Script to turn flagged emails into reminders I am looking for a script that will recognize when an email is flagged and then turn it into a Reminder using the Reminders app.

Well, I got the automator to filter the the flagged mail using the action [Find Mail Item (Message is marked with - flagged)]. But there isn't much you can do with the mail items except have them pop up on Mail using action [Display Mail Messages].

Then I found a script here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3435695?start=0&tstart=0
that takes mail and automatically generates reminder from Mail.

I haven't tried it through myself. But hopefully that gives you a start.


How to disable iPhone notifications from Facebook Places? I've got this long-running annoyance about the Facebook iPhone app.

Now, I do want notifications from Facebook e.g. when someone posts on my wall/timeline or mentions me in a comment.  However, every now and again, some of my friends check in (or whatever it's technically called) somewhere with Facebook, and I get a big alert about it:

I most certainly do not want these notifications! And I don't really follow why Facebook considers someone's random check-in an event that I should be notified about.

Question is, how can I disable these—or all Facebook Places related notifications, while at it? Are there any settings on the Facebook website related to this?

I'm asking at Webapps SE, and not e.g. Apple SE, because I'm pretty sure the iPhone app doesn't have any related settings. The only FB notification setting I see is this one:

(...and as said, I wouldn't want to turn off all FB notifications.)

Turns out I was wrong; you can configure this on iPhone.

As the guide on this page taught me:

Open Settings
Scroll down to the application list and select Facebook
Choose Push Notifications

Now, in my case it was probably Nearby Friends that I mostly wanted to disable. I ended up turning off some others too:


How do I not accidentally eject external drives? I have a Mac Mini with a few external drives connected that I use as a home server. Normally the Eject buttons next to the drive icon are really handy as they let me eject an external drive very easily (compared to Windows for instance).

However on a Mac server, this comes as a detriment. I have some pretty mission critical stuff on external drives and there's a lot of scripts etc. I have set up that are dependent on those drives being there. Being able to so easily accidentally eject those drives makes me rather uneasy.

So far I've just chosen to not show them in the Finder sidebar, that way at least they're a bit harder to eject. However that isn't very ideal because: (1) I need to go to my Mac in the sidebar to access the drives rather than have the drives accessible directly and (2) the eject buttons still show in open/save dialogue boxes for those drives.

Ideally, I'd like a way for them to behave the way internal drives do: no option to easily eject from the finder, but still possible to unmount through disk utility.

Place a foot in the door.

On each of your disks, create a text file, open it in TextEdit, add some line, and leave the file open unsaved.

I think this trick will prevent ejection.

Test this trick, try to eject the disk and come here tell us the result.

This trick can easily be automated.


Mac shuts down when trying to download software update I want to download the 10.6.8 combo update but every time I try it, my computer just shuts down. Does anybody know how to fix this problem? I am currently using 10.6. I had been using 10.6.8 but i tried to update it thinking that I was using 10.5.8. after installing the 10.6 I realized my mistake. I am using the combo update from Apple but just before that I tried updating my computer to Core Lion from Softonic because Core Lion doesn't exist in the apple store any more and my computer wont support Mountain lion. Now it wont even start up.

Since your Mac doesn't start up anymore, try if you can do an upgrade install from an installation disk. See http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6606. It should keep user files and settings in place, but it often resolves issues like this. If you don't have backups, you can use Disk Utility to save a disk image of the drive to an external drive. See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553.

10.6 doesn't have a recovery partition, so you will need to use the older tools for booting and fixing your startup problem.


Replace a 2017 Touch Bar MacBook Pro retina display with late 2013 MacBook Pro retina display? I cracked my 2017 Touch Bar MacBook Pro display, and I have an old Late 203 MacBook Pro with a screen in good working condition.

I am wondering if it's possible to replace the display of the new one with the old one.

No. The displays in the two MacBook Pro are not compatible and can not be interchanged. Also, the two models vary a lot in overall hardware design.

You can refer to the iFixit Display Replacement guides for more details:

MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Late 2013 Display Assembly Replacement

MacBook Pro 13" Touch Bar 2016 & 2017 Display Replacement


How to get the month name in English using Numbers? I'm using Apple Numbers v 3.6.1 on OS X 10.11 to automatically fill all the info I need to generate a receipt each month.

"... " & MONTHNAME(MONTH(TODAY())) & " 1 − " & MONTHNAME(MONTH(TODAY())) & " " & DAY(EOMONTH(TODAY();0))&", " & YEAR(NOW())

It should print:

... December 1 − December 31, 2015

But I can only get the localized name of month (Italian) instead of the English one.

How can I ask Numbers to give me the English name of the month?

Without changing the localization language in your system, you could do something like this:

Create a table in a separate tab and Lock/hide it later
Then, in English add the month names in order from January to December in one column.  (A1-A12) [Be sure to set the cells as Text so that they don't show the localized names]
Change your formula to refer to the correct month name based on the month number.  Lots of nested IF()'s but if the MONTH(TODAY) is placed in a cell in the utility table, that will make the formula a bit more manageable.
Thanks to the OP for suggesting it in the comments!
place this formula in a cell then reference that cell in your original formula

Of course you can hard code the month names in the formulas, but then you would have to redo it in each instance if you changed languages.  This way you can just change the text in the reference table without breaking your formula.  Also, if you need the month name elsewhere, there is no need to re-enter the formula, just refer to the cell containing it.

EDIT
A simpler formula (takes getting used to, though) is to use INDEX(MATCH())
I actually use this method in a expense sheet I keep for English and French.

First I create a table with the numbers for each month and then text for each month in the target language.
Get the date
Use INDEX ( MonthTextLang, MATCH ( MonthNumber, NumberColumn ))

INDEX ( "English", MATCH ( MONTH ( TODAY )), NumberColumn ))


iMac making strange electrical clicking noises I have a late 2014 5k iMac with 256GB SSD drive. Last night my iMac started making noises similar to that of a disk drive when it's reading and writing.

After poking around I found that the noise must be related to the GPU because:

The noises increase when scrolling a webpage or change workspaces and then subside when I stop.
Running a web GPU benchmark or watching a video will make the noise constant until I close it
Also changing the brightness causes the noise

I doesn't sound like a bad fan as it's a very clicky noise versus a whine or hum.

I ran the hardware diagnostic test (Holding D when you restart) which resulted in no errors. I tried to blow some air in the GPU vents which didn't change anything.

I feel if I take the iMac in and describe the issue they will send the iMac away for few weeks and it will be sent back saying there isn't any issues.

Any suggestions?

EDIT

Here is what it sounds like. It also makes this sound when the display is off, so it could be like @Allan said that it is the power supply.

There are only a few components in an iMac that can make clicking noises.
It's highly unlikely that it's your logic board or a component of your logic board, but the possibilities are:

Power Supply
Hard Drive
Speakers
CPU Fan

I've included a sample picture and the location of the components in the picture below

Power Supply
There are a number of components on the power supply that could be at fault here from capacitors, transformers, relays, etc.  I have provided the posterior view (what you are seeing in the top picture is the anterior) of the power supply

Hard Drive
You said you only have a 256GB SSD, so, it's unlikely that you have a traditional spinning hard drive, but, to make sure, issue the command diskutil list in Terminal and post the output
Speakers
It's not out of the realm of possibility that you have a malfunctioning speaker(s).  Try turning off the sound or better yet, plug in a headphone so it forces output to that device.  if the sound goes away, it will be something associated with your speakers
CPU fan
You said that the sound was more "clicking" than a whir or a hum.  However, it is still possible that some debris is interfering with the operation of the fan or it may be a defect in the motor.

How to fix
Based on your comments, I tend to agree that the power supply is the culprit given that it persists when the display is off or even while sleeping.
The good news here is that these components are relatively inexpensive. A quick search on Amazon  yields the power supply for about $120.  I have bought from this vendor for my own iMac and had good results (I am not affiliated with them).
The best option, if you don't have the tech skills to open this up is to have a pro take a look at it.  Be sure to include the video you linked in your comments.


Retina Macbook Pro 15" 2015 vs iMAC 21" 3.1 GHZ i7 256 SSD I need to purchase a new Mac computer to start developing iOS apps using Xcode and Swift. It's my first time Mac ever so I'm confused. I know its kinda of portability choice between the 2 models but It's not an issue with me as I'm not travelling a lot nor develop outside home. So my main concern would be the possibility of coding as well as option to make me comfortable with coding. (screen size factor, Retina display, ...etc).

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I find that the flexibility of being able to move around in the house makes it worth getting a laptop. Mobile freedom is really addictive once you get used to it. The only issue is that, for coding, having a ton of screen real-estate is advantageous. Obviously the iMac has the MacBook Pro beat in that regard, but you could get a cheap external display for that purpose. It depends on which setup you'd find yourself most comfortable with. Sometimes, if I'm just writing a Python script with no UI, I can easily do it with one monitor, and so then the mobile freedom offered to me by my laptop is incredibly nice. The other times, I have a cheap external monitor for my UI, and my MacBook Pro's monitor for the code, since it has such a high res display to make all the text crystal clear. The UI monitor doesn't have to be terribly high-res, just large. It works well for me.


iPad 1st generation USB Issue I'm having an issue with my 1st generation iPad. I intended on resetting it back to its factory settings since it was acting up in a lot of different ways - apps crashing, occasional freezes and just not very usable anymore. This has been going on for a while and gradually getting worse. Its quite old so I thought resetting it is probably worth a try.

Anywho, upon having done so, I was prompted to plug the device into my PC and start iTunes. This is how far I've gotten - all PCs I've tried simply do not even recognize a corresponding USB device.

All of the online tips for this kind of situation, e.g. installing the newest iTunes version, did not help since the device does not seem to be communicating at even the most basic level.

I'm not familiar with the internals of the iPad - is there a dedicated USB controller on one of the logic boards or are the signals routed directly to the CPU? I'm close to simply cracking it open and having a look, but I thought I'd ask for advice first - in hopes of someone having had a similar issue and possibly a better solution.

