How do I run a java application that wants to bind to ports 80 and 443? Okay, so I turn on my laptop, sign in to my regular user account and proceed to open/run a Java-based, HTTP-proxying application called burp via Terminal.app. It executes normally but refuses to bind with ports 80:http & 443:https. I assume the error is privilege related so I..

user@MacBook-Pro:~$login
login:root
Password:********

..successfuly log in as the root user and..

root@MacBook-Pro:~#open /Users/user/Downloads/burpsuite_free_v1.6.01.jar

..returns the following error:

LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -10810 for the file
/Users/user/Downloads/burpsuite_free_v1.6.01.jar.`

However, I don't observe this error when signed in as a regular user; nor do I observe this error when signed in as root via OS X's graphical user interface.

I'm not sure why burp refuses bind to ports 80:http & 443:https.
If it's merely an error due to (chown) ownership and (chmod) permissions; i would have thought having root access was supposed to transcend such limitations.

Based on this question and answer I can see what the LSOpenURLsWithRole() & error -10810 mean. I'm getting this error because the .jar file isn't a runnable application.

But how do I fix this and get this working on my machine?

You cannot, normally, run a .jar file (which is a Java ARchive file) using the open command on OS X. It's not a executable file, it doesn't give the system any hints about how it should be run normally, so open is giving you the LSOpenURLsWithRole() error you see above.

First, you'll need to install Java on your Mac. The easiest way to do this is to open a Terminal.app window and type:

java -version

If that returns a java version like this:

IanCsiMac:~ |ruby-2.1.5|
> java -version
java version "1.8.0_20"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_20-b26)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.20-b23, mixed mode)

You're done. Java is ready to be used. If java isn't present on your system, running that command will pop up a window asking if you want to install it. Follow the prompts and when you're done, java -version will show you something like what you see above. The version may be different, but the command will now work.

Now you need to run your .jar file using the java command. You need to provide three options to the java command in order for this to work:

The -jar option which tells java you're running the contents of a Java ARchive file;
A memory option for the Java Virtual Machine in the form -Xmx1024m; and finally
The path to the .jar file on disk.

For your download it's all going to look like this:

java -jar -Xmx1024m /Users/user/Downloads/burpsuite_free_v1.6.01.jar

That will start the program HOWEVER it still won't be able to bind to ports 80 and 443. Those are protected ports. Ports <1024 on any Mac OS X machine can only be bound to be processes started as root.

The correct way to run programs as root is to use the sudo command, not to login as the root user. This provides a level of control and indirection to your actions so you don't do something accidentally silly like rm -rf / without a prompt asking you if you're sure you want to do such a silly thing.

So, the final form of your command will be:

sudo java -jar -Xmx1024m /Users/user/Downloads/burpsuite_free_v1.6.01.jar

You'll be prompted for your password and, assuming nothing else is already bound to ports 80 and 443, your application will start and being listening on those ports.

If it fails because it cannot bind to 80 and 443, you'll need to find out what's bound there already and shut it down. You can use the lsof command to figure this out.

For port 80 the call is:

sudo lsof -iTCP:80 -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P

For 443 it's:

sudo lsof -iTCP:443 -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P

The output from that command, assuming something is listening on the port, will look something like this:

> sudo lsof -iTCP:80 -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P
COMMAND PID USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
nginx    50 root    9u  IPv6 0x8978b255ac4ef0b7      0t0  TCP *:80 (LISTEN)

As you can see, I have a process named nginx listening port 80. It has process ID 50.

I can kill that process with:

sudo pkill nginx

That doesn't necessarily guarantee it won't try and come back, but how to deal with this fully and completely is best stated as entirely separate question on the site altogether.


"That event does not belong to that event store" when trying to create a new calendar event I'm trying to save a new event on iPhone calendar, but it just keeps giving me this error:

  Cannot Save Event — That event does not belong to that event store

What can I do to fix this?

I'm using Google Calendar by default, but I get the same error even if I try to use another calendar, so I presume the fault is not in Google's servers. Never encountered this problem before – just started seeing it today. (Using iPhone 4 and iOS 5.0.1.)

Try these:

Close the Calendar app completely, then retry (this worked for me)
Reboot iPhone
Try editing the default calendar setting (Settings ->
Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Calendars)

If none of those helps, you could read through this apple.com thread for more tips.


Prevent iTunes from opening when connecting bluetooth headset Every time I connect my bluetooth headset to my Mac, iTunes decides it's time to launch.  Is there a way I can prevent this behavior?

I found this thread, but there is no solution: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2570254?start=0&tstart=0

OS X 10.8.3
iTunes 11.0.2 (26)
Using Beats Wireless

Update

Even after removing iTunes from my computer, it stills prompts me to "find iTunes" whenever a bluetooth audio device is connected.

I've got this figured out.
On OSX, the "RCD" (remote control daemon) is responsible for the naughtiness. It has hard-coded list of actions to do when it detects certain "events" - one of them being connecting to a bluetooth headset.
To disable this behaviour (minimal loss of functionality, possibly your apple remote won't work), use the following two commands:

launchctl stop com.apple.rcd
launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist

This should stop rcd from being launched by OSX. No rcd - no auto-magic multimedia. Your volume keys should continue working, but things like play key (or bluetooth) auto-starting iTunes should stop. With -w option the change should be persistent.
PS: The following is the nuclear option. In Terminal, enter:

sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd
sudo pkill -9 rcd

To stop rcd from even being started by any app. To restore your rcd, use:

sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd
launchctl start com.apple.rcd


Is there a detailed activity log on Mac OS X that lists my recent commands and actions? How can I see what I just did on my computer? For example, an activity log showing that I copied a file from here to there?

Not at that level of detail by default.  Logging is available for many actions by checking out your console app and taking a look at contents, but it's down to each app to decide what level of system logging is needs to do to be useful.  Increased logging is very useful to aid in debugging and to understand user problems, but at the cost of the management and performance hits of dealing with enormous log files.  In your case, the finder doesn't log each individual file creation or amendment, but you may be able to find other finder replacements which have customization debug level logging to achieve this.


Which types of SSD are compatible with mac book pro mid-2012 (not retina)? I am looking to replace the hard drive of my macbook pro mid 2012 with an SSD from an ASUS taichi laptop will the SSD from the taichi be compatible with my mac book?

If your MacBook Pro is non-Retina : open both, take a look, if the storage connecter identical then you can switch between them.

If your MacBook Pro is Retina : simply NO :)


Airport Express and AirPlay I'd like to set up an AirPort express connected to a HiFi as an airplay receiver, acting as a device on a wireless network.

At some point in the future, I'd like to extend my wired network to the location of the airport, place the airport on the wired network, continue to use the airport as an airplay device but also use it as an access point for the wireless network.

Will both of these situations work as described?

sure, this will work. when you extend your wired network, change your airport express to either extend your existing wireless network or setup it up as an access point.


Document Container vs Folder Name Please refer to the Mac OSX search attributes mentioned below. Any idea what's the difference between "Document Container" and "Folder Name"? Also what's the expected value of "Containing Folder Names" - a slash-delimited list of folders?

This question comes to me because they don't seem to work as expected. For instance, I've setup a Smart Folder using "Folder Name" like this:

This doesn’t give me any result at all, despite the fact that I have several pdf documents stored in a folder named "pdf". The same goes with "Document Container":

For "Containing Folder Names", I don't even know how to specify the value that would hit a match. Trying this one doesn't give results either:

Document Container seems to be specific to iCloud. And given that the other two reference "project", I would guess they are related to Xcode, except I have Xcode installed, and they don't appear on my system. They are probably related to another development IDE.

Try running this command in Terminal:

mdimport -A | grep '[Ff]older'

This will provide a list of metadata attributes installed on your system that contain the word "folder" somewhere in their identifier, name or description. "Folder Name" and "Containing Folder Names" should be contained in that list. All the way to the left on each line it will list an identifier, such as "com_panic_transmit_dockSendEnabled", which is the identifier for an attribute installed by Panic Software's Transmit. This should allow you to determine what application installed the attribute.

If the attribute identifier instead starts with kMDItem, then it is installed by default (and I'm wondering why I don't have it on my system).


Can I daisy chain multiple displays with Thunderbolt? Possible Duplicate:
  Does Thunderbolt support chaining multiple monitors to a MacBook Pro?

This question is a follow up to this question I found on this site.

If I have a monitor that supports DisplayPort, will it be possible (with a Mini Display Port to DisplayPort cable) to have my monitor (Dell U2711) at the end of a Thunderbolt daisy chain?

Currently the port on the MacBook Pro is both a DisplayPort and a Thunderbolt port. The limitation, as already explained in the other question, is only relevant to DisplayPort, which has to be the last device in the chain, if daisy chained.

So in short, and in theory, it should work. According to the Thunderbolt page, you can plug in any adapter for DisplayPort and it should work, as long as the device also supports it.

The only time this gets really complex, is when you need to both power the device and use it using just the one port. If the device has external power, it shouldn't cause any major problems daisy chaining, however, the DisplayPort device still needs the last device in the chain. Simply because it cannot transfer data at the speed and rate the Thunderbolt can.


trimforce enable does not work I am using 2009 macbook pro and I wanted to upgrade the default hdd to a Samsung Evo 850. I have succeeded to transfer everything from a Time Machine backup, but when I wanted to enable the trim by sudo trimforce enable, then after a restart computer just shows the "crossed out circle".  I am running OSX 10.11.6, and AFAIK it should just work.
Am i missing something there?

What I did exactly is:

put a clean ssd into the computer
booted from USB install disk for El Capitan
restored the backup from the time machine
logged in successfullty to a newly setup osx as a user with admin rights,
saw in system information SATA suport "Trim support: no"
in Terminal typed sudo trimforce enable, after a minute computer reboot
crossed out circle shows (every 10 seconds it changes for approx 0.3 seconds for apple logo, but the computer does not boot)

am I missing something?

Edit. On page Crindori Disk sensei I found:

This is the easiest and safest way to enable Trim on OS X.
It is even better than using the new built in trimforce command,
since that requires 10.10.4 and may require disabling system security on El Cap.

Are they up to something with "disabling system security on El Cap". Should I still have done the kext-dev-mode=1 thing?

