Lion OS X Installer Does not recognize any HD What would be the reason if Lion OS X installer does not show any HFS+ partitioned hard drive on the installation step, "Select a destination volume where
you want to install the Mac OS X software". The Disk Utility cannot see it either!

I am sure the hard drive is working fine C: Ubuntu NTFS and D: Windows 7 NTFS I can run windows or ubuntu fine.

The problem is not partitioning the HD, the HD does not appear at all hence the disk utility cannot perform any operation on HD.

Thanks
Looking forward to hearing from you...

Have you configured the disks to use a GUID partition table?

This was not required prior to Lion, but is in order to install Lion.


how to move the 'New MacVim Buffer Here' menu into the main context menu? If I right click on a file, I can open the file by clicking Services and then New MacVim Buffer Here:

However, this is a bit cumbersome.

How can I move the New MacVim Buffer Here menu action to be at the same level as the Service menu action?

I don't think there is a "clean" way to specifically move a single service item in the context menu.

What you can do is increase the amount of items allowed in the context menu before a submenu is created.

In Terminal.app:

defaults write -g NSServicesMinimumItemCountForContextSubmenu -int 7
killall Finder

This will allow up to six elements in the top level menu. Substitute 7 with the desired number.

Unfortunately, all elements from your submenu will be moved up, not just the MacVim one.


Is there a way to Split one 42 Inch TV into Multiple Displays or Virtual Displays? I am a video editor and I want to split up my 42 inch TV into multiple desktops. I want to shrink the display into multiple shrunk sections, so the Mac Pro thinks that there are 2 or 4 monitors hooked up but there is actually only one super freaking huge TV, made to look like 4 monitor displays. I want to have sharper resolution. Just having a bigger screen isn't doing it for me. I need 2 monitors for Final Cut Pro - not just big Final Cut Pro windows.
I do not want to "Size Up" or Split the screen into multiple windows, I want multiple displays. I want to trick my monitor into thinking that there more than one display.
Any ideas. It looks like Microsoft has similar programs but nothing for Mac.

You wouldn't necessarily get "sharper" resolution - splitting a 1080p HDTV into two monitors side-by-side would result in two 960x1080 displays:

+----------------+    +--------+--------+
|                |    |        |        |
|                | -> |        |        |
|                | -> |        |        |
|                |    |        |        |
+----------------+    +--------+--------+

Is that what you're looking for? Despite the admonishments in your question, I don't think that's really what you're looking for. You'll get the exact same thing by just resizing your FCP windows to take up half the screen and putting both of them on the same screen. (You're stuck with the 1920x1080 pixels your display has any way you slice it.)

In (more-direct) answer to your question: no, I don't think such programs exist.

Note: I'm not familiar with Final Cut Pro, so I'm assuming it's multi-screen behavior is implemented with multiple windows.


MBP 2011 Fail GFX Passing Tests I'm having the issue that a lot of people have with their MacBooks. It's a MBP 2011 15" and it's suffering from the dedicated graphics failure. I get the lines down the screen, screen shifting, and completely shutting down as most people report.

I tried to take it to Apple for the recall by they said it passes their tests and does not qualify for the recall. I have images and video of the graphics failure occurring and sometimes it won't even boot.

I've tried running the Apple Hardware test but with the short test it reports everything is okay, despite their being red lines running down the screen during the test!

What can I do?

I recently brought a MBP 2011 15" that was affected by the dedicated graphics issue to an Apple Authorized Service Provider (because that was more convenient than taking it to the next Apple Store). When they ran the test, they didn't find a problem either and then told me that they would not do the repair.

When I showed them the photos that I had taken when the graphic glitches occurred, they said that that was enough evidence and then they repaired the MBP.

Did you show the pictures/videos of the problem to Apple? If you did, I would either go to an Apple Authorized Service Provider and see if they agree to do the repair or go back to Apple and try escalate the problem. If you have photo/video proof of the defect, I would hope that it should not be too difficult to convince them to do the repair.


How to emulate Mac OS 8 (in a way that supports CD-ROMs) I am trying to install old software on my either one of my Macs (Powerbook G4 and iMac 21.5 from 2011).

This software contains old fonts in a very rare format, which I would like to be able to watch / install / convert (eventually).
I have tried opening the font files in OS X with almost every font program available (FontBook, FontDoctor, FontForge, FontLab, Fontographer, TransType4...) and have come to believe that they can only be viewed on an older system for which they were designed.

I opened another discussion about how one might open these rare / old file formats on today's machines but it doesn't seem to be possible.

So, the software I am trying to install is on three different CD-ROMS hat are designed for Mac OS 6/7/8.

I have two partitions on the Powerbook, one with OS X 10.3 that can run Classic (Mac OS 9.2), and one with OS X 10.5.3 (most recent possible system for this machine), this way I can go back and forth systems.

When I try to launch the installer CD in the Classic environment, the top menu bar becomes grey and Classic freezes, so I think this CD can only run on machines earlier than 9.2 / 9.0, such as 7 or 8.

On the iMac, I have SheepShaver with OS 9, Basilisk with OS 7 and Mini vMac.
None of these recognise the CD ("disk is unreadable).
If I create a .DMG copy of the CD, or a copy of the files, I can open and run the Installer successfully in the beginning (with Sheepshaver / System 9 and Basilisk II / System 7), but after a few registration steps, the installer program asks me to insert the CD and fails to recognise it. (I tried starting these emulators when the CD was already in the drive, no chance.)

I believe I could go and buy one of these old clamshell Apple laptop that runs 8.2 but I'd like to do without.
I also considered installing 8.0 with original install CDs into SheepShaver, but people online say Sheepshaver / Basilisk are usually touchy when it comes to recognise CD-ROMs.

EDIT:
Here's what fontographer does:

EDIT (2): I found out how to solve this problem.
Here's how: I created three read/write disk images, one for each install CD, using Disk Utility in OS X.
Then using BasiliskII, I added each .dmg file to my preferences window.

Upon restart, all three CDS showed up and could be used without the CD.

(In my previous efforts, I had not tried to convert each CD into a .DMG file or didn't know how to add them as drives into Basilisk.)

Thanks for the help! Can someone please mark it as "solved" if you have clearance.

You need to use a CD/DVD Authoring software like Toast to mount the image inside the emulated classic Mac (SheepShaver). The CD mounter that is built in is not good enough to trick software that looks for the original disk. Software like Toast Mounter can though.


Why does my Magic Mouse 2 not work on OS X login screen? I own a Macbook Pro 15" mid 2015 model and have OS X El Capitan installed. Also, I use the Macbook in clam shell mode and have two 27" Apple Displays attached to it.

When I restart the computer, the login screen shows up but moving the mouse has no effect. Every time this happens I have to open up the Macbook lid and use the integrated trackpad instead to click on my login pic. Then I can use the (external) Bluetooth Magic Keyboard to enter my password.

When OS X has logged me in, the mouse suddenly starts working normally.

This is very annoying. Why does my bluetooth Magic Mouse not work on the login screen (although the Bluetooth Magic Keyboard works) but after logging in, the mouse suddenly starts working?

Be sure to click the mouse once to wake it up, because it will likely have gone to sleep.


Is there any multiple terminal emulator for Mac OS? I love the command line and I would like to see an app like Terminator (for Linux) in my MacOs:

It seems there are ports of that app for Mac available using Fink or Ports. But I found it's a hell to install them... it depends on a lot of things which depends on other things which... etc.

So I've been wondering if there's a MacOS native app like that (free or not)...

iTerm 2 claims to be able to do this.

Edit: I just downloaded it, and it seems to work well enough that I think I'll switch from iTerm 1:

I'm not sure what's going on with you and macports, but I just installed tmux using macports. it took about 30 seconds, and was completely painless.

FWIW, I've subsequently spent enough time with GNU screen that I basically just use it for everything at this point. iTerm is nice if you want a local, mouse-driven multiplexer, but almost everything I do is server-side at this point, and doing it all over one SSH connection is much better anyways.


Ipad 10.2" for a PhD: 32 or 128 GB? I hope this is the right community:
I'm a first year PhD student in Mathematics, and I plan to buy an Ipad 10.2" with the Apple Pencil as I have seen that it can be quite useful to take notes when I'm at the campus, and it's easily portable.
My main concern is about memory: I really don't know if I should take the 32GB or the 128GB.
In order to provide additional information: as a Mathematics student, I'm sure I will use intensively Notability or similar apps, and I think I will need to download PDFs with papers and stuff like that. For instance, if I plan to take notes using the Ipad, will I run out of memory with 32GB?

As @benwiggy pointed out correctly, storage always tends to run short.
Of course, such a topic is a matter of personal opinion. Trying to keep objective, please consider the following:

The 32 GB option is the "entry-level" option—in fact, no other iPad even offers such a low option anymore! (iPad Air and iPad mini start at 64 GB; iPad Pro at 128 GB.) It is safe to assume that it's on the market solely as a cheap entry model to the Apple universe.
Getting the model with more storage will, even if you have no use for it now, increase the device's value down the line. I, for one, tend to sell my old Apple devices (usually after upgrading to a newer model): the resale value of a 32 GB devices will be considerably less than the same device with 128 GB.


Remove Startup Arduino CreateAgent on High Sierra Recently this application was installed on my Mac.
Now it runs every startup. How can I stop it ?

Tries to solve:

1) search in Login Item of current user - Not found.

2) Not found in /Library/StartUpItems, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/LaunchAgents

There are instructions on the GitHub page https://github.com/arduino/arduino-create-agent for both completely uninstalling the Arduino Create Multi Platform Agent and for disabling its automatic startup.

