Incoming text message auto filled the "TO" field? I received an MMS messages this afternoon on my iPhone 6.  When I opened it, it was clearly a spam text message.

I did not recognize the sender.

I went to the link in the email on a spun up virtual machine and it just went to some Gwen Stefani article.

However, what caught my eye was that the "to" field had several old gmail contacts who I haven't reached out to in some time. (screen shots below) There are 9 email addresses in the "to" field.

Is it possible for someone to compose a text message which then fills in the TO field automatically? I checked with people in the "TO" field and they didn't receive this message.

This spammer must have acquired these contact numbers from an email account's contacts page belonging to one of the people who received this. Then, they sent a text message to some of the contacts they found. The To field is auto-filled by your phone with all the people who received the text. For instance, if I texted a message to you and some guy (let's call him Joe Smith) the To field would be filled with "To John Ramos and Joe Smith", indicating that any text you send in that group chat will go to the people in said group chat; that's exactly what's going on here.


Yellow mexican singer in system 7 / mac os 8? What was that extension in System 7 and Mac OS 8 which put a little yellow smiley thing of a mexican singing out of tune on your screen?

Jared: the Butcher of Song

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Smith


why can i add files to my ipod but not my iphone? I have just bought an album and have imported it to my itunes. I can drag the files onto my ipods but not onto my iphone.

any ideas?

thanks

In order to be able to drag/drop media tracks freely from your iTunes library to your iPhone, you need to set your iTunes sync settings for your iPhone to manual mode.

Connect your iPhone to your computer and run iTunes.
Select your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. If your device is not visible in the upper right corner of the screen, choose Library first.
Click the Summary tab and select "Manually manage music and videos".
Make sure that contacts and calendar sync is not enabled from the Info tab
Click Apply.

You can now drag/drop songs from your iTunes library to your iPhone


I think my Mac swallowed Facebook and Twitter - How to get them back? I upgraded today from Sierra to Mojave and now my share menu seems to be broken.

Previously I could share content directly to sites like Facebook and Twitter. For instance I could right-click on a photo and choose to share it to Twitter, Facebook and so on like so:

Now if I click on a photo and choose to share, I don’t get Twitter or Facebook as options anymore:

How can I enable these options?

I’m sorry to say that since you’ve upgraded to macOS Mojave you’re sort of out of luck.

Apple removed the built-in macOS Facebook and Twitter integration in the name of security.

Your main options are to manually share content via Twitter or Facebook directly, or with the use of browser extensions (although these won’t extend their functionality to Finder).

On the bright side, Twitter for Mac is coming back as a result of Apple’s Catalyst project, so we may see many other apps returning or launching on the Mac as a result. And that may mean sharing content will be easier then it is now, although not with the same integration within macOS we've seen in the past.


Mac mini 2018 problem with USB pen drive When I insert a pen drive in the USB slot of my Mac mini 2018 the Bluetooth mouse and keyboard lose connection. Anyone knows how to solve this?

I have Mojave 10.14.2 and both mouse and keyboard are Apple.

This is most likely Bluetooth interference from radio frequencies.

Your choice is probably to not use a USB or get another device.

  This means that any USB 3 port, cable or USB 3 device can emit radio frequencies that may cause interference with any Bluetooth devices you using in your computer.

(Source)

Another quotation:

  The issue is that USB 3.0 hard drives can emit radio frequencies that interfere with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth transmissions on the 2.4 GHz band, especially when placed near the antennas in your laptop.

(Source)


Safari 7.0 cannot load localhost After upgrading to 10.9 and Safari 7.0, I can no longer load http://localhost:4000 in Safari. Yes, my site still loads perfect when I load it in Chrome and Firefox, so this is something new in Safari.

These are the error messages that I see in the developer window. The error message is

Failed to load resource: The network connection was lost.

It even looks like the server is doing its job correctly. Here's the output from the rake console. Everything is returning 200.

127.0.0.1 - - [24/Oct/2013 06:25:49] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0039
127.0.0.1 - - [24/Oct/2013 06:25:49] "GET /stylesheets/screen.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0022
127.0.0.1 - - [24/Oct/2013 06:25:49] "GET /javascripts/modernizr-2.0.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0014
127.0.0.1 - - [24/Oct/2013 06:25:49] "GET /javascripts/octopress.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0018
127.0.0.1 - - [24/Oct/2013 06:25:49] "GET /javascripts/ender.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0048

I believe this is a problem with WEBrick v1.3.  WEBrick isn't returning the correct content length & notifies users of this:

  WARN Could not determine content-length of response body. Set content-length of the response or set Response#chunked = true

Trying to wget the same resource will also flag an error in the network connection as per: https://github.com/imathis/octopress/issues/1395

Chrome & Firefox just display whatever content was received & don't worry about the mismatch in content length.  Safari, starting with Safari 7.0 on Mavericks' 10.9 is stricter about the response & treats the mismatch as a "Failure to load resource" error.  (If I had to guess they're probably trying to improve the speed so don't retry the resource and so don't get the file fully retrieved response that wget does).

If you replace WEBrick with thin, this problem should go away.  To do this on a Rack-based application try:

echo gem \"thin\" >> Gemfile
bundle install
rbenv rehash # if you're using rbenv
bundle exec rackup -s thin


What is the meaning of this status bar icon? What is this icon on the far right of the status bar? It only appears so far in this one app, called Carpenter by iHandy. I've emailed the manufacturer but so far nothing. It looks like a letter "Q" and pulses slowly between bright and faded.

My old picture links broke so I'll edit to put this here:

It looks like the application is adding that icon. I checked the Level application on my phone (sort of a free demo for Carpenter) and it has a button with the same design in the upper right corner:

Tapping the button gives this screen:

Google still has some update notes cached where the developer listed this as a new feature in the App Store:

  Added Quick Switch button on the top right corner to quickly switch between iHandy apps without getting back to home screen.

Normally, apps can't add custom icons to the status bar. According to this thread, they may just be overlaying the Quick Switch icon over the battery indicator: Customizing iPhone app taskbar


list/filter apps that will work on iOS 5.1.1 I have an 1st gen iPad, stuck on iOS 5.1.1.  Is there a list of apps that will work on iOS 5.1.1, or a way to filter the app store to show only apps that will work on my iPad?

(the iPad looks and works fine, seems a shame to relegate it to paper-weight status.)

No, unfortunately, there is no way to filter apps that work on earlier iOS versions. However, I've found a great site on that. It shows a list of every app that is compatible with any given iOS version. Don't try to download the app from them, though, just get the name of it and find it on the App Store.


Why Does OS X Mavericks Start Indexing After A Crash? My macbook pro (mid-2010 running 10.9.5) has been crashing a lot lately.  I haven't made any changes to it (either hardware or software) or installed anything new but it seems to be something to do with a kernel process "mdworker".

After each crash and when I log in again spotlight starts indexing immediately.  This further causes temperatures to rise about 90 degrees and usually the macbook pro will then go into a cycle of crashes.

It seems to be all due to spotlight indexing.

Why?

While reading up on this, I found two prevalent suggestions. One from this Ask Different thread:

  Try to erase the Spotlight index by either running sudo mdutil -Ea or by temporarily adding your startup disk to the privacy tab in the Spotlight preference pane.

  If that doesn't work, try to run:

  sudo lsof|grep mdworker

  or

  sudo mdutil -Ea;opensnoop -n mdworker

  to see if the indexing hangs on some specific files.

And the second, which I actually feel is more relevant to your case since your machine does finish indexing, suggested this:

  After trying everything under the sun, here's what fixed it for me

  Booted in Safe Mode and ran the free utility OnyX.

  Cleaned system caches, repaired/restored permissions.


How to deactivate iPhone USB tethering when OSX is connected to a wireless network I have enabled USB tethering from my iPhone to my MacBook pro, and it works perfectly.

Nevertheless, I would like to automatically disable USB tethering when the MacBook Pro is connected to a wireless network, to save mobile data consumption.

How can I configure that in OSX?

First things first, you do not need to worry too much about mobile data consumption when connected to Wi-Fi.  As depicted in your picture, Wi-Fi is listed above the iPhone USB interface and will take precedence as the primary interface.  In other words, all traffic will be sent to Wi-Fi until it is no longer available or you manually change the service order to have Wi-Fi listed BELOW the iPhone USB interface.

If, you really want to permanently disable that connection, you can do two things:

Highlight iPhone USB, then select the "Deactivate" option from the cogwheel underneath the list (you can activate it the same way again later)
Highlight iPhone USB, then click the minus ("-") button to remove it.

Again, deactivating or removing this interface is not important as long as other connected interfaces are listed ABOVE iPhone USB.


Is there a way of preventing other Finder windows from responding to unnecessary drag/drop events? [MacOS 10.13.1]
I'm organising some files and have two Finder windows open so I can move files from one to the other.
Since the filename doesn't always describe the contents of the file, I am renaming many of these files after reviewing them and before I moving them.  Renaming the file in Finder window #1 causes the file to be automatically be placed in its correctly sorted position in the file list.  Whilst I understand the behaviour, it then forces me to scroll down to find the file I want to move. This is getting rather tedious for the number of files I'm dealing with.

However, what is really irritating me is that after I drop the file into a folder displayed in Finder window #2, Finder window, #2, updates its view to match what Finder window #1 is showing.  This forces me to perform a scroll operation in Finder window #2 to return to the location I was at, before I can move the next file. This is a really frustrating behaviour that is demolishing any sense of efficiency in doing this task.

I'm aware that Mac OS has a save-as-you-go behaviour designed into it, which occasionally is useful, after all it's not that often that my hard disk crashes or I loose power to my PC.

Nevertheless, is there a way of turning off the behaviour described above, or opening a Finder window that only responds to its own user interactions?

Sort differently. If you sort by say, file size, the sort order won't change with the file name. I also enable "date added" or "date created" because those are not the same as "date modified". You can do grouping and sorting through the view menu.


