Is there a good way to distribute WPA2 keys within the 'enterprise' Due to this whole cloud thing, we've started to end up with more and more macs within our enterprise network. And, like most enterprises, we've got an internal wireless network that we'd rather not distribute the password to. Currently we've got techs visiting people and entering their wifi keys, but we'd like to be able to send folks a file they can import. Is there some tool natively in OSX that handles this? Or some 3rd party package we can use?

If you are familiar with Lenovo Access Connections and the key files one can send about for that, we are looking for a macbook version of that.

Clairifications:

MAC address cloning is not an option. Outside of it being sham security, we've got an existing ecosystem using the current WPA2-PSK scheme and we don't want to break that. The question isn't how we can re-architect our wireless security to fit a few outliers, it is how can we include the outliers in the current scheme.

So, it turns out that Loin supports iOS-style .mobileConfig profiles, so the answer is "distribute mobileConfig files like the macbook is an iPad."

I can't claim to have figured this out. The story went more like:

Helpdesk Guy: hey, the CEO just called me, can someone get his mac on the wifi now?
Me: Yeah, I'm in the office still, where is he?
Sysadmin Guy: Dude, you don't need to visit him, just send him the iOS mobile config file we use for the iPads.
Me: What? That works?
Sysadmin Guy: Yeah, it does you PC loving doofus
Me: [tests, it does open a newfangled window and holy smokes my mac has enterprise wifi] Wow, that does work, let me email this to the CEO.

Anyhow, I did a little looking around for documentation. I did find some verification that other people are doing this, and I also found this apple training doc which might be what you are looking for.


Podcast syncing changed? I can't seem to get my podcasts to sync like they used to (before ios5).

I have iTunes set up to only transfer SELECTED UNPLAYED podcasts... however, it keeps transferring all of the SELECTED podcasts, played or not.

Do others have this same issue? If not, any suggestions on how I could get it to stop?

I've tried disabling, and re-enabling podcast syncing. Turning off and on SELECTED... turning off and on UNPLAYED... but this doesn't seem to resolve it.

Any advice appreciated.

I definitely feel your pain when dealing with managing podcasts with iTunes on iOS devices. With the challenges of either creating a smart playlist that I can't then order (at least I've generally found this to be impossible) or the idea of having to micromanage my podcasts through a standard playlist as well as the oddities of what podcasts get synced and why I've generally given up.

What I recommend is a specific podcasting app. There are a few out there. I started with Instacast, but it became a little unstable for me recently. I've since gone to Podcaster, and aside from the initial learning curve, I like it more. The nice thing about either of them is that you never have to use iTunes to sync your podcasts either, as they'll download them over wifi or 3G.

Sorry that I can't provide a solution directly related to your iTunes challenge, but I've been happier going this route and maybe you would be as well.


Cannot browse App documents after upgrading to iOS 8.3 I just upgraded my iPhone 5s to iOS 8.3. I found that I am unable to access the contents of Apps using software like iTools, iFunbox and PhoneView.

Does iOS 8.3 change security settings in App document folders?

Tried software:

iFunbox
iTools (latest version & version 2013)
PhoneView (demo version)
iMazing (trial version)
iExplorer (trial version)

UPDATE Here is the security content change log of iOS 8.3 regarding the document access (CVE-2015-1087):

  Backup

  Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation)
  and later, iPad 2 and later Impact: An attacker may be able to use the
  backup system to access restricted areas of the file system
  Description: An issue existed in the relative path evaluation logic of
  the backup system. This issues was addressed through improved path
  evaluation.

  CVE-ID

  CVE-2015-1087 : TaiG Jailbreak Team

According to Macrumors:

"Apple has changed security settings in iOS 8.3 that prevent file managers and transfer utilities such as iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer, iBackupBot and PhoneView from gaining access to app directories on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

The change breaks current versions of transfer utilities for OS X and Windows, forcing many developers to release new versions of their software with workarounds that restore at least partial sandbox access."


how to get shell scripts to run at startup on Yosemite There is a directory in System/Library for startup items I presume: StartupItems

I need to have a shell script that will configure ethernet interface at start up, with local network address and subnet mask. I need to do this because the
network preferences for configuring the ethernet interface will NOT set it
using manual settings. THIS appears to be a serious bug, or my installation
is bad.

I was given the advice to use  networksetup from the command line but that
will not configure the ethernet interface in such a way that the configurations will be there on reboot.

The script needs to do its work with root privileges, or with sudo, but I
am assuming that if it uses sudo, there will be a password dialog presented
at boot time when the boot process gets to that script.

(I have had enough experience with FreeBsd and Linux to find my way around
in the terminal, but not necessarily as it applies to Mac OSX)

One way of doing it would be assigning the script a launchd service:

Create the shell script as usual. Then you can make a launchd service to run it at startup. Those are located at /Library/LaunchDaemons. These are in the XML property list format. Create another and populate it with something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.example.app</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/bin/sh</string>
            <string>/path/to/script</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</plist>

Change com.example.app, /bin/sh and /path/to/script as required.

The script will then run while the system is booting. If it runs too early, you can either write the script to try and do what it needs to do until it succeeds, or have it exit with a non-zero error code and add this to the property list before the </dict> line:

<key>KeepAlive</key>
<dict>
     <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
     <false/>
</dict>

For more on OS X launch daemons and services, I suggest looking here for a nice quick-reference on making them, or here for a more comprehensive reference on what launchd can do.


iOS 10 Proactive App Suggestions are Missing Now that I've upgraded my iPhone SE to iOS 10 (version 10.0.2), the proactive app suggestions are gone.

What I mean by proactive app suggestions: in iOS 9, when I'd plug in my headphones or connect a bluetooth speaker, a small gray app icon would appear in the lower left of the lock screen or, in the app switcher, a gray app suggestion tab would appear along the bottom of the screen. This would usually be exactly the app I'd want to start using on my iPhone.

The proactive app suggestions feature was very handy. I wish it still existed in iOS 10. Is there a way to turn it back on?

I've figured out how to re-enable the proactive app suggestions in iOS 10:

Go to Settings → General → Spotlight Search
Turn off the top three options:

Siri Suggestions
Suggestions in Search
Suggestions in Look Up

Go back to the main Settings menu.
Close the Settings app (go to the Home Screen).
Lock the phone (turn off the screen by quickly pressing and releasing the Sleep/Wake button).
Unlock the phone.
Go back to Settings → General → Spotlight Search
Turn on the three options you turned off above.
Lock the phone (turn off the screen).

Now, when I plug in headphones or connect a bluetooth speaker, the proactive app suggestions show up as they did in iOS 9!

I found the basics of this procedure in the comments at this reddit discussion.


Is there a Game Boy Color emulator for Lion? Is there a GBC emulator that will run on Lion? I've been in the mood for some nostalgic gaming recently, and I'd love to play some of the games from when I was younger.

http://vba.ngemu.com/
Visual Boy advanced should work on Mac. I haven't personally tried it out, but if it's at all as good as their program for PC you'll be set.
Best of luck


Applescript to run when iPhone connects/disconnects I'm trying to figure out how to run an applescript when I connect and disconnect my iPhone with the USB cable.

So far, I think I can run an applescript when it connects by using Image Capture (setting "connecting this phone opens" to "other" and selecting the script).

I don't know how to run a script when the phone is disconnected however. Ideas?

Is this sort of what you're looking for?

  Usbmux

  ...usbmuxd then watches for iPhone connections via USB; when it detects an iPhone running in normal mode (as opposed to recovery mode), it will connect to it and then start relaying requests that it receives via /var/run/usbmuxd – this is to say, usbmuxd is the only thing that actually speaks USB to the iPhone.

http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Usbmux


Adjust delay for activating Full Screen Mode toolbar Is it possible to change the delay on the full screen mode window toolbar in OS X Yosemite?

I'm thinking of something like this, but for the toolbar

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 5

I love using full screen mode, but I'm frequently accidentally triggering the toolbar which covers up whatever I'm trying to access at the top of the screen.

Try
defaults write -g NSWindowResizeTime -float 0.001

or
defaults delete -g NSWindowResizeTime

to revert it.  Taken from http://www.defaults-write.com/disable-full-screen-animation-of-os-x/.


Can I make a shared link in Mail.app appear above my signature? When I click the Share arrow in Yosemite / Safari, then select 'Email this page' Mail.app opens a new email with my signature and the link below the signature:

I want the link to appear above my signature. Is there any way to change that?

I feel like the link used to be above my signature, but I can't find a preference that seems to affect the location. I tried the 'signature appears above quoted text' checkbox which some people implied could change this, but no dice.

I can see the attached image when I select add Signature:

Do you have this? Does it work?

I'm using 10.10.x


GPS on iPhone 6 is not accurate or working at all 1 week ago my GPS worked very accurately on Google Maps. But now it's very inaccurate, seems like it works using 3g connection.

What steps i did:

Restarted phone;
Reset network/location privacy settings;
turned off then turned on location service;

But none of this helped me. Any advices?

It was broken GPS antenna, just replaced it and it worked again.


How can I add a .pkpass file to Wallet? I have a .pkpass file which contains the boarding card for my next flight. Can I add it to iOS Wallet or is it not possible to add a .pkpass file? In case it is possible, how can I do it?

I am using iOS 9.2.1 in an iPhone 4S

I had the .pkpass file downloaded to a computer. This worked for me:

send yourself an email with the .pkpass file attached
open the email on the iphone
tap the attachment
'Add' it to your wallet


Diagnose disk I/O per application I have a Leopard system which feels rather sluggish, and which I suspect may be disk-I/O-bound. While I know how to check which app is using CPU or memory (top or Activity Monitor), I don’t really know how to check which application is heavy on disk-I/O, or if (and how much) swapping occurs on my live system.

So, is there any application out there that would monitor and report disk I/O operations for me (in whatever unit is relevant)? Same for swapping: how can I check if (and to what extent) my swap memory is used?