I'm using a Samsung 850 EVO in my MacBook Pro. If you prefer a method that uses the GUI, I recommend Trim Enabler (it's $9.99, works well, and supports the EVO 850):

You also asked why they mentioned that trimforce might not be safe. This article in their FAQ might answer your question: Why should I not use Terminal commands like trimforce?


How to install/run Mac apps temporarily or in containers I want to be able run apps and tools in containers or virtual environments.

When working with python projects for example, i always make a virtual environment and that helps keep things clean (i.e. once i delete the virtual environment there is no sign of the app).

I am not asking for how to sandbox apps, security is not my concern, instead I want to be able to delete everything connected to that app when I don't want it anymore.

Things I have thought about:

Install apps with brew whenever possible (i believe that brew uninstall cleans properly).
Run apps from their DMG file without copying to /Applications directory (I don't know if this actually helps with anything).
Use the AppCleaner app, (I am using it currently) which is not bad but is solving the symptoms rather than the cause.

After some months of usage I always find my Mac full of useless stuff, not documents nor personal data but apps, tools like IDE, compiler, a one-time app. So I ended up doing a clean format.

Any suggestions?

Prefer using Homebrew and Homebrew-Cask whenever available.

For GUI apps, prefer using brew cask zap app_name instead of standard brew cask uninstall app_name.

Excerpt from man brew-cask:

zap token [ token ... ]
    Unconditionally remove all files associated with the given Cask.

    Implicitly performs all actions associated with uninstall, even if the Cask does not appear to be currently installed.

    Removes all staged versions of the Cask distribution found under <Caskroom_path>/token.

    If  the  Cask  definition  contains  a zap stanza, performs additional zap actions as defined there, such as removing local preference files. zap actions are variable, depending on the level of detail defined by the Cask author.

    zap may remove files which are shared between applications.

Running apps from DMG isn't a safeguard as residual files may still be left in ~/Library and other places depending on the app.

AppCleaner works fine almost all the time.

To keep your Mac responsive and free from unnecessary files occupying disk space, make it a point to install apps via above mentioned approaches and remove them as soon as you are done trying them out. This will keep you from resorting to performing a fresh operating system install frequently.

CCleaner is quit effective in getting rid of unneeded files.

However refrain from installing MacKeeper as it is widely considered to be a malware and hard to get rid of.


Strange sound playing at random intervals I was able to record this random sound.

It started playing few weeks before. I have tried many things to find out which application is playing it, but nothing has worked.

I have already tried answers from this question.
Also I have tried disabling all sound notifications in system settings.

Any idea, where this sound is coming from?

While it's not possible to check that directly, here are some workarounds:

There are some apps like SoundBunny or SoundFlower which can provide extra kernel extension for pass-through audio, then they can check which processes are accessing sound device.
If you're using Google Chrome (or similar web-browser), look for speaker icon next to tab or window (e.g. check in Window menu).
Check Notifications in System Preferences, and either set Do Not Disturb or disable Play sound for notifications for the recent or all apps. See this post.
Check for log entries, e.g. by the following command:

log stream --level=debug

Check for any file activity by fs_usage command, e.g.

sudo fs_usage

Using trial and error, pause and resume processes to find out about the process, e.g.

ps d
kill -STOP 1234 5678 # Stop processes via PID(s).
kill -CONT 1234 5678 # Resume selected processes.


Using iTunes navigation with lists. Is it gone now? I was a big fan and heavy user of the list interface in previous iTunes. For example, it had the columns at the top, Genre, Artist, Album (i think :) ).

I was surprised in iTunes 12 that this feature is not found. This is a fundamental search-feature, where is it?

What am I missing? Is it done?

-Justin

Posted as answer just to provide image…

As douggro says, the caret at top right of the window, when in Music view, gives you the old view back.

Pro Tip: if you also want the old view back when editing track info, opt/right click & Get Info.


Mac Dictation - How to select backspace? Using OS X 10.9 and 10.10 dictation, I can find/use the various grammatical commands as shown here. Is there a way to select back, erase, cancel?

When I try these words, they are typed not implemented.

Thanks

Solution 1: You can say "Press backspace key" (at least with 10.10).

Solution 2: You can define the voice command "backspace" that triggers an automator workflow that sends a delete keystroke:

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "System Events"
    keystroke (ASCII character 127)
end tell

return input
 end run

Solution 3: You can use BetterTouchTool (free):


Remove all files that match name in a list I have a folder with a lot of images.

My client sent me a list of rejected images I need to delete from that folder.

The list is like this: _001,_002,_003,_004,_006,_007,RAM08953,RAM08995,RAM08996,RAM09039,RAM09060,RAM09087,RAM09101,RAM09104,RAM09115,RAM09126,RAM09170,RAM09171,RAM09172,RAM09176,RAM09188.

How can I easily run something that delete those files, or move those files inside a new folder or something without doing by hand? It can be an app, shell script or any tip.

To delete a list of comma separated filenames from a folder, you can use the following:

tr , '\n' <<< "file.jpg,second.jpg,…" | xargs -I{} rm /path/to/folder/{}

Replace file.jpg,second.jpg,… with your comma separated list of files.
Replace /path/to/folder with the path to the containing folder of the images.

tr , '\n' replaces commas in the input with new lines. xargs takes the lines and runs the given command for each line, replacing {} with each line input (as instructed by -I{}). tr is used since xargs in macOS does not support -d for a custom delimiter.

However, I notice that your list does not include file extensions. You can add the extension to the end of the command instead.

tr , '\n' <<< "file,second,…" | xargs -I{} rm /path/to/folder/{}.jpg


iOS app using polling to retrieve newest data Currently we have an iOS app in development which uses polling based method to retrieve latest data from the REST API only if the app is launched by the user. It will keep polling the server periodically for 3-5 seconds when the app is active.

At the same time we are also using APNS service for push notification.

The question is: If we submit this iOS app to the App Store, will it be rejected by Apple because of using periodically polling method? Apple has suggested the right way is to use APNS for status update in background.

No Apple won't. At-least not just for this reason.

A simple answer is, your app could execute any code as long as it is active. Your app won't be rejected by Apple simply for the reason that it is making periodic calls to your backend. However, where it's a good approach to take or not is another question altogether and an important one to consider.

A general recommendation from Apple for app developers is to minimize the network activity to prolong the battery life and to guard against any data costs on a metered connection.

From the Networking Overview guide on Apple Developer website:

  Transfer only as much data as required to accomplish a task. Minimizing the amount of data sent and received prolongs battery life, and may reduce the cost for users on metered Internet connections that bill by the megabyte.

APNS is preferred over polling as when using APNS, your app gets notified about the updates on an as needed basis. Another benefit is that polling will only work when your app is active and in foreground.

So, it is recommended to reconsider your app architecture to take the most appropriate approach keeping in mind best practises, Apple Developer guidelines and overall user experience.


How do I delete just the Time Machine files on my Drobo external filesystem? I have a folder on my Drobo called "HFS+ Private Directory Data" and it contains old Time Machine data. I cannot delete it and do not want to reformat my drobo. I have tried 'option' trashing and various Terminal hacks but to no avail. I am using Lion now.

It's about 36 GB and I would love this space back. I'm running Lion on a 2006 MacPro and it's a four bay Drobo with 3 TB of 4 TB used. I use the Drobo for image files and a separate drive for Time Machine.

Any ideas?

Can't you delete it from the Time Machine interface?  Or is this a backup from a computer you no longer use?  If the latter then there shouldn't be much/any risk in just force deleting it.  If I remember right then you need to clear the immutable flag from the directory (or from all the files?)


Need to force close suspicious tab/dialogue box jamming everything Need to force close suspicious tab without accepting a download from a dialogue box that currently has the whole browser stuck.It wants me to click "OK" to unfreeze things. The screen shot (for those who can't see images) just shows the open, blank tab - from a site called theboxfile.com, in the middle there is a dialogue window where the only option is "OK" but clicking that accepts a download of what is claimed to be a new Flash Player (um, sure it is)

OK, so, I was uh... on the high sea - h'ar matey.. so, in browsing around for treasure, ad windows/tabs open. I accept that because the ad revenue funds the fleet, so to speak. But this one tab opened and I can't close it without clicking "ok" in  dialogue window. I know not to click that stuff. Clicking things will open a gate and you end up with your visa number pinged in Phuket.

I tried command + W. Nothing except that thud noise when the imac says nope. I tried moving to a different tab - thud. Is there a way to close it without accepting the download?

I'm thinking I could bookmark the tabs and then just reopen the rest after I close the entire window... NOPE. That doesn't work either. Can't access the bookmark menu options on the drop down.

I'm on a iMac, Yosemite 10.9.5 and using the most recent update of Safari (which it won't let me look at the version # atm).

Answers most appreciated. Please don't scold me for the "high seas" you don't walk in my shoes.

That box is clearly trying to install some funny trojan on your computer. (side advice: never download Flash from anywhere that's not Adobe's website, but I'm sure you already know that if you're 'sailing the high seas'.)

Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid closing everything. The only way out of this is to force-quit Safari through Force Quit - the keystroke 'Option-Command-Escape (⌥⌘⎋)'. This would bring the Force Quit menu into focus, allowing you to close Safari and ultimately the problematic tab. The good thing about Force Quit is that it always stays on top and in focus, so the tab shouldn't be able to steal focus from the menu.

The Force Quit menu. As you can see, the current open application is highlighted automatically.

If Safari tries to reopen the closed tabs, ⌥⌘⎋ it again. The next time it starts, it shouldn't try to reopen the closed tabs.

It's probably a good idea to track down which site/tab caused this dialog to show up and either inform the webmaster or avoid visiting the site for a few weeks for your safety. Additionally, you may want to disable auto-opening of "safe" files by Safari.