You have asked how to do the latter. In brief, from the Finder:

Click on the Go menu, and select 'Go to the Folder'
Type ~/Library/LaunchAgents and press Enter
Select the ArduinoCreateAgent.plist file
Right click on the file name and select 'Move to Trash'

Alternatively, using Terminal.app, issue the command

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ArduinoCreateAgent.plist

Using the second method of disabling automatic startup has two benefits: it retains the ability to easily re-enable it should you wish, while also allowing you the ability to start the process manually. To restore automatic startup, issue this command in Terminal:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ArduinoCreateAgent.plist

To launch the process on a manual "at-will" basis:

launchctl start ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ArduinoCreateAgent

[note that the .plist extension is omitted when using launchctl start]


How to verify Apple ID if iPhone at the same time blocks gmail access? I have set up iCloud and Apple ID, but keeps telling me to verify my Apple ID. It won't let me download the Gmail app to access my emails to verify my Apple ID.

How do I fix this?

So you need to verify your new created Apple ID using Gmail?

Why don't you browse to http://gmail.com and manually log-in via the web interface?


Dates format in Message's chat.db I'm working on improving my iMessages backup-script. /Users/Kyro/Library/Messages/chat.db has a table message with all the messages an some dates.

Any idea what's the date format ? I first thought of a timestamp (I have for example 408978598) but date -r 408978598 return a date in 1982.

I found that as of High Sierra, I needed to use a different date transformation. The 8 extra 0's on the date field versus the date_read field was the clue:

datetime(message.date/1000000000 + strftime("%s", "2001-01-01") ,"unixepoch","localtime")


Is it possible to use the laptop's audio via headphone jack and Bluetooth speakers at the same time? Lolo Joe wants earphone jack to plug and use big speakers but at the same time he wants to partner the music coming out the earphone jack and his Bluetooth system and speakers. Is it even possible to use the earplug connection and the Bluetooth system and devices at the same time?

Yes.

You can do this by aggregating your audio devices.

This is a function that is built into macOS; you don't need to purchase or install any additional software.

Under MIDI Audio Setup (under Applications -> Utilities), you create a new "virtual" device that aggregates audio devices:

While the pictures posted are for an input device, you can do this with output devices as well; Bluetooth, USB, and physical.

Once you create your aggregated output device of both the speakers and BT speakers, you set your application to use that device and sound will play from both devices.


view tab in safari not allowing actual size choice I have a mac: OSX 10.9   the "actual size" choice is greyed out under View on Safari. Zoom in and zoom out and zoom text only
 are available. How can I enable the "actual size" choice?

It’s only available if you’ve used the Zoom In or Zoom Out menu item.


iMac monitor leaves watermark-like window stamps after a while I'm not sure how to compile a logic title for this question, so if the title is unclear, suggest an edit. Here's a description of the problem I am experiencing:

Whenever my iMac has been on for a few hours the silhouette of the window that has been open for a while is imprinted in the screen. Moving around the window does not help, only when I turn off the monitor and let it cool down for a while the imprint is gone.

Besides a window's silhouette it also seems to imprint directory folder trees, macro, and/or icons sometimes.

I do use a screen saver, however as a developer I sometimes actively work in one window for a few hours.

Since the iMac is 'only' three years old and I haven't had this until last week, I am wondering if anybody has experienced the same issue, before taking it in a repair shop.

Kind regards

The proper jargon seems to be a burn in. This extensive post at the apple forums holds a lot of answers.


Change text/font case ANYWHERE including chrome input fields Trying to find a solution to be able to easily change text case inside of a chrome input field. I know word editors have features like right click > transformations > UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case.

I've been looking everywhere for a solution to be able to do this DIRECTLY INSIDE OF A FIELD.

Example situation. I have to copy data from a restaurant menu into a website database. I have a PDF provided to me. Everything is in caps or its mixed or the editing program makes it look all caps, but when copied and pasted it's actually lowercase.

When I pasted it into a text field on the website admin. I want to be able to right click, and choose to change the case right there. No other work arounds.

Anyone know of a chrome extension or mac mods that can do this?

I think what you're asking for is a context menu (i.e. right-click) service that will allow you to toggle text case, yes?

If so, what I use for that purpose is a bit of freeware from DEVONTechnologies called WordService. They describe it, thusly:

  WordService

  WordService provides a large number of commands for working with selected text. Extend your favorite word processor, email app, or web browser e.g. with functions for reformating text paragraphs, cleaning up tabs, quotes, or line endings. Remove unwanted text parts, sort lines or paragraphs, change case, and do much, much more with text.

The services install to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Services -> Text and you can toggle the ones you want/don't want on/off and set key command shortcuts for them.

In the right-click menu, the services will appear similarly to the below (minus my additional services):

And will easily let you transform text field input:

You can download WordService, either, directly from DEVONTechnologies' site or from the Mac App Store and it is also available via the homebrew command: brew cask install wordservice.


I'm using Hazel to move photos from the iPhoto catalog into Lightroom. Is this a terrible idea? I use Lightroom and not iPhoto, and I'm on a MacBook Air, so HD space is premium. I want all my PhotoStream photos to find their way into Lightroom. I've set up a Hazel rule that looks at ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters and searches all the subfolders for images and MOVES them into a separate folder that Lightroom then scans and processes, moving photos into its own folders based on date stamps.

It seems to be working well. All the photos in iPhoto are now broken links of course.

Any non-obvious downsides I should be aware of?

As long as your Hazel script is working properly and you don't care about the iPhoto library, I don't see any downsides to this approach. I would just make sure you have all your photos backed up incase something goes wrong.


Ethernet connection turns off when my Mac idles I often leave my Mac for some time to do assorted tasks. When I return and log into the screensaver, I can't visit my homepage, Google, because the Ethernet connection has disconnected, requiring a few minutes to reestablish DHCP before I can Google again. Is there a way to keep the Ethernet connection alive while my computer idles?

I'm using Mac OS X 10.8.4 Mountain Lion x64;
on a 2013 MacBook Pro 15";
with an official Apple Mini DVI to Gigabit Ethernet adapter;
plugged into a good cat5 cable.

I had similar problem with the wifi I use.

It would disconnect me after certain time of inactivity.

So when downloading big stuff it would disconnect me, unless I was active on the computer/web.

To prevent wifi been disconnected during long downloads or me not interacting with it:

In Terminal I entered following:

ping -i600 google.com

That would send a ping to Google than wait 600 seconds to send another ping and on and on...till I hit the control-C to stop it.

That will tell wifi I am active so it will stay up all the time.

The 600 sec (10 minutes) is a choice, and it worked for me.
In my case it was the WiFi service provider that cut me off after been inactive for a while.


4k external monitor shows 3840x2160 and 1920x1080 but not 2560x1440 I'm using a external monitor with 3840x2160 resolution but it's completely unusable at that resolution (27", too tiny).

I want to try it at 2560x1440 but MacOS doesn't even show that option.

Is there a solution to show icons larger on screen?

The optimum scaling for that size display on MacOS is 1920 x 1080 (HiDPI), which will give the "Retina display" HiDPI effect, making the display objects appear at 'normal' size, but using the doubled pixel density to create a higher-resolution image.

(Another way to look at it is that the display is actually at 3840 x 2160, but the OS magnifies everything x2, to avoid the tiny sizes that you have seen.)

Any scaling size with (HiDPI) after it will use Retina scaling to some degree.

MacOS will display a larger range of Scaling options if you hold down Alt and click on the "Scaled" button in System Preferences > Displays.


Is it possible to stream a YouTube video in Powerpoint for Mac 2011? I would like to have a video in a Powerpoint presentation, without having to download the file.
So just insert a link to youtube or vimeo, and then being able to play it directly form the presentation.
Is this possible at all?

Edit: I did mean "stream" a YouTube video

There is a very simple method by using the Hyperlink command in PowerPoint.

You can Hyperlink any object in you Presentation.

Here is a sample how to do it for this sample presentation I made.

Now Right Click on the Text Box "Streaming You Tube" and select Hyperlink.

In Hyperlink paste the link to the you tube video.

It looks like this in my example.


Run a command on a schedule and verify that it has run I want to run an rsync command each day or more often to back up a raspbery pi on my network to a drive attached to my mac. I see launchd, but I'm very confused about how to get it to work, and I would also like to be able to see that the script has been run, like how with time machine you can see when the last backup occurred, so I can check on it.

This is the command I want to run:
rsync -avz -e ssh pi@10.0.0.4:/ /Volumes/PiBackup/Rsync

Any help would be much appreciated. Ill take any methodology as well, cron, launchd, applescript, whatever works well.

You can use Automator to create a "Calendar Event". You can use the Utilities > Run Shell Script action to run your desired script, and then use Utilities > Display Notification to show that the script ran.

When you save the workflow, it will show a dialog asking you to name the event, and will then automatically place an event in the calendar and act accordingly. You can then change that event's time and repeat frequency.


How can I disable unused Services in Mavericks? I'm talking about the services you find when right-clicking a file or folder.

It should be possible to 'remove' those services within the system preferences (under the keyboard section) but this just won't work for me. When I uncheck the services nothing happens and as soon as I reopen the system preferences window it's all back to default.

Maybe it's related to iCloud syncing (you know, those things Apple has yes to tell us about), but this is just a guess, nothing I know of.

I assume that you’re talking about the services added by third-party apps. You can do it easily by downloading Services Manager and turn off all the services you’re not using.

There are two options you may choose. Turning off context menu simply remove the services when you use secondary click on the files, images, or text, however, you can still run it from the  menu in menu bar.


Exchange calendar listed twice I have one (just one) Exchange account configured:

But Calendar shows it twice:

In the Accounts tab of the Calendar preferences it also listed twice:

and if I try to remove one of them I am redirected to the Internet Accounts settings (where only one is listed).

Is there a fix or should I completely remove the Exchange account and add it again?

Following the discussion suggested in the comments I was able to find a partial solution:

In the Internet Accounts preferences (system-wide) uncheck the Calendars option from the Exchange account
In the preferences of the Calendars application choose the Accounts tab and disable the only visible account
In the system-wide Internet Accounts preferences re-enable the exchange account

The only drawback is that you will still see a disable Exchange account in your Calendars preferences.


iOS 8 update fails with network connection time out I am attempting to update my iPod touch 5th generation to iOS 8 but I am unable to do so.

