Cannot change permissions on com.apple.Boot.plist I am trying to set the permissions on the Boot.plist file (Located in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration) and it won't let me. I have clicked the lock and entered my password in Finder, and when I try to edit the permissions it says that I don't have the necessary permissions. When I try to do it with sudo chmod, it says that I can't change the file permissions. (I can use sudo just fine) I've also tried using sudo vi and it won't let me save it. I have tried using first aid too. I am running El Capitan on a Macbook Pro Retina 13 inch early 2013.

You're running into System Integrity Protection (SIP) that prevents modification of various system files and directories when it is enabled (which by default it is in El Capitan (OSX 10.11). It is meant to provide more security from malware that attempts to modify the system for its own uses.

SIP can be disabled if need be and disabling it would allow changes to be made to the files and directories that are normally protected by SIP. Since Apple intends for these protected items to not be modified by anyone other than Apple (or other validated signers approved by Apple for particular software produced by them) I have my doubts about whether, once the permissions were modified, SIP could be reenabled without disabling execution of the machine (disabled "temporarily" by software, not by permanently disabling the hardware). So it comes down to weighing whether one wants to disable SIP to make certain modifications that could not be made otherwise or decide that those modifications are not important enough to disable SIP's protections. (One reason one may want to disable SIP would be to allow certain programs to run on the machine that will not run with SIP enabled.) I could be wrong here but I believe that disabling SIP's protections would reduce security no more than if one stuck with Yosemite (OSX 10.10) which doesn't have SIP enabled as fully as El Capitan. Also, Apple provides a warning that if SIP is disabled you will be running an unsupported configuration that is likely to break in the future and leave your machine in an unknown state.

So the first part is determining whether to disable or enable SIP based on your own situation and considering the various pros and cons. If one decides to disable SIP it can only be done in the Recovery console (that's not quite true but in general it is; there are other ways for machines that can't be booted into the Recovery console). The steps are:

Restart the machine and boot into the Recovery Console which is done by holding the Command and R keys down when restarting. (I'd like to add that if you didn't know how to get into the Recovery console then you probably shouldn't be doing this anyway.)
Open the Terminal Program by selecting Terminal in the Utilities menu.
Within Terminal enter the line

csrutil disable

Reboot the machine either by restarting from the Apple Menu or by entering the following command in Terminal:

reboot

After rebooting the machine you can check to see if SIP is disabled by invoking Terminal and entering:

csrutil status

which should display the following:

System Integrity Protection status: enabled (Custom Configuration).

Configuration:
   Apple Internal: disabled
   Kext Signing: disabled
   Filesystem Protections: disabled
   Debugging Restrictions: disabled
   DTrace Restrictions: disabled
   NVRAM Protections: disabled

This is an unsupported configuration, likely to break in the
future and leave your machine in an unknown state.


OSX: modifying text selection with ⌘⇧→ and ⌘⇧← I've selected some text using my keyboard, starting at the bottom line and moving up (the | character indicates the cursor position):

AAA |{BBB CCC
DDD} EEE FFF

Now, I would like to change the selection so that it starts at the end of the first line, i.e. so that it looks like this:
Expected result:

AAA BBB CCC |{
DDD} EEE FFF

I can reduce the selection word-by-word with ⌥ ⇧ →:

But the natural way to do it would be via ⌘ ⇧ →, to jump directly to the end of the first line. In many decent text editors this works fine (for instance Sublime Text 2). They also keep the | position visible when text is selected btw.
The default behaviour of OSX apps, however, is that they ignore the fact that the cursor is currently at the start of the selection, and moving it to the right should remove the selection there. Instead,  ⌘ ⇧→ always extends the selection from its end until the end of the line, no matter where the cursor currently is:
Actual result:

AAA {BBB CCC
DDD EEE FFF}|

Is there any way to make also native OSX apps behave the expected way?
I'm on OSX Yosemite 10.10.2 but I think this issue has been there as long as I can remember.

Mac doesn't use the cursor position if you have a multiple text selection, it considers the cursor is at 'all selected text'.

You can see this demonstrated if you use  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   ←  instead of  →
Adding to the selection with  Shift ⇧  includes the previous selection.

Not a fix, but a workaround might be  →  which would move the cursor to the end of your current selection, simultaneously deselecting it, then  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   ←   to select to the beginning of the line.


pf.conf to block *only* a specific IP address when VPN is not connected I'm trying to configure a packet filter firewall to block access to a small range of IP addresses when a VPN is not connected.

My rules should allow https/http traffic apart from this small, specific list of IP addresses. It's important the device can not reach these IP address when the VPN is not connected.

I'm using the built in macOS VPN in 10.13

I've got some fairly standard stuff in my rules so far:

vpn_ifs = "{ utun1 ipsec0 }"
hw_ifs = "{ en0 en1 en2 }"
...
pass quick on $vpn_ifs

The reason for my request is that I have a web based resource I can only access once the VPN is connected. Allowing connectivity to this resource before the VPN is connected disables access to my account.

I need access to http and https traffic before the VPN is established to enable services that need to function before the VPN connection is up. Including, but not limited to captive portal support.

Each packet is evaluated against the filter ruleset from top to bottom and the last matching rule wins. The quick keyword is the only exception: the packet will be blocked or passed immediately unperturbed by any later rule.

Assuming you are using the deny all approach you have to explicitly allow packets to pass in or out.

Rule set:

block all
...

To meet your "web based resource" requirement you have to quick allow/deny packets depending on the interface:

pass out quick on $vpn_ifs from any to { <web_res1>, <web_res2> } no state
block out quick on $hw_ifs from any to { <web_res1>, <web_res2> } no state

To meet your "http and https traffic" requirement you have to allow outgoing traffic to port 80/443:

pass out on $hw_ifs from any to any port { 80, 443 }

Using the deny all approach you have add some more rules (e.g. to allow traffic from/to local networks).

The final rule set looks like this then:

block all
...
rules
...
pass out quick on $vpn_ifs from any to { <web_res1>, <web_res2> } no state
block out quick on $hw_ifs from any to { <web_res1>, <web_res2> } no state
...
pass out on $hw_ifs from any to any port { 80, 443 }
...
more rules

Here is an example of a deny all pf.conf with a lot of rules explained. The rules are used on a FreeBSD Gateway though: some mustn't be applied or aren't useful in your environment. Single rules don't work at all (e.g. ALTQ related features).


Conflicting info about installed macOS version in App store Machine has version 10.9.5 installed but the app store thinks that version 10.12.6 is installed.

How do I update to the latest version?

Go to the Purchased tab and click the Download button next to macOS Sierra in the App Store.


Why isn't the multisession login in Lion's VNC server working properly? Has anyone been able to get the VNC server that came with Lion to work? Right now it seems to have problems with the new multisession remote login, causing problems for any VNC clients connecting to the server (see below). Is there a workaround for this problem, other than installing another VNC server on the system?

Further details:

When connection over VNC, you're presented with a login screen (this is the new multisession feature mentioned above). The problem is that the screen usually doesn't let you even click on one of the users' icons, and the times you can get that far, it doesn't let you enter a password.

Wow - I was unprepared for the change where I don't just see whatever was on the screen and instead are presented with a second loginwindow instance.

My brain reels at the implications for Mac OS X Lion client acting like windows terminal server with multiple independent log in sessions. I bet a lot of software will break assuming it's the only copy running on the mac.

As to your question - I can't get VNC to break - either using Screen Sharing on another mac or using Screens app on iOS. It works like a champ for me, and I didn't change anything from a previously working Snow Leopard system. The upgrade left all my settings and VNC passwords alone and operational.


How do I dismiss the iOS11 horizontal keyboard on the iPhone On iOS 10 there was a button on the iPhone horizontal keyboard to dismiss it when it wasn't needed, on iOS11 this button seems to be missing.

How do I dismiss the iOS11 horizontal keyboard on the iPhone

Swipe confidently just above the message input bar, and the keyboard will hide. To make it show again, tap the message input.


Find my mac tracking Does the "Find My Mac" app automatically notify you every time your Mac is turned on? Or do you have to physically request for it notify you on a case-by-case basis?

No, Find my Mac does not send any notifications to your other devices. every time it is turned on.

You may be interested in this article: iCloud: Locate your device

It tells you how to see if your Mac is online or not.


Mac display flickering I have a 2016 Macbook Pro 13" touch bar. Recently I have started facing issues with my display. It appears as if the display turns ON and OFF over and over again; I mean like every second or two. I started my Mac in safeboot and didn't face the issue there. I have performed SMC reset, and NVRAM reset but to no avail.
Reinstalled MacOS (Mojave) all over again after full format of my drive but the issue still persisted. So, I thought there could be some issue with this new OS and installed (after fully formatting the drive) the good old Sierra with which my system originally came. But the issue is still there. Also note that the screen doesn't flicker in one more case where I observed was while watching a video but if I just run the video in background then again screen starts to flicker.
I am really scared to start my mac now.

Edit: Following are the extensions that are present in normal startup and not in "safe boot":

You may have a problem with the video chip.

Here is how to tell...
  Shutdown your machine.  Hold down the shift key.  Poweron.  Bootup will be longer.
    Wait awhile while you harddrive is being checked.
  An article on how to boot into safe mode.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455

Runs OK in safe mode...
Running in Safe mode leaves out some video drivers.  Which results in your machine not using advanced video hardware. As luck would have it, you can run the safe mode video drivers in normal mode.

Here is how:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16057567#16057567

Look through the above thread.  See the second page.  You don't have to read through the first page.  Just go to the part where I try a solution that works.

Using the safe mode video driver results in these limitiations:
  -- OpenGL acceleration is not supported on this mac
  -- Your mac lacks quartz extreme acceleration


How do I add icons to my menu bar? I would like to know how I could add a USB eject button or battery power indicator to my menu bar on Mac OS X. I remember going into my Macintosh hard drive but I can't remember which folder to find it in. I know to drag out an item from the menu bar by pressing the command key and at the same time dragging the icon onto the desktop, but how do you add icons to it?