Can a projector be used as a good quality second screen? I've never attached a projector to my Mac, so I don't know just how good the really good ones can be. I'm a graphic designer who used to use a 27 inch iMac but now works on a laptop most of the time. I'd occasionally like to see my screen at a larger size with enough detail to be pleasant to use—no need for extreme HD. How would a good projector go at mirroring my laptop screen onto a flat surface? I'm wondering if there's a reason that projectors aren't touted as an alternative to a secondary screen...this concept doesn't appear anywhere I've looked online. If someone is doing this I would like to know specific projector models that you are happy with to create a secondary display for your Mac.
How bright would it need to be to show up in the daytime? I'm interested to know people's experiences with the number of lumens needed for having a really clear daytime picture. I've researched this but am still unsure.
I'm aware that it may possibly be cheaper to buy a secondary screen, but the portability of a projector would be a big plus if the display quality was good enough (accurate colour, good resolution).
Also, will the projector echo the exact screen colour of my laptop? So if nightshift is on, will the projected image show that yellowing or will it be bright white?

The answer to this question is always going to be heavily based on opinion, so it is not really a good question for this site.
However, I think it is for good reasons that projectors are not really treated as "secondary screens" for computers - but more for specialized use cases such as movies, presentations, etc.
If you have ever attendeded any project-backed presentation, you would probably have encountered many of the problems that can occur with projectors: too much daylight to be able to see the image clearly, skewed/warped image, incorrect colors, fan noise, heat generation, noone can be in front of the project output, etc.
You could argue that you could solve most of these by buying a high end projector and setting it up properly. However those projectors are not cheap - and definitely if you compare it to what a budget 30" monitor or even a flat-screen TV costs.
As for getting the exact same colors on the projected image as on your laptop display - this not really possible. The colors are not going to be exactly the same, unless you buy a really, really high-end projector that you calibrate often.


How do I enable syntax highlighting in vim on Mac? How do I enable syntax highlighting in vim on Mac?

There are two common methods:
Method 1: One of the easiest and most commonly recommended methods is by creating a file called .vimrc in your home directory. The one and only command you need to run is echo syntax on >> ~/.vimrc. The next time you access a non-txt file with vim, you will notice highlighted text.
echo "syntax on" >> ~/.vimrc

Method 2: Another method, one that I personally use/used, is by installing "vim --override-system-vim". First run vim --version in the terminal. Notice the +(s) and -(s) and keep it in mind, maybe even take a picture. Next we will install a package manager, if one is not already installed on your computer. We will use Homebrew for this tutorial. Run xcode-select --install in the terminal. It will take about 10-15 min to install the Xcode Command Line Tools. Once the installation is complete, run ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)". After brew has installed, run brew doctor to make sure that everything is in working order. If it recommends you run any commands to resolve an issue, run them first before continuing. After the previous step is complete, run brew install vim --override-system-vim. After vim is installed, run vim --version and notice the difference of the +(s) and -(s) in comparison to when you first ran the command. Not only has syntax highlighting been enabled, but there are other features that have been enabled as well.
Commands: (Note: The $ signs represent the start of a new line/command. Lines that starts with ## are comments)
$ cd
$ vim --version
$ xcode-select --install
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
$ brew doctor
#resolve any issues that are provided by brew doctor
$ brew install vim --override-system-vim
$ vim --version


Random latency ping spikes So I have been having serious problems with lag(connection ping spikes) on my computer.

I am using Mac Pro (Mid 2010), and I used the “sudo ping -i .2 192.168.0.1” command in terminal to monitor my ping. My ping stays constant at 1ms-3ms, but always rises to 100ms-200ms every 6 to 15 seconds. And these “spikes” happens literally every 6 to 15 seconds, but it doesn’t go crazy until 1000 ping or even over.

The lag hits me a lot since I am playing Counter-Strike Global Offence on Mac, which the ping spike can be clearly felt.

The weird thing is that I am not running any program that uploads or downloads, and the lag only happens in this specific computer.The lag doesn’t happen on my laptop and all. What is going on? My speculation of this problem is probably my computer appears to be sending out files or signals hiddenly, and this is when the ping rises, but I just can’t figure out what is going on.

The connection used to be fine. Is it a problem with hidden network features within my Mac or what? I was about to try to disable SSDP service, which seemed to be the cause of lag of few of my friends, but I just don’t know how to, since its Mac.

Any help would be appreciated.

I had a problem that presented very similarly to yours: excellent ping over wifi, except that every 6 seconds or so it would spike up to 100-200 ms. This was true regardless of the wifi network I was on, or the router hardware. I had no issue when connected via ethernet.

My problem ended up being related to a program which was regularly scanning for wifi networks. I found I could reliably cause my ping to increase in that same way by clicking on the wifi notification icon, which causes the OS to scan for new networks.

I looked in my wifi log (/var/log/wifi.log) and found entries like the following:

Tue Sep 12 11:38:59.570 <airportd[75]> WARNING: Google Chrome (412) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.scan, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release
Tue Sep 12 11:39:04.984 <airportd[75]> WARNING: jtmc (109) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.scan, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release

The application 'jtmc' (a diagnostic app for the Jive phone system) turned out to be the culprit. After closing it and removing it from my login items, pings went back to consistent 1-2ms to the router.


Is it possible to have one menu bar while having displays as separate spaces in Mavericks? The Mavericks feature "Displays have separate spaces" is nice except for one thing: With vertically arranged displays, you need to aim for the menu bar in the lower display.
This breaks the primary advantage of having the menu bar on the top of the display, which is that one can just throw the pointer upwards, and it will hit the menu bar and stop. (Fitts' law.)

Is it possible to have the best of both worlds: Separate spaces for my displays, but only one menu bar, located in my main display?

There's no built in function afaik.
However - even if you manage to hide the menu bar via terminal magic (don't know if there is) you will still face the issue that windows can't lap over the monitor (since windows can't lap between spaces), you can only move the complete window to one space/monitor or the other


Launch App with Automator when system is idle My idea is to dim the display when the system is idle for 10 seconds, and with a keystroke or trackpad activity revert to original (I want to preserve battery automatically and not using a screen saver - I need to monitor some activity but with low display light). I could not find such application so I decided to make solution with Automator.

I found application Shady which can dim display when it start and if it is active (in front) with keystroke Q will quit.

So, how can I make a script in Automator to start Shady when the system is idle for 10 seconds and then wait for any keystroke or trackpad activity, then send keystroke q to quit Shady? The script should be active all the time, so when another 10 second idle time happens, start Shady again.

If you want to actually save energy, use brightness.c instead of Shady. Shady doesn't reduce the backlight levels of displays, and LCDs usually require a similar amount of energy to display dark and bright pixels.

You can see the time since the last human input device (keyboard or mouse) action with ioreg:

ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | awk '/HIDIdleTime/{print $NF/1000000000;exit}'

If you are for example wathing a video with VLC, pmset -g assertions will contain a line like this:

   PreventUserIdleSystemSleep     1

So you might use a script like this:

#!/bin/bash

while sleep 0.5; do
  idle=$(ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | awk '/HIDIdleTime/{printf "%i",$NF/1000000000;exit}')
  current=$(brightness -l | awk '/display 0: brightness/{print $NF}')
  if [[ $idle -ge 10 ]] && pmset -g assertions | grep -q 'PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep *0'; then
    [[ $current != 0.000000 ]] && old=$current
    brightness 0
  else
    [[ $old ]] && brightness $old
  fi
done

It doesn't make any sense to execute over ten new processes every second though.


How can I search for an App in the ITunes App Store in a webbrowser I would like to search for an app in the apples app store in a webbrowser, if this is possible. I know it is possible by installing Itunes, but I don't like to do that and I hope, that it is not needed to do a simple search for an App. This way I could send a link of an URL to someone to show the app.
Is this possible? In GooglePlay it is so simple and intuitiv, but in the MAC-World I am lost again with such a simple request.

I know, that the app exists, because I wrote it myself and I can find it with the "App Store" - App on my IPad, so I am sure it exists.

Would be happy if someone would guide me to this search-feature, if it exists.

iTunes has a search API as documented here, you don't need to use Google. To search for apps only, set entity to software. If you want to call this from your website via JavaScript, you'll probably also need to set callback to something appropriate.

Here is an example search URL which will return results for apps with "myApp" https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=MyApp&entity=software


Reset wallpaper of 2nd monitor without having connection to 2nd monitor? How can I reset wallpaper on the 2nd monitor without having connection to that 2nd monitor?

You can reset them all by deleting this file

~/Library/Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db

Alternatively, you could try opening it in something like SQLite Free - but I'm not sure what the consequences of deleting a single line from the list of wallpapers would be.


Installing ChatJax bookmark on the iPad and iPhone I have a 16 GB Apple  Mini iPad using iOS 8.1.2 and am unable to install the bookmark found here that renders LaTeX in the Math Stack Exchange chat room. I can't find a browser with a bookmark bar to drag the given link to.

Other users in the room have also been unable to render LaTeX with their iPad and iPhones. Could you provide instructions that someone who is new to Apple products could follow?

Using Safari:

Copy this in its entirety to your clipboard on your iOS device:

javascript:(function(){if(window.MathJax===undefined){var%20script%20=%20document.createElement("script");script.type%20=%20"text/javascript";script.src%20=%20"http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML%22;var%20config%20=%20%27MathJax.Hub.Config({%27%20+%20%27extensions:%20[%22tex2jax.js%22],%27%20+%20%27tex2jax:%20{%20inlineMath:%20[[%22$%22,%22$%22],[%22\\\\\\\\\\\\(%22,%22\\\\\\\\\\\\)%22]],%20displayMath:%20[[%22$$%22,%22$$%22],[%22\\\\[%22,%22\\\\]%22]],%20processEscapes:%20true%20},%27%20+%20%27jax:%20[%22input/TeX%22,%22output/HTML-CSS%22]%27%20+%20%27});%27%20+%20%27MathJax.Hub.Startup.onload();%27;if%20(window.opera)%20{script.innerHTML%20=%20config}%20else%20{script.text%20=%20config}%20document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0].appendChild(script);(doChatJax=function(){window.setTimeout(doChatJax,1000);MathJax.Hub.Queue([%22Typeset%22,MathJax.Hub]);})();}else{MathJax.Hub.Queue([%22Typeset%22,MathJax.Hub]);}})();

This is the content of the 'start ChatJax' bookmarklet
Tap the Share button on the toolbar.

Tap Add Bookmark.

Tap Save. Ignore whatever content is shown.

Tap Bookmarks in the toolbar.

Go back until you reach the root, then tap Favourites.

