Revoke permission to run third-party kernel extension Once a user grants macOS permission to run a third-party's kernel extensions, all extensions signed by that developer's key are allowed to run. Even if the extension is erased and reinstalled, permission remains.

How does one subsequently revoke permission to run one or all third-party kernel extensions?

This is not a request for how to unload kernel extensions. Assume, for example, that a developer wishes repeatable QA around the process of installing and prompting a user to authorize a kernel extension.

According to TN2459

  Approved KEXTs are tracked in a system-wide policy database through the team identifier in the KEXT's code signature and the bundle identifier from the KEXT's Info.plist, so updating a KEXT that has already been approved will not trigger a new approval request.

This database (at least until Mojave) is /var/db/SystemPolicyConfiguration/KextPolicy and you can update it with sqlite3 after disabling SIP.

A1398% csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.
A1398% sudo sqlite3 /var/db/SystemPolicyConfiguration/KextPolicy
SQLite version 3.24.0 2018-06-04 14:10:15
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> .schema
CREATE TABLE settings ( name TEXT, value TEXT, PRIMARY KEY (name) );
CREATE TABLE kext_load_history_v3 ( path TEXT PRIMARY KEY, team_id TEXT, bundle_id TEXT, boot_uuid TEXT, created_at TEXT, last_seen TEXT, flags INTEGER , cdhash TEXT);
CREATE TABLE kext_policy ( team_id TEXT, bundle_id TEXT, allowed BOOLEAN, developer_name TEXT, flags INTEGER, PRIMARY KEY (team_id, bundle_id) );
CREATE TABLE kext_policy_mdm ( team_id TEXT, bundle_id TEXT, allowed BOOLEAN, payload_uuid TEXT, PRIMARY KEY (team_id, bundle_id) );
sqlite>

It contains 4 tables of which only kext_policy and kext_load_history_v3 are interesting (unless you use mdm presumably).  For example these are my authorised kext:

sqlite> select * from kext_policy;
VBG97UB4TA|com.objective-see.lulu|1|Objective-See, LLC|1
Z3L495V9L4|com.intel.driver.EnergyDriver|1|Intel Corporation Apps|1
|com.rugarciap.DisableTurboBoost|1|Legacy Developer: Rugarciap|1
MLZF7K7B5R|at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch|1|Objective Development Software GmbH|1
54GTJ2AU36|com.joshuawise.kexts.HoRNDIS|1|Joshua Wise|1
6HB5Y2QTA3|com.hp.kext.io.enabler.compound|1|HP Inc.|0
sqlite>

If you wanted to delete all of them you could use delete from kext_policy; then to be tidy delete from kext_load_history_v3;

Alternatively you can delete a specific one by comparing one of the fields shown by the .schema command.  For example to delete LittleSnitch based on the second field bundle_id;

sqlite> delete from kext_policy where bundle_id = "at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch";
sqlite> delete from kext_load_history_v3 where bundle_id = "at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch";
sqlite> select * from kext_policy;
VBG97UB4TA|com.objective-see.lulu|1|Objective-See, LLC|1
Z3L495V9L4|com.intel.driver.EnergyDriver|1|Intel Corporation Apps|1
|com.rugarciap.DisableTurboBoost|1|Legacy Developer: Rugarciap|1
54GTJ2AU36|com.joshuawise.kexts.HoRNDIS|1|Joshua Wise|1
6HB5Y2QTA3|com.hp.kext.io.enabler.compound|1|HP Inc.|0
sqlite> .quit

I notice that this answer on stackoverflow suggests it may be necessary also to reset PRAM.  Resetting PRAM automatically reenables SIP and as it is easier than booting into recovery is worth doing.

It is possible to do this using a GUI if preferred. After disabling SIP:

Download and install DB Browser for SQLite
Launch from terminal with sudo /Applications/DB\ Browser\ for\ SQLite.app/Contents/MacOS/DB\ Browser\ for\ SQLite
Open Database /var/db/SystemPolicyConfiguration/KextPolicy (press ⇧⌘. to show hidden files).
On Browse Data tab in kext_policy table, right click and delete row(s) containing unwanted kexts.  Here I'm deleting kext for LuLu firewall.

Change table to kext_load_history_v3 and delete corresponding rows.

Click on Write Changes
Reboot and reset PRAM (⌘-⌥-P-R) which will reenable SIP automatically with no need to boot back into recovery.

After reboot a System Extension Blocked message is received for the kext whose records were deleted:

Allowing software from the developer in System Preferences updates the KextPolicy database and then further reboots are back to normal.


Remove downloads or remove from library for duplicate playlist? I have a playlist that I sync between iTunes and my iPhone on iOS 10.3.1. Sometimes I see that a playlist gets duplicated with the number 1 after the name. I want to delete the duplicated playlist from my iPhone, but I get a concerning dialog, asking if I want to remove downloads ore remove the playlist from the library.

I'm not quite sure what it's asking. Can someone explain this? Any downloaded songs from iTunes I want to stay on the phone as part of the original playlist and in general, but I want that second playlist itself to disappear.

Remove Downloads will leave the playlist in your library, but remove the music files associated with the songs in that playlist from your phone, thus freeing up storage. It's a quick method to bulk-remove songs from your phone.

Delete from Library will remove the playlist itself from your media library (including iCloud Music Library if you use iTunes Match or MUSIC). However whatever music files you've already downloaded will remain on your phone.

In your case, you should Delete from Library if you are certain the playlist is a duplicate.


Podcast list missing all dates I have one specific podcast (Reasonable Doubts Podcast) that used to work correctly in iOS5, but since the upgrade to iOS6 with the standalone Podcast app, all the episodes are missing their dates, and sort in alphabetical order (fairly useless).

I've unsubscribed, deleted, and re-subscribed, and the problem still occurs. Is this a bug? User error? Something the Doubtcast folks need to fix with the feed on their end?

Can someone confirm whether the same problem happens for this specific podcast on your device? (Mine is a 32GB iPhone 5).

Same here (iPhone 4S, iOS 6.0.1), dates are missing:

although other podcasts are shown with release date:

On the other hand, and quite surprinsingly, the podcast is shown correctly in iTunes:

According to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3120228 the missing release date could be caused by an incorrect pubDate element.

However, Reasonable Doubts' RSS feed correctly formats the pubDate element as described in the RSS specification and RFC 822. But what about the rest of the XML file? A syntax error could prevent an RSS reader from successfully parsing the RSS feed and extracting the date information.

Luckily, the W3C provides at http://validator.w3.org/appc/ a feed validation service, which checks compliance with the RSS specification. And W3C is clear, Reasonable Doubts doesn't validate:

Apparently iOS 5 and iTunes are more tolerant than iOS 6 with some "broken" RSS feeds like the Reasonable Doubts podcast.

(As a side note: I found a podcast which looked perfectly right in iOS 6 although not having the day of the week in pubDate, so that wasn't the culprit, as I first (wrongly) suspected. I also found other podcasts with a missing release date (like here and here). The reason for it in these cases is indeed a non compliant pubDate element.)


Turning off iCloud sync w/ Photos on Mac threatens to delete local files A while back I elected to start syncing my Photos on my Mac to iCloud.  I quickly ran out of cloud storage (5GB).  I have decided I don't want to deal with some of the back & forth confusion between my computer & iCloud.

In Photos > Settings, under the iCloud tab, when I attempt to un-check iCloud Photo Library, a message comes up saying "Your iCloud Photo Library is currently updating."  (This makes no sense - the library has long been full).  This message has two options, "Turn Off" and "Continue Updating".  Checking "Turn Off," brings up a rather disconcerting message: 1,250 low-resolution items will be removed from this Mac. Full-resolution versions will remain in iCloud.  So my question is, why would turning off iCloud be cause to remove items from my computer?

Help is much appreciated,

Max

edit:  running OSX Yosemite 10.10.5

You enabled a feature called "Optimize Mac Storage" where low-res photos will be stored locally on your Mac, but the original resolution photos will be stored in iCloud. So when you are disabling sync, iCloud choses to delete the low-res photos on your Mac, and keep them in iCloud.

Method 1: Contact Apple support, or walk into an Apple store and ask them for help.

Method 2: Try finding and disabling the feature I mentioned in the first paragraph. The alternative is called "Download and Keep Originals. This will only work if you have enough space on your device. After you disable that feature, disable iCloud Photo Library

Method 3: You should try downloading all the photos currently stored in iCloud and put them in the same (create a new folder) folder as the ones that have not been uploaded (make sure they are original resolution, as a back up). Make sure there are no duplicates. The number of photos should add up to the total number of photos you had(2,073 in your case). Then just disable iCloud Photo Library. Then just delete all the photos in your Photo Library, and put all the pictures that in the backup you created earlier into your photo library.


How reliable and trustworthy are the Objective-See Security tools (KnockKnock (UI), Dynamic Hijack Scanner and BlockBlock)? DHS found an issue
Is this a false positive? Anybody else with the same message?
I installed BlockBlock. What do you think about it? Do you trust those Security tools?

BlockBlock (beta)
BlockBlock provides continual protection by monitoring persistence locations. Any new persistent component will trigger a BlockBlock alert, allowing malicious items be blocked.

URL: Free OS X Security Tools

I use many of their tools and this is probably not a false-positive. The only currently known false positives stated on their Dynamic Hijack Scanner webpage (at the bottom) ia Microsoft Messenger (mbukernel) and Microsoft Messenger Daemon (mbuinstrument).

About your scan results, I also have BitTorrent Sync installed on my Mac and I get the same message (tested on 2 other Macs). If I do a full system scan with DHS, I get many other applications that have the rpath vulnerability and the weak vulnerability, including iMovie and many Xcode tools. Please note that this is not something to be too worried about, as none of your Applications are "Hijacked" and dylib hijacking is quite a newly discovered vulnerability in OS X, and therefore your probably not going to see any in-the-wild attacks yet. If you are of the more technical sort, you can read their slides presented on this at CanSecWest here and the technical paper here.

I do trust the tools from this company and the person behind this (Patrick Wardle) is clearly stated on their About page. He has published more of his OS X research papers that are available at the bottom of that webpage. He has also done many presentations at security conferences including DefCon, and is the Director of R&D at Synack.

KnockKnock is a tool that scans for persistently installed items on your Mac, including Kernel Extensions, Launch Items, and Login Items and lists them on the screen.