Cheers, Shibby

You could try to set it in DFU Mode, sometimes that resolves the issue with a faulty USB-I/O.

  Entering DFU Mode on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch:

  Plug your device into your computer with a USB cable.
  Turn off the device.
  Hold the Power button for 3 seconds.
  Hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds.
  Release the Power button but keep holding the Home button.
  After about 15 seconds you will be alerted by iTunes saying that it has detected a device in Recovery Mode.

    Source: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/DFU_Mode

Maybe it depends on what iOS you are, so if it does not go into DFU Mode, research it.

Good Luck!


change download folder based on website from which I download Is it possible to change Downloads folder in Google Chrome (or any other browser) on the fly, based on the website from which I download?

Example: I start downloading on facebook.com and it downloads the file in ~/Downloads/Facebook. If I start the download from stackoverflow.com than the file is downloaded into ~/Downloads/Stackoverflow.

How can I achieve this? I imagine it would be possible to write a Stay Open AppleScript application that starts at computer startup and than continuously check domain name of my current tab. Not sure how I would change downloads folder on the fly though...

You could write a folder action script which would parse your downloaded files metadata and move them into folders based on kMDItemWhereFroms metadata attribute value.

Or just use Downloads Router Chrome Extension with predefined location rules.


What terminal is the Mountain Lion Terminal app emulating? I recently migrated from 10.6 to 10.8. I use Terminal to connect to various linux boxes where the TERM variable is observed to be xterm-color.  This seems to be consistent with the 10.6 setting of TERM.

However, since upgrading I've been having issues with my Terminal sessions if/when I resize them to something wider than 80x24.  What would normally be very long lines of text seem to wrap at 80 columns until I resize again, at which point it displays properly.  That is, it's like the width is stuck at the last size (wrapping everything at the previous width) until a resize is done after displaying something expecting a greater width.

This sort of feels like either the [n]curses entry for xterm-color got changed (it didn't) or that terminal is not really emulating an xterm-color device.  The behavior is different (maybe better--I'm still evaluating) if specify a plain xterm.

Is there a better setting for TERM when using Mountain Lion's Terminal?

As with many terminal emulators, Terminal emulates most of a VT100 plus some features from newer terminals, and some common extensions from xterm and other emulators.

There is no terminfo file that exactly corresponds to Terminal, but the closest match used to be xterm-color, which represents an older offshoot of xterm. However, in recent versions Terminal is more fully compatible with xterm and xterm-256color is the new default value for the TERM environment variable.

In Preferences > Settings > [profile] > Advanced > Emulation there is a popup menu Declare terminal as: that sets the value of TERM (and that's all it does—it does not alter which features Terminal supports). If you're using a Mac that you've upgraded from an older OS version, you may want/need to update the setting to match the new recommended default if it is still set to xterm-color. Using xterm-color is not recommended and it is possible for it to cause problems because it isn't as close a match to Terminal's current feature set.

Despite the fact that installations of ncurses should include all terminfo files, some Linux distros do not, and in particular some of them omit xterm-256color. If this is the case you'll see programs complain in various ways about not being able to find it, and the solution is to install the entire set of terminfo files, or at least all the xterm ones.

If xterm-256color isn't available, the next best thing is xterm-16color, followed by xterm. These three are compatible and represent the current xterm version with decreasing numbers of supported colors (xterm only declares the eight basic ANSI colors, though a lot of programs simply ignore that and assume that sixteen are supported, but xterm-16color is the one to choose if you want to explicitly declare support for sixteen colors).

It's difficult to say exactly what could be causing the problem you're seeing, but the first thing to try is to run the infocmp command on the remote host to see what it says. That will tell you which terminfo it is expecting and whether it was found.

If it's a generic ncurses or terminfo issue, it's likely to occur with other programs, like vim. You might try running vim or less, for example, to compare behaviors. If you're feeling motivated, you could run vttest http://invisible-island.net/vttest/ on the remote host and check that Terminal responds appropriately to the tests for drawing text attributes, resizing the display, and switching to/from the alternate screen.

When you resize a terminal window, the terminal program notifies the tty device, which sends a SIGWINCH signal to processes connected to it. Programs are responsible for responding to the signal appropriately. One thing to test is whether the LINES and COLUMNS variables get updated in bash when you resize the terminal window. If that's working, then the signal mechanism is behaving correctly.

Another possibility is that the program isn't switching to/from the alternate screen correctly (which could be caused by having an incompatible terminfo selected). You can check the View > Hide/Show Alternate Screen menu item to see which screen is currently active. If it's showing the wrong screen, you might try manually switching it with the menu item and see if that clears up the problem.


How can I get Angry Birds on my Mac? I tried using iTunes, but it only seems to have downloads for iPhone and iPad only. How can I get a version I can play on my iMac?

The App Store found in iTunes is only for iPhone/iPod/iPad apps. Mac apps can be found on the Mac App Store. Angry Birds is available for Mac for $5.
You can also play for free online at http://chrome.angrybirds.com/.

Note that iPhone and iPad apps are not linked to desktop Mac apps, so when you buy an app for an iPhone or iPad, it does not come with a Mac version and there is no guarantee that a Mac version is even available.
Sometimes apps are available on both the iOS (iPhone/iPad) App Store and the separate Mac App Store, as is the case for Angry Birds.


How can I install .ipa file to my iPhone simulator? I need to install .ipa file to my iPhone simulator.

I tried to change the extension .ipa to .zip and extracted it.

And I got the Payload folder and moved the application inside to my iPhone simulators applications folder found at: /Library/Application\ Support/iPhone Simulator/6.1/Applications/.

Application appears on iPhone Simulator, But the application did't running.
How to solve the problem then how to run the app.

You can't.

IPAs downloaded from the App Store are built for the ARM processor in actual iOS devices. The iPhone Simulator is not an emulator and can't run ARM code.


What Apple ID should I use for my work computer? I have a Mac for my work computer (that is company property).  Should I use my personal Apple ID, create an Apple ID with my work email, or ask for a corporate wide Apple ID (if that's possible).

I've heard that it's possible to mix accounts, but am not sure of the consequence of doing so.  For example, what if I use my account, but wind up leaving the company?

p.s. The problems I've heard about mixing accounts are automatic updates for only one account and possible iCloud problems.

There are arguments and reasons to go either way.

First the facts we know (excluding jailbreak and cracking app store DRM):

You can never change the Apple ID for each purchase once made. However, with MDM solutions evolving and VPP, there is the ability to purchase apps in bulk and then revoke the "purchase" by a subsequent AppleID and return a purchase to the pool for re-issue to another AppleID on later iOS versions. Perhaps that will come to the Mac at some future point.
Apple has a Volume Purchase Program to make the App Store work better for business use.
The consumer level Gift Program also exists to let one party pay and another redeem.
You can change the payment option on your account with great ease.
There is a 5 account limit on most devices.
Updating apps is a chore each time you have to:

get updates for account A
go to store preferences
enter account B and the password
go back to the app store for updates
update again - entering password B a second time
go to store preferences
enter account A and the password

iTunes only backs up apps for which that computer is authorized. (this can be a benefit or a hassle)

Now for some assumptions and commentary. Starting from the simplest scenario, you will either have to use a work credit card or work gift card on your personal Apple ID (juggling the payment options and providing these receipts to account for these purchases just like you would a cup of coffee, a hotel room and other petty expenses that the business just writes off.)

Having a "work" id means in theory - the work could ask you for the password (or force a reset of the password since they would likely maintain control of the email or request/force you to put their email as the contact when you leave the company). They could then issue that Apple ID to another person that would  then have use of the apps you once purchased. In practice - how would you feel getting a "recycled" Apple ID as the new employee or the boss welcoming a new team member. Even $1000 a year in app purchases pales in comparison to the training costs to a business for losing an employee. Company "ownership" of these app purchases is not a big deal in practice.

If you ask your employees to switch in the business account - what happens when someone fails to do that - you'll end up with an expense report anyhow or you'll have a grumpy employee. Banning personal Apple ID is a potential solution as well. That also is demeaning to someone that's going to be taking their work on the go with them - especially if work didn't buy the hardware.

There are times when I really want my work persona to be totally different than my personal. Having that work Apple ID separate from my home ID doesn't seem to work at all to have that separation. I would not be able to remember to switch my account - I would go to purchase - see the password and enter it. About half way through the download I would realize my mistake. I can see this working for some, but think through this if you embark on a two ID strategy.

I would draft an addendum to your normal expense reporting policy to call for quarterly reports (if you don't report these expenses as they happen), urge you to use existing work credit cards to buy gift cards or have one work account gift apps to users that don't need many or are getting started. Once your company hits thousands of dollars of apps - you can look into the Volume Purchase Program which still lets the business send redemption codes to individual Apple ID. Make it a point to educate everyone - an executive summary (this is what we're doing/ how it will be controlled) as well as a detailed guide - who does what and when.

Once you think it through - the idea of work asking for a work Apple ID might make as little sense to you as it does to me. I would however, be sensitive to the finance department - the have long held practices on how to purchase software. Sitting down with them and showing them my purchase history and educating them how this all works. Handing them my phone and letting them buy an app - seeing it download and start using it is an eye opener.


Access denied when creating a Python file? I'm trying to compile a file using Python and I receive this message:

error: could not create '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/7.3/lib/python2.7/site-packages/tulip': Permission denied

Why is the permission denied? How can I fix this?

It's trying to create a file in the system installation of Python (i.e. it's going in the root Library folder). That folder is only writeable by root (to prevent damaging important system files), hence why you're getting a permission error.

Running the command with sudo preceding it, i.e. sudo foo bar will give you the proper permissions, after asking for your password. Alternatively, you can use virtualenv to set up your own Python environment that will allow you to mess around without worrying about changing the system default install.


MacOS security update mechanism Ubuntu has a command line mechanism for security updates:
sudo apt update

Does MacOS have a similar command line mechanism to provide updates without a release?
Update:
The scope is limited to the the operating system and I would like to understand what options are available the user has to task an update check & install. I am not aware of any pull that can be triggered from the command line. I am aware (and use) the home-brew package manager, however, I doubt it is intended for this purpose. I do keep Catalina up to date with Apple releases.

softwareupdate

Software Update checks for new and updated versions of your software based on information about your computer and current software.