Tap Edit on the toolbar.

Tap the bookmark you've just created.

Enter a name, erase the contents of the Address field and paste in the bookmarklet.

Visit the page you want to activate ChatJax, tap Bookmarks, then the bookmarklet.


Safari - how to see web developer tools like DOM inspector? In on Yosemite using Safari.

How can I "inspect element"

I've looked through all the preferences and don't see any way to turn on developer tools so I can do inspect element (if that is even possible with them).

Found it - a bit hidden its at the bottom of preferences - advanced, i.e.

"Show Develop menu in menu bar"


How do I create a global keyboard shortcut to create a new note in Notes.app or Reminders.app? The new Notes app is great but How do I create a new note without switching to the Notes app first?

Same goes for Reminders.app.

Reminders

You can create a service using the Automator:

Open Automator.app
Select Service
For Reminders: Add action Ask for Text to prompt for a new To Do
Add action New Reminders Item
Save Service
Create Shortcut in:

System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services → Text

Notes

See Mohamad Elwan's answer for notes


What iOS apps will take pictures and not send them to Photo Stream by default? I'm looking for a way to take pictures without them going into the Photo Stream. Rather than have to remember to toggle it on and off as I adore it for my personal pictures, I'm looking for an app that lets me control this.

I don't really care if it stores the photos in it's own storage space or somehow can toggle a "do not send" status before it gets added to the normal camera roll.

Has such software been released for iOS?

I will still want this if Apple releases a way to delete select photos from the stream. I am in the habit of documenting work sites using my phone's camera that I really won't ever want to see in my personal photo stream. I'd rather pay for another app than have to remember to enable/disable the stream in the Settings App before and after a work photo session.

Since Photo Stream backs your Camera Roll, any app that uses its own storage space rather than the Roll should do - and I doubt many have been (or can be) updated to backup their own storage to Photo Stream at this early stage.

I'm a fan of Camera+, myself. It saves photos to its own storage, and lets you push them to the Camera Roll (and, therefore, Photo Stream) if and when you want to.


2011 MacBook Pro display shows vertical lines and then reboots My 2011 MacBook Pro boots up fine, but once I began working, no matter what is it that I am doing, the laptop display malfunctions, and eventually shows vertical black and white lines, followed by the laptop rebooting.

Is this the indication of failing graphics card? How do I diagnose/resolve?

Is this the indication of failing graphics card?

It could be, yes. The reboot is most likely a kernel panic due to the failing GPU. This, along with the screen distortion, constitute classic signs of failure. It's not the only possible diagnosis though. Though unlikely, it could still be that your GPU is fine and the Display is broken.

  How do I diagnose?

As soon as you log in, take a screen shot. If the distortion appears on your screenshot, then the problem is with your graphics processor and you to get your logic board replaced. If the distortion does not appear on the screenshot, then the issue is with your display and you need to get your display replaced.

  How do I resolve?

This is either a graphics processor issue or a display issue. I highly suspect the former. Either way, it is a hardware issue for which no online troubleshoot exists. Since this machine is well out of the warranty (and AppleCare) timeframe, it would cost $500-1000 to fix it directly through Apple if you elect to do so. Best of luck.


How to bind workspace to shortcut, and also bind return to previous workspace to the same key Basically I imagine it like this:
I am on workspace 5, I press "shortcut" and it moves me to set workspace number 8 (or something). When I am done, I press the same shortcut and it moves me to workspace 5 again.

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts sets keyboard shortcuts for all Desktops to CTRL n (where n is the number of the Desktop).

However, they are disabled by default. So it would be very easy to press CTRL 8 and CTRL 5 to switch between Desktops. If you wanted the same shortcut for both actions, you would have to use some kind of script to check the current Desktop setting and make the appropriate move.


Macbook Pro WiFi Painfully Slow on Corporate Network, PC Works Fine Whenever I bring my 2015 Macbook Pro to a certain corporate environment and try to use WiFi there, it is painfully slow. At times, Google takes 5-10 seconds to load. Now, a Windows machine works just fine on this same network. What is more, when another person tries to use his 2016 Macbook Pro, he encounters the same problem.

Does anyone know what settings or configurations we can check either on the Macs or the network to fix this?

Any advice is appreciated.

Try this setting, it helped me in the same situation :) In the network settings change the address of DNS servers to Google's ones: 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4

For this go to Settings > Network > Advanced... > DNS > press + and enter DNS address.

Or, vice versa, you may ask your system administrator for any specific DNS and probably proxy settings that your company might have due to security reasons and then enter them in the Proxy tab.


one person, two phones, one text thread Is it possible for "Joe" to have two iphones with two different numbers and text Sally from both numbers, and when Sally receives Joe's texts they appear as one thread? In other words, Sally wouldn't know he has a second phone because it all appears as one thread. Thanks.

Yes. iMessage allows this with the following caveat.

Joe uses iPhone A to sign into iCloud with his account. The phone number for the first phone gets associated with the AppleID / iCloud account.
Joe uses iPhone B to sign into iCloud with the same account. Now both phone numbers are associated with the same Apple ID.

Now - set the "caller ID" in iMessage from both phones to be the same number (either can be chosen) and for iMessage recipients - all new messages started from iPhone A and iPhone B will be "from" one number.

This doesn't work for SMS since the carrier assigns the "correct" sender in that case.


How to get an LG Ultra HD (27UD88) and Macbook Pro 13" 2017 running at 60hz? I recently bought a MacBook Pro 13-inch 2017 and an LG Ultra HD (27UD88) 27" display.
Before buying the display I researched a bit and found no issues in relation to the MacBook Pro.

However, after attaching the screen via the USB-C cable that came along with the display, I only have the option of a 30hz refresh rate.

I've Googled this without finding much - it seems like no one else is having this problem. From a result, I've also learned that my "Display" page in "System Preferences" looks slightly different than a screenshot from an article.

http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27UD88-W-4k-uhd-led-monitor (LG official page, shows 60hz)
https://9to5mac.com/2016/06/04/how-to-enable-4k-60hz-resolution-2016-macbook/ (speaks of a patch needed for MacBook 2016)
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/5azoij/2016_macbook_pros_and_lg_27ud88/ (at least one use confirms 60hz with MacBook Pro)

I got it working. I'm not sure exactly how, but here's what I tried, in the order of what I believe fixed it:

Enable DisplayPort 1.2 in screen configuration
Reverse the USB-C cable
Set "Ratio" to "1:1" in screen configuration (I've since tested this and switching it back had no negative effect)

(3) was recommended by a user in a forum thread.

Update 2018-01-29

I've since experienced the problem once more, without changing any settings. Attaching/detaching the cable fixed it.

Update 2018-05-06

After the most recent MacOS update (10.13.4) it no longer downgrades to 30hz, instead, it never comes on. If the cable is dettached, the computer crashes and has to be booted. So far, the only solution I know of is restarting the computer, which works 50 % of the time, and if not, reattach the cable (it usually won't crash after a restart).

This happens after screen sleep and detaching/attaching.

Update 2018-12-13

In this third evolution of the problem (MacOS 10.14.1) the computer no longer crashes. Roughly 9/10 times it will display in 30hz/horrible resolution and all I have to do (sigh) is detach/attach the cable until I hit that 1/10 where it works. It's a daily 5 minutes routine for me.

This setup (MacBook Pro 13" 2017 w/o touch + 27UD88-W) is not recommendable to anyone.


Configure new IMAP mail account in IOS 10 I am trying to configure a new mail account for IMAP.

In iOS 10, I go Settings > Mail > Accounts > Add Account > Other > Add Mail Account. After I supply my Email and password at this time, iOS seems to attempt connecting with POP and if this works (which is the case) does not offer IMAP as a choice. So how can I configure an IMAP mail account with iOS 10?

Mine doesn't do that - maybe it fails to connect over POP for some reason.
However - try putting in the wrong password - it'll fail to connect and should present you with the manual server options so you can input everything yourself.


I need to stop an iMac update that is already downloaded and ready to install I am testing software on an El Capitan system. Unfortunately it had the download in the background option checked and now it has Sierra "ready to install".
The options are now, tonight or tomorrow.
I need to stop this update entirely.
I've searched my entire system for the installer file but cannot locate it. I searched for any file downloaded in the last day and sorted by size. There's nothing there that looks like a Sierra OS installer.
I turned off all the auto update options in System Preferences. I wonder if that will cancel the update from proceeding? I'll know tomorrow when I find out if it asks me again or not.
But if you know how to stop it immediately please explain how to do it. Thank you.

The installer is usually in Applications. "Install macOS Sierra.app". Delete that, empty the trash (or direct-delete in Terminal).

  I am testing software on an El Capitan system

Get a virtual machine like Fusion or Parallels. Set up a new install of the OS and make a snapshot. Whatever happens next can be restored to the initial state in 30 seconds by restoring the snapshot.

VMs are also capable of running the next version. I run El Capitan right now and have VMs from 10.5 to Sierra. And with enough memory it's possible to have them all open at once.


MagSafe 1 or 2 for MacBook Pro 2015 I have a 2015 MacBook Pro and need to know if I should be using a MagSafe 1 or 2 charger. I've searched around with Google but so far I've found conflicting information.

I recently ordered an 85W MagSafe 2 (T-style) car charger and while the green light comes on showing power coming in, the menubar battery doesn't show the lighting bolt in the UI.

Need to know if it is just defective or if I'm buying the wrong charger.

Those two styles for the glorious magsafes are physically different. If it fits without an adapter you have the right prong for your machine.
An overview for which Apple (don't call it)laptop mobile devices need which can be found here.

The menubar not reflecting what the charger is telling you may be caused by something else.
You indicated that your charger is declared as having the right power rating. Since it is apparently not an Apple product giving you problems, you might want to check if it really delivers the amount of power adversed.

Trying an SMC reset and making sure the connector for the charger on the MBP is clean would be the next steps. Defective chargers cannot be ruled out entirely. Since it's new, go let it be checked out.


How do I install handbrake cli? I've downloaded the Handbrake CLI. What's the best place to install a command line app on my Mac?

The best way to install anything on OSX is (IMHO) with Homebrew. You can install Homebrew with this command:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Then you can install stuff (like handbrakeCLI) like this:

brew install handbrake

Then you can run it straight away from any command prompt with:

handbrakeCLI ...