Why is macOS often referred to as 'Darwin'? In several languages, instead of returning something like "macOS", the command to view the operating system instead returns
Darwin

I see this in languages like R, and node.
Why is macOS sometimes called Darwin??

Why is macOS often referred to as 'Darwin'?

It isn't. macOS isn't Darwin and Darwin isn't macOS.
The history of macOS is long, convoluted, and complicated.
It starts with Steve Jobs (not entirely voluntary) "leaving" Apple and founding NeXT. NeXT wanted to revolutionize the Personal Workstation. They built both a powerful computer, the NeXT Computer (later NeXTstation and NeXTcube), and a powerful, modern Operating System, called NeXTStep. (Get it? The next step for the next computer. Really creative naming.)
The Operating System was based on porting BSD to a Mach microkernel, and adding object-oriented system libraries, frameworks, and toolkits (called "kits", which you can still see in Apple's naming today), with an object-oriented GUI framework and desktop, with object-oriented applications, all written in a modern object-oriented programming language (Objective-C) as the systems language, on top of the base BSD system. The display system was based on PostScript, and there was even an Intel i860 coprocessor running a stripped-down version of the OS, only for Display PostScript processing, plus a powerful DSP for video and audio processing.
NeXTStep pioneered many things we see in modern GUI programming. It had one of the first graphical GUI Builders, which still to this day is how you design GUIs for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, etc. (Today, it is called the Xcode Interface Builder.) It had the first ever App Store. When Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, he chose NeXTStep as the OS to write the first browser for. Many game studios used NeXTStep and NeXT workstations for their development, e.g. id software for Doom, Doom 2, and Quake. Lotus Improv, still considered by many to be miles ahead of Excel even now, was implemented on NeXTStep.
Later, NeXT divorced the higher-level frameworks from the underlying OS and made them available under the name OpenStep for Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and under the name "OPENSTEP for Mach" still based on the same underpinnings as the original NeXTStep.
At this point, Apple had tried and failed multiple times to modernize MacOS, and they bought NeXT (thus bringing Steve Jobs back into the company) and all of its Intellectual Property and technology to develop a successor to MacOS based on OPENSTEP for Mach. They modernized the Mach kernel from 2.5 to 3 and extended it with concepts from the FreeBSD kernel to form a kernel known as xnu (a reference to the failed nuKernel project at Apple which was to develop a "new kernel"), and the BSD underpinnings from 4.3BSD to 4.4BSD and later FreeBSD.
Most importantly, they extended and expanded the OpenStep APIs and built new APIs on top. The collection of those APIs is known as "Cocoa". They also built an API called "Carbon", which was a close, but not identical re-implementation of a subset of the MacOS API on top of the new foundations. (The intention was that while it would not be possible to simply re-compile existing MacOS applications, it should be fairly easy to port them to Carbon, and then over the years rewrite them in Cocoa.)
The first prototype of this system was called Rhapsody. The full system wasn't finished in time, so a subset was released as MacOS X Server 1.0. And the rest is history: Rhapsody became MacOS X, then OS X, then macOS, and somewhere along the way, iOS was split off, and then further divided into iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Now, back to Darwin: Darwin is basically the underpinnings of macOS, from the xnu kernel, IOKit, drivers, etc. up to the BSD libraries and userland, plus some macOS-specific developments such as mDNSresponder and launchd. It does not, however, include any parts of what used to be OpenStep, Cocoa, Aqua, Quartz, QuickTime, or any of the other higher-level stuff. It does contain drivers and filesystems, although I am not entirely sure whether APFS is part of Darwin.
If you think back to the point in time where NeXT "divorced" the high-level OpenStep from its underpinnings, the low-level parts that are not OpenStep would be the ones that would later become Darwin.
In the beginning, Apple used to make Darwin available as a separate OS, including compiled binaries, installers, ISOs, etc. that you could install on Apple hardware. However, for many years now, Apple only provides a source code dump, every time a new release of macOS comes out. It isn't even possible to compile this source code, because it depends on Apple's internal build tools and build pipeline. There have been some projects trying to patch Darwin to compile it with publicly available tools, but those projects have all died from lack of interest.
Since all of the things you mentioned were born on Unix and use Unix APIs and Unix libraries, they actually typically don't even know about the "non-Darwin" parts of macOS, so it is only logical that they will consider the OS to be "Darwin". Note that "Darwin" is also what gets returned as the name of the OS when you call the Unix/POSIX int uname(struct utsname *buf) library function or the uname Unix/POSIX commandline utility.
So, to answer the question you didn't ask explicitly but is implicit in your question: why does Node.js return "Darwin" for the name of macOS? Because when Node.js asks macOS for its name, that's what macOS tells it its name is!


Can't swap two columns in a Numbers table by clicking and dragging I'm trying to swap two rows in a Numbers table, but clicking and dragging on the rows I'm trying to swap is not working at all, like it normally should. What is the problem here?

If you have already tried clicking and dragging on a row/column header without any success, it might be because a cell in in the row/column you are trying to drag has been merged with a row or column which you aren't dragging (note: this cell may be hidden, and it still will not work). This will cause clicking and dragging to fail (without any feedback to hint that it is failing because of that reason).

This might have been why you were unable to switch rows.


How to access special keys using a ZAGGmate keyboard with iSSH on the iPad? I just purchased a ZAGGmate case with Bluetooth keyboard. I immediately logged into a Linux machine via iSSH and opened up vim. I can type just fine on this little keyboard, but I am having difficultieas with several keys.

First, the Esc key is bound to the home screen key. I tried holding Fn while pressing Esc. Sadly, that did not do the trick.

Also, the control key does not seem to work. For example, CTRL-F and CTRL-B do not scroll forward and back a page in vim. Any clue how to correct that situation?

Update: I found an iSSH setting that maps option key chords to control key chords. That solves my second problem. Also, I can now press CTRL-[ to get the same effect as pressing Esc. So, I'm not mad enough to return the keyboard to the store anymore. Any help with the first part of the question would still be very much appreciated.

I've developed a terminal for iOS (it is not released, is intended as a base for other projects) and I have tried for hours to see any kind of event or modifier when meta keys are used on an external keyboard. The only way to get these events is to use private APIs and if you do that you can't get your app on the store. I have filed an issue (Apple rdar 10283552) and hopefully this will change in a future release.

So the problem is not your keyboard, it is iOS. I think you have found the best solution with key chords, unless you want to use one of the better apps like Prompt, which gives you "soft" meta keys on the screen - but the whole point is to keep your hands on the external keyboard, I know.

I don't know for sure if Prompt keeps those meta keys visible when a BT keyboard is connected - it can be done in code - if it did maybe soft metas would be better than nothing.


How to make a Mac OS X .app with a shell script? I tried following a few tutorials, but I get this:

How can I fix this? I added in a info.plist (I just copied and pasted another app's file, and changed around a few things.)

Also, I used chmod +x myApp to make the script executable.

P.S. I am using El Capitan

Well, it's been years I use this simple trick to have bash scripts in application (and really really don't understand why all people try so complicated solutions as creating "Contents" folders, info.plist or use Automator or Platypus or so... ????).

Create a folder named "YourApplication.app". It can be created at any location that is convenient to your usage. Though, the most OS compliant locations may be /Applications or your own ~/Applications folder.
Put your script file directly in this folder the way that suites you the best (Finder, terminal etc). The script must be executable of course (use chmod +x if you need). No need for other folders or file (until you need to call other scripts or executable from within your script of course) The trick is to name your script with exactly the same name as the application folder but without extension. In the case described here the script file must be named "YourApplication".

That's all ! It works on Mac os x since Snow Leopard to Mavericks. If anybody can try on newer OS versions and tell me.
Note: The script must be at least 28 bytes in size, otherwise it will not execute. It may be padded with blank lines to achieve minimum size.
Also, the first line of the script must be a shebang; e.g. #!/bin/bash or #!/bin/perl.


How to create a custom Desktop Background slideshow? I would like to have certain pictures as a slideshow on my Desktop background.
Currently, to do this, I am moving default pictures to a backup folder and putting my images there.
Isn't there an easy way to do this?

(I found an answer posted below)

Add Folder to Desktop Background options

(self-answered)

I need create a Folder anywhere on my HDD, say (random example) 'Custom'.
I fill it with photos that I need in my background like a Slideshow.
Now, I go to

System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop

And on the panel on the left with Folders, there is a '+' sign on the bottom.
1. Click it,
2. Browse to folder,
3. Click Choose &
4. Check 'Change desktop background every __'


Allowing sudo privileges, but not access to sites Is it possible to make it so a user can use the sudo command in terminal, but not have access to sites other then those allowed through parental controls, without a third party system?

By adjusting the sudoers file (/etc/sudoers) with sudo visudo it should be possible to accomplish this. It is a hell of a job and you need a profound knowledge of all commands to fine-tune this while avoiding errors and loopholes though.

You have to add the user to the User privilege specification section

...
# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL
...

Then use a whitelist (or a blacklist) of allowed (or disallowed) commands:

Examples:

whitelist

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL
user    ALL=/usr/bin/nano,/usr/bin/opensnoop

blacklist

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL
user    ALL=!/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy,!/usr/bin/passwd,!/usr/sbin/*

You may mix whitelist and blacklist.

Please check man sudoers how to simplify things or narrow things down by configuring User, Runas, Host and Cmnd alias specifications.

Check the accepted answer to the question How to prevent sudo users from running specific commands? for the pitfalls of configuring a simple command like rnano in the sudoers file.


What options exist to reliably have three partitions and Boot Camp on Apple Hardware? What robust setups of partitions which accommodate (a) MtLion OS X, (b) Windows x64, (c) Data partition used [primarily] under Windows?