See softwareupdate -h and man softwareupdate for the equivalent functionality on macOS.
To install the recommended updates, issue the command:
sudo softwareupdate --install --recommended


Streaming with Videos app fills Other memory Recently I bought a film in iTunes and streamed it using the Videos app. Afterwards I found that my 'Other' memory usage had jumped massively (to the point I couldn't watch or download anything else).

I do know that when I download films and then manually erase them the memory is reclaimed.

Eventually I had to back up the iPad, erase and restore it. This is a very drastic fix every time I watch a film! Is there any other way to force the Videos app to remove the streamed film from memory?

I have the same Issue and was a long time in contact with Apple Developers over the Apple Bugreporter. At the moment there is no "fine" way to delete the "Others" Memory on your Device.

My Bug is marked as Dublicate - so we only can hope for an Apple Solution.

I'll stay tuned and but here some news (if there are some)


OSX Mavericks - Enabling Custom DHCP Options I am using a new MAC running OSX Mavericks with a solaris ISC DHCPD server.

I have setup some additional options on the DHCPD server but it is my understanding that most DHCP clients don't request all DHCP Options.

I'm trying to ascertain how I configure OSX to send a DHCP request that includes these additional options.

My overall goal here is to issue option 26 which stipulates an MTU size.

As per: https://discussions.apple.com/message/26472927#26472927

This was the exact answer.

The file has moved to:

/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/IPConfiguration.bundle/Contents/Info.plist


How do I measure Heart Rate Variability? Intermittently, and with no pattern I can discern, my Watch measures "Heart Rate Variability". But I don't see a way to measure this on demand, and I can't find any apps that measure it directly (those that do use the camera and not Watch, and don't share with Apple Health).

How can I preform a HRV measurement on demand with Watch?

Looking at the history of HRV measurements in my Health app, they seem to correspond to times I've used the Breathe app on my phone.

It seems that doing a Breathe session will do an on-demand measurement of HRV, and this agrees with a post in the forums on MacRumors.


Where does Xcode install if macOS is installed on an external drive? I foolishly bought a Mac Mini with 128gb internal SSD for compiling Unity games for iOS, thinking "all I need to install is Xcode and Unity, and I can put documents on an external drive". However, macOS eats up about 45GB, Xcode will quickly eat up another 40GB and continue to grow without end, and Unity uses up a few more GB. You need about 40GB of free space to upgrade macOS and about 25GB of free space to upgrade Xcode, meaning that you quickly end up in a situation where there isn't enough free space on the Mac to upgrade anything. One time I cleared up exactly enough free space to upgrade macOS with nothing to spare, then the upgrade ran out of space and failed mid-upgrade (apparently the "required free space" is not accurate). This completely broke the OS and I had to erase everything and reinstall from scratch.
Having run into the "not enough space to upgrade" issue yet again, I'm ready to give up and try something different. Since macOS can be installed on an external drive, I'm thinking I'll reverse the usual strategy - I'll install the OS and applications on the external drive and save documents on the internal drive.
Normally Xcode can only be installed on the internal drive. If macOS is installed on an external drive, will xCode still be installed on the internal drive, or does it install to the same drive as macOS?

Apps from the Mac App Store like Xcode install to /Applications which maps to the Applications folder on the data volume in the same container as the macOS installation. This can be moved wherever you desire after installation, but it sounds like this is the location you want anyway.
Xcode from developer.apple.com is the .app bundle inside a compressed archive. You can download, extract and move the app wherever you desire.


Disable SIP without recovery mode Before you respond that this isn't possible, hear me out. I have a Mac Pro 4,1 (with 5,1 firmware), running MacOS Sierra. I want to disable System Integrity Protection (otherwise known as SIP), but have run into a snag. I don't have a flashed graphics card, so I can't see my boot screen (or recovery mode or safe mode) on my computer. Therefore I can't see how to disable SIP on my computer. I have tried:

Boot Mac Pro into target disk mode and connect MacBook Air (OS X 10.9 - pre-SIP) via FireWire To MP. Boot MBA from Mac Pro's recovery partition, (MacOS 10.12 recovery). Disable SIP, reboot. Doing this worked on the MBA. But when I turned on the Mac Pro again, SIP was enabled. I assumed that because of this, the SIP disable was linked to the hardware.

Question 1: Is this assumption correct?

Question 2: is it possible to disable the SIP without using the graphics card in the Mac Pro? I have an iMac running MacOS Sierra and a MBA running OS X 10.9 at my disposal. Possible solutions can include (but don't have to be limited to): ssh, screensharing, target disk mode).

I would appreciate any help. Please post questions as comments and feel free to suggest edits. Thank you!

Edit: to answer your actual question, you can't do it from anywhere except Recovery Mode, so anything you do must be done from there.

Tested on a similar 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 [but I have a flashed graphics card so I could see what I was doing]

Reboot & at the chimes hold  Cmd ⌘   R  for about 10s.
Wait until you get to Recovery Mode, which for me took approx 45s from the chimes [I'm on SSD but I think it may have chosen a Recovery on another HD to actually boot from] Give it a minute or so just to be safe.

 Fn   Ctrl ⌃   F2  will switch focus to the menu bar, specifically the Apple logo, top left.

It appears that whatever you have set in System Prefs > Keyboard for "Use all F1, F2 keys as standard function keys" that this option is disabled in Recovery, so even though just  Ctrl ⌃   F2  works for me in a running OS, in Recovery I needed the added  Fn  key.

From there, you can navigate using the arrow keys

Pic from https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/254167/85275

From that you can see that Terminal is 4 to the right, then 4 down.
It's 4 not 3 because the first down arrow opens the menu.

Hit Enter & Terminal will launch.
Type csrutil disable & hit Enter
Type reboot & hit Enter.

If it reboots, you got it right - otherwise you'll have to have another guess.

BTW, golden rule, as you have discovered, is keep your crappy old stock Apple card somewhere safe, for occasions such as this ;-)

Additional note:  Fn   Ctrl ⌃   F2  is a toggle. First will select the menu bar, second will deselect, so make sure to only do it once.


How can i see my iPad screen on a web browser I'm looking for an application that enables me to preview my iPad screen, on a PC or Mac Desktop. Since I have a presenter on stage that will have an iPad in his hands, and I want to preview his screen on a giant screen behind him.

I was reading some of your answers, but the air play can't find it on either iPad store or Mac store! I'm willing to jailbreak the device if needed.

Use Reflector. It works on both PC and Mac, and it works great.

  Play games, watch movies, demo apps or present to your computer from your iPhone or iPad. Everything you do on the device is shown on the computer screen, wirelessly.


Macbook Pro Early 2015 13 inch Retina Cycle count reset Apparently, the max cycle count for my MacBook (type is on the title) is 1000. Currently, my cycle count is 990 and I'm wondering if I can reset it without changing my battery? Probably impossible but just in case...

The cycle count of a battery is like an odometer on a car, if you reset it (which you can't do though conventional means), you will have a reading of "zero" but the car will still have all the "mileage" on it.

The cycle count on a battery is just a gauge.  Just because it's at or near 1000 cycles doesn't mean it's going to fail instantly. 1000 cycles is not the max.  It could, conceivably continue to function for many, many more cycles.

It's a good idea to start budgeting for a new battery now knowing that in the near future it will (begin to) fail and you'll need to replace it.


MacBook Pro crashes randomly after dropping it on the floor A few days ago my MacBook Pro slipped out of my hands and fell onto the tile floor. The outside got banged up quite a bit and the Touch Bar no longer lights up but still responds to touches sometimes but not all the time.

Anyway, since then it will randomly restart every once in a while with a kernel panic. I have the log posted below and wanted to know if anyone could tell me what is causing the panic?

Kernel Panic Log

You broke your MacBook, you need to take it for service.

The symptom that your Touch bar sometimes works (a.k.a. intermittently) means there is a bad/shorted connection somewhere.  Without physically examining it, it's impossible to tell what.  This is something for a professional to diagnose.


Effects of logging in to same Apple ID on multiple macOS accounts (single computer) On my Mac running macOS Sierra, I have a "main user" that has no admin privileges. I also have a second user which has admin privileges. I invoke the privileges of that "admin user", when admin privileges are necessary for my "main" user.

I'm now considering logging in to iCloud with my standard Apple ID, with my "admin" user. The Apple ID is normally associated with my "main" user. What will be the system effects of connecting my admin user to that Apple ID?

More specifically, I'm wondering if that will create stuff on my computer that will take up disk space for the admin user, such as iCloud Drive? Is there a risk of conflating application settings of the main user and the admin user which are stored in iCloud? And from a security standpoint, is it advisable not to login to Apple ID with my admin user (which I created just to isolate admin privileges from systems that shouldn't have them)?

If you turn on iCloud drive it will take up additional disk space, you can simply disable that part of iCloud to avoid that. Otherwise you will probably see a small amount of disk usage but nothing that will really affect your computer unless you're very low on available disk space.

As far as your other concerns I haven't actually tried this but I can't imagine you'd have any problems and if you were a client of mine I'd set it up for you. Think about how many people have 2 users or more users on their computer and share the same iCloud account. iCloud doesn't actually sync a lot of application settings and this would be no different than having two computers setup both with iCloud on them, which tons of people have without issue.


How does a Mac choose between Wi-Fi and Ethernet to work with? My Mac is connected via a 1GBit Ethernet. However, from time to time I do turn on WiFi and let it connect, typically because I need to use AirDrop etc.

When I'm done with AirDrop I usually turn the Wi-Fi off and stay on Ethernet.

My thinking is that "wifi is slower" and my Mac may use it when downloading or uploading instead of my fast Ethernet. Now I realize this is not based on anything else other than fear.

Is there truth to my fear?