This is related to “Give a new life to my 2007 MacBook Pro”

The tools are in the terminal app:

fs_usage shows the io on a per file instance and grep will help you filter results to one app if desired.
vm_stat 10 shows aggregate swap activity every 10 seconds - you can fiddle with the timing based on how close you care to look

If you want a nice graph and full monitor, check out Instruments in Xcode. It has amazingly detailed documentation on how to profile, but it basically uses the same terminal commands to get it's raw data but has tons of ways to inspect, view and measure what is happening. Think of it as Activity Monitor Pro (I'd say Pro^10 if you are math inclined :-)


Is selective sync possible with iCloud? So i have one iCloud account and two Macbooks : one mac for work, another for personal use.

I want to use iCloud as cloud backup on both Macbooks, BUT i don't want one Mac to download content of another.

For instance, in work's Mac i have a folder with almost 100GB, that is useless for me on personal Mac. And still, this folder is being downloaded on my personal Mac, making me loose 100GB for nothing.

On Dropbox i had the Selective sync option, where i could select which folders would be synced. But i could not find something similar on Icloud.

Is this possible in iCloud ?

macOS Catalina (10.15) includes new functionalities that allow selective sync on iCloud. In the context menu, accessible by right clicking on a file / folder in iCloud, there are two new options:

Remove Download: the selected item(s) will be removed from your device, while remaining in iCloud.
Download Now: download previously removed files from iCloud.


How can I play a midi file from terminal? I'm looking for a most simple command line app (or an on-board tool on Mavericks I am not aware of) to play a midi file from the terminal. As plain as possible, something like play myfile.mid.

Context: I'm playing around with midi in Python and I need something I can launch from a script. No GUI, no windows, just playback. It must be callable from the Python script to be accepted, but anything that works in terminal should be.

This turned out to be a more complicated problem than I originally expected.

QuickTime X cannot play MIDI files, although QuickTime 7 could.

As far as I can tell that means that there is no "built-in" solution to playing MIDI files on Mac OS X (for example, afplay does not work). Therefore I believe that any solution will involve downloading and installing some other program.

Option #1: Download and install QuickTime 7 which still works fine on Mavericks, and then you can play midi files by:

open -a QuickTime\ Player\ 7 /path/to/your/file.mid

however that will only autoplay if the user has enabled that preference, which I believe is off by default.

Option #2: Use FluidSynth

To install it, you have to be using either Fink, MacPorts, or (my recommendation) Homebrew. Once Homebrew is installed, type this in Terminal:

brew install fluidsynth

(MacPorts' command would be sudo port install fluidsynth and Fink's would be fink install fluidsynth.)

However, downloading fluidsynth only gets you part-way there. Then you need a "SoundFont" file, which I had never heard of before. There is information about them here

I downloaded one from S. Christian Collins called "GeneralUser" which is free. The current version (as of 2013-11-27) is FluidSynth version 1.44. {If that direct link breaks in the future, use the previous link which will take you to the regular web page for GeneralUser.}

Once you have downloaded and unzipped that, you will have a series of files including "GeneralUser GS FluidSynth v1.44.sf2" (obviously the name may change in the future). I renamed that file and moved it to /usr/local/share/fluidsynth/generaluser.v.1.44.sf2.

Once the SoundFont file is place and fluidsynth is installed, you can play a midi by using this command:

fluidsynth -i /usr/local/share/fluidsynth/generaluser.v.1.44.sf2 ~/Music/example.mid

n.b. There are some (seemingly harmless) error messages which get displayed when you do that. If you want to suppress them use:

(fluidsynth -i /usr/local/share/fluidsynth/generaluser.v.1.44.sf2 ~/Music/example.mid 2>&1) >/dev/null

instead.

Obviously I'm never going to remember all of that, so I made a zsh function called playmidi

function playmidi {

    SOUNDFONT='/usr/local/share/fluidsynth/generaluser.v.1.44.sf2'

    if [ -e "$SOUNDFONT" ]
    then

        for i in "$@"
        do
            if [ -e "$i" ]
            then
                (fluidsynth -i "$SOUNDFONT" "$i"  2>&1) >/dev/null
            else
                echo "[playmidi]: cannot find file at $i"
                return 1
            fi
        done
    else
            echo "[playmidi]: SOUNDFONT file not found at $SOUNDFONT"
            return 1
    fi
}

(That should work for bash too I believe.)

Now all I have to do is type:

playmidi example.mid

and example.mid will play.


Wireless headphones on a MacBook running 10.4 — Does Bluetooth work? Can MacBooks (10.4) stream music to Bluetooth headphones? If not, is my only other option to purchase bulky/expensive wireless headphones, or is there another way?

The Bluetooth profile necessary for stereo audio, A2DP, is supported by OS X since version 10.5 (aka “Leopard”). As you use 10.4 (aka “Tiger”), the answer to the first part of your question is:

Bluetooth audio only works in 64 kbit/s mono quality via the headset profile in 10.4.

Probably not what you want for music listening, even if the headphones support it. As to the second part of your question:

You are stuck with wireless solutions working via the audio jack, USB or FireWire.

In the case of USB / FW solutions (if such wireless solutions exist), check these for 10.4 compatibility before you invest.


Can I send an iMessage via iCloud? I logged into iCloud.com but there is no option to send an iMessage.

Is it possible to send an iMessage through iCloud or any other website?

No

For the moment Apple has been extremely quiet about how to access the protocol, and there has been no confirmed plans for iMessage to for the Mac. However, they will most likely release a version for every Apple platform.

I don't think however, they will create a web interface, since no one else has really come up with one that works well.


How to get Ctrl+return key binding for emacs in iTerm2 working? I have Control+Return key bound to a function that I use very often. This works when i run emacs in x-windows. But when I run emacs in iTerm2 control+return just has the effect of line-feed (i.e as if I have just hit enter without holding the control key down). i have tried different variation of this in emacs

(global-set-key (kbd "<C-return>") 'duplicate-line)

(global-set-key (kbd "C-RET") 'duplicate-line)

(global-set-key  [(control return)] 'duplicate-line)

None of them seem to work in iTerm/emacs. I'm not sure if this a emacs terminal mode problem or a problem with iTerm2. I don't want to bind this to any other complex key sequence as I use this very often.

How to get Ctrl+return key binding for emacs in iTerm2 working?

I just did a quick test of emacs in iTerm2 and Terminal. Both see CTRL-RET as simply RET.

I did this with CTRL-h k to see what the key is bound to.


How do I fix a bad file name encoding on an Intel Mac? On occasion I get files that have names mangled (mis-encoded, often from an archive file) by the senders. How do I fix the encoding on an Intel Mac?

I am aware of Apple's File Name Encoding Repair utility, but that is for PowerPC Macs only (I've used it before and despite the awkward UI it really works). Has anyone made such a utility in a universal binary application?

I know this is a very old question, but do verify that your download of File Name Encoding Repair Utility is version 1.1 from May 26, 2006. It is linked (and is listed as v1.0) at https://support.apple.com/kb/DL355?locale=en_US.

Apparently, this software was updated to be Intel compatible in 2006 with no fanfare.

I downloaded this utility in 2017, ran on MacOS Sierra 10.12.2 on a MacBook Pro, and ran it against a few folders with garbled Japanese text from Mac OS 9. It corrected the file names as expected.

I was then able to shift the text encoding of the files to Japanese using SUE in Mac OS 9. There's some differences with Shift-JIS in Mac OS X that I was unable to translate 100% of file encodings using just TextWrangler. Perhaps running SUE in SheepShaver or another Mac OS 9-era emulator may assist.

Using the File Name Encoding Repair, SUE, and Google Translate, I was able to get some old software working. This should help if anyone else finds this in the future.


Mac OS Mojave: How to rename my keychain? I just recovered my OS from TimeMachine.

What happened is that instead of my keychain being restored, it was renamed to login.keychain2 and a new empty login.keychain was created.

I tried to delete the new one and rename login.keychain2 back to login.keychain. It worked during the current session, but when I restart the computer, the previous situation happens again: a new empty login.keychain is created and the one I want to use is renamed...

How do I fix that? It's really annoying...

This is easy to do, happened to me a lot of time after reinstall or migrations, but it hard to find information on the internet about how to do this simple procedure.

You should not delete the new keychain.

You just have to open the old keychain and copy the itens on it to the new keychain

Open KeyChain Utility
Go to menu File -> Add Keychain (and locate the old keychain on the open dialog)
Your old keychain will be included on the list of keychains, just below your 'login' keychain [you need to know the password of it, to be able to add it]

Once added, you will see your passwords on it, and can copy/paste the itens you want to your new keychain.

You can choose to always keep the old keychain showing on the application, or you can remove it, and keep it as a backup, or delete if everything was copied to the new keychain, it is up to you.

To remove it, select it, goto File -> Delete keychain.

It will ask if you want to delete the real keychain 'file', or just 'Delete References`

Don't select "Delete References & Files" !

Select Delete References, and it will be remove from the keychain listing. Only removed. The keychain file will be on your disk, intact, and you can reopen it anytime if you need.

Second way:

After adding it, right click on it, select UNLOCK.

Then select all itens of it, and Drag and Drop to the new Keychain, they will be copied (without asking for the password of each one)

Third way: (at least exists on Catalina)

After adding it, right click and unlock it, right click again and select "Make Keychain Default"


Is it possible to initiate "delete from iCloud" from iPhone? I know, from within iTunes one can chose to remove an item from iCloud. Is the same possible from the iPhone?

Say you imported an album full os songs and don't like one or two and would like to delete it from iCloud directly from the iPhone.

Can this be done?

No, the song can only be deleted from iTunes on Mac or Windows.


Finder in Sierra: How to get "Up" to "Macintosh HD" or "Volumes" Prior to 10.12, if I opened a Finder window and hit Command+↑ a bunch of times, I'd get to /Users, then Macintosh HD, then /Volumes

Now in 10.12, I can get as far as /Users but then Command+↑ becomes disabled.

I can still navigate directly to either location with Command+Shift+G or by browsing via the sidebar. What's required to be able to navigate "up" to them from lower-level folders?

