I have an external 1TB Seagate Harddrive but it shows that only 268MB is available. Why? I tried to erase it with Disk Utility but unsuccessful. It still shows that only 268MB is available, while another utility program (balenaEtcher) used for writing image files, shows 1TB free space. How to make it to display 1TB in Disk Utility?

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:             Apple_APFS_ISC                         524.3 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         494.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:        Apple_APFS_Recovery                         5.4 GB     disk0s3

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +494.4 GB   disk3
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            15.1 GB    disk3s1
   2:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.1 GB    disk3s1s1
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 439.1 MB   disk3s2
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk3s3
   5:                APFS Volume Data                    231.6 GB   disk3s5
   6:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk3s6

/dev/disk6 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk6
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 FV                      268.4 MB   disk6s1
   2:                      Linux                         8.5 GB     disk6s2
                    (free space)                         991.5 GB   -

I found a solution to this problem. I had to first attach the hard-drive to Windows 10 and delete the last two volumes in /dev/disk6 (DOS_FAT_32 "FV" and Linux) through Windows disk management. After that I attached it back to the Mac and via disk utility erased it one more time with structure APFS.

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:             Apple_APFS_ISC                         524.3 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         494.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:        Apple_APFS_Recovery                         5.4 GB     disk0s3

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +494.4 GB   disk3
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            15.1 GB    disk3s1
   2:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.1 GB    disk3s1s1
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 439.1 MB   disk3s2
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk3s3
   5:                APFS Volume Data                    231.7 GB   disk3s5
   6:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk3s6

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk4
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk4s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk5         1000.0 GB  disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1000.0 GB  disk5
                                 Physical Store disk4s2
   1:                APFS Volume Naamloos                1.2 MB     disk5s1


My Macbook Air Battery Is not Charging and the Icon Shows Charging My MacBook Air does not charge sometimes. It shows a different battery icon and the battery does not charge. Previously I used to get rid of this by opening battery settings, upon opening the battery settings my Mac would charge smoothly again. But now this solution works no more and my Mac stops charging mysteriously. I think this is a software issue as I ran Mac Diagnostic and it showed me no hardware issues found.

I am running macOS Mojave 10.14.

Status of the battery when it does not charge.

First of all imo you should not provide hardware data of yr computer in plain site (and don’t get me wrong to say this). Its 101 infosec.
So ...i would try this:
1. backup my  (time machine & an external HD) -have all my accounts written down (iCloud-appleid- Gmail ets) just in case...
2. Delete all of it  . Restore it from backup.
https://www.imore.com/how-to-prepare-mac-for-sale
So it’s:
        Step 1: Back up your Mac
        Step 2: Sign out of everything
        Step 3: Reformat your hard drive
        Reinstall a clean Mac operating system

Now if issue persists , I would take it to Genius Bar .
Hope to have helped you.


Is there anyway to disable network connections on 3G for some application? I want some applications connect to Internet only when wifi connection is available. How can I do that?

You can't, at least at user level.

The App's Developer can, of course, detect if the device is connected either by WiFi or 3G, and act accordingly.


anything better than dd to copy disk images to SD card in OS X? I have used dd because it is what the tutorials suggest to do for instance when copying Linux images to SD cards (e.g. Raspbian, Kali, ...).
This is done at 1 Mb/sec on my macbook pro. I have tried to change the bs option of dd, e.g. bs=1m or bs=10m or bs=100m but copying a 32 Gb image takes hours and the rate is always around 1 Mb/s.
I read on linux some users suggest to use cat instead of dd . This seems to not work for me as even with sudo I get an error for insufficient permissions.
Just to be clear, the disk partitions are unmounted via
sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk2
sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

Also, I should have specified that dd works where cat is blocked by the permission error.
So my question is, what is the quick and reliable way to copy OS images of tens of Gbytes to a SD card in OS X?

I use Balana Etcher for my Raspberry Pi SD cards. It's free, fast and even verifies. It's also cross platform.


Dual Boot OSX on Retina MBP 15 I want to install a fresh copy of OSX onto my Retina MBP, next to the one that it came preinstalled with.

I have created a 2nd partition using Disk Utility ready for the install, but have now found out that i have to do 'internet recovery' just to get a copy of Mountain Lion onto my machine.

Just to be clear - i dont want to backup using Time Machine then restore onto a new installation.  I just want a clean, fresh installation of Mountain Lion, separate from my current one.

Can 'Internet Recovery' install to a 2nd partition? or would it hose my default one in the process?

By using Disk Utility to re-partition the SSD, have i blown away the recovery partition that is apparently hidden away on the disk when it comes out of the factory? (when i hold down the option key on boot, it gives me the option to boot into recovery so i assume its still there?)

What is the best way to create a fresh copy of OSX alongside the default one?

If have read that the App Store Mountain Lion is different from the pre-installed Retina one - is this still the case?  and if i did download it, would i have to pay for it?

The best way is to boot into your current OS X install, and download the Mountain Lion installer from the Mac App Store. When the installer asks which drive to install to, select your second partition.

Internet Recovery is different to the Recovery HD partition.

Generally…

  As long as you have a valid Recovery HD partition, trying to boot into Internet Recovery will instead boot your Mac into standard recovery mode.

Both recovery modes download OS X anyway…

  installing Mountain Lion from within recovery mode requires an Internet connection to download the actual OS.

…so I recommend using the Mac App Store to install Mountain Lion as I mentioned above.

Disk Utility shouldn't let you remove the Recovery HD partition unless you are in Debug mode. It is unlikely that you have accidentally deleted the Recovery HD partition, and since you can select it when holding alt to select a boot drive, I doubt very much that it's gone.

The App Store Mountain Lion installer is the universal installer capable of installing on any compatible Mac. There is no 'different installer' for Retina or otherwise.


My app store is not working! I think it is because of the apple 9.0.2 update. When I try to dowload a app it makes a loading sign, but then it says get. Then I click it and it loads and then says get. I have read answers and tried them, but they do not work! What should I do? I do not want to restart my device!

According to Apple Support System Status, now, the iTunes Store
Service may be unavailable for some users.


How to get into the split screen mode in Maxthon? How to get into the split screen mode in Maxthon?

I have tried pressing F10. Also I google it but can't find another way to split it?

Maxthon's version 4.1.3.5000

They're all already gone..
go back to Maxthon version 4.4.8.1000
you'll get it all.. back :D


Cardbus USB 64bit drivers Are there any Cardbus expresscards with USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports (one or more) that is compatible with the current Mac OS X (Mavericks 10.9.4)? This most likely mean the card has 64bit kernel drivers.

Some cards that might be compatible are the "Apiotek COMBO EC-0002C" that has one USB port and 2 Firewire. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC0002C/

and also the "Sonnet Allegro USB 3.0" which has two USB 3.0 ports. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technologies/USB32PME34/

but I'm skeptical.

The Allegro while interesting is pretty expensive, especially as my main use will be a simple external keyboard. The existing 2 USB ports in my old Macbook Pro is used by a MIDI controller and my Audio Interface and I have been warned against USB 3.0 for those, so this additional ports will be for other stuff I need to connect, like the keyboard and my iPhone.

An USB 2.0 expresscard with one or two ports would be nice. Are there any that are actually tested with the current OS X?

The driverless "Apiotek COMBO EC-0002C" http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC0002C/ does indeed work great if you still have a Cardbus port. I have not tried with Yosemite.


How to delete a downloaded voice from Siri in iPhone5s I would like to delete a Siri voice that has taken up most of the remaining small space that i had left in my iPhone 5s. Can anyone please tell me how i should go about deleting the downloaded voice?

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech and select the language.

Then tap on Edit, swipe on the language and select Remove.


How to disable the Guest account in macOS Mojave using `dscl`? I've attempted to disable the Guest account using dscl as follows:

sudo dscl . -append /Users/Guest AuthenticationAuthority ";DisabledUser;"

However, it doesn't seem to work, why?

I know, I can disable the Guest account from the GUI, but I like to use the CLI.

Here is how to disable Guest user via command line

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow GuestEnabled -bool FALSE

Note, re-enabling it is quick, but you need extra help if you need to set this up without the first GUI step or MDM.

Enable Guest User in 10.14.x Via the Command Line (without a MDM)?


Preventing booting from external media Is it possible to set up Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) on a MacBook Air so that users cannot boot from external media (e.g. a USB memory stick) and cannot restore the OS from the internal restore partition?

The secure way is to set up Firmware password.

That will block any attempts from booting from outside, but it will require you to enter the password when booting up.

Here is a sample what it does:

How to do it:
OS X Lion and Mountain Lion come with OS X Recovery > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

This allows you to reinstall OS X, browse the web, repair drives and set up a firmware password, too.

First of all, hold Command and R keys while your computer is starting to start in OS X Recovery.

Then, go to Utilities menu (on the menu bar) and open the Firmware Password Utility, which will allow you to set up the firmware password.

Don't lose it because it's not possible to reset it without knowing this firmware password


Harmony Remote and Apple TV - "start position" I have my Harmony Remote set up to control my Apple TV (4th Gen, not 4K) and it works fine for the basics.

I'd like to setup an Activity on the remote to launch Netflix. However the way to do this seems to be through a combination of "right, down, right, OK, down, down, OK" which ends up looking like a solution to a Zork Zero problem.

I'm fine with this apart from the start position.

Is there any way to force the Apple TV to return to, say, the Top Left tile, no matter where it is (i.e. in an Open App in a folder, or in the Movies App, etc.)?

My ATV4 has a "Menu" button (upper left button, below touchpad).  Touching it from anywhere on the homepage takes me to the home screen, and selects the upper-left icon (Settings, for me).

But, if you're inside a "folder" on the home screen, or inside an app, it usually takes 2 clicks to get back to that top-left tile.

Before you say, "just program 2 clicks every time", when you do that from the home screen itself (not in a folder or app), that launches the screensaver.  You'd need to press Menu again to get out of the screensaver, but 3 clicks would send the other scenarios into the screensaver...