Things that would be desirable (optional) past the basic stability are:

live shrink/expand/add/delete of partitions preserving existing data
ability to upgrade to newer versions of OS X without risk of losing Windows or Data partition
ability to upgrade / reinstall Windows without risk of losing OS X data
ideally, data shared for read & write between Windows and OS X
ideally, no third-party [paid] tools / drivers required for the whole scheme to work

Always have a good backup before you attempt any partition and/or filesystem changes!
That said, here are some answers to your list of questions.
1. ability to shrink/expand/add/delete partitions safely after both OSes installed, while safely preserving the data

By default, Disk Utility allows resizing only through changing the end of a partition (not the beginning). If you need to resize any partition both ways (like "shrink partition for one OS to expand partition for another"), then there may be a need to physically move data to accommodate that. This can be done only with third party tools like iPartition, which supports "non-destructive resize of HFS+ (including case-sensitive and journaled), FAT and NTFS partitions" (taken from the Coriolis Systems website). Even with a third party tool, you may not be able to resize partitions around in every combination that you can think of (you also need adequate free space to consolidate all files).

2. ability to upgrade to newer versions of OS X without risk of losing Windows or Data partition

You can do this without issues with the setup you have linked to.

3. ability to upgrade / reinstall Windows without risk of losing OS X (including OS itself, applications, user data&settings) -- [1] has it

This is also possible with the setup you have linked to.

4. ideally, data shared for read & write between Windows and OS X

The free solution to do this is to have the data partition formatted as FAT32. But this would limit individual file sizes to 4GB. Also, FAT32 does not have journaling, unlike NTFS and HFS+ that do. So recovery from data corruption is possible through some rudimentary means, but not as reliable as other filesystems.
By default, OS X can read NTFS (Windows) volumes, but not write to it. On the other hand, by default, Bootcamp allows you to read the OS X volume, but not write to it.
There are third party applications to allow read/write access to HFS+ volumes from Windows and to allow read/write access to NTFS volumes from OS X. The most popular ones being the solutions from Paragon Software.

5. ideally, no third-party [paid] tools / drivers required for the whole scheme to work

See the above points. It's not possible to eliminate FAT32 from the scheme without third party tools/drivers (free or paid).

6. ability to easily transfer the whole setup to a new HDD (complicated for [1])

Transferring to a larger HDD is going to involve some manual work. There is no easy way to clone it out since your partition size requirements in the larger HDD would be different. While partitioning would require some work, cloning all these partitions to another drive of the same size is possible using disk based cloning utilities like Clonezilla (this is feasible with larger disks with the partitions already created, but would require some more work for the OSes, especially Windows, to recognize the new size).

7. ideally, ability to have more than 2 partitions under Windows (i.e. 2+ data partitions)

You can have multiple partitions, but the overall partition management is better managed through OS X.

8. risk of any OS to corrupt any partition should be not larger than in a single OS setup with its native partition

This is more of a filesystem and cross platform filesystem driver question. Although third party tools/drivers for NTFS from OS X and HFS+ from Windows have existed for years, they cannot be guaranteed to be bug free. Without native read/write implementations from either OS for the other's filesystem, a regular backup (or even two) is a good practice to follow!


iMessage displaying conversation threads out of order on iPhone I've been having some big issues with my iPhone lately, but the most infuriating one by far is that my messages are not displayed in chronological order. The usual way is that a new message from a contact brings that thread to the top of the list, but about two weeks ago, my threads got sorted into a completely random order and, worse, when I get a new message, that thread isn't bumped to the top anymore.

So, when I get a new message, I have to scroll quite a ways to even find it. I've tried updating iOS on my phone. I've restarted my phone, turned off iMessage then back on, deactivated iMessage on my Macbook and reactivated just to see, and nothing's worked. Anyone have any ideas what the heck is going on here? This is on an iPhone 6 with iOS 10.3.2.

My children sometimes change the date / time on my phone so that they can trick certain games that they play on it.  Then, my messages no longer sort correctly.  I just fixed my phone by setting the date and time to update automatically.


Can I place a picture in the email signature on an iPad Air? I am new to apple, so please forgive the simplicity, but I cannot figure out how to paste my logo pic in my mail signature.  I just  bought the IPAD Air last week, and I want to set up my company signature in the mail app.  I tried to copy and paste the signature from my GoDaddy workspace email, but the picture would not paste.  I couldn't figure out how to save and upload it either like you could on a PC.

You cannot put an image in your signature on iOS. If you use Macmaniman's strategy of pasting in an image, the image will show up in settings, but not in an email. (tested on iOS 7)

A workaround is to insert the company logo into each email as you are writing it. However, I don't see why you would want to do this. It's a lot of work and your recipients will probably be annoyed because your images are wasting space in their mail account.


Disable caps lock on backspace in iPhone My iPhone (3gs) has this behavior:

I'm typing a text and I put a certain letter in caps
I might decide the letter shouldn't be in caps so I press backspace (a couple of times if I've typed a lot after the capped letter).
when I do this, my iPhone remembers the letter was in caps and already puts on caps (the upward arrow is glowing).

I don't want this (the last bullet). how can I disable it? I've checked the preferences and disabled settings -> general -> keyboard -> Auto-Capitalization and settings -> general -> keyboard -> Enable Caps Lock, yet to no avail.

It happens because you hit caps before typing a letter, so what the iPhone is doing is rather deleting all the code associated with that letter, it deletes the letter leaving the code, so if you backspace again it removes all the code from that space and moves back another space.

If you backspace one step further it removes this formatting.

The settings you have changed do not relate to your issue.

The first is to capitalize proper nouns that grammatically require a capital (which I wish would happen on all applications) the second is to enable the locking of the caps key, which means if you tap it twice in quick succession it will lock in uppercase.


MacBook Pro Lion crashes after a progress bar boot Basically my MBP started giving me messages (out of nowhere) about how my Memory was too low and that I needed to shut down a few programs before continuing. In the end I was left with only Finder running, so I decided to restart it. When I did, it simply gave me a Progress bar which loaded to about a tenth, before the computer shut down entirely. I have already tried to reset my PRAM/NVRAM, and booted through CMD + S, which in the end gave me the answer:'Invalid Leaf Record Count 12414 instead of 12416' ... I have also tried the /sbin/fsck -fy protocol which did not do anything. Any suggestions please?

Thanks!

It could be a few different things that are causing this issue.

I would highly recommend taking your computer in to the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store and having them take a look at it.

http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Its free for the appointment and the diagnostic even if you are out of warranty and will probably be the fastest and easiest way to get to the bottom of what is happening with your machine.

I know its not an instant fix but it will make things a lot easier to have them look at it.


MacOS/OSX loses connection to shared NAS drive I am using El Capitan (latest version) on a Mac Mini and have setup a shared drive to my Synology NAS.  The connection uses SMB (have also tried AFP).

Problem: after a period of time (hours / days) the network share will disappear.

What I have tried so far: I have added the share to my login items under System Prefs > Users & Groups - this works, in that when I logon to the Mac Mini the shares are added.  However it does not stop the shares disappearing later.

I have also put the connection username & password into my keychain so that the Mac remembers.  This also works, because when I re-add the share I don't have to provide username or password.

The Mac Mini is used as a media server (Plex) and all my media is on the NAS.  This means that when Plex is used, we get occasions where Plex says there is no media.  The NAS is not powerful enough to run Plex itself.

I struggled with this for years, and eventually found out that all you need to do is turn off packet signing.
Below is a link on the apple forums place on how to do it. You need to be using SMB2/3 protocols (not AFP).
I've never had a dropped network drive since.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205926

Simon.


Mountain Lion 10.8 cmd+shif+arrow key bindings not working I have switched Cmd and Ctrl in System preferences.
I have the following key bindings defined:

"@\UF702"  = "moveWordBackward:";                            /* Cmd  + LeftArrow */
"@\UF703"  = "moveWordForward:";                             /* Cmd  + RightArrow */
"$@\UF702" = "moveWordBackwardAndModifySelection:";   /* Shift + Cmd  + Leftarrow */
"$@\UF703" = "moveWordForwardAndModifySelection:";   /* Shift + Cmd  + Rightarrow */

But they are not being used, instead of selecting the next word it selects until the next end of line.

PS I used the instructions here http://benogle.com/2010/01/18/windowslinux-developers-remap-your-mac.html

Found the answer here http://heisencoder.net/2008/04/fixing-up-mac-key-bindings-for-windows.html

it seems Cocoa doesn't like the $ to be infront of the @


Is it possible to see only the pictures I've taken on my iPhone? I'm using an iPhone 5S, running iOS version 10.3.1.

I'm part of a chat group where a lot of pictures are posted. From time to time I want to see only the pictures I've taken in my photo app, but I can't find a way to do it.

When I open the Photos app, this is what I see in the different categories:

Photos: All photos ever stored on my phone
Memories: Some random photos the app chose for me
Shared: Photos I've actively shared to others
Albums: some different albums (e.g. Camera Roll, My Photo Stream, Selfies and Favourites. However, they either

include all photos on the phone (Camera Roll)
include the latest 1000 photos on the phone (My Photo Stream)
include pictures marked by me (Favourites)
include pictures marked by the phone as a certain type (Selfies)

There is even a section under Albums for the particular chat app I'm using.

Is there any way I can filter out the pictures from the chat group, and only see the pictures taken by this phone?

I've searched online for e.g. "iphone see only pictures taken by this phone", but the search only returns results such as "how to find out where you took photos".

I made a workflow that filters all your photos from your camera roll. It gets all your photos, excluding an album(select album your chat photos are stored) and also screenshots(you can disable it if you want).

The workflow will ask you if you want to save it all in a new album or in an existing one. You will need to run it each time to update the album.

You will need the Workflow app to run this.


Error while trying to create an account in single user mode on OS X Mavericks On OS X Mavericks, I am trying to create an account using single user mode, using the following script.

#! /bin/bash

# create user
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser RealName "Hidden User"
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser UniqueID "401"
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser PrimaryGroupID 20
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser NFSHomeDirectory /var/hiddenuser
dscl . -passwd /Users/hiddenuser password

However, when I run this script, I get 6 copies of the same error:

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist: No such file or directory

How do I fix this? Do I need to download a new /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist ?

Thanks

Note: I have tried changed 401 to other values below 501, and I am getting the same result.