I don't know why, but toggling AppleShowAllFiles on and then off again fixed this.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
killall Finder
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
killall Finder


iPhone wouldn't launch apps, restarted and now showing Apple sign-on screen I restarted my iPhone 4S because the apps kept backing out instead of loading but my phone has been showing the Apple sign on the screen for about an hour. I've already tried pressing the home button and shut off button. What else can I do?

Holding down both the Home Button and the button on the top of the phone for 10 seconds will force the phone to do a hard reboot.


How do I silence incoming voice calls on WhatsApp? I've been forced by my relatives to install WhatsApp on my iPhone. I use it only for text messages, so I disabled camera, voice, etc. and, what I thought, was all sounds from it in the iPhone settings.

But once in a while, one of my older relatives decides to make a voice call to me. In that case the WhatsApp app starts playing this annoying ringing which I cannot kill, that is very frustrating especially if I'm at work.

Is there a setting (or some other way) to prevent it from ringing the incoming voice calls?

PS. I do not want to silence my phone completely. Just WhatsApp.

Edit: This is how the settings look like in WhatsApp:

In order to silence the ringer during an incoming WhatsApp call, you can turn off all the "Notifications," and prevent the WhatsApp from accessing your microphone by going to Settings > WhatsApp >Notifications. Please note that this will disable all the notifications on WhatsApp including the chat/message notification.

If you'd like to receive sound notification for text/chat and only disable the ringer for incoming WhatsApp call, then you should disable the "Banner" alerts, and prevent the WhatsApp from accessing your microphone by going to Settings > WhatsApp > Notifications.


FileVault and scheduled boot After I have enabled FileVault the computer won't boot anymore at the scheduled time. Is it normal or has something gone wrong? If it is normal, are there any workarounds?

With FileVault enabled, the disk is encrypted and cannot be accessed at all without you entering the system login password. If it weren't so (e.g., to make unattended boot work), then the point of FileVault, which is preventing access to anything without your explicit authorization, would be lost.

So yes, it is normal. You could create two disk partitions, encrypt the non-boot partition, and put your data there. Or, you could create encrypted disk images and use those for data you want encrypted. The problem with these approaches is that it's very hard to keep potentially sensitive data from leaking into the non-encrypted part: caches, swap files, backups, etc. If you simply encrypt everything, then this management headache goes away.

It's a classic tradeoff between security and convenience.


iMessage - How to block SMS from contacts without phone numbers? I am sometimes getting SMS messages in iMessage app from empty contacts. Such contact has a name (even it’s not in my contacts), but doesn’t have a phone number or email address. Hence, “Block this Caller” doesn’t work.
Bonus question:
How it is possible that Messages app accepts such SMS messages anyway?
Main question
How to block such SMS messages or enable some option that will prevent SMS without a phone number?
Here is an example of such empty contact. No phone number, no email - “Block” button doesn’t work.

SMS delivery is something your cellular carrier has the most control over. They make money delivering SMS so the trick is to convince them to let you not receive “fake” sms with bogus caller ID. That really varies by carrier and region so once you’re sure you’ve configured you SMS service as you want it, then the iOS settings are next best thing to try.

Contact your carrier - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039
Use Apple settings - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201229

Filtering all unknown SMS and using do not disturb work best for me, but you may have to experiment with the controls to find your best mix of getting messages you want, not seeing those you don’t need to see immediately and engaging blocks on ones that are annoying pests.
In the end, you can’t block a number that doesn’t get reported correctly from the carrier or that you don’t know. Apple has a service added to allow third party applications to screen your calls - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207099  but this doesn’t (yet) work for potentially screening junk messages.


How to retrieve deleted photos (duplicate) from iphone? Recently i have imported my pics from iPhone in iPhoto and it asked me for deleting duplicate pics and i chose yes. But the problem is it has deleted some pics which i wanted but according to iPhoto they were duplicate.
So is there any way i can get those deleted photos back?
Thanks for your time.

Finally I end up using Wonder Share (Mac)


How can I fix the Spotlight index for an encfs-mounted directory? Until recently, on OS X 10.8, I was using Alfred (which in turn uses Spotlight) to search files and directories on an encfs-mounted partition (which is mounted off a folder in my Dropbox directory).

I used to use the command sudo mdutil -i on ~/Dropbox-encfs to enable indexing for that partition once it had been mounted (typically, I remounted every time I rebooted).

However, since upgrading to OS X 10.9, entering the same command returns the error Error: unknown indexing state. Indexing and searching on my main root partition continues to work:

~$ sudo mdutil -a -s
/:
    Indexing enabled.
/Users/myuserdirectory/Dropbox-encfs:
    Error: unknown indexing state.

Has something changed in OS X 10.9 that might cause this? How would I go about debugging or fixing this problem?

I'm using encfs version 1.7.4p1. I've already tried turning on and off the indexing (-i on, -i off), and using the -E flag to mdutil to erase the store.

I mount the encfs partition using the following command:

sudo encfs --public -ovolname=Dropbox-encfs ~/Dropbox/.encfs-crypted ~/Dropbox-encfs

Aside from the indexing problem, the mounted encfs partition otherwise seems to work fine.

I should add that I am also seeing warnings of this form in /var/log/system.log:

Dec 23 14:51:20 montpelier.local mds[57]: (Warning) Volume:
vsd:0x7ffe0c826c00 Open failed.  failureCount:7

Appending the option -o local to the mount (i.e. encfs) command seems to work...


Java on Mountain Lion 10.8.2 pitfalls I downloaded the latest version of Java from Oracle site and installed it on my mac.

MacCris:~ cris$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_11"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_11-b21)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.6-b04, mixed mode)

then,

MacCris:/ cris$ ls -l /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions
total 64
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   10 Jan  3 20:20 1.4 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   10 Jan  3 20:20 1.4.2 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   10 Jan  3 20:20 1.5 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   10 Jan  3 20:20 1.5.0 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   10 Jan  3 20:20 1.6 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   10 Jan  3 20:20 1.6.0 -> CurrentJDK
drwxr-xr-x  7 root  wheel  238 Jan  3 20:20 A
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    1 Jan  3 20:20 Current -> A
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   59 Jan  3 20:20 CurrentJDK -> /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents

going to /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents and executing

MacCris:bin cris$ /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java -version
java version "1.6.0_37"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_37-b06-434-11M3909)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.12-b01-434, mixed mode)

So the currentJDK is 1.6 despite i installed latest java.

The Oracle Java ie 1.7 does not install itself in the same place as the Apple Java ie <= 1.6.

The java executable is in /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_11.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java

This is possibly because only Apple supplied files should be under /System


Macbook Air: MD232LL/A or Z0ND0002Z? I'm planning to buy a new high-end macbook air and found that there're different part numbers for the same product: MD232LL/A and Z0ND0002Z. What is the difference between these two? Is it just about the released country or do they have different specs actually?

I appreciate your help in advance!

The two model numbers don't seem to refer to the exact same configuration. Model MD232LL/A appears to reference to the base model (as noted in Apple's MBA Model Identifier KB). The KB also notes:

  If you have a custom configuration the Model Number and Configuration
  in the table may not match. Please use the Model Identifier to confirm
  the model of MacBook Air for custom configurations.

One example from Amazon - the specs include:

  1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor
  256 GB Flash Storage
  4 GB DDR3 RAM

In the page from Decide.com, the specs for model Z0ND0002Z include:

  Core i7 2 GHz
  8 GB RAM
  512 GB HDD

It's probably that the Z0ND0002Z model is used by retailers that provide more customization, since Apple uses the MD232LL/A model in its online KB. The excerpt from the KB also supports this conclusion.


GeekTool messes up formatting for cat I have a text file called stocks.txt it looks like this:

AAPL    [1;37m  96.15[00m[32m      0.55     (0.58%)[00m
GOOG    [1;37m 566.07[00m[31m     -5.53    (-0.97%)[00m
FB      [1;37m  72.28[00m[31m     -0.37    (-0.51%)[00m
MSFT    [1;37m  42.86[00m[31m      -0.3    (-0.70%)[00m

The things that look like [00m are colors of the text. When I use cat to read the file in Terminal it lines up and looks organized. When I try to do the same thing as a GeekTool shell command it messes up the spacing. What can I do to make it look right.

In terminal:

In GeekTool:

The mis-alignment is a result of using a variable width font. Switch to a fixed-width font in the Geeklet and you'll see the text aligned similar to how it is in the Terminal app.

Open the Geeklet editor and under the Style section press the Click here to set font & color button.

If you like the way your content looks in the Terminal.app you can use the Monaco font for your Geeklet -- that's the same font Terminal.app uses. You see your Terminal.app font settings under Terminal > Preferences... on the Settings tab.


Unable to modify the volume with the keyboard Sometimes, when I connect an external set of headphones/speakers, I am unable to change the volume. When I press one the volume keys, I see the image below.

Why does this happen? Interestingly, if I am playing music using software that has a volume control (e.g. Spotify or Youtube) I can still change the volume with the mouse using the application's volume bar. However, the system's volume bar is greyed out and can't change it either.

What worked for me: open up a Terminal window and run:

sudo killall coreaudiod

You may also need to run the following two commands right after:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext


How to delete the iOS7 install package on iPhone? Some days ago I realized, that Apple automatically stored the iOS7 install package on my iPhone 4S with iOS6. The package uses about 2 GB of free space, which is inacceptable for me.

How can I locate and delete this file?

I did not have this issue and so didn't have to deal with it. But there is a solution posted on the Apple Discussion Forums that you could try. If it doesn't work, you could follow up there (and subscribe to that thread to get updates). Make sure you have a backup (along with Time Machine backups of your previous backup and this one).

Here are the instructions from that post (with better formatting and some typo fixes):

  Part 2. Delete iOS 7 firmware downloaded automatically:
  Method A:
  If you have backup in iTunes, recover it. (I didn't test this method, so it's on your own risk.)

  Method B:

  Open Settings > General > Software Update
  Tap Install Now.
  There will be a prompt that says "Verifying update...".
  Wait until this prompt disappears, there will be a spinning wheel on a black background. Immediately press and hold both of the power and home buttons at the same time.
  DO NOT release the power and home buttons for about 10 seconds.
  Your device will reboot. It's done. The automatically downloaded firmware will have been deleted.