There is no sure-fire way to get to the top-left tile, and then to your Netflix app.  Unless you're willing to use the reboot function, which is available in the Harmony setup for ATV, but that kind of defeats the purpose of getting to Netflix quickly...


Have Mountain Lion remember different monitor (not window) arrangement I'm using 10.8 on a new retina MacBook.

At home, my external monitor (an HP) is located to the left of the laptop stand. So I want it my display arrangement to be [HP] [MacBook].

At work, my external monitor (a Viewsonic) is located to right of the laptop stand. So I want the layout there to be [Macbook] [Viewsonic].

Under 10.6 it used to remember the layout as part of the monitor profile. Now, that no longer seems to be the case.

Does anyone know whether this is the new normal behavior, or how to fix it?

Have you tried setting up your screens with SwitchResX?
It has settings for each unique display connected to your computer. The app cost a couple of dollars, but theres a 30day demo to try if it helps you.


Is it possible to network two MacBook Pro's together without a router? I have demo that I want to conduct and it requires two computers, the place where I am doing the demo will not have a router available for said demo.

Is it possible to configure two MacBook Pro's to communicate with each other directly over wifi without having a router involved?

On one - click the Wi-Fi symbol in the menu bar and create a network.

On the other - join that network.

This is covered in detail in the Mac help under "Create a computer-to-computer network". You can also just connect them with Ethernet, FireWire but Wi-Fi is faster to set up and tear down.


How to set default mount options? I'm trying to figure out where the default mount options are set for user-mounted filesystems (e.g., disk images, USB thumbdrives, etc.). I'm working with OS X 10.11 ("El Capitan").

The options I specify for known disk partitions in /etc/fstab are respected when they're mounted automatically at boot time — or even manually via Disk Utility — but I can't seem to set the default mount options for any "unknown" filesystem that gets automounted in /Volumes.

I've tried changing AUTOMOUNTD_MNTOPTS in /etc/autofs.conf and adding options with -o to the ProgramArguments array of /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.automountd.plist (which required disabling SIP), but neither change seems to have any effect.

It would seem that some other set of defaults is being used... but where are those defaults defined?

If I understand your question, you should have a look into /etc/auto_master

This article explains very well how auto-mount works
https://useyourloaf.com/blog/using-the-mac-os-x-automounter/


iPhone 2G, iOS 3.1.2 and YouTube doesn't work So, YouTube application doesn't work. What I mean by that is that it won't playback any videos, nor will it log me into the YouTube so I can't see my subscriptions, or my videos/playlists, etc.

Did Google change something and Apple apparently hadn't made an agreement with them to make sure that older iDevices would continue to work with their services? Or is it something else?

It's clear now after all these years of observing how Apple handles support of YouTube and similar services, including their own Home Sharing feature, whether it's iOS or OS X, that sometimes the company is focused only on latest versions of OS or hardware. It's a sad fact of life that they don't support every single device or version of iOS/OS X but you have to give it to them because they do a very good job overall. Most of their product lineup is supported well and it just happens so that I have the first iPhone and the very first iPad that in a way were slightly experimental and very few people apparently use those devices today in 2016... so, no wonder that some features don't work at all, or well 8-6 years after the release of those devices.

Google (YouTube) is also known for changing YouTube in a way that requires applications be rewritten to remain compatible with their API. This affects not only iOS but also OS X apps, as well as programs written for Linux or basically any other OS. That's just how things are but if you run more or less recently purchased device you should be good.


Is it possible to have IOS simulator in my Linux Mint? I need to have iOS simulator for my Linux Mint OS to check my website responsive in various iOS devices is this possible as I know this feature is available in almost all Macs but I cannot afford a Mac right now.

The iOS simulator is a large chunk of iOS compiled for OS X (minus the app store, among other things). You won't be able to port it without the source code, which Apple isn't going to share. iOS development can be done on other platforms, but you're not going to get the simulator.


How do I migrate an expired Mobile Me account to iCloud? I had a Mobile Me account which expired before iCloud was announced.  I want to migrate this account to iCloud rather than signing up for a new iCloud account with a different email address.  Is this possible?  If so, how?

When I try to login at www.iCloud.com with my old Mobile Me ID I get the error below:

If I click 'Get Started' I'm redirected to www.me.com to login to my old account where I get the message below:

When I click on 'Learn More' I get directed to a support page which just says I can migrate from Mobile Me by visiting www.me.com/move but this just gives me the same result as above.

Has anyone managed to move an expired Mobile Me account to iCloud?  If so, how did you do it?

This article from Apple Support answers some commonly-asked questions related to the Mobile Me to iCloud transition. This article from Apple Support explains how to move to iCloud. From this article we read the following:

  Inactive and expired MobileMe accounts do not need to move to iCloud.
  Simply use your inactive or expired account to sign up for an iCloud
  account and follow the onscreen instructions

This article lists some additional troubleshooting issues with accounts and iCloud. It is important to note that the number one troubleshooting issue mentioned is iCloud outages. As it has been mentioned on this thread, iCloud is being hit pretty hard today on its official launch day. From the article:

  Check System Status to make sure there are no outages or scheduled
  maintenances currently affecting your iCloud account. System Status is
  displayed at the iCloud Support web site.

The "Lean More" link on the original question (above) is the same link as the first one I include on this answer. If some of these links are not working in your area, it may be a matter of waiting for the pages to propagate across Apple's worldwide servers (and their backbone providers). The links work within the US. It also worth mentioning that more articles are literally being made available by the hour. In other words, There is a chance the some of these links will not work immediately for you, but they eventually should. Hope this helps.


What is MobileAccessoryUpdater and why it runs on my MacBook? My MacBook Pro 2011 with latest  High Sierra 10.13.02 is suffering from a hard disk usage from time to time. In attempt to track down where all these disk I/O 's are coming from I came across to a "fud" process being called:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileAccessoryUpdater.framework/Support/fud

What has to do with Mac OS X and can I disable it ?

It seems that fud is the firmware update daemon of com.apple.MobileAccessoryUpdater that presumably is responsible for firmware downloads for bluetooth peripherals and running the firmware update daemon
(hint for fud found here)

To unload/disable it run in a terminal (this will persist through restarts, but probably not OS updates):

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.MobileAccessoryUpdater.plist

To enable/load it again run in a terminal:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.MobileAccessoryUpdater.plist


What is Apple doing with UUCP? I have been looking into UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy, a very old network protocol) as a way of communicating with some Linux boxes that don't always have an internet connection. While doing so on my Macbook (with El Capitan), I found entries in my /usr/share/uucp/sys file for uucpsys1.apple.com and uucpsys2.apple.com. (You can also see these by running uuchk | less.)

What is Apple doing with UUCP? I found this post on the Apple forums by someone who noticed a UUCP user, but no one came forward with an explanation, so I'm hoping someone here will know.

I'm especially curious because /usr/share/* falls under System Integrity Protection in El Capitan, which means I'll need to set up a separate UUCP implementation if I want to use it for my purposes — but it also suggests that, if Apple's shipping OS X with a UUCP that only they can use, they must be using it for something.

ETA: I've also found a launchd daemon at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.uucp.plist. It has <key>Disabled</key><true/> in the plist, so it won't be run by default, but other daemons could enable it programmatically without altering the plist. I'm also intrigued to see that it's in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ (and thus subject to SIP) rather than /Library/LaunchDaemons/ — it adds to my hunch that it's something Apple is using (or maybe was using, as patrix comments), rather than just a miscellaneous *nix tool they happened to include.

Those entries are examples that can be used as templates in user defined configurations.

See the same examples at:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/uucp/uucp-11/configs/sys

You can see those examples in the same way as the phone prefix +555 in the movies. It there to show somebody using a phone, but the fake number/name cant be called. Placing an example with a ficticious hostname allows to have a template.


How to pin a window on top of other windows in OS X? I used to use an app called Afloat that let me pin windows on top of all other windows on the Desktop. However, Afloat stopped being maintained at some point and it doesn't work with more recent versions of OS X.

I then used an app called Compulsion, which installed as a SIMBL plugin but then that stopped working with OS X El Capitan.

Is there a way to get either of these apps to work with OS X El Capitan? Or is there another solution I can try?

Try using Helium.  It uses a 'customizable translucency' to keep a window on top of other windows.  Plus, it won't intercept mouse clicks on top of it unless you want it to.

As of now, it only supports a browser window but the question doesn't indicate if that's a requirement of the OP or not.


How to set default Finder window size for *all* situations? There are tons of  posts about that (like How to set default finder window size?), but none are able to change the default size everywhere, including shared network folders from a Windows PC.

So when I open a network folder through Finder / Connect to Server with a smb:// address, the opened Finder size is always very small (around 770x440 px), regardless of the "remembered" size I did with the Cmd+Resize+Relaunch trick I see everywhere.

I am on Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), but it never worked in past OS X versions either.

I search a lot in com.apple.finder.plist file (under the folder ~/Library/Preferences) to found the answer but I can't.
I think the best option to do what you want is to create an AppleScript and use it as a service with automator.

I know that is not what you want, but it's a solution to change window's size for the active window with a shortcut.