I'm assuming by "desktop toolbar", you mean the bar at the top of the screen (properly called the menu bar), please correct me if I've made the wrong assumption.

You can add the eject item by opening /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ in Finder, and double-clicking the file named Eject.menu. It should appear in the menu bar right away.

To add the battery indicator, open the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences, and check the Show battery status in menu bar box, near the bottom of the window.


Seagate (Samsung) external drive USB 3.0 not mounting on High Sierra Please redirect if i've missed a similar thread: Seagate 500GB USB 3.0 working fine last week, now won't mount. OS is High Sierra 10.13.6.

I have tried a restart and a recovery mode restart, no results.

The drive is visible in Disk Utility but hitting 'Mount' does nothing. First Aid was originally failing instantly, in further attempts it seemed to do get half the job done before failing. I got the following error message:

Any suggestions? Failing that, any recommendations on data recovery options (assuming that's even an option)

Looks like hardware failure to me. It might not be the drive itself. Could be a bad connection, or bad power supply. You haven't given any specific details on how you have this drive hooked up to your computer. Nor whether it's a 2.5, or 3.5" drive. So a definitive answer isn't possible. It it's read/write, tracks/sectors failing, smartmon will indicate to your BIOS/OS that the drive is failing, and needs to be replaced. You should perform a fresh boot and immediately look at your logs to see whether smartmon is reporting failures. But do check all your connections before powering up the computer && hard drive.

Good luck!


Mojave: Finder can't load any thumbnails. Even after reinstall the system I know this's been asked a lot, but I really tried everything, but still no luck to get the thumbnails back. Here's what I already did:

Regenerated Finder related .plist files;
Toggle on and off the "Show icon preview" button;
Drag things to the icon of "Get info" then deleted it;
Reinstalled Mojave;
Tried to revert back to High Sierra with Time Machined, but the backup is probably corrupted.
Reinstalled Mojave, use Migrate Assist to refill the user files;

  qlmanage -r enable

Other sudo commands.

NONE of that worked! You can imagine how desperate I am right now. I'm a designer, and I need those thumbnails to identify the files.

Only when I created a new user account, it almost worked. The thumbnails loaded properly for a short period of time, but after reboot the machine they're gone.

If you can provide other solutions I'm really willing to try. Thanks!!

Updates:
After testing with another admin account, I find out it might have something to do with the QuicklookSatelite process. Compare to the test account, this process just won't load when needed, I'm still trying to find out what is keeping it from working.

Updates2:
Thank you! Thank you all for everything! It is indeed caused by Sketch, never thought a software can cost so much trouble. Thanks for helping me!

Sketch is making that issue. You can try it, delete sketch and all thumbnails will appear instantly.

I have reported a bug already.


How do I stop a monthly charge of $5.04 from APL*ITUNES I don't want? I have a monthly charge of $5.04 from APL*ITUNES for what, I don't know. I want it stopped.

What can I do to find out what it is for and ultimately how to stop the recurring charge?

As it is a monthly charge and the same charge every month it is probably a subscription

To view and cancel your subscriptions on a Mac:

  Open iTunes on your Mac.
  Go to the Store section of your Music library.
  Click on the Accounts link in the right column.
  Sign in, if necessary
  Scroll down to the Settings header and click  Manage next to
  Subscriptions.

(source)


How can I get ALT+C to work via SSH on a remote UNIX machine? I've installed Snow Leopard 10.6 a while a go and I'm pretty new to MacOS.
I was working on Windows, then started using Slackware and I'm used to working with those OS.

So now after I migrated to MacOS I have a few issues:

I'm usually administrating a lot of unix servers. My problem is I can't get some of the key features like Alt+C shortcut key to work in mc. What are the alternative keys or workarounds ?
When I'm in mc or in the terminal, if I press Page up/Page down the terminal scrolls up/down. In normal unix terminals this would actually go to the first command of your command history list. And the page down will go to the last command.
Globally in Mac you have to use MacKey + Left/Right to go to the beginning of the line or the end of the line. In Windows/Unix OS that's done when you hit Home/End keys. How could that be done in MacOS ?

I'm kind of new to MacOS so please be more specific so I could at least google it properly :)

When running the Terminal app, choose Terminal > Preferences...

This will bring up an options menu. Under Settings there's a tab for the keyboard.

The checkbox "Use option as a meta key" makes the Alt/Option key work like you expected (I tried it in Emacs and it worked).

For Page Up and Page Down, hold down shift to send Page Up and Page Down instead of scrolling. You can also adjust this in the keyboard preferences if you prefer.

I'm not sure about Home and End, but I'm in the habit of using Ctrl+A for home and Ctrl+E for end.


Copy, Paste, Cut, Select-All Keyboard Shortcuts I recently bought am older Mac (Mac G5 with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger). I have a PC keyboard and when I tried the keyboard shortcuts for text editing such as copy, paste, cut, select-all I realized they don't work.

I researched the web for some help and found that the Mac keys are not in the same place as Windows keys. Most probable alt acts as control because that's where the command key on a Mac keyboard is placed or sometimes Windows key. None of the combinations seem to work.

The control key works on the Mac because I can switch between FireFox tabs by pressing control + tab, control + shift + tab or I can use control + Z and control + Y.

Do you have any ideas why this is not working and how I can fix it?

Almost all of the keyboard shortcuts you've learned on Windows are the same on the Mac. The difference is which modifier key you use to invoke them.

On Windows, shortcuts are typically invoked with the Ctrl modifier key.

On the Mac, you use the  key, also known as the "command" key. It's in the same physical position as the Alt key on a Windows keyboard, but is nothing like the Alt key.

The Mac has its own Alt key, labeled Opt/Alt. Its primary use is a secondary modifier for keystrokes. Command-Option-S might be "Save As", for example, while Command-S is regular "Save".

The Ctrl key is there on a Mac keyboard, too, but it's hardly ever used for anything.

The relative layouts look something like this:

     PC:     Ctrl Windows Alt

     Mac:   Ctrl Opt/Alt

The problem is that you're most likely using a PC keyboard on your Mac. In that specific case, the Opt/Alt and  keys are reversed. You can change this in System Preferences, under Keyboard. Truly a huge pain in the rear for switchers. That layout looks like this, instead:

     PC keyboard on Mac:   Ctrl  Opt/Alt

Apple's website has some pretty good hints and tips for Windows switchers. Start here for answers to your specific question about keyboard shortcuts. Then go here and read everything!


Replacement DVD drive for MacBook Pro Howdy. I have a MacBook Pro 15" (MB133LL/A) with a Matsushita UJ-867 DVD drive. The DVD drive is failing and I'm looking for a replacement.

Are there any other supported drives for this machine than the UJ-867?

There are some variations in the drives supplied in Apple's products. For example, often Apple will have multiple suppliers for a part, and products often have hardware options. As such there will be other drives that are supported.

I find sites such as iFixIt or Other World Computing that are targeting DIY repair and upgrades are helpful as they provide a guide to which parts are compatible with various Mac and MacBook models.

Here are some results for your MacBook Pro:

15" MacBook Pro optical drives at iFixIt
15" MacBook Pro SuperDrives at OWC


Re-directed screenshot location via defaults file doesn't work I'm sure everyone knows about the standard changing default location where captured screenshots are stored.

A simple

sudo defaults write com.apple.screencapture location <enter path to folder>
killall SystemUIServer

should have sufficed but nothing happens.

My screenshots still save to desktop but the worst part is, when I read the file I've just written to, it tells me that the location that screenshots are being saved in is the folder that I've redirected to!

sudo defaults read com.apple.screencapture

gives

{
location = "/Users/Me/Documents/Screenshots/"'
}

However it continues to save them to my desktop. The folder remains empty; it's not as if it saves it to both the folder and the desktop.

Ideas?

If you use sudo you change the default for the user you are sudoing into, in this case the root user. Just run the commands without sudo and you should be fine.

You can also clear any settings for a user with:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture

You can test and log out if the system doesn’t realize the change was made. That’s usually better than killing the system UI server.


Start Apache httpd on boot Since upgrading to Yosemite, Apache httpd is no longer started at boot time.

I've tried: sudo launchctl load org.apache.httpd.plist but I'm getting a service is disabled error.

I've modified the plist file and set Disabled key to NO but I still get the error. What am I missing here?

I found a solution to your problem here.

Using Terminal "How do I make Apache start automatically":

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

You were close to the solution just needed the -w override.

the -w      Overrides the Disabled key and sets it to false.


Linker Error: leJOS NXJ HelloWorld complains 32 bit JVM unsupported I trying to get started using leJOS NXJ to develop in Java for my Mindstorms NXT.  I've installed Oracle's Java 8 JDK, Eclipse and leJOS NXJ on my Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion.  When I try to link the HelloWorld tutorial program I get the following error:

src> nxjlink -o HelloWorld.nxj HelloWorld
Error: This Java instance does not support a 32-bit JVM.
Please install the desired version.

Is there a 32-bit Java Virtual Machine for OS X?

Apple's Java 6 JDK, pre-installed in Mountain Lion, does support 32-bit targets.

I modified my .bashrc file which is sourced by my .profile to set

# for leJOS
export NXJ_PATH=/Users/Shared/leJOS_NXJ_0.9.1beta-3
export PATH=$PATH:$NXJ_PATH/bin
## Point leJOS NXJ at Apple's Java 6 JDK
export LEJOS_NXT_JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home
#export LEJOS_NXT_JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_76.jdk/Contents/Home

This points leJOS at Apple's Java 6 JDK instead of at Oracle's Java 7 or Java 8 JDK, which resolves the 32-bit linker error.  I have successfully gotten HelloWorld to run on my NXT using the command-line interface to leJOS, however I still need to figure out how to set things up so that I can use Eclipse to write leJOS code.