Emptying Camera Roll on iOS 6 I'm having a few issues with syncing pictures, which I haven't really nailed down enough to ask a question about exactly, but the rough version of it is that I think that my Mac running iPhoto has already downloaded most of my photos (but not any of my videos) using photostream before I get a chance to sync using a cable, and this results in the following behaviour:

iPhoto finds a lot of duplicates when I choose the iPhone device and choose to sync
iPhoto offers a chance to remove photos from your device that you just synced, but because it did not sync these particular photo duplicates over the cable because they already existed via photostream it does not offer to remove them
So it keeps finding the duplicates on my phone, and I have no easy way of removing the photos en-masse.

Now, the above is just background really, but any thoughts of a workflow for Photostream and cable syncing in tandem would be appreciated.

The issue for which I am raising this question is to do with my camera roll, and how to empty it on my phone.  I am aware that I can cable it up and use Image Capture to delete them all, but I was trying to find a more elegant solution.  I am aware also that I can individually (or in chunks by tapping on each and every one) remove them directly, but that's dumb.  So when I found this section in Settings > General > Usage > Photos and Camera I was pleased to see I could left swipe the items to delete the contents:

Yay!  Well, sadly not, as it appears to do nothing at all.  I have deleted the camera roll several times, and every time I go back it's right there, and indeed all my photos are still available.  Is this supposed to work, am I doing something wrong, or have I got some weird issue because it works for you?

Using the same method to remove podcasts from within the podcasts app works fine.

The easiest way to delete photos is to use Image Capture. That's how I've been doing it.

Connect your iPhone to your mac via cable.
Run Image Capture. It should bring up the pictures on your phone.
Select all images (or just specific ones).
Click the Delete button.


Conditional format cells based on match in another sheet I have 2 excel sheets (Using Microsoft excel 2011 for mac)

sheet1(Column D)
foo
bar

sheet2
abc cde foo
sfd sdf dgf
bar

I have applied 3 rules using conditional format: 1. If any of the data in Sheet2 matches with Sheet1(ColumnD) - Make text as blue 2. If there are any duplicate values in sheet2 - Make text as yellow 3. If the above 2 are not there - leave it blank

But Only Rule2 and Rule3 are working. How can I make all of them work.And I how can I add one more rule which returns values which satisfies both Rule1 and Rule2

Rules:

Rule 1 # =NOT(ISERROR(MATCH($1:$1048576,'Sheet1'!$D:$D,0)))
Rule 2 # Highlight Duplicate values with yellow text
Rule 3 # =ISBLANK($1:$1048576)

I'm not sure I am parsing the problem correctly, but I suspect this is the solution.

Make a new column in one of the pages that has a formula like...

=IF(thispage!D2=otherpage!D2,"*","")

This will make a column where all the duplicates have a *. Now simply make a conditional on the other column that turns the text yellow if there is a * in there.


How do I delete all Music off my iPhone library so nothing appears? I’m having problems deleting all my music off my iPhone.

I have deleted the music through iTunes and tried to delete it on on my iPhone but it still shows the track and just has the download symbol next to it.

How do I make it delete off my music library completely?

I had no choice but to remove all music from my iPhone. I have had music intrude in on my 3rd party apps playlists and even phone calls on bluetooth in multiple vehicles. This is a ridiculous solution to a problem I hope is fixed soon.

I tried to go straight to step 5 but Music app was not in the list for me delete to select (iPhone 6 plus iOS <= 8.1.2)

Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to off.
Open music app - identify all songs that are on your device.
Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to on.
Download the songs from step 2.
Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs > Delete
(Optional) Settings > Cellular - In "Use cellular data for" locate Music App and toggle off.
Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to off.


Can I remove admin rights from an OS X account without using the command line? I gave my everyday OS X user account admin rights whilst trying to get a code project working.

I now no longer need admin rights. However, when I log in using either my everyday account or my admin account, the “Allow user to administer this computer” checkbox for my everyday account is both selected and disabled, so that I can’t remove the admin rights from my account. (I did click on the padlock icon and unlock it using my everyday account password first.)

Is there a way to enable the checkbox, or another way to remove admin rights for this account?

I’ve seen how to do so on the command line, but it feels like there should be some way to do this in the GUI.

Aha — the reason why this option was greyed out is, I think, because I was still logged in under the everyday account.

When I logged out of the everyday account, and logged into my admin account (instead of just switching straight to the admin account, leaving my everyday account logged in), then the “Allow user to administer this computer” checkbox for my everyday account was enabled, and I could uncheck it.


Updated XCode to 7.0.1 via the app store but it still shows itself at 6.4 in the app and missing the new features I tried to update Xcode to 7.0.1 today and it told me that I needed to get OS X 10.10.4 or greater (I had 10.10.3). I agreed to that update, but it didn't update OS X and has now marked XCode as being at 7.0.1 in the App Store. However if I go into XCode it still shows 6.4 and lacks the new features like iOS 9 in the simulator.

So I had it do the OS update to 10.10.5 and let it do the reboot and install process. It came back up and it still shows that XCode is at 6.4 in the application itself, but as updated in the App Store.

What gives? Any idea how to get it to actually update?

I would do the following:

Open Xcode
Open Preferences
select Locations

If your command line tools and Xcode about box don't both say 7.0.1 (7A1001) then you might want to just delete Xcode using Launchpad and then re-open the App Store to download a clean copy of the app. If you want to purge old simulators and SDK from ~/Library/Developer, do that now as well after making a backup of things just in case.

I had some issues with the beta versions of the app and deleting all traces of the app helped me with some document set download issues - perhaps your simulator issues are related to mixing versions between 6 and 7 too?


Is there a way to show an icon in the status bar if iPad is muted? I "accidentally" muted the iPad (four finger up, slide to the left, push mute button). After that in iBooks an interactive book didn't play ambient audio, which is OK if you remember the muting. But it was playing other sound effects which was confusing. I thought that something is wrong with the iBooks app.

After hours I noticed the muted button...

(My mute switch on the side is changed to screen locker.)

iOS does not have an option for this, nor does apple approve apps which alter the status bar.  If you want this function you will have to jailbreak your iOS device and install a third party status monitor.  As pointed out in another answer, LockInfo does this.  SBSettings used to, but no longer does.  If you're running an iOS 4.x device, OpenNotifier might be useful as it does this as well as give you pull-down notifications similar to android and iOS 5.

If you're developing for this device, however, you can add this function yourself.  As a developer you can run custom code without jailbreaking the device - you just can't submit that code to the app store.

The trick, then, is going to be finding example code for this feature.  I expect someone in the jailbreaking community will have some info on what the code needs to do, and if you're lucky you'll find an open source project for it.  Then you can compile and sign it yourself, and as long as you keep your ad-hoc license current and recompile/re-sign it yearly, you can use it on your personal devices.

I think a lot of developers overlook the fact that they can run any code they want on their own devices without jailbreaking.  They can also distribute such apps in a limited manner to their friends using adhoc distribution as well.

It looks like OpenNotifier is open source, and has the functionality you need:

https://github.com/n00neimp0rtant/OpenNotifier

I don't know much about the status of the project, but it might be usable for you as a developer to bring this functionality to your devices.


Adding a song file to iTunes via the command line without playing the file I want to add song files to iTunes via the command line.

    open -a iTunes -g song.mp3

does exactly this. - However it starts playing the song, too. Any way to avoid this?

You can use the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder for that (see PH19617):

cp song.mp3 ~/"Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically Add to iTunes/"

If iTunes is running, anything you copy into this folder will be imported into iTunes automatically (and deleted from the folder afterwards).

Please note:

The folder name might be language specific, so check the name on your system first.
Depending on when iTunes was installed, the media folder may be called either iTunes Media or Tunes Music


Will this MagSafe power adapter work on my MacBook Air? My MBA's model number is A1369.

I bought this power adapter:
85W magSafe 2 Power Adapter. Model number A1424.

I know it's not the ideal power adapter, but will it work on my MacBook without a converter?

No.

Wattage is not an issue. Lower-powered macbooks are be paired with higher-powered power source. A 85W power adapter is basically universal to all macbooks.

2011 MBA still has MagSafe 1/original port. Visually, plug on MagSafe adapter is L-shaped, while plug on MagSafe 2 is T-shaped. Apple sell a tiny addon that makes MagSafe adapters work with newer MagSafe 2 macbooks, but the other way around doesn't work.


After Sierra install, message appears saying install failed, Hold down D for Diagnostics My friend just tried installing Sierra on a blank internal hard drive in an iMac 21" 2010 (model iMac 11,2), using a bootable installer on an external USB drive.

Seemed to install successfully, then rebooted, with a message saying the install had failed and advising: Shut down, turn on power, hold down D for Diagnostics.

Holding down D does not actually activate any diagnostics.

Any idea what might be going wrong, or what to try next?

When trying to run in Safe Mode, this screen appears.

The error means that the file /sbin/launchd does not exist. The file is an important system component of macOS which is responsible for starting all other programs. Basically without it you cannot boot your system.

Normally this would mean that something has very seriously failed during the installation of macOS.

I would suggest reinstalling macOS while paying very close attention to any error messages that popup during installation.

If problem persists, consider the possibility of a hardware error such as a disk failure.


WhatsApp using huge space on my Mac SSD My parents gave me a MacBook for Christmas with a 256GB SSD and a few days ago I notice I only have 40GB left on the SSD.

I tried researching this and according to this question (How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?) I download DaisyDisk to discover why so much of my space was gone after only 4 months. This showed me that com.apple.bird was taking up 89GB!

So I researched this also and an answer to this question (What is com.apple.bird? Why does it grow so big?) suggested using a script to tell me what apps are using this 89GB. I actually got the script to work (pat on back for me!) and this tells me that WhatsApp is the problem.

Now I'm freaking out because my friends and I all use WhatsApp to talk about school, parties, life and I don’t know what to do. I use WhatsApp on my iPhone 5c mainly, but the answers to the question about com.apple.bird are really scary to me because it's not clear if i will lose everything if I delete what's in com.apple.bird? But, if I don’t delete it, I'll run out of space soon!

How do I fix this?