We will use the Applescript below (more about this Applescript here)

on run
    tell application "Finder"
        activate
        set bounds of front window to {0, 100, 490, 248}
    end tell
end run

How to create the Service with Automator

Open Automator and Select Service

Search for AppleScript and double click on Run AppleScript
In Service Receives set to no input in any application
Copy the Script below and paste it in Automator

Don't forget to save your service (cmd+s)

Assign a shortcut for your service

Go to System Preferences / Keyboard / Shortcuts
From the left sidebar select Services
Find your service and add a shortcut (e.x. cmd+shift+w)

Now open your folder, press cmd+shift+w and the window's bounds will be change to {0, 100, 490, 248}

More Informations about BoundsProperty, to create your own here

Update:

Here's the AppleScript to choose your own width and height for the window without changing the destination from the side of the screen. Just change myWindowWidth and myWindowHeight. Also I have some other variables in comment to understand the code. Please reply if you have any question!

on run
    tell application "Finder"
        activate
        --we take the bounds properties of the front window
        set windowAreaDimensions to bounds of the front window
        set x1 to item 1 of windowAreaDimensions
        set y1 to item 2 of windowAreaDimensions
        set x2 to item 3 of windowAreaDimensions
        set y2 to item 4 of windowAreaDimensions

        set destToLeft to x1
        set destToTop to y1
        --set destToRight to x2
        --set destToBottom to y2
        --set previousWindowWidth to destToRight - destToLeft
        --set peviousWindowHeight to destToBottom - destToTop

        set myWindowWidth to 730
        set myWindowHeight to 521
        set sameWidth to destToLeft + myWindowWidth
        set sameHeight to destToTop + myWindowHeight

        --The following line script return the bounds of the front window
        --get the bounds of the front window

        --The following line set our bounds for the front window
        set bounds of front window to {destToLeft, destToTop, sameWidth, sameHeight}
    end tell
end run


Mac Becoming Extremely Unresponsive After Updating OS (Low CPU Usage) I recently updated my 2015 iMac to the new OS (10.15.7) and at times it becomes incredibly sluggish to the point of not being able to do any productive work. It sometimes takes 20-30 seconds just to click a button; sometimes opening a web page takes minutes. I recently gutted the computer in an attempt to speed it up, and before updating the OS it worked really well. To download XCode I had to download the new operating system, and after downloading it the Mac has slowed down considerably, even though the CPU usage stays very low.
It seems to be getting worse. Yesterday I was able to run the iOS simulator and it wasn't running too poorly, but today the simulator wont even start up. I've tried restarting the computer. I just don't understand why my mac has become so sluggish even though the CPU isn't being fully utilized whatsoever.
Why would my mac run slow if the CPU usage is very low?

There are a number of possible reasons for sluggishness after an OS update. The OS update is usually not the cause, but often the 'catalyst'. The chain of events leads many to believe incorrectly that "the OS update killed my Mac".
1. Hard disk failure.
Installing a new OS involves writing several GB to the disk. If your hard drive is several years old, then this work may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. A disk may continue to 'work', but be slow.
Low CPU usage but poor performance does sound like a disk problem.
2. Incompatible software.
Older third-party software may not work well with the new OS. This is particularly true for things that 'get their hooks' into the OS, running background processes or low-level IO tasks. Things like hardware drivers, system monitors, or anything that changes the behaviour of the OS are usual suspects. Look in /Library (and <user>/Library) folders such as LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons; also Login Items in the Users & Groups System Preference pane.
You can test this by performing a Safe Boot , which will start your OS without any of these third party software. Restart normally after testing. Performing a Safe Boot will also clear some caches, which may help. (Though wildly emptying all caches will in fact cause some slowness as the OS attempts to rebuild them all!)
Another useful test is creating a new user account and logging into that. If things works well there, then you know the problem is something in your original user account, and not the OS itself or the hardware. The problem may be a corrupt or incorrect user preference file, user-triggered third-party software, or something else based in the user Library. Go back to the old user account, and start isolating the problem.
Don't just migrate to the new account: this may cause permissions problems with files; and if the issue crops up again, you'll have to move on again!
3. Spotlight/Cache rebuilding.
After an OS update, the computer will spend some time re-filling caches and re-indexing Spotlight. You should see some evidence of this in Activity Monitor, such as high CPU for processes like mdworker. But this activity should subside after a couple of hours or so. (It may run into the night, but should be finished by the next morning.)
If it seems to be stuck, you can force another rebuild of the index, though this obviously will also take some time to complete.


Enable a CRL endpoint for my CA in Keychain Access I have a Certificate Authority and I'd like to configure CRL. Is there a way to do this in Keychain Access? (I am running OS X Server).

Unfortunately, Keychain Access (Certificate Assistant) does not have the ability to include a CRL Distribution Point inside of a certificate's extensions section in certificates that it generates. You'll likely notice that your current CA does not have a CRL distribution point specified (even if you've enabled CRL signing as an allowed usage of that certificate during creation.)

It just works!

Interestingly enough, when setup as an Open Directory master, OS X Server automatically creates a self-signed certificate authority along with an Intermediate CA - both of which possess a CRL distribution point (with a format similar to: http://server.example.com:1640/rfc2585/Example.crl.) These certificates are not generated by Certificate Authority, but by xscertd-helper, which is forked by slapconfig during Open Directory setup and configuration. If your machine were already running Open Directory, you could use slapconfig (mainly xscertd-helper) to:

Create a self-signed certificate authority
Sign an intermediate authority cert (both containing CRL distribution points on the OD server "server.example.com")
Store both certificates in the System keychain and LDAP "Certificate Authorities" container
Create and update CRLs at /var/db/crls automatically
Respond to SCEP requests on port 1640 (xscertd)

From the slapconfig man page, the command that you can use to recreate the CA setup used by Open Directory (note: this is part of the OD setup process and is unnecessary in most situations) is:

-createrootcertauthority <Certificate Authority Name> <Certificate Authority Admin Email> <Certificate Authority Organization Name>
Create a CA on the OD master.

Unfortunately, slapconfig will check to confirm that the machine is an OD master before allowing this setup to commence. Although you can trick it into performing a few steps by setting false flags in plist files (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.openldap.plist), the software eventually makes LDAP queries to the local node, and fails to find the node responding (or fails to find the certificationAuthority object class).

There is a utility named xscertadmin that can be used (by humans!) to add items to the CRL distribution list. However, that software is (again) reliant on your computer being an OD master (and running xscertd). From what I can see, Apple is storing several pieces of data in the System Keychain (identity preferences for the OD CA and IA certs, the passphrase used to secure each private keys, as well as the certificates themselves) as well as in the LDAP database (CRL, CA certs). It appears that this utility is really only meant to read and write certificate and CRL data to/from the local LDAP node and System Keychain.

The downside to the OD setup is that it doesn't seem to be providing CRL distribution points inside of any of the certificates that are created by the Intermediate CA (i.e., the OD server's machine certificate; a code signing certificate for use with Profile Manager), which doesn't seem to be of much use.

Cranking it by hand

Of course, this doesn't rule out using openssl on the command line to manage your certificates. Certificate management can also be somewhat automated using openssl configuration files. However, you will still be required to keep track of certificates that you have issued and those that have been revoked.

You can export your current CA's certs and keys out of Keychain Access, and (given it was created with the usage ability to sign CRLs) can use it for management of your certificate signing. Unfortunately, this will not give you the ability to use the user-friendly Certificate Assistant interface.

Although it is also likely possible to mimic the setup that Apple is using (storing CA keys inside of the Keychain), when signing certificates with OpenSSL, the workarounds that would have to be performed in getting the keys out so that openssl can sign would be a bit of work, and may minimize the return.


How to select keyboard input file for Add Input Source Here is the dialog for adding an input source.  Nowhere does a "choose file" file chooser dialog button appear.

Then hitting Add (+):

And there is NO Choose File dialog here either.

So then what is the correct process?

The underlying confusion here is that an existing keyboard layout file may not be modified in place.  You need to delete it or rename it then add it back.

The Input Sources program actually reads the xml's of the files uner

~/Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/

It will not allow you to re-select a layout with the same name of one it already knows about.  Unfortunately that prevents updating an existing one using the existing name.

You have to update the layout name in the xml:

<keyboard group="0" id="5000" name="Dollar Layout" maxout="1">
    <layouts>


Mac Book Air mid-2012 completely disappeared disk I've tried to wake up my Mac Book Air from sleep today, but I got a black screen.

After waiting 10 min, I decided to shut it off by holding the power button a few sec.

After restarting, I had a question mark folder flashing. So I searched and found topics like this one : Can't boot Mac, only shows a Folder with a Question Mark?

It appears that my hard drive won't show up at all.

That is to say, if I chose the most brutal solution, i.e. reinstalling Mac OS, I can't find any disk where to install it!

It's as if my hard drive had completely disappeard!!

I've tried to boot on a linux live USB drive, but I got the same problem, it doesn't find any hard drive on my Mac Book Air.

Is there anything else I can do?

I understand my hard drive could crash badly but c'mon, I can't even find it anymore!

Your hard drive could be physically separated from the rest of the computer (i.e. the cable could have broken). This is thus not a software problem but a hardware problem. Your computer may need to be open then. You should take it in for repair.


Going from sub/superscript to regular baseline with keyboard shortcut in Keynote I use mathematical notation a lot. Therefore being able to cntrl+cmd+"+" and cntrl+cmd+- to write super- and subscript is a productivity boon. However, to return to the regular font baseline I need to use the mouse and menubar. Is there a keyboard shortcut that lets me return to using the regular font baseline?

Ps. You can copy some regular text before entering sub/superscript mode and then paste it afterwards to return to regular baseline, however that is a slight hassle.

Pressing ⌃⌘+ or ⌃⌘- again seems to remove superscript or subscript in Keynote '09.

Other applications like TextEdit raise or lower the text multiple times though.

You could give custom shortcuts to nested menu items on 10.7, but it stopped working on 10.8.

Another option would be to create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this as DefaultKeyBinding.dict, but it doesn't seem to work in iWork applications.

{
    "^@=" = unscript:;
}

You could also assing a shortcut to a script like this:

try
    tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where it is frontmost)
        click menu item "Use Default" of menu 1 of menu item "Baseline" of menu 1 of menu item "Font" of menu "Format" of menu bar 1
    end tell
end try


What can I use for mixing/muxing/splitting/leveling audio inputs and outputs? I was hoping to find a single tool that could arrange, in any configuration, any audio inputs and outputs on a Mac.

A specific example follows.