How do I move a deleted App to my old iPhone? So, I got an iPhone 6s and an iPhone 5. I've got an app on my new iPhone which unfortunately got deleted from the App Store and it stopped working recently on my phone. I somehow hope that it is going to work on my old iPhone but I have not found a way to convert a deleted app to another iPhone. Is there any way to do it?

Did it stop working on the new iPhone because of the iOS update? Then restoring the app from the backup is not a solution, as it might upgrade iOS as well (do you know for sure what OS it was when you backed up?).

If you are using the same Apple ID on your iPhone 5, you still can download and install the old app. Not really good idea sticking to the discontinued app, but still...  iMazing to my knowledge is the only software that can do it (disclaimer: I work for iMazing). Legit App Store downloads, and this functionality is 100% free at the moment. It should work if it was removed from sale by the developer. If it was Apple who removed it, most probably we won’t be able to help.

Anyway, it’s quite straightforward, but I’ll post the steps just in case:

Install iMazing & connect your iPhone with the needed app,
Select your device on the menu, and click Manage apps,
Locate the app in the apps list & click the Download button
Sign in to your Apple ID to finish the download
Once the download is finished, exit the wizard, connect your old phone, select it in the sidebar and click Manage Apps again.
Select the app in question, and click Install - that’s it.


Playing Music while recording? So I'm having the issue; How can I play music on iOS 7 while recording?

I've seen this post but "JamCam" isn't something I'm interested in.

Is there a Cydia tweak which allows this? I'm surprised I can't find it on Google!

You can try with this app: Record And Listen

This app solves the problem of not being able to record a video while playing music from your library. You choose a song and record a video which is automatically saved to your phone. This app is great for taking dance videos, or if you just want to continue playing your music while taking a video. Price is 0.99$.


Sudden flash of gray in the background In the last few days I've had a sudden flash of gray in the background. I'm on MacOS 10.7.5. I'm not able to provide a screenshot because it only happens for a split second, but here is a more or less accurate mock-up:

It happens on average 1 time per hour, though it's not regular. Sometimes 5 mins pass till the next flash of gray. It covers multi-monitors and it also happens if my external monitor is not connected.

Any ideas?

That is because the Dock process isn’t getting enough resources and/or is crashing.

TheDock process is not just responsible for your Dock, but also Mission Control, Launchpad, Dashboard and the Desktop background.

If this happens most frequently during periods of heavy use, then it is not getting enough resources or its resources are being swapped to disk.

If this happens totally randomly, then there is a deeper issue. Try repairing permissions first in that case and report back if it works.


Why does secondary screen turns black when selecting "Mirror Display" I have a MacBook Retina.

Whenever I attach a secondary screen, projector or monitor and select the "Mirror Displays" option, the secondary screen turns all black.

It does not matter what connection I use. I've tried the following, and they all have problems:

MiniDisplay port to a Cinema Display
HDMI to HDTV
MiniDisplay -> VGA/DVI converter -> projector

It does not matter what resolution I use.

It all started after connecting it to a projector, where all other presenters using PC was having similar problems.

I solved the problem by resetting NVRAM / PRAM:

Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen
appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.


How can I write a launchd service that will actually stop the service? So I have a plist to keep monit running:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.monit.service</string>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/Cellar/monit/5.10/bin/monit</string>
        <string>-d 60</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/var/log/monit.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I can do launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.monit.service.plist to start the service, but launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.monit.service.plist will not stop it. I can see that the process keeps running no matter what I do.

The process shows up like this(note how the binary path doesn't show up, only the last argument):

output of ps aux:

root            14656   0.0  0.0  2482248   1656   ??  S     6:55PM   0:00.09 -d 60

How can I write the launchd plist so that it will actually stop the freaking process whenever I want it to stop?

Get rid of the -d 60 arguments and use the launchd key StartInterval instead. Also make sure the process does not daemonize itself. According to the monit man page this is accomplished by using the -I option.


SSH into iPhone without "OpenSSH"-like IPA? My iPhone‘s screen is broken and touch doesn’t respond. I would like to do a backup. The problem is iTunes requires a confirmation from the iPhone to do the backup.

My idea is to jailbreak the device and establish a SSH-tunnel. After that I would like to install an IPA to remotely click the trust button from my computer.

But now it seems to me that there is a requirement of something like OpenSSH to be installed to do that.

Does anyone know if my idea could work anyway ?

If someone has a better idea for backing up feel free to tell me :D

Does any part of the touch screen respond (doesn't matter where)? If so, you could have VoiceOver help you enter the passcode, as described in this blog post I wrote: https://deciphertools.com/blog/iphone-passcode-broken-screen/

If not, there's a comment on there about using a USB keyboard via a USB lightning connector. I haven't vetted this idea myself yet, but maybe could help?


Macbook Mail plays incoming mail sound even after turning off all notifications My Macbook Pro's Mail app continues to play the bass sound when a mail message is received, even though I've turned off all incoming mail sounds and notifications (see screenshots below). Is there anything else I can do to eliminate the incoming mail sound? I'm on a 2018 15" Macbook Pro running 10.14.5 and Mail 12.4 (3445.104.11).

I have had a similar issue. I use SpamSieve and I was unaware (or had forgotten) that there is a preference within SpamSieve to make a sound after a message is identified as 'good'. That is why the Basso sound (the default from SpamSieve) was being played after the 'New Message' sound - that, in experimenting, I had chosen in Mail.

Are you using SpamSieve? Or perhaps another filtering service that rides on Mail?


How can I find hidden items in Automator? I am trying to create a workflow in Automator that will find hidden files in a folder by searching for files with names that begin with ".".
Currently, the Find FInder Items action is as follows:

Find Finder Items
    Search: [(Var:Selection path)]
        [All] of the following are true
            [Name] [begins with] "."

Here is the log showing the error:

It does not receive any input, but outputs to a Move Finder Items action. Every time this action is run, it produces no results. Am I doing this wrong, or is there another way to find hidden files and folders in a variable path? I do not know much about other scripting languages such as applescript, but I am willing to use them if necessary. Thanks for reading!

Use a Run Shell Script action like this:

find "$@" -name .\*


Creating a directory in /home on MacOS Sierra I have this PHP old legacy code that I have inherited. There is hardcode references to /home/project everywhere I can not change them.
I am on MacOS/Sierra and it will not let me create a folder in /home

sudo mkdir /home/myproj
mkdir: /home/myproj: Operation not supported

I am not new to Linux but new to MacOS
I tried sudo as well and still will not let me.
I also thought maybe a symlink but still not allowed.
I tried disabling SIP
$ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.

I still get the same error
mkdir: /home/foo: Operation not supported

IIRC /home and /net can be used by directory services like AD or OD. They are mount points created by the auto_master file. Usually they are not used for anything - especially on non-corporate Macs.

Comment out the line /home         auto_home   -nobrowse,hidefromfinder in the file /etc/auto_master and enter sudo automount -vc or reboot.

Then you should be able to create /home and any further subdir with sudo mkdir -p /home/subdir.

If you are done with your PHP legacy code remove the folder /home and its content and restore the old auto_master file by uncommenting the /home line.


What is the macOS equivalent to Window's AppData folder? I was originally looking for my Google Chrome profile because something went wrong and I need to delete it. In the process I realized that I don't know where applications in general are putting this kind of stuff.

Where is the typical place to go looking?

This kind of data is frequently stored in ~/Library/Application Support.

User-specific settings are frequently stored in ~/Library/Preferences

Your Chrome profile is located at ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default.

I recommend going on a little exploration of the ~/Library folder; there's a lot of useful stuff in there.


Trying to identify a locked up iMac I've got an old iMac sitting around, no one remembers the password to log into it so we are trying to erase the hard drive to setup a new OS. First I got to identify the model though. It would be great if someone could help me with that, I attached an image of what is written on the bottom of the iMac.

EveryMac has a fabulous utility on their site to identify any Mac from its Serial Number or other identifying marks.

In this case, it looks like you have a Late 2006 iMac Core2Duo 2.6GHz 24"

If you don't have the original install disks, then your best bet would be to buy Snow Leopard directly from Apple. The latest OS the machine can run is Lion 10.7.5, but that is a download only. You'd need 10.6 first.


IOS development on Mac mini mid 2011 I'm about to dive into iOs programming, which is a whole new area for me.
One of my friend said he's gonna sell his mac mini mid 2011 device, which is a little hardware upgraded.

My question is, can I develop applications  targeting most recent IOS version with this machine. Is there a restriction like, this mid 2011 machine's OS version can only have XCode version up to something, and up to something versioned XCode can only support developing IOS applications targeting not most recent version of IOS?

Or shortly, can I develop iOs applications that can run on most recent IOS version with this machine?

In general, if your Mac runs the current OS - you can run all the Dev tools needed. In specific, that Mac meets all requirements for OS X 10.11 and Xcode 7
Xcode 7.3 system requirements
You want to start your machine to support Xcode 7.3 (which is now still in beta, 25 feb 2016). Xcode 7.3 beta requires a Mac running OS X 10.11 or later.
These Mac models are compatible with OS X 10.11, aka 'El Capitan':

MacBook (Early 2015)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)

So, you should be good to go and start developing!
Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode#7.x_series
http://adcdownload.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_7.3_beta_4/Xcode_7.3_beta_4_Release_Notes.pdf
https://support.apple.com/kb/SP728?locale=en_US


LaunchDaemon loading but not starting I created a LaunchDaemon to automatically start a mining client when the computer boots. Here is the .plist file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.example.miner</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/sh</string>
        <string>/library/start.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/com.example.minerout</string>
</dict>
</plist>

The goal of this LaunchDaemon is to start and keep a cryptocurrency miner running when the computer boots. The miner start script is inside the Library folder, and the miner is in the same folder.

Why is the LaunchDaemon loading, but not starting?

Well I figured out the issue after 30 minutes of adjusting the LaunchDaemon. The issue was in the start.sh file. I had forgotten to correctly set the location of the miner.