If a Mac has two active connections, Wi-fi, and Ethernet -- what will it choose to use when I'm uploading a large file? Is there a possibility it would choose to use the slower Wifi connection? Or does it employ some kind of algorithm to figure out which one to use based on availability, type and speed?

It's possible to set network access interface priority order. Go to System Preferences → Network, click on the lock icon to unlock the preference pane. Now click on the gear icon shown towards the bottom of the network interface list, and select Set Service Order... command.

Now, in the new pane that opens, you can drag the priority network interface (Ethernet in your case) to top.

(I do not have a LAN interface, so the same isn't visible in the screenshot).


Top row of keyboard isn't working I just turned on my Macbook air this morning and now the top keys aren't doing anything (F1, F2, etc). I can't turn down my keyboard light or anything. I tried going to system preferences and checking "Use all F1, F2, etc keys.." option but I am still not able to do anything like turn down volume or anything. I am using OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.1 .

This happened to me a while back... First, try just holding down the power button for 10 seconds, to force the MacBook to shut down, and then reboot it normally. That sometimes works.

Failing that, you could try resetting the SMC:

Resetting the SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own

Note: Portable computers that have a battery you should not remove on your own include MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, and MacBook (Late 2009).

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it
to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option
keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Source: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)


Simple image-editing program to add shapes/text to an image that are still editable after saving? If I add text boxes and shapes to an image using Preview.app, save that image, and then close the image window, the next time that I open the image in Preview, all additions are uneditable. Preview saves the edits directly to the image.

I am looking for a basic program that can do the same thing as Preview.app (i.e., overlay shapes and text onto an image), except that I need the ability to edit or remove the new image elements later.

Adobe Photoshop can accomplish this obviously, but I am looking for something more user-friendly and simple (à la Preview).

All the software I would normally recommend are probably out of scope considering your comments about Adobe Photoshop, and the fact you're looking for something more user-friendly and simple.

Since you just want to be able to annotate an image and then edit this again later, one option for this type of thing is to use MS PowerPoint (which you already have).

I've shown many people over the years how they can use PowerPoint and most of them have been happy with the results, so give this a go before you dismiss it.

Using MS PowerPoint

One feature of MS PowerPoint 2011 and above is that you can group items on the slide and save them as a single image. So, you could do what you want as follows:

Insert the image into your PowerPoint slide.
Use shapes etc to draw arrows, lines, etc.
Use text boxes to add in your comments.
Format them as necessary (color, line weights, etc).
Select all items (i.e. the image and any shapes, etc.).
Right-mouse-click on your selection and go to Grouping > Group to group them together.
Right-mouse-click on the grouped items and select 'save as picture'.
Select from PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP for the image format you want (you can also select PDF as an option).
Now also save your PowerPoint presentation.

And there you go - you've got yourself an edited (annotated) image you can use that is separate from the original file, and if you save the PowerPoint slide you have a way of going back and editing it again.

PowerPoint also gives you some pro editing features such as the ability to arrange items (e.g. Forwards, Backwards, Front, Back) as well as adding shadows, transparencies, etc. If you take the time to really get to know it, you'd be surprised what you can do.

I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of using your profile pic to do a quick edit with it in PowerPoint just to give you a taste of what's possible.


speedup macOS Sierra startup I just installed MacOS Sierra on my macBookPro , I realised startup is slower than in Mavericks, can anyone direct me how can I or what Can I do to speed up boot and after booth startup. My MacBook RAM is 4GB, I hope this is not a problem otherwise.

I don't know if this is reliable, but I saw on macxdvd.com (I am not recommending their software) that if boot time is slow on Sierra, to try the following:

  Many users reported that updated macOS Sierra boot-up time increased a lot. How to speed up macOS Sierra? It's quite easy. Head to System Preferences > Startup Disk > primary disk and click "Restart" the Mac computer. If it doesn't fix slow Mac macOS Sierra after upgrading to macOS Sierra, reset PRAM.

Apple has instructions to reset PRAM:

  Shut down your Mac.

  Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
  Turn on your Mac.

  Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.

  Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.

  Release the keys.

  After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.

Please comment if this had any effect.


What is the difference between iTerm2 and Terminal? I keep hearing that iTerm2 is much better than Terminal. However, when I downloaded iTerm2, I didn't see what made it preferable over Terminal. What are the differences between these two apps?

There are several features listed on their features page.

Some of the features I like are:

Split pane view
Hotkey window for instant terminal anywhere
Search will highlight all found words (like in Chrome and Safari)
Mouseless copy
Instant replay (can "rewind" your session in case you forgot to note/copy something)
Paste history
Growl support for notification when a process completes


Photos not uploading to photo stream or syncing with iCloud So I have a heavy question that I haven't seen asked on ad, so, or su.

Question -- My photos are not uploading from my iPhone nor iPhoto to my photo stream. Why?

Background -- When I attempt to sync photos to iCloud, the uploads obviously fail yet no error message is giving. On my iPhone, I can see the pictures sitting in the Photo Steam (queued) but then they disappear from the stream, one by one. In iPhoto, the status bar just reads "Uploading x Photos". I can create Photo Streams, but the only thing that syncs is the album, which is left blank.

All checkboxes are checked, all permissions are set, and all devices have been updated and restarted. I am using my laptop as a hotspot (Internet Sharing On). My laptop is using the ethernet card, my iPhone connects to my laptop's shared connection.

I checked my system.log while trying to upload from both my iPhone and iPhoto. Here's a dump from the iPhone's attempt

2/13/14 11:05:52.720 AM configd[55]: inet_set_autoaddr(en1, 1) failed, Resource busy (16)

And from iPhoto's attempt

2/13/14 11:08:01.383 AM configd[55]: inet_set_autoaddr(en1, 1) failed, Resource busy (16)

2/13/14 11:08:38.823 AM sandboxd[182]: ([52857]) mdworker(52857) deny file-read-data /Users/rjdowd/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Contents/PkgInfo (pre-plugin fstype:hfs fsflag:480D000 flags:250000005E diag:0 isXCode:0 uti:public.folder plugin:internalPlainTextImporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 855961)

2/13/14 11:08:49.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: mdworker(52857) deny file-read-data /Users/rjdowd/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Contents/PkgInfo

I'm not familiar with any of those applications, but I did check the permissions on my iPhoto Library PkgInfo -- I have full r&w.

Does anyone know what sandbox is doing? And since inet_set_autoaddr(en1,1) looks like it's telling me my shared network is too busy to handle photos (which is bonk because I send & receive photos through iMessages all day) I suspect if I tried to connect to the internet a different way, I may see something else. But a wired to shared connection is all I have available for now (stuck in Afg).

Because this happens to both your devices you have to go with the common factor which is your internet connection.  If your upload speeds are too slow iCloud automatically stops the sync for efficiency.  This will only be resolved with a faster connection.


Aperture showing videos with odd lines, how to see videos nicely in OSX? I imported my tennis couching videos to Aperture but Aperture shows them with odd lines while QuickTime Player more nicely shows them. Which software should I use for videos because Aperture is clearly not meant for this?

Aperture

QuickTime Player

P.s. I imported my videos from Sony Nex-3N.

I just went with Final Cut Pro: stored the videos to external HDD and then viewed them there with FCP. Also VLC player as suggested may be an option. Yet FCP is also for editing, VLC for playing. For this purpose just for analysing the shots, FCP and VLC may be a bit off-topic but they can nicely show videos.


How to get date when photo is clicked from android phone and is transferred to iPhone via Xender? I have clicked few pictures from my android phone few months back. Today when I transferred those photos to my iPhone, it shows me created date as today. Is there a way in iPhone to get actual created date (The date when photo is clicked from android phone)?

Zip photos on Android phone by using a file explorer app on Android phone.
Transfer zip file to iPhone.
Unzip on iPhone by using an app (iZip, Winzip...). If you don't want to install third party app, you can send zip file via mail to iPhone.


iPhone: share with instagram Sometimes when I take a photo I like to share it with friends and family, so I press the button that points up, which then leads to a screen where I can share the photo with facebook, flickr and several other things that I don't use.

Recently I decided to use instagram as a means of sharing photos, since I had noticed some of my friends on facebook doing it.

I installed the instagram app on my iphone and have used it a few times to share photos, but it is missing from the list of things to share with immediately after taking a photo navigated to from the photo gallery.

How can I get instagram to appear in the list of destinations that I see when I decide t share a photo from my phone?

Sorry but you don't really have any control over this. Some sharing panels offer a "Open  In..." option in the bottom-right corner. If you check an application that does offer this option (for example Dropbox) you'll likely find Instagram in that list.

For some reason Apple doesn't provide that "Open In..." option in the Camera or Photos apps.

The Facebook and Flickr options are hard-coded by Apple. They always appear in the sharing list even if you don't have the applications installed.


How can I add a UTC world clock to my OSX dashboard? In the OSX dashboard, the world clock doesn't have a UTC option. Choosing London only works half of the year (the other half London is on Daylight Savings Time and is UTC+1).

I could choose Atlantic/Reykjavik, which is always on UTC, but it seems like a hack, and I'd rather have my clock display "UTC" instead of "Reykjavik".

There is already a UTC clock available.

Assuming you're on Yosemite:

Go to your notification center
Click Edit at the bottom
Add the World Clock and click Done.
Hover over the World Clock you just added, and click on the (i) icon.
Enter UTC when it asks for City.
That's it. You're done.


OS volume shows as type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF' Yesterday, I have tried to delete an Ubuntu partition. Since, my Mac (13", MBPro mid-2014) doesn't boot. Now, I boot on Mac OS copy with an USB.
i follow different subject of this forum (like this : Partition type suddenly FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF, drive unmountable), and my volume partition change from FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF to 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC.
But I still can't boot to it...

Thank you very much !

A bootable OS X partition (except the Recovery HD) either has the GUID 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for a standard OS X partition, the GUID 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for a CoreStorage partition or the GUID 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for an APFS volume. The FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF is an unknown partition type (but not no partition like the 000000-0000-0000.... one).