Devices

a) Line In from XBOX 360 Audio Out
b) USB from Headset Microphone
c) Audio out from Skype App
d) USB to Headset Earphones
e) Audio in to Elgato Game Capture (Narration track)
f) Audio in to Skype App

MIX

1) a + b + c => d
2) b + c => e
3) b => f

Audio needs to be mixed at different levels. For example, the USB mic level for headset, narration, and Skype can all be different.

I have come close with Audio MIDI Setup, Soundflower, and several copies of LineIn. But I can't split and join audio easily and I can't save the configuration - it has to be painstakingly set up each time apps are relaunched. Rogue Amoeba's paid app Audio Hijack looked like a good candidate but I did not see how to send resulting audio to an application or to a virtual device that could be designated as input for an application.

Audio Hijack is great for recording. For routing/combining inputs, look at Rogue Amoeba's Loopback. Unlike Soundflower, it is a paid app -- easier to use, supported, and handles multiple routings/combinations (which can be saved).


Cannot trash a file? I want to delete a file because it's of no use to me yet I seem unable to do so. I've gone through these steps so far:

Put file in trash, empty trash. -> Mac keeps on telling me: 12 items to remove..
rm -rf /.Trash/* -> process seems to go on indefinitely
sudo rm -R path/to/file -> same as above

I'm desperate.. what should I do?

If you've put the file in your own Trash, you got the path wrong in step 2:

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

or (because there might be something wrong with the file permissions)

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*


Powering a graphics card in a Mac Pro 2008 I'm looking to update from the stock graphics card in my my Mac Pro 3,1 (2008). The logic board only has two 6-pin ATX connectors, and the card I'm looking at (a GeForce GTX 760) requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin ATX connector. From my research the power supply should be able to handle it, as I don't have any other PCI devices. There are 6-pin to 8-pin ATX adapters available, but I'm not sure the tracks on the logic board would be rated for the higher power, and may burn out. I do, however have a spare molex 4-pin power connector for an IDE disk drive. What is the rated power for one of these type connectors, and is there any way to use that, or a combination of that and the other 6-pin ATX connector to provide enough power to the card?

Thanks!

Please see this thread
“

The Mac Pro has a special low-profile connector on the motherboard, so you need a cable like this or this_. Make sure the cable you get specifically says it is for the Mac Pro, there are many different choices and not all cables will work.

”


Iphone 5s charging problem My battery was at 100% when I turned my phone off, when trying to turn it back on the red battery symbol showed up so I tried to charge my phone. The problem is when I plug in any charger the lighting symbol does not show up until I unplug the charger. My phone is old and I have had battery life problems before, please help.

When troubleshooting charging issues, I would do the following (in order):

Always try another Lightning cable and charger, preferably Apple original or MFi certified units.

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)|Lightning cable 8-pin connector] should be sitting flush with the housing and completely inserted. If it is not, there could be lint/dust/debris inside the port impeding a proper connection. You can clean it out with fine point tweezers or a dental pick. Just be careful not to damage the pins inside the Lightning Port.

Change the battery. The battery is the weakest link in the entire phone and certainly for charger related issues. It is also the easiest thing to replace. Use a battery utility, such as coconutBattery (for Mac) or 3uTools (for Windows) to test the battery prior to removal if you can get the phone to boot properly. Anything less than 70% of design capacity will require replacement.

If the battery is in good condition, you can use a [https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=USB+Ammeter|USB Ammeter] to determine if the phone is really drawing current when it says it's charging. If it isn't drawing current, then I would change the Lightning/Charge Port.

If a new battery and charge port still don't resolve the issue, then you either have faulty replacement parts (possible) or a logic board issue.


How to set a custom icon inside a signed Apple Script application? I'm using Apple Script to distribute a signed applet, and would like to use a custom icon. However, as soon as I export it from Script Editor, the bundle loses the custom applet.icns file I put in it. It's reverted to the standard script icon (see screenshot).

How do I export my script as an app without losing my custom icon?

If not possible: are there other ways to sign an Apple Script application bundle on OS X 10.10? This would allow me to do a manual icon replacement and sign the bundle afterwards.

Important twist: Replacing the applet.icns file afterwards is not an option, as the bundle won't pass signature validation anymore. In short, users get a damaged app error when launching the app, unless they have lowered their OS X security.

You can force codesign after You change bundle content. In Terminal.app use something like this:

 codesign -f -s [identity] /path/to/bundle

For more info please read man codesign.


Need to download iMovie '09 on MacBook Pro 16" with iMovie 10 I would like to transfer old Hi8 tapes onto my new MacBook using FireWire.  I have an old Digital Sony Handycam and all of the required adapters to connect it to my MacBook USB-C ports.  I tried importing a tape into iMovie 10 and while it did actually import the portion of the tape I played, the import screen on iMovie 10 had message "No Data Device Detected" the entire time and the audio could have been better. After doing some research it appears that maybe iMovie 10 is not 100% compatible with these old cameras but that iMovie '09 should still be.
So, I would like to download iMovie '09 onto my MacBook in addition to iMovie '10 that I already have.  In other words, I would like to have 2 different versions of iMovie on my MacBook so I can use the '09 version to import old Hi8 tapes and the '10 version for anything in the future.
Is this possible?  I did try to download '09 off the Apple site but after downloading it told me that I had downloaded an update and I already had the newer version so that bright idea didn't work.  I am not a coder so if there is a way to do this without making changes in Terminal mode that would be my preference.
TIA!

I found a tutorial on how to extract the older iMovie 09 onto the same Mac as v10 & have both capable of running (I doubt it will work on Catalina or later, but I haven't tested)

Download the iMovie 9.0.9 package… https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1574?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Create a folder on your Desktop called iMovie.

Open the imovie9.0.9update.dmg file to show imovie9.0.9update.pkg

Drag this .pkg to the folder.

In Terminal, type pkgutil --expand followed by a space, drag iMovie9.0.9Update.pkg to the Terminal window, and then drag the desktop iMovie folder to the Terminal window. Hit Backspace to remove the space, and then type iMovie so the full command is
pkgutil --expand /Volumes/iMovie\ 9.0.9/iMovie9.0.9Update.pkg Users/[username]/Desktop/iMovie/iMovie

Hit Enter, and wait for the extraction to complete. Then quit Terminal.

So we have a new iMovie9.0.9Update.pkg file in the /Desktop/iMovie/iMovie/ folder.

Right click on it and select Show Package Content.
In the resulting folder, right click Payload and choose Get Info.
In the info panel, go to Name & Extension field to add .zip extension.
Hit Enter and there will be a prompt. Click Add and we get Payload.zip.
Double click on Payload.zip which will generate a folder Payload 2.
Go into the Payload 2 folder, next Applications folder and Voila, the iMovie app is there!

Right click the iMovie and select Copy iMovie. Now open Finder and go to the Applications folder, right click on empty space and select Paste Item. Click Keep Both when prompts. To distinguish with the newer iMovie, it's better to rename it to iMovie 9.


New iPhone not recognized by Apple Music on macOS tl;dr:
When I open Apple Music (v1.0.6.10), it lists only my old phone under devices . It does not show my new iPhone.
I generally don't use Apple Music, but I would like to put 2 songs (a friend recorded them for me, they're not like available in stores or whatever) that I have on my computer (macOS) on to my new phone. I suppose I don't really care whether I get them on there via Apple Music app or not.
How can I get these songs onto my iPhone?
More info:
I no longer possess the old iPhone that Apple Music seems stuck syncing with. I performed a factory reset before getting rid of it. The bottom of the UI in Apple Music on the mac says Syncing and when i click that, this super unhelpful Activity window opens that says Updating "<your old phone>"... and it has an X so that I could cancel that. Of course that X does not actually do anything. When I plug in my current iPhone, it does not show up in Apple Music. (It has previously asked me to trust the computer as in If your computer doesn't recognize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, and I can see the iPhone in the System Information and in the Xcode Devices and Simulators windows.
What do I do?

It seems that maybe Force Quitting AMPDevice*Agent may have resolved this issue. Attempted to restart, and got some error about Finder blocking restart because of activity with iOS device. I saw my old iPhone (no longer in my possession) in the Finder, and wasn't sure what to do. I Force Quit that one task, and restart succeeded. On restart, Apple Music no longer listed my old phone and now listed my new one.


How can I show only certain movies in iTunes on the Apple TV 2nd Generation? When I connect my Apple TV 2nd Generation to my iTunes home sharing account I see all Movies, Music etc. I can choose which photos to show, however.

I would like to be able to choose which Movies and Music to show on the Apple TV (and on other connected computers) and which not.

All Movies and Music were bought with the same Apple ID (which is also used for sharing).

It's not Home Sharing, but this allows you to share over Bonjour, and you can drag just the movies you want into their own playlist.


Sync between Mac & PC version control system Having both a PC & Mac for work, I would like to synchronize development between both devices. I could just use Dropbox or Google Drive, but I would like to have version control (git or otherwise).

Is there a way to run a version control system (git preferably) between these two devices?

I was facing the same question a while ago, and I decided against a solution based on Dropbox or similar tools.

Take a look at https://bitbucket.org/ - they offer free private Git repositories.

If you don't mind hosting your stuff on a public repo, you could also use GitHub, but if it has to be private, check out BitBucket. This is a real Git host, so you can pull/push, even if your machines are on different networks.

Dropbox always sounded like the wrong way for this. It can certainly work, but why do it like this when you can use a real Git host for free?


How to map the Command key to a "Windows" keyboard? I would like a nice new keyboard with mechanical switches. Pretty much every high-end keyboard I see is a "Windows" keyboard, with the Windows key. And no Command key.

I imagine that I could use a combination of remapping keys through the OS, and paint "Command" on one of the keys, in order to make my new keyboard just like the one built into my Powerbook.

How to map the Command key to a "Windows" keyboard?

Remapping a Windows keyboard so that the key positions match a standard Mac keyboard is pretty easy.