How safe is iCloud Keychain? Say I installed a malicious app on my iPhone that stole my iCloud password.
Can the Keychain be compromised ?

Basically, can the keychain passwords be accessed by solely having the iCloud password ? How safe is it ?

It's pretty secure, since any new device attempting to read your iCloud Keychain requires one of the following:

One of your existing devices verifies the connection through a push notification with manual acceptance.

  When you enable iCloud Keychain on an additional device, your other devices that use iCloud Keychain receive a notification requesting approval for the additional device. After you approve the additional device, your iCloud Keychain automatically begins updating on that device.

Your iCloud Security Code

  When you set up iCloud Keychain, you're asked to create an iCloud Security Code. It can be a 4-digit code similar to the passcode lock for your device, or you can have a more complex code automatically generated for you. The iCloud Security Code is used to authorize additional devices to use your iCloud Keychain. It's also used to verify your identify so that you can perform other iCloud Keychain actions, such as recovering your iCloud Keychain if you lose all your devices.

Entering the code incorrectly multiple times causes manual verification method
SMS verification to your phone.

  The device that is using the SMS-capable phone number you provided when you first set up iCloud Keychain. A verification code is sent via SMS to this phone number. If you don't have access to this number, contact Apple Support, who can verify your identity so that you can complete setup on your new device.

Furthermore, you can also protect your iCloud account / Apple ID by enabling two factor authentication so that in many cases - the first use of your iCloud password on a new device triggers a push notification warning in addition to the automatic email that Apple sends when your password is used on a new device.

In summary:

You get email notification when your password is used on a new device for iCloud - no opt-in steps needed.
Keychain syncing has enhanced protection / two factor authentication baked in, again no opt-in is needed.
You can opt-in to AppleID two factor authentication to further protect against password loss/skimming.


How to uninstall the ntfs-mac software? I installed the ntfs-mac, but later I remove it into trash, I think I had deleted it completely, but now I can see a popup window that tell me me trial version of ntfs-mac had expried, so I think I didn't delete it completely, who can tell how can I do to not pup up this window again?

It is pretty easy, you need to download again the Trial version of NTFS for Mac (if you do not have it anymore in your Downloads folder).

Now in Finder, go to your Downloads folder and double click on the NTFS for Mac file. The file should be mounted now. You will see that there is a Uninstall NTFS for Mac program, simply double click it.

That's it. For more information you could refer to the user manual, especially the chapter "De-installing the Driver" page 21.


Built-in Apache and Php is viable? Does anybody has experience with using built-in Apache/PHP in a High Sierra? Does it have any drawbacks if compare to homebrew apache/php? I plan to use it with Laravel or GravCMS. Any thoughts?

It is completely viable to use the built-in Apache and PHP on High Sierra.

From a high level point of view, the built-in Apache and PHP offers the same as Apache/PHP from HomeBrew. It is the same programs - and not a special "Apple made" version of Apache/PHP.

However if you want to customize the setup a lot by installing new modules, you will find that this is much easier with homebrew, as some of the files often necessary to build new modules have been removed with the High Sierra release.

Also if you want to be able to choose a specific Apache/PHP version rather than the default, then homebrew will allow you that.


Using AppleScript to delete select files in a folder? I have duplicate photos in a folder. (Thousands of them.) Their names are all Xxxxx (1).jpg. I'd like to automate their deletion but haven't hit on the correct syntax. I've been trying variants on the below and getting a variety of errors. Thanks very much for any suggestions!

tell application "Finder"

    delete (every item of folder {macintosh hd / users / mike / documents / OneDrive / Pictures} whose name contains "(1)")

end tell

For example, the error from the above was...

  Expected “,” or “}” but found identifier.

The reason you're getting Expected “,” or “}” but found identifier. is because you have a malformed list for the path. You cannot define the path like {macintosh hd / users / mike / documents / OneDrive / Pictures}.

Use the following instead:

tell application "Finder"
    delete (every item of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:mike:Documents:OneDrive:Pictures" whose name contains "(1)")
end tell

Depending on how may files there are to delete, Finder can have trouble running this AppleScript script, from taking far too much time and or the process stalling without recovery, to then require a Force Quit.

Personally, I would not use AppleScript and instead just use Terminal, and change directory to the one containing all the files and use rm *\(1\)* to delete all files containing (1). However use the rm command with great care because all deleted files are final!


How can I Transfer Dashboard Information from one computer to another? How is it possible to transfer all my information from dashboard(in stickies) to my new macbook pro? Is there an easy file just to transfer or do I have to copy and paste them to an email? Also I have 10.6 running on my macbook and 10.7 on my new macbook pro if this makes a difference in how you can transfer them.

All of the preferences/info from Apple supplied Dashboard widgets resides in ~/Library/Preferences. Do a search for anything beginning with widget-com.apple.widget - those are all your widgets.

For stickies specifically, copy widget-com.apple.widget.stickies.plist to the ~/Library/Preferences folder in your new machine, and you'll be all set.


Is there an API to Apple Books sync metadata? Apple Books can sync books over iCloud. Is there an API I can use to access metadata on my books, such as title and bookmark locations.
This question is a follow up to the unanswerable, How to sync PDF bookmarks from MacOS Preview to iOS Apple Books?.

There's no publicly available API for that.


Can't restore Time Machine backup to Macintosh HD Today I found my Mac shut down. It won't boot again anymore.
When I try to turn it on, it just shows the Apple logo, a loading bar and after 1/3 progress it just shuts down again.

After some research I learned how to access the Disk Utility by pressing Command ⌘-R at boot time. Apparently the problem is with the hard disk, since when I try to repair it it says that it can't be repaired and needs to be formatted.

I have an external disk where I backed up the whole system using Time Machine. I'm just not sure how to proceed now.

After accessing the Disk Utility I have 4 options, the first of which is restoring a Time Machine backup. The thing is that if I try this one it lets me restore a backup only in the other partition of the external HD, and not on the disk on my Mac. Why is that? What shall I do?

Since it says you need to reformat, what you need to do is:

Boot into the Recovery Partition
Click "Disk Utility"
Select "Macintosh HD"
Go to the "Erase" tab
Select the format as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"
Choose a security option from the security option section(I would recommend zero-pass since this is still your Mac) NOTE: If you have an SSD, the security options button will be disabled. This is normal
Hit "Erase"
It may take a while or be stuck. Don't worry. Give it time. The progress bars and estimated time on OS X suck
After it is done, close Disk Utility and go to "Reinstall OS X"
Select Macintosh HD and then proceed as if you were setting up a new iMac without your old backup


Import new photos from iPhone into Windows XP I'm on Windows XP and wish to plug in my iPhone and have all new photos imported into a folder on the hard disk. New photos I'm simply defining as those that it hasn't imported before.

Simple, eh?

The default Microsoft Image Aquisition tool seems to read all photos rather than just new ones.

Any ideas out there?

If I could see the iPhone photos as a drive letter I would write my own little application in Java, but this doesn't appear possible.

Edit: Found this similar question: here

You can use dropbox to do this. Although dropbox is mainly a tool to administer files in the cloud, it recently obtained the option to automatically read and store in the cloud new photos from an attached camera/sd card/iPhone when it is connected to the PC. The data is stored in a special directory on your hard disk which is mirrored in the cloud.  When deciding to store photos in dropbox's cloud you get some GB (6?) of storage for free. Dropbox itself is free and you get the benefit of the cloud.


Deleting multiple songs from new itunes playlist How do I remove multiple songs at once in a new iTunes playlist? I know how to remove songs one at a time, but is there a way to remove multiple songs at once?

Select the songs that you want to delete by holding Command, then either right click and select "Remove from Playlist", or press Command+Delete.


Font book: duplicates are not actually duplicates I have a problem when installing new fonts on Font book.
I'm want to use this font: https://github.com/sunaku/tamzen-font, following the doc I download the zip, extract it and drag & drop all of the content of the /ttf folder into the app Font Book.
The problem is that of all the different font sizes available in the /ttf folder, when I try to select on of the new font, apps (like iTerm) recognise only one: TamzenForPowerline

In Font book all the different variants of the font are marked as duplicated, even though they are not (as you can see from the image the fonts are different):

Now, how can I tell Font book that those font are actually different?

this is based on bitmap fonts (OTB) which in the past where optimised for a certain font size. This is not a font family. Therefore the Font ID - which is used by Fontbook to identify fonts - of each of them is the same.
You could use e.g. FontForge to change the ID, but for a variety of reasons I wouldn’t recommend that. Why not use a vectorbased, monospaced font? There are lots available for free including bitmap-like looking  ones e.g. here, here or here.


How can I play chess over Game Center in Mountain Lion? I've looked in Game Center on Mountain Lion and in the Chess game, but I can't seem to see a way to play Chess over Game Center. Does Chess for Mountain Lion  support turn-based play? If it does, how can I enable it?

First of all, make sure you have added your systems knows about your Apple ID (go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Your User -> Apple ID).

Then launch Chess; obviously you'll need to have an internet connection.

After a short wait (a second or two in my case, might depend on your internet connection), a badge like the following should appear in the Chess window:

After it appears, you should simply be able to go to Game -> New... and select GameCenter Match in Players.


Can I remove all missing songs without having to do it one at a time? When I have iTunes on shuffle, I invariably end up hitting a song iTunes can't find, and then I have to tell it to start shuffle over again (until I hit another song it can't find).

Is there an easy way to go through and remove songs that it can't find from the list of all my songs? Or do I just have to go through manually and remove them as I encounter them?

Here's a work-around I found:

Create a playlist in iTunes and call it whatever you want (I called
mine "existing songs").
Go to your "All Songs" view, select your entire library, and drag it into the "existing songs" playlist. iTunes will not add missing songs to this playlist, which means "existing songs" will only include songs without an exclamation point.
Create a new smart playlist with the rule "Playlist is not
existing songs". Name it whatever you want (like "Exclamation").
Your new smart playlist will contain only the missing songs, you can re-download them or delete them as you wish.