After starting in Single User Mode enter:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /

Launch opendirectoryd:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist doesn't exist anymore!

Then execute:

dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser RealName "Hidden User"
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser UniqueID "401"
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser PrimaryGroupID 20
dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser NFSHomeDirectory /var/hiddenuser
dscl . -passwd /Users/hiddenuser password

The commands yield errors but the user is properly created. Executing /bin/bash /path/to/script.sh directly after loading opendirectoryd didn't work for me for no apparent reason. On a second attempt using a UID >500 it worked though!

In Yosemite and more recent OS X versions creating a hidden user like this is not recommend. Instead use a free UniqueID >500 and use an additional command:

dscl . -create /Users/hiddenuser IsHidden 1


How to copy data from harddrive to time capsule over USB connection via OSX terminal? I want to copy a big amount of data from a harddrive to a time capsule controlled drive.so I put the harddrive via USB to the capsule and connect to the capsule server with a Mac. But when I then move the data to a folder on the time capsule drive by drag&drop it seems to me that the copying goes over WIFI instead of the directest USB data connection way. This takes aeons! Isn't there a way to tell the capsule server to copy the data over their USB connection? thnx!
(I asked the same on stackoverflow, but maybe this is the right place for this kind of question?)

Keep in mind that the data flow is "drive -> TC -> Mac -> TC", using the same USB wire both ways. If you want to speed it up, connect the harddrive directly to the Mac.


Apple Mac Pro A1186 Power Cable I have purchased a Apple Mac Pro A1186 2008 original 2.66GHZ however I power cable is not supplied and I need to purchase one. What cable is it that I need exactly.

Apple's manuals are online: https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1639/en_US/mac_pro_mid2012_ug.pdf but they don't say IEC320C13 on Mac end.

In the US - you're looking for NEMA 5-15P to IEC320C13 like https://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-14719-Universal-IEC320C13/dp/B000067RTS

The MacPro are all standard cables, so get whatever wall configuration you have in your country for any PC with a standard power supply. Basically, any hardware or computer store will be able to hook you up since Mac power supplies are international in terms of 50/60 Hz and 110/220 VAC.


How to install Windows 10 into a 2013 MacBook Air with or without using the Boot Camp Assistant? I've been trying to install Windows 10 (1909 ISO) on my MacBook Air Mid 2013 with or without Bootcamp for over three weeks.

I have freshly installed CatalinaOS 10.15.4 on my MacBook Air.

Under the listed Link (Windows 10 install without BootCampAssistant), I successfully come to point 14 and then the following screens come up and the system is restarted again and again.

I also tried to install Windows 10 with the Boot Camp Assistant (BCA), but after the installation there was an error message after the first restart and the installation is canceled and the MacBookAir is restarted again and again.

Does anyone know the problem or can help me here?

How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?

Only three weeks?

I've been trying for over three months, lol.  I have the 11 inch MacBook Air Mid 2013.  I have tried the original apple 256g m.2 drive that it came with, and have also tried a 128gb and a 512gb one as well.  I too have a freshly installed Catalina from the internet recovery install.

I kept running into the same issues as you.  The current build WILL NOT install for me.  So I got my hands on a copy of the first few original builds of Windows 10 and found, to my surprise, that this worked seemingly flawlessly...  I think the first build was 1511, then 1609, then maybe 1709 (forgive me if I am misquoting the build numbers as its been a while)…  I found that if I updated them build by build from one build to the next, it continued to work until about the 3rd or 4th build...and then that's when it failed...  a few billion hours of trial and error later revealed that these same builds I could UPGRADE to would also allow me to do a fresh install using that same build...  (fwiw I always use BootCamp assistant in the hopes that it would be more compatible).

I even tried doing windows updates to see if they could update to the newer builds, and they did seem to install but upon the last reboot, the Windows logon screen would lockup about 5 seconds after I arrived...  mouse and keyboard would stop moving, the on-screen time would seem to stand still forever...the only sign of life I had was my capslock button light would come on and off if I toggle it, but that's it.

So then I restarted a few times from that screen until windows brings me to the AUTOMATIC REPAIR screen at which point I can choose to go into safe mode, or even safe mode with networking...both work fine...which leads me to believe this HAS to be some kind of driver issue, but I can't figure out what it is.  I can't install the windows bootcamp software from safe mode as it says the windows installer is not running in safe mode...

I even tried going into the device manager in safe mode and disabling anything I thought could help, such as display adapter, network adapter, sound adapters, etc...anything at all that I would imagine is using an apple driver from the bootcamp software...  but I guess I disabled too many things because now not only can I not get into normal mode, but I am having trouble getting into safe mode... so I got frustrated again and deleted my windows partition with bootcamp once again.

I was HOPING that the new build of windows (which was supposed to come out last month and was/is going to be called build 2004 from what I have heard) would solve this... but since the problem seems to only occur on the NEWER builds, I am afraid it will not help.  I am at a loss and really fed up...to the point where I would seriously consider trading in this model for a 2014 or something with 8g of ram like mine...  I am limited on my budget here too, of course...

I am curious though, are you using the 11 inch or 13 inch MacBook air?  And since you posted this earlier today, have you seen anything useful on the internet?

Sorry I wasn't too much help, but maybe we can work together to solve this stupid issue.  It's so frustrating.


how to restore attachments in mac outlook? I had an email sent to me back in february of this year with an attachment. Now when I view that email, instead of seeing the attachment, i see this:

How do I recover this attachment?

Since it is one specific email, your best choice is to open the web version of your email, and get it from there.

It probably got lost in the email transfer protocols.


What does it mean when an iMessage doesn't say "Delivered" nor "Not Delivered"? I sent an iMessage to a friend, and at the bottom it doesn't say "Delivered" as it usually does. It doesn't say "Not Delivered" either, it just doesn't say anything at all.

What does it mean when an iMessage doesn't say "Delivered" nor "Not Delivered"?

The receiving device is probably off, in sleep mode, out of cell reception, flat battery - something like that.


Excel Formula using substitute function to replace quotation marks Substitute formula is substitute(cell to focus on, text to replace, text that replaces it). 2nd and 3rd inputs need to be in quotations it seems to get the function to work.

So how would you substitute a single quotation mark in a cell.

None of the following work:

=substitute(A1,""","%22C")
=substitute(A1,&char(32), "%22C")
=substitute(A1,"&char(32)","%22C")
=substitute(A1,"\"","%22C")

Any ideas?

=SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(34),"%22C")

& is for concatenation, but you're not concatenating, so it should be omitted.
CHAR(34), not 32, is the double quote character.


Lock vertical resize of the dock in Mac OS X I can't find a way to make my dock only resize horizontally when new apps appear. Currently when one does, the whole dock shrinks vertically and expands horizontally.

Is there any way to only expand the dock horizontally?

I think I found a way to lock the change of icons' size in dock:

defaults write com.apple.Dock size-immutable -bool yes


Mail rules with Script Warning message I am getting so fed up with this:

It is too real not to make the mistake in a moment when I am not fully on alert (and to be hones that stresses me out), and I want to use my powerful Mac to protect me from killing myself.

So I want my Mac mail to do some work for me, more than just be dumb and to dump all emails in the junk.

I want to eliminate me in the process.

I want to make a Rule in mail that:

1-Analises each email coming from "my"? bank, or containing the name of it.
Regardless of real or not.

I want a script to display a large warning on the screen for that email to remind me that that email can be a Scam, so I do not accidentally open it.

How do I do that in Mail.app.

Yes I know I should not open attachments and reply to emails like it, but it is 100% looking like real emails not to make the mistake eventually when not being on alert all the time. So Mac, do some intelligent work and save me from myself.

In this case the alerts@notify.wellsfargo.com is 100% legitimate From address, so someone tell me how the hell do they do fake that.

Since anyone can fake the From field, the use of junk or Rule filter has become uselles.

So I have tentatively solved my issue with a

Rule in Mail:

And Apple Script to at least Warn me:

set alertResult to display alert ¬
    "Buscar, this could be a SCAM." buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} as warning ¬
    default button "Cancel" cancel button "Cancel" giving up after 10


What are the direct download links for iOS 7.0? Direct download (i.e. from Apple servers) links for officially-released iOS firmware versions through 6.1.4 are listed here, with checksums:

http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Firmware

These firmware images can be used to do a restore within iTunes (option-click the "Restore" button) without downloading the firmware via iTunes, e.g. if you have several devices to restore on different computers or if the computer running iTunes is not as well-connected as another available computer.

What, if they exist, are the direct download links for iOS 7.0?

I found the direct download links for .ipsw files from  Redmond Pie's very helpful post.

The links below are for build 11A465 of iOS 7.0:

iPad (4th generation CDMA)
iPad (4th generation GSM)
iPad (4th generation Wi-Fi)
iPad mini (CDMA)
iPad mini (GSM)
iPad mini (Wi-Fi)
iPad 3 Wi-Fi (3rd generation)
iPad 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular (CDMA)
iPad 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular (GSM)
iPad 2 Wi-Fi (Rev A)
iPad 2 Wi-Fi
iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G (GSM)
iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G (CDMA)
iPhone 5 (CDMA)
iPhone 5 (GSM)
iPhone 4s
iPhone 4 (GSM Rev A)
iPhone 4 (GSM)
iPhone 4 (CDMA)
iPod touch (5th generation)

Should you be a reviewer or get lucky with an early delivery, the 5c and 5s firmware update - build 11A470a of iOS 7.0.1 are below courtesy of an article by Mike Webb on mobilespie:

iPhone 5c (?CDMA)
iPhone 5c (?GSM)
iPhone 5s (?CDMA)
iPhone 5s (?GSM)

Also, I'd kindly remind people to not be greedy - downloading all the builds means someone else looking for one build might be prevented from getting a download.


Can I use Siri on Mac to trigger stuff on IFTTT? I'm using IFTTT with Google Assistant on my Android and it works like a charm, I was wondering if anyone knows a way I could use Siri on my Mac along with IFTTT?