Just open Keyboard Preferences, and click the Modifier Keys… button in the Keyboard tab.

This lets you change the behaviour of the keys on each attached keyboard (make sure you select your external one from the top drop-down menu).

To turn the Windows standard Ctrl⊞WinAlt configuration to the Mac standard controloptioncommand ⌘, just change the Option and Command drop downs so they have the opposite entries (i.e. Option performs Command and Command performs Option).

If you want to change the physical keys, most of the premium mechanical keyboards use Cherry switches that have interchangeable key caps. You can get Mac specific modifier key sets from places like DAS Keyboard and WASD Keyboards. If you want to go nuts, you can even get a fully customized key cap set in a style similar to Apple's keyboards, as this guy did (looks pretty nice IMO, but I'm sure it's costly).


When switching from Mojave to Ubuntu, then back to macOS, I cannot reinstall Mojave I had to switch from macOS to Linux momentarily for a short project and now that I'm done, I want to go back to macOS. Prior to installing Ubuntu on my Mac, I was running Mojave as my OS. I tried switching back to Mojave, but when I press ⌘R to enter recovery mode, only option you are given is Mountain Lion, so I installed it. Now when I tried going back to Mojave I am having the following problems:

When I click Get in App Store to download Mojave, and enter my password and email correctly I get following window:

Which is followed up by this pop-up:

Upon clicking LEARN MORE, it redirects me to this Apple Support site:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208104 ("Learn about changes that might prevent you from editing your payment method or accessing the App Store and iTunes Store.")

But, my account has previously been used with App Store, and I also have all payment information down on my Apple ID. Any ideas how to switch back to Mojave?

I have tested this App Store issue by trying to install some other random app, so this truly is an App Store issue and not incompatibility problem of going from Mountain Lion to Mojave

You used the startup keys ⌘+R which is for "Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac". Evidently, this was Mountain Lion which you installed without an Apple Id. The startup keys option+⌘+R are for "Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac". This should be Mojave and I would assume no Apple Id would be required.


Security issue logging in to the App Store using different Apple ID Does your device get logged or added to relevant Apple ID's account device list when you logout from the App Store using, for example, your iPad device, and login back again with another ID?

Example case: your friend uses your iPad and logs in to the App Store using his ID. Will your iPad's serial no., backups, data or any other sensitive information be stored on your friend's Apple ID?

The answer is mixed. While the iTunes app store can be signed into with a separate Apple ID, there will be some data (naturally) stored on the second account you use. The device will not be added to their My Apple Devices, though it will become an Authorized Device in iTunes Store. As such, some level of data will be held in the Apple Servers to facilitate this transaction. AFAIK this data is not user-accessible.

However, for data backups, Photos, Find my iPhone, My Apple Devices, etc. that would require the user to login via iCloud on the phone and not just the Apple Store. From there, whatever level of data you set to sync would be replicated up. Please note, you CAN be signed into a separate iCloud and iTunes account, as well as various other services (such as separate iCloud and Messages accounts).


Clean Install, or in-place upgrade from Mountain Lion to Yosemite? In the old days, doing a clean install was pretty much required for a major Mac OS X 10.x release. Is that still the case? Or should this graybeard let go of his old ways?

The MacBook in question works well. The hard disk gets high marks from Disk Utility app checks. Both a Time Machine and a full clone of the disk will be in place, each on their own external hard disk.

Going from Mountain Lion to Yosemite in this upgrade. Should I try simply running the Yosemite installer as being suggested by the App Store app?

To put it simply: yes, using the installer provided by the App Store is sufficient. Keep in mind that Apple develops and designs these installers specifically so that users, like you, can update to the newest system.

All you need to do is click the download button and follow the onscreen instructions to update.

There is always a risk factor of something going wrong; an obscure file missing, a .plist value out of whack, etc. The unfortunate truth is that there is always going to be potential human error.

Something to remember is that the error in question could come from something the new system added, rather than something the installer forgot to remove.

Using the installer is just a quick and easy way to update with a small chance of error. It adds new files and replaces outdated ones. If you wipe the system clean and freshly install a new one, there is still a small chance of error.


App to use iMac as digital photo frame for photos on a network drive? I'd like to use a spare iMac as a digital photo frame to display my personal photos.

Desired features:

Turn off screen when the room is dark (or, worst case, turn off based on a timer -- would the Energy Saver schedule be sufficient for this?)
Access photos from a shared network drive (so it automatically gets new photos) -- this Mac will not actually contain a local copy of any of the pictures
Randomize order of photos
If possible, allow multiple monitors (with different photos on each)
Doesn't need any fancy animation effects -- I'd prefer it being more like a static picture that doesn't change that often, just like a traditional photo on the wall

Are there any apps you'd recommend that can meet these needs (especially accessing photos from the shared network drive)?

Nobody volunteered a solution, so here's what I did...

Screensaver: I used the in-built screensaver, with a few changes (see below)
The Default duration of the slide show was too quick (3 seconds), so I used OS X Mavericks screensaver changes pictures too quickly: How do I slow it down? to fix it. Note the special csrutil instructions since Yosemite.
Network drive: I mounted a network drive, then changed the Login Options to permanently mount it. See: How to Automatically Connect to a Network Drive at Login in OS X
On/Off control: I used the Energy Saver control panel to Wake & Sleep the machine at set times. Not as good as sensing light/motion, but it will do for now.


Mavericks: Second Apple Thunderbolt Monitor Intermittently Ignored I run a mid 2012 MacBook Pro as my main system. It drives two Apple Thunderbolt Monitors. Prior to my clean install of OSX 10.9 Mavericks, I worked with both monitors connected (as an expanded desktop) without issue. Now it regularly ignores the second monitor after the displays go to sleep.

Similar issue here. I have a 15" Macbook (early 2011) and a single thunderbolt display. Often, when the mac wakes from sleep my thunderbolt display does not connect.

I found that unplugging the thunderbolt cable and reconnecting it gets the display recognized again. Not ideal but at least better than a reboot.


osascript "set bounds of window" not working after Mavericks upgrade I have a number of bash functions I run at the beginning of each day to start work. They all look pretty much like this:

mind() {
  osascript -e 'tell app "Terminal"
    do script "ssh -A user@my.server.net"
    set bounds of window 1 to {50, 50, 1200, 900}
  end tell'
}

After upgrading to Mavericks, this is mostly working, but it doesn't position the lower-right corner of the window. That is, it positions the top left corner of the new window at 50, 50, but fails to resize the window.

I have reinstalled XQuartz and have it running. How can I get this to resize properly? Did Mavericks change the way bash talks to AppleScript/XQuartz?

Try changing the size and position attributes or using System Events instead:

tell application "Terminal"
    tell window 1
        set size to {1150, 850}
        set position to {50, 50}
    end tell
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Terminal"
    tell window 1
        set size to {1150, 850}
        set position to {50, 50}
    end tell
end tell


Accidentally removed pbcopy I messed up pbcopy. Instead of

 cat foo | pbcopy

I did

  cat foo > pbcopy

And now my pbcopy is a text file. How can I reinstall it? Is it a part of some specific package, maybe something in homebrew?

Unless you ran these commands in the directory /usr/bin, and with root privileges, you have not overwritten the real pbcopy - you've simply created a new file in your current working directory with the same name.

So - you most likely do not have to reinstall pbcopy. To verify, you can call the full program explicitly, like this:

cat foo | /usr/bin/pbcopy

which should work properly. If it does, you can delete the pbcopy you inadvertently created safely...


How to slow down video, but not sound on the clip in iMovie? I have a clip I want to show with slow motion. That clip has a soundtrack, but I need to slow only video without sound? Is it possible?

Split the audio from the video with Detach Audio (⌥⌘B), then you can retime the video independently.


Force Mail.app to show manual configuration options Now that Outlook.com supports IMAP email I'd like to set up Mail.app (on OS X 10.7.5) to use it rather than POP for that account. I have it set up on my Windows and Android machines, so I know it works.

The issue is that Mail's auto configuration only detects the POP servers when I try to add a new account, and there are no manual configuration options to set up the IMAP details. Is there any way to add an account and show the necessary configuration options?

tl;dr - Enter an incorrect password when setting up the account for the first time

Open Mail → Accounts….
Click the + to add an account.

Select Add Other Mail Account… and click Continue.

When the password is required, enter an incorrect password.

It will request that the account be configured manually.

Follow the instructions to add your mail configuration.


Is there any way in mountain lion to change copy paste shortcut keys? I am using a mac and I use parallels as i need to use windows as well.  One thing that keeps bugging me is that on windows i use Control+C and on mountain lion i have to use Command+C.

Is there anyway to have Control+C work on mountain lion?  Is there way to change the shortcuts?

If you want the copy shortcut to be command-C, map the physical alt key to control in Windows using https://stackoverflow.com/questions/229633/how-to-globally-map-altgr-key-to-alt-key#396859.

If you want the copy shortcut to be control-C, change the Control key to be the Command key in OS X in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys..., and then change the Windows key using the same method as above.


Permission denied error when opening Terminal I'm using a clean install of 10.8. I wanted to add a couple of directories to my path. I tried adding them to /etc/paths using

sudo vim /etc/paths

Now when I open a terminal window I see this:

Last login: Wed Jan 23 15:42:57 on ttys001
/etc/paths: Permission denied
pcp067952pcs:~ myLoginName$

This doesn't affect usability, however it is something I would prefer to fix.

Any ideas?
-Austin

solved by repairing permissions, thanks to jakebird451 and Mark in the comments above

i'm not sure is sudo is necessary, however this worked to fix it

sudo chmod 0644 /etc/paths

thanks!


Displaying minimised windows When I minimize safari, finder or Firefox windows, they move down to the dock. When I use Command + Tab , to move back to them, the minimized windows don't appear, just the top menu bar is changed. I have to click on the docked thumbnail to maximize particular window. Is it possible to maximize windows with only command + tab.

thanks

Use Command-Tab to tab to the app as usual
Before releasing the Command key, press Option as well
Release Command and Tab
Release Option

Doing it is actually easier than explaining it, so just give it a try!