When attempting to update over-the-air, I do not get very far into the updating process (still in the downloading phase) when a message pops up stating that the update failed (providing no reason).

I have also tried to update through iTunes 11.4 on my computer, however a message pops up stating that the network connection has timed out.

Are Apple's servers overwhelmed, or am I doing something wrong? I am unsure what to try next.

One known condition for the install is that the device must have ~5GB free space for the temporary download of the installer file. You should delete unused apps, music and photos/movies from your iPod before you run the installation. The iPod should give you an error message saying the device doesn't have enough room.


How can I re install Tiger without the original install or recovery DVDs? I have an iMac (PPC) with iSight. How can I re install Tiger without the original install or recovery DVDs?

You need to find Tiger DVDs in order to install the OS, friends and eBay (or its moral equivalent in your country) are a good place to start.


Should I upgrade RAM or to a SSD? Ok, I have a late 2011 macbook pro that I'm looking to upgrade. It's sluggish with basic tasks such as right clicking to open the little options menu thingy (like the copy and past menu) and minimizing windows and stuff. I mostly just use my macbook for lots and lots of Internet browsing... And I mean lots (I currently have 20 tabs open on 3 different windows of Google chrome) and I also watch quite a bit of netflix and youtube (but when I'm not watching those I don't have it open in a tab so that shouldn't be that big of a problem). So should I upgrade my RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB or should I upgrade my 500 GB HDD to a 512 GB SSD? Thanks for looking!

Given your budget (512GB SSD is quite expensive) I'd buy 8GB RAM + 256SSD and keep the 500GB HDD as a storage volume instead of the super drive. Depending on your country, it'll cost you around 200$ which is less expensive than a 500SSD and will bring you a lot of speed.


Why is the wrong button showing up in my contacts app? My iPhone randomly decided to lose all phone contacts from the address book.

Following these instructions to re-instate them...

Settings > iCloud
Turn Contacts (sync) OFF, then back ON
Go into Contacts app and click top-left refresh button.

...

It's not a refresh button, it says "Groups"...what is going on?

Please follow the latest instructions to refresh your contacts on your device:

To refresh your contacts:

Open the Contacts app and tap Groups in the upper-left corner.

Swipe down on the list to refresh your groups.

Additionally, since you use iCloud, you may want to check your contacts by using the iCloud website.


Switching between Chrome Developer Tools and main window full screen I'm running OS X 10.5.5 Yosemite. What's the shortcut to switch between Chrome Developer Tools (Cmd + Alt + J) and the main Chrome browser window, when both are full screen?

Cmd + ` doesn't work.

The Developer tools seems to register as another instance of Chrome running, so Application switching doesn't work either.

Thanks!

You can use Mission Control (Ctrl+Up) to drag the main Chrome window and the DevTools window to adjacent spaces, if they are not already next to each other. You can use Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right to cycle through spaces.

Mac users will generally keep all related spaces adjacent to each other, in a group, and use Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right to navigate between them.


Is there a Mac utility to create an executable Zip/archive? Is there a corresponding utility similar to the Windows Zip-to-Exe utility?

I would like to compress an archive with a flash presentation (containing a lot of files), and make it executable in Mac, so it starts with a single click.

Is it possible?

Yes it is possible.  Is it worth the extra time to achieve what you want?  You'd have to be the judge.  My research hasn't turned up any point-and-click solutions so you'd need to use some standard UNIX tools to get the job done. It might take some effort, but you could do it yourself for free :D  If you're only going to need this once or twice, what I mention below might not be worth your time unless you are comfortable with command-line tools.

One option that I would use if I were in a pinch for time would be makeself. makeself is a command-line tool that strings together common UNIX programs to achieve the type of result you've mentioned in your question. I've seen this archiver used by companies that distribute software for Linux. The tools necessary for makeself to run are available on your Mac by default.

makeself will compress a directory into a self-extracting archive.  It will optionally run a script of your crafting after extraction.  If your presentation can be started by clicking on a single file in MacOS, then this script would be as simple as the command open FILENAME.

So your solution could be as simple as a putting the appropriate commands into a post-extraction script and running makeself on the directory you wish to compress.

As a quick example, suppose you have a directory of lots of html files that you would like to compress.  When the file is decompressed, you'd like the file index.html to be opened in Safari. The following would get the job done:

makeself /path/to/html_directory self_extract_html.sh "Example" open index.html

What would result is a self-extracting archive named "self_extract_html.sh" which (when double-clicked) would extract the files and launch Safari to view the index.html file in the unarchived directory.


Unable to connect internet from any browser but chrome I am on OSX Yosemite 10.10.3 on MacBook Pro (Early 2011) and I am not able to connect to internet from any browser except chrome. I am not even able to ping from terminal as well. Please help.

When I try to use diagnostics Internet and Server shows Red, rest all are Green.

Open Network Preferences, and:

verify IP
verify gateway
verify DNS

Your IP address is either static or dynamic. Static: you put in your IP info. Dynamic: your gateway provides the correct IP info.

Open Terminal.app, and type:

 ifconfig -a

That will show you what network interfaces you have. One of these is your primary route and your default gateway. You can only have one default gateway. Even though you may have many interfaces (ethernet, wireless and firewire, etc), there's only one default way to go if the request is not local.

So check for default route by typing in Terminal.app:

netstat -nr | more

The top two resulting lines will tell you who's the boss.

Then ping the gateway.

ping <IP address>

If it doesn't work, reboot and try again. You should at a minimum ping your gateway and ping your DNS before it's worth it to troubleshoot individual applications.


Does iPhone "manual backup" in iTunes use encryption? Hey I have set "Automatically Back Up" to "This computer" including encryption once and because of battery life issues, I want to perform a backup and restore. Under "Manually Back Up and Restore" I clicked "Back Up Now" but it didn't ask me for a password.

However, I want to keep my health data. Is the manual backup going to include health data now or do only automatic backups include those?

Yes, since the check box is selected, the local backup is encrypted and includes your Health data. The backup will use the same password you provided for the last backup, so won't ask you again this backup.

This is a very poor UI: even though you're not performing an automatic backup, the box is still used when performing a manual backup. You can verify the contents of a backup using an app such as iBackupBot.


Recently added songs do not finish playing on my iPhone 6 Plus I just recently added several songs to my iPhone 6 Plus. Here is what I did:

Add songs to my playlist in iTunes in my MacBook Air.
Sync music to my iPhone 6 Plus

Problem:

When my phone is playing the recently added song, it does not finish. If the new song is 3 mins long, when it is somewhere on the middle, it will play the next track, but the display on my phone is still the same (the recently added song).

I had that kind of problem too. When I asked about that from Apple Support their first solution was delete newly added songs and resync them to iPhone. If they are perfectly playing on iTunes, then obviously there was a syncing problem when adding songs to iPhone. Try what I suggested. Good luck.


What makes Time Machine necessary if using iCloud? Does make sense to use Time Machine with external drive if I already have all my files stored in iCloud? What laptop information is Time Machine keeping that cannot be stored in iCloud?

Time Machine can, in theory, restore the exact state of your Mac at any time. All apps, prefs, settings, documents.
iCloud will restore only your documents. Everything else would need to be re-installed from scratch.
Whether or not you consider that 'necessary' is your call.


How do I move my System files to another drive without reformatting the destination? I have a 128G SSD for my main drive and it is nearly full, I'd like to move the OS (Yosemite) and all my data to my second drive, a 1TB hybrid drive which is installed in the DVD drive bay.  How do I move all my data and make the hybrid drive bootable without losing the data that I already have on the hybrid drive? I also need to add a system recovery to the hybrid drive somehow.

Options:
1) Restore from Time Machine backup somehow.
2) SuperDuper!
3) ???

To move data from the "first drive" to the "second drive" you should, before doing anything, backup everything as a security precaution before doing the stuff below. It is also a good idea to run the Software Update on the "first drive" to make sure all bug fixes have been made to the software on your current system. Having the latest versions of all software installed on the "first drive" can limit incompatibiliites when getting stuff transferred to the "second drive".

If the second drive is properly formatted for Yosemite, just running the Yosemite installer and telling it to install the system on the second drive should not erase any of the files you currently have on that system, and it should also create the proper recovery partition and install the appropriate recovery software onto it.

Once you have Yosemite on the second drive, set it as your startup disk in "System Preferences" -> "Startup Disk", boot from it, and create an initial administrator account (with a different name from any of the accounts on the first drive so there is no conflict when migrating data from the first drive). You need not give this initial administrator account any AppleID information. Once logged in, it is probably worth updating the system software to the latest, to catch any bug fixes that might not have made it to the installer version that you used for the system as a whole.

Once the second drive is updated to the latest software, you need only run /Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app and tell it to migrate all the data from the first drive to the second drive. Note that Migration Assistant.app will log out the current user and quit all running programs as it runs, which will unmount any externally connected disks. If the data you want to migrate is on an externally connected disk (such as another Mac in Target Disk Mode) it needs to be plugged into the computer AFTER Migration Assistant.app has quit all the running programs and logged out the current user - waiting untl Migration Assistant.app is searching for appropriate hard drives to get data from is a good time to plug in the external disk.

Migration Assistant.app could get the data from the Time Machine backup of the old system, but the transfer from an internal drive will be faster than from the external Time Machine backup drive, especially if the external connection is via the network.

When Migration Assistant.app has done its job, you can log into the system, check that everything is as expected and optionally delete the initial administrator account you created on the second drive. All of your data from the first drive should be migrated to the second drive, and the second drive should also have a working recovery partion on it.


iPad 2 activation required and failed (out of nowhere, not activation lock) I have an iPad 2 and out of nowhere it requires an activation. It is connected to my WIFI and I did not have to enter my Apple ID.
The activation however fails, and it tells me to connected it to iTunes.  The error message on the iPad is (translated):

Your iPad could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. Try  to activate it with iTunes or try again in a couple of minutes.
If the problem persists talk to the apple support.