Lastly, BlockBlock is simply a tool that watches for anything that becomes persistently installed (executed at boot every time your mac boots up), such as malware - the tool is still in beta as of this writing.

At the end, they are all great Mac security tools to check-up your mac :).


How to always show the menu bar on fullscreen mode? Do not tell me to use this shortcut CTRL + COMMAND + F to exit or enter in the fullscreen mode. I would like to always see the menu bar in the top of the page when I am in fullscreen mode, is it possible?

This Mac default style is completely annoying.

I don't think it can be done.

By default, the menu bar will float in if you hover the mouse at the top.

Alternatively, why not just use the window maximised, which will give a very similar look to what you want. [Green dot, top left of any window - though some apps will toggle full screen horizontally & vertically, others only vertically, you'd have to drag the corner for those]

Update for Yosemite, the green button behaviour is now reversed from Mavericks & before…

Green dot will set to fullscreen, without the menu bar.
 Alt ⌥  /Green dot will maximise, leaving the menu bar visible.


How to edit m4b audiobook metadata in Catalina? In Catalina it is not possible to edit audiobook metadata anymore as it was possible using iTunes in previous macOS versions. I tried a third-party tag editor (kid3), successfully edited the audiobook metadata, but still, when I import the audiobook into the Books app, the metadata is wrong.
What could possibly be going on, is there anyway I can work around this issue?

I used subler BY Damiano Galassi to change it.


1st gen iPad Mini screen replacement I have the above iPad Mini. I need to take it to Apple for an out of warranty screen replacement. If they give me a replacement what will I get as Apple no longer makes the 32GB 1st generation iPad Mini.

Apple does not sell the 1st Generation iPad Mini any more, but they generally have stock for this purpose.

You may get a refurbished iPad that matches the specs and color of your iPad Mini or you may get the screen replaced on your iPad.


How stealthy is the stealth mode of the firewall? Does it increase security? In the System Preferences there is the option:

`Security & Privacy -> Firewall -> Advanced... -> Enable Stealth Mode

Does this options significantly increase the security when networking or surfing the internet?

The hint only says:
Don't respond to or acknowledge attempts to access this computer from the network by test applications using ICMP, such as Ping.

The hint does not explain how my work with the Mac is affected.

Yes. Stealth mode enhances your system's security. Stateful packet inspection is another crucial component of a firewall's prowess. It's also of note that Apple's firewall is powered by the rugged ipfw.

What Apple says is a concise summary of how stealth mode works, and if you aren't versed in IT security, a full-fledged explanation won't offer up much more as it's a complex system (TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol, which is just one element of data transmission itself is rather complicated and deeply layered).

The fundamentals of networking (aka transferring data on the internet) rely on protocols that establish connections ("handshaking" starts it all) and then relay of data (through things like TCP and UDP). ICMP (such as pinging or echo requests) are typically used to "probe" a target host (most often for quite valid reasons), identifying it on the network. Hackers use them to find their prey.

Firewalls work by planting themselves between the kernel and the TCP/IP stack (so at a very deep level) and watching the packets that run between those layers. In the image above, a system's kernel would be located between the ethernet driver and hardware. The firewall would sit right on top of the kernel. Firewalls need this deep level of integration to remain rugged and durable. If a firewall were implanted at a high level, say at the level of your browser, it would make it highly susceptible to attack. The deeper a process is located (closer to the kernel), the harder it is to gain access to it.

When a system runs without a firewall, the packets are allowed free access (in and out). If an echo request is sent, an echo response is loosed by your computer (think of it as a greeting; someone on the street passes you and says "hello," you smile and greet them in return). But when a firewall is operational, it steps in, like a member of the secret service, following its protocol. If it is told to deny requests, it will send a message to the machine making the request that it does not reply to echo requests. The machine gets a notice that their echo request was denied (or blocked). Naturally this doesn't give that machine much information, but it does inform them that someone is there.

Stealth mode, on the other hand, doesn't. The firewall watches the echo request come in, and instead of denying it, it simply tells your computer to ignore the packet. The machine on the other end, not only doesn't get any data, but doesn't even get a notice of rejection. It's as if their packet was just lost in the space. And that's indicative of either a machine guarded by a secure firewall, or a machine that doesn't even exist.

In effect, it's the equivalent of putting someone through to voicemail (denying the echo request) or simply disabling voicemail and letting it ring, indefinitely (running under stealth mode).

As with anything, a clever hacker can bypass these safe guards, but it does make their life a lot harder. And that's the key to security: making the hackers job just a little bit harder at every turn. That greatly weeds out the "script kiddie" from the die-hard, Lulzsec hacker.

Stealth mode cloaks you from those initiating traffic, but it doesn't make you invisible. Once a connection is established (either by you, or by something that was allowed to negotiate outbound traffic), you pop up on the grid just like any computer. So while sending ping requests may no longer work, there are still plenty of ways hackers could still establish a connection and potentially exploit your computer through a running service.


Booting iMac (2011) off of external SSD I have been booting my iMac off of an external SSD.  When I initially set it up I did a clean install of high sierra and once that was booted up I used migration assistant to restore from a time machine backup.  It works well but one of the only issues that I'm noticing is that when I click on shutdown or restart the screen just goes black and the cursor stays on the screen but the system does not actually shutdown.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The firsts things you can do :
Reset SMC : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
Reset NVRAM : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


How to close / remove the "upgrade OSX" notification ? I keep getting an "upgrade OSX" notification (see screenshot below) with the only options being to "install" or "details" which provides more info.

I want to do neither, is there a way i can just close it, or better still prevent it coming up in the first place ?

The machine in question is currently running OSX 10.11.6 (latest patches)

Open App Store in System Preferences

Tell it not to bother you (uncheck all)


A file viewer like in Total Commander / Krusader I use DoubleCommander, which is a decent 2-panel file manager.
What I am missing is a viewer for the use case of peeking at a text file, especially logs:

quick to load
handles large text files (GBs)
handles page up/down
allows find / next / previous / highlight

remembers the searched strings

zoom, ideally with Control + mouse wheel
capable of closing with "esc"
capable of reloading the file on demand (F5)

remembers the position over reloads

ideally, configurable key shortcuts
etc.

In short, something to quickly open the file, find a string, have it open, reload when necessary at roughly the same place. Developers will find this very familiar.

Is there such app? Sublime it aint, File Viewer neither, jEdit neither, TextEdit neither... I've tried quite a lot of them but there's always some blocker.

Both Krusader and Total Commander have great viewers, so I believe Mac community produced one, too. (Not counting running Total Commander in Wine :)

I found that the closest match is DoubleCommander. With some Mac quirks, as Mac lacks keys like Insert, PgUp/PgDn so it's impossible to map the actions to shortcuts I am used to. But still, it's a decent (cross-platform) two-panel manager.


how do I get a Quicktime video window to play on an external monitor, simultaneously using the laptop for something else? Using Macbook using OS-X 10.5.8, how do I get a Quicktime video window to play on an external monitor, simultaneously using the laptop for something else?

I have a Macbook circa 2008 which has OS-x 10.5.8.  I recently installed an HDTV in order to watch videos from the Macbook on a larger screen, while continuing to use the laptop for other things. I am unable to play a video on the larger screen unless in the mirror arrangement of the screens.  With a side-by-side arrangement,  I can drag the folder which contains the movie, but when I click on open, it opens and plays on the Macbook instead of on the tv.  Other folders also open in the laptop window, not the tv.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080914024038AA5ivCZ

This suggestion of dragging the window doesn't work.

In Quicktime Player, go to Preferences. Under "Full Screen", there is a picture of your screens similar to the Displays pane of System Preferences. If you click on a screen, a picture of the QT Player logo will be overlaid on that screen. The screen that has the logo is the active screen for Full Screen Mode.

EDIT: I don't know if you can still do other things while QT Player is full screen.


Repairing an iPhone screen I've got a broken screen on my iPhone 4.  Does anyone have any hints, suggestions, or products that you have used to repair your broken screen?  Is there anything different about the iPhone 4 vs other iOS devices (due to the Gorilla Glass)?

I would suggest the iFixIt kit and guide. It's gonna be expensive since unlike of the  the previous versions iPhone, on iPhone4 you can't just change the glass without the changing LCD..


Can't copy folder with files from external hard drive because of permissions? I can't copy a folder (with files) from an external hard drive because of permissions problems. (You do not have permissions to the files in this folder.)

However, those files were created by me (on Snow Leopard - I'm on Lion right now). Is there any want to force or gain admin permissions on those files?

If you are familiar with terminal you can use the following command;

sudo chown -R username directory

username: your username
directory: the folder in which the files you want to copy are located

PS Requires an administrator's password


Running OS X Yosemite, but About This Mac shows Version 10.90 In About this Mac it shows that the OS is Yosemite but the version number is 10.90. Is this normal? I thought Yosemite is 10.10, and Mavericks was 10.9.

Download the latest Yosemite installer from the Mac App Store but do not install it.

Copy following in to your Terminal to verify the downloaded Yosemite file is correct:

shasum /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Wait for a minute for it to calculate. The result for the previous version should be:

eebf02a20ac27665a966957eec6f5e6fe3228a19  /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

And for Yosemite Download as of Nov. 27 the result is:

a673c2c6d967f4da2934b7d6cf3736936970b194  /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Proceed with Install.


How to delete images already imported into iPhoto? I have a large number of random folders of photos on my hard drive, some of which have been imported into iPhoto. How do I figure out which photos have been imported into iPhoto, so I can delete the non-iPhoto copies?

If you batch drag them, as jmlumpkin suggested, a number of them will be spotted with the 'do you want to import again', and you can apply no to all, then delete the bunch. If hwoever, it accepts them, there are a few bits of duplicate finder software - none of them free (at least not that I've found), but at around $8 - http://www.brattoo.com/propaganda/.

I'd love to find something free that did the same!

Other helpful things: It may take some time, but letting faces do its thing, you will be able to group up and spot some duplicates.


Lion OS Remove Categorizing in Finder i just got my hands on lion after some years in previous mac versions. There is a feature in finder that i absolutely hate though. When i select Arrange By -> Date Modified, for instance, i get a categorized, incredibly inefficient view. Is it possible to get what i would normally get on leopard, just a list of last modified files, without the horrendous categories ?