Source: LifeHacker


Hibernate/Sleep problem Whenever my MBP 9.1 is in sleep mode and plugged in and I unplug the charger, machine turns on and stays on for about 2 minutes and then gets to sleep again.

Is there something I can change so when it's in sleep mode and I unplug or plug charger, stays at that state and doesn't hibernate or hybrid sleep or whatever it's name is given by Apple?

I basically want to disable hibernate altogether by automatic means.

My OS X version is 10.9.4.

Thanks.

Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver. Change the sleep settings for both on Battery and While charinging.

Alternatively you could use NoSleep to make sure your MBP never goes to sleep.


iPhone downgrade - is it frozen? I have iPhone 6s. I had iOS 14.2. i need to go back to version 14.1. I download this version and
run downgrade from my MAC. Now I have this on my iPhone:

This is the label in my MAC:

Translate:
Restore iPhone
Mac computer is currently restoring software to iphone

Sometimes I see the apple logo, but it quickly changes to this drawing. this has been going on for about 1.5 hours. this is normal? or is the installation process frozen? any advice - I'd be very grateful.

Yes it hung. I restarted this and I was able to downgrade successfully. I used these materials:
how-to-downgrade-ios
downgrade-ios-3664217


TextWrangler always comes to front when switching monitors I have a late 2012 mac mini running OSX 10.9.3 and I'm curious if there is a setting that needs to be changed or if this is some sort of bug. I'm working with two monitors; one plugged into HDMI and the other using the display port with a VGA adapter.

Regardless of which application I am using on my VGA monitor, when I switch to the HDMI monitor by clicking into an application, TextWrangler comes to the front. I've searched through system settings and TextWrangler settings, but I couldn't find anything to fix this problem.

This is incredibly irritating and I'd appreciate any help.

Quitting TextWrangler and re-opening it fixed the problem.


Forticlient: SSL VPN timeout I'm using Forticlient to connect to a customer's VPN. It used to work on my MacOS, but it suddendly stopped with apparently no reason. After that I never managed to make it work again on my computer, even it it connects fine with every other device I try (Android, Linux, Windows, another MacOS).

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, but it still fails to connect. I tried removing every single file accessed by the app (checking with lsof) but still fails. Enabling debug I found the following:

20170720 08:27:22.523 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 current uid: 0
20170720 08:27:22.525 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 get current proxy auto config settings
20170720 08:27:22.530 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 use tty:/dev/ttys006
20170720 08:27:22.533 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 connecting to 1.2.3.4:10443 - 10443
20170720 08:27:22.533 [sslvpn:DEBG] unknown:0 tcp connect 1.2.3.4:10443 timeout -1
20170720 08:27:22.542 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 shuting down the running tunnel
20170720 08:27:22.542 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 the tunnel is shut down
20170720 08:27:22.542 [sslvpn:EROR] unknown:0 connect failed
20170720 08:27:22.542 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 tunnel shutdown -2
20170720 08:27:22.543 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 sslvpn starts to clean up
20170720 08:27:22.547 [sslvpn:INFO] unknown:0 sslvpnd terminated

How's possible it returns timeout right after trying to connect?

I have no firewall enabled on the Mac (10.12.5), I just installed some objective-see apps but none should interfere with network connections.

What else can I check to understand why the connection returns timeout?

Happened to be a change I did to /etc/ppp/options to disable IPSec for another native VPN I had.

I added

plugin L2TP.ppp
l2tpnoipsec

to connecto to a L2TP/IPSec VPN with only L2TP, but with this change  FortiClient SSL VPN stopped working.

Commenting out the two lines restored VPN functionality.


Bootcamp and Windows 8 Installed, no option to boot from partition I recently installed Windows 8 on a Mac with boot camp. The partition was working fine. However, I recently reinstalled OSX and now I am unable to select the Windows partition upon startup. How can I fix this issue?

Thanks

I had the same issue, this fixed it for me:

sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0
flag 4
write
exit

Apparently it wasn't flagged as active:
http://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/2eo7dq/win7_bootcamp_hd_not_showing_up_as_startup_disk/


Internet not working well on MBA, after switching network? Let's say that I turned on my MBAir at home; wifi networking works. Then I close the lid (MBA goes to sleep) and go to different place with different wifi network. When I change the wifi network (eq when I go to nearby coffee shop) something strange happens: from that point I can not reach most of the internet. Even when I come back home, the same problem exists! This is a summary of what I have found:

DNS is working
reseting DNS (using com.apple.discoveryd.plist) does not help
ping is working
traceroute works
turning wireless off and on does not help (via ifconfig)
however, I can not connect to port 80, for example, using wget results with "connection timed out".
browsers doesn't work (obviously)
this issue is not related to a target web site, this happens all the time.
other devices in my network work fine, so its not a router issue.
re-adding network doesn't help.

The only thing that helps is switching computer off and then back on; but this is not a solution for me.

Can any one recommend a solution, preferably in terminal (so I can issue the fix everytime when I experience it)?

I have MBA 2013 and Yosemite installed.

I had Wireshark installed, and since I've removed it, everything works.


Edit the descriptive name of an email address displayed in Mail When entering an email address into the To: field of Mail, usually the full name of the recipient is displayed instead of the actual address. When entering my own address, however, I get the following:

Any idea how I can make it display may actual name instead of my beloved holiday destination?

Create a contact with your name in Contacts app and add your email to that contact.

Seems like you have such a contact but with name Holidays in Italy instead of yours.

In case you have that email in your Mail app, then make sure you have the desired name in the "Full Name" field of the account. One way to do that is via "System Preferences" -> "Internet accounts" -> select your account and then click on the "Details" button

I think those descriptive names comes from either a contact or some previous emails in the Mail app.

Click the '+' sign at the end of the "To:" field and (in the popped-up search field) start typing the email address as you would before.
Check the results there.

If nothing is found again, then try typing the "Holidays in Italy" and see if it finds something.

The options above are mostly a way to find why this is happening.

If you just want to remove the description every time:

click on the little arrow next to "Holidays in Italy"
select "Edit Address"

You can also select "Show Contact Card" (if available) to check things.
Another option could be "Remove from Previous Recipients list". In that case you can select it in order not to have it being auto-filled again.


How to turn off hyperlinks in Notes in iOS so you don't accidentally click them? after you paste a URL in Notes, is there a way to have the hyperlink(?) turned off so you don't click it by accident and be taken to the webpage?
It'd be nice if the URL can be there just as pure text.

At least for iOS 11.2 the following works:

Select the text you want to unlink (or position the cursor “inside” it or directly before or after it)

Switch to the format keyboard (not the format tool-tip):

Click “Body” twice on format keyboard:


Re-Installing Windows 7 on mac is there a way to install Windows 7 on an Calina iMac 27" late 2015.
Bootcamp does not allow it since Mojave it only allows Win10.
Downgrading my Mac to an Os before Mojave is as well as using Windows 10 not an option.(cause its ass).
Using a VM is also noch practical in my case.
I read about using older bootcamp versions or doing it completly youreself but could not find information on how to do that.

You do not have to downgrade to a earlier version of MacOS, you just need to install High Sierra in a new APFS volume in the same APFS container that Catalina is using. You can download High Sierra by accessing the link on the Apple website How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra. After High Sierra finishes downloading, you will get the following popup message. You can click on Quit to exit the installer.

To install High Sierra, you will have to copy the installation files to a flash drive. See the Apple website How to create a bootable installer for macOS for instructions. Once booted from the High Sierra flash drive, you can install High Sierra in a new APFS volume.

  Note: The installation of High Sierra on my Mac consumed about 29 GB of space. If you are space limited, then you may have to temporarily move some of your personal files off of the installation drive.

After finishing installing High Sierra, you can use the Boot Camp Assistant included with High Sierra to install Windows 7.

  Note: Apple documentations does state that the Windows 7 ISO should include Service Pack 1 (SP1). You can download a Windows 7 ISO with SP1 from the Microsoft website Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files).

During use of the Boot Camp Assistant, you will encounter the following window.

If you click on Open Website, you will be directed to the website Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp. You should follow the directions given on the website.

After Windows 7 is installed, you can boot to Catalina and use the Disk Utility application to remove the High Sierra volume.

Some Comments about 2015 and Newer Macs

Apple and Microsoft intended for Windows 7 to BIOS boot on Macs. The instructions given in this answer should install Windows 7 to BIOS boot. However, starting in 2015, Apple starting eliminating the ability for Macs to BIOS boot. This is why the links to download on the website Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp end in 2014. In your case, you can either try installing Windows 7 without the Boot Camp Support Software (Window Support Software) or try the Windows Support Software that can be downloaded by using the Boot Camp Assistant.

A Note about Windows 10

If you have a Windows 7 product key, then you may be able to use this product key to install and activate Windows 10 for free. When asked for the Windows 10 product key, just substitute your Windows 7 product key. The latest Windows 10 ISO can be downloaded from the Microsoft website Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File).


Will Upgrading to Mavericks Slow My System? I have a 2010 iMac and I'm considering upgrading to Mavericks. Will I notice any significant decreases in speed? My specs:

I would say that machine should run mavericks fine; its not much more resource intensive than 10.8 is. Is there some specific aspect of performance you are concerned about?


Parental Controls Always Allow does not work for Avid Media Composer I've enabled Parental Controls on a new Nov 2012 iMac being used in a school for public access (OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion) and have restricted the applications this account can use. Everything works fine with the exception of Avid Media Composer (the main reason we purchased the iMacs...). Avid Media Composer is marked as an application that the account is allowed to use in the parental control settings.

When I try to start Avid Media Composer under this account, a message pops up saying that this user doesn't have permission to use the application, giving the following three options:

Always Allow...
Allow Once...
OK

When clicking Allow Once, I have to enter the admin account username and password and the app starts without problems. But when I click Always Allow, it asks for the admin account as well, but then pops up the same message again and again. I have verified that I'm using the right admin account username and password, but it's still refusing to run the application.