I was wondering if anyone knows a way I could use Siri on my Mac along
  with IFTTT

Assuming you are referencing "Mac" to mean a Mac computer and not a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, then no, you cannot use IFTT via Siri on your Mac.

From the App Store link of the IFTT website:

  This app is only available on the App Store for iOS devices.

However, if you're using it on iOS there is support for Siri.  See this Knowledge Base article:  Using Siri with the Note widget service


What adapters work from Thunderbolt to HDMI? My new MacBook Pro uses Thunderbolt to connect a monitor. My monitors have all HDMI or VGA plugs. So I was looking for an Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter in my favorite shop. But I can't really find one. Am I missing something?

Yes - you might be overlooking that all the Display Port adapters work perfectly well with Thunderbolt macs.

Just place it at the end of the chain. It's not an issue since your VGA or HDMI device isn't going to have another Thunderbolt port in the chain to send the data further. You are necessarily connecting at the end of the line.

The Moshi is my favorite, but any of the Apple ones VGA, DVI are fine choices as well. You should find many "equivalents" from other vendors as well once you realize you can skip the Thunderbolt part for now.


Wifi hardware undetected after installing MacOS Sierra This is a follow-up question to Mac Pro 4,1 (Early 2009) Sierra Compatibility?

I installed macOS Sierra on an early 2009 Mac Pro and now I noticed that my wifi hardware "is not detected". Here's what I did:

I used the MacPro Firmware updater to change it's version from 4,1...5,1.
I installed a 480GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD which I bought from OWC in the next available slot.
I installed Sierra Public beta. It's been updated twice, and now it's at 10.12 Beta (16A313a)
I now noticed that the wifi icon in the toolbar has a big X on it, and it says that no wifi

Is it possible that there's a new incompatibility with the wifi card with Sierra, or that somehow adding the new SSD caused a problem?

Does anyone have experience with this and/or have any hints?

Apple decided to try and piss off as many educational customers as possible by not including basic broadcom drivers from their AirPort wifi cards.  Even the later 4321 cards do not have a driver in MacOS Sierra and some of them shipped with Mac PRO 2010's.  So Apple even lied to their own owners about what models would be supported.  I have two Mac Pro's one is a 2009 and the other is a late 2010.  The late 2010's wifi does work.  The original card from the 2009 does not work and the upgraded BCM94321MC also does not have a driver in Sierra.  My 2nd Mac Pro has the following Wifi that does work.  Apple Airport Extreme BCM94322MC.  Comedic isn't it the BCM94322MC works and the BCM94321MC doesn't.  I ordered a second 22 to fix this issue.


How can I fix a broken MacBook Pro camera cable? While I was upgrading my early 2011 13" MacBook Pro's HDD to an SSD by the instructions on iFixit, I think I broke my camera cable. When I tried to talk to my friends on Google Hangouts later that day, my computer didn't detect the camera. There wasn't a "no signal" error or anything; the computer just had no idea that the camera exists (but for the record, the microphone still works fine). That was a few months ago, and the camera's never come back since then.

My questions:

Is there a way to definitively prove that the issue is that I broke the camera cable with an overzealous pull? If it does happen to be a software issue despite all my troubleshooting efforts till now, I'd very much like to know.
Assuming the issue is that the cable broke near the socket, what's the least dangerous way to fix it?

There is a wonderful site "ifixit" that has answers to that question.

  The camera cable socket is very fragile. Do not apply any upward force
  to this socket, as it may break off the logic board. Pull the camera
  cable parallel to the face of the logic board.

If you are lucky, you did not damaged the socket but just the cable.

Replace the cable to find out.


Switch off keyboard backlight on new MacBooks Older MacBooks had a dedicated key to switch off the keyboard backlight (like the mute key). It was F8 if I'm not mistaken.

Is it possible to replicate its functionality (e.g.: keyboard shortcut) on the new models?

The easiest way is probably to just hold down the dimmer key. Should turn it off less than a second. However it sounds like you want a single press button to turn it off.

It's a bit convoluted, but it should work:
Using Automator, make an application out of the Applescript from this MacRumors thread. To do this, open Automator, choose Application from the options, search for the Run AppleScript action and add it to the workflow, paste in the script and save. You should end up with something like this:
That should give you an application that will disable the backlight.

QuickSilver is free, and you can set a "trigger" to launch the app and bind it to any key you want. If you want to use a function key, try FunctionFlip. It lets you choose which function keys on your MacBook you want to work as actual F-keys and which you want controlling the hardware functions. You can rebind whatever F-key you like and still use the rest for hardware functions if you like.

It's worth noting that the Applescript seems to be a disable-only script. There are directions on the accompanying post to make an enable script. With a bit of modification you could probably make it a toggle script, maybe someone else could chime in with that?

Hope that helps.


Facebook sharing from Safari Why is Facebook missing from the list of ways to share a page in Safari?  That option used to exist before the latest update.  When I'm directed to the extensions box Facebook is not there.

Facebook and Twitter sharing have been removed in Mojave.


How to change Gmail notification sound How to change Gmail notification sound on iPhone is question a lot of people ask.

So did I.

I find solution that works for me and I want to share it with you.

My gmail notification sound has to even wake me up so I need my custom sound that Gmail app doesn't have.

However iOS Mail app allow you to change notification even with your custom sound - how to make your own notification you can find everywhere on the internet.

When you use Gmail in iOS Mail you will find out that you can't get push notification with Gmail unless you have paid plan with Google.

If you want custom notification sound of your Gmail with push notification you have to do this:

  Make email account which iOS Mail can provide with Push notification (iCloud for instance).
  Forward your Gmail to your new email with push (iCloud)
  Change the notification sound in Settings > Notifications > Mail
  You can change the Alert style on None and you can use Gmail app as you did before only with sound notifications from different app.

It's quite easy and it works for me just fine. I do know however, that it won't be ideal solution for everyone.


I replaced my Superdrive with a second hard drive, and now I've got spin-up/down issues I've purchased a bracket to replace the superdrive in my 2009 Unibody MBP, the kind with the latch that pops open rather than the entirely screwed down bottom panel.

Now that I've put in my second hard drive, the drive constantly has to spin up when I stop using it for any seriously length of time. I presume this is meant as a power-saving measure for the old superdrive.

Is there any way to disable this behavior, and have the drive powered on at all times? While I'm not eager to punish my battery, I've pretty much worn my battery down to nothing by now, so I'm quite used to having my laptop plugged in at all times.

Run sudo pmset disksleep 0, with an optional -a, -b, -cor -u between the pmset and the disksleep.

See man pmset for details:

  The -a, -b, -c, -u flags determine whether the settings apply to battery ( -b ), charger (wall power) ( -c ), UPS ( -u ) or all ( -a ).


How to enable remote (mobile) user at login time? I used to be able to login with my Active Directory Credentials at boot time.

But after the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) I can't see the remote login anymore. I have to log in with a local account and then logout in order to be able to log in against the AD.

Any clue how can I make remote login available every time?

I am seeing this issue after an upgrade today and adding the machine to Active Directory. It then occurred to me that my FileVault setup is causing this; FileVault 2 is full disk encryption, so the local account "unlocks" the drive and allows access to the configuration necessary to allow network users to log in.

My guess is this is part of the design/implementation of the encryption, if you have that enabled. Disabling FV2 may allow the login process to work with network users. I need to do more testing.


Can't boot High Sierra from my SanDisk SSD A couple of weeks ago my MacBook Pro 8,1 early 2011 with a SanDisk 256 SSD wouldn't boot. I have ran the Apple Hardware test many times and everything checks out fine, but even when I restore from the Time Machine or even clone using CCC the MacBook won't boot from the SSD. I have now got an old Fujitsu mechanical 120 GB HD and the MacBook runs fine from this now.

The SSD can read and write as a normal external drive when connected via docking station so why can't I boot from it? I have tried formatting using APFS as well as OS X journaled (GUID)...but to no avail!

Solution to my problem was to buy a new internal Sata
cable. I could have spared myself a whole lot of trouble if I had done that at the start.


In which version(s) did macOS transition from 32-bit to 64-bit? From my research, it seems that macOS transitioned from 32-bit x86 to 64-bit x64 across the following versions:

                                Kernel  App Support
    10.4        Tiger           x86     x86
    10.5        Leopard         x86     x86/x64
    10.6        Snow Leopard    x86/x64 x86/x64
    10.7        Lion            x86/x64 x86/x64
    10.8        Mountain Lion   x64     x86/x64
10.9 - 10.12    ...             x64     x86/x64

That is:

Support for x64 apps was added in 10.5.
A 64-bit kernel was introduced in 10.6, and the 32-bit kernel was removed in 10.8.
It is possible to run 32-bit apps with a 64-bit kernel and (unlike Linux and Windows) 64-bit apps with a 32-bit kernel.

Is this accurate?

You're pretty much on the money. In summary:

Mac OS X Panther actually included very basic support for the PowerPC G5 64-bit processor.
Mac OS X Tiger was actually the first to add some support for 64-bit applications, so long as these did not utilise any of the GUI libraries (and obviously only on machines with 64-bit processors).
Mac OS X Leopard extended support for 64-bit apps by providing native support via its libraries and frameworks (including GUI libraries) so that 64-bit Cocoa applications could be developed.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard and above could only be installed on Macs with Intel processors, and introduced a number of fully 64-bit Cocoa applications (e.g. QuickTime X), and most applications were recreated to use the 64-bit x86-64 architecture (although iTunes was a notable exception to this!) This meant these applications could run in 32-bit mode on machines with 32-bit processors, and in 64-bit mode on machines with 64-bit processors. And yes, the kernel was updated so that it could run in 64-bit mode on some  limited hardware, and only by default on Mac Pros, while other newer Macs were capable of running the kernel bit did not do so by default. In a nutshell, Snow Leopard could run both 32-bit and 64-bit apps on Intel Macs.
Mac OS X Lion but supported both 32-bit and 64-bit apps. However, Mac OS X Lion was the last (actually, only the second along with Snow Leopard) that maintained both 32-bit and 64-bit kernels. However, unlike Snow Leopard, the OS X Lion only ran on 64-bit Intel processors.
Yes, it's possible to run 32-bit apps with a 64-bit kernel.
Yes, it's possible to run 64-bit apps with a 32-bit kernal, so long as you have a 64-bit CPU.
As for whether 64-bit apps can run on a 32-bit kernel on Linux and Windows, I am not 100% sure this is impossible with all versions/flavours of these operating systems (e.g. there are Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education versions of Windows) and I am not intimately familiar with all their differences. However, I can say that running 64-bit apps on a 32-bit kernel is certainly rare for a consumer-level operating system.