The GUID can be modified with gpt. You can only add, delete and modify GUID partition tables with gpt when all related disks are unmounted.
To reconfigure your partitions boot to a third party drive (e.g. Internet Recovery or a OS X installer thumb drive).

Under certain circumstances SIP has to be disabled to modify the GUID partition table.

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode (or a third party drive).
Open Terminal in the menubar Utilities > Terminal
Get an overview with diskutil list
Get an overview of your internal disk with the disk identifier found in the previous command. Below I assume the disk identifier of your internal disk is disk0 (SSD) (replace it with the one you have found in your environment).

gpt -r show disk0

Unmount disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk0
Then remove and re-add the second partition with the same size but proper type. The most probable type for disk0s2 on an SSD with Sierra currently installed is 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC or with High Sierra installed 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC (because a previous CoreStorage partition was almost certainly converted to APFS while upgrading Sierra to High Sierra).

Sierra (CoreStorage):

gpt remove -i 2 disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 431203056 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

or

High Sierra (APFS):

gpt remove -i 2 disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 431203056 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC  disk0

or

standard partition (HFSJ Extended):

gpt remove -i 2 disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 431203056 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC  disk0

Verify disk and volume:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

Booted to your USB drive and logged in as an admin you have to prepend sudo to execute the gpt commands successfully.

If you forgot your system version or did some custom partitioning you can still inspect the first blocks of disk0s2 and determine the proper GUID type:

If you've booted to a full-fledged system you can use hexdump:

Unmount disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk0
hexdump the first 3 blocks of the FFFF... partition:

sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s2 count=3 | hexdump

The following result identfies it as a normal OS X partition:

0000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000400 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 01 ff
0000410 d3 8c 77 d3 d4 33 3c b0 00 00 00 00 d3 8c 5b b3
0000420 00 00 02 a8 00 00 00 25 00 00 10 00 00 fe b7 f6
0000430 00 fe 1e fa 00 ed 80 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00
0000440 00 00 10 f2 00 00 5a 9d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01
0000450 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000460 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7d 9d b0 3a 02 31 62 f0
0000470 00 00 00 00 00 1f e0 00 00 1f e0 00 00 00 01 fe
0000480 00 00 00 01 00 00 01 fe 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000490 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00004c0 00 00 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 00 06 00
00004d0 00 00 0a 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00004e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000510 00 00 00 00 03 10 00 00 03 10 00 00 00 00 31 00
0000520 00 03 ac 00 00 00 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000530 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000560 00 00 00 00 05 40 00 00 05 40 00 00 00 00 54 00
0000570 00 00 10 00 00 00 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000580 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000600

The first number is the byte count in hex: 0000000: 0; 0000600: 1536. The * denotes identical lines. This means: the first two blocks (0x000-0x3ff) are all zeros.

A CoreStorage partition shows some non-zeros in the first block (0x000-0x1ff):

0000000 0c 73 a1 a9 ff ff ff ff 01 00 10 00 07 14 d7 01
0000010 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000030 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000040 00 20 c1 cc 0f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 53 01 00 00 00 04 00
0000060 00 10 00 00 00 00 40 00 11 bc fc 00 00 00 00 00
0000070 11 c0 fc 00 00 00 00 00 11 c4 fc 00 00 00 00 00
0000080 11 c8 fc 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 02 00 00 00
00000b0 62 02 98 59 ee a9 ab 51 9b 49 23 90 2e f8 8b 43
00000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000130 e4 6e f8 f2 63 99 45 c1 b2 13 86 28 a5 18 46 6d
0000140 c4 51 c0 f6 32 f9 43 ab 8e 59 42 d2 1a ef f6 50
0000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000400 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 01 ff
0000410 d1 98 a4 93 d4 33 8b d5 00 00 00 00 d1 98 88 73
0000420 00 06 07 53 00 01 82 39 00 00 10 00 00 fb 6a 00
0000430 00 c5 1c 55 00 25 73 c7 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00
0000440 00 0d e2 65 00 3e a2 fb 00 00 00 00 02 20 00 fb
0000450 00 00 00 31 00 06 b9 ef 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000460 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 31 fb 48 1e a0 6c 47 a2 9f
0000470 00 00 00 00 00 1f e0 00 00 1f e0 00 00 00 01 fe
0000480 00 00 00 01 00 00 01 fe 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000490 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00004c0 00 00 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 00 06 00
00004d0 00 00 0a 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00004e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000510 00 00 00 00 0e 40 00 00 01 30 00 00 00 00 e4 00
0000520 00 00 10 00 00 00 e4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000530 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000560 00 00 00 00 11 d0 00 00 01 30 00 00 00 01 1d 00
0000570 00 02 80 00 00 00 72 00 00 13 30 97 00 00 13 00
0000580 00 15 c5 aa 00 00 13 00 00 18 2d 23 00 00 13 00
0000590 00 19 d8 fb 00 00 13 00 00 1b 76 cb 00 00 13 00
00005a0 00 1c 34 70 00 00 13 00 00 1d 0e 4d 00 00 13 00
00005b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000600

The line starting with byte 0x130 shows the UUID of the Physical Volume, the line starting with byte 0x140 shows the UUID of the Logical Volume Group.

The string 48 46 53 4a (= "HFSJ") in the first 16 bytes of the third blocks identifies a Journaled HFS+ volume on both partition types.

An APFS container looks like this:

0000000 e7 ec ab 5b a2 94 96 44 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000010 18 0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 80 00 00 00 00
0000020 4e 58 53 42 00 10 00 00 f6 37 ff 00 00 00 00 00
0000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000040 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 11 f1 5e 40 31 10 4c 20
0000050 bb 47 53 66 7e 8b 42 d5 b9 c4 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000060 19 0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 18 01 00 00 18 6c 00 00
0000070 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 19 01 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000080 21 00 00 00 80 5a 00 00 1f 00 00 00 02 00 00 00
0000090 7a 5a 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000a0 37 fd 03 00 00 00 00 00 01 04 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000b0 00 00 00 00 64 00 00 00 02 04 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000c0 06 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 04 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000d0 66 a4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00003d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 16 21 06 00 00 00 00 00
00003e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00004f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 91 3d 0f 00 00 00 00 00
0000500 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000510 78 f4 09 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000520 01 00 04 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000530 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

The string 4e 58 53 42 (= "NXSB") starting with byte 0x020 in the first block is the magic string of an APFS container superblock and identifies it as APFS container. The UUID of the container starts at 0x48 (here: 11 f1 5e 40 ...)

If you are limited to (Internet) Recovery Mode or an installer boot drive (all with a base system only which doesn't contain hexdump) you can still use vis:

Unmount disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk0
vis the first 3 blocks of the FFFF... partition:

dd if=/dev/disk0s2 count=3 | vis -c

If you had a standard partition previously the first 1024 Bytes only contain non-printable (zeros): \0\0\0\0\0\0...
After ~Byte 1030 you will see the following sequence: \0HFSJ\0

If you had a CoreStorage partition some non-zeros in the first 512 Bytes and the string CS (...\0CS\^A...) are shown:

\^U\^D\^A\M-s\M^?\M^?\M^?\M^?\^A\0\^P\0\0\0\M-W\^A\a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\M^Pu\M-\7\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0CS\^A\0\0\0\^D\0\0\^P\0\0\0\0@\0X\M-7}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-;}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-?}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-C}\^C\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^P\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0006j v\^R\M-+\^U\M^[\f\M^CdG\M-y\^]...

If you had a APFS partition the string NXSB (...\0NXSB\0\^P...) is shown in the first few bytes:

??[?\M^T\M^VD\^A\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^X\f\0\0\0\0\0\0\^A\0\0\M^@\0\0\0\0NXSB\0\^P\0\0?7?\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^Q?^@1\^PL ?GSf~\M^KBչ?\0\0\0\0\0\0\^Y\f\0\0\0\0\0\0\^X\^A\0\0\^Xl\0\0\^A\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^Y\^A\0\0\0\0\0\0!\0\0\0\M^@Z\0\0\^_\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0zZ\0\0\^F\0\0\0\0\^D\0\0\0\0\0\0007?\^C\0\0\0\0\0\^A\^D\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0d\0\0\0\^B\^D\0\0\0\0\0\0\^F\^D\0\0\0\0\0\0\b\^D\0\0\0\0\0\0f?\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\


How to add BlockComment extension for Xcode 11? I'm new at the excode editor. I want to be able to add block comments (/*
 */), so I found an extension.

But I can't seem to be able to add it to xcode.

Everything leads me to Xcode -> Preferences -> Extensions but there's nothing there!

Elsewhere, apparently BlockComment should be in the Key Binding section, but it isn't.

Some other research says that I should see BlockComment in the editor drop-down menu and that's not there.

Can this be done?

I found this link to app support at the bottom of the app store page you linked. That should be a go-to place always.

https://github.com/superk589/BlockComment

  from mac App Store

  Run the application at lease once, then close it.
  Go to System Preferences -> Extensions -> Xcode Source Editor and enable this extension
  Reopen Xcode and you can find this extension from Xcode menu.


Where to find ARM GCC compiler in XCODE5? I am trying to run kivy on Mac and it relies on my Xcode arm gcc compiler.

I already tryied to answer this question in a stackoverflow question but here I we again...

Where to find the arm apple llvm gcc compiler in the new XCode 5?

Apple stopped shipping gcc with Xcode.

The clang compiler presents itself as gcc (technically I believe it's an llvm front end that respects many gcc flags) when you install Xcode from the Mac App Store:

Mac:~ me$ xcrun --find gcc
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/gcc
Mac:~ me$ `xcrun --find gcc` --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 5.0 (clang-500.2.76) (based on LLVM 3.3svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin12.5.0
Thread model: posix

If you need a different compiler, you'll likely need to download it elsewhere or build it from source.


What is "Paused (On Battery)" mean in Mail.app? I saw the message "Downloading Messages Paused (On Battery)" in Mail.app in El Capitan.

What does this mean? The MacBook was plugged in to the wall, not running on battery. What would cause downloading to stop/pause?