If you don’t already, I want to suggest in the strongest terms possible that you have a Time Machine backup of your data. A portable 1TB hard drive is not expensive and you can plug it in and Time Machine will prompt you if you want to use it for backups. I would do that before proceeding with any answers provided (mine included).

As for that huge 89GB of data, this is actually safe to remove. However, please don’t do this manually. Instead, follow these steps:

On your iPhone ensure you have iCloud activated
Make sure your MacBook is connected to the internet
On your MacBook, go to Apple > System Preferences
Click on iCloud
At the top where you have the iCloud Drive checkbox ticked, untick it
A somewhat scary message will appear - click on the Delete from Mac button. Don’t worry, your documents will still be on iCloud (and that’s another reason why we made sure iCloud was activated on your iPhone at Step 1)
Exit System Preferences
Within about 5 minutes most of that 89GB in com.apple.bird will be freed up
Once you’re satisfied that you’ve freed up all that space, repeat Steps 3 & 4
At the top you can now tick the iCloud Drive checkbox again
Exit System Preferences

Let me know if my steps aren’t clear or if you have any problems.

Remember: - Make sure you regularly backup your MacBook.


Catalina: backup iOS devices programatically Before Catalina, I used to be able to use a simple AppleScript to open iTunes and select the menubar to back up connected iPhone/iPad; In Catalina, this function is moved to Finder and so far I haven't been able to find out how to click in the Finder's sidebar > location > iPhone. Has anyone had any luck with that?

Apple Configurator 21  has a command line utility cfgutil, which can be installed from the menubar in Apple Configurator
.

With cfgutil installed, you can run the command: cfgutil backup

Apple Configurator 2 includes an Automator action too, which does the same as the above command.

1Currently requires macOS version 10.14.6 or later.


Restoring past purchases with changed Apple ID How can I restore my past purchases if I wish to change my Apple ID?

At the Moment there is no Option to merge two iTunes Accounts ...

BUT:

you can redownload from the old and purchase with the new one
if you only want to change your e-Mail as "Account" everything is the same.


Does OS X file organization works like Ubuntu's? I mean, does mac have a "home" folder, and if I want to format and reinstall the system, it'll not affect my home folder? And the Desktop is a folder within the home folder?

OS X does indeed have a home folder, in /Users/<username> with a hierarchy of folders, including one for Desktop, in this location - similar to Ubuntu.

On most Linux distributions the /home is a different partition on the drive and formatting the primary OS partition would not erase your data. This is not the case with OS X and (unless you've made a concerted effort to the contrary) erasing the OS X drive will erase your data.


Can I make my Mac OS X Terminal color items according to syntax, like the Ubuntu terminal? I want it to have all the colors for syntax folders, etc... How can I do that?

My terminal colors

how to do it
download theme
from here: http://media.tannern.com/tanner.terminal
import into Terminal
After installing SIMBL and the correct terminalcolors you can import my terminal theme from the Terminal Preferences window.

other tweaks
Adding this to the file ~/.profile will make ls color it's output by default.
# Make ls use colors
export CLICOLOR=1
alias ls='ls -Fa'

Adding this will define colors as variables to make a prompt easier to edit.
# define colors
C_DEFAULT="\[\033[m\]"
C_WHITE="\[\033[1m\]"
C_BLACK="\[\033[30m\]"
C_RED="\[\033[31m\]"
C_GREEN="\[\033[32m\]"
C_YELLOW="\[\033[33m\]"
C_BLUE="\[\033[34m\]"
C_PURPLE="\[\033[35m\]"
C_CYAN="\[\033[36m\]"
C_LIGHTGRAY="\[\033[37m\]"
C_DARKGRAY="\[\033[1;30m\]"
C_LIGHTRED="\[\033[1;31m\]"
C_LIGHTGREEN="\[\033[1;32m\]"
C_LIGHTYELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]"
C_LIGHTBLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"
C_LIGHTPURPLE="\[\033[1;35m\]"
C_LIGHTCYAN="\[\033[1;36m\]"
C_BG_BLACK="\[\033[40m\]"
C_BG_RED="\[\033[41m\]"
C_BG_GREEN="\[\033[42m\]"
C_BG_YELLOW="\[\033[43m\]"
C_BG_BLUE="\[\033[44m\]"
C_BG_PURPLE="\[\033[45m\]"
C_BG_CYAN="\[\033[46m\]"
C_BG_LIGHTGRAY="\[\033[47m\]"

Adding this will give you a multi-line colored prompt.
# set your prompt
export PS1="\n$C_LIGHTGREEN\u$C_DARKGRAY@$C_BLUE\h $C_DARKGRAY: $C_LIGHTYELLOW\w\n$C_DARKGRAY\$$C_DEFAULT "

For a list of escape sequences to use in prompts check this article


What format does Apple Mail store its emails in? We're trying to convert a user's email mailbox from Apple Mail to Outlook 2010.

We copied the files off the mac, and they are mostly directories that end in .mbox and contain a folder called Messages containing .emlx files.

The .mbox extension on the folders initially made me think that these messages were in the mbox format, but after some research I found that the mbox format is actually a single file, so that rules out it being in that format.

You can find a description of the format based on an reengineering effort here:

It has three parts:

The length of part 2, in bytes
The message itself
Message metadata (XML Property List)


Could you interpret these screen resolutions from Google Analytics? After choosing Macintosh in my Google Analytics stats and then choosing Screen Resolution as the secondary dimension, I get these numbers:

Which one of these are 15" Macbook Pro, 13" Macbook Pro, etc.

I'd like to know if the Retina screens are reported in their actual resolution. I don't see any stats for 2560x1600 and 2880x1800. Does this mean that these Retina screens are reported as 1280x800 and 1440x900 respectively?

1440x900 is the native resolution for 15'' non Macbook Pros, and the given  (best/default) resolution for 15'' rMBP with the pixel doubling effect taken into account, as it is. The analytics don't distinguish between the two, so the most you can infer from the data is that the most common model is a 15'' Macbook Pro.


iOS Causing Network-Wide Disruption So, interesting problem, whenever I plug my iPhone 6 Plus into charge, I get massive disruption across my whole network, wired and wireless. Once it starts, the only solution is to either disable the phone's WiFi or reboot the device. The image below shows a PingPlotter graph of the problem in action.

Has anoyone seen this sort of behavior before? If so, any recommendation on troubleshooting?

Do you have iCloud backup turned on the device? I've experienced this before when I had the service turned on (have since turned it off).


Why does the Watch app on my iPhone state that my apps will need to be updated during setup when I already have the latest versions installed? When pairing an Apple Watch to my iPhone, I've noticed that even though the App Store lists all of my apps being up-to-date, the Watch app on my iPhone states that several of my iOS apps will be updated for compatibility before their watchOS counterparts will be sent over to my Watch. Is this a standard message that appears - even if all iOS apps on the paired iPhone are fully updated to the latest versions?

WatchOS apps are a complex hybrid since they started as all being dependent upon iOS and now they can be independent or dependent. You need to get both sides synced in some cases, hence the message to update iOS when watchOS is in play with one or more paired watches.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/watchkit/creating_independent_watchos_apps/

To be clear - some updates only apply if the watch component is required to be active or the developer ties them together when submitting their builds to Apple. This is all standard and you might even learn that some apps get different builds based on different hardware - not all apps are monolithic based on hardware versioning and software versioning. (Like an older watch that’s still supported but not the latest watchOS might get a different app than the latest watchOS gets).


Does Photos.app do facial recognition locally or are photos sent to Apple for processing? Photos.app automatically recognizes faces in photos and groups them by person. Are photos sent to Apple for processing or is everything done locally on the machine?

Facial recognition and other image analysis is done on device. Never done on Apple's servers. Also the results of facial recognition and other images analysis are never send to Apple.

  Apple’s system is more focused on privacy than Facebook's or Google’s,
  with stricter limits on how the data is collected and stored. Onstage,
  Craig Federighi insisted that Apple’s new system only uses local data, which
  means the company isn’t storing faceprints on company servers — a
  crucial point for anyone worried about their faceprint being used for
  more than just cataloging photos. Faceprints are still being created
  and used, but it's all happening on your phone, where Apple and the
  rest of the world can't access it. That’s different from Google and
  Facebook, which store data on the cloud and get significant scale
  benefits as a result.

Starting with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra 10.13 however, facial recognition data will be synced across iCloud Photo Library.

Interview John Gruber with Craig Federighi on how this works:

  No, we've been working on it. And it's actually something that's
  harder to get right right, because when you go through the process of
  classifying your photos, we offer up and we say "Hey, is this John?"
  And y'know, "Is this John?" And you say "Yes, yes."

  But when you say yes to one face, we're actually saying "Okay, well,
  there are a thousand other photos we saw that we think are the same
  person as this, so we're going to count those all as John — but all
  you really told us is about that one photo.

  And so what we actually sync, and support, and so that we get this
  right — we sync only the specific photos you told us about, and then
  each… 'cos that's really the truth, y'know, that's what the user
  really told us.

  And then we sync that information, and then each device, because
  they're independently doing photo recognition are talking that, and
  re-deriving the
  — coming to the final result on all your machines to synchronize. So
  synchronize is actually very little data, and it's all just the truth
  data, and we won't hold back the right solution.

  But getting that architecture completely right was a — took a little
  longer than we would have liked, and so we're super excited to have it
  done now.


Kernel_task boosts CPU to 300%-500% (Yosemitte MBP 2011 without a battery) Long story short, my oldie MBP 2011' battery started bloating, I've contacted a repair service center and they advised me to remove the battery and use it on AC power, while they get a new battery for a replacement. What I've noticed a few days back, that my MBP starts extremely lagging from time to time. After a restart, it works fine for 12 - 20 hours and then the problem appears again. I've noticed that when the lagging starts, kernel_task begins consuming up to 500% CPU. So I bet that the problem's source is kernel_task, but what causes its extreme rise? Could it be a removed battery?

One troubleshooting step is to see which files are being modified while kernel_task is consuming 500% CPU. In Terminal:

  sudo fs_usage -f filesys

You will see a lot of files fly by. Just scroll up to get an idea of what files are being written or read.