Use the "clean up by" option, not the "arrange by" one.


The maximum number of three accounts have been activated on this iPhone I recently bought an iPhone 11 on eBay. Find my iPhone is this deactivated but when I try to create an Apple ID, it tells me that the maximum number of three accounts have been activated on this iPhone. How can I create a new ID on this iPhone?

Presumably to limit account farming, Apple makes it trivial to establish three new accounts on each iOS device or Mac. Since this is detected on Apple’s server side, you can create a new Apple ID from this page (on a desktop computer) or perhaps another device that hasn’t exhausted it’s three.

Once you have set up your new Account, log in on your iPhone with that ID (Settings > iCloud > enter the new ID) rather than creating it on-device.


Merge pdfs sequentially I would like to merge 4 pdfs, pdf1.pdf, pdf2.pdf, pdf3.pdf pdf4.pdf together so that the pdfs are spliced, i.e. the first page will be the first page of pdf1, the second the first of pdf2, the third the first of pdf3, etc.

The pdf files are with plain images, no table of contents.

How would I accomplish this? It would be nice to do it from Terminal as well.

This can be done using a macOS default built-in, from either the command line or its GUI app the action belongs to.

To do as you requested from the command line, in Terminal, use the following command example:

"/System/Library/Automator/Combine PDF Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py" --shuffle -o /path/to/collated.pdf /path/to/file1.pdf /path/to/file2.pdf /path/to/file3.pdf /path/to/file4.pdf

To make the macOS built-in join.py script easier to use from the command line, I'd suggest you make a symbolic link for it. As an example, if you have /usr/local/bin in your PATH:

sudo ln -s "/System/Library/Automator/Combine PDF Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py" "/usr/local/bin/pdfjoin"

Afterwards, you can start the command with just pdfjoin instead of using its fully qualified pathname.

Below is a image of an Automator workflow to show an example of how it can be achieved using a macOS default built-in GUI app. Note that it can be modified many different ways to suit one's needs/wants.

Note: The Combine PDF Pages action, when used in Automator creates a temp file and why additional actions are needed to refine the workflow. You could just use the Open Finder Items action directly after and forgo the other actions, but of course you'll need to then manually save the opened new pdf file elsewhere.


Cannot Serial/Screen into things error "Cannot open line '/dev/ttyUSBtoSerial for r/w: resource busy" "Sorry, could not find a PTY" Brand new MBP running latest MacOS Catalina 10.15.1, using USB-C to serial device found here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074WPTY6H/

Get following errors in quick succession when attempting to use the screen command:

Cannot open line '/dev/ttyUSBtoSerial for r/w: resource busy
Sorry, could not find a PTY

Things I have tried:

Adding my user to dialer, tty, and wheel group (Some googling suggested adding user to dialout group but could not find said group on my mac).

Manually installing D2XX drivers found from amazon page.

Verified no screen sessions were still opened with Activity Monitor.

Verified proper permissions were set on the tty device itself.

Coworker was able to use same cable on a MBP successfully.

Thoughts?

Job #1 - is to determine if the USB device is being recognized in any form, you can do that by looking for the USB VID and PID (described below).  When you plug the cable in, you should see the device appear in the list, and go away when you unplug.

The VID number will tell you the ACTUAL chip type, ie: FTDI, SiLAB, Prolific, or Microchip there are many chips in these cables. Your comments imply you believe this is an FTDI cable, this will confirm. Otherwise you are going after the WRONG driver.

Job #2 - Using the VENDOR ID - determine if the driver is loaded or not, or is present. For example once you confirm it is an FTDI cable, then the existing Apple provided driver should be present, same with SiLABs (apple provides this driver).

To do the above:

First verify that this is an FTDI cable, there are many other chips (Microchip, SiLab, and Prolific) - some vendors (example: Adafruit, and others) have been known to change the chip inside with different cable builds.

The GUI method on macOS is:
 -> About this Mac -> System Report, under hardware click on USB.

There are multiple "root hubs" - my MacPro has a total of 5 (some hubs are built in and hidden inside your Mac and not exposed externally)

Plug & Unplug your device, in the menubar of System Information -> File -> Refresh (CMD-R) to update the list displayed.

Look for the "Vendor ID (VID)" (who makes the USB device) and "Product ID (PID)".
for example FTDI = VID: 0403, PID = 6010 (for the FTD2232H, the PID might vary depending on the chip).

As an alternative you can open Terminal and type: ioreg -p IOUSB -l -w 0 and get a lot of of details.

You can do the same thing with Windows in the Device Manager.
On Linux, you can use lsusb to print the USB devices.

This will verify that your device is even "half recognized".

Part 1 - is that the OS can find the VID and PID

Part 2 - is the driver for that USB device

Note that FTDI has a built in driver in Catalina, no external driver required.


Record screen iPhone during setup assistant Using the screen recording method of connecting my iOS device directly to a MacOS system and recording through quicktime - is it possible to record the setup assistant? Or is recording only capable once the phone is set up and booted into iOS.

Looks like it's possible. After launching quicktime, choose File > New Movie Recording (I was thrown off at first because I kept choosing New Screen Recording).

Once I correctly chose new movie recording, I was able to capture right from the initial setup screen (where it's scrolling through 'hello' in different languages).


If a Mac has 1GB inactive, and it has been idle for an hour, why it doesn't swap the inactive RAM to the pagefile for "readiness"? I am sure Apple engineers have thought of and decided not to do it -- if from the Activity Monitor, I see out of the 4GB of total RAM, 1GB is not active, and the Mac has been idle for 1 or 2 hours, then if I start a new app, it is still very slow due to "not enough RAM" -- looks like the Mac is swapping things out to the pagefile so that the new app can run in the RAM space.

But if the Mac has been idle for 1, 2, or even 8 hours, why doesn't Mac OS X swap the inactive RAM to the pagefile first, so that there is 1GB of free RAM, so that when a new app is started, it is very fast, just like there is extra RAM there free to use.  Maybe it is so that the user knows the RAM is getting used up and we don't want the pagefile getting bigger and bigger and out of control?  But why not limit the getting bigger and bigger just to about 6GB total, or 8GB, and then start not swapping the inactive RAM automatically?  In other words, for the first 1GB or 2GB of inactive RAM, swap it to the pagefile, so that more RAM is ready for use immediately.  Just don't do it all the time later on.  Does someone know why that isn't done or how can it be made so? (by changing a System Preference?)

The system does not know which action will be the next. If instead of opening a new application after an hour you decide to work on some stuff that was cached (and is part of the inactive memory) it will be already there.

Instead of swapping out to free memory or emptying disk caches the system waits to see if you actually need the memory to avoid unnecessary work.

You can always force the disk caches to be flushed (freeing some memory) with the purge command.


How do I reset safari to a state equal to that of a new user? There is a website (happening.im) which does not work in my user account, but does work when I switch to the guest user.
So the problem is in my user profile somehow.

I've tried deleting ~/Library/Safari but that didn't do the trick.

How do I completely reset safari to the state that the guest user has?

This website has a list of steps you could take:
http://www.macissues.com/2015/06/22/how-to-fully-reset-safari-on-your-mac/


Does TechTool Pro do anything that Disk Utility doesn't? I have an 2010 iMac running High Sierra. My computer has been very slow lately and does a lot of beachballing. I've run Disk Utility on my internal drive and it returns that volume appears to be ok. I've read that TechTool Pro fixes a lot of disk-related issues. Does TechTool do anything that Disk Utility/First Aid doesn't? Etrecheck indicates I may have a disk drive problem. Will TechTool help me determine what is wrong?

As far as the main question (in your title), yes, TechTool Pro does a lot more than Disk Utility does.

In fact, in many ways they're not really comparable products. It's somewhat akin to comparing a butter knife to a Swiss army knife. That is, Disk Utility performs a number of disk-related tasks, whereas TechTool Pro performs all these and a lot of other types of tasks as well.

As for whether TechTool Pro will help you determine what is wrong with your Mac, the best guess anyone here is going to give you is "Maybe."

TechTool Pro is generally an excellent product (it hasn't had a 'perfect' history, but overall it's been quite positive). In fact, Apple even used to provide a cut down version of it to users who paid extra for AppleCare coverage. But only you can decide whether the cost of it is worth it for you or not, especially if you're planning on upgrading in the near future.

As an aside, in a 2010 iMac you may be better off just replacing the hard drive, especially if it still has its original drive in it.

From memory, if it's a 21" model it wouldn't have had the option of an SSD, so the money you'd spend on TTP may be much better spent on an SSD. It'll give new life to your iMac and you could then put it to other uses after upgrading to your new Mac. And when the iMac eventually dies due to other reasons, you could resurrect the SSD and use it as an external drive. Just another option for consideration.


Share wifi connection from macbook to airport express I'm trying to do the following setup:

Internet modem/router -> (wifi)  -> Macbook -> (ethernet) -> Airport express ->(wifi) ->  various devices.

Is it possible to share internet from a MB to an airport express through ethernet?

My MB is a MacbookPro retina from Mid 2012

As to why i'm doing this: I don't have access to the internet modem ( can't plug anything to it), so i'm trying to spread wifi to the rest of my apartment any ways I can. Any other ideas are welcome

Go to System Preferences -> Sharing.
Enable Internet Sharing.
Set Share your connection from to Wi-Fi
set the To Computers using to  Ethernet.
Connect the ethernet cable from Macbook to your airport's Ethernet WAN port (Dotted circle).
That's it.


Writing special characters to the clipboard with the command line I'm trying to write the string あいうえお to my clipboard using the pbcopy command line tool like this

echo あいうえお | pbcopy

But what I'm getting in my clipboard is completely different : „ÅÇ„ÅÑ„ÅÜ„Åà„Åä.

I assumed this had something to do with the encoding, but the documentation says the encoding is based on the LANG environment variable and mine is set to en_EN.UTF-8.

I think your LANG=en_EN.UTF-8 is the problem.

When I execute this command

printf あいうえお | LANG=en_EN.UTF-8 pbcopy

and paste into a new TextEdit document I get „ÅÇ„ÅÑ„ÅÜ„Åà„Åä (incidentally, this is what you get if take the the UTF-8 encoding of your original text and decode it as MacRoman; you should be able to verify this by doing printf あいうえお | iconv -f macroman).

