  the mouse all the way up to the top of the primary display and then
  slowly and deliberately move it to the bottom—as if you’re saying
  "Okay, OS X, here comes the airplane! Open up the Dock now! Here it
  comes!" This usually is enough to snap the dock to where you want it
  to be.

  I very much like the menu bars at the top of each monitor, but as with
  most of the other things about multi-monitor support in Mavericks,
  there’s no way to throw out the bad bathwater without also pitching
  the baby with it. The only way to get the Dock to stay sensibly where
  you want it to is to disable the new fullscreen behavior, which also
  kills the per-monitor menu bar settings.

Is there a way to fix the Dock issue without being forced to move the mouse to the top or bottom edges of the screen to force it to move?

Are you using a trackpad by any chance? I too thought the way the Dock popped up on different monitors was completely arbitrary or broken, until I found out how it actually works:

If you move the cursor to the bottom edge of either screen and keep your finger on the trackpad, the dock will pop up right away
If you flick the cursor to the bottom edge of either screen (removing your finger from the trackpad as you finish the movement), the dock will not pop up

This is designed like this intentionally so that as you're mousing around in full-screen apps, you don't inadvertently trigger the dock when you use controls at the bottom of the full-screen window.

It actually works really well, once you know how it works ;-)


Why are my menu bars always on my left monitor? I have a Macbook running OSx and have two external monitors plugged in. Unlike for all my colleagues, whichever app I use, in whichever monitor, the menu bar will always be in the top of the lefthand monitor.

This is obviously very annoying when using an app in the right-hand monitor or Macbook screen.

How do I get menu to appear on the same monitor as the app? I've found reference to something called Secondbars but supposedly the need for this was going to disappear in Mavericks.

It depends entirely on one pref...

System prefs > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces.

This will, however, completely change other aspects of your workflow.
The dock will always be present on each screen; you can no longer use screens in pairs, each is independent, so changing Spaces on one screen doesn't take the other with it; you can't have the same Space on both screens at once, but you can invert the left/right order of Spaces by swapping each on the other screen, via a 3rd Space.

Personally, as you can probably tell, I hate it ;-)


How do I remove the "from iPhone" dock icon popping up, MacOS High Sierra I updated my OS to High Sierra, 10.13.5, and started seeing a weird dock icon pop up whenever I open a mail app on my iPhone. I want to get rid of this feature. Dock Preferences do not seem to have option to remove it. Thanks

Turn off Handoff.  That's the phone handing off the mail to the Mac.


Terminal app no longer automatically recognizes functions in my ~/.profile any more I made some function in my ~/.profile to automate things like SSH connections.  They were working fine until recently.  Now I need to "run" the ~/.profile by doing . .profile each time I open Terminal for my functions to work.  How can fix this to make the functions available at start automatically?

I'm running Mountain Lion 10.8.4.

Does ~/.bash_profile exist?

If both ~/.bash_profile and ~/.profile exist, bash reads only ~/.bash_profile when it is invoked as an interactive login shell.

https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html:

  When Bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable.


Is the power button on my iPhone being turned off programmatically? I would like to know if there is a code / glitch to make the sleep/wake button on the iPhone 5/5S to stop working. i am almost 100% certain it exists due to some programmers making the code but i want to know if anyone on here knows or heard about it.

The likely cause is hardware failure, and not software.


Group messaging using an iPhone Is there a way to send group messages on the iPhone without an app? And without individually choosing the contact in the group?

The iPhone's built-in Messages app can send group messages: open the app, go to the messages list, hit the Compose Message button in the upper-right corner, and use the Add (+) icon in the To: field to add multiple recipients.

You cannot, however, add an entire group as a message recipient; multiple recipients must be added one at a time.


Boot from different startup disk AND in safe or recovery mode I have two versions of Mac OS on my mac pro: Mojave, and 10.8.5.

While using Mojave, I selected the startup disk to the other one via Preference Pane in order to access some old programs.

To switch back to Mojave, I tried the same thing, but 10.8 doesn’t recognise the volume where Mojave is (I imagine due to the new file system), so the option doesn’t even show up in 10.8’s Startup Disk preferences.

I thought - no problems, I’ll do it while booting, by pressing OPTION. The startup disk selection screen appears correctly. However, after I select Mojave this way, the loading screen gets stuck.

So what I would need to do is  (1) press OPTION during startup to select Mojave as the boot disk, AND (2) launch safe (or recovery mode) while that one is booting. However I haven’t figured out a way to do this. Any ideas?

Thanks!

The rEFInd Boot Manager will allow you to select to boot from a recovery volume.

Use the following steps to install rEFInd.

Boot back to OS X 10.8.5.
Download  rEFInd.
Assuming you have downloaded rEFInd to your Downloads folder,  you can install rEFInd by entering the following commands in a Terminal application window.

cd ~/Downloads/refind-bin-0.11.4
sudo ./refind-install

Restart your Mac.
From options shown on the rEFInd menu, select to boot from a recover volume.

If you change the default so the Mac no longer boots to rEFInd, then following commands can be entered from OS X 10.8.5 to change the default back to rEFInd.

cd ~
mkdir efi
sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 efi
sudo bless --mount efi --setBoot --file efi/EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi --shortform
sudo umount efi
rmdir efi

rEFInd can be removed by using the following commands.

cd ~
mkdir efi
sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 efi
cd efi/EFI
rm -r refind tools
cd ~
sudo umount efi
rmdir efi


Keyboard Shortcut For Entering Screen Saver How can I enter Screen Saver without wating few minutes? Is there an application I could run, keyboard shortcut maybe? I'm using rMBP running ML.

EDIT: All I found was using Hot Corner as explained here: https://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#quickscreensaver

Basically it means I have to move my mouse cursor into a corner and maybe comine a key such as command to enter Screen Saver. I don't really like this solution.

If you open Keychain Access (I use Spotlight, but you can go to /Applications/Utilities), go to the main menu and hit Preferences... (or Command-,) you'll find a checkbox labeled "Show keychain status in menu bar..." If you check it, you'll get a little lock in your menubar.

If you click "Lock Screen", your screensaver will activate. I use this at work as an OSX Control-Alt-Delete alternative.

(Note: it will require your user password to unlock the screen. This may/may not be desirable.)