Why do file transfers take a long time to stop? I encounter this problem a lot, and I've also had it on Windows.

It doesn't matter if it's over a network, or locally on a hard drive, but file transfers never stop when I click the stop button. They always take 20-30+ seconds to stop.

I have encountered this issue across multiple Macs, and even on my old Windows PCs I used to use.

Is there something inherent about file transfers that cause this massive delay?

With file transfers, both copy and move, cancelling the operation tries to not interrupt the current file being transferred. When interrupting a file transfer, Finder finishes the current file, so that you are not left with two corrupt half-files in both locations. This means you can continue the operation later, or move the files back (if it's a move), if you so wish.


Syncing folders/directories in Finder I manually backup my home directory onto an external USB drive.

So far, I have to override everything data on each backup which, of course, results in long back up times.

Is there a free and simple tool that I can use to sync folders?

On 10.7 Finder now suggest merging folders when you copy and paste over an existing folder:


Itunes says "I do not have enough access privileges for this operation" how do I fix this? A year or so ago I was mucking around in my privacy and shared settings, trying to make it so my computer was "secure" when on a college network. Now with my fiddling i've screwed something up and I am running into problems with my shared files. Any ideas to fix?

To make changes to Sharing in the Get Info window for iTunes please unlock it first.

There is small lock at bottom right of that window, you will need password to open it.

You might have to do the Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X


Iphone Calendar woes I have an iphone 6 updated to ios 10.1.1 (14b100).

A short while ago, the calendar app would open on the button click, but not allow me to add anything to it. I realised it was just responding very, very slowly but it doesn't give me notifications or sync with my ical on my mac.

During this time, I got a replacement iphone as my screen was broken, saved the old data from my iphone and put it on the new iphone. This did not fix the problem. It's driving me nuts!

Also, going into settings on the phone and accessing the calendar settings is very, very slow and crashes out half the time (or kicks me back to the main iphone dashboard). I have tried looking in diagnostics&usage/data to see if there are any crashed but can't find anything useful in there to indicate that there is a dodgy event in the calendar.

After deleting all my email accounts from my phone, nothing had improved. I decided to try installing google calendar. Some progress: It loaded and then had a spinning wheel in the centre (what I presume is a loading sign) and then crashed out. I re-loaded it and clicked the plus icon to add accounts; it added my gmail account but when i tried to add my work gmail account (which is through a domain) it hung and then kicked me out.

I'm at my wits' end! Any help much appreciated.

You said you got a replacement because the screen was broken - can I assume that Apple replaced it? If so, did you ask them about the calendar?

In any case, I would try the following:

Perform a full backup.
Perform an iPhone factory reset
Test your calendars and see if it's still slow. If it is, then it's a problem with the phone. If not, then try restoring from your back and see if the problem persists.


Safari slowdown issues Safari is quite slow when I open new tabs. I get a busy cursor, and I cannot interact with other tabs.

Is there any way to make it faster?

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, MacOS 10.6.6, Safari 5.0.3.

Install clicktoflash or some other flash blocking thing.

Also disable java and other plugins. These are particularly useful for Safari 4.


What iPhone apps are available for sending bulk SMSs? What iPhone apps can I use for sending bulk SMSs?

Hopefully something very simple to get started with....

Built-in Group Messaging

On any iPhone with iOS 4 you can enable group messaging which will allow you to message a group and for responses to be sent to the whole group:

Open Settings
Tap Messages.
Finally, flip the Group Messaging slider to On.

Other soltions include:

Mass Text Message
Beluga
textPlus


Can I connect two 34" LG 34UM95-P to a Retina Macbook Pro 13? I have a Macbook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013 with Intel Iris Graphics. I'd like to get two LG 34UM95-P 34" 3440x1440 screens for it.

Unfortunately, LG writes that it the only compatible Mac is the 2014 new Mac Pro.

Currently I have two 27" displays with 2560x1440 resolution connected, and occasionally open the lid for a total of 9.13M pixels (at the highest interpolated resolution). But two of the LG screens would be 9.9M pixels, and over external connections as well.

I've found reports that the screen works with recent Macbook Pros, but…

I only found ones that cover the Macbook Pro 15" with discrete graphics (and sometimes emphasize that fact)
I want to connect two of the screens, not just one

Apple's tech specs mention:

  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors

Unfortunately, the 34" screens have ~20% more pixels than that.

Will I be able to use two of these screens with the computer I have?

You ABSOLUTELY can do this.

The statement on the box is wrong. You can use either two mini-display port to displayport cables, or two Thunderbolt cables.

My statement was based on the fact that you can (according to Apple's documentation) run two Thunderbolt monitors on that laptop, and the available resolution on the Thunderbolt cable is clearly capable of 3440x1440.


iPhone Tweak to override http links to other Apps Is there already an app or would it be possible to have an app which:

Catches http:// links that are clicked from any application and can redirect them to other apps other than safari.

For example a link to twitter could be set to goto Tweetbot, so  http://twitter.com/adamdempsey would be clicked but it would actually load tweetbot://user_profile/adamdempsey

I know obviously this would be for jailbroken phones only, just asking if it could happen?

There's a JailBreak tweak called Browser Changer, and it does almost exactly what you want. It's in the standard repositories in Cydia, and it's free. I've used it to make all links automatically open with Dolphin Browser. It works quite well, but it can only make one app open all http links, so other than that, there isn't anything that does exactly what you want.


Multithreaded Video Converter on Mac? Is there an app for Mac that can distribute a single video encoding job to several thread to utilize the full potential of the system?

I used an application called iFlicks to do video encoding, and as far as I know, it's single-threaded, so even though it can use all my CPU time, it cannot squeeze the best performance out of my system.

I am using a 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Also, I knew that there were multithreaded ffmpeg implementation, but I can't figure out how to use that. If anyone could help, it's much appreciated.

Compressor by Apple not only one of the most fully featured encoders around and fully supports multiple threads, it even supports distributed encoding so that more than one Mac can work on a single job.


Using scp with large files kills ethernet? This morning I tried to use scp to copy a single large file from my old Linux Ubuntu machine to my brand new 2017 Mac Book Pro. I ran into a very strange problem: scp would happily copy 95% of data (around 150 MB/sec) - to then "stall", and at some point tell me about broken connection. Afterwards, I basically had no more LAN access.

This happened on MacOs Sierra. What could be the reason?

Turns out: the culprit was neither the Mac itself, nor my Linux box.

I later found that the LogiLink USB-C to Ethernet adapter caused this.

And for the record - there were various other symptoms, such as:

download of large files in my browser being extra slow
replicating large files via IBM Notes not only being slow, but basically turning the whole machine into "almost unresponsive" mode


Apple Pay: is card holder name stored on Apple servers? For Apple Pay, is the card holder name of a debit card stored on Apple servers?

  After you authenticate your transaction, the Secure Element provides
  your Device Account Number and a transaction-specific dynamic security
  code to the store’s point of sale terminal along with additional
  information needed to complete the transaction. Again, neither Apple
  nor your device sends your actual payment card number.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht203027

What is the additional information referred to here?

The cardholder name is not stored on Apple's servers when using Apple Pay.

Apple Pay works according to the "EMV Payment Tokenisation Specification", which you can download from here:

https://www.emvco.com/emv-technologies/payment-tokenisation/

The document is technical in nature, but describes exactly how the system works.

In simpler terms the system works like this: When you add a credit card to Apple Pay, your device generates a set of cryptographic keys - one public and one private. The private key is kept only in the secure element of your device. The public key along with your credit card number (the so called "PAN") is sent to Apple.

Apple needs the credit card number in order to determine whom to forward the information to - i.e. VISA, MasterCard, etc. The card number and public key is then forwarded to for example VISA, and they will send back an encrypted response to Apple. The encrypted response uses the public key generated on your device so that it is not readable by Apple.

At this point Apple discards your credit card number (it is not stored) and forwards the encrypted response to the device. The device is able to decrypt and read the response.

The response primarily contains a new credit card number generated for you. The credit card number looks like an ordinary credit card number, but it is both different from your real credit card number, and it is not usable for ordinary transactions. It can only be used as part of an Apple Pay transaction, where the cryptographic keys provide the additional security. This is the method used to ensure that the merchant doesn't see your actual credit card number.

As you can see in the specification, the cardholder's name is not transferred in the process. It is not sent by your device, and as the response from for example VISA is encrypted and unreadably by Apple, even should it have contained the name  (which it doesn't) - it isn't readable by Apple.

You can see in the specification which types of additional information it is possible to send.

However, there are a few minor details to the above general answer:

1) Your Apple Pay is linked with your Apple-ID. This means that Apple has access to the name registered to the Apple ID - if this is identifical to the cardholder's name, which it would be in most cases, Apple defacto knows the name.

2) In the case of Apple Pay Cash, Apple reserves the right to request and store your name on their servers. As described here:

https://support.apple.com/da-dk/HT203027

3) There is a (very low) risk that Apple isn't actually following the standards, and actually your credit card number is not discarded or they somehow in an illegal way gets access to your cardholder's name. This would be illegal and it would be breaking agreements with payment processors. Also payment processors have certification processes in place to ensure that the involved parties adhere to the standard. In short, if this would be the case, it would be a huge scandal ruining Apple's reputation in the payment industry and elsewhere. I think it is extremely unlikely.