When I execute this command

printf あいうえお | LANG=en_US.UTF-8 pbcopy

and paste into a new TextEdit document I get あいうえお, just as one would expect.

I am pretty sure that en_EN.UTF-8 is not a valid locale (thus pbcopy is defaulting to MacRoman). Maybe you meant to use en_US.UTF-8 (i.e. US, not EN)? You can list the valid locales by running locale -a. If you are just interested in English UTF-8 locales, you can filter the list like this:

locale -a | grep '^en_.*\.UTF-8$'


How to convert FusionDrive to APFS? Backstory: Installation of MacOS Mojava failed on my late '12 iMac with exception: com.apple.DiskManagement error -69854. I can find few other questions with this problem, but the general consent is, that the problem comes from Mojave trying to convert the FusionDrive to APFS. I tried the installation two times, I do have a TimeCapsule backup as welll as a USB with bootable Mojave and am ready to try things out. What I thought would be smart to do is to convert the FusionDrive to APFS before attempting to upgrade the OS.

I see two possibilities: do it via DiskUtility, or from Terminal with diskutil. The first option does not work as the menu entry is greyed out, if I try from High Sierra as well as from the Mojave USB stick. Running diskutil list lists three disks:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            121.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +1.1 TB     disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk1s2, disk0s2
                                 {some id I am not sure if better hidden}
                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive

TLDR; which one of the drives do I have to convert to APFS and how?

Well, my experiments have found an end, here are my ideas:
the origin of the error -69854 seems to be that there is not enough storage space.

After another failed attempt installing MacOS Mojave from the USB, I went into the local Recovery Mode, before downgrading, and see: "Convert to APFS" in DiskUtility was not greyed out. It failed, as expected, with the -69854 error. When booting from the USB, the option there was clickable too, but leading to the same error.
After moving and deleting some stuff to make more free storage space on Macintosh HD, the "Convert to APFS option" suceeded! Afterwards, installation of Mojave from the USB suceeded too.

But to answer the rest of my question, after some more research:

To convert to apfs: diskutil apfs convert <Name of the Disk>. The correct disk seems to be – in my case – /dev/disk2 according to the Details of the DiskUtility. DiskUtility itself uses /sbin/apfs_hfs_convert – use man apfs_hfs_convert in Terminal if you want to learn more about that one.


Can I delete my own account? I wanted to know if I could delete my own user in my mac, I have administrator permissions. Can I only delete other users or can I delete my own account too?
(EDIT : i don't use the Mac anymore so I want to delete my own account, there is an other admin account (the Mac owner). It would save a lot of place in my Mac)

Create a new account with administrator permissions. Log out of your account. Log into the new one. Delete your account.


iPhone 4S won't sync with iTunes My iPhone 4S doesn't show in the left column in iTunes. I'm running iTunes 10.6.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?

1 - Restart.

2 - Hard reset (home and power buttons).

3 - If you have it, the XCode device manager sometimes detects devices that iTunes does not.

One of those three should solve the problem entirely, and if not - jailbroken? also any error messages?


Dual-Boot Win7 and Apple? First off, I have no idea what Apple calls their OS. I only use their iOS devices and I tried to avoid their computer OS as best as possible, however, I'm getting started in developing iOS apps. I need to either run the Apple OS in a VM or set up dual-booting. I have a few questions though that hopefully can get answered.

Where can I purchase a license for Apple?
I've never set up dual-booting before, how do I go about doing so with Win7 as my current OS? (Ideally using a different HDD)
Is there anything I should know before going ahead?

Quite simply, you purchase a license for OS X by buying a Mac. It is licensed only for Apple hardware.

There is no other way to legitimately run it, either natively or in VM.

Running it on any other hardware would be against Apple's EULA & would also be off-topic for StackExchange.


How to remove white side bar in terminal app? On the right side of the terminal app appeared a white bar (I don't know how). This bar has a button which upon pressing splits the terminal horizontally. I would like to get rid of it, what must I do?

System Preferences > General > Show scroll bars > When scrolling

reference

There is "terminal only" option as well


Quickly change the font size in Terminal I'm looking for a way to perhaps type a command and have the font change by increments of say 5 or 10. Right now Cmd-+ is taking too long if I want to go from a small font to a large font. I'm using Neovim through Terminal. Is there a way to do this? Vim plugins don't seem to work. Perhaps a terminal emulator?

Why not open terminal preferences and choose to change the defaults. You can then open a new tab at the exact size and color you prefer?
That and using screen or tmux means you can have your environment run regardless of which window you place it in. The zoom increments are better for temporary small adjustments as you so correctly have pointed out.


How to automate the wifi login of a captive window? I want to automate filling out a WiFi captive portal page on macOSs because I am not asked to save the password.
Only the username gets recorded -- not the password. The "click on the password field" gets recorded but not the input.
How can I determine if this is a limitation in Automator, or the captive window, or the design of the web page when it programmed how the text entry fields are set up?
How can I get the source code of the page from the captive window?

Deliberately Restricted

Yes, this is a deliberate choice by Apple's engineers. Automator – and other applications – can not intercept keystrokes sent to password fields.

The restriction is enforced by macOS. The keystrokes sent to secure text fields do not appear in the read-only copy of events sent to other observing processes.

Browsers Using Native Controls

Within a web browser that uses native macOS controls, HTML password fields are represented by a NSSecureTextField.

NSSecureTextField deliberately restricts what can see or record its input. The field also limits copying and cutting of the contents.

Other Approaches

See How I created a Python Bot to automatically log into a Captive Portal or search for script wifi login form for other related projects and tools.


I sync'ed twice for my iPhone 4S and my iMac, but it still asked me to transfer purchased content to my Library? iOS 5.0.1 is out and I want to do any upgrade, but when I click Update, it will pop out a window that says:

So I sync'ed the iPhone 4S once, and it pop out the same dialog.  I sync'ed again and it was the same thing.  Is it not good enough to just sync?  What should be done to "transfer the purchased items to my Library"?

Follow the steps in this Apple support page. This page goes through the steps to ensure that iTunes on the target computer is authorized, and the steps to transfer are:

Connect your device to the computer.
Select the Transfer Purchases menu option

You should then be able to upgrade your iPhone without any additional prompts.


Backup files in internet recovery mode: cp command errors I'm currently trying to backup files from my MacBook Pro (2011) to an external hard drive in internet recovery mode (my laptop has been stuck on the bootscreen for the past 2 days, I think the hard drive is failing).
In order to do so, I've been trying to use cp commands in the Terminal, but I keep receiving the error message "no such file or directory".
Here are the commands I've run (I used the information here to guide myself) :
cp -r "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/Documents/" "/Volumes/nameofextHD/"
cp -r "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/Desktop/" "/Volumes/nameofextHD/"
cp -r "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/Pictures/"*.jpg "/Volumes/nameofextHD/"
I'm wondering if anyone could help me fix these cp commands please?
Thank you very much!

The error has to be in the names of the directory structures you use. For example, using the last command the error must be in the names
"/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/Pictures/"
or
"/Volumes/nameofextHD/"
There is a problem with one of these names or else there are no jpgs in that directory.
The same applies for the other statements. Did you mean to use the -r or the -R option with the copy command? My computer running High Sierra doesn't show a -r option for the cp command. I think you want -R.


What is the purpose of /Users/Shared/adi? While backing up my macOS using Time Machine I came across the following folder: /Users/Shared/adi.

What is the purpose of that folder? Can this entry be safely removed?

Btw. There is already some blog post about it, but it really doesn't clear it up.

Apparently, these files somehow belong to the Mac App Store and the iBooks app. "adi" might be referencing "Apple Distribution International". Removal from the excluded Time Machine items is not recommended, as this behaviour does seem to be expected from all macOS installs >= 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Full explanation here: http://galvanist.com/post/66313155502/userssharedadi


Free utilities for a power users switching from Windows to OS X? Possible Duplicate:
  OS X Applications you can't live without

I'm looking for usual tools, like messenger, file transfer, text editor and so on.

PS. I would make it community wiki, but I do not see the option?!

Adium for instant messaging, it also has a nice menu icon. If you used Pidjin on Windows, this is the OS X alternative.


What are your "must-have" MacPorts? I hate to be all cliché with yet another "best [something]" question, but I am genuinely interested in what you most often install with MacPorts. When you get a new Mac, which ports do you first install?

So far, I've installed wget and watch, since I find those to be very useful on Linux machines. I also installed wine and winetricks to run a Windows program or two. And earlier today I started playing with Scala, so I installed the scala28 port.

Tip: to see your installed ports, use the port installed command.

This is my essential list, in the order that I install them.

arping
watch
wireshark
figlet
git
gnupg
ipcalc
lynx +ssl
minicom
mtr
ncftp
nmap
pstree
pwgen
p0f
ssldump
stunnel
tcpflow
unrar
w3m
wget


Why is mdfind only returning my most recently accessed files? I've imported most of a javascript code base via mdimport (using the packaged SourceCode.mdimporter provided by Xcode) and it succeeds. However, mdfind only ever returns to me at most two results, those being the two most recently accessed files. For example, if files A, B and C all contain the substring "term", mdfind "term" would show only A and B. If I then opened file C, the subsequent call of mdfind would only show B and C. How do I get mdfind to return to me all files containing my term?

When I performed a test for a term contained in three files, it showed all the files when running the mdfind command. I would recommend rebuilding your spotlight index on the current folder/s you are in and see if that fixes it.  To rebuild your spotlight index: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes


How to open iPhone 5c locked with an iCloud account? I bought an iPhone 5c from a guy in a bar. He said he was going to remove the device from his iCloud list, which he never did and it's been 3 weeks already. The phone is not blacklisted and I know the phone is not stolen.

How can I start using the phone and is there a way for me to remove the device from the other guy's iCloud account?

As other posts have mentioned - there is no known workaround to the lock and you will not be able to use that device until the account holding it locked releases the hold.

However, knowing that it's not stolen and having gotten the seller's word that they will unlock it - you do have a little leverage over the seller. You can identify them and hopefully you have some idea of their contact information.

Their Apple ID is likely their email address, so have you tried mustering as much kindness and sending a polite email reminding them how you are eager to make use of the phone they sold you. See if the phone will show you their Apple ID - unfortunately for you (and fortunately for people who have their phone stolen) - on most screens you can't get to the full text of the Apple ID without knowing the passcode.