It may have paused while you were operating your MacBook on battery power. As per Apple support document, If Mail on your Mac downloads messages only when you open them:

  When your Mac notebook is running on battery power, Mail in OS X El Capitan conserves energy by pausing the full download of messages that are that are older than 30 days, or older than the 10,000th message downloaded. Mail downloads messages from newest to oldest.


google photos backup app Will Google Photos Backup avoid creating duplicates if I use the app to upload from two separate computers with overlapping photo collections in Mac Os Photos?

Google photos does a really good job of deduping!  I have loaded from multiple pc's, iPads & iPhone & not seen any duplicates!   I'm loving it!


why does an m1 Mac think that a side loaded iOs app is jailbroken? I took an iPhone 11 running the latest iOs at this time (14.4.1) and connected it up to a Mac running Mojave. I pull an app out of it as an ipa file. I copied the ipa file to the M1 Mac and double clicked it. The M1 Mac then said it was installing the app! I double clicked on the installed app and it said it would run on a jailbroken iPhone?!
My iPhone is not jailbroken and the original app runs fine on it.

The App is doing this check, not your computer. Apps use a variety of techniques, usually involving checking for the presence or lack of specific files that indicate the possibility of a jailbroken iPhone.
This app has implemented their check poorly, causing it to trigger on your Mac. You should contact the developers of the application and tell them to remove the jailbreaking checks.
Note: Of course, if the developer did not list it on the App Store they may not be receptive to making changes to accommodate running it on the Mac.


What is the transfer speed of AirDrop? Tried transferring 4gb file yesterday and seems to be taking such a long time. Anyone knows the transfer speed?

It may help to say that I'm using last year's AirPort Extreme.

EDIT: Two years later, I wonder: what about in 802.11ac? If the laptops supports 802.11ac but the router does not, what will the speed be?

AirDrop works outside of whatever WiFi networks are around and doesn't need a base station. It is like a mesh network where all the devices just talk between each other. If nothing else is "sharing" the road  - you get the full speed. The further away you are or the more interference, the slower it gets. AirDrop will work by passing the data from Mac to Mac so it will get the file there (although slower) if it has to jump once or twice along the way.

That being said, for two close machines, the transfer speed should be the max wireless speed between your two machines. Hard drives are almost always faster reading and writing than WiFi speeds, so the radio link is generally the slowest.

However, all of that is just theoretical. You can check your actual speed by opening Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor

Click the Network tab on the bottom and you should see stats about how fast the data is being sent and received. Detach from WiFi base stations to let AirDrop get all the hardware if you want the fastest transfers - leave it on if you need internet while dropping that large file.


How can I delete photos from my iPhone and still retain them on my desktop? How can I delete photos from my iPhone and still retain them on my desktop (OS X El Capitan)? I am not sure if it is possible to delete from my iPhone once the photos are on my desktop.

I suggest you to firstly disable My Photo Stream then sync your iPhone with your Mac library (using cable for instance).

In this way you can keep update the photos in your library by importing recent photos from iPhone and at the same time you can remove the pics from your iPhone without losing the copy pic in the Mac.


Can I view the list of songs within a podcast while playing it? When playing a podcast on my iPhone, can I view the names of the songs (or whatever show notes are embedded into the podcast metadata?

There is a (non-obvious) way to see whatever information was provided by the person who made the podcast. Whether it lists the songs will depend on how much info they actually provided.

To see the info about a podcast, when listening to it, click on the main area of the display - as marked with a large red rectangle below:

This takes you to a sort of detailed view:

Clicking on the text description here takes you back to the first view (pictorial representation of the podcast).

One extra thing: Clicking on the little icon at top-right, that looks like a sort of list (shown in the small red rectangle in the first image above), takes you to the list of "episodes" that you have for this podcast, e.g.:

Edit: What about viewing podcast info on iOS 5 iPad?

This info subsequently moved to @JasonSalaz's separate iPad question


Can I use any character for the name of my app? I'm preparing to publish an app I developed but the name I had in mind is already being used. To solve this I'd like to add a character/symbol (which relates to the name and gameplay) besides the name: ⟡. Is there a problem with doing this? Would this affect my app's visibility on the App Store.

According to the App Store Review Guidelines, names can be anything so long as they are no more than 30 characters, do not infringe on copyright, and are unique.

So, yes, you can use the ⟡ Unicode character in your app name so long as it follows the guidelines above and on the website.


Mavericks OS recovery behavior - is default always to go to internet to recover? Is the normal, default behavior for an CMD-R based Mavericks OS Recovery to always pull the image over the internet?

(I am not talking about a deliberate "Internet" recovery CMD+OPT+R)

Back story -- I just purchased an open box 2014 Macbook Air.  It was nominally wiped and recovered with os 10.9.3 -- (although I also am pretty sure I am seeing the previous owner's name appearing as default bluetooth options (probably need to PRAM reset as well)).

In any case, I immediately booted again with CMD-R to perform a Full OS reinstall.   It immediately let me know installation would take over an hour.  Looking at the full logs, and my wifi logs, it  spends about 15 minutes downloading "506 chunks", of what I presume is the recovery image.

The first time this happened, I figured it was doing so possibly because there 10.9.4 is now the current OS version, so perhaps it just does a simple check and downloads a new recovery image if the version has changed.   I let it complete the full install by default.

However, for giggles, after it was fully complete with the install (fully default), I decided to perform another OS install.   Interestingly enough, the same behavior, 15 minutes spent downloading the same 506 chunks.

I would have expected that the recovery image on the disc would be the primary means of recovery, with deltas possibly being downloaded.   The behavior I'm seeing seems very "wasteful" OF bandwidth.

I'm just wondering the the prior owner did something that is permanently causing this behavior.

To avoid having to use Internet Recovery make a Mavericks USB installer.

First, download the Mavericks installer from the App Store. This will be placed in your Applications folder. Once downloaded do not run it or move it.

Next open Disk Utility and erase an 8GB USB memory stick, naming it Untitled. If you name it anything else be sure to modify the command below.

Open Terminal and enter the following command-

sudo /Applications/"Install OS X Mavericks.app"/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/"Install OS X Mavericks.app" --nointeraction

When complete you will have a full standalone installer, no network access required.


Iphone lost with not connection Lost my Iphone 6, I didn't activate the lost mode, can't see the phone on my Icloud, is there anyway I can locate my phone or is it lost?

You can go to your cellphone provider and ask them to locate it, this will work if the battery hasn't been run down. If it's stolen the thief probably crushed the SIM card and it cannot be located in any manner that I know of..


Xcode 6&7 performance on Macbook Air 2012-mid I'm planning to change to MacBook from my PC and I was thinking on buying first an older model as I can't afford a new one currently.
I would use this laptop for Xcode development as well so I'd be curious about the opinions and experiences you have regarding the MacBook Air 2012-mid and 2013-mid models with entry level CPUs and 4GB of RAM.
So my question is: Would it be enough for Xcode development? How fast it performs? Any experience?

Thanks in advance!

I use both Xcode 6 and the 7 Beta on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro with a 2.66GHz Intel Core Duo, 4 GB of RAM, and a 260 GB Intel 530 Series SSD. It's good enough for me to develop apps on, though it's not like I'm using Metal to make 3D games or anything. I personally wouldn't get a MacBook Air, as it's just not a performance laptop and you'd get a lot more out of a slightly older MacBook Pro. The one I have is pretty good for what I use it for: Xcode, Final Cut Pro X, web-browsing, etc. But that's not to say I wouldn't want a newer MacBook Pro.


iTunes asking for password for wrong iTunes account I purchased a new phone at Sam's club and they transferred the data from my old iPhone to my new iPhone. But now more and more apps will not update with out the password for an iTunes account that I don't know who's is. Even apps that I have downloaded since that data transfer have this problem. I have tried rebooting my iPhone, logging in and out of iTunes, and deleting and reinstalling the app but nothing works.

Try signing out of iTunes on your iPhone and signing in as your Apple ID. After you login as the right account, delete all the apps you have downloaded and redownload them.


Why do my iMessages get sent with someone else's information? I have a new iPad and upgraded to iOS 6.

When I send an iMessage, it looks like I sent it from another person's phone. The picture is not my profile picture.

Why might this be?

Is the default number or mail address associated to iMessage stored in your contact card? If not this is the reason.

You can change the default sender by coning to Settings, iMessage and setting the field Start new conversation from:.

This phone number or email address will be the one used for sending iMessages. Hence, if this number is not associated to your contact, iMessage will not show your picture.

If all the available options belong to someone else, then check that the contact card for you is assigned correctly.


AT&T iPhone Parental Controls 2 kids with iPhones... Parent wants to setup controls. The two things I've seen are

SL (SmartLimits) for AT&T
PC (Parental Controls) on the iPhone.

Using SL would limit Time, Numbers, Data, etc from the phone itself... while the PC would limit access to stuff like porn and other bad sites within Safari.

If I use PC do I still need to pay for SL? Does SL do web filtering (IE: XXX) now or does it still not block Safari? Are there any limitations to using these two together?

Are there any other options worth noting? Or is it really limited these two options?

Edit:

As a clarification... Parent has 2 "tweens". Boy & Girl. Associated issues - XXX, "Sexting", up late, using during school hours, etc. They aren't "Technically minded" so trying to look into "simple" options.

What I see available is SL and PC... but neither seems a silver bullet. Neither also seems to offer super-granular control (Which is, I guess, okay for non techies) nor all the options in one place (SL can't block Safari and PC doesn't seem to have hours of operations, that I can see).

For example, one specific question is "How do I block Instagram after 10?". Personally, I would block data on the phone via SL - but that doesn't block WIFI access to those services if I'm not mistaken.

So... my "edit" is more... how does one handle "Parental Controls" and are there any "all-in-one" options? If not, SL & PC it is... SL for texting/calling/cell-data during inopportune times... PC for more control of the iPhone and applications such as Safari - but not super-granular such as "Block Instagram after 10".