How do I enter  on a broken keyboard? As per title: I've a broken keyboard where the < and > keys don't work anymore. Can I insert such symbols with a Option + X  combination?

I would prefer to avoid direct ASCII code numbers, if possible.

macOS doesn't do 'alt-codes', that's a Windows feature.*

Simplest solution might be to use the Keyboard Viewer, accessible from the Menu Bar once enabled in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard

On a UK keyboard they're accessed by pressing  Shift ⇧

*From comments:
They can be made to work, though I feel they're more effort than really needed ;)
System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources > Plus sign > Unicode Hex input. After you choose it, you can do Option then 003C, it'll show the < symbol.


Are these Apple software bugs resolved? I came across this article: http://www.cestarcollege.com/blog/software-development/the-3-most-devastating-bugs-found-in-recent-software/ which is talking about 3 bugs found in Apple software. Are these resolved now?  Does anyone have any idea about these bugs?

The three problems mentioned in the article have all been addressed by Apple.

Apple Maps Misdirection – 2012

Apple Maps are constantly being updated.

Gotofail – 2014

Fixed four days later on Tuesday, February 25, 2014. The article linked in the question was published on 30 October 2017.

Heartbleed – 2014

Heartbleed was not an Apple specific bug. It was a bug in the open source OpenSSL project, which was rapidly fixed.


Can I use 16GB DDR3-1600MHz RAM in an early Macbook Pro 8.2? I found Macs which had:

16GB RAM installed

8GB RAM installed, but running on 1600MHz instead of 1333MHz (link in dutch)

Question
Is it possible to put 16GB running at 1600MHz in my Mac?
If you've done this, please post a screen shot.
Apparently you need a Macbook Pro with an i7 processor of at least 2.2GHz or more in order to use memory running at 1600MHz.
My hardware

Macbook Pro 8,2  early 2011 - 2.0GHz i7 quad

edit:
I recently found this sleepimage. Basically it's just a swap file of your RAM. so your mac can 'sleep'. But when you install 16GB you're gonna have a 16GB RAM file sitting on your disk as well. Which you can safely delete but it will be recreated when your mac goes to sleep. just something to consider when your working with limited disk space.

It's not possible to use RAM running at 1600MHz in your Macbook Pro 8.2, because it's not supported by the processor.

Your Macbook Pro has the Intel® Core™ i7-2635QM Processor which only allows DDR3-RAM running at 1066/1333MHz according to Intel. (see link for official specs)

While the 2635QM processor does not support 1600MHz memory, it does support 16GB RAM:


Email-based FaceTime on iPhone 4? The new iPod Touch and the Mac FaceTime app both allow the user to send and receive FaceTime calls with their email address/Apple ID as the identifier. Is it possible to set up an iPhone 4 to send/receive FaceTime calls with my email address instead of my phone number?

On the iPhone itself, you are unable to add "e-mail address aliases" like in the OSX App. The only method of having people call your iPhone is by giving them your phone number.

As far as the iPhone making facetime calls, the only easy way I've seen to do it is to already have their Facetime address in your Address Book, or use Safari.

Open Safari on your iPhone, go to the URL bar, type: <facetime://their@email.addr>, then tap the "Facetime" acknowledgement button afterwards.


Activating Sierra Finder Window options In Finder in Sierra, in the menu Window, all options are disabled. How can I activate them?

All options in the Window menu will be inactive when there's no Finder window. You can simply create a new one via the menu File -> New Finder Window, or by pressing Cmd + N.


Can't download previously purchased app I need to download an app from the iTunes store and have recently changed my Apple ID. I previously purchased this app with my old account and when I try to re-download it the iCloud symbol is the only option available. When I click on the iCloud icon, however, I cannot download it.

If as you say, you changed the Apple ID, the stuff from previous Apple ID is NOT accessible with new ID.

To get there you must use old Apple ID.


If Linux is installed in a virtual environment on my mac can I open apps that big sur blocks? I'm trying open this application: http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/~lucag/ (It's a research tool might might be great for my work so I really want to access it).
When I try and open the app I get the message: "You do not have permission to open the application "ECGWorkbench'. Contact your computer or network administrator for assistance."
If I installed Linux in a virtual environment on my mac could I then open the the Linux version of the app?

Yes, if you have Linux installed in a virtualised environment that you control on your Mac - then you could install applications in there. Restrictions on running applications within macOS using Apple's MDM system would not apply to applications within the virtualised Linux system.
Note that this all presumes that you have already got Linux up and running in a virtualised environment. If the owner of your laptop denies running most programs, they most probably also deny the installation of virtualisation software.


How can I know whether MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, etc. are installed on Mac OS X 10.7? I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.
How can I know whether MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, etc. are installed on the system?

Try the Terminal command mdfind (string) | grep include

For example:

$ mdfind postgres | grep include
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres_fe.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres_ext.h
/usr/include/postgresql/server/postgres.h
/usr/include/postgresql/internal/postgres_fe.h
/usr/include/postgres_ext.h
...

$ mdfind sqlite | grep include
/usr/include/sqlite3ext.h
/usr/include/sqlite3.h
/usr/include/php/ext/sqlite3/libsqlite/sqlite3.h
/usr/include/php/ext/sqlite/libsqlite/src/sqlite.h
...

This is a good way to determine if there are header files installed for the respective database libraries you ask about.


How can I have Qt Creator to recognize my environment variables? I use Qt Creator as my main IDE for cross-platform C++ application development. In doing so I had set it up so that it depends on a set of environment variables that I define in .bashrc.

On Linux (Ubuntu specifically) that works fine but on OSX Lion I cannot get it to work. I have defined my variables in .bashrc and .bashrc is sourced inside .bash_profile. The variables are defined when I do echo $VAR inside the terminal but when I open the IDE (from Dock) it does not recognize the variables. Does Dock not use bash to launch applications?

Apps launched from the dock or desktop or any GUI do not use bash. They are all children of the workspace (the loginwindow process).

To set the environment variables you need to edit ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist which is read when you login.
This is a text plist and you need to set a key element to the name of the environment variable it uses and the next string element to its value. See Apple's documentation for Setting environment variables for user processes

e.g. mine is for WAFDIR and PATH

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>WAFDIR</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/src/third_party/git-svn/waf</string>

  <key>PATH</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/bin:/Users/mark/env/bin:/Users/mark/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/libexec/binutils:</string>
</dict>
</plist>


really bad power consumption on mid-2013 MacBook Air I'm getting a really bad power consumption on my mid-2013 MacBook Air 11" w/ OS X 10.9.4.  I think the issue is that I have too many tabs open in Safari and SeaMonkey, and they're all taking a lot of power.

It seems that even having all such tabs minimised still lets them suck out all the power out of my Mac.

Is there a way to improve power consumption?  Looks like I'm only getting some 2 or 3 hours (instead of 9) on a nearly brand new machine that has been unboxed just a couple of months ago in the summer of 2014, with the battery only having 36 cycles on.

I don't know about SeaMonkey, not an app I've seen, but in Safari, make sure Prefs  Cmd   ,  > Advanced > Internet Plugins : 'Stop plug-ins to save power' is checked


How can I operate 2 XServes and 2 iMacs from 1 keyboard and 1 mouse (both bluetooth)? I have 2 Xserves and 2 iMacs.  I would like to control them with 1 Apple wireless keyboard and one Apple Magic Mouse.

I have seen a device from IOGear a Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter,  which made me wonder if something like the following could work:

To do this I would need two 1 x 4 passive usb hubs with some kind of electronic or mechanical switch.  Then, plugging the bluetooth to usb adapters into each such device I could pair the keyboard or mouse with the respective bluetooth to usb adapter.

Do any such switchable usb hubs exist?  Could I use anything else?  Since I can readily share the displays of my iMacs via a mini dvi connection to the XServes I don't really need a full blown KVM device.

I saw a post on this site that recommended Synergy to do something like this, but as I don't have dedicated monitors for the servers, it does not look like a good solution for me.

Any other solutions welcome.

Thanks in advance.

I use a combination of synergy for my laptop (macbook pro), and workstation (ubuntu linux). To get to my servers (some freebsd, some linux) I use just SSH, but if I need an X session I can export it over ssh. As Lyken mentions, ARD is the way to go. VNC is more crossplatform, but since you're running all Macs, its a piece of piss to get working.

Synergy would be worth a go with your two iMacs.

With that setup, you won't need any extra hardware, just a working network.


82GB of "other" don't appear in OmniDiskSweeper or Freediskspace I have a new MacBook Pro 13' where I installed a few programs and transferred my files from my previous MacBook. However, my SSD is already almost full, according to the settings (only 12.64GB left). However, when I try to see what takes so much space on my SSD with OmniDiskSweeper or FreeDiskSpace, I see only 140GB of files.
The roughly 80GB missing appear as "Other" in the storage settings of my Mac. Do you have any idea what is this data and how can I free up space on my computer?
I tried reindexing Spotlight as suggested in other threads but it didn't change anything. When I look at the free space on finder on my drive, I get the same number as in the storage part (only 12.64GB left).
Thank you in advance!
Edit: When running a scan with GrandPerspective, the volume of scanned files is 126GB but it also mentioned "miscellaneous used space" of 93.9GB.

The number Grand Perspective shows as "Miscellanous used space" represents the amount of data that Grand Perspective hasn't scanned.
This could be due to you only scanning part of the drive (for example just scanning the home directory for one user, whilst other user's data haven't been scanned), setting a filter or lack of permissions.
If you haven't done so already, I would suggest giving Grand Perspective Full Disk Access and try again. You do this from System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy.
In case it is not due to files that are not scanned, the space could be taken up by file system snapshots - for example made by TimeMachine backups.


Applescript change folder and terminal commands I have tried the following but cannot seem to get this to work:

do script "cd ~/desktop/test; for x in ls -1 | sed -e 's/^\(.\).*/\1/' | sort -u; do mv -i ${x}?* $x done"

I'm wanting to perform this command in applescript. I run this in applescript and I get an error regarding "" marks but am not sure how to correct it. I'm a complete newbie to applescript. willing to learn just a little lost.