When I disable parental controls, everything works, but the moment I turn it on again, it fails, despite having Avid Media Composer in the list of allowed applications for this account.

In the Console application, I can see the following error message whenever this happens:

  com.apple.launchd.peruser.504: ([0x0-0x1de1de].com.avid.mediacomposer[2033])
  Job failed to exec(3) for weird reason: 13

Has anybody else experienced this or knows how to fix this?

I found this problem too!
Turn off parental control and it works fine.
Interesting as I have two Mac Pros and one with PCs on does allow MC to work.
The other with the PCs on and it does not.
I suppose best answer is to turn off Parental Controls for an separate account just for users whom use AVID.


Copy photos from an iPhone to a USB flash drive I can use Photos.app to import photos to my MacBook's internal SSD, but I can't figure out a way to copy them directly to my flash drive.

Is there any way to copy the photos without doing something insane like paying for some closed-source file-copy app or copying one batch at a time to avoid filling up my SSD?

I would suggest using Image Capture.app. It is located in your Applications folder. From there you can select your iPhone and import the pictures.


Keyboard shortcut for "Show Desktop" What is the OS X equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+D for Linux or Win+D for Windows to show the desktop.

Tried to search but didn't get some feasible answer.

The F11 key shows the desktop by default.

If you would like to change it, you can in the keyboard preference pane under keyboard shortcuts, Mission Control. Feel free to make it Ctrl-Alt-D or Fn-D

Be aware that the function keys normally map to volume control / brightness, so you have to hold the fn key down to get F11 to be F11 instead of  (the best I can do for the volume down icon that coexists on the key labeled F11.)


Boot Ubuntu 12 on Mac Mini with Lion OS How can I boot Ubuntu-12.04 LTS on Mac Mini Lion Server (early 2011) with no CD reader?

Make a bootable Ubuntu flash drive
Insert it in your computer
Hold Option key while booting
Select USB for boot
Install Ubuntu


How do I encypt Time Machine with Mac OS X Lion? I am thinking about upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, because it offers full disk encryption.

However, if I use Time Machine with on an external hard drive, will the Time Machine backups be encrypted as well? If not it seems to defeat the purpose of whole system encryption. :p

Also, if the Time Machine backups can be encrypted, how does it handle restoring from a Time Machine backup onto a new system?

Time Machine does have a checkbox to encrypt the backup, but it will read, encrypt, and write every block of the disk - which can take a long time. If you are using a new drive it is much faster to encrypt it with Disk Utility first.

The encryption is handled by the OS – not Time Machine. Lion will prompt for the password whenever the disk is attached. Once the password has been entered it looks like any other disk to Time Machine.

n.b. you will not be able to use an encrypted disk with older versions of OS X.


How to insert a Word (or cvs) document or Video file to a Word document with AppleScript? As I continue to develop a larger script (which is working but for this), I can't figure out how to insert a file into a Word document using Applescript. I can insert a picture, but if the file is a Word doc, an Excel spreadsheet, a video file, etc., I can't see in the dictionary where the commands are that would handle that. This example almost works:

on AddAttachmentFileToWordDoc(FilePath, Extension)
set GraphicFiles to {"PDF", "jpg", "giff", "TIFF", "gif", "png", "PPM", "PGM", "PNM"}
set VideoFiles to {"mov", "wmv", "amv", "mp4", "m4p", "mpg", "mpeg", "m4v"}
tell application "Microsoft Word"
    activate
    tell active document
        set ContTemp to content of text object
        set StartRange to (count of ContTemp) - 1
        set endrange to StartRange
        set theRange to create range start StartRange end endrange
        tell theRange
            if GraphicFiles contains Extension then
                --this works well
                make new inline picture at end with properties {file name:FilePath as text, save with document:true}
            else if VideoFiles contains Extension then
                --this obviously doesn't work, but I would guess that something close to it should.
                make new video at end with properties {file name:FilePath as text, save with document:true}
            else -- everything else, Word docs, excel, etc.
                --make new what?? There is no option for new inline file . . .
            end if
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

end AddAttachmentFileToWordDoc

As you can see I have only succeeded with the graphic files. Any ideas what the syntax for the other file types should be? Thanks a million!

The closest I have gotten is by adding, not the file, but a link to the file, like so:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
    tell active document
        set ContTemp to content of text object
        set StartRange to (count of ContTemp) - 1
        set endrange to StartRange
        set theRange to create range start StartRange end endrange
        make new hyperlink object at end with properties {text to display:CommentText, hyperlink address:FilePath, text object:theRange}
    end tell
end tell


Using external microphone disables internal speaker I have a Mid-2015 Macbook Pro, which has the combined headphone/microphone jack.

I normally use it in clamshell mode, and in the past some people have had a hard time hearing me if I try to use the built-in microphone, so I got an external microphone. I was just testing it, and discovered that when I plug it in, the Mac thinks I also have headphones plugged in, and disables the internal speaker.

When I go into Sound Preferences, "Internal Speakers" is replaced with "Headphones" whenever I plug in the microphone. I guess it thinks my microphone is actually a headset with both microphone and headphones.

Is there any way to disabuse it of this notion, and enable the internal speaker while using the external mic?

Since I posted this question, I got a new external monitor that connects to the DisplayPort (Acer EB321HQU). It has its own speaker, so the Sound menu allows me to choose between Internal Speakers and the monitor.
When I plug in the microphone, the Internal Speakers choice changes to Headphone, so it still disables the built-in speakers. But the option to use the monitor as the output device is still available. So I can select that and get audio without a headphone. Plugging in the microphone automatically changes the selection from the monitor to Headphone, but I can easily switch it.
This solution won't work more generally, it's only for configurations with a monitor that can be used as a sound output device.


How do I transfer data and settings from one Apple Watch to another? I have an Apple Watch. I have had it for a while. I just bought a new Apple Watch. (Both are Series 1, just different sizes.)

I would like to transfer all my data and settings from my old Apple Watch to my new Apple Watch and then sell my old Apple Watch.

Is it possible to migrate my profile from one Apple Watch to another?

If so, what is the procedure?

All the search results I have found have to do with moving an Apple Watch to a new iPhone or restoring a backup to the same Apple Watch. Perhaps it is possible to restore a backup from an old Apple Watch onto a new one?

iMore provides a step-by-step set of instructions to restore an old backup onto a new watch that I have summarized below.

The first step is to unpair the old watch from your phone. As part of that, a backup of your watch's information and settings will be created on the phone.

Next, pair your new watch following the normal procedures - launch the Apple Watch app, tap Start Pairing, and align the watch in the viewfinder.

On the following screen it will state "Your Apple Watch Is Paired." From here, tap on Restore from Backup, and you should be given the option of the backup you made when unpairing the old watch. Tap on that.

You will then need to agree with the terms and conditions, as well as enter your Apple ID username and password. Tap through the remaining screens of setting options, including a passcode, and finally it will begin the process of restoring your backup, which may take several minutes.

Once the restore is complete, you will have your new watch set up with all your settings and data.


How can I automatically have my Trash emptied when disk space gets below a certain point? Sometimes my hard drive gets low on space, and various things don't work properly until I empty the Trash and free up some space. I know there are applications that empty the Trash after a set interval—but what I want is an app or script (or other means) to empty the Trash whenever there's e.g. less than 2GB of free space on a given hard drive.

I use a third party preference pane Compost that deletes from trash when the disk fills up or if the file has been in trash for a given time.

The original download stopped working for me but I have just found this on the author's site instead of the distributer. Note the author's comment

  Compost is in a bit of a state of flux right now. The distributor has moved on to a different market and we wish them well in their endeavors. Additionally, the changes necessary to fully support Snow Leopard have been going through an extensive beta period as a result of the degree and complexity of changes required. Please stay tuned for more information.

So it might not work even from this download

When I updated this I had just installed it on Yosemite and it installed (but not enough time to see if it deleted anything) I have now updated to El Capitan and the installer fails.


Tracking time spent in iOS applications I know RescueTime exists for Android but I do not see anything like it for iOS. I'm guessing such an app may not be possible on iOS because of the permissions and how apps have been sandboxed from one another. However, I'm hoping that I'm wrong.

Has anyone found an app which at the end of the day a user could look and see a list which shows the total active time spent in different applications for that day?

I'm looking for something like the following:

Summary for YYYY-MM-DD
Total Time: 2h28m

 - Safari: 48m
 - Tweetbot: 32m
 - Mail: 23m
 - Cooks Illustrated: 22m
 - Yelp: 12m
 - Messages: 8m
 - OmniFocus: 3m

The beta of iOS 12 includes Screen Time which solves this problem rather conclusively at the OS level. Here's a couple of my screenshots from revent use:


No Apple icon/menu in menubar One of our Macs is still on Mac OS X 10.6.8 and on that particular Mac, every so often, there is no Apple icon. When this happens, there is no Apple menu either. What I mean is that clicking where the Apple icon should be results in nothing - no menu options at all.

Sadly, this behavior is unpredictable. It can occur immediately after booting up, or it can occur after days of heavy use. We haven't noticed any pattern whatsoever. :(

We have tried resetting the NVRAM and SMC, starting in Safe Mode, quitting the Finder, verifying/repairing permissions, and scanning for viruses.

None of these steps have fixed this problem. I do not recall seeing the Apple Menu disappear while in Safe Mode, but since this issue is not constant it could just be that the Mac hasn't been used in Safe Mode for long enough to occur.

MY QUESTIONS:

Has anyone ever anywhere seen this behavior before?
Any suggestions beyond having to do a full clean install?

Your problem is located either inside WindowServer or Finder processes.

The problem might come from 3 different sources:

memory corruption (but this would strike on other programs)
application corruption and this might come from:

an old disk causing errors on one of this files upon heating
a corruption within one of these files showing up upon a large use of internal structures.

To identify a potential error on your disk (case 2.1) I advise you to run
Disk Utility on mode Verify Disk many times so as to make it heat until the correct status eventually change.