JasperSoft iReport Designer does not open when using only Java from Oracle, not Apple In my OS X Mavericks I did not install Java 6 from Apple, just Java 8 from Oracle, and everything (including Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA) works fine, except JasperSoft iReport Designer, that just closes after you request to open it.

When trying to open from command line, using

open /Applications/Jaspersoft\ iReport\ Designer.app

I got:

LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -10810 for the file /Applications/Jaspersoft iReport Designer.app.

After doing some research, it showed that maybe I could not have some dynlib on same place as Apple's Java have, or even using --jdkhome=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_20.jdk/Contents/Home, but even doing those workarounds it didn't work.

After some more research, found

/Applications/Jaspersoft iReport Designer.app/Contents/Resources/ireport/etc/ireport.conf

And inside it, changed:

# default location of JDK/JRE, can be overridden by using --jdkhome <dir> switch
#jdkhome="/path/to/jdk"
jdkhome="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_20.jdk/Contents/Home"

Now I can see the splash screen! It suggests that I could use --jdkhome, which I did, but it is possible that I did it the wrong way...
Anyway, just after the splash, the app closes again. Nothing is printed in terminal, but in console app I have:

30/09/14 22:02:39,663 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[252]: ([0x0-0x24024].Jaspersoft iReport Designer[866]) Exited with code: 2

What else can I try?

I think this Running iReport on OS/X with Oracle JDK7  may be telling you that it isn't compatible with Oracle's Java.

You can download the last OS X Java release (see Java for OS X 2014-001) which is usable on OS X 10.7/.8/.9.

It appears you could then use jdkhome to point to the Apple Java release.


Why does Apple TV show screensaver when playing video? On occasion, our 3rd Gen ATV will display the screensaver while playing video. Once it starts doing this, the only way to get it to stop is by restarting.  I love my ATV, but this is quite a distraction.

So far, I've noticed that this occurs with both Hulu and Netflix.  The reports I've seen say that a reboot solved the issue with no follow-ups.  For me, that fix is temporary.  A few days later, the problem is back again.

Has anyone else had this problem?

That is very unusual behavior and should not be happening. Try restoring the firmware of the ATV by plugging it into a computer, opening iTunes, and selecting Restore.

Note you will have to re-enter all of your passwords into the ATV afterwards.


Lightning Headphones with a splitter? I got these great-sounding new Fidelio M2L/27 Lightning Headphones that take the digital signal through the lightning connector and then use the high-quality DAC in the headphones themselves so I can listen hi-fi audio from my iPhone 8. However, I am also a mobile app developer and hence I need to also often connect my phone to my computer to debug. I bought a cheap lightning splitter (1 male lightning to 2 female lightning) on Amazon and it doesn't work with the earphones - even if that's the only thing plugged in.

1) Is this an issue with the splitter not being MFI certified? Will my headphones not work if they are the only things plugged in?

2) If I do get an MFi certified adapter will I be able to use the headphones and have the data connection to the computer at the same time? Do lightning connectors allow two data connections at once?

I looked up a couple of splitters including one from Belkin and another cheap one from Amazon. Neither splitter supports data transfer at all, through either port.

I'd hazard a guess that this isn't possible. At least I haven't been able to find a device that explicitly states that it does support data.


Awkward dialog box: MZFinance.InAppBuyLoginRequired_message I am getting the following dialog box for a few days:

How can I find out which application is showing it and how can I solve the issue?
I am on Mac OS 10.7.5.

Edit:

I followed the bassplayer7's answer (moving /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
/NetworkInterfaces.plist to trash and restarting) but it didn't solve the problem.
I moved the hard drive of one my macbooks to another one. So, this might be the cause of the issue.

Very similar error messages have been noticed by developers and users alike.
Check out this blog post. It's not an identical error message but perhaps this will fix it for you as well:

AppleCare found the solution and it is rather simple. Now this solution has worked for me, but there is no guaranty that it will work for you.
Solution: Go to Macintosh HD (or whatever you call your HD in Finder) > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration
For there look for the file labeled: “NetworkInterfaces.plist”

So, you might test this remedy by making a good backup of your Mac and ensure you either have the network passwords and VPN setup files you need (or can regenerate them / reset your WiFi routers to passwords you know) and delete the NetworkInterfaces.plist file.
If that fails to work, you may need to open a Mac App store support ticket and involve Apple in troubleshooting this further. If you can document the steps needed to reproduce this error, please post a follow up question.
Chances are there is a bug in some Mac App Store software that was downloaded onto your computer and getting Apple support involved mit fix it for you and others at the same time.


Copy recursively files and folders, but preserving everything while gaining ownership? I would like to copy files and folders recursively from an external drive to my internal SSD.

However, when I drag and drop, and, subsequently, when I use the copied files, I am always asked to enter an administrator credentials. I don't know if it is a chmod or chown issue, or both (difficulties to making the difference between them).

Is there a way (through Terminal I guess) to copy the files:

while preserving all the files and folders details (i.e. original date/time stamps and whatever metadata necessary/useful);
but gaining ownership (so I don't have to enter administrator credentials each time I want to look, modify or move a file).

I guess it is either cp or rsync, but I must admit having difficulties sorting out and understanding all the available switches.

In order to successfully copy the files in the first place, you need at least have read access to the files at the original location.

To make sure that you can read them, you can either change their permissions with sudo chmod -R o+rx /drag/your/original/folder/from/Finder/here or as suggested in the comments of your question have ownership of the drive ignored for the time-being, which leaves the original files unchanged.

To actually copy the files over, use the following command:

cp -R /drag/your/original/folder/from/Finder/here /drag/your/target/folder/from/Finder/here/

For more information during the copy process, use the following command:

cp -Rv /drag/your/original/folder/from/Finder/here /drag/your/target/folder/from/Finder/here/

Mind the slash at the end of the target folder or the target folder itself will be overwritten by the contents.

Understanding permissions when moving/copying files in UNIX/BSD (Mac OS X's underlying system is based on BSD):

When moving a file from A to B on the same partition/volume, the ownership of the files will not change
When moving a file from A to B between different partitions/volumes, the ownership of the files will change to the user moving them (applying sudo to the copy command will have the target files ownership set to root)
When copying a file from A to B regardless of the location will apply the ownership of the target files to the user copying them (applying sudo to the copy command will have the target files ownership set to root)

With number 1 only the file descriptors will change internally, but no file will be physically moved.  With 2 and 3 the files are physically copied over to the new location with step 2 doing a second step and deleting them from the original location after each copy.

UPDATE (to address comment):

If you copied over the files using sudo, you can modify the permissions of the target files using chown and chmod.

Commands are:

sudo chown -R <user>[:group] /drag/your/target/folder/from/Finder/here

<user> is the account name of your user (not the full name)
:group is a group, which by default for any user is staff and for any admin is admin.  Since it is not required, you can omit to leave it as is (hence the square brackets)

sudo chmod -R 770 /drag/your/target/folder/from/Finder/here

This will give you and the primary group r/w and execution/traversal rights on the files.


Should I buy from an Apple Store, a reseller, or online? Does it matter where I purchase an Apple product (Macbook Pro), or will I get essentially the same product with the same level of support no matter where I buy it?

If it's a certified apple reseller you will get exactly the same product as when purchasing at www.apple.com or the apple store.

If it's another shop that is not certified by apple, you should ask them (how are we here supposed to know?).

You will get the same level of support. It's worldwide one year limited guarantee with 90 days of telephone support.


Why Safari 10 bar search is so slow in Mac OS Sierra? It seems that one of the surprises with Safari 10 on Mac OS Sierra is that it takes ages to perform a search using the search bar (using Google as default search engine).

It takes on average even more than 5 seconds to open the new search tab with google results.

I would rule out a system issue because I reinstalled the entire OS from scratch less than a week ago. This issue didn't change at all.

The only extensions that I am using are 1Password, LastPas and 1Blocker.

I tried using the search on private mode and it seems to get the same slow results so it should not be related to extensions.

Can I make it 1 second? On Chrome it works well.

Try selecting from the Menu Bar, Safari/Preferences/Search and deselect "Enable Quick Website Search". That appears to have solved some of my issues, although it can still be slow at times.


Spotlight indexing of back up drive I've seen some posts about whether you can stop spotlight constantly indexing your time machine backup drive. It seems you can't have it attached to your computer and not have it indexed.

I have been getting around the problem by demounting my backup drive and then remounting it when I want to back up.

I wonder if any anyone has a script that would mount, backup and unmount a backup drive every 6 hours or so.

Thanks.

To not have Spotlight index your Time Machine hard drive while it's powered and attached to your Mac, add Time Machine backup drive (by clicking on the + button at the Privacy tab of the Spotlight system preference.


Determine source of ⌘⌥\ being an alias of ⌘C TL;DR, somehow ⌘⌥\ has become aliased to ⌘C on High Sierra (possibly earlier). I cannot for the life of me determine the source of this.

I first noticed this when invoking 1Password Mini began producing a system bell tone. I finally started to dig into the problem today. In the Keyboard preference pane, there are no conflicts with the ⌘⌥\ shortcut. So I disabled the shortcut in 1Password Mini. Tested, and system bell still sounds. When I attempted to re-add the shortcut, I get the following:

To be clear, this dialog displays when I carefully type ⌘⌥\ — I am not typing ⌘C.

So something has apparently aliased ⌘⌥\ as ⌘C. I have tested this further. If I highlight text, click on the Edit menu, and type ⌘⌥\, I briefly see the Copy item flash, and text is copied to the clipboard.

Any ideas? This is driving me nuts. I've quit all other applications, including menu items. I've checked the Keyboard Shortcuts preference pane for conflicts. And everything has come up short.

Update: I've installed Key Codes from the App Store, and even this application indicates I'm pressing ⌘C! However there's some slight differences that might provide useful information for debugging:

⌘⌥\:

⌘C:

Update 2:

As additional information, this happens with both an external Apple Wireless Keyboard as well as the internal keyboard on the MacBook Pro.