Is there a recall for the iPhone 3G? My iPhone 3G which is a 16GB version can upgrade to newer iOS in the past, but for merely 2GB of total usage on this iPhone, iTunes will take an hour or more to "Back up the data".

I know that some slow flash memory may take 2MB/second for data transfer, but even at that speed, 500 seconds should be good for 1GB of data, and 1,000 seconds will be good for 2GB of data, so that should be 16.67 minutes only.  (and, 2MB/s is usually a bottleneck speed for data writing, not for reading.  The speed for slow flash memory read that I usually see is 6MB/s)

Is it a design issue or might there be even a product recall for this issue?  If the iPhone 3G is taken to the Apple Store's Genius Bar, will they be able to swap another phone that takes a lot shorter time?  (My iPhone 4 and 4S, for example, is a lot faster for backing up the data when upgrading iOS).

The iPhone 3G is almost certainly out of warranty by now. You can't even really get a swap on it anymore in store. They've been end of lifed for quite some time and the store would have to order one for replacement. Since it's probably out of warranty, you would have to pay for it. I'm not aware of any warranty extensions for issues like this, they are usually done for obvious issues such as unexpected failure that's not due to regular wear and tear.

In general the 3G might sync a bit slower than an iPhone 4 or 4S, but it still probably shouldn't take 2 hours with that much data. My wild guess without seeing the phone is that the part where you're hanging up is the backup. You can verify where you're getting stuck by watching the progress indicator at the top of the iTunes window when it's hanging.

When I've seen this before, most of the time it wasn't a hardware issue with the phone itself. It could be something corrupt in your backup, or an app that has a lot of data stored in it or a setting or even just a large camera roll. It could be an issue syncing contacts or bookmarks. I've also had luck with disabling the setting that sends crash logs to Apple or resetting the sync history in iTunes.

Another thing to check is does it have a large amount of used space marked as "Other" on the bar graph (at the bottom of the summary tab) when it's plugged into iTunes? There should be some space taken up by this, but if it's a GB or more you might have something corrupt in the phone that's hanging it on sync.

It might help to sync it and watch what step it's hanging on and to post back with that information. That way, we can give you a more specific answer on how to fix it.


User account doesn't appear on first login screen After restarting my computer when I am presented with the initial login screen (the light gray one with the restart and shut down buttons), I see only two of my three user accounts.

If I log in with one of these accounts, I can see, and log in to, the third (missing) account by either:

Logging off (Apple > Log Out...) to reach the second login screen (the dark gray one with sleep/restart/shut down buttons)
Clicking on the fast user switching menu.

How can I restore this account in the initial (light gray) login screen?

I tried repairing disk permissions to no avail.

If I create a new account, it does show up in the list.

Have you turned on FileVault 2 encryption? If you have, you can enable your third account by doing the following:

Open System Preferences
Click on Privacy & Security.
Click on the FileVault tab.

There should be an Enable users... button showing in the FileVault preference pane. Click it and you should be given the opportunity to enable the third account by providing the account's password.

On restart, the third account should now appear at the login screen.


Does hot weather causes Lithium-ion batteries in Apple devices to drain fast? I live in a tropical region which sees very hot summers, which we are experiencing currently. I have been observing for some time that the battery on my Apple devices are draining way quicker than they use to.

My recently bought, fully charged iPhones goes from 95% to around 25% charge even if kept unused, put on low power mode and running the latest version of iOS (both iPhone 7 and 1st generation iPhone SE bought under a year ago). I am observing the same with my iPad mini 4 (relatively old) and a recently bought Apple Watch Series 5.

Is there any technical reason and evidence or explanation thereof that would support this theory? Or could there be any other factors at play here?

I have not observed such battery drain pattern just a month or so ago when it didn't used to be as hot. Also, I do not use any kind of air conditioning, so the room temperature is usually higher than normal further aiding with device heating.

we are experiencing hot summers....the battery on my Apple devices are draining way quicker than they use to from before.  Is there any technical reason and evidence or explanation thereof that would support this theory?

Yes.

Temperature extremes (cold and hot) are bad for batteries in general, but they have different charging and discharging characteristics depending on temperature.  Batteries are much more "sensitive" to charging than they are discharging.

Basically, the battery should be brought back to a "normal" temperature when charging to get the best performance.

Source:  Battery University - Charging at High and Low Temperatures

A Li-ion battery has a charge temperature range from about 0°C to about 45°C.  In a tropical climate, freezing temperatures aren't really a problem, but past 45°, you can get reduced charge.

  Batteries operate over a wide temperature range, but this does not give permission to also charge them at these conditions. The charging process is more delicate than discharging and special care must be taken. Extreme cold and high heat reduce charge acceptance, so the battery must be brought to a moderate temperature before charging.


Magic Window causes GfxCardStatus to switch to Discrete mode I was trying out the Magic Window timelapse wallpaper app and noticed that GfxCardStatus changed to discrete as soon as I loaded the application. It consumes 79.7mb of real memory. Does this mean there is a big impact on battery life ? How can I know for sure ?

rMBP Mountain Lion OSX 10.8

Yes, I'm afraid it will have an impact, but not necessarily a big one. I'm in a similar situation, a seemingly-benign app (Postbox, a mail client of all things) forces my discrete graphics on too (same model, MBP Retina).

The authors are fully aware of it but say there's nothing they can do - ultimately the choice about whether to enable discrete graphics is up to Apple, it gets turned on automatically if OSX detects that heavy graphics processing is taking place.

Apparently in the case of Postbox it's due to font rendering or something. I've just learnt to live with it - if I was really desperate I can force it back to onboard graphics using the very tool you mention anyway.

How big the effect is really depends on what the application is doing, and only you can determine it, by trying it with graphics first on discrete and observing estimated battery remaining, then again on integrated graphics. This should be a reasonable clue.


How to disagree to iTunes privacy policy? I accidentally pressed that I agree to iTunes tos when I opened the app on Mac os Sierra. The fact is I don't agree to the tos. How can I get the dialog option back? I don't plan to use iTunes.

When you open iTunes for the first time and agree to the license agreement, it creates the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist file with a dictionary entry called license-agreements. You can just delete the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist file if you have no intension of using iTunes and it will be as if you never agreed to the license agreement.

In Terminal:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist

If you just want to delete the license-agreements use:

defaults delete com.apple.itunes license-agreements

If you want to remove the iTunes app in macOS, you should be able to just move it to the Trash and then empty the Trash. I was able to do that in macOS 10.12.3, however you might have to disable System Integrity Protection and if so, do the following:

Shutdown your Mac.
Start up from macOS Recovery using: Command-R
Select your Language and press Enter.
At macOS Utilities, select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
In Terminal type, csrutil disable then press Enter.
In Terminal type, reboot then press Enter.
Once back in normal mode macOS, in Terminal use the following command:

sudo rm -fr /Applications/iTunes.app

Then press Enter, type your password, then press Enter again.

Don't forget to enable System Integrity Protection afterwards. Repeat the necessary steps, however use csrutil enable.


My iPad2 will not print to my HP wifi printer since the IOS8 update Can anyone advise me why my previously working HP printer and IPAD2 connection has suddenly stopped working after the recent IOS8 software update and how to rectify it? Thanks in anticipation.

I don't know why it has stopped working. You should file a bug report with Apple. In the meantime, I use an app on my Mac Mini called HandyPrint which allows iOS devices to print wirelessly to non-Airport printers and I suspect this might resolve your issue.


Keystrokes getting eaten randomly I have a weird problem on my 2011 MacBook Pro 15" running OS X 10.8.2.

Every now and then - say every two days - the system starts to ignore most of the keys I press for 2-3 minutes. It's like processing of keystrokes becomes incredibly slow. If I wait for ten seconds between each key, what I type is processed completely; otherwise kys wl b msng rndomly.

The system is not overloaded in any way when this happens. I'm usually writing something and this comes out of the blue.

Has anybody experienced the same, or could point me to some resources? I'm having a hard time coming up with a good Google query for this problem.

It is possible this was introduced by the 10.8 upgrade but I'm not 100% sure.

I managed to run top while this occurred again and the only thing that was runnng that usually isn't is Google's ksfetch. Will post more info if I catch it again.

There can be two reasons: software or hardware.

Software

This is most likely caused by the CPU being overloaded, so the kernel is throttled. That means only number of samples that are processed for a specific period to avoid overheating to prevent the crash.

To confirm that, run the following command in Terminal:

sudo fs_usage | grep -v 0.00

which should show something like:

THROTTLED  0.015030   kernel_task
...
THROTTLED  0.019601   coreduetd
THROTTLED  0.031014   kernel_task
...
THROTTLED  0.014947   kernel_task

which means your kernel being throttled which may result in such unexpected behaviour (see also: Why kernel may be throttled?).

I had this problem when my system was eating t letter (for all the apps) and CPU sensors (in iStat) were over 90˚

To solve the problem, check the above command fs_usage and kill unnecessary processes. If it's web browser with too many tabs and a lot of ads and JS scripts in the background, close unnecessary tabs.

There is also a chance that it's caused by I/O throughput (disk access) and your storage (e.g. SSD) may be reaching its lifespan.

Hardware

If keystrokes are eaten consistently (like the same letter over and over again), this could be physical keyboard issue.

Before blame the hardware, you should try to:

Reset NVRAM.
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC).

If that won't work, you should arrange appointment at a Genius Bar.

For temporary workaround, see: How to deal with non-working key on the keyboard?


How to set static IP on iPad My iPad keeps sending the message that it is unable to connect to the internet and my only option is to dismiss.