It depends what you want.
If you simply want to block apps, websites, and have (a little) control over data use, iPhone restrictions may be all you need.
By going into Settings > General > Restrictions > Websites, you can choose which sites you’d like to block from the phone. This works over both WiFi and Cellular.
You can also disable the App Store to prevent downloading of apps, or set an age limit on the apps downloaded.
Another thing you can do is configure your Cellular Data settings then lock the pane by selecting Don’t Allow Changes in Restrictions > Cellular Data Use
The main thing that AT&T parental controls would be good for is controlling what happens on your mobile data. In iOS controls, you cannot restrict phone numbers called, though AT&T can. Also, the AT&T app allows you to restrict cellular use during certain times of the day.
In conclusion:
Choose iOS restrictions if you want control over their activities on WiFi AND Cellular. Also choose this if you want to restrict app downloads. (free)
Choose SmartLimits if you want to have more control over your children’s activities over cellular. This is not limited to data, but also includes calls and texts. ($4.99/mo one line, $9.99/mo up to ten lines)


Macbook Pro uses Wi-Fi from USB-connected iPhone Whenever I connect my iPhone to my Macbook Pro, it starts using the Wi-Fi from the phone, even though they're connected to the same one. When I disconnect the phone from the computer, the computer uses its own Wi-Fi connection.
This causes problems, e.g. if I'm downloading a large file to my computer with my phone connected and then I disconnect my phone, then the download fails and I'll have to resume it.
What could possibly be causing this? I use a VPN client on both my computer and my phone, but even when I disconnect from the VPN on both devices, the same behavior occurs.

You most likely have turned on your iPhones hotspot, which also works over USB.
On your iPhone open the settings app. Head over to personal hotspot. Turn it off and you should be good.
On the Mac side you should be able to check to which network you are connected to by opening the settings app and viewing the connected network under the network pane.


MacOS Language and Country Settings I switched to Mac recently. So I have this question:

I am in Germany, however, neither I speak nor read any German. Is it possible to set the Mac language to English and the country to Germany so that I can use the German App Store. (sorry if I sound naive, I have never used one before). If yes, how?

Edit: I want to use the German version of the App Store because I don't have a credit card (I am a student). I need to buy a few apps for my education.

Thanks.

Localization on OS X and the App Store you are using are two different things.

Localization is done on User Account level, meaning you can define the language, the date format etc. individually for each user on your Mac
The App Store is tied to the Apple ID used, so the Store you use is the one the Apple ID is connected with. You can't switch stores within one ID but it's possible (even if it's a bit cumbersome in practice) to have several IDs for different stores.


How to Drag and Drop between full screen apps on a Mac using a standard mouse? I have a Logitech mouse. I often maximize my applications in OS X. E.g. I will have Evernote running on one Desktop and Google Chrome running on another, both in full screen mode.

Suppose I have a file in my Downloads folder. How do I attach it into Evernote using drag and drop? Or similarly, how do I attach it to an email using drag and drop. On Windows, drag and drop is made simple by the fact that you can easily resize windows. But, with OS X, since all your windows are maximized, or at least that is how I have them, how do I drag stuff from one place to another?

P.S. I have a simple USB mouse, I am not using Apple trackpad or any such fancy thing.

Grab (mouse click) the item you want to drag from say the desktop or email.
Hit Command+Tab on the keyboard to switch through the open apps you have running (holding Command down continuously, and hitting Tab repeatedly) until you get to the app you want to drop the file on. KEEP HOLDING DOWN ON THE MOUSE BUTTON WHILE YOU DO THIS.
When the app you want to drag the item to is the foreground app. You should simply be able to drop (let go of the mouse button) the item you’ve been dragging, and it should be copied or attached to that app.


Random Kernel Panics with Shutdown Cause: -64 I'm using Retina Macbook Pro 15inch (OS X El Capitan 10.11.5) and getting random kernel panics frequently since March 2016. (1 or 2 times a day or more)

This is a company laptop and bought in October 2015, my company admin have sent in the macbook to Apple Authorized Service Centre but they say no issue found and return it after 1 whole month. After get back the kernel panic still remains.

He also performed several fresh installation of the OS X (downloaded from Apple) and still get kernel panic.

I'm not sure whether it is a software-related or hardware-related issue as the Apple Diagnostics didn't show any problem.

Things I've tried :

Apple Diagnostic Test
Fresh install of OS X
Use EtreCheck (Report seems fine)
Use iStat Menu Pro to check on the temperature (around 40 degree celsius to 80/90) When kernel panic occurs, it usually stay at high temperature like 90 degree +
Does it means overheat causes kernel panic?
Resetting the SMC

List of software/tools that I used :

xcode
android studio
slack
skype
chrome
source tree
atom editor
node, npm
iStat Menu

But I still getting kernel panic every day...

If it is overheat, why it works normal before this? (from October 2015-March 2016)

If it is software-related issue, why after fresh install it still get kernel panic?

If it was hardware issue, why Apple can't find the root cause? >_<

I checked on the Console and found this (after kernel panic)

Previous Shutdown Cause: -64

May I know what does this means? I search through other posts and all of them are -62, -128, 0, 3, 5 and etc... None of them are getting -64

Apple is not making the shutdown cause available to public as well >_<

From the details you provided. It sounds as if the kernel panic is due to to an issue in the firmware of your device. There are two things you can do:

(before doing any of the solutions, always have a backup of your files, especially the important ones)

Use the App Store to see if there is an update for your firmware. Just and fyi, you should update your system to the most recent version available.
Do a quick Google search on the firmware updates for your model. Download and install.

Worst case scenario: the motherboard could be failing. The apple diagnostic does not always give an accurate test if the hardware. The more in depth apple test is available to Apple Care repair services.

Best case scenario: all you have to do is SMC reset and a NVRAM reset.

Follow instructions for these resets here:

NVRAM reset
SMC reset

If none of these options work, I would write down the panic error that is displayed in the text, and do a quick Google search for anything related to the panic error, i.e. why does (put panic error here) occur....


What's a font name table and why do so many free fonts have a "minor issue" with its structure? Every other free font I install, Font Book complains about a "minor issue" with its "name table structure". What is a name table? What sorts of problems should I expect these "minor issues" to cause?

In TTF fonts, the "name" table contains information on the font. There's a table here which, if you're interested, gives you the exact information on what the name table contains.

I've had the same problem with fonts in the past. Most of the time they work fine, although sometimes they won't show up in all applications. With some Googling I found a guide which fixes the name table structure.


Macbook Air + Lion + Windows 7 Boot Camp + shared partition I would like to setup my Macbook Air's disk drive with 3 partitions - 50Gb for OSX Lion, 50Gb for Windows 7, and the remaining 150Gb for Data to share between both OSes (music, photos etc).

What's the correct way to do this?

Ok, this is written for a 500GB HDD.
4 partitions max, just like every other (bootable) hard-drive.

I tried this on 2 MacBook Pros and it works perfectly on both.

This tutorial also assumes you have OS X Lion installed.

What I want to achieve is to have OS X Lion & Windows 7 installed, with a shared space too.

120 (OSX)
260 (SHARED)
120 (Windows)

------------Part 1/2------------

Start off by resizing Mac OS X Partition so it's at least 1GB smaller than the full disk.

To do this; go into Utilities and then into Disk Utility. Select your HDD and go to the Partition tab.

1GB is not actually needed, but it's just to be on the safe side, it'll get resized later.
There needs to be 'Blank' unallocated space available.

What you originally have (factory settings):

 diskutil list

500GB:

disk0s1 EFI (Boot) ~200MB
disk0s2 Mac OS X 10.7
disk0s4 Mac OS X Recovery

disk0s4 needs to be deleted. Go into Utilities, and load up Terminal.
Type the following:

diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank /dev/disk0s4

Then go into Disk Utility and delete the 'Blank' Partition.
You should only have your OS X Partition and blank space.

Then check your partitions with the command 'diskutil list', you should now have:

500GB:

disk0s1      EFI (Boot) ~200MB
disk0s2      Mac OS X 10.7

GOOD!

This part was referenced from: http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/30/deleting-the-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-recovery-hd-partition/

------------Part 2/2------------

Stretch OSX to the full available space using Disk Utility.

Load up Bootcamp Wizard, make Windows Partition 120GB whilst OSX has the remaining 380GB.

Bootcamp should be happy to start the install, but load up Disk Utility first

NOTE: On Lion 10.7.2, Bootcamp has changed a little. You need to insert the Windows 7 disk and then proceed with the installation before the Bootcamp partition will be created. When your computer restarts you need to hold down the option (alt) key and boot back into Lion, then follow the steps below:

Select the OSX Partition, and '+' another partition.

Reduce OSX to 120GB and make the new (middle) partition MS-DOS FAT, call it SHARED. That's what I'm using for now.
Whilst FAT doesn't allow for any single files over 4096MB; it's also writable natively with both OS's.

It should be 260GB. Now you have:

120 (OSX)
260 (SHARED)
120 (Windows)

According to Disk Utility, but...
In reality what we have is:

500GB:

disk0s1      EFI (Boot) ~200MB
disk0s2      Mac OS X 10.7
disk0s3      SHARED
disk0s4      Windows 7

Insert Windows 7 disk (if you haven't already) and then start the install sequence.

You'll notice that there's a 128MB unallocated space. Tragically you'll have to leave that unallocated.

Format the BOOTCAMP partition (only) and proceed to install Windows.

Don't mess about with deleting and merging partitions, otherwise the partition tables will be damaged.

------------DONE------------


Any way to "close" a group of reminders all at once on OSX? Every time I turn on my mac, a set of like 10 recurring reminder popups clog up my OSX Desktop screen.

I may be a procrastinator and all, but Reminders.app's interface on OSX feels downright buggy without a button to close all reminders at once, or at least all recurring reminders.

Is there a keyboard shortcut or something to make them all "close" at once? A "Saturday shortcut", lets call it.

There are two fairly easy ways to do this:
Option 1 (default):
With the default configuration of your mac, you can simply option + click the notification center icon in the top right corner of your screen. This will enable Do Not Disturb, which automatically dismisses all notifications and silences incoming notifications. If you wish to continue receiving notifications, you can option + click the notification center icon again. Your notifications that were on the screen will not re-appear.
Option 2 (creating a keyboard shortcut):

Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control
Enable the checkbox next to Turn Do Not Disturb On/Off
Click none to the right of the option
Set a shortcut.