If you've exhausted the gentle ways, you could try checking with a local lawyer to see if they in any way violated local laws for sale of goods under a false description. Your costs for a quick consult and how to take them to small claims court might result in eventual repayment of your costs and the purchase price.

The local police might also be able to think of ways to convince the seller to do the correct thing at this point.

It's hard to say, but you are really at the seller's mercy if you hand over money before verifying the phone is really unlocked and free of their hold. For others, this article has the steps Apple recommends before buying a used phone.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818

You could try appealing to them, but I would start locally rather than try to get Apple to break into someone's phone when they don't really know you or the seller.


How do I find out of my OS X 10.9.4 is 32 bit or 64 bit? How do I determine if my OS X 10.9.4 is a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system?
I've looked at "About This Mac" but don't understand what the processor information (i.e. 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7) translates into as refers to "bits.

I do not believe that Mavericks shipped with a 32-bit version. You are probably running 64-bit OS X.

All of the Core i3, i5, and i7 Mac computers have 64-bit processors.

Apple Support document

To determine if you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of OS X, open a Terminal and type:

uname -a

On a 64-bit OS, the output will end with RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64. On a 32-bit OS, the output will end with RELEASE_I386 i386.

OSXDaily article


iPhone 5 not downloading apps from App Store My iphone 5 is not downloadig any apps from the App Store.  I reset all settings, reset all network settings, changed WiFi DNS, set date and time, reset my phone, and tried to download on WiFi, LTE and 3G but faced same problem.

You should update your iOS on iPhone setting. Hope this work for you!


Can the macbook air trackpad play nice with the iOS simulator? Does anyone knows if (and how) I can get my MacBook Air trackpad to feel more natural when used with the iOS simulator ?

It should be easier to use the iOS simulator with the trackpad - but it's not, it's way more difficult to scroll :-( It feels weird but it's the only time I wish I had a mouse on my mac book air - to emulate a touch screen :-|

Unfortunatly the simulator was not built to understand multi-touch gestures which is strange considering the rest of the OS has. I think you will just need to wait until Apple updates the simulator.


File in Photos app and Files app shows different size when transferring files In iPhone, I copied a file from Photos app to Files app as mentioned below.

  Open the default Photos app on iPhone ->
  select a single file
  (or multiple files by clicking the Select button at the top right corner) ->
  click the Share/Upload upward-pointing arrow icon -> save to Files

Now, the size of the file(some name like IMG_0567.MOV) shown in the Files app on iPhone is different from the file size shown in Windows OS File Explorer when I connect my iPhone to a PC using USB cable. Why is that?

Edit 1:

Go to settings -> Photos -> "Transfer to MAC or PC section" has 2 options called "Automatic"  and "Keep Originals". When the option "Automatic" is selected in my iPhone(this was the default option) then the size of the video file is shown in iPhone Files app as 51.8 MB but if I connect the iPhone to PC then in Windows File explorer the file size is shown as 113 MB

Any have, when the "Automatic" option is selected on iPhone then I am unable to transfer videos from iPhone to PC using the USB cable due to the error the device is unreachable. So I changed this option to "Keep Originals" in iPhone, then I am able to transfer the videos from iPhone to PC. The size displayed in the Files app in iPhone and in the Windows file explorer(when the iPhone is connected to PC using USB cable) is also the same now (i.e 51.8 MB in this case)

When transferring photos then I still use the "Automatic" option, otherwise the image files are getting some extension like.HEIC, etc when I copy the images from iPhone to the PC.

Yes, this is a known issue in iPhone

The below article provides more details(about all the issues you mentioned be it different sizes, not being able to transfer video files, weird extensions, etc) so please have a read

https://www.guidingtech.com/fix-device-attached-to-the-system-is-not-functioning-error-iphone/


Mac OS merge other partition into OS partition without losing data on primary OS partition i have a mac book pro 2015 with 125 ssd drive. bellow is my partition table

my question is how can i merge partition "BackUp" into my "2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         71.8 GB    disk0s2" (data on BackUp can be errase but data on OS partition should be preserved). The purpose is to increase the primary OS partition (need some more space for the OS)

I have tried disk Utilities but seem there is no operation support the above desire yet. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Apple does not provide a way to add the space occupied by disk0s4 to disk0s2. To enlarge disk0s2 there must be significant free space directly below the partition. In your case, disk0s3 is below disk0s2 which blocks the possibility of enlarging disk0s2.

You could backup the contents of disk0s2. There does not appear to be enough space anywhere on disk0 to do this. You would have to find addition storage such as a external drive. Once the contents of disk0s2 is backed up, you could remove both disk0s2 and disk0s3. Next, you could enlarge disk0s2 to occupy all the newly create free space. Finally, you could recreate the "Data" volume by either adding a new volume to the APFS container or shrinking disk0s2 while creating a new disk0s3. You could then restore the contents of the "Data" volume from the backup.

I should note that when I stated there was not enough space to backup disk0s2, I did not consider a compress backup of this partition. You could consider trying to make a backup in the form of a dmg file by using the Disk Utility application.


Mac App Store: We could not complete your purchase - Unknown Error I am using a Macbook Pro (2018, 13 inch, 2.3ghz i5) from work, and the previous user had installed Xcode and a few other apps through their apple account. I have since deleted Xcode, but whenever I try to download Xcode again through the app store, or any app for that matter, I get the message "We could not complete your purchase - Unknown Error". I have signed out and in, restarted several times, and looked in the Error Console. The console gives the error "Purchase failed with error: " and I can't find more.

Any help would be greatly appreciated so that I can finally get back to work!

Quit your App Store application if it is open.
Launch the terminal application and type the following command:
open $TMPDIR/../C/com.apple.appstore/

A folder named com.apple.appstore will open. Move all the files present in it to Trash. Restart your mac and launch the App Store again. Problem solved!


Easily check time in Yosemite full screen mode I'm trying to embrace Yosemite's full screen by default. Mostly I'm getting used to and liking it... except for the fact that without a menu bar I can't check the time at a glance.

What are some easy ways to display the current time on Yosemite without using the mouse/trackpad?

You can move focus to menu bar with for example: ⌃ CTRL+F2 or ⌘ CMD+⇧ SHIFT+/.

Alternatively You can show Dashboard with clock as a widget (but set the Dashboard not as a separate space).


Names not appearing in Messages on Watch On Watch, I suddenly see no names for people in Messages. Instead I see the address (e-mail or phone number) they are sending from, even though the senders are in my Contacts and have the addresses associated with their entries.

This was not the case before a recent update (I'm not sure which one).

How do I get contact names to appear in Watch Messages?

This answer's a bit late, but I finally figured out the issue.

Your Apple Watch's contact list is most likely out of sync with your iPhone.

Try checking your Apple Watch's contact list though the phone app. If it looks like some contacts are missing, it's likely that the contact list isn't synced properly.

The easiest way to manually re-sync your contact list is to create a dummy contact "AAAAA" on your iPhone. Once it's been resynced, all your contacts should start displaying properly again.


Share to Messages from Safari fails - missing library Any idea how to install the missing library?
Process:               Messages Share Extension [39076]
Path:                  /Users/USER/Desktop/Messages.app/Contents/PlugIns/Messages Share Extension.appex/Contents/MacOS/Messages Share Extension
Identifier:            Messages Share Extension
Version:               1.0 (5500)
Build Info:            Messages-743013008000000~82
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           Messages Share Extension [39076]
User ID:               502

Date/Time:             2020-10-15 09:53:44.696 -0700
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.15.6 (19G2021)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        A02FB4DA-CBA4-4564-EE1E-953BF0A38DA1

Time Awake Since Boot: 1300000 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        0

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

**Termination Reason:    DYLD, [0x1] Library missing**

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries

**Dyld Error Message:
  Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PhotoLibrary.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PhotosFormats.framework/Versions/A/PhotosFormats
  Referenced from: /Users/USER/Desktop/Messages.app/Contents/PlugIns/Messages Share Extension.appex/Contents/MacOS/Messages Share Extension
  Reason: image not found**

Binary Images:
       0x10d85e000 -        0x10d86dff7  com.apple.messages.ShareExtension (1.0 - 5500) <C9509AE7-F4C6-331E-8AEA-FBAA315AC1C1> /Users/USER/Desktop/Messages.app/Contents/PlugIns/Messages Share Extension.appex/Contents/MacOS/Messages Share Extension
       0x1109c4000 -        0x110a55f47  dyld (750.6) <F9D4DEDC-8296-3E3F-B517-9C8B89A4C094> /usr/lib/dyld
    0x7fff310e1000 -     0x7fff31279ffa  com.apple.cloudkit.CloudKit (867 - 867) <1B851180-FC00-357F-B6C1-BB0EA7D6D5CA> /System/Library/Frameworks/CloudKit.framework/Versions/A/CloudKit
    0x7fff3127a000 -     0x7fff3127afff  com.apple.Cocoa (6.11 - 23) <2F5C8ABA-711F-316C-BB97-921122AEE4DF> /System/Library/Frameworks/Cocoa.framework/Versions/A/Cocoa
    0x7fff56801000 -     0x7fff569e8ff7  com.apple.imcore (10.0 - 1000) <B5BC3823-0FFA-3D6D-B995-5F674894BF3B> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IMCore.framework/Versions/A/IMCore
    0x7fff56d66000 -     0x7fff56e10fff  com.apple.imsharedutilities (10.0 - 1000) <38235642-07D7-360A-B5C7-FA39B1FD1427> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IMSharedUtilities.framework/Versions/A/IMSharedUtilities

Model: iMac17,1, BootROM 428.0.0.0.0, 4 processors, Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 3.3 GHz, 24 GB, SMC 2.34f3
Graphics: kHW_AMDRadeonR9M395Item, AMD Radeon R9 M395, spdisplays_pcie_device, 2 GB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1867 MHz, 0x802C, 0x384B54463531323634485A2D314739453220
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM1, 8 GB, DDR3, 1867 MHz, 0x859B, 0x435438473353313836444D2E4D313646500
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1867 MHz, 0x802C, 0x384B54463531323634485A2D314739453220
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM1, 8 GB, DDR3, 1867 MHz, 0x859B, 0x435438473353313836444D2E4D313646500
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x14A), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.77.111.1 AirPortDriverBrcmNIC-1615.1)
Bluetooth: Version 7.0.6f7, 3 services, 27 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Network Service: Wi-Fi 2, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: APPLE SSD SM0128G, 121.33 GB
Serial ATA Device: APPLE HDD ST2000DM001, 2 TB
USB Device: USB 3.0 Bus
USB Device: 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub
USB Device: 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub
USB Device: Game Drive
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
USB Device: FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
USB Device: My Book 111D
USB Device: 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub
USB Device: Back-UPS RS1000G FW:868.L5 -P.D USB FW:L5 -P
USB Device: 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub
USB Device: USB-Serial Controller
USB Device: Keyboard Hub
USB Device: Apple Keyboard
USB Device: HD Pro Webcam C920
Thunderbolt Bus: iMac, Apple Inc., 28.1

User error - I had an older version of Messages that was being opened on login.  When I used the version in the Applications folder Share worked correctly.