When I connect it to my laptop it tries to activate it bu fails as well.
The error message in Finder is (translated):

Activation failed. The iPad can't be synchronised. The operation timed out.

Restoring is not possible as the only thing I see is the error message where normally the different options (software update, backup information, etc.) for the iPad are. I've tried it for a week now and came to the conclusion that this is some kind of software bug.
I tried to restart it and do a shutdown.
I know this device is fairly old but I use it every now and then. It was working just fine before this. Also the apple stores are currently closed where I live due to COVID. Does anyone have any ideas?
UPDATE:
I contacted the apple support and after some time their suggestion was to put the iPad in recovery mode. First I should try to just update the software when in recovery mode but that did not help. Same screen appears which shows that same error message. Then they suggested to restore the iPad from the backup. This was possible because I entered the recovery mode.
After restoring the iPad it worked for about 30min (I was already happy to have my iPad back) when all the sudden the apple logo appeared on the screen and it tells me it needs activation. Well now I'm even more frustrated :D I guess I'm going to contact the support once again...

The system caches a result that shows the device is activated. You likely have some corruption on the storage and if following the normal activation process fails, support or jailbreak or repair would be next steps.
Doing the activation from a computer lets you get diagnostic logs and may be the best next step if you can’t get it on wireless.
Worst case, try a restore and then consult support online.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201252
https://support.apple.com/

Online support is very good now that the stores have been shuttered for months in most places and staff cross trained to field the online support queues. Support will likely conclude if the device is vintage and for most effectively obsolete and refer to external vendors, though.

https://locate.apple.com/
obtaining support for vintage or obsolete products the iPad 2 is currently “vintage” and soon to be obsolete


Extended attributes reappear when reconnecting external drive Some files on my external drive appeared grey out. Hence, I removed all the extended attributes using xattr -rc command which successfully does the trick and all my files appears normal. However, after I unplug and replug my external drive, the same set of files again appears grey out. So, to copy any file, I had to re-run the xattr command for the files each time which makes them behave like normal files.

Types of Files

All types of files like .dmg, .epub, .docx, etc appeared greyed out there is not a specific type of file as such.

Regarding extended attributes

When I completely remove all extended attributes the problem disappears. Hence, I am not aware about which particular attributed is causing the files to be greyed out.

Here is the output of ls leO@ on such greyed-out files.

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 username  staff  -   4433605 Jul  9 22:38 xyz.dmg
    com.apple.FinderInfo           32
    com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms          110
    com.apple.quarantine

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 username  staff  -      3659 Jul  9 22:38 replug_facetime.zip
    com.apple.FinderInfo           32
    com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms          115
    com.apple.quarantine           58

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 username  staff  -  22617886 Jul  9 22:38 robo3t-1.1.1-darwin-x86_64-c93c6b0.dmg
    com.apple.FinderInfo           32
    com.apple.diskimages.fsck          20
    com.apple.diskimages.recentcksum           80
    com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms          161
    com.apple.quarantine           58

Format of External Drive

NTFS; writeable initially via Mounty Software, now natively using some commands.

Here is the output of xattr -pl com.apple.FinderInfo atom-mac.zip

 com.apple.FinderInfo:
 00000000  62 72 6F 6B 4D 41 43 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |brokMACS........|
 00000010  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
 00000020

The cause of the problem—or, rather, the cause of the symptoms of the problem—is indeed explained by learning the content of the extended attribute com.apple.FinderInfo. It reveals that the Finder has set the file’s file type and creator respectively to brok and MACS, signifying the file is engaged in the process of being copied and therefore cannot be accessed. (These flags are supposed to be erased upon completion of the copying process.) As a consequence, the Finder "greys out" the icons of such files to reflect their status of immutability by the user. Erasing the com.apple.FinderInfo extended attribute relieves the situation by removing the proximate cause.

The real problem, however, is the constant reassignment of this "busy being copied" status to the various files. Indeed, you specifically asked why the extended attributes reappear for particular files. My answer: I don’t know the mechanics of the events, but I do know what’s behind it.

Apple natively supports reading, but not writing, to NTFS drives. The bespoke fstab workaround method you are currently using to permit writing to the disk is known to be unstable, and is guaranteed to cause problems. (Is your username really username?) I wondered how it was you came to the abstruse idea of erasing extended attributes to correct the inaccessible file situation, and a visit to the Mounty Software site (the source of your previous workaround) showed me it was their specific recommendation. As you have learned, it is not a lasting solution. The problem will continue as long as you continue to use your current method of NTFS filesystem access.

If you must have read/write access to an NTFS formatted drive—and cannot replace it with one in the natively supported exFAT format—you will have to choose a third party offering to provide a permanent solution. Those I know of which offer acceptable usability are Tuxera, Paragon, and Fuse/NTFS3G. The first two are commercial products available on a free-trial basis; the third is a combination of two open source products.

  EDIT: Response to OP's comment below

I’m sorry to say I don’t have any command line instructions which would definitely help you. I believe that the only way to fix the problem is to change the method you use for filesystem access from one which is known to have issues, as your current method does, to one which does not.

That said, I offer the following purely as an experiment, as I have no way to test it. We know that the benefit of erasing the extended attributes of the affected files only lasts until the next time the drive is mounted. It is possible that assigning a dummy value to a file’s com.apple.FinderInfo attribute will allow it to persist unmolested through the mounting process and prevent the Finder from re-assigning brok/MACS status. Specifically, this command will give a bogus file type of hack to <targetfile.ext>.  Test it on just one or two of your problem files, and see what happens to them when the drive is unmounted / remounted.

xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo 6861636B00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 <targetfile.ext>

(Why all the zeroes? The com.apple.FinderInfo extended attribute must be written as a single 32-byte block. Anyway, whatever it may look like here, it's one command, all on one line as you'd expect.)


Is there any way to know when was my iPad updated to the latest version of iOS? I would like to see the OS update history in my iPad, as in when and at what time did I install a specific iOS update in my device.

Is there any way to see that?

IOS differs from macOS.
macOS updates the OS via App Store. And App Store keeps tracking what we have updated.
Unfortunately, iOS updates via Software Update in Settings. And it doas not keep history of the updates. I think there is no workaround at the moment. And I think iTunes login can't help in this case.


OS X Filevault Login issue I just reformatted and did a clean OS X 10.10 install on my MacBook Pro.

When setting it up the first time I enabled FileVault. I then noticed I had configured my account wrong, so I created a temporary admin account (simply called Admin) and removed my initial account, and created a new account with admin access. I then logged in to the new account and removed the temporary Admin account.

Now, when I start the computer, this happens (Dropbox video link).

The Admin account is nowhere to be seen. Not in Preferences -> Accounts, or using any kind of dscacheutil or dscl commands.

When checking who has access to decrypting the disk there's only one account, and it's the new account I created (correct one).

I can only log in to the temporary account I created, then after a long black screen I can log in to my correct account. Is this working as intended?

How did you check which account can decrypt the disk?

I suspect (WAG) what happened is that you set up your new account so that it duplicates the UID of the previous admin account, so it shows up in one place as being authorized, but is not actually authorized. You removed account IS authorized for file vault, even thought eh account no longer exists on the unix-y side of things.

I'd try all this again, making sure to add the new accounts with new UIDs and that you add them to the FileVault list.


Disable `use safari suggested password` without disabling autofill Is there a way to disable "use safari suggested password" shown below, without disabling autofill?

The correct answer is: there is no way to disable the suggested passwords "feature" without completely disabling auto-fill.


Mojave is eating storage like candy, no matter how much I free up By my count, I should have 40-50gb free. But starting a few weeks ago, I'd wake up having created no new files, and 5gb would be gone, or 10gb.

Today, it told me that no storage was left. I freed up 5gb by deleting some apps I no longer used... and it has slowly eaten that as I watch the finder window's footer. Down to 546mb at the moment. And there's nothing else left to get rid of.

What the hell is going on? I have a Terminal.app open. I have a Firefox window open (that I'm typing into right now). And a few Sublime tabs.

If I reboot, I'll get maybe 11-12gb of this back... and it will slowly gobble that up over a period of at most a few hours. I don't know what's going.

I don't think this is malware, no files are messed up anywhere, no ransomware horseshit. Where do I start checking? Down to 373mb now.

It has done this in the past, of course, but an hour later whatever it was using that storage for would be freed, and I'd have no incidents for weeks/months afterward. This is the first time that it didn't self-correct.

You might want to check the disk usage with something like

du -h

which will scan the current working directory.

or

du -hs if you have an idea which directory might be taking much of the space.

OmniDiskSweeper is also an awesome free tool to see where all the files are taking so much space but be extra careful with it as you would not want to remove any system files, here is a video where you may get some ideas.

Another reason can be swap memory. When there is a lot of applications running and the system memory cannot take it anymore, it saves temporary memory into ssd, as a result when you are rebooting, it is going away but then the system is making it again. You can check your memory usage by:

vm_stat | perl -ne '/page size of (\d+)/ and $size=$1; /Pages\s+([^:]+)[^\d]+(\d+)/ and printf("%-16s % 16.2f Mi\n", "$1:", $2 * $size / 1048576);'

Or by:

sysctl vm.swapusage
> vm.swapusage: total = 5120.00M  used = 4237.00M  free = 883.00M  (encrypted)

For more info: Is there a Mac OS X Terminal version of the "free" command in Linux systems?


File tree on Linux via ifuse doesn't match ipad I have managed to get the linux tools idevicepair and ifuse working. I created a directory called ipad and I see Books, DCIM, Downloads iTunes_Control PhotoData Photos and Recordings. I can see them in both a terminal and Nautilis (dolphin).

All I want to do with this ipad is use it for reading pdfs. The problem is when I copy a file to the directory on the linux box (ipad then some subdirectory) they are not visible on the ipad itself. It is as if the ipad doesn't have the same directory tree. Yet I can click on the file in nautilus and it is quite obvious the file is on the ipad.