Update 3:

This is the full log from Key Codes, including modifier keys being pressed, up to and including pressing the \ key. It indicates immediately after the \ key is pressed (which it identifies as the c key), the c key is released and a modifier change is made as well (despite no keys actually having been released).

I found the issue. An Alfred hotkey (Preferences => Features => File Search => Navigation => Previous Path [no wonder it was so difficult to find!]) was conflicting with the 1Password hotkey. As far as I can tell, there is no mechanism to uncover such conflicts other than by exhaustive search.

As far as I'm aware, the hotkey I use with 1Password is the default. I'm amazed this conflict doesn't seem to be more widely-known.


Prevent "upgrades" (like Catalina) from appearing in software update window I don't want to see Catalina here anymore. I'm tired of Apple's update aggression:

What can I do (short of nuking the App Store) to prevent OS "upgrades" from being listed in the Software Window (for ALL users)?
I tried this method but is no longer an effective solution. I get the message below, and Catalina remains.
Ignoring software updates is deprecated. The ability to ignore individual updates will be removed in a future release of macOS.
Well, it seems the ability has already been removed.

As of Sep 2020, the steps to do this on High Sierra or Mojave are:

Make sure you have Security Update 2020-005 installed
Enrol your device in Mobile Device Management. For those that have a workplace or school that already use MDM, this is simple - just follow their instructions for 'bring your own device' setup. For those that don't, you can setup your own MDM by signing up for a JAMF Now account - see my guide at bottom.
Double check your device is now managed, by executing profiles status -type enrollment in a terminal and checking that at least one of Enrolled via DEP or MDM enrolment is Yes.
Run sudo softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina" in a terminal to ignore the Catalina update. If it worked, you should see Ignored updates:( "macOS Catalina" )
Run defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 0;killall Dock in a terminal to turn off the red notifications tag for the Software Updates dock icon and refresh the dock.

Changes to software update --ignore ability
As you mentioned, the fix for this used to be the command:
sudo softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina"

However, this command was deprecated in May 2020 with security update 2020-003. Mr Macintosh did a great job of documenting this at the time. As of that update, softwareupdate --ignore returns the below message, without actually adding anything to the ignore list.
Ignoring software updates is deprecated.
The ability to ignore individual updates will be removed in a future release of macOS.

Apple must have got a lot of heat for this, as they backflipped, a bit: with security updates 2020-004 & 2020-005 they re-enabled ignoring updates, but only for managed devices, ie those managed with Apple Business/School Manager or user-approved MDM. (2020-004 was meant to re-enable it for both but actually it was still broken for UAMDM. 2020-005 finally fixed this)
So if you've installed those updates, provided your device is enrolled in any UA MDM, running the above ignore command will work. Signing into your work email using Mail might be enough to achieve this, depending on the setup.
Setting up your own MDM to enrol in
If you don't have a work or school management provider to use, you can always set up you own using one of the many free trials offered by MDM providers. This is going to somewhat extreme ends to remove the upgrade prompt, but it only took me about 15 mins to do, so may be worth it if it annoys you sufficiently.
Steps:

From https://www.jamf.com/solutions/industries/business/, look for JAMF Now and click Create Free Account
Fill in the form, then check your email to finish activating the account and login
Follow the steps to create a new Push Certificate and upload it to your JAMF account
Setup Open Enrolment in your account, and share the enrolment link to the device you want to disable the Catalina update on
Click the link on that device, and enrol it in the UA MDM you've setup

You should now be enrolled. You can check by running profiles status -type enrollment in terminal - you should see a line saying MDM enrollment: Yes (User Approved). If you do, the sudo softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina" command should now work!


How to upgrade to iOS 5.1.1 on first generation iPad i have just had this iPad passed down to me. I'm not that familiar yet, I'm trying to download some games, some need iOS 6+ that's fine, but some it tell me I need 5.1.1? I'm probably being daft but I thought that's what I'm on? I'm 1st generation, no frills iPad and am used for web browsing and music/music writing mainly. I have completed the games it had on it already and would like new ones, free new ones lol!
   Can you help me please, I've been scanning the web but no joy!
                   Thankyou x

You can check the current version of iOS that is installed on the device by going to Settings → General → About and check the version number.

To update your device, connect it to iTunes over USB and click Update.


The AppStore doesn't download full pack apps, which were previously bought I bought a new IPad. Started to download all my previous purchased applications, however I get only the basic versions, with an option to pay and unlock the rest of features. HOWEVER, I already purchased the full packs on each application on my previous IPad and paid a lot of money. So how can I get my full pack apps back? It's outrageous if I have to pay all over again for something I already bought.

If you purchased the upgrade inside the app it is called an "in-app purchase". In-app purchases can be restored by tapping on a button inside the apps that says something like "Restore Purchases".


Command line tool for interacting with Bluetooth Low Energy devices, similar to gatttool I've just found out that some Python code I've got working on Linux also needs to work on OSX.

For reliability reasons, on Linux I've been using a cludgy but effective approach to reading and writing characteristics on Bluetooth Low Energy devices. I've been simply spawning a subprocess that calls the gatttool command with the appropriate arguments and capturing the output. (None of the libraries that I tried would work reliably).

So now that I have to get it working on OSX, it would be wonderful to just use the same approach, but with a tool that works on OSX. Requirements for the tool are:

Read from an arbitrary bluetooth characteristic on an arbitrary device
Write to an arbitrary bluetooth characteristic on an arbitrary device

Is there such a tool for OSX? If not is there a way I can get gatttool working under OSX?

Thanks

GATT isn't exposed on macOS as easily as CoreBluetooth (which you can get to easily from the command line with swift or python and objective c bridging).

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_BluefruitLE/tree/master/Adafruit_BluefruitLE/corebluetooth
https://github.com/karulis/pybluez

The pybluez code is very well commented and has good nuggets like:

  See https://developer.apple.com/documentation/iobluetooth
  for Apple's IOBluetooth documentation.

  See http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net for details on how to access Objective-C
  classes through PyObjC.

If those python examples don't work, then if you are a developer, I would start with the Additional Tools downloads for Xcode (latest beta version). If you're not a developer, then the free Xcode would be where I start to see how quickly you could get to GATT or see if the CoreBluetooth API are suitable for what you want to do.


can mac mini handle the load without eGPU? i currently have a 2011 27" iMac - i7, 3.1ghz with 20gb RAM with a gig of vRAM on a standard AMD Radeon 6970M video card. It's connected to 2 24" Dell U2415 monitors running at 1920x1200. i use it for web development (VS Code, various node servers and processes, databases, source control clients, dozens of browser tabs etc) and design, which means heavy use of Photoshop & Illustrator at the same with multiple files, layers and artboards - files are typically for screen (not print) so it's not like I'm editing ginormous RAW photos, but there are a lot of filters and smart objects at times. Occasionally, I'll dip into AfterEffects and inDesign, and then there's other apps like XD, Figma, etc.
This system handles all this surprisingly well, but one of the drives is getting to be on the older side and is making me nervous. Not wanting to put a dime into this dinosaur and already having gotten more life out of it than I expected, I'm ready to upgrade. I found a great deal on a 2018 Mac Mini i7 6-core, 3.2ghz, 16gb RAM and 256GB SSD.
I know I'd have to get a TB3 -> TB2 adapter (to use my current iMac as a display only) and 2 TB3 -> HDMI cables - no big del there. Eventually I'll upgrade to bigger 5K monitors and at that know I'll surely need to get an eGPU in the process - I'll be willing to bite the bullet when that time comes. But for now based on the kind of work I do and my monitor setup (the 2 Dells and the iMac), I'm wondering if the Mini's onboard graphics can handle it alone.
If anyone has any insight or personal opinion they'd care to share, I'd love to hear it. Also, if there are any other potential issues beyond having to get adapters for TB2 and HDMI that I've missed, please feel free to point them out. Thanks!
PS - forgot to add that I've read about Bluetooth issues with the Mini as well. My desk is wood (not metal) and I use a 2nd Gen Magic Mouse & Keyboard as well as a FitBit (and I don't NEED to connect the fitbit. i can do that on my MBP if necessary) - will I encounter any issues with the connection to keyboard and mouse randomly dropping?

I have the middle i5 6-core Mini, and using InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Logic, Dorico and other 'pro' apps, I haven't even comes close to maxing it out. I've even had Handbrake running in the background comfortably.
The on-board SSD is crazy fast. I'd get more RAM for it, though. I have 32GB, which again never gets entirely used, even with loads of caching.
Yes, the Intel graphics units may not be as good as dedicated cards, but they're  good enough for most uses, unless you're doing 3D rendering or high-end gaming. Multiple Photoshop effects layers are not a problem.


How to turn off connections when MacBook lid is closed I have a friend who wants his connections (WiFi, Bluetooth, ext...) to turn off when his lid is closed. He doesn't want to change a lot of settings (sleep mode, turning it off manually ...).

Is there a simple way to do this through macOS System Preferences? Or a way with some program?

You could install blueutil and SleepWatcher via homebrew and set a .sleep code to call blueutil in order to disable bluetooth and call "networksetup -setairportpower en0 off" to disable wifi when going to sleep mode or closing the lid.

Blueutil comands are "/usr/local/bin/blueutil -p 0" to disable bluetooth and blueutil -p 1 to enable it.

To use SleepWatcher, make a shell script in your home directory named .sleep and give it permission with the chmod command.

You also can do a .wake code to enable back connections when waking up the mac.

You can find out how to use sleepwatcher here


No edit button on events in Apple Calendar with shared Google Calendar (iCal) I'm using google calendars with 2 different calendars on my account. I added the calendars to Apple Calendar via the Internet Accounts options.

All events turn up as expected in Apple Calendar but I cannot find an edit button to change an event.

What am I missing?

There is no edit button...
Just double click on the event you want to edit, then, in the pop up, click the title, and now you’re able to edit the title, click on the other data to change that.