How do I find the subnet mask and ip address and router so I can manually try and set it up?

iOS 7:

  Tap Settings
  Tap on WiFi
  Tap on your connected WiFi name
  Tap the static tab and enter your addresses
  Close out of the Settings and launch Safari or another network app to confirm connectivity


Disable suggestions as you type on Numbers It seems that Numbers give a suggestion based on what is already in the sheet. Like in the image.

How to disable this?

Go to Preferences in Numbers,

and disable the

  Show suggestions when EDITING..

.

it is enabled by default.


Best lightweight browser for OS X 10.4.11 iBook G4 I have an iBook G4 running OS X 10.4.11 and I really would like to watch youtube videos, but it is very choppy and generally impossible to watch!

I've read over this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=768766 and it suggests changing the power to Best Performance, turning off hardware acceleration, and upping the Flash cache size to 10MB, all of which I have done. I'm also downloading the iBook optimized Firefox 4.0 to try that out (though that seems a little outdated, seeing as the newest version is about 20 versions newer.)

Strangely enough, my system can play DVDs at full-screen with no problem whatsoever.

Does anyone know of any good, lightweight, web browsers (or alternatively, a way that I can get Youtube working within TenFourFox 24?)

Thanks!

EDIT:
Just a heads up, I was able to get 240p playing fine in OmniWeb. Version 5 I believe. It had occasional lag, but generally it was good. My internet isn't good enough to play anything about 360p, so I don't go above that, but I really would like to be able to use 360p instead of 240p, if possible. I think it's the quality of the video that is causing the lag, even though DVDs play at very good quality.

I also tried using the optimized version for iBook G4, but it said that it couldn't run on my system...annoying.

TenFourFox

A rewritten version of Firefox compiled to run great on older hardware.

  We take the industry standard Mozilla Firefox browser and rewrite it to be compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, then compile it specially optimized for your G3, G4 or G5, add AltiVecTM JPEG, HTML and WebM decoding acceleration for G4 and G5 Macintoshes, and soup up JavaScript performance with our best-in-class just-in-time PowerPC script compiler. One of our four versions is just right for your particular Power Mac. And we keep it current, secure, and ready to rock.


Switching Organizations in Apple Developer Center I have my own iOS Developer account and recently I got invited to join a team. I accepted, but now I can't switch back to my personal account to develop apps for myself. Every time I log in it has the Organization set to that team.

How can I switch back to my own developer center area??

I have an Apple ID for my multiple work accounts.  When I sign in, I see:

I'm not sure why you aren't seeing it, if you have two teams on the same Apple ID.


OS X Mavericks screensaver changes pictures too quickly: How do I slow it down? My screensaver pictures have quotes and sayings and the three or so seconds of transition between pictures that is built into the OS X Mavericks is far too short a duration to read the quotes and sayings. How can I slow the change rate to about 30 seconds per slide?

Previous answer still works, and also for Yosemite/El Capitan/Sierra with the caveat that System Integrity Protection (SIP) now needs to be disabled first.

Verify current slide duration:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "print ':JustASlide:mainDuration'" /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Slideshows.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Content/EffectDescriptions.plist

The system default is 3.
Reboot and hold Cmd+R to go into recovery. In the menu select Utilities > Terminal and disable SIP with the following command:

csrutil disable

Reboot again and set slide duration to the desired value in seconds:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "set ':JustASlide:mainDuration' 10" /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Slideshows.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Content/EffectDescriptions.plist

Reboot one more time into recovery (Cmd+R) and reenable SIP for good measure

csrutil enable


Lock screen with LaunchBar I extensively use Launchbar and have almost all my daily productivity items working through it.

Since I use my personal MacBook at work, I do not have use a screen saver password, however, when at work, when I leave my desk, I use the Lock Screen feature of Keychain to lock my machine. When at home it hardly ever gets locked, so putting a password on the screensaver is really not useful to me.

I have searched far and wide, but can't seem to find a way to have Launchbar emulate the Lock Screen feature of the Keychain.

Any suggestions on how this can be achieved using Launchbar?

I would also be happy if someone can just provide me with guidance on an AppleScript that can achieve my goal?

Solution

bmike gave a very usable solution, however I ended up purchasing Lock Screen 2 from the App Store which allows you to set a hotkey to lock your screen among other options.

First you need a script. There are countless ways to script things, based on individual skills and knowledge of AppleScript or other languages. For simplicity, let's use automator.

You will want to use the Watch Me Do action to show Automator how to trigger the menu item to lock the screen.

I made this a service, since I like to use FastScripts for something like this. Launchbar will find your service as the top hit if you name it LockScreen as I did in this example when saving from Automator.

(You can make an Application and store it in Apps, but services seem more light weight to me and perhaps a little faster...)

To start, click the record button at the top. Once the screen locks and you get back in, do edit down the action - you can get rid of the "ScreenSaverEngine" task if recorded you getting back in before you stopped the "recording"

I moved the Playback speed to the max. I also told automator that this service receives "no input" just under the record button.

Here is what you should have after saving your new service. Pay attention to the requirements of the Watch Me Do action in the lower left if you have any problems with training your mac to sing itself a short lullaby.


Recover accidentally deleted files from iCloud Is there a way to recover files deleted from iCloud if an offline iPad still has them locally?

Would renaming the local files on the iPad prevent them from being deleted once the iPad is synced?

You could simply login to iCloud.com to recover that file. Under iCloud Settings (by clicking your name in the top-right corner) you will find a section named Advanced. Simply click Restore Files under Advanced to open the Recently Deleted File browser.


How to get rectangle annotation coords in preview? How can i get the coords of this annotated rectangle in preview app or other mac app?

If you do a command-shift-4 (the command to do a screenshot of a selected region) your cursor turns into crosshairs and listed with the crosshairs are the x,y coordinates.


Batch update the birthdays in my iPhone contacts Years ago when I got my first iPhone, AT&T transferred all of the contacts from my old phone. My old phone didn't have a birthday field in the contacts. Instead of leaving the field empty on the iPhone, AT&T's system set them all to Jan 1, 2000.

Is there a way to update these with a script? Export them to a CSV, find-and-replace, and reimport?

Update - This is what my Contacts app looks like. The middle section is an Exchange server, which contains Contacts. However, those contacts appear unrelated to Exchange. The Exchange directory is the "All Work" group above it, and the "Work Global Address List" below.

Using AppleScript, "Address Book" is automatically changed to "Contacts" and only those 3 contacts from the Contacts subgroup above are selected:

tell application "Address Book"`
  set thePeople to every person
    repeat with thePerson in thePeople
      return the name of thePerson
  end repeat
end tell

If you want to just clear the birthday field programmatically, you could do that on a Mac that syncs contacts with the iPhone (either via iCloud or iTunes).

Open up AppleScript editor, paste in the following and hit run to clear every birthday in your address book.

tell application "Address Book"
    set thePeople to every person
    repeat with thePerson in thePeople
        set the birth date of thePerson to missing value
    end repeat
    save
end tell

If you have the birthday data already in some other format and are looking to import it, that could be done, but would be a bit trickier. You'd probably need to get the AppleScript to look up the birthday for a given person from a file. If you need something like that, please edit your question to be more specific and give some sample data if possible.


How to connect to Microsoft Windows machine using host name only via Microsoft Remote Desktop I'm using Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to a Windows 7 laptop. Sometimes it will connect using the laptop's NETBIOS name. Other times it will only connect using the IP address of the laptop.

I'm doing this on my home office network. I have a macOS Sierra on the network and I assume I have to enable WINS or something like that.

How can I always connect to my Windows computers from my Mac using Microsoft Remote Desktop by specifying the host name only, and not having to specify the IP address?

Your best bet is to set up a static DHCP lease in your router and specify the host name.

Since you are using a home network, I am going under the assumption you are using a consumer grade "router" to connect to the Internet.  It's also your DHCP server, your DNS server (repeater), and your WiFi access point.

Somewhere in your router's setup, there is an option for static DHCP leases.  What you do is take the MAC address of your Windows machine, pick an IP address (I like to go outside the pool) and make an entry for a lease.  You can enter a hostname here as well.

The static lease means your device still get's its IP via DHCP, but the DHCP server will always hand out the same IP when requested.  Once you do that, it will cache the DNS host name.  So, from any computer on your home network, you will be able to connect to it.


Migration Assistant (going from 2011 MBP running Mavericks to 2013 rMBP running Mavericks) broke Apple Mail I recently ran Migration Assistant on a 2011 MBP running Mavericks to a brand new, fresh install on a 2013 rMBP and it has completely hosted Apple Mail.

It moved over all of my accounts in the Internet Accounts prefpane, but Mail itself thinks that it has no accounts.  So when I launch Mail, it asks me to add an account, and if I hit cancel it quits because it thinks it has no accounts.

If I remove the accounts from the Internet Accounts PrefPane and add them through the Mail interface, the Mail check-box associated with the account gets unchecked.

Turns out I'm not the only person this has happened to.  From this Apple Support Community Post, if you quit Mail, uncheck the checkboxes from the Internet Accounts prefpanes for anything Mail related, and then delete the files in the Container folder as mentioned in the posting, everything seems to work.


Reveal all favourites in new tab page on macOS Safari MacOS Safari just updated itself to 13.0

Now when I open a new tab it shows me only two rows from my favourites.

View > Show favourites bar... shows me all of my favourites.

How do I get the new tab page to show me a grid of all of my favourites, as it did before the update?

There was a "Show more" button at the top-right:

But I couldn't see it in full-screen Safari because I have View > Always Show Toolbar in Fullscreen unchecked:

The slide-out toolbar was covering up the title and "show more" button on the page.