Do I have to root the ipad to see a real file tree structure?

I installed the app shellfish. This let me ssh from the ipad into the linux box. I couldn't figure out the IP address of the network (via usb). I installed the app VLC and it identified the IP address of the ipad. From that point, I could nmap on the linux box to find the IP address of the linux box. I cannot ssh into the ipad. nmap verifies that the port is not open. But as I said the I can ssh in the direction from the ipad to the linux box. This did require setting up sshd on the linux box.I suppose now that I have addresses I could set up samba but ssh/sftp is fine. Probably more secure. I only allow the IP address of the ipad to ssh into the linux box.


Audio missing in iMovie when importing screen recorded video I have an iPhone 11 Pro. I've recorded a video using the screen recorder.
When I play the video on the iPhone I hear a sound. When I import the video to my Mac and play it on Quicktime, I hear a sound.
When I import it to iMovie I don't hear any sound, not even in the sidebar.
Using the latest OS version.

I stole this question and edited it to reflect my situation, because I found a simple solution but was unable to comment on the question.
The solution is Quicktime > File > Export As > Audio Only...
Then just drag the audio file into iMovie and make sure it's lined up with the video that was missing audio. I'm not sure if this negatively affects the audio in any way, so if this is for a professional project, you might want to export the audio using something that doesn't compress it or whatever. It worked very well for my purposes!


Understanding Wifi Usages i live in a rural area and my internet provider is satellite.  When my son is downloading a movie and the wheel beside wifi icon is spinning and spinning is that using wifi data? It could take a half hour before the movie downloads. He is constantly trying to download and eventually gets it.  He is saying no data is used in searching. I do not agree. I think searching is using data. Am I correct?  As long as that wheel is spinning you are using data.

The menu bar and application spinners are very indirect / poor ways to see if network traffic is flowing. They can indicate a dropped connection, stalled data connection if a request was made and not aknowledged.

You would do best to log in to your router and see a traffic graph. If that's not feasible, you can also open Activity Monitor on the Mac.

There is a network activity graph that shows packets per second and bandwidth in real time.

Basically - when someone says "no data is used when I search" the correct answer is - "great, go ahead and disconnect from WiFi while you search since you don't need data to do that". It's possible the data exchanged during search / navigation is low, but it's not going to be no data.


Saving photo in Messages to camera roll I am trying to save a picture onto my camera roll, but when I message or email the picture to myself and try to save (click on the box with an arrow) the only options I get are to copy, print, or save to Dropbox. I want this picture for my wallpaper, but will need to get it off of camera roll to do that. How do I save the photo to my camera roll?

Simply press and hold the image thumbnail and tap "Save".

A copy will be saved to your camera roll.


iPhone 3G GPS is unreliable; seems to use assisted-gps only A few months ago the GPS in my 3G has become really unreliable.  The blue circle in google maps looks to be about 2 miles in diameter, and never shrinks to a pinpoint.  Apps like RunKeeper can never get a strong enough GPS signal.  This may have coincided with the iPhone not picking up wifi unless almost on top of the access point, but that could have been a coincidence.

Things I've tried that haven't worked:

Trying to lock on to a satillite when outside with clear skys for >30 minutes
General Settings -> Network -> Cellular Data -> Reset Settings
Restoring the iPhone from a back-up
Giving the phone a prelonged stern look

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

The prelonged stern look didn't work??? Lol

I see that you tried restoring from a backup. Try restoring to stock software instead of your saved backup and see how it works. I've noticed that sometimes erratic behavior is caused by corrupted files within the actual backup image.

If that doesn't work, try taking it in for service...I really don't think that's necessary though.

Hope this helps!


youtube-dl in automator action file; video and audio not muxed I built an AppleScript to run as a Service for Safari. But I am running into a problem where the audio and video aren't being muxed. This doesn't happen when entering the same command into terminal.

I have a configuration file for youtube-dl:

-f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]'
-o '/Volumes/Godzilla/Video/YouTube Video/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s'

This is the automator script which uses the current Safari URL as input:

on run {input, parameters}
    try
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl " & input
        (display notification input with title "YouTube Video Downloaded") beep
        delay 1 --> avoid quit before notice
    on error
        display notification "YouTube Download Failed" -- show error message
    end try
end run

EDIT: OK, I have requested the audio file in the config the question is why are the files not being merged after AppleScript runs youtube-dl?

I changed my AppleScript to this which provided some details to the issue:

on run {input, parameters}
try
    tell application "System Events"
        set pid to do shell script "cd /tmp/; /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl  --newline " & input & " > /tmp/vidstatus 2>&1 & echo $!"
        delay 1
        repeat while ((do shell script "kill -0 " & pid) is "") -- check if pid is still responding
            display dialog "Status: " & (do shell script "tail -n 1 /tmp/vidstatus") -- display last line of output
        end repeat
    end tell
on error
    display notification "YouTube Download Failed" -- show error message
end try end run

This is the message I get from Status:

  Status: [youtube] IrxpSFtGX1k: Downloading webpage
  [youtube] IrxpSFtGX1k: Downloading video info webpage
  WARNING: You have requested multiple formats but ffmpeg or avconv are not installed. The formats won't be merged.

This is odd because they are obviously installed. The same request is working from terminal. I am testing this script from within Automator—could this be the issue?

I did some more digging and found I needed to add the location of ffmpeg binary in the "do shell script" call by adding: --ffmpeg-location /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg

on run {input, parameters}
    try
        tell application "System Events"
            set pid to do shell script "cd /tmp/; /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl  --newline --ffmpeg-location /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg " & input & " > /tmp/vidstatus 2>&1 & echo $!"
            delay 1
            repeat while ((do shell script "kill -0 " & pid) is "") -- check if pid is still responding
                display dialog "Status: " & (do shell script "tail -n 1 /tmp/vidstatus") -- display last line of output
                delay 5
            end repeat
        end tell
    on error
        display notification "YouTube Download Finished" -- show error message
    end try
end run


How to choose on which display Application Switcher shows? I always have a lot of applications open at the same time. In order to quickly switch between them, I use CMD+Tab shortcut. In order to switch even faster, I sometimes use CMD+Tab and then select the app I want with my mouse pointer and have a gesture to open Application Switcher with my Trackpad.

I just installed OS X Mavericks and realized it always shows Application Switcher on my laptop screen instead of "main" external display. This makes it hard to switch fast between applications since my cursor is on the external display and App Switcher is on laptop's screen.

Is there any way to change this? I tried swapping the menubar "block" in System Preferences => Display => Arrangement, but it didn't help.

Try moving your Dock to a different screen in System Preferences > Dock > Position on screen. The Application Switcher will open on the same display as the Dock.

You can also quickly move your Dock (and Application Switcher) to another display by hovering your mouse on the very bottom of the desired display for a moment.

The Dock will then rise up and appear on the desired display. (Note: this only seems to work if the Dock's Position on Screen setting is Bottom)


AppleScript to save active Microsoft Word document IFF there is one I use this with Keyboard Maestro to automatically save the front-most document in Microsoft Word whenever Word deactivates:
tell application "Microsoft Word"
    if it is running then
        save active document
    end if
end tell

This works great unless there is not an active document, in which case it throws an error.
I know I could ignore the error, but I would rather not.
I would like to know if there’s a proper AppleScript way to say something like “If active document exists, then save it.”
I tried Googling but only found this (what I have now).

You need to query Word for the count of document objects – active document is just a convenience shortcut to the frontmost one in that list. Unluckily, Word’s somewhat peculiar AppleScript implementation does not return an empty list object when there is no open document, but missing value (AppleScript’s take on nil) instead. Taking that into account, the following function queries Word for open documents:

on hasDocument()
  tell application "Microsoft Word"
    every document is not missing value
  end tell
end

– put that in front of your script and change your conditional to if it is running and my hasDocument() and you should be fine.


How can I see bandwidth usage on a Mac? I am having internet problems and the ISP technicians suggested that something is using my bandwidth.

Is there a software to monitor which processes use how much bandwidth?

Built-in Activity Monitor (Applications → Utilities) shows you network usage. Also you can see open network ports for each running process.


macOS catalina ignores shell in AD and uses zsh instead We have Catalina hosts connected to our AD domain. Directory Utility shows AD users having /bin/bash as their shell (in Directory Editor), and the default shell for the domain is /bin/bash (in Services -> User Experience). However, when I log in, Catalina ignores both and instead logs me in with zsh.

How do I get Catalina to honor the shell preference from AD?

The instructions for enforcing a default shell for users in macOS Catalina through Active Directory is available at Apple: https://support.apple.com/guide/directory-utility/set-a-unix-active-directory-user-accounts-diru34cb1e36/mac

Here's the procedure to manually update the shell (independently of any AD setting):

If the computer a natively installed with Catalina, then all user accounts will use zsh.

If the computer was upgraded to Catalina, then:

all existing accounts will use bash and will see a warning that zsh is now the preferred shell in macOS.
all newly created accounts will use zsh

If a user wants to change their default shell environment from zsh to bash, the following command can be issued at the command line prompt in Terminal.app:

chsh -s /bin/bash

You can also change the default shell via System Preferences → Users & Groups. First unlock the padlock at the bottom-left, then control-click the user to edit and chose "Advanced options..." from the popup context menu. Edit the Login shell property by selecting the shell from the drop-down control.


Adding variables to a shell command in Automator I use Terminal to run a command. It runs fine from the command line, but I want to be able to automate it with Automator. The syntax of the command (of course, minus the quotes) is as follows:

 spotify-ripper user.name "/path/to/directory" "spotifyURI"

I've tried countless times to get Automator to:

Ask for finder items (to create the "path/to/directory")
Ask for Text (asking me to past in the URI/URL link from spotify)
Run Shell Script (/bin/bash)

spotify-ripper user.name "$@"

I have tried it with "Pass input" to "stdin" or "as arguments". Just get an error. I've read that "$@" will pass both variables one after the other which just what I need. I've also tried "$1" "$2" as some posts have suggested.
What am I missing?
I just want to pass path info and a URL to the end of a shell command, but nothing seems to work. I've tried the GET and SET Variable options, but that doesn't seem to help either.