What is Containers/com.apple.mail suppose to look like? My three-month-old MacBook Pro was upgraded to Big Sur as soon as it arrived, before migrating in accounts and apps from the old one.
It has since had several seemingly unrelated problems that do not seem to be hardware issues.  None of them happened on the old laptop with Catalina.
The worst is with Mail.app.  ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail has no extended attributes, and no ACL.  Finder will not let me see its contents (and no bypass on the contextual menu), but Terminal says I own it and the permissions are 776.  It contains only a Data folder and a plist.  The Data folder contains symlinks to several of the directories in ~.  And if I open Data in Finder, Finder changes "com.apple.mail" to "Mail" in the path.
I’ve been told it is not supposed to look like that.  But my oldest backup is more than six months old from the previous machine (which had Catalina), and it never had any of these problems.  I still have that machine, so tonight I charged it and looked, and verified that Time Machine is not lying to me.
That's why I'm asking. If your Big Sur is behaving well, do you have a similar ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail or is it very different?

The short answer is yes, I believe your ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail is what it is supposed to be.
Just like you, I do have ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail which Finder presents as one of 6 subfolders called Mail.  Mine has permissions like yours and same content including all the symlinks.
So don't worry, everything is (most likely) just as it is supposed to be.
The more worrying answer is that Apple Support staff mostly do not have the faintest idea about the changes in Big Sur.  I have come across other reports where Apple Support seems to be reading from their Catalina support notes.


OS X Execute a script while printing Is it possible to make OS X execute a script when document is printed ?

My printer is connected to a power switch which is controlled with a REST API and the idea is to switch the printer on only when it is needed (basically while printing).

Any command (bash, AppleScript) can be used if it can make a call to a rest API (http://10.10.0.1/switchon).

Common Unix Printing System

macOS uses the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) for printing. This open source system does allow for calling scripts and more.

Knowing this, the search for cups pre-print script returns some good starting points.

Virtual Printer to Real Printer Workflow

The StackOver questions Programming a Filter/Backend to 'Print to PDF' with CUPS from any Mac OS X application and Run a script on files sent to a CUPS print queue? offer an example where a virtual printer is used to pre-process a print job before passing it onto a real printer.

In your situation, the pre-processing could be to power on your printer via the REST API.

Alternatively…

See also Run command before and after printing with CUPS?


Mail.app performance after upgrade to Lion I am having some big issues with Mail.app after upgrade to Lion. Performance is horrible.

When i open a message, cpu usage grows up to 150% See monitor activity screenshot

I already tried to repair permissions and remove all accounts to recreate it but it didn't make any difference.

I'm using 2 accounts with imap. The total messages on inbox is 12.000. Before upgrade, it was running fine.

Anyone experiencing this? Any ideas of what should i do?

If you open the Mail's Activity window (keyboard shortcut: Command+0), what does it show that justifies the 150% CPU figure?


Can I use TimeMachine with a Thunderbolt hard drive? The Apple technicians told me that I needed a specific device to use Time Machine... namely a wireless device that had a relatively small hard drive.

Since I use Oracle Virtual Box and have very large files, I think it would be best to backup using Thunderbolt, instead of Wifi.

Can I use a normal Thunderbolt harddrive and have Time Machine work with that?

Yes. You can use Time Machine with any directly attached hard drive.  It is much faster, although if you have a laptop, it is somewhat less convenient to remember to plug the drive in than to use wireless.

The folks from Apple were probably recommending a Time Capsule, which is a wireless router with a built-in drive for backups. It's definitely an easy way to do it, but not required.


update_terminal_cwd demystified please? I am trying to find the documentation on what, exactly, the printf command is doing in update_terminal_cwd.

If you didn't know already, the update_terminal_cwd function is defined (at least on Mac OS X 10.7.4) in /etc/bashrc and in that same file the function is added to the $PROMPT_COMMAND so that it runs every time you hit enter in the Terminal.

The text of the update_terminal_cwd function itself is as follows:

update_terminal_cwd() {
    # Identify the directory using a "file:" scheme URL,
    # including the host name to disambiguate local vs.
    # remote connections. Percent-escape spaces.
local SEARCH=' '
local REPLACE='%20'
local PWD_URL="file://$HOSTNAME${PWD//$SEARCH/$REPLACE}"
printf '\e]7;%s\a' "$PWD_URL"
}

This is a few steps down the rabbit hole from trying to set my Terminal tab names from the command line, which can be done rather easily, but the tab name gets reset when sshing into a box.

This led me to How to stop automatic changing of iTerm titles? and the rather obscure list of control sequences on the Mac.

If you go to that last link and search for the string osc ps ; pt bel, you will find the section which defines the escape character that makes tab renaming work.  However, while that explains printf '\e]1;%s\a' (note the "1"), it doesn't explain what the "7" does in the update_terminal_cwd function I quoted above.

Where is this documented??  (And why does PWD_URL include the prefix file://?)

from Terminal.app v2.6.1 (OS X 10.11), under Preferences/Profiles/Window, there is highlighted text "Escape sequence..." which says:

  The working directory and location of the current document may be set
  using the Operating System Command (OSC) escape sequence:

  ESC ] Ps ; Pt BEL

  The parameter Ps is either 6 (document) or 7 (working directory) and
  Pt is a “file:” URL. The URL should include a hostname to disambiguate
  local and remote paths, and characters must be percent-encoded as
  appropriate.

  When both the working directory and document are set only the document
  is displayed.

also, from Preferences/Profiles/Tab:

  Window and tab titles may be set using the Operating System Command
  (OSC) escape sequence:

  ESC ] Ps ; Pt BEL

  The parameter Ps is either 1 (tab title—aka “icon title”) or 2 (window
  title) and Pt is the title text.

  A custom window title will be displayed within the tab title (along
  with the other selected items) if there is no custom tab title.

  The following example bash command sets the tab title to “My Tab”:

  printf '\e]1;%s\a' 'My Tab'


External hard drive is snapping/making weird sounds in sleeping mode I have an external hard drive connected to macbook. When I am listening to music and my mac is not in sleeping mode everything is fine, but after 15 min. when display is turning off and music is still playing my hard drive has very weird behavior - it looks like it turning on/off every 40 seconds 'to load a little bit of music and continue sleeping' making simultaneously ugly sounds/snaps. I don't remember the same behavior when I used Windows.

It's likely just the parking of heads and the disk wanting to stay in "sleep" mode. You can read more about that here.

One way to stop the disk from going to sleep (some external enclosures have extreme disk sleep settings to conserve power) is to use pmset.

For example, to prevent an attached disk from going to sleep while your device is plugged in to AC (charger) is as follows:

sudo pmset -c disksleep 0

It's of note that this prevents all disks from going to sleep, not just the external enclosure.

pmset is the program that handles all power management settings on OS X. The Power Management Preference Pane is just a front end to that utility. All settings are persistent (saved on reboot) and are actually written to a plist (/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist).

Additionally, you could try using HDAPM (I ran this for months before I moved to an SSD).

I would suggest trying to use pmset to prevent the disk from sleeping. It works on most external enclosures, but if you find that it's not honored by your manufacturer, you may have to find an alternate method. I've found WD and some Seagate enclosures to be problematic. pmset is not a hack and should be honored by all device manufacturers; however if you find that yours is not, try heading over to their support forums. They may have a firmware update or more information.

Lastly, if you suspect the drive of premature failure, you'll have to run a proper analysis of the drive's physical health. Disk Utility is not a reliable program in this case, as it deals with filesystem structure and integrity. You will want to use either a 3rd party utility (like Disk Warrior) or better yet, the free tools supplied by the hard drive's manufacturer (which will most likely require Windows).


Turn off login notification email for Facebook chat on a Mac I have setup Facebook chat in Messages on my Mac. The problem is that every time Messages logs in to chat, I receive an email saying:

  It looks like someone logged into "Facebook Chat" on Sunday, March 2,
  2014 at 11:07am. If this was you, please disregard this email. If this
  wasn't you, please secure your account, as someone else may be
  accessing it.

I understand that this is essentially a Facebook security mechanism to warn users about unauthorised access to their account. My question is: Is there a way to mark Messages as an 'authorised application' so that I don't get this notification email every time?

Go to your Facebook

Settings-Security and disable the notifications there


Sending Network Stream from Playlist (.m3u8) to AirPlay? I have a Mac, an Apple TV, and I have a network video stream (.../stream.m3u8) that I'd like to send over AirPlay to my Apple TV.

If I open it in QuickTime/VLC, it plays great, but neither support streaming video over AirPlay.

And when I try to open the stream in iTunes, it instead adds it as a playlist, instead of playing the video.

I'm aware (and a proud owner) of AirParrot, but it's a "whatever's on your screen" type of thing, which gets a little choppy, and the audio is often not properly synced.

Are there any ways, with a Mac and Apple TV, to send a live video stream over AirPlay, or to open it on my Apple TV?

Well as you said with AirParrot (which btw is also great for Windows users) you can extend your display to a "Specific App…" thus QuickTime/VLC/MplayerX. To avoid choppy video you should use Ethernet cable…
I don't know what can be done and how Mavericks reacts with the second display feature while changing desktop… But I believe you have the same kind of lags.

Air Video HD allows from local device to AppleTV streams : http://www.inmethod.com/airvideohd/index.html
It should not be to complicated to route your favorite remote server on a local IP address /etc/hosts or something like that …

The alternative that would work for AppleTV v2 and v3 (that last one not being jail braked) is to emulate the "Trailers" service to be able to stream from "PlexConnect" :
— http://gigaom.com/2013/06/04/plex-apple-tv-plexconnect/
— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1s09hRaWm4


Can I transfer or sync purchased as well as non-purchased songs from my iPhone to my computer? So, I wiped my drive clean on my MacBook and reinstalled the OS. Happily the best of my music was safe on my iPhone and I figured it would easily flow back to my iTunes library.

Not so happily, I can't seem to figure out how to get this music, which is mine, to the laptop, which is mine, from the iphone, which is mine.

I don't want to jailbreak my phone just for this one task, I'm running iOS 4.2.1 on an iPhone 3G and my MacBook 5,1 runs OS X version 10.6.5.

I would like my music back.  How to do this?