Credit: igeeksblog.com
Whenever you want to dismiss all notifications, press this shortcut twice.


Why does my finder window not allow for re-sizing? When I open a new finder window, there are three diagonal lines that allow you to resize the finder window. Others around me can use this to resize their window but mine seems to be locked. How can I make it resizable?

In Finder, type Cmd-G.
Go to ~/Library/Preferences.
Move com.apple.finder.plist to Trash.
Log out and back in.

That should resolve the issue. If not put the plist file back in it's original place (deleting the new one the system generated.

If that still doesn't work, create a test user account. Login to that and test it there. If the issue persists in this test account, you will need to reinstall the operating system most likely.


Does the Mac "Do Not Disturb" function affect Skype calls? If I use Notification Center's "Do Not Disturb" toggle, will I still receive Skype phone/video calls?

I know this toggle will temporarily disable banners/alerts, as those notifications are actually routed through Notification Center, but calls have a popup dialog of their own.

If not, how can I temporarily disable Skype calls? Do I need to log out?

Skype has a "Do Not Disturb" function.  If you click on the lower right hand corner of your avatar, you can select your status.

When you select "Do Not Disturb" you will not receive any notifications from Skype.


Is there a way to have Snow Leopard match the scrolling behavior of Lion? I can see that I will quickly come to love the Lion way of scrolling.

My brain will soon become rewired to think of moving the content with my gestures instead of moving the controller down to slide content up in my fixed viewport.

I have several macs that need to remain on Snow Leopard for some time, and would love any suggestions on how I might change them to better fit Lion's new model for scrolling.

This post by John Gruber outlines several possibilities:

For OSX:

Scrollvetica
Scroll Reverser

For Windows:

An AutoHotkey hack

On the Mac side, Scroll Reverser looks nice in the menu bar, is free, and works from Tiger to Snow Leopard (10.4 - 10.6).


How to control volume on Philips monitor So I just installed a 48" monitor with extended display in my home office, however, I can no longer use the f10 - f12 keys to control the volume.

I a colleague provided this guide:
https://www.lifewire.com/select-audio-in-and-out-from-mac-menu-bar-2260855

This did place the volume icon in the menu bar, but its greyed out. I still cannot change the volume.

Any suggestions?

The volume for most displays can only be controlled externally (i.e., from the monitor itself).

However, there is a workaround that is documented at Lifehacker.


Restoring/Forwarding offline emails from Mac Mail A long time ago I started using Mac Mail instead of my web-based Yahoo email. Then I deleted all my emails from my web-based Yahoo account and kept them on Mac Mail. Now that I've stopped using Mac Mail and I'm back to using web-based Yahoo, I want to know if there's any way I can restore/forward these offline emails stored on my Mac Mail back into Yahoo. There are a lot of emails, so forwarding one by one is not an option.

Someone help?

Thank you!!

Add your Yahoo! email as IMAP and upload your mail manually from the old —presumably POP— storage on your Mail.app.

I haven't tried it myself but in recent OS X versions adding accounts is straightforward. If this is not the case and you have to configure it manually, Yahoo! offers relevant information to that effect here.


How to fix iTunes library? I copied the iTunes folder but the music does not appear in iTunes I copied my iTunes folder and changed it in preferences. Then I did Library -> Organize Library. Why doesn't iTunes see the music? (I think I used this process before).

How to fix?

Using iTunes 10.

What you should have done is hold the ⌥-key while starting iTunes and it will prompt you to choose a new library which is the iTunes Library.itl inside the iTunes folder you wanted to copy. If you still have a copy of the old folder, do the above. Otherwise, I think you just created a new library with 0 songs.


iPhone 5s display behaves strangly on swipe/click For 3 days now, my iPhone 5s has some strange symptoms.

When I click or swipe on my phone, sometimes it's not doing what I expect. I can click and swipe, but my request either gets ignored or something completely strange happens (like opening a random app or options etc).

Here are some symptoms that I can reproduce whenever my phone is not working:

I can always press Home and see all apps, but I can't close when I swipe from the top; it's just ignored.
I can't turn my mobile phone off. The swipe from left to right that is needed to shut it down is ignored.

Sometimes my phone is working, and sometimes it acts as described above.

I tried the following to fix it:

Shut phone off and start again.
Restart phone with holding Home + Power for 8 sec. This is the only option that I have when phone is buggy. After restart the phone always works, but after a while it shows the symptoms again.
Reset phone to factory reset. After restart the phone always works, but after a while it shows the symptoms again.

I have also upgraded to Version 12.1.2(16C104) (was before on 12.?).

I don't really know why its not working. My last hope is to downgrade it back to 11.*, but the bug has only appeared in the last 3 days and I have had version 12.? for quite some time now. Also downgrading the phone is no long-time solution.

Are there any suggestions what I could do to fix this problem?

Also, in order to download version 11.* I need to know if I have a Global or GSM model. At the bottom of my back of the phone is nothing as suggested here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/85943/318324 in my settings I found that I have the model: ME341LL/A

This sounds like the digitizer is failing.

The digitizer is a "glass layer" that sits on top of your LCD display to accept input (taps, swipes, etc.).  This can begin to fail for any number of reasons from physical damage, to water damage or even aging.

The iPhone 5S has the digitizer and LCD as a single assembly, so to replace one, you'll have to replace both.  iFixit has an excellent guide on how to do this.  However, if doing this type of procedure is not your cup of tea, you should take it in.

(Though the 5S is 6 years old now; it's probably time for a new phone).


Drobo has become read only and can't be changed My Drobo that acts as my media server and Time Machine host for my family's Macs has become read only. While this would normally be a nuisance, it's become a real problem in that I can't change it back from the Get Info Window I've also tried chmod +w to no avail. Any hints on what to do?

In the attached photo, you'll see that the options are dimmed and say that I should have access, but the disk is still read only.

Get Info Window

I would suggest following the official support guide for this issue available here:

http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/42/~/why-is-my-drobo-storage-device,-connected-to-my-mac,-suddenly-read-only-and


Small-Business iPhone Deployment I have a friend who has managed to successfully lobby his employer to switch the company-issued "feature phones" to iPhones. He has been peppering me with questions on how to set these phones up with employees' and the employer's Apple IDs.

(The company has between one and two dozen employees, so they're definitely not at the level that Apple considers "Enterprise". Plus they're in Canada, so the new business app store isn't available to them yet.)

Ideally the employees would be allowed to install their own non-business-related apps, music, videos, etc. In addition, a number of business-related apps need to be installed, some of which may be expensive.

Here's what I'm going to suggest to them:

Each employee should be assigned their own company Apple ID using their company email address and a password that will be known only to the IT guy. The billing information will be set up to bill to a company credit card.

Company apps would be installed (and updated) using this Apple ID and password (this would probably happen only infrequently). Personal apps would be installed and updated with the person's personal Apple ID.

That way if and when an employee leaves the company, the expensive business apps can stay with the company/device, and the employee's extensive collection of Lady Gaga remixes can stay with their iTunes account and any subsequent devices they purchase.

The only workable alternative would be to purchase all company apps with the same Apple ID. Unfortunately this runs afoul of the (non-personal-use) App Store T&Cs.

Any advice or alternatives I've overlooked would be greatly appreciated.

I recently went through a similar proof of concept corporate iPad deployment and had the same questions walking in. The direction we went might not be the best solution, but it worked for us and maybe it will give you a hand with your deployment.

Know your Audience

Early in our deployment it became glaringly obvious that this would have to be a simple solution. Apple devices are designed to be simple, that's the draw in the corporate world. Our main audience was managers, VPs, and CXX level executives. A good number of these folks either aren't technically savvy enough to deal with a complicated configuration, or simply don't have the time to fuss with a device.

It should just work, out of the box, like it was designed.

Just Say NO to Multiple Accounts

Firstly I can see one big problem with your initial plan. By stating that you have an account created with a secret password I'm assuming that you're having a helpdesk configure the devices and install the software before they're handed over to your end users. What happens when an application is updated in the AppStore? Your helpdesk will have to enter the password to have the application updated. Depending on the size of your company this could eat up a ton of time, and most of your end users most likely won't ever bother to go through the process to upgrade.

Additionally, when John Doe leaves the company, the software purchased for jdoe@acme.com will be assigned to John's replacement Fred Flinstone and his iPhone. You now have fflinstone@acme.com using the account jdoe@acme.com. It might not be a big problem at first, but this will easily get difficult to manage down the road.

Mobile Device Management

Depending on the size of your deployment you might eventually start looking at one of the many Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions out there. We did. It's likely that things will change in the future, but as of this posting we didn't find much that an MDM solution would bring to the table that our Exchange environment wouldn't already provide.

MDM offers a simplistic way to deploy VPN, Wi-Fi, and user profiles. If you're not using Exchange or aren't comfortable with rolling your own solution you might gain more from one then we were able. Other benefits would be device tracking, and enabling your helpdesk to do basic device troubleshooting, device wiping, remote locking, etc. Read the link to Wikipedia above for more information and a decent list of the bigger vendors in the field.

Application Purchasing

We first identified a list of applications that we would recommend for different tasks, and published the list and relevant links on our company intranet. Initially we installed a few applications when we initially configured the device, but ran in to the time problem above. We calculated a total estimated dollar figure of all applications that an average user would purchase and bought gift cards for that amount + an additional X% for growth. This was more convenient for how we do purchases then gifting would have been.

Apple recently announced their Volume Purchase Program (VPP), and you might want to look in to that if the solution above isn't any help.

Further Reading

iPhone in Business
Gartner Magic Quadrant for MDM
iPhone Business Profiles

Best of luck to you, we learned that smart devices in the enterprise is a rapidly growing environment and there's no "right way" to do things yet. Apple is constantly improving their tools to make the transition better, but they're not quite there yet.