Fill rectangle with diagonal lines (stripes) in keynote I want to create a rectangle in keynote which is filled with diagonal lines, like shown in the example image.

How can I do this?

After some searching about, it would appear that you cannot do this in Keynote; however, you can import an image (like the one in your question) and then do what you will with it.


OS X won't create any symbolic links, creates aliases instead No matter how I try to create an symbolic link OS X refuses to play along and instead creates an alias. I've tried several tools and also through the terminal using the ln command.

I am on a fresh install and using the ln command worked fine before. Any idea what's up?

Thanks,
Will

Let's try a few experiments, and look at a few things.

In a terminal emulator, such as Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities, go to your home directory (cd ~) and create a directory (mkdir [directory]).

Make sure you go in the directory we just created (cd [directory]).

cd ~
mkdir directory
cd directory

After that, make a file; a simple text file will do:

echo "This is a simple text file" > originalfile.txt
ls -l@

Now, try creating a hard link, like this:

/usr/bin/ln originalfile.txt hardlink.txt

Then, try creating a symbolic link, like this:

/usr/bin/ln -s originalfile.txt symboliclink.txt

Now, open the directory in Finder with open . and make an alias.

In the terminal emulator you opened before, another ls should get us this:

Testarossa:test tonyw$ ls -l@
total 2528
-rw-r--r--  2 tonyw  staff      19 25 Jan 15:51 file.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tonyw  staff  426048 25 Jan 15:52 file.txt alias
com.apple.FinderInfo        32
com.apple.ResourceFork  850686
-rw-r--r--  2 tonyw  staff      19 25 Jan 15:51 hard.txt
lrwxr-xr-x  1 tonyw  staff       8 25 Jan 15:53 symbolic.txt -> file.txt

The Finder GUI should result in this, too:

Please note that the Finder GUI displays a symbolic link as an alias.

A symbolic link is not the same thing as an alias. A real alias has extended attributes than a symbolic link.

In the Finder GUI, there is no way of telling a hard link is anything but a file.

For any symbolic links, there is an 'l' at the left hand end of the attributes, and the ls command tells us where it points.

When you try this, exactly what do you get?


No Jailbreak Firewall for iOS (iPhone) for iOS 7 Is there a non jailbreak firewall for the iPhone or is there some way to set one up, somehow?

As of now, and for the foreseeable future, it is not possible for 3rd party developers to create a firewall app.

Apple need to do it, and my personal guess is they will not, since even for the mac os x the firewall "configuration" the os itself provides, is minimal.

I think Apple is still in the mindset that you can build a bulletproof ecosystem of OS and apps (which IMHO very very very naive).

I wish there was a version of little snitch that you could run on iphone. I would jailbreak my devices in an instant if there was one.


How am I supposed to install El Capitan on a new SSD without recovery partition? My old mac's hdd died. It's dead. So I got a ssd and installed it in the macbook.

Now how do I get El Capitan on there? I find lots of tips online that speak of creating a bootable USB drive from the Capitan installer. But I can't download the El Capitan from the appstore because the mac has got nothing to boot from.

On my newer macbook running Catalina, I also cannot download El Capitan from the appstore because it doesn't show up when searching for it.

What I did download is El Capitan's InstallMacOSX.dmg via https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886

But now I need to run/open this on the old mac with the fresh ssd.

I feel I'm stuck in a loop. I need a working OS to install an OS.....

Who can help me out here?

You said you downloaded the installer. Did you download it to another Mac? If so, mount the .DMG, copy the install file to the Applications folder, then follow this documentation:

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

Once the new SSD is installed, and you've created the bootable USB drive - insert USB drive into the Mac, start it up holding the alt (option) key, and select the Install El Captian drive.

Format the SSD from Disk Utility, then install.


How can I stop my iPhone displaying "iCloud Backup requires that you verify your password" repeatedly? Due to what turned out to be a (I assume unrelated) sim card problem, I recently wiped my iPhone 4, and then reinstalled from a backup.

Since then, multiple times per day, my iPhone displays a "iCloud Backup requires that you verify your password" message, and then prompts for my iCloud password. If the correct password is entered, the prompt is dismissed, only to return after a few hours (I've not noticed any specific triggering action I'm performing).

How can I stop this prompt from appearing repeatedly?

Presumably disabling the iCloud backup, as suggested at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3406796 would do the trick, but I do still want the backup enabled.

I personally had this same message. I turned off iCloud backups, then turned it back on. Settings > iCloud > Backup. While it did ask for my password the first time, it has not asked since.

If that doesn't work, I suggest to again, turn off iCloud backup, delete the backup, then turn it back on.

Settings > iCloud > Backup, turn off.
Settings > iCloud > Storage >
Manage Storage, locate the backup, tap edit in the top corner, and
delete.
Settings > iCloud > Backup, turn on.


How can I fix my ID3 tags without confusing iTunes? I'm planning to use TagScanner to clean up the ID3 tags for my music (though I'd be happy to use an alternative if it addressed the problem below). Unfortunately, doing so will change the files out from under iTunes. One thing that worries me is that iTunes seems to like to keep my music in folders reflecting the artist's name.
Once TagScanner has fixed the tags some files will be in a folder that's inconsistent with what one would expect based on the tags. I'd also like to make sure that iTunes' view of of the music reflects the updated information so that, for example, I can search for files using the repaired ID3 tags.
How can I spruce up my music files without breaking iTunes?

One idea would be to run TagScanner, then create a new iTunes library:

Hold Option while starting iTunes.
Click "Create new" library. Choose its destination ~/Music and name it.
In the new library, open Preferences and navigate to Advanced.
Make sure that "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" is checked.
Import all the TagScanner'd music files into your new library.

iTunes will create a new folder/sub-folder [artist/album] hierarchy based on the new ID3 information, and nothing would be broken. If everything looks the way you want it to, delete the old library. Here's how to delete the old library (this edit is in response to your comment below): delete the entire /iTunes folder and all its contents. You'll notice that when you make a new library, you get a new folder in ~/Music. For example, ~/Music/Nathans_Library. That folder isn't where the iTunes application lives, so it's fine to wipe out the whole thing.

(It's handy to know this, because it means you can store your iTunes library wherever you want to. For example, at work I archive loads of audio tracks in an iTunes library on a server. That way, my co-workers can access it if they need to, and our ITS department can back it up more easily.)

One tip for albums featuring guest appearances: Set the album artist, because iTunes looks at "Taylor Swift" and "Taylor Swift feat. Tim McGraw" as two separate artists, so make sure to set the album artist to "Taylor Swift". iTunes will use the album artist field to make the organizational folder hierarchy, so your tracks will stay grouped together in the file system as well as in iTunes.

Caveat: Following this approach might mean losing your personal metadata like play count, rating, date last played, etc. I'm not sure though.

Definitely back up your entire iTunes library before trying anything like this; you never know what might cause you to need a "do-over".


How can I map buttons on my PS3 controller to keystrokes on my Mac? I purchased a PlayStation 3 controller for use with my Mac. It's paired via Bluetooth. It works great in emulators such as Snes9x, but I'd like to use it for other things as well. Is there any software that will allow me to map buttons on the controller to keystrokes?

I've tried USB Overdrive and as far as I can tell, it doesn't do what I want.

I'm on Mac OS X 10.6.6.

Yeah there's an application called "ControllerMate" that you can get here http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/ . You pair the controller to the mac with USB (I think Bluetooth will work too but you might have to look up special instructions), then use this app to bind the controller functions to keys and mouse movements. It works really well. I used to use it to play things like Portal because they don't natively support the PS3 controller.


Are users on iPhone 5 (iOS 10) able to see new apps on the App Store? We're an app developer and want to ask if iPhone 5 users (who cannot upgrade to iOS 11) are able to see newer apps or updated apps on the App Store that has been made 64-bit compliant.

Can they see these apps on the app store?
Can they install these apps?

I can answer from iOS 12's perspective for apps which need iOS 13 to work. I cannot reach the app page via search feature. But given direct link, it opens the app page and shows the banner about incompatibility.

iMovie for iOS is one example. Searching doesn't list this.


How do I get to medications in Health.app? In this MacWorld article it shows a screenshot of Health.app with a section for medications but I can't find it in my Health.app. Was this functionality moved or removed at some point?

You cannot track medications in the Health app in the way you're describing. HealthKit does not have any medication data types. It's possible those screenshots were from an early/preview version of the Health app, but that feature definitely didn't make it into any shipping versions of Health.


Reason for root `/private` heirarchy What is the reason for the /private directory structure located at the root of an OSX system volume?  Why are /etc, /tmp, and /var symlinks to subdirectories of /private?

NOTE While writing my question, I discovered this answer to another question which seems to address this issue.  I'm going to post my question anyway because it contains the terms that I searched for.  The other question/answer doesn't, prompting me to start writing this question in the first place.

This answer to another, more specific question explains that this directory structure quirk is a vestige of OSX's NextStep heritage.


2 colors for one ical event Is it possible to put two colors, representing two people, for one event on iCal?

For example, if both my wife and I are included on a calendar event, I would like to see both her and my colors against the calendar event.

No, the colors are linked to the calendar, and in iCal a calendar can only have one color. All events for this calendar will be in the same color.

Alternatively, you could create a seperate calendar for shared events with a different color, and save the event there, or you can share each other's calendar so your wife's calendar appears in your calendar list with a different color.


Refresh iTunes metadata on songs purchased from the iTunes store I have a bunch of single songs from the iTunes store (Starbucks Pick of the Week) and in a misguided attempt to get them to organize them the way I wanted, I screwed up much of the metadata for these songs.