To identify which program is running (case 2.2) when you see this bug, I advise you to run Activity Monitor and try to kill (with the button ✕) each of these programs to verify which one of the 2 is the culprit.
Once you identified it, you will have to replace it with a correct backup. If you don't have one, it will be easier to reinstall the System.

But don't do this as an automatic measure without first checking what is the original cause of your problem.


Send push notification to iOS without a native app? I have an external service (a website), and would like to be able to send myself a push notification to my iPhone when certain events require my attention (e.g. webserver crash, when fraud is detected etc).
Is there some Apple API built for this use case, that is, for an external service to create a push notification to iOS without developing a native iOS app for that very purpose?

No. Unfortunately, you must have an app to send notifications.


Traffic of different Apps in Little Snitch with enabled VPN? What is the meaning? So, I am trying to understand my VPN connection observing the traffic in Little Snitch. My VPN is connected and I can see its connection to the server and the amount of data that is transfered. Shouldn't go all my data through this connection? Why is there, for example Firefox, connecting to a huge amount of IP-Adresses and sending/receiving a huge amount of data? When observing the map it looks like the connections start at my 'real location'. I looked up my IP on the browser and everything seems to be working fine.
Just wanted to understand the causal chain of data flow for Example googling something in Firefox.
Thanks for your answers!

A VPN is nothing more than a different connection to the internet. Without the VPN it looks like this:
Mac -> Local Network -> your Router -> your ISP -> the internet
This is vastly simplified, if course, but will work for what we are doing here.
The VPN is a TUNNEL that starts at your Mac and ends not at the network and servers of your ISP (AT&T, Spectrum, Verizon, etc.) but at the servers and networks of the VPN provider.
Mac -> VPN Tunnel -> (your Router) -> (your ISP) -> (Your VPN provider) ->the internet
That pathway above stays the same but it is like running a tube between your Mac and the internet in that your router, ISP and VPN provider, cant see what is in the VPN tunnel, as it is hidden by the VPN.
And instead of your traffic exiting your ISP for the internet in your town, it exits the VPN provider's network anywhere you want it to. Prague, Milan, Mexico City, Vancouver, Miami, wherever they have "exit points."
The key point here is that the VPN provides a secure tunnel between you and the end of the VPN. No one can spy on any traffic between those two points.
But everything on your Mac (or PC) still talks to everything that you point it to.
So if you browse the web using Firefox, it will still connect to every website you point it at. Not to mention all the cookies and tracking code that the website collects on you.
You are not being protected from what the website (and Firefox allows it to) does. You are being protected from being spied on between your Mac and the VPN exit point. And you can CHOOSE that end point. And Little Snitch still sees all of that activity, it is just going through the VPN. But it is still going.
The most common reason for a VPN is still my ability to connect back to my work network securely. The VPN creates a (virtual) tunnel (a private network) between my Mac or PC at home to my work network. This allows me onto that network as if I were sitting at my desk. And if I then google something the traffic exits from my work network and goes and connects to google.
A personal VPN, like you have allows you to appear as if you are surfing the web from the next town, state, country or continent and no one can tell where you are actually from. So your ISP may be in in Dallas Texas but with the VPN it looks like you are in Vancouver, BC, Canada.


How can I opt out of updates for one app when using the App Store? I have an app that has been radically changed (Skitch) and I'd prefer to not see any of the updates that the developer has made available to that app on the App Store. I'm lazy and like to use the "update all" function. When I forget I don't want this app updates, I then have to delete the newly downloaded app, restore the old one from my backups, etc...

Can I go in and change the package receipt or something else to trick the App Store into thinking this app isn't a lower version of the current program?

I am looking for a Mac OS X solution and nothing to do with the iOS app store in case that's not clear. I'm also not concerned about hiding things in the purchased history - just that I want the older app to stay installed and have the system not want to feed it updates anymore.

While I'm not abosultely sure, how achieved my result, but after a reboot the update for one app-store app is gone now. What I did:

the following is tested on old Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app (free from appstore), before my tests the app-store showing an available update for it.
Right click on app, select Show package contents
go to "Contents"
Move the following files and folders to some backup place

_MASReceipt (folder)

reboot

If that doesn't work, remove these additional items from the package contents:
  - _CodeSignature (folder)
  - CodeResources (alias)

Maybe it is not enough, (in my tests i did the following too), try:

Go to Library (alt-click on Finder's Go menu, select Library)
Caches
move com.apple.appstore folder somewhere else(backup location)
reboot

After the above steps, the AppStore don't showing the available update for the "Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app".

Warning: all the above is tested only in one app, needs more testing, it is absolutely without any warranty and don't blame me when your computer will burns, gets grabbed by aliens or anything other...


How do I record my iPhone's screen and sound whilst recording my mic I have my iPhone plugged into my computer via USB, I have QuickTime Player open and am previewing my iPhone screen as well as the iPhone's audio, but how would I go about recording my audio from my microphone which is connected to my computer, all in QuickTime? I have tried Audacity, but that didn't work due to lag with QuickTime and that caused the audio to be horrendously out of sync.

You can use the built in screen recorder in your iPhone. If you’re using iOS 11, it will record the sound from whatever source or website, and you can also select mic, and get both audio recordings.

To record your iPhone's screen. Go to Settings app → Control Centre → Customise Controls, and make sure to add Screen Recording to the include list.

Now to record your iPhone's screen, swipe up from the bottom of your screen (swipe down from top right on iPhone X) to open Control Centre.

There is a circle with a solid dot in the middle, just press and hold it, it will open and ask you to record screen and if you want to record audio from the microphone as well.

Once finished, swipe to open Control Centre and tap the same recording button to stop. The recording will be saved to your camera roll.


Saved a file in the wrong location and I cannot retrieve it I was using ssh-keygen which at some point asked me where I wanted my public key and my identification saved. I typed \ by mistake and the result was:

  Your identification was saved in \.
  Your public key was saved in \.pub.

Now I cannot seem to find them. Can I find out what happened and delete those files? I could not find them with ls -la \. Actually it starts some type of prompt. Any help would be appreciated.

You need to use two back slashes. In the terminal using the bash shell (which it is by default) the backslash character tells bash to allow you to continue typing commands on a new line (hence the prompt you saw).

So if you do ls -la \\ that should show you the contents of "\"

Likewise mv \\ fixed should rename the folder to "fixed"


How to mount company network share? I got a MacBook Air as my working computer running MacOS Sierra 10.12.5. Within the intranet at the company office we got a network share. Whenever I want to use it, I have to add it via the Finder using the CMD + K command.

smb://server/share

This is then mounted as:

/Volumes/share/

There are two problems or questions about it.
Reconnect: When I'm out of the network and back again, MacOS can't access the share again and I have to reconnect using the CMD + K command. Is there a way to add it as auto-connect so that MacOS tries to re-establish the link if possible?
Name of volume: Because of the manual reconnect, MacOS starts to increase the number of the volume again and again. This is only reset if I restart MacOS but not through hibernate/sleep mode. Is there a way to change this?

/Volumes/share-1/
/Volumes/share-2/

One solution should fix both issues. You can work around the -1 and -2 issue by unmounting the volumes before disconnecting from the network (sleeping the Mac) or cleaning up in /Volumes before reconnecting.

The automatic mount is solved by a tool like:

Apple Enterprise Connect
NoMAD open source
JAMF Connect - a commercially supported version of NoMAD

https://nomad.menu is free to use and your company can pay for support if desired. Apple Enterprise Connect is a paid product and Apple engineers come to your business to set it up and provide enterprise support for the tool. You buy it from your Apple sales contact and they can invite your team to a web presentation to see how it works if you wish before buying the tool and services.


RStudio Server Initialization Error on Mac El Capitan I have installed RStudio Server using Homebrew on a Mac Pro Server with El Capitan. Then I followed instructions in the INSTALL file. When I launch RStudio Server from the host computer (http://localhost:8787) or remotely, it accepts my username and password but then I get this error:

"RStudio Initialization Error: Unable to connect to service".
This seems to be common with Linux installs, but none of those posted solutions solve the problem on my Mac. I tried logging in as different users and administrators but I the same error message either way.

Solved - there was an error in my .plist file


Overheating Macbook Pro I am trying to diagnose an overheating Macbook Pro. When starting up some resource-intensive software, it shows spikes in frequency or temperature.

Are the spikes of frequency above the 2.8Ghz of the cpu specs normal?

Is there anything I can do? It's so bad that the machine will actually shut down abruptly.

Yes, frequency spikes like that are normal - it is a feature of these CPU. Intel calls this "Turbo Boost", and allows for for example your 2.8 Ghz Core i7 processor to Turbo Boost up to 3.8 Ghz for peak loads. The CPU automatically handles Turbo Boost, and it is only allowed to happen when all necessary conditions are fulfilled - amongst those are that the temperature is not too high, the power consumption is not too high, and not all cores are actively "busy".

Temperature spikes are also perfectly normal. When the CPU is idle, it uses less power - and thus has a lower temperature than when fully utilizes. The maximum temperature you have recorded is 90 degrees - this is perfectly normal and well within the operating temperature range of the CPU.

As for the abrupt shutdowns of the computer - there are multiple possible causes of this - you haven't really demonstrated that overheating has anything to do with your problem, but check your fans and generally that the machine isn't full of dust. Other possible causes could be battery problems, a faulty sensor, etc.


Notifications widgets not updating I have a problem with Notifications widget. I can't receive an update for the widget. (I enable only 1 Stock widget now).

There is crash: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uz4iftfbbcmd9gi/crash.txt?dl=0

Crash happened when I opened Notification area.