Anyone have any ideas what I should be doing?

There are multiple ways to solve this problem. One way is already described in the question Automator variable in shell script (make sure to enable the options precisely as follows):

Ask for Finder Items (Type: Folders)
Set Value of Variable (Variable [example]: Directory-Path)
Ask for Text (Checked: Ignore this action's input; Checked: Require an answer)
Set Value of Variable (Variable [example]: Spotify-Url)
Get Value of Variable (Variable: Directory-Path; Checked: Ignore this action's input)
Get Value of Variable (Variable: Spotify-Url)
Run Shell Script (Pass input: as arguments; Content: export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH ; /path/to/spotify-ripper user.name "$1" "$2"—change the "/path/to" part with the real path to spotify-ripper, of course: probably /usr/local/bin/spotify-ripper)

Another way is to use AppleScript, either in a "Run AppleScript" action in Automator or as an AppleScript application saved in AppleScript Editor. Here's an example in AppleScript:

on run
    try
        set spotifyDialog to display dialog "Enter a Spotify URL:" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button "OK" cancel button "Cancel" default answer "https://" with title "Spotify Ripper"
        if the button returned of spotifyDialog is "OK" then
            set spotifyURL to text returned of spotifyDialog
            choose folder with prompt "Choose a folder:"
            set theDirectory to the result
            do shell script "export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH ; /path/to/spotify-ripper user.name " & quoted form of POSIX path of theDirectory & space & spotifyURL
        end if
    end try
end run


Redirect to different machine with Server App I am running my main website (e.g. main.com) on a MacMini Server with OS X 10.10 and Server App Version 4. In addition, I serve a Django powered web app on a Raspberry Pi using Gunicorn and nginx. Now, I like to make the web app available from a subdomain (e.g. webapp.main.com) or alternatively from a different path like main.com/webapp.

I understand that the requests on port 80 will be handled by the web server on the MacMini. So it's a matter of redirecting the request from there to the Raspberry Pi server. How can I do this redirect or is my setup maybe too messy?

OS X Server uses Apache which is a very flexible application.  OS X Server does provide you with the ability to setup redirects (https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/5.0/#/apd1AB74EDF-C5B3-4C20-AD02-42120FF3B208)  If those settings are not sufficient and you are willing to tackle apache configuration files, there are additional options available to you.

Tutorial on Apache Redirects (https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-temporary-and-permanent-redirects-with-apache-and-nginx)

If you do a google search for "Apache configuration redirect" you'll find a lot more information on the topic.


Yosemite: Safari's window is too wide I'm a web developer and like to develop with a narrow browser window to somehow emulate how my website will look on a mobile phone. With pre-Yosemite-Safari it was possible to create such a narrow window that you could easily judge the look of your site on mobile. With Yosemite, this seems to be impossible. Any suggestions?

Picture from an iPhone. I'd like to replicate this on the desktop. Note the line break after "Analytical"

Situation on the desktop after upgrading to Yosemite

You can enable "Develop" menu in Preferences > Advanced.

Then you can select choose the User Agent to be iPhone or whatever.

And then resize the window appropriately:

Edit: This doesn't get around the minimum width for the window. Here is a workaround. Go to View > Show Sidebar. This pulls out the sidebar, which can be resized making the viewport smaller.


Why is Target Disk Mode so slow? Two macs:

maxed out 2017 MacBook Pro (MBP)
base model iMac Pro (iMP)

Using the MBP standalone, the internal drive gives me read & write speeds of about 2600 & 2000 MB/s respectively.

Using the iMP standalone, the internal drive gives me read & write speeds of about 2500 & 2900 MB/s respectively.

All pretty darn good, obviously.

Now, in separate tests, I connect each to the other in Target Disk Mode over Thunderbolt 3 (using a short 1 foot cable so as not to lose the maximum 40Gb/s speed).

Booting the iMP from its internal drive and then connecting the MBP in Target Disk Mode, testing the MBP (Target Disk) I get read & write speeds of about 450 & 700 MB/s respectively.

Then the reverse: Booting the MBP from its internal drive and then connecting the iMP in Target Disk Mode, testing the iMP (Target Disk) I get read & write speeds of about 200 & 250 MB/s respectively!!

What on earth is going on?  Thunderbolt 3 in real world tests with any other fast enough drive is capable of at least about 2800 MB/s.  Does anyone know why Target Disk Mode is so slow?

I understand there's the obvious speculative answer of "Well something else relating specifically to Target Disk Mode is obviously bottle-necking it."  Ok... obviously.  But I'm wondering if anyone knows anything specific on the technical level of what's going on, and if there's anything that can be done to improve it.

Given the iMP drive over Target Disk Mode being so slow, even significantly slower than the MBP when really it should be the reverse, I'm guessing there's something the T2 chip is doing that's bottlenecking it, but again, just wondering if anyone knows anything official or definitive, rather than just speculation.

Thanks!

For the touch-bar 13" MBP the right side ports have reduced bandwidth, this could explain a portion of the difference in speed between the two modes. However, you will likely never see the full speed while running in TDM, that is because TDM runs as a UEFI application within the UEFI rom, this limits the resources that can be used in targeted disk mode. Thunderbolt bridge should get you full speed, if that is an option for your use case.

  Other boot-related features, such as Target Disk Mode, the Startup
  Manager, and the firmware password user interface, are all implemented
  as UEFI applications built into the main UEFI firmware.


How do I copy a Google search URL in iOS Safari? I’m writing a Stack Exchange answer from my iPhone, and I want to include a Google search URL. How can I copy the URL of the search results from iOS Safari? Going up to the address bar and tapping “Copy” only grabs the search terms, not the full URL. I’m using iOS 13.4.1.

Note: My question is very similar to this one, except that question is asking about the desktop version of Safari, not iOS.

Tap the sharing sheet at the bottom (the icon in the middle)
Select "Copy"


How do I download Youtube videos for offline viewing on an iOS device? I have just tried 28 different apps that claim to download youtube videos for offline viewing/listening, including Instapaper and Pocket.

None of them do it; they all expect there to be an internet connection.

Is there just .... 1 app .... that works?

YouTube currently offers this within their app if you pay the premium of $9.99 USD per month for what they call YouTube Red

Key Features according to their marketing is:

YouTube Music
Ad free & offline video
Orginal Shows


How can I link to a specific point in a YouTube video from an iPhone? When using YouTube on the desktop, right clicking a video gives the option to copy a link to a specific point in that video.

Is there a way to link to a specific point of a YouTube video from an iPhone or iPad?

I've tried using the native iOS app and the mobile site, but I can't find a way to link a specific time stamp.

The format of the query string is very simple. Just append ?t=#m##s to the video URL to link directly # minutes and ## seconds into the video. If the URL already contains a ?, make that &t=#m##s instead.

For instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPRkcczXCY&t=1m22s will take you 1 minute and 22 seconds into the presentation video for the 2016 MacBook Pro.

So just figure out what point in time you want to link to in a YouTube video, and you can make the link yourself.


Can I route add automatically when a network interface is added? Every morning, I connect my MacBook to my company network with the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter:

Then open the Terminal to add routes in order to access intranet servers:

 $ sudo route add -net 192.168.21.0/24 192.168.8.8
 $ sudo route add -net 192.168.22.0/24 192.168.8.8
 $ sudo route add -net 192.168.23.0/24 192.168.8.8

Is there a way that triggered by a new network interface (with a certain name) is added, then auto run the above route add commands?

Sidekick will do this for you: http://oomphalot.com/sidekick/


How to direct an app to use a specific Java version? I got an Java application that does run under Java 1.8 without problems when I start its JAR directly.
However on my Mac the JAR is wrapped within an app that demands me to install Java 1.6 -- which I really do not want to do!

So I'm searching the point within the app package where I could configure that my App shall use the installed Java 1.8

Changing property InfoDictionary version within Contents/Info.plist to 8.0 will not help.

Is this possible at all or do I need to build a complete new App Package?
In case of the later, which tool would be best to do this for a bunch of applications?

It seems that Oracle could have fixed this. But didn't ...

So I got it working now doing this:
(All credits go to: https://oliverdowling.com.au/2014/03/28/java-se-8-on-mac-os-x)

I assume you got the latest JDK installed (currently 1.8.0_60, please adjust this in future)

Change content of Info.plist:

Open Terminal and issue this command

sudo nano /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Info.plist

Look for key JVMCapabilities and change it to this:

<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
<array>
    <string>CommandLine</string>
    <string>JNI</string>
    <string>BundledApp</string>
</array>

Add a symlink for libjvm.dylib and libserver.dylib:

Open Terminal and issue these two commands:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries
sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/server/libjvm.dylib /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries/libserver.dylib


Creating guest user for ssh login Is it  possible to create  a user  that can log  in to
one's ssh server and chat,  but is restricted from any
other activity,  i.e. cannot use any  significant disk
space, cannot  access hardware  (speakers, microphone,
camera),  and  is  perhaps   even  limited  to  a  low
CPU-percentage?

If the purpose is only to support a single application which does all of its input via STDIN/STDOUT, you should be able to use the old UNIX trick of specifying that program as the user's shell.

First off, you would need to create a user account for the person; I don't believe you would be able to use the built in "Guest account" since not only do I think it exists only when someone uses the GUI login (read: SSH won't trigger it), but also I don't think there is a concept of default shell for guest.

Second, you need to add the specific program (say /bin/ttychat) to the /etc/shells file. Finally, you need to specify that "shell" as the default for the account you created.

The idea is that when the SSH account logs in, it will redirect all STDIN/STDOUT for the session to the shell you specified. When the program terminates, it should close the connection as well.