Is there a way to get it back, like you can with songs you directly imported from a CD using  "Get Track Names"?

For songs you purchased, check to see if iTunes in the cloud allows you to download again the songs from the store.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519 - Downloading past purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085 - iTunes in the cloud availability per country

If so, delete all the incorrect purchased tracks (making a backup of the computer just in case) and then re-download the affected tracks.


Why is my Final Cut Pro library file so bloated? I have a bit of a problem with Final Cut Pro.  Specifically, my library file is now 22GB, which, on a 120GB SSD (I'm running a MacBook Air with OS X El Capitan) is way too big.  I've been careful to select "leave files in place" whenever I import media into Final Cut Pro, yet the library file is still growing and growing.  Am I doing anything wrong or do I just have to offload my Final Cut Pro library to a bigger drive?

UPDATE: I didn't realize until now that the different versions of Final Cut Pro were so different.  I'm running the latest version of Final Cut Pro X from the Mac App Store.

You are right to leave media in the original location to help save space. Beyond this setting, take a look at your Library's settings.

Manage Storage Locations

Final Cut Pro is likely creating proxy and optimised copies of your original media. By default, these temporary files are stored within your Final Cut Pro libraries. You can change the location of temporary files, see Final Cut Pro X: Manage storage locations.

When you finish working on a project, ask Final Cut Pro to delete all associated runtime created files:

Final Cut Pro.app > File (menu) > Delete Generated Library Files…

This will dramatically reduce the file size of your library.


Why there is no standard way to uninstall programs in MacOS? Is not it ridiculous that every time you want to uninstall a program you have to google for some magical tricks "Delete files A,B,C in you /Library, run a .sh script from console, etc". Why Microsoft managed to create a simple and effective way for uninstallation via Control Panel and Apple did not ?

The standard way, assuming the program is following all of the App guidelines Apple lays out, is to drag the .app bundle from the installation location (usually /Applications) to the Trash.

There are some exceptions to this, but for the most part that's how you do it.

The program files that get left behind in ~/Library/Application Support can also be cleaned up if you wish, but they're generally considered benign and can be ignored.

There are uninstall helpers that make the removal of an application and all its support files much easier. So you don't have to Google for details on how to remove things. Take a look at TrashMe or AppCleaner -- both of these tools attempt to automate the search and removal of support files that go along with applications. In the case of TrashMe, it also helps you uninstall widgets and System Configuration plugins, which is handy. I personally prefer TrashMe.

Some software integrates so deeply (MacFuSE or Growl for example) in to the system that the only way to uninstall it via a script. In these cases there is usually an uninstall script in the .dmg file that you downloaded to install the software or one provided by the developer on their website.


Fusion Drive is corrupted This happened sometime ago when I wanted to update to new OS and was giving me an error.

Today I tried to install bootcamp and it stopped, telling me to check with diskutil my drive

First Aid found corruption that needs to be repaired. To repair the startup volume, run First Aid from Recovery.

I tried running First Aid from Recovery but was getting same error and that I need to do a backup.

What can be done to fix this without losing all the data I have on the hard drive?

I see everything working fine on the Mac but cannot update OS and neither do bootcamp.

I have an iMac 2017.

These are what I have on disk utility

FUSION DRIVE

Volume type : APFS Container
BSD device node : disk2
Connection : PCI-Express
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/PEG2@1,2/SSD0@0/IONVMeController
Writable : No
Is case-sensitive : No
Volume capacity : 1,027,680,514,048
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 515,761,975,296
Purgeable space : 0
Free space : 515,761,975,296
Used space : 511,918,538,752
Owners enabled : No
Is encrypted : No
Can be verified : Yes
Can be repaired : Yes
Bootable : No
Journaled : No
Disk number : 2
Media name : AppleAPFSMedia
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : No
Solid state : Yes
SMART status : Not Supported

CONTAINER DISK 2

Volume type : APFS Container
BSD device node : disk2
Connection : PCI-Express
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/PEG2@1,2/SSD0@0/IONVMeController
Writable : No
Is case-sensitive : No
Volume capacity : 1,027,680,514,048
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 515,761,975,296
Purgeable space : 0
Free space : 515,761,975,296
Used space : 511,918,538,752
Owners enabled : No
Is encrypted : No
Can be verified : Yes
Can be repaired : Yes
Bootable : No
Journaled : No
Disk number : 2
Media name : AppleAPFSMedia
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : No
Solid state : Yes
SMART status : Not Supported

MACINTOSH HD

Volume name : Macintosh HD
Volume type : APFS Volume
BSD device node : disk2s1
Mount point : /
File system : APFS
Connection : PCI-Express
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/PEG2@1,2/SSD0@0/IONVMeController
Writable : Yes
Is case-sensitive : No
File system UUID : D3FA738A-ABA3-3BD3-9262-21EBEC6FCB54
Volume capacity : 1,027,680,514,048
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 528,256,976,203
Purgeable space : 12,495,000,907
Free space : 515,761,975,296
Used space : 504,694,816,768
File count : 916,360
Owners enabled : Yes
Is encrypted : No
System Integrity Protection supported : Yes
Can be verified : Yes
Can be repaired : Yes
Bootable : No
Journaled : No
Disk number : 2
Partition number : 1
Media name :
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : No
Solid state : Yes
SMART status : Not Supported
Parent disks : disk2

"I see everything working fine on the Mac but cannot update OS and neither do bootcamp."

If you can boot to the Fusion drive and read the contents of the disk, then the VERY FIRST THING you should do is make sure that you have a backup. Only then should you think about upgrading or messing with BootCamp.

"What can be done to fix this without losing all the data I have on the hard drive?"

Backup your disk. The only way to ensure that you will not lose any files is to have at least one copy on another physical device. Then, if something goes wrong with this disk, you will still have your files.

A Fusion drive is made of two separate devices: an SSD and a mechanical hard drive. Two devices means two separate points of failure. The mechanical hard drive is much more vulnerable to breakdown than the SSD. If one part of the Fusion drive breaks, then EVERYTHING is lost.

You may be able to 'repair' the Fusion by erasing the disk: or the errors may be so great that nothing will work. Either way, you can only try when you have a backup.

You may need to replace the mechanical drive -- ideally with a new, fast SSD -- or you can use an external SSD drive, which should still be faster.


Corrupted El Capitan installer? I've got a problem that while installing El Capitan from USB Installer it says "copy of software is corrupted etc..etc". Actually I downloaded the copy of El Capitan from another Mac and then I created "El Capitan installer from my own Mac with terminal process and when I try to install it it says the above message  "copy of software is corrupted etc..etc". So tell me please anyone what happened and if it's date fault, then what date I should set because I didn't download El Capitan on the Mac on which I want to install it.

Please can anyone help me to sort out this problem??

You can try the following:

Go to System Preferences and manually change the date to January 1st 2016. More specifically, deselect Set date and time automatically and then manually enter the date and click Save.

After doing this, double click on the El Capitan installer and follow the prompts to install the software.

If you run into problems, a couple of additional things you can try are:

Disconnect from the internet before manually changing the date and stay disconnected until you've done the installation
Copy the installer onto the hard drive rather than running it from the USB

Let me know how you go.


Error: The application “NoMachine.app” is not open anymore Every once in a while I'm unable to open the NoMachine client. If I double click, I just get the error:

  The application “NoMachine.app” is not open anymore.

And nothing in the console.

If I try clicking on one of my usual connections using the top, menu-bar icon --- nothing happens.

If you're using 10.11, check this out:

  A crash occurs when executing a call to network API on OS X 10.11 El Capitan

  Based on the Diagnostic Report, the crash occurred during the discovering of other computers on the network and it's related to a call to network API.

  As a temporary solution, disabling the 'Discovering of other computers on the network' in player.cfg helped, but this is not a fix and we cannot exclude that the crash appears again. There can be other situations in which a call to the same API can be executed.

  Workaround:

  Edit the player.cfg file in the .nx/config directory under the user's home (~/.nx/config) on the client computer.
  Set:

<option key="Discover other NoMachine servers in the network" value="false" />

The workaround in that page helped me. Some weeks ago they've also sent me a test library fixing the issue (I've reported the problem on their forums). You may get in touch with them or wait for an official fix.


How to extend the standard color picker to pick and edit HEX colors? In Ask Different there are similar threads (e.g. Choosing hexadecimal web colours), but unfortunately no one is resolutive for me.

The perfect solution would be Hex Color Picker (a plugin for the standard picker), because it goes beyond picking allowing to edit/create swatches also. Unfortunately, it does not work for me: for some reason the hex picker returns wrong hex values. E.g. a full red image (#ff0000) created in photoshop, is evaluated as #f70016 (see image below). I tested this behaviour picking both from Photoshop and from an exported .png opened in browser. Both in Maverick and Mountain Lion.

Can you suggest me an alternative solution or a fix for this issue?

Test it and you'll see that Photoshop is guilty for not rendering in the same color space.

You need to change the color profile of your image in photoshop.


“Memory Trace Upload was successful” message randomly appeared on iPhone While in the Facebook app, a grey box with light grey text appeared randomly at the top of the screen, saying “Memory Trace Upload was successful”. I don’t have a jail broken iPhone and did not do anything to ‘ask’ for a memory trace to be uploaded.

If it’s a standard debugging thing, how do I turn off this level of access for app developers and/or Apple?

Apple and iOS do not have that as a standard dialog or feature - Apple crash reports and memory traces are logged and controlled much differently than how the Facebook App is designed.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202100
https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/414/
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2151/_index.html

Apart from the link above on whether you have Apple share analytics you report back to the developer, you can inspect your iOS device in settings to see what the Facebook app is logging to Apple and possibly through them to Facebook when you opt in to Apple’s analytics sharing process.

https://support.omnigroup.com/ios-crash-log/

Open Settings.app.
Tap Privacy, then scroll down and tap Analytics.
Tap Analytics Data.
Locate the log for the app that crashed. The filename will use this format: <AppName>_<DateTime>_<DeviceName>
Tap the crash log to open it.

Assuming you have discovered this message is in-app diagnostics and not iOS / Apple diagnostics and opting out from Apple collection, uninstall the Facebook app as a quick fix to remove the memory upload message that it is sharing with users when it it letting you know a trace has left your device.