There are traces:

Sep  2 18:18:25 U-MAC com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.spigot.ApplicationManager[10354]): Service exited due to signal: Trace/BPT trap: 5
Sep  2 18:18:25 U-MAC com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.spigot.ApplicationManager): Service only ran for 1 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 9 seconds.
Sep  2 18:18:25 U-MAC ReportCrash[10281]: Saved crash report for ApplicationManager[10354] version 1.1 (1.1.18) to /Users/bushev/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ApplicationManager_2015-09-02-181825_U-MAC.crash
Sep  2 18:18:25 U-MAC ReportCrash[10281]: Removing excessive log: file:///Users/bushev/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ApplicationManager_2015-09-02-181457_U-MAC.crash
Sep  2 18:18:27 U-MAC LookupViewService[38935]: Error in CoreDragRemoveTrackingHandler: -1856
Sep  2 18:18:27 U-MAC LookupViewService[38935]: Error in CoreDragRemoveReceiveHandler: -1856

This is the my solution: http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-spigot/

After removing spigot all works fine!


xattr write delimiter I am trying to write OM tags using xattr.

xattr -w com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTags tag1 a.rtf

This works fine for one tag, but how do I add two or more? I have tried various combinations of quotes, commas, \, etc. without success so far.

Help greatly appreciated.

OM tags (com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTags) as well as user defined tags (com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags) are stored in an extended attribute and its value is a binary property list that contains a single array of strings.

Example with the tag user (xxd'd and converted to a xml with plutil):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
    <string>user</string>
</array>
</plist>

Simply using xattr -w com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTags tag1 file won't create a properly defined OMUser or (Apple) User tag.

I recommend to use an "add tag" Python script like this one.

kMDItemOMUserTags seems to be outdated (or at least "difficult" to use) in macOS and are sometimes/often replaced with the _kMDItemUserTags even in OpenMeta apps.


Is there a PDF annotation app for the iPad with minimal (or no!) annoying page transitions? I'm looking for an iPad app that I can use for my PDF presentations.  The absolute must-have features are:

Good annotation support.

I'm giving 2hr lectures so I have to be able to write on the presentation in response to the students' questions, or to highlight something that I want the students to take particular note of.
No annoying page transitions.

Since the presentation is a PDF, incrementing information on a slide is actually handled by having a whole new page which is almost a copy of the previous one.  So when changing pages, the students' attention has to be on what just changed on the slide, not on some fancy page turning or sliding feature.

GoodReader has the second feature, but it's annotation support is somewhat limited.  In particular, freehand writing is difficult.

There are many PDF annotation apps that have the first, but I've yet to find one that has (almost) no page transitions.  I had found eNote Taker which was acceptable (there's a slight blurring of the image on changing, but that's alright), but today it got upgraded to GoodNotes and now page turning is done by sliding (I have emailed GoodNotes to ask them to fix this, but my next lecture is tomorrow morning so even if they agree it's unlikely that it'll be fixed in time).

So my question: is there an iPad annotation tool without annoying page transitions?

Unfortunately, none of the reviews that I've found mention page transitions so I've been reduced to watching interminable youtube videos to try to see the transitions (that's how I found eNote Taker).

(I hope that this is an acceptable question; I've tried to make it non-subjective and with a clear potential answer.  However, I'm not a frequent user of this site, so if it is not acceptable, I apologise in advance.)

With a little hunting around, watching videos, and emailing developers, I've come up with the following list.

iAnnotate.  This has good annotation (obviously) and when connected to an external display then the display version has no page transitions (note that there are transitions on the iPad display, though they rate very low on my "irritatometer").  Other pluses: customisable toolbars, and the presentation display doesn't show the toolbars or menus.
There is a slight oddity: even though the presentation display doesn't show the toolbars, the size of the document depends a bit on what toolbars are on display on the iPad.
2screens.  The focus of this is on the presentation, which it does extremely well.  The annotation works in a slightly different way to other apps.  Imagine a glass sheet in front of the presentation and that you are writing on that, not on the presentation itself.  Once you get used to that (so saving and blanking the annotations when shifting slides, I've been told that the developers are working on making this automatic) then it works well.  The presentation part is very nice, with none of the menus displayed on the external dispay.
Explain Everything.  This is, perhaps, a slightly surprising contender as it is really for recording a short presentation (or other).  But it can also be used for the presentation itself and has annotation support.  The external display mirrors the iPad display, but there is a "minimal" toolbar which is very discrete and contains all the main presentation controls.  The only snag with this one is that there is a strange offset with the PDFs that I use (created by xelatex) which means that the slides get successively more out of sync with the backgrounds.  The developers tell me that this depends on the PDF so other methods of PDF-generation may not have this problem (and I'm hopeful that it would be possible to post-process the PDF from xelatex so that it works as well).
GoodNotes (formerly eNote Taker).  This has a little history!  When it was eNote Taker then it worked just fine.  In the upgrade to GoodNotes, sliding page transitions were introduced.  In the current version, tapping on the screen changes pages without the sliding transition so it is usable again.  The display mirrors the iPad display, but the annotation toolbars are very discreet in that they collapse out of the way when not being used.


High Sierra user trying to set up a new user for Rails, without interfacing w/ previous users I'm getting this error when I'm trying to use Rails. It seems there are problems with using local files.

pasting below to show the versions of ruby and rails

~ $ ruby -v
ruby 2.4.2p198 (2017-09-14 revision 59899) [x86_64-darwin17]
~ $ rails -v
Rails 5.1.4

pasting the common error when trying to use rails or ruby

~ $ gem uninstall rails
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
You don't have write permissions for the /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0 directory.

You could try a tool that creates a virtual environment. That would allow you to download just the tools you need - correct versions, etc, and it's self-contained. That way you don't need to worry about the system's versions of your dependencies, nor the other users on your system. Apparently RVM is the Ruby version of what I had in mind.


No spoken Siri feedback with Shortcuts actions I created some simple Shortcuts in the new iOS Shortcuts app (iOS 12) to be invoked by Siri.

Like: "Goodmorning Siri, start my morning routine" and then some actions.

Now I also would like to let Siri say some things to me, as simple as: "Hello Jeroen, I hope you have a good morning".

I am supposed to use the "Show result" actions for this, this action should result in spoken feedback if the shortcut is executed via Siri.

The problem is: "Show result" text is not spoken (Siri feedback) by Siri when the shortcut is invoked via Siri.
Actions that come after the Show Result action are executed.

Here is an example Shortcut:

I tried already:

turning Siri on and off
Soft reset
Reset network
Change Siri and iOS language

Update: I have a iPhone SE

Shortcuts allows for this, but not with the default Siri voice.

In order to add speech into your Shortcut, you need to add two objects into your script.

First: "Text".
Second: "Speak Text".

The following screenshot should help. Alter the contents of the Text box to your liking, and tweak the language, speed and rate to your liking in Speak Text. Hope this helps!


How to restore external hard drive from Time Machine backup the right way? My Time Machine backup (6 TB USB-HDD) contains the data from my Mac's internal hard drive (2 TB) and from an external hard drive (USB 4 TB, Mac OS Extended, FileVault Encrypted) that I always keep attached.

Somehow my external 4 TB HD got corrupted and I need to reformat it. I want it Mac OS Extended, Encrypted, just as it was.

What is the right way to restore all the files from my Time Machine Backup so that Time Machine sees the  hard drive as it was?

I had a similar problem before. Restoring the root folder of the HD with Time Machine was no problem, but Time Machine recognized the new formatted hard drive as a new one, resulting in a unnecessary new full backup of the HD, filling up my backup volume.

I found an answer over at superuser.com: https://superuser.com/a/1148703
But it seems there were some changes in MacOS so it did not work. But with this as a starting point I found a solution:

Format the new drive (Or in my case the corrupted drive) with Disk Utility. Give it the same name as the old one. In my example "Daten"
Go to the System Preferences - Time Machine and uncheck "Back Up Automatically"
Go to the System Preferences - Security & Privacy. Unlock to make changes. Click on "Full Disk Access" and add Terminal.app from the Applications/Utilities Folder.
Open Terminal.
Put in sudo tmutil associatedisk -a. Then first drag your new Volume to the Terminal and after that drag the folder link Latest to the Terminal. You will find this folder link on your Time Machine Volume -> Backups.backupsdb -> Your Computer Name.
The result should look like this: sudo tmutil associatedisk -a /Volumes/Daten /Volumes/YourBackupVolume/Backups.backupdb/Your\ Computer\ Name/Latest At the end of the line you need to add /Daten or whatever your failed HD was named.
If the final result looks like this: sudo tmutil associatedisk -a /Volumes/Daten /Volumes/YourBackupVolume/Backups.backupdb/Your\ Computer\ Name/Latest/Daten press Enter, enter your password and press Enter again.
Open the new volume in Finder. Start Time Machine. Restore all the files.
Undo step 3.
Undo step 2.

After that, Time Machine will see your new volume as the old one and will only backup the new files.

The reason why this is necessary is that Time Machine recognises the volumes not by their name but by their UUID, which is a long unique number that changes with every formatting. The associatedisk command tells Time Machine the new UUID of the volume.


Why is there an infinite loop in the File System on a Mac? /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Volumes/Macintosh HD While playing around with find in Terminal I came across this odd behavior:
There seems to be an infinite loop in the Mac File System like so:

/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Volumes/Macintosh HD/

...and so on.

Apparently it is possible to access Volumes and Macintosh HD over and over again.

How is this possible? Should this not confuse any process digging recursively through the File System?

/Volumes/<startup> is simply a symlink, and there's no rules against where you can link.

$ ls -la /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     1B 22 Feb 15:40 /Volumes/Macintosh HD -> /

It's not an actual infinite loop, only a loop of links; once followed, you're put back up the path.


Safari see times in history I use Safari on my MacBook.

I'm disappointed the History page doesn't show times a site was loaded.

How can I view the times that a website was visited?

Other answers on this site don't work for me on High Sierra, the path ~/Library/Caches/Metadata doesn't exist.

On High Sierra the path is: ~/Library/Safari/History.db

I believe it's a SQLite database. The timestamps are stored in native Core Data format so you'll need to convert to something human readable (e.g. http://andrewbranch.github.io/coretime/).