I found an unrelated question on Stack Exchange showing how to add custom shells to OSX here.


Is it possible to send project from iMovie 10.1 to Final Cut Pro 7.0? I'm unsure because the "Send movie to Final Cut Pro" option is missing from the File menu whatever project I try to open.

Is there something I need to do to have this option?

Well according to Apple you need to upgrade to Final Cut Pro X. Just US$ 300 bucks. More info here: https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/movcbf7e2a3f

A cheaper alternative would be exporting a XML and use FCP 7 to import the file and then reconnect the media you used on iMovie.

Last case scenario: do most of the work over iMovie and export a big quicktime clip to open in FCP 7 and finish your project.


How to change mouse speed of the login window? I prefer a fast tracking speed for mouse on my MacBook.

However, this setting is only good for the logged in user. When I logged out, the mouse is slow again.

How can I change the mouse tracking speed in the login window (i.e. when all users are logged out)?

If you are saying that you would like to set the mouse tracking speed for all users of the system I do not believe there is a way to do that.  Each will have his/her own preference.

If you are saying that when you set your preference and then log out/log in under the same user and unexpectedly find that your preferences are not retained then there should be a fix.

Likely cause ,either:

The the permissions on the preference file are set incorrectly --  This might be fixed in disk utility -- repair permissions. Logout and then login.

or

The permission file is corrupt.  You should move it to the desktop, logout, login and set the permissions. Should stick now.  I believe the preference is stored here:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist


Where is the screenshot property list now located in Mavericks? Previously, the screenshot property list could be found at:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.screencapture.plist

In Mavericks, this file no longer exists. In the past, I used to be able to manipulate the location and image type of screenshots using the .plist mentioned above. Where are these values now stored? Do I now need to create the plist in order to manipulate these variables, IE:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/folder/of/my/choice

To be sure this was not an issue with my user account, I created a new admin. account and tested.

Looking at my MBA with 10.9.2 it is still in the

  User/myname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.screencapture.plist

As it turns out, the .plist will only exist (be created) if you modify the screencapture settings, like location to save and others.


How to track steps with the iPhone Health app I just got an iPhone 8 (iOS 11.4) and I can't figure out how to track the steps that I take everyday through the phone. Can I do it through the Health app by itself or do I need to use Strava or some other app to do so?

Looking at the Health app, it says I have no data for the year/month/week/day. I went to the Data Sources & Access tab but it doesn't list any apps, not even Strava or Pacer Pedometer. Pacer Pedometer was listed as a recommended app.

Source:

Enable Motion Tracking, so that your iPhone will actually record the data.  Go to Settings>Privacy>Motion & Fitness.  Toggle Fitness Tracking on. Now your iPhone will count your steps.

Go to the Health app to setup your physical info so that it can better estimate your stride length.
Add steps to the Today view.  While in Health app, go to the Health Data button at bottom left. Then tap Activity and scroll down until you find Steps and tap that. Toggle the Add to Favorites switch. Now you can view your step count easily from the Today screen.


Problem updating homebrew Trying to update homebrew, I get this:

$ brew update

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge:
    .gitignore
    Library/Contributions/brew_bash_completion.sh
    Library/Contributions/brew_fish_completion.fish
    Library/Contributions/brew_zsh_completion.zsh
    Library/Contributions/manpages/brew.1.md
    Library/ENV/4.3/cc
    Library/ENV/4.3/make
    Library/ENV/4.3/xcrun
    Library/ENV/libsuperenv.rb
Please, commit your changes or stash them before you can merge.
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge:
    CONTRIBUTING.md
    Library/Aliases/ag
    Library/Aliases/heroku

... etc...

Any way to just clean that up? Looks like it's using git under the hood?

That would depend on whether you care about local changes to those files. Did you change them yourself, or did you run a program that changed them, or something else?

If you didn't mean to change them at all, cd /usr/local and run git reset --hard HEAD; this will reset them all to their original state. Then try updating Homebrew.


Swiping Gmail messages to trash not working on iPhone I can't get Gmail to swipe left on my phone to trash even though I went to Advanced settings > Advanced for Gmail and the deleted mailbox is checked. Why is Gmail still showing only the archive as an option when swiping left? I have iPhone 6 with iOS 10.1.

Go into Settings > Mail, and tap on your Gmail account. Then tap account again, then Advanced. Look for "Move Discarded Messages Into" section and tap Deleted Mailbox.


Will reducing the number of or disabling spaces improve performance? If I turn off spaces on my MacBook, or reduce the number of spaces, will that improve graphics performances?

EDIT:

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.7 Snow Leopard on a MacBook 7,1 with 2GB of memory

I checked it out in Instruments and I could barely notice a different in the activity monitor instrument, probably because I am looking at CPU and RAM bound items.
There obviously is going to be a higher load on the GPU than if there were no spaces at all, but I doubt its drawing everything in all spaces at all times, and like Martin said, it all depends.

The real possibility is that with so much extra space that you run many other programs which in one space you would find cluttered and would have automatically closed them due to aesthetic reasons.


How to add hibernate mode to MacBook Pro I have recently switched to Mac from Windows hence I do not have much information.

I want my Mac to go to safe sleep state on closing the lid.
I also need an extra option available somewhere which can be used to move to hibernate mode (no battery used at all).

I read safe sleep is default on closing lid and minimal battery is used at that time, but my Mac drains full battery in less than 2 days, which does not seem like "safe sleep".

I researched about it but every answer/blog mentions having only 1 option at one time, either hibernate or sleep. Also, some mention using mode 25 for hibernate and some mention using mode 1 for hibernate. I tried Mode 25, but it does not seem to be working (does it take time to fully implement?), and mode 1 seems to have risk involved. I do not want to risk losing data.

How can I achieve the desired behavior and also test wether it is working or not?

Currently in use:
 standbydelay         4200
 standby              0
 womp                 1
 halfdim              1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 sms                  1
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            10
 sleep                0
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 hibernatemode        3
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         0
 acwake               0
 lidwake              1

Software  OS X 10.9.2 (13C64)
13-inch, Mid 2012

The default sleep mode used by Mac laptops is a hybrid between traditional sleep mode (suspend to RAM) and hibernation (suspend to disk): the contents of the RAM are saved to the disk, but the RAM is kept powered as well. Desktop Macs use traditional sleep mode (suspend to RAM) by default.

See man pmset:

SAFE SLEEP ARGUMENTS
     hibernatemode takes a bitfield argument defining SafeSleep behavior.
     Passing 0 disables SafeSleep altogether, forcing the computer into a reg-
     ular sleep.

     0000 0001 (bit 0) enables hibernation; causes OS X to write memory state
     to hibernation image at sleep time. On wake (without bit 1 set) OS X will
     resume from the hibernation image. Bit 0 set (without bit 1 set) causes
     OS X to write memory state and immediately hibernate at sleep time.

     0000 0010 (bit 1), in conjunction with bit 0, causes OS X to maintain
     system state in memory and leave system power on until battery level
     drops below a near empty threshold (This enables quicker wakeup from mem-
     ory while battery power is available). Upon nearly emptying the battery,
     OS X shuts off all system power and hibernates; on wake the system will
     resume from hibernation image, not from memory.

     0000 1000 (bit 3) encourages the dynamic pager to page out inactive pages
     prior to hibernation, for a smaller memory footprint.

     0001 0000 (bit 4) encourages the dynamic pager to page out more aggres-
     sively prior to hibernation, for a smaller memory footprint.

     hibernatemode = 0 (binary 0000) by default on supported desktops. The
     system will not back memory up to persistent storage. The system must
     wake from the contents of memory; the system will lose context on power
     loss. This is, historically, plain old sleep.

     hibernatemode = 3 (binary 0011) by default on supported portables. The
     system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and
     will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from memory, unless
     a power loss forces it to restore from disk image.

     hibernatemode = 25 (binary 0001 1001) is only settable via pmset. The
     system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and
     will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image. If
     you want "hibernation" - slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery
     life, you should use this setting.

To make a laptop or a desktop Mac always hibernate (suspend to disk), run:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25

To make a laptop always hibernate on battery power, run:

sudo pmset -b hibernatemode 25

Setting hibernatemode to 25 decreases energy consumption during sleep but makes waking up take longer.

Some new Macs automatically enter a standby mode after a specific amount of time of being in regular sleep mode under certain conditions. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4392 (Mac computers: About standby mode):

  Macs that can use standby mode:

  MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012) and later
  MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) and later
  MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
  MacBook Air (Mid 2010) and later
  SSD and Fusion drive versions of Mac mini (Late 2012) and later
  SSD and Fusion drive versions of iMac (Late 2012) and later

  Mac computers manufactured in 2013 or later enter standby after three hours of "regular" sleep. Earlier computers activate after just over an hour of "regular" sleep.

  To enter standby, the computer must:

  Be running on battery power (if it is a Mac notebook computer).
  Have no USB devices attached.
  Have no Thunderbolt devices attached.
  Have no SD card inserted.
  Have no external display attached.

man pmset:

STANDBY ARGUMENTS
     standby causes kernel power management to automatically hibernate a
     machine after it has slept for a specified time period. This saves power
     while asleep. This setting defaults to ON for supported hardware. The
     setting standby will be visible in pmset -g if the feature is supported
     on this machine.

     standby only works if hibernation is turned on to hibernatemode 3 or 25.

     standbydelay specifies the delay, in seconds, before writing the hiberna-
     tion image to disk and powering off memory for Standby.

sudo pmset -c standbymode 1 would enable standby mode even when not on battery power. sudo pmset -a standbydelay 1800 would change the delay before entering standby mode to 30 minutes.