You would of course need to use Safari to access your feed until the app developer either explains to you why they are letting you know a trace is uploaded or opt out of analytic / memory trace collection within the Facebook app.


Adding document to the launchpad Is it possible to add a document like a pages document or a screenshot into my launchpad? If so how do I do that

I was trying to do something similar - add a bunch of game .roms to my Games folder - and was told that Launchpad won't allow any item not ending in the application suffix of .app to appear, regardless of where you keep the file in question. So as far as I know there's no built-in or obvious way to accomplish adding any non-applications to the Launchpad.


Disk Capacity 500 gb falls to 250 gb after deleting files I was attempting to free up disk space on my MB Pro - and subsequently deleted most of the iPhoto files & folders as I was constantly receing a 'your start up disk is almost full (e.g. 2.5 gb left out of 499 gb available.

So, having done that, my Hard Drive capacity is now showing only a 250 gb capacity - despite there apparently being a Hard Drive & a SSD each with 250gb.

How can I restore it to its full capacity?

Macintosh HD:

  Available:    195.88 GB (195,884,195,840 bytes)
  Capacity: 250.14 GB (250,140,434,432 bytes)
  Mount Point:  /
  File System:  Journaled HFS+
  Writable: Yes
  Ignore Ownership: No
  BSD Name: disk0s2
  Volume UUID:  1455A0BF-327D-3453-B82F-C2504F6EF7CC
  Physical Drive:
  Media Name:   APPLE SSD SD0256F Media
  Medium Type:  SSD
  Protocol: PCI
  Internal: Yes
  Partition Map Type:   GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  S.M.A.R.T. Status:    Verified

Below is the output from diskutil:

Cathryns-MacBook-Pro:~ cathrynggibson$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk1
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 NO NAME                 8.0 GB     disk1s1
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *7.9 GB     disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 CANON_DC                7.9 GB     disk2s1

You have one SSD (disk0) with 251 GB containing one visible volume 'Macintosh HD' (disk0s2) with a capacity of 250.14 GB of which ~54.3 GB are used and 195.88 GB should be free.

Additionally you have 2 devices attached:

probably a thumb drive (disk1) with one volume named 'NO NAME' (disk1s1) and the size 8 GB
a Canon SD-Card (in an attached camera?) (disk2)  with one volume named 'CANON_DC' (disk2s1) and the size 8 GB

If the Finder doesn't show the full free space (195.88 GB) for 'Macintosh HD' or still complains about an 'almost full startup disk' check several answers here at ase:

Why is my startup disk so full?
Finder Reports Disk is Full, Other Tools Don't Account for it
How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?


DNS Zones not working after OS X 10.8.5 upgrade Prior to upgrading from OS X 10.8.4 to 10.8.5, I had the following DNS zone file in place that worked perfectly fine - now it's failing:

;
; BIND data file for dev sites
;
$TTL    604800
@       IN      SOA     dev. root.devcs1. (
                     2013092058         ; Serial
                         604800         ; Refresh
                          86400         ; Retry
                        2419200         ; Expire
                         604800 )       ; Negative Cache TTL
;
@       IN      NS      devcs1.
@       IN      A       10.10.4.15
*.dev.  14400   IN      A       10.10.4.15

And by "failing" I mean that when I try to ping foo.dev, I get:

Cannot resolve foo.dev: Unknown host

"nslookup foo.dev localhost" returns:

;; Got SERVFAIL reply from 127.0.0.1, trying next server

What can I do to get this zone working again? I'm trying to figure out what's changed in OS X 10.8.5, but has anyone else run into this yet? Suggestions?

Ah... I figured it out...

"named-checkconf -z" returns

zone localhost/IN: loaded serial 42
zone 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa/IN: loaded serial 1997022700
dns_rdata_fromtext: dev.zone:5: near '090712070736': out of range
zone dev/IN: loading from master file devcs1.zone failed: out of range
zone dev/IN: not loaded due to errors.
_default/dev/IN: out of range

Evidently my serial number is invalid... it should be YYYYMMDDNN (where NN is any number between 00 and 99). I changed the serial to "2013092001" and it's working fine.

Evidently the new version of Bind is more strict about serial numbers than the previous version.

You can use the following to tell what version of bind you're running:

nslookup -q=txt -class=CHAOS version.bind. 0

OS X 10.8.5 ships with Bind 9.8.5-P1.

OS X 10.8.4 shipped with 9.8.3-P1

Hopefully that helps someone else down the road.


Upgrade to High Sierra failed and I cannot restore backups from macOS Server I tried to upgrade a MacBook Air from macOS Sierra to macOS High Sierra. It rebooted and entered a black screen while the machine got very hot for about 30 minutes. I ended up turning off the machine and my drive was no longer bootable.

Before I did this, I made sure I had two backups on our macOS Sierra Server, configured with the Time Machine Server. We have a two Drobos attached to the server and our Macs backup to each Drobo in round-robin fashion.

I also did a "Backup with Consistency Check" on each of the two drives and I did a "Verify Backups" and all was fine.

Since I could not longer boot the MacBook Air and I was sure I had two good backups, I wiped the Mac and installed macOS High Sierra from the recovery partition. It installed fine.

However, at the point where it asks if I wanted to transfer from a backup, I chose that option but macOS won't find the backups. I waited 8 hours, and still it didn't find them.

So, I chose "Other Location" and I specified the server and SMB share name, and it added it but then said the share was unavailable. I don't have the exact error messages with me, and I'll update my question later with the exact errors and possibly screenshots.

I completed the macOS High Sierra installed, mounted and authenticated to the Time Machine server, and accessed the Time Machine backup sparsebundle. Then I launched the Migration Assistant. Again, it did not find the backups. Plus, if I add them, I get the same error (I will provide later).

How can I restore my MacBook Air from a Time Machine server backup?

I ended up calling Apple support and they apparently don't know to restore a Time Machine backup from a Time Machine server either. So I took matters into my own hand:

Copied sparesebundle from TM server to USB drive.
Attached USB drive directly to MacBook Air.
Mounted sparsebundle and started Migration Assistant.
Restore the data.

At first I tried to restore without mounting the sparsebundle and wile the computer name from the backup file will show, no backups show. You must mount the sparsebundle.


How do I get AppleScript to open another script file So I'm working on a script and I want one of the buttons to open another script file. I have:

    tell application "AppleScript Editor" to open "Fallen_Order_Intro.sctp"

When I do this, it says that it can't open "Fallen_Order_Intro.sctp" because it is a text document, (which it isn't).  Am I going about it the wrong way? Is there a different way I should be trying to open a script file? Thank you

You're close.

Get the path to your file by making a one-line script:

set the_file to choose file

Copy the result of that. Then, in the script that will open the "Fallen_Order_Intro" script, tell the Finder to do the opening for you, pasting in your second script's path, obtained using the "choose file" script. Here's how it would look if your "Fallen_Order_Intro" script is on your desktop (and if your user name is sdavis).

tell application "Finder"
    open alias "Macintosh HD:Users:sdavis:Desktop:Fallen_Order_Intro.scpt"
end tell

That's all there is to it. The file will open in Script Editor because the Finder knows it's a Script Editor document.


Can't set own self-signed root certificate to "Always Trust" on macOS Sierra I have a root CA certificate I created for my personal software development needs. I want to add it to the keychain as a trusted certificate.

I am running macOS Sierra 10.12 which I just installed this morning.

I unlock the System keychain.

I added the certificate to the "System" keychain. It is showing up with a red X and the warning reads that "This certificate was signed by an unknown authority." This is expected.

I right click on it and select the "Get Info" item. A screen appears with trust details. Form the "When using this certificate" dropdown, I choose "Always Trust" and close the window. Nothing happens. The certificate remains untrusted. If I click on "get Info", the setting is still "Use System Defaults".

I was running MacOS X 10.9.5 previously. I had this exact certificate marked as trusted in the "login" keychain.

The same issue happens if I do the above steps in the "login" keychain.

If I select "Never Trust", I get asked for my password and to save settings. However, this is the opposite of my intention. I want to "Always Trust" this certificate. It's as if macOS is shifting its eyes and whistling, making believe it did not see me select this menu item.

What do I need to do to mark my own self-signed root certificate as "Always Trust"ed?

I had this problem on Sierra with a very old root cert signed with MD5. Creating a new root CA certificate signed with SHA256 solved the issue.


Recommend a Terminal app for iOS? What is the most recommended/used terminal for iOS 13.3.1?

I’m kinda green to the whole thing to be completely honest! So any extra advice would be wonderful!

I use Prompt 2 by Panic. It's an excellent terminal app / SSH client, and works on the iPad too (in fact, it's even better on the iPad).

However, it's not free.


How to get rid of spell checker on macOS Mojave? I have disabled spell checker in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text.
Also, in TextEdit, under Edit > Grammar > Check spelling automatically.

Opening a document in TextEdit keeps re-enabling the app-level spell checker itself, again and again.

I am not using macOS in English. Running macOS Mojave 10.14.3

How can I get rid of this? I remember this was a bug in some previous Mac OS X version. It has been fixed back in the day.

TextEdit has yet a 3rd place where you might need to turn this off, TextEdit > Preferences > New Document > Options


Is there a difference between HDMI or Thunderbolt for monitor? This is my configuration:

Samsung S22A300B monitor (with VGA and DVI input)
Computer A

2,6GHz Mac Mini from end of 2014
HDMI to DVI cable
Thunderbolt to VGA cable

Computer B

Mac Book (yes, old)
output video to DVI cable (forget the connector name)

My problem is:  If I connect the Computer A to VGA, will I lose something in quality? With this configuration I can use booth computer on same monitor, just need to press the switch button. In another configuration, I will need to physically change the cables.

So, Is there a difference if I use Thunderbolt instead HDMI?

Answering straight yes. You loose quality when connecting monitor with VGA.

You see VGA is analog standard and digital signal being first time converted into analog in a computer to be transmitted through VGA cable and then converted back into digital to be used by the digital TFT panel. Since there are few steps of converting signal and analog interference while in a cable you have few chances to loose on quality.

Then it depends on particular setup, cables and quality of convertor when answering how much of quality being lost. So if you don't see that quality is degraded on you VGA connected MacMini compared to MacBook on DVI that it is safe it definitely more convenient to leave them as they are.