Things you've purchased off the iTunes Store can be transferred off your iPhone by right clicking on your iPhone in iTunes and choosing 'Transfer Purchases'. You might need to Authorise your computer first by clicking the Store Menu, and then choosing Authorise This Computer.

For your non-iTunes Store content I'd recommend Senuti (read it backwards!) which lets you copy music from your iPhone or iPad back to your mac. Senuti costs $18, but there's a trial version, which can transfer up to 1000 songs.

Neither of these require a jailbreak.


Play flash content in QuickTime player It possible play web video content like a Flash or HTML5 file in external player like a QuickTime player or VLC player.

Play video like it made in iphone when using safari.

Some time ago I used the "Elmedia Player" for playing old flash movies I had on my disk. Don't know how it works nowadays, but they have a free version to try.

http://mac.eltima.com/media-player.html


Changing display resolution on Retina machines while in Command Line Mode I frequently prefer to boot into the command line mode (CMD + S on boot) instead of booting to the normal GUI-imposed version. I do most of my work in the terminal, so it's nice to save some time and bypass all the unnecessary UI.

However, on retina machines, the command line mode displays at a 1:1 ratio (instead of a 2:1), meaning all text is very, very small. I really want to reduce the resolution it displays at by a factor of two. Is this possible, and if so, how?

I found this for you

scrutil

  Slightly more advanced due to the nature of the command line, the free utility called screenutil gets the job done immediately with a quick entry into the Terminal.

  Launch Terminal and drag and drop scrutil into the command line to use it once, but if plan on using it often it’s a good idea to toss scrutil into /usr/local/bin for easy future access. Once installed, changing the retina display to native 2880×1800 with screenutil is achieved with the following command example:

scrutil s 2880 1800 16

  The command will report back the resolution change, the 16 at the end is color depth so you can set that to something else if you’d like. You can set it back to the default resolution either through System Preferences or with scrutil s 1440 900.

There is also this:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090413120929454

/*
 * COMPILE:
 *    c++ setgetscreenres.m -framework ApplicationServices -o setgetscreenres
 * USE:
 *    setgetscreenres 1440 900
 */

#include <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

bool MyDisplaySwitchToMode (CGDirectDisplayID display, CFDictionaryRef mode);

int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    int h;                          // horizontal resolution
    int v;                          // vertical resolution
    CFDictionaryRef switchMode;     // mode to switch to
    CGDirectDisplayID mainDisplay;  // ID of main display

    CFDictionaryRef CGDisplayCurrentMode(CGDirectDisplayID display);

    if (argc == 1) {
        CGRect screenFrame = CGDisplayBounds(kCGDirectMainDisplay);
        CGSize screenSize  = screenFrame.size;
        printf("%d %d\n", screenSize.width, screenSize.height);
        return 0;
    }
    if (argc != 3 || !(h = atoi(argv[1])) || !(v = atoi(argv[2])) ) {
        fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: Use %s horres vertres\n", argv[0]);
        return -1;
    }

    mainDisplay = CGMainDisplayID();

    switchMode = CGDisplayBestModeForParameters(mainDisplay, 32, h, v, NULL);

    if (! MyDisplaySwitchToMode(mainDisplay, switchMode)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error changing resolution to %d %d\n", h, v);
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

bool MyDisplaySwitchToMode (CGDirectDisplayID display, CFDictionaryRef mode)
{
    CGDisplayConfigRef config;
    if (CGBeginDisplayConfiguration(&config) == kCGErrorSuccess) {
        CGConfigureDisplayMode(config, display, mode);
        CGCompleteDisplayConfiguration(config, kCGConfigureForSession );
        return true;
    }
    return false;
}

  Save that as a pure text file named setgetscreenres.m, then compile it
  in Terminal using the command shown in the code (assuming you're in
  the directory where the file is saved):

c++ setgetscreenres.m -framework ApplicationServices -o setgetscreenres

  Move this file somewhere on your user's $PATH, and then use it by
  typing ./setgetscreenres hor_res vert_res, where hor_res and vert_res
  are the desire horizontal and vertical resolution.

Disclaimer: I have not tested it!


How to Change the Dock Indicator Lights Color in Mac OS X only for an app that I'm using right know? How to Change the Dock Indicator Lights Color in Mac OS X only for an app that I'm using right know?

I have 10 Firefoxes in my Dock with 10 different profiles, and sometimes I'm lost - I'm not sure which one of them I'm using right now.

So, maybe there is a way to show it somehow? Like some kind of software or I can just add some code like Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p -SOMECOLOR?

The Dock indicator light does not differ between which app is in the foreground.

As a workaround, you could install a third party item called HyperDock (for EUR 6.95 as of this writing) to show you the content of the window when hovering over the icon with the mouse (similar to how Windows' Aero Desktop does).


Appointments in Calendar I have an IMAC that I purchased in Japan in late 2009 annam currently using in the US.  My issue is with Calendar, there are appointments showing up that are in Japanese and that I cannot cancel or delete, any suggestions.

Usually the appointments and other information comes from a Calendar that you signed up to.

Look on the left to see which ones you are signed up to and disable the one you do not want.


How am I supposed to know if SMC reset has taken place? I have a Macbook Air (mid - 2013) which means non - removable battery and currently it's running El Capitan OS X. I tried to do some SMC reset by pressing

shift + control + option + Power button

but there light indicator on the MagSafe adapter does not change any color. It used to do so when I first got it. But not anymore. So, how am I supposed to know if SMC reset has taken place?

A SMC or PRAM reset will invoke the Boot Chime to activate or become louder.
I would also suggest verbose mode (Cmd+V) and look for a reset message.


Can't download apps from App Store as get button doesn't start download For a couple days now, whenever I try to download an app from the App Store on my iPhone 5s with iOS 8.3, it brings up the 'use existing Apple ID' or 'create new one' window.

When I select the existing one and fill in my account information it closes the pop up window and starts to download the app (indicated by the circle starting to turn) but after one second it goes right back to the 'get' button.

When I try to download it again it all goes to square one. İt has been driving me nuts! İts like a vicious circle!

From the Apple help site at: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201400 it recommended

  Make sure that your date, time, and time zone are correct. Tap
  Settings > General > Date & Time.

My settings were correct. However I turned off the automatic date/time/timezone feature to make the date and time zone setting be manual.

Voila, I could connect to the iTunes/App store. I had turned my phone off and on several times. I really wanted to avoid doing a reset. So I've escaped it for now.


Safari for one user can't connect to local server via https due to new cert This is similar to Safari can't connect to https, but is just for one single https site.

Safari can't connect to my local NAS' HTTPS site anymore because it "can't establish a secure connection". This is an administrator account, every other newly created account on the system works fine.

This happened after creating multiple different certs for my NAS with alternative names and installing a different one every few days during some testing. After the final certificate was installed to the NAS, I deleted all old certificates from the keychain. Now all alternative names mentioned in an older version result in the above problem, while the newly added alternative names working well:

mynas.local doesn't work (primary cert name)
old.mynas.local doesn't work (very first alternative name from early tests)
new.mynas.local works fine (new alternative name from last cert generation)

Both work fine on other systems, or with a newly created user.

I tried the following without success:

deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist like mentioned in the other post above
resetting my default keychain

Seems I finally found the solution (after trying so messing so many things up due to other solutions):
Using "Internet Accounts" to add a CalDAV account for the server.

As soon as I tried to add a new CalDAV account for "https://old.mynas.local" I got a "untrusted certificate - what should I do"-dialog and could successfully trust the new certificate. Then all problems in Safari vanished as well.
It seems OSX internet accounts uses its very own certificate system and this trusted one of the old certificates due to a CalDAV account previously configured and thus forbid access to the https server now serving the "wrong" certificate. The creepy thing: the dialog popping up was in English although my OS language is not English.

This solution might even work if one doesn't use CalDAV, because the certificate dialog should pop up as soon as the https connection is established, even before trying to check for DAV functionality.


A problem with the Telegram app- online status I have a problem with my device and it would be great if anyone can help me with this problem.

In Telegram Messenger app; when I close the App, either by closing it or by coming out from the app my "ONLINE" is on just temporarily.

If I check my status from another device in front of my name is still written ONLINE.

Is there a way to change this On-line reporting to be more accurate.

Regards.

Previous versions of Telegram used to linger on changing one's status from online to last seen just now for about 5-10 minutes. (Not documented, just my observation.) But I think they've fixed this in the latest version. Please update Telegram on all your devices and check if this problem still exists.


Turn On Air Play on iPad Without Double Tapping Home Button Is there a way to enable Air Play Mirroring on the iPad without (!) double tapping the  home button?

I'd like to physically lock away the home button to use the iPad on a booth but still be able to mirror the screen on an Apple TV. Is this possible?

If you have gestures enabled, you can swipe up using 4 fingers and then scroll to the left to access Air Play.

Not sure of any other ways.


Hotkey Toggling between Private & Non-Private browser window? Consider two Safari windows: one private, the other not.  There may be more than one tab in the window.  The goal is to toggle between the two windows (not the tabs) with a hotkey.

Does such a hotkey exist?

You'll find that shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > (left side of window:) Keyboard > Focus on next window.

With my (German) keyboard default is Cmd-<, but that may be different with other system languages. Just look there!

BTW: I changed this shortcut to a more convenient Ctrl-< which (on my keyboard) is easier to reach.


Homebrew and existent software in /usr/local Is it ok to install homebrew in default(for homebrew) deirectory /usr/local if I've already have installed software there.

In other words, if Mysql and GPGTool already installed in /usr/local and then I'll install homebrew also in /usr/local. Will it work correct or I should install homebrew in another directory.

P.S.: I know that homebrew has mysql but I need special version that already installed.

It would probably work ok to mix the two, but to be safe I'd just put homebrew in a different directory.  You might run into conflicting files, perhaps in some supporting library.

I don't know what's special about your mysql build, but i'm sure homebrew has options to build different flavors.  do "brew options mysql" to see what is available, perhaps it has what you need.