Thanks

General when using the do shell script command, you will need to use the quoted form property of text objects. In other words, do something like this.

set command to "ls"
set result to do shell script quoted form of command
display dialog result


iOS7 iPhone: how to make Siri-initiated calls, SMS text msgs come from Google Voice caller ID? When I ask Siri (iOS 7.0.4 on my iPhone 5S) to call or text someone, I want said call or text to come from my Google Voice caller ID.  Any way to do this now that jailbreak apps GVIntegrated & Phone GV Extension appear to no longer be available (at least for my phone, details below)?

All other Google Voice functionality seems to be handled just fine via the Google Voice "standard" app from Google.

I've jailbroken said phone searching for a way, with no success.  GVIntegrated indeed reads "not certified on this device" and Phone GV Extension doesn't even come up in the search list on Cydia.  Phone GV Extension worked well on my iPhone 4S running 5.x (and maybe 6.x), although my iPhone seemed to be a bit less stable (reboot/crashes) in jailbroken mode.

This is not possible in 2014 and neither is it possible in fall of 2019.

Unless there’s an API or other way to script this, you might need to use a mac or other python enabled tool to automate this.

How can I initiate a Google Voice phone call from the command line?


Magic Mouse battery level broken in Lion? After upgrading to Lion my Magic Mouse's level indicator seems to be broken.

For the whole week it was reporting solid 100% on a pair of used batteries that were about 65% before upgrading. I swapped the batteries naively hoping it'll change anything and it actually did. It's now solid 95%!

Screens from both system preferences and Bluetooth icon in the menu bar:

What's interesting, iStat Pro dashboard widget seems to be reporting a correct level:

Has anyone noticed such a problem? Or maybe even found a solution to it?

You are not the only one. Mine says the same - 100%. This is a bug. The terminal command for querying the battery percentage (probably what iStat Pro uses) reports: "BatteryPercent" = 82

For bluetooth mouse:

ioreg -n "BNBMouseDevice" | grep -i "batterypercent"

For Apple bluetooth keyboard:

ioreg -n "AppleBluetoothHIDKeyboard" | grep -i "batterypercent"

I've posted this in the Apple Bug reporter. Hopefully it will be fixed in an future Lion update.

Here is another thread discussing the same issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3211868


Can closed (not running) apps access background app refresh? Can closed apps (i.e. not running, or suspended) access background app refresh or modify their program state to gain access to background app refresh? And conversely, if background app refresh is disabled, can apps only access data in the foreground?

Example 1: Chat apps still get notifications if they are in the "not running" program state. How do they do this?

Example 2: If I'm saving a note (with background app refresh off), and I return to the homescreen before the note is finished saving, will it continue to save?

From the iOS docs, the app life cycle is pictured below.

iOS Developer Guide: The App Life Cycle

Do not confuse Suspended with Not Running. Suspended means the app is still in memory but otherwise not utilizing any resources. Not Running means the app is not in memory at all due to being involuntarily terminated, either because the system required resources for a foreground app, or because the user force-quit the app.

Background App Refresh (BAR) =/= "Background" as shown in that diagram:

BAR allows apps to update content on a very limited basis, on a schedule set and enforced by iOS, generally about once per day.
The Background state shown in that diagram is Background Execution, which allows apps to complete certain tasks in the background. BAR being disabled has no effect on apps being able to use Background Execution.

Background Execution is generally only allowed if an app has not been force-quit by the user (the exception being "location apps"). Apps in any state, including Terminated, can use Background Execution if they meet the requirements below. If necessary, they will be relaunched by the system into the background (again, subject to the force-quit limitations above). See my answer on a similar question:

  Apps that play audible content to the user while in the background, such as a music player app
  Apps that record audio content while in the background
  Apps that keep users informed of their location at all times, such as a navigation app
  Apps that support Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
  Apps that need to download and process new content regularly
  Apps that receive regular updates from external accessories

  There is one other case, which is downloading in the background. This is a special case, though, because the app itself is still suspended and the download process is handed off to the system, in case the app has to be terminated by the system to reclaim resources.

What's not in the linked answer is notifications. Non-local notifications are generated on a server somewhere and pushed to the device via Apple Push Notifications (APN). The act of receiving a notification does not indicate the app itself did anything.

In your note example, when the note app transitions to the background, it is given a brief amount of time to save state. If it's in the process of doing something like saving a note, and it cannot complete it in the time allowed, it can ask for an extension, essentially, and then notify the system when it's done so the app can be suspended. This type of background work can be used by any app, not just those that fall under the categories listed above.


Mac external displays are now in the wrong order I have a 2017 27" iMac that generally has one external display, connected to  the DisplayPort port of a OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock. This display is always connected to my mac.

Occasionally I will also connect a thunderbolt 3 external touch display for work. Up until today, that display was always considered display #3 and wouldn't affect the icon or window placement of either of my other two displays.

However, today I booted up my system with the external thunderbolt 3 display connected, and now macOS considers it to be display #2 as long as it's connected. All of my carefully arranged desktop icons that used to be on my DisplayPort external display now get kicked over to this thunderbolt 3 display. If I disconnect it, the DisplayPort display becomes display #2 again and the icons reset. It's very annoying!

I haven't found anything I can do to reset this behavior. How can I get my displays back to working the way they were before, with the thunderbolt 3 display always being display #3?

I've found one solution to this: reseting my mac's NVRAM. This seems to reset the order of my monitors to how it was before. However, if I leave my Thunderbolt 3 display connected while booting my mac, the problem will come back again.

I'll wait a while before marking my own answer as the accepted solution to this question since a) it's not a particularly good solution, and b) I'd like to give other people a chance to post a better one.


Why doesn’t screen capture videos doesn’t show up in Video app or any other video players in iPad? I’m using the built in screen capture to capture videos. They only seem to show up in the “Photos” app under “Videos” section. I really don’t like the Video player (with frames and stuff at the bottom). Why doesn’t a screen capture show up in “Videos” app or any other external players like VLC? What can I do to change the default player of screen captures on iPad?

Currently there is no way to change the default app that opens a particular file type, hyperlink, etc.

However, many 3rd party apps allow you to import and/or open photos, videos etc directly from their default locations without first having to transfer the files via iTunes or an online cloud service.

With regard to VLC, if you don't want to connect your iPad to iTunes, then your best bet is to go into the Photos app and save the videos to Files, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. One saved, go into VLC and access the sidebar, tap on Cloud Services, and then select the appropriate option to access the video.

For example, to access a video capture on VLC, you could:

Go to Photos
Tap the video
Tap on the Share icon and select Save to Files
Navigate to where within Files you want to save the video and proceed to save it
Open VLC
Access the sidebar
Tap on Cloud Services
In the next screen tap on Cloud Services again
Open the video capture


Apple Magic Mouse 2 not scrolling - Magic Mouse 1 works! (Windows 10 / PC) I have been using an Apple Magic Mouse "1" for quite some time now on my Windows 10 PC and I was very content except the damn batteries that needed replacing every once in a while. So I bought an Apple Magic Mouse 2. Shouldn't be that difficult, right? Disconnect the "1", connect the "2" and go!

Nope. The mouse works fine except it doesn't scroll.

I've (re)installed the latest AppleWirelessMouse64.exe from the Bootcamp support software (tried both 5.1.5722 and 5.1.569) and also the BlueTooth driver.
I've tried switching the mouse off and on again (disconnecting, reconnecting), rebooting, unpairing and (re)pairing
I've tried MagicUtilities; at first it installed but then my mouse became near unusable. The pointer would jump instead of move with second+ intervals, the mousebutton(s) didn't react to anything. Even not after rebooting, again trying all of the above with pairing, unpairing, switching off and on etc. On boot the mouse worked fine; I could click and move it without issue until MagicUtilities loaded (in the taskbar). Then it seemed to break. So I then uninstalled the software. However the mouse still kept "jumping". It turns out MagicUtilities also installs a driver but doesn't uninstall it didn't remove it in my situation. Uninstalled the driver manually, which failed for some reason on several occasions, but, a couple of reboots and "persuading" later I had my mouse (or mice) finally back to where I got started.

But, still, the MM1 scrolls just fine, the MM2 doesn't want to. Here's some more of my findings:

Both mice connected doesn't seem to cause any trouble but, for every step above, I also tried with only the MM1 or MM2 connected.
When only the MM1 is connected and I open the Mouse settings it has a "scroll-wheel" tab. When the MM2 is the only mouse connected the tab disappears. When both are connected the tab shows.
When I go to the hardware tab there's a difference between both mice's "location". One, the MM1, shows "On Apple Wireless Mouse", the other, MM2, shows "On Bluetooth HID-device".

Since I've exhausted all of my ideas (I also tried looking at the registry to find differences etc. (didn't change anything ofcourse)) I tried to go back to giving MagicUtilities another, rather reluctantantly, shot; however: it won't install anymore: "The required Magic Mouse Driver installation failed. Error code is -2147418112". Again, I've tried rebooting etc. but that doesn't help anything.

Oh, I have even tried:

Connecting the MM2 to my MacBook air. Scrolling works fine. Ofcourse.
Since my MM1 has a name like "<joe's mouse>" I even tried renaming the MM2 to "<joe's mouse>" on the MacBook and then going back to my PC, connecting the MM2 (solely) and hoping it would pick up the MM1's settings. To no avail, as expected. But there's always that little spark of hope...
Disabling Bluetooth Battery Monitor, thinking it may interfere somehow. Didn't make any difference. It does, however, report two mice and two battery levels which is nice.

So now I'm sitting here, at my desk, with a MM1 and MM2, simultaneously (and consecutively) connected and working all fine and dandy EXCEPT for the frikkin' scroll on the MM2 whereas my MM1 scrolls just fine. Thats €89 down the drain...

So... now what? Anybody with the tip to get my beloved MM2 to work on my Win 10 64bit machine?

Here is Magic Utilities.

At this point in time, we are not sure what went wrong in your specific case, but our drivers do uninstall when uninstalling the Magic Utilities.

You can always uninstall any Windows driver with Windows pnputil from the command line. First enumerate all drivers, to find the relevant eomXX.inf, then do a forced uninstall of that oemXX.inf file.

Note: The BootCamp drivers from Apples official webpage do not support the Magic Mouse 2.

We'll contact you via email to help you to solve your specific problem.

The Magic Team