There are multiple ways to reveal them:

Open a Safari window that isn't full-screened
In the new tab page, drag one of the favicons and then put it back in the same spot. The toolbar disappears.
Check View > Always Show Toolbar in Fullscreen


Gnucash and macports conflicting libgio-2.0.0.dylib I have macports 2.5.2 already installed.
I have then installed Gnucash 3.2 dmg from gnucash.org.
When I run gnucash, I have the error:

  objc[93365]: Class GNotificationCenterDelegate is implemented in both
  /Applications/Gnucash.app/Contents/Resources/lib/libgio-2.0.0.dylib
  (0x10c333670) and /opt/local/lib/libgio-2.0.0.dylib (0x117a41620). One
  of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
  Segmentation fault:
  11

/opt/local/lib/libgio-2.0.0.dylib belongs to glib2 macports package.

If I rename /opt/local/lib/libgio-2.0.0.dylib, gnucash works fine. But this can't be a solution.

I've also tried to set DYLB_LIBRARY_PATH to

  /Applications/Gnucash.app/Contents/Resources/lib

But this way I have the error

  Segmentation fault: 11

Is there a way to run gnucash while macports installed ?

Problem is solved now.
I have completely uninstalled macports, removed /opt/local directory, and then reinstalled macports.
I tried to install macports gnucash, but it is still impossible.
But the dmg gnucash works now perfectly.
I have no explanation.


Apple script fail on copying attachment from Outlook I'm trying to copy all the attachments that I received from a certain sender (scanner) to a folder. I'm using Outlook and I've tried to write a script to do the job. It fails on saving the file with error code:

error "Microsoft Outlook got an error: Parameter error." number -50

Unfortunately I've not been able to figure out a) what that error means, and b) how to make the script work. Any help is welcome.

This is my script:

set saveToFolder to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the destination folder") as string
set ctr to 0

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
    set srcFolder to mail folder "inbox" of exchange account "FOO"
    set selectedMessages to messages of srcFolder
    repeat with msg in selectedMessages
        set ctr to ctr + 1
        set msgsender to the sender of msg
        set senderaddress to the address of msgsender
        if "scanner@some.some" = senderaddress then
            set attFiles to attachments of msg
            repeat with f in attFiles
                set attName to (get the name of f)
                log attName
                set saveAsName to saveToFolder & attName
                log saveAsName
                save f in POSIX file saveAsName
            end repeat
        end if
    end repeat
end tell
display dialog "" & ctr & " messages were processed" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
return ctr

The parameter error is arising because one of the parameters you're sending to the save command is erroneous.  The f parameter is the attachment to be saved—this is fine.
The problem is the second parameter, which you've stated is a POSIX file path (one composed of forward slashes, e.g. /Users/hitzg/Desktop/some_file.txt).
However, the variable saveAsName is derived from saveToFolder, which gets its file path from the choose folder command.  This command returns an HFS path (one composed of colons, e.g. Macintosh HD:Users:hitzg:Desktop:some_file.txt).
So the fix is simply to decide which type of file path format you're going to go with, and stick to it.  You can EITHER use posix paths, and change this line of the script (shortened for readability) from this:
set saveToFolder to (choose folder) as string

to this:
set saveToFolder to POSIX path of (choose folder)

OR use HFS paths, and change this line of the script:
save f in POSIX file saveAsName

to this:
save f in file saveAsName

That fixes your parameter error, but I haven't tested the rest of your script to see how it performs.  Reading through it, there aren't any glaring errors, so I don't anticipate any other major issues.

ADDENDUM
I'd like to offer a few edits to your original script that I believe streamlines the code whilst making it more efficient and performant.  Your existing script is excellent, however with strategic use of the AppleScript whose filter, we can eliminate the first of the repeat loops, whilst improving the performance of the second.
set saveToFolder to (choose folder) as text

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
    set srcFolder to mail folder "Inbox" of exchange account "FOO"

    set selectedMessages to a reference to (messages of srcFolder whose ¬
        class of attachments contains attachment and ¬
        "From: First Last <scanner@some.some>" is in headers)

    set attFiles to a reference to attachments of selectedMessages
    set [n, m] to [count selectedMessages, count attFiles]

    repeat with f in the attFiles
        set savePath to saveToFolder & name of f
        save f in file savePath
    end repeat
end tell

display alert "" & m & " attachments were saved" message ¬
    "These belonged to " & n & " messages" as ¬
    informational buttons {"OK"} default button 1

The key element of this version of the script is the implementation of the whose filter here:
    set selectedMessages to a reference to (messages of srcFolder whose ¬
        class of attachments contains attachment and ¬
        "From: First Last <scanner@some.some>" is in headers)

Instead of searching through all the messages in your inbox for messages sent from a particular sender, then grabbing the attachments, the filter's first criterion instantly picks out only the messages in your inbox that have attachments; messages without attachments are superfluous to our needs, so we don't even need to consider them.  The second criterion specifies that emails should come from a specific person, although the address of sender unfortunately can't be incorporated into the filter, so instead I've utilised the message headers to make sure it contains the appropriate "From: ..." string.
To format this string, simply obtain the headers property for one message from the specific sender, and skim through it until you come across a few lines that look like this:
From: First Last <scanner@some.some>
Subject: Hello World!
Thread-Topic: Hello Again
Thread-Index: AdQD5jaiEJ7GiUlKRYeD5LaN3BaSpA==
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2018 13:22:53 +0000
Message-ID: <B64BBE7A4C13095094C6A44D85FA3FDB5085651F@ABCD-mail.somemailbox.foo.com>

It'll be roughly in the middle of the header text.  Then just make sure your filter text matches the "From:" line (copy-n-paste), as this will almost certainly be the same throughout all emails from that sender, unless they changed their first and last names at any point (which may, of course, be absent).
A slightly looser filter if you are concerned that the first and last names could have changed over time, would simply be to filter the headers to see if they contain just the email address "scanner@some.some".  Since you'll only be searching your inbox, it's reasonable to assume that any occurrence of that email address in an inbox message header means that email either originated from that address or was Cc'd to that address as well as you:
    set selectedMessages to a reference to (messages of srcFolder whose ¬
        class of attachments contains attachment and ¬
        "<scanner@some.some>" is in the headers)

The rest of the script is more-or-less the same, with the fix for the parameter error implemented.
Having tested the script on my system, it worked as expected and performed very efficiently.  The bottlenecking in speed for me was having to download each attachment in order to save it, so there was a data transfer consideration when running in against my Exchange mail folder.
When running it against a local mail folder with attachments already downloaded, the saving of attachments was virtually instantaneous.


Bootcamp - Windows 7 Installation Help I have a mid 2011 21.5” iMac with High Sierra, the disk drive I think has an issue, it writes to DVDs but can’t read. I successfully burned Windows ISO to a DVD+ disk but the drive reads it as blank DVD, I confirmed this by using another pc.
I went to the USB drive way, I modified the BootCamp plist file to enable USB drive, I successfully created windows installation drive with BC, sat the partition, but when the Mac boots, it goes to a black screen, with a message “no bootable device”. I couldn’t find any way to read from the USB drive, I used both USB 2.0 and 3.0.
Any help would be highly appreciated.

You have to install Windows 7 to BIOS boot. EFI booting is not possible for two reasons. First the EFI firmware in your Mac is not new enough. Second, the drivers are for a BIOS booting Windows. The Apple way is to use a the Boot Camp Assistant and a Windows 7 DVD. You can choose either a 32 bit for 64 bit Windows. Windows 7 should include SP1. You can download the current Windows 7 from Microsoft. If necessary, the Window Support Software (Boot Camp Support Software) can be downloaded from the Apple website Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp.

Your model Mac can not BIOS boot from a USB port. Therefore, modifying the Boot Camp Assistant application to create a Windows 7 USB installer is a pointless waste of time.

If the use of a DVD is not an option, then the following methods can be used or adapted.

The VM method. Here, a virtual machine is only used to install Windows 7.
The GUI method. The answer is for Windows 10. You will have to adapt for Windows 7.
The CLI method. The answer is for a Windows 7 and 10 dual boot. You will have to adapt to omit Windows 10.


Using Iphone as bluetooth replacement for mac I have a late 2011 mac book pro with bluetooth 2.1 which works terribly with my speakers. Is there anyway I can use my Iphone 5s with bluetooth 4.0 as a sort of replacement. Through USB, WIFI or Bluetooth?

I don't think it's possible to use the iPhone as bluetooth bridge between your macbook and the speakers.

The cheap alternative is to buy a bluetooth dongle like this one:

ASUS USB Adapter with Bluetooth (USB-BT400)


Can not charge iPhone 5 from Macboook after Mavericks upgrade I have a Macbook and usually have it plugged into power.  I then connect iPhone 5 via USB port to charge the iPhone - it has worked for 3 years.  I updated my software to Mavericks last week and now the Macbook says "USB Device Disabled" "Unplug the device using too much power to re-enable USB device"

Can anyone assist?

I contacted Apple with the same problem and it turns out it was my cord.
You can test this by trying it with another cable you have.
If it then works you know it was the cable and you might have to buy a new one or if it's in warranty you can get it replaced for free.

Best Wishes!


Cubase not remembering window position when switching apps and coming back to it I know there's the ability to have "saved states" which is what Im' assuming Cubase (audio editing program) usually has, but for some reason I had an issue with Mojave recently, had to re-install the MacOS underlying, and now this program in particular is playing up.

So, I have 3 screens, I usually put one of these secondary windows on the 2nd screen, and normally if I switch to another app and come back to Cubase, everything's in it's place.

Now, every time I switch out and back, said window now reverts to the initial (1st) screen and doesn't remember its position.

There's no 'saved state' folder for the program, and I've reinstalled the software - is there any way of fixing this ? Or creating a saved state ? I don't have the programming knowledge.

Check System Prefs > Mission Control & see what you have for 'Displays have separate Spaces'.
My guess is you have that enabled.

Cubase doesn't really use the Mac's Saved State because the state is really in the project file, or in your window sets, so I don't think it's the issue. I'm guessing it's because if each display is a different Space, you're moving one app to multiple Spaces… which isn't good.

Toggling that setting can really muck up your workflow & you have to re-allocate everything back to its correct Space, so I'm not going to do it just to test ;)