Some Macs also hibernate after four hours of normal sleep under certain conditions. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1757:

  With the release of the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 supplemental update 2.0, a new feature was introduced to enter safe sleep after four hours of the computer being connected to AC power. This is an effort to comply with the European Energy Standards (ErP Lot6). This will only occur if there is no wireless or Ethernet activity and no activity from external devices such as USB storage devices.

man pmset:

autopoweroff - Where supported, enabled per default as an implementation
of Lot 6 to the European Energy-related Products Directive. After sleep-
ing for <autopoweroffdelay> minutes, the system will write a hibernation
image and go into a lower power chipset sleep. Wakeups from this state
will take longer than wakeups from regular sleep. The system will not
auto power off if any external devices are connected, if the system is on
battery power, or if the system is bound to a network and wake for net-
work access is enabled.
autopoweroffdelay - delay before entering autopoweroff mode. (Value =
integer, in minutes)

I don't know if there is any difference between the hibernation mode that is used when hibernatemode is set to 25, standby mode, and the hibernation mode that is used when autopoweroff is enabled.

Standby mode or hibernation does not save that much energy though. According to Apple's environmental report, the current 13-inch MacBook Air consumes 0.25W when it is turned off and 0.68W when it is in sleep mode on 230V voltage. The MacBook Air has a 54-watt-hour battery, so a full battery should last about three days when in sleep mode (if the Mac does not enter standby mode) and about nine days if the Mac is turned off. The energy consumption in hibernation or standby mode is probably close to the energy consumption when the Mac is turned off.


What is the proper form for "cert_identifier" when using "certupdate"? The required options for certupdate seem to have changed in macOS Sierra Server or before, and the manpages have not caught up yet.

When trying:

certupdate remove -c /etc/certificates/secure.domain.com.1234567890123456789012345678901234567890.cert.pem

certupdate throws this error:

certupdate[92173:961471] Unable to recreate the missing certificate ID for /etc/certificates/secure.domain.com.1234567890123456789012345678901234567890.cert.pem error = 2

If you just use certupdate by itself you get:

certupdate remove [-c cert_path] [-p cert_persistent_ref_base64] -i cert_identifier
certupdate replace -c old_cert_path [-p old_cert_persistent_ref_base64] -C new_cert_path [-P new_cert_persistent_ref_base64] -i old_cert_identifier -I new_cert_identifier

which says that now -i and -I are required, though not mentioned in the manpages or anywhere online that I can find.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to construct a proper cert_identifier for use with either version of certupdate and have tried to use secure.domain.com.[SHA-1] with and without various extensions, various paths including /etc/certificates, but to no avail. I also asked security to find the certificate, hoping it would show some kind of clue, but it did not.

The only thing I've found is that asking serveradmin about websites reveals a key called web:defaultSecureSite:mstCertificateIdentifier which contains a SHA-256 hash and the domain, but no combination I made of that works, either.

Does anybody have any idea how to use certupdate now that these options are required?

The certupdate tool was not really intended to be used manually, it is supposed to be called by a process that watches the System keychain.

The cert identifier is made up of three parts separated by the ':' char they are:      hashtype:hash:"subject"

sha256:0fa41022930ef3d200102d4f0a90e53b250674b9:"my server.com"

The hash portion is the hashtype hash of the DER formatted certificate.

you can get the identifier for the certificates of interest by running the server admin command:
sudo serveradmin settings certs

and looking for the identifier key associated with each cert returned.


MB Air: connect, update App Store with broken Wifi/Airport via USB WiFi On my MB Air 2,1 (mid 2009) the wifi is broken. Connecting with the internet is possible via an Apple USB-Ethernet-adapter.

When trying to install an app/update via the App Store (e.g. to OSx El Capitan) the message in App Store is:

  Your device or computer could not be verified.

It seems to me a working Wifi Airport Card is a prerequisite for connecting/authenticating with the App Store.

Can anyone confirm this is the issue?
Is a work around available?

Otherwise I've googled a bit and as far as I can tell the options for this 6 year old machine are either to have the wifi repaired (€125) or buy a USB wifi dongle (€22) and accept that OSx will not be able to update.

Cf. e.g. this post:

  A NIC (network interface card) is needed for authentication purposes to make sure the computer is what it claims to be.

on forums.macrumors.com reads like a sound argument.

repair wifi card or logic board then You will can log in usb wifi dongle or ethernet cable won't work. I know this is ridiculous.


Apt-get install tomcat7 I am currently running Mavericks. I have a Drupal7 Virtual Machine running (on VirtualBox). I am trying to install a tomcat7 server onto the VM. I have used the Terminal to SSH and login to my Drupal7 VM but cannot seem to install tomcat7. I am aware that on Windows you use the command: apt-get install tomcat7, however this doesn't work on Mac.
I have tried to use Homebrew, but it doesn't seem to install on the VM through the terminal command.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

To install Apache Tomcat on Debian, follow the instructions provided by Digital Ocean: How To Install and Configure Apache Tomcat on a Debian Server.

The two steps are:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tomcat7

Installing Tomcat on your virtual machine does not require Mac OS X specific commands. Your installation is taking place within the virtual machine and all the commands should be Debian specific.


MacBookPro temperature inconsistency I have a 15" MacbookPro with a Windows 7 Bootcamp partition. I check the temperature when using Windows but I think it doesn't report the right temperature.
I shut down Windows with a temperature between the 70° and 80° degrees, then I immediately power on the laptop but this time I use OS X, when I log in it reports temperatures closes to 100° degrees.

It is possible that when I use Windows it is reporting wrong temperatures? If yes, what software should I use to monitor them correctly?

In OS X I use TG pro, in Windows I've tried many softwares but all of them reports the same data.

In OSX you can also try many applications, one might give you the GPU or Motherboard temp instead of the CPU temp.

OSX temperature apps:

atMonitor or
smcFanControl

OSX might also take more resources than Windows. To minimize running apps, clear your startup items under Users in System Preferences, or check your Activity Monitor which shows your CPU% and Threads for each application, this way you can close apps that are using too much resources.


How to store new iWork (2013) documents in a flat file (for version control)? With the October 2013 iWork update, the new UI is great but it seems one cannot store documents as 'flat file' any more. This really limits my ability to store the files, essentially ruling self-hosted version control (git, hg etc.) out of the picture.

The problem is:

adding a new picture to a document creates a new file within the bundle, which should be explicitly added to the version control
removing pictures removes them from the bundle but - again - version control should be notified.

I tried the trick of zipping the bundle and renaming it back to '.pages' (the way iWork'09 handled flat files) but it does not work.

Has anyone else been bit by this - do you have work-arounds (other than using iCloud, Dropbox - I'm fine with some of the documents living there but for some others I'd like to keep closer to my chest)?

Workarounds can be either on the iWork side, or ways that I get i.e. 'hg' (Mercurial) to version the bundle directories nicely.

Addendum

As the SO item says, I solved this by hg addremove. Other suggestions and discussion are still welcome. :)

The tool keynote-to-text gives a textual representation of a .key file. You can register it as the text converter for a Keynote file by adding to .gitconfig:

[diff "keynote"]
  binary = true
  textconv = /PATH/TO/KEYNOTE/keynote-to-text

And .gitattributes:

*.key diff=keynote

Then git diff provides useful output:


how can I diagnose the root of the problem when my mac starts freezing for 10 sec each time I switch to an app? At random points during the day (but not every day), when I've been working quite a bit, MacOs gives me continual freezes for 10-15 sec. This especially happens when I switch between apps and when I perform certain actions such as trying to reboot, switch a tab in chrome, etc.

The freeze is not a typical rainbow-ball-freeze, but literally, the screen is frozen. The music does keep playing (buffer?) but does not respond to commands, nothing does.

I run Mojave 10.14.6 and own a Macbook Pro 15" mid-2012 in which the primary drive is an SSD and I replaced the DVD-drive with a 7200 rpm Hitachi.

Most of my data, documents, videos, images, etc are on this second hard-drive. MacOS and apps all run on the primary SSD disk.

I'm not sure, but the freezes somehow feel faulty to the hard-drive.

I tried running First-aid on the data-disk but it's unable to unmount. I will try a reboot later, but in the past, the first-aid was unable to find any faults.

How can I proceed to find the root cause of these freezes?

I did the etrescan and although beachballing is not the right description, I thought it most closely resembled the behaviour.
I removed something that might've been adware.
I checked unsigned files, which are mainly developer tools I use.

I pretty much always run Activity monitor on the side to see if my CPU starts spinning up like crazy by some app. This is not the case when I have concurrent freezes.
I also did a safe-boot and ran disk-utility health-aid and it did so without reporting any problems.

I just had the freezes again. It was very clear that the freeze happens whenever I do an action (switch app, open run, delete a file, type admin pw, etc). If I stayed in the same application, it almost all run perfectly smooth...

Etre rapport (1 week expiry date)
console report (1 week expiry date)

I provide three techniques for diagnosing the problem. Don't miss 2 & 3 below.

I'd run etrecheck. Etrecheck will analyze your machine and
software and generate a report. Post results here so others can
view.  Experienced users have found the reported information useful
when diagnosing problems. The proprietary stuff in the report gets
filtered.

Install and run

Download etrecheck.  Goto the  EtreCheck.com download page.  The download link is at the bottom of the screen
Install etrecheck. Goto your download folder. Double click on EtreCheckPro.zip
drag the app to the application folder if you wish.
Double click on etrecheck to run.   The first five runs are free.

An alternative explanation how to install, run and report output for the EtreCheck Application by the author.
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-11591

How to report etrecheck data.

When the report is done, click on the export icon.

click on "Copy report" to copy to the clipboard

Get back in your web browser and access your discussion. Create a new reply. Click on the <> code icon. Paste you etrecheck output into the code block.

which results in...

 You may find Old Toad's write up helpful.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000211

run /Applications/Utilties/Activity Monitor.  Leave it in a visible window if you can.  Maybe you can see some reason for the problem.
Try a safe boot.
Shutdown your machine.  Hold down the shift key.  Poweron.  The boot up will take longer than normal because the filesystem on the startup drive is being checked and repaired as needed.   All about safe mode including what features and apps safe boot leaves out.  Safe boot uses a software driver instead of using your machines video hardware.
  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455