How can I set Numbers to automatically copy a row of data from one sheet to another sheet? I have a Numbers spreadsheet that has years worth of data in it. I'd like to call out specific rows in the spreadsheet and copy just those rows into a new sheet in the same file where I'd like the data collected. The rows I want called out all contain two specific words in the same column.

So, ideally, I'd like a function that I can match a search for "john doe" in sheet 1-table 1-column G, select the whole row of data, copy it, and paste it into sheet 2.

What function, or several functions, can use to accomplish this?

I don't know if it's possible to do this with functions, but it might be. There is a function called VLOOKUP that seems like it would do what you want, but I couldn't get it to quite work in my experimenting with it—a function that exists within one cell has a hard time returning multiple values for multiple cells.

What I think does work, though perhaps not as convenient as you might want, is the filter view. On the right side of the window, if you select the view that says "Sort & Filter" and the Filter tab, you can "Add a Filter" that will match a value in a specified column. Toggling that filter using the checkbox in the corner of that Filter's box will hide all of the rows that don't match that criteria, then it's a simple matter of highlighting all of the cells, copying and pasting to another sheet.

Unfortunately, this won't continue to add rows as you add rows in the first sheet, so if that functionality is something you need, this won't answer your question. If you only need a one-time copy, though, I think that this is the easiest option (and the only one that I know of, but I'm not extremely familiar with Numbers).


iOS 9 Update Failed in iPhone & iPad "Software update failed. An error occurred downloading iOS 9" - weird message after clicking 'Download and install'. Restarting devices didn't help. What's the problem?

iOS 9 just came out and since many are trying to update to it, it seems like a server overload on Apple's part, this article from 9to5Mac also confirms this. Unfortunately, all you can do is be patient. I still only see the iOS 8.4.1 update available on my iPhone 5S.


Advised setup for: Parallels, Time Machine, Security, Windows 7, and MS Visual Studio 2010 I just bought the latest MacBook Air 13". I run Parallels with Windows 7, but I'm running out of disk space quickly.

So, I'm now considering moving the VM to an external hard drive. With that I want the following:

Use the external drive as backup location for my Mac with Time Machine.
Have the VM on the external hard drive and develop in Visual Studio. I think the speed of the drive is important since building applications can be resource-intensive for both memory and disk.
Have the disk encrypted so in case I lose the drive my data at least will not be accessible for other parties.

I think a 100 GB - 500 GB drive will suffice.

Is the above even possible and what interface would be recommended? Thunderbolt?

Yes, all of this is relatively easily done, if you're using Mountain Lion (which is free for you if your MacBook didn't come with it pre-installed).

What type of disk?

Since the new MBA has USB 3, I'd recommend a USB 3 drive. USB 3 has more than enough bandwidth for any hard drive, and all but the fastest SSDs. There's a large selection of USB 3 drives, and they're far cheaper than Thunderbolt drives.

Hard drives will definitely be cheaper and offer far more capacity per dollar, but if VM performance is very important to you, an SSD may be worth looking at, and SSD prices have fallen sharply lately, below the $1/GB barrier. An SSD will have minimal benefits as a Time Machine drive however. Depending on your budget and performance tolerances, you may want to get a hard drive, see how performance is, and if you find it's not sufficient, get a small SSD for your VM and use the hard drive for your Time Machine.

VMs and Time Machine on one disk

To set up one disk to use for your VMs and Time Machine, you'll need to partition it. Apple has a good guide on how to do this with Disk Utility. Make one partition with sufficient size for your VMs (you'll want to leave some room for expansion of course), then a second one with the remainder of your space for a Time Machine.

Once Disk Utility has partitioned these drives, it should mount them on your desktop and ask if you want to use them for Time Machine. Answer yes on whichever partition you intend to use for Time Machine (not both of course). There should be an encryption option during the setup process. If you're not prompted to use either partition for Time Machine, you can manually choose a disk in Time Machine preferences. See Apple's Mac 101: Time Machine article for more details.

Encryption

When you create a Time Machine backup, it will give you an option to encrypt the partition. However if you don't do that, or if you want to encrypt the other partition as well, you can do this directly from the Finder. Just right click on the drives you want to encrypt, and choose Encrypt from the context menu. It will prompt for a passphrase (don't forget it!), and encrypt in the background.

I think that should cover everything.


Simulate Page Right and Page Left is there any way to simulate a "Page Left/Right" functionality?
With ⌃ Ctrl+↑ or ⌃ Ctrl+↓ (or fn+↑ or fn+↓ or any of the other various ways) I can scroll most Mac windows up or down "a page". However the behavior for left and right is very inconsistent or not present. I really would like to do the same for left and right directions.

In Safari and other web views option-left (⌥←) scrolls a page left and option-right (⌥→) scrolls a page right, but it doesn't work in Chrome.

You can use DefaultKeyBinding.dict or Karabiner to make some key combinations move in different directions multiple times:

{
  "~p" = (moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:);
  "~n" = (moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:);
  "~b" = (moveLeft:, moveLeft:, moveLeft:, moveLeft:, moveLeft:, moveLeft:, moveLeft:, moveLeft:);
  "~f" = (moveRight:, moveRight:, moveRight:, moveRight:, moveRight:, moveRight:, moveRight:, moveRight:);
}

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>custom</name>
    <identifier>custom</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::P, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::N, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::B, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

DefaultKeyBinding.dict doesn't work in some applications like Chrome or Xcode and Karabiner has a (barely) noticeable delay.


Why are there account aliases? I don't understand why when I go to /Users/Me, I find an alias of "me", and then another inside, and then again.
Can this alter the performances? Can I trash them?
And moreover, what are they doing here?

There's one alias which you created. Opening the alias navigates to the folder, and the folder has the alias in it. Thus, there's just one alias. Delete it.


Can I make my Mac have two passwords for one account? Is there any way I can get my login to accept two different passwords?

Short answer: No. There is no way to specify this in macOS. I've never seen this ability in any operating system I've used in 35+ years in the profession.

You can set a firmware password on your Mac, adding an extra level of security before a user login, but it is not recommended.


Are mini DVI port and DVI port the same thing? I have an old MacBook and im trying to connect it to a new TV, I have a mini DVI port but can't find adapters for it. Is mini DVI and DVI the same thing? I'm looking for some kind of adapter to HDMI port.
Thanks!

Monoprice sells a Mini-DVI to HDMI adapter (as well as other Mini-DVI adapters).
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=4852

Mini-DVI and DVI are the same electronically, but the mini connector is much smaller and a regular cable will not fit.


iPhone with personal hotspot not appearing as a network interface (USB) in the Network preference pane on OS X I have an iPhone 4S running iOS 7.0.2 and a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8.5.

On the iPhone, I have the tethering option enabled (personal hotspot). I wish to connect via USB, and not over wifi, but somehow I don't have the "USB network interface" (or whatever it is called) on my Mac, so I can't activate it... how can I bring it up?

Click the plus in the bottom-left corner. When you're iPhone is connected, you should be able to add it.


MBP 17" (2010) goes to sleep and can't wake it up My laptop goes to sleep and when I open the lid it wakes up just fine (or I move the mouse if I didn't close the lid).

Now sometimes when I open the lid, it doesn't wake up.  The status light which is usually going on/off is just not lighting up at all when the lid is open.  If I close the lid again, then the light remains lit but doesn't toggle on/off.

The only way I can get things to work is if I press the power button for like 10 seconds to force it to shutdown.

What is happening here?

Note:  I press fn-control and the eject key to put into sleep mode (to avoid it going into the clam shell mode).

The output of pmset -g is:

Active Profiles:
Battery Power -1
AC Power -1*
Currently in use:
 womp 1
 halfdim 1
 sms 1
 hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
 gpuswitch 2
 networkoversleep 0
 disksleep 10
 sleep 10
 hibernatemode 3
 ttyskeepawake 1
 displaysleep 10
 acwake 0
 lidwake 1

I’m new here, but old hat when it comes to troubleshooting Macs.
Sounds like the computer isn’t going to sleep consistently. Often this happens if there’s something running on the computer preventing it from sleeping.
These are the steps I usually take, for this kind of thing, with the more common, easier steps first. If you find something during one of these steps, take the action to resolve it, then test the sleep functionality.

Check for updates. It may sound awfully trite, but Apple does release firmware updates from time to time, often addressing issues relating to the System Management Controller (SMC), which has everything to do with this kind of issue.
Third-party software also plays a big role when it comes to software problems, so check for updates for all of these as well. (Most third-party software allows you to check for updates within the application.)

Check for any errant, unfinished print jobs. I’ve frequently seen this be the cause. You can do this by opening System Preferences > Print & Scan (or similarly named).
If you see a printer that says “In Use,” and you’re not trying to print something right now, then that’s a good clue this is your problem. From here, you can delete the troubled job (Apple Support article PH10608).

Check Activity Monitor (it’s in the Utilities folder) to see what’s currently running. Be sure to choose “All Processes” from the pop-up menu.
Backup software (like WD SmartWare), online syncing software (Dropbox, CrashPlan, Carbonite, etc.), out-of-date anti-virus or security software, auto-updaters and some third-party utilities can all prevent the computer from sleeping, especially if they’re in the middle of a task. Try disabling or turning them off from within its application or menu in the menu bar (and check updates for these, too).

Check how much hard drive space you have available. You’d probably have other symptoms, but it doesn’t hurt to check. Activity Monitor will tell you (click “Disk Activity” and look for the pie chart), or in OS X 10.7 Lion or later, Choose  > About this Mac, then “More Info…” and “Storage.”
It varies by version, and what you’re actively using on the computer but if you have under 10 GB hard disk space free then it’s time to empty the Trash.(Apple Support article PH10628) (Tools like DaisyDisk, WhatSize, and OmniDiskSweeper (this one is free) are great help for this. And keep in mind these may only report sizes for the currently logged-in user account.)