Copy Apps from iPad to PC iOS 9 I have lots of apps on my iPad and I want to copy them to my PC, usually I'd just click transfer purchased in iTunes but now it's not working. I want to backup and restore my iPad because I've been having some issues. iFunBox isn't working either

Transfer purchases was actually disabled in iOS 9. Apple disabled it because there are many different variants of an app from the App Store. This means that an app that was on an iPad Air that was then transferred to a PC can't be used on an iPhone or an iPad Mini.

A thread was posted here about why it was disabled and goes into more detail.

If you want to put all your data onto a new iPad, just backup your old iPad and restore as a backup on a new iPad.

Good luck!

Cheers


How to block an IP address? I am running MacOS Mojave. I am wondering if there is an easy way to block an IP address.

For example, I can ping 8.8.8.8 and telnet 8.8.8.8 53. Now, I want to block all access to 8.8.8.8. so ping and telnet should both fail.

Btw, I’m not looking to use dns to this host. I can block it easily in /etc/hosts file but not all apps and services respect dns and hosts override. I’m looking for a non DNS block to implement.

Finally, I found a solution by using PF.

(1) edit PF configuration

sudo vim /etc/pf.conf

Append the following line to the file:

block drop from any to <IP Address>

For example: block drop from any to 8.8.8.8

(2) Load the config by running

sudo pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

(3) Enable PF by running:

sudo pfctl -e

(*) If you want to disable PF, run:

sudo pfctl -d


How Do I Gain Access To The Content Folder Of A .jar File? I want to use a modded Minecraft launcher on my Mac but the launcher I want to use is from an unidentified developer. When I try to open the app it says “TechnicLauncher.jar” is from an unidentified developer. Are you sure you want to open it?" and it is preventing me from being able to play. I play on a Mac that I am not an admin and I can't get access to change the setting. So I was wondering how to gain access to the apps' content folder so that I can copy it into another folder that I can then turn into a .jar file.

Two questions here so we might need to split off the question into two, but here goes. Jar files are zip, so you can drag them onto the Archive utility or another utility to uncompress them.

Before you do that, try locating the jar file in finder and then use the right click / control click to open the file. That lets you get a prompt to open non gatekeeper signed files if the Mac is configured with default settings.

If that doesn’t work, you’ll need help from the administrator to allow you to access that program or have to take it to another computer. Good luck with the Minecraft and mods you might try once you tap into the zip file contents.


Custom iOS folder icons? Is it possible to create (or copy) custom icons to replace the composite folder icon made up of microscopic versions of the icons within said folder? Iconical does this nicely for apps but it doesn’t appear to have the means to customize folders’ icons. Is there an OS way or third party tool that allows for this?
I was thinking maybe a long way would be to make a shortcut which functioned like a folder but that seems clunky to set up and use. I’m hoping some smarty-pants has come up with a more elegant solution.

No, there isn't a way to do this with the stock iOS (any version).

The only way you can do this, and I've never tried it but I've read about it, is by jailbreaking the device first.

You've already discovered the workaround which is to create a shortcut to an app that's within a folder.

Until Apple allows this level of customization, you will not be able to change the looks of folders.


Only protecting email with a password I will be using my computer as a music device during a party, so it will be open and others will have access to it.  I do not want people to snoop into my personal email.  Is there a way to password protect just my email?

There are a few apps out there that claim to be able to do this. iLock (http://www.osxbytes.com/ilock.html) and Mac App Blocker (http://knewsense.com/macappblocker) are two, though not free.

Creating a non-admin account as Patrix suggested, and only using that during the party is the best solution since party-goers won't be able to see anything of yours (mail, browser history, files, etc). You'd just need to share your music with that non-admin account (this describes the process: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-share-itunes-libraries-between-user-accounts-in-os-x/).

If you want to use your account, the most effective way would be to turn on Parental Controls in your Settings, and only enable iTunes and maybe a browser. However this won't work if your account is an administrator account.

If your account is an admin account, and you want a free method of preventing someone from seeing your mail (I assuming you're using the OS X Mail app), you could rename your mail folder temporarily (Library/Mail) and then change your email password temporarily so that if someone opens the Mail app, they'll see nothing and it won't download any new mail. If you're paranoid, you could move the mail folder to an encrypted volume (created in Disk Utility) or a removable drive. But if you're that worried, using a different account for the party is easier and safer.


How do I troubleshoot my Wi-Fi connection when an exclamation mark appears? Sometimes, when I am in a public Wi-Fi an exclamation mark appears in the greyed out Wi-Fi icon.

I can connect to the Wi-Fi (I get assigned an IP address), but I cannot establish an internet connection - while other Mac users can. Every network where this has happened, I have been connected to before.

I've tried tried the following without success:

run the troubleshoot assistant
disconnect and reconnect from Wi-Fi
disable and reenable Wi-Fi
remove the network from the list of known networks
restart the computer

Because none of my attempts to solve this problem yielded any positive results, I always end up not using the internet at all.

Now my sister has been calling me two times already, telling me that the same problem occurred to her. As I could not provide a fix, I need your help :)

My sister is running 10.7.3 on a Macbook 4.1. I am running 10.7.3 on a MBP 8.2.

You need to get more information, so please do some troubleshooting and report back.

Troubleshooting steps:

Hold down the Option key while clicking on the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and let us know what you see. Lion: New Wi-Fi Diagnostics tool
When you first see the exclamation point appear, open
System Preferences > Network. If you get a window like this one

with the Self-Assigned IP beside a yellow button, then you were not able to get a local address from the Wi-Fi router's DHCP server. This can happen because the base station is using MAC address restrictions rather than real passwords. This can also happen because the base station has exhausted its available set of local IP address leases.

When you connect to a network using DHCP, a network router (e.g. the Wi-Fi access point) gives you an IP address to use and promises you can use it for some period of time, which is called a "lease". (This is so there is no confusion about when someone else can start using the IP address that you are using.  You either renew the lease or know you have to stop using that address and get a new one.)  Once the server leases you the IP address, it cannot give it to anyone else until your lease expires.  A typical home router might be set up with only 250 addresses to give out and a lease period of 24 hours.   That's fine at home, but in a heavily trafficked coffee shop, they might get more than 250 Wi-Fi using customers in a day, at which point they would be out of addresses.  Worse, lease times can be much longer (I've seen 14 days on some routers) and DHCP servers can have arbitrarily small numbers of addresses to hand out.  So this really happens sometimes, and it is probably what is happening to you.

In any case, it's probably a configuration error on the router that the router owner has to fix.


How do I mark all podcast episodes as played in iOS10? I tried looking this up but there are only examples for previous versions of iOS where there was an option in the podcast settings called "mark all as played".

This option is not there anymore. Is it gone forever?

Marking all podcasts as played

This feature was originally removed sometime during iOS 7 (I think iOS 7.1, but am not certain on this).

Just in case you're not aware, the closest option to doing this within the builtin Podcasts app is to do as follows:

Launch the Podcasts app
Tap on My Podcasts
Tap on the Podcast series you want to mark as played
Tap on Edit (located at top right corner)
Now tap on the radio buttons on the left of each episode
Tap on the Mark option at bottom left
Select the Mark as Played option

This will mark all your selected podcasts as played.

Of course, you can also use iTunes to mark them all as played and then sync your iPhone, but that may only be quicker overall if you wanted to mark multiple series of podcasts as played. Otherwise the above steps will most likely be more convenient - although certainly not as convenient as the older Mark all as Played option in earlier generations of iOS.

Gone forever?

In terms of whether this feature is gone forever, no-one here (or even at Apple) can answer that. There's no telling what may or may not happen with the Podcasts app in future.

Alternatives
Finally, there are a number of very popular third party podcast apps which many users have turned to. It may be worth you investigating some of these to see if they're suitable for your needs. I list a few below (some are free, others aren't):

Overcast
Pocket Casts
Downcast
iCatcher! Podcast player
Pod Wrangler

Note: I am not affiliated with any of the above apps in any way.


Adding links on images I can't find a way to add links on my images, am I missing something? I tried via the menu but the option seems locked or with ⌘+k but this has no effect either.

Any clue on what's going on? If it's not possible, is there a known hack for this?

In Pages... It's grayed out because you do not have any text selected to become the link.

To place a link on a image, after you have added it to the page, insert a text box.

In the text box, type what you want to be the link, select it and press ⌘K to add the URL to the link.

Resize and reposition the text box over the image where you want it.

Here is an image with a link on it and clicked:


iPhone contact sync no longer working with google Yesterday without warning, I lost all my google contacts on my phone, which is to say all my contacts. It had been working and syncing just fine, but now, nothing. I deleted the account under settings, revoked the application specific password on the google side, and started fresh. I followed the directions at google to the letter and still nothing. Am I missing something? Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Ugh, of course while typing this, I do the one thing I hadn't tried.

I turned the phone off and then back on again.

It picked the sync up and now I'm back in business.


PDF added to iBooks on Mac does not sync to iCloud Drive or my iPhone A few minutes ago I added a small PDF to iBooks on my Mac (DRM-free, not purchased through iTunes). My Mac has iCloud Drive enabled.

My understanding is that this should cause it to be uploaded to iCloud Drive, and thus available on iCloud.com. However, when I log in to iCloud.com, there is no PDF available in iCloud Drive.

Today I also enabled iCloud for iBooks on my iPhone. The PDF is not available there either.

(In iTunes on my Mac, I still have the iPhone set to sync books with my Mac. I was planning to turn this off once I confirmed that iCloud Drive was working. But I don't think that matters here. Bonus points if you can provide any advice on the impact of changing that setting, though I'm pretty sure it should be obsolete once everything is using iCloud.)

Do I have to wait some undetermined amount of time for this to propagate? Any way to make it manually sync so I can confirm it is working?

Well, it turns out the answer was rather simple. I had iCloud enabled on my Mac, but it was not specifically enabled for iBooks. (Perhaps it was initially disabled because it is a new feature in recent versions of Mac OS).

I went to System Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive (click on Options...) -> click the check box next to iBooks to enable it.

After doing this, I immediately saw my PDF in iBooks on my iPhone (the one that I had added to iBooks on my Mac). I did not see the PDF within the iCloud Drive folder on iCloud.com, but I guess I can treat that as a separate issue since at least I've confirmed the sync worked.