Check the file system using Disk Utility (also in the Utilities folder). When your computer goes to sleep, it saves the current state of the computer to a sleep image in /var/vm. If the computer has filesystem or hard disk issues, it may not be able to finish saving the data.
Choose your hard disk, then click “Verify Disk.” If any errors are found, you can repair them from the Recovery disk.

Check Console for disk errors (where else? Yep, in the Utilities folder). Usually you’d be noticing slowdown issues, but perhaps not if the drive is only just beginning to show trouble.
With “All Messages” showing, in the search box, type disk i/o. It’s possible to go further back in time through system.log and kernel.log. If you see repeated errors with disk0s2, that’s going to be your boot volume, which ordinarily will be your internal hard drive. You have a failing hard drive.

Check for any connected peripherals. USB and Bluetooth devices, like hard drives or audio interfaces can prevent computers from going to sleep. Disconnect these things and test it out.

Reset the SMC. Though hardly ever needed, it’s a simple and quick step that can easily fix power-related issues.

Try from Safe Mode. (Learn how to Safe Boot: Apple Support article HT1455.) This allows you to test without any auto-launching third-party software and non-essential items, and rebuilds your boot cache, too. (If it works flawlessly, restart and check Activity Monitor again for any constantly running processes.)

After that I suspect I’d backup and try re-installing OS X. And after that, I’d install a fresh copy of OS X onto a second partition of the internal hard drive, or onto an external drive (or erase the hard drive and install if you can afford it) and test. Should you narrow it down to this, try then installing your most essential software one at a time, testing after each item, until you find the culprit.
If after an erase and install you’re still encountering a problem, it’s probably a hardware issue, meaning you’ll need to take it in for repair.


How to stop display from turning off when I disconnect a Screen Sharing client I have a Mac which I connect to using Screen Sharing to log in and start a video playing. Since upgrading to El Capitan, when I quit the screen sharing client, the screen on the remote machine turns off. How do I stop this from happening, while still having the screen turn off normally after a few minutes of inactivity?

Run this command in the terminal to fix the external screen going blank on VNC disconnect. Works with Sierra OS.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement RestoreMachineState -bool NO

More context from jabenninghoff on GitHub:

  In newer versions of macOS, screen sharing will automatically re-lock the screen when you disconnect if it was locked when you first connected.


Screencapture Terminal command and then return to Shell script I'm trying to run a shell script wherein I run the screencapture command, do a couple of modifications like file renaming, moving to Dropbox, shortening the url etc and then growling the url.

Problem is, after running the "screencapture" terminal command, following commands aren't executed like so:

screencapture -i ~/Dropbox/Public/ScreenShot_TestScreenShot1.png
# below doesn't get executed
echo "your file is at ~/Dropbox/Public/ScreenShot_TestScreenShot1.png"

(For the curious: The shell script is triggered from from Alfred)

Anyway of returning to the shell script after running the screencapture command?

The problem isn't that control is not being returned to your script, it's that the output from the echo command isn't being captured and reported to you. It could be that Alfred is closing the transient Terminal.app window that it's using to run the script. To test that add a sleep 60m to the end of the script which should keep the window on the screen.

Or it could be that all stdout/stderr from the script is going to /dev/null or something similar. Make sure Alfred isn't throwing away the output. Based on our comment conversation it sounds like that's what Alfred does with std I/O.


Can I schedule a periodic file permissions repair? Can I schedule a periodical file permissions repair? With Automator, maybe?

Go to the terminal and execute "crontab -e" to add a new crontab entry. Now there are numberous syntaxical ways you can accomplish what you want (read about it on wikipedia). The easiest one, however, will be to put

@monthly diskutil repairPermissions /

in it.

Note: You'll be using vi for editing. Press "i" to type, then after you've finished press ESC and type in ":wq" to save and quit.


Cant complete transaction please contact Itunes to complete transaction Ok my problem is pretty much the same as above, please contact Itunes to complete this transaction, however I have in credit 8 dollars so the credit is there, but when I click to buy or upgrade something for not even 1 dollar I get that message. Can someone please help?

We won't be able to help you if Apple wants you to contact them - that is your solution. There may be a problem with your account / something else, but that's just a general message. You will have to contact them to find out what's wrong.


Firewall Being turned off Is it possible for an application to close my OSX firewall? Several times I have opened the security pref and I find FireWall off while I do not remember turning it off. For antivirus I use ClamXav which doesnt have a firewall so it should not be it... Is there a way to check if some application is closing the firewall ?

Check /Applications/Utilities/Console.app after the firewall is turned off.
There might be a message about the change.


Does iOS hide your Wifi SSID information from your apps? I recently asked a very similar question for Android, where it is a serious concern that any app can record what Wifi SSID you've connected to.
There are these Google, SkyHook, and Apple SSID databases that allow anyone to know which ssid is located where, and the info can be leaked by your neighbour not just your usual devices on your own router.
To quote:

This means that even if you are on a VPN, even if you turn off wifi
scanning, even if you turn off location services and take out your sim
card, even if you stop broadcasting your router's wifi SSID, your apps
will be able to know what wifi SSID you are currently on.
This means that an attacker (read: the surveillance capitalism :) ),
can figure out if/when I am home, and which other devices that
are/were online have used the same SSID. E.g. all my family's
(mandatory) banking apps will know where my family members congregate,
and could change my insurance score, or other "insert dystopian
scenario here".
Considering what I described, I don't think there is any wiggle room
for you to ever hide your real location from a bad (state, corp,
hacker) actor. Am I wrong? Can I hide my SSID from the apps that are
on my phone?

Is this also how iOS works? I'm aware Apple itself knows what wifi and what color underewear all of your family members are wearing, and that it is selling (yes, sells less data than others but still also sells data) or otherwise using conclusions from analyzing that data and then sending/selling, to other services and/or third parties. But, does it technically allow apps to build this kind of explicit connected device (e.g. SSID) history?
Also, (since I'm less familiar with iOS) is there a feature where your iPhone constantly scans all devices around you (wifi and bluetooth) to improve location or other features? And if so, which specific device names ever end up being visible to your apps? (and how to prevent that)

As of iOS 5, Apple removed the public API for scanning networks.
As of iOS 7, Apple removed the ability of apps to access the MAC address of the user device.
As of iOS 11, apps can no longer access the MAC addresses of devices on the same Wi-Fi network.
As of iOS 13, apps require explicit access permission to Location, granted by the user, to obtain access to the name (SSID) and MAC address of the connected AP.
As of iOS 14, apps require explicit access permission to a new Local Network control, granted by the user, to find and communicate with devices on your local network, and:

Only apps that have already been granted user permission to access precise location data, that have been given permission to set up a virtual private network profile, or that have been given permission to configure a network on the system on the user’s behalf will be able to see the names of Wi-Fi networks the user is connected to.

P.S. The question as currently phrased reflects a misunderstanding of Apple's privacy policies and practices.


Cannot enter Time Machine I have been running Time Machine for about 10 months with no problems. Now when I try to enter time machine, nothing happens. Just like in other posts I have read. I run Lion with no apparent problems and the backups work fine as I can see them in Finder and access the files there. The problem is that clicking to enter Time Machine does nothing, with no error or anything.

Any ideas? My backup is to a USB-connected dedicated 1 TB hard drive.


transfer the custom ringtones I have custom ringtones on my iPhone5s which show in Tones on iTunes. They were originally setup years ago on older iTunes.

I am trying to setup an older iPhone5c and would like to transfer the custom ringtones, but can't seem to find how.

I found the original on my Mac.

There seemed to be no means of selecting in iTunes, so I tried (shudder) dragging the file to iTunes which worked.


How to save a file quickly and no need to wait for the external hard drives to "wake up"? Recently I have decided that since Mac does such a nice job for indexing the files, I will store many files on the Mac, so I bought a 6TB Thunderbolt external drive which is in RAID 0 Strip mode, and another 2 external drives that are 4TB each, and use them as the RAID 1 mirror mode.

The iMac is 1 year old, so it is still using USB 2.0, but the drive using Thunderbolt is fast.

However, if I just right click an image on a website and choose "Save Image As", now I have to wait 30 seconds for the drives to "wake up", before the "Save As" will pop out the window to let me click the "Save" button at all to save the file.  Since some Mac can now boot up in 25 seconds, I need to wait a longer time than the boot up time just to save an image, which 99.99% of the time is by default just on the Mac's internal hard drive, under ~/Downloads.

Is there a way to improve this?  I also turned off the "Put the hard drive to sleep when possible" in the System Preferences, but it is still doing the same thing.  For example, if the "Save Image As" can let me choose the "Downloads" folder, and just to wake the other drives up when I do select to look into them.

One method I can think of is, write a shell script that will ls /Volumes/WD6TB and ls /Volumes/WD4TB (the drives' names), just to wake the drives up whenever I start using this iMac.  Or else if there is a way to cause the screensaver to wake up the drives whenever there is a mouse move or keyboard action, wake the display (which it can do), and wake the hard drives, that will be a good solution too.

The save button is checking all mounted drives, and will spin them up.

Your only way I can think of to do this is to prepare a couple of scripts.

See the man page for diskutil.  If the mount point (diskname) is BigFatDisk

then to unmount the disk it would be something like

diskutil unmount BigFatDisk

Now to keep everything sync'd to BFD you would run a script now and then

diskutil mount BigFatDisk
rsync flags local disk BFD
diskutil unmount BigFatDisk

A second option is to replace the disks in the BFD enclosure with hybrid disks.  These have an SSD chunk and a spinning rust chunk, and are ideally suited for this.

A third option is to let your disks spin whenever the machine is awake?  The amount of power they use is small, and increasingly MTBF times are being given as X spinups, not X hours.  A hard drive 2 years ago used 5-7 watts.  I'm sure it's better now.  So let's use 5.  That works out to 40 kWhr per year, roughly.  At 15 c per kWh that's 6 bucks/year.  Seems to me that this is pretty cheap compared to the hassles you have now.

I have set my computer to turn the screens off after 20 minutes idle time, but never to turn off the CPU or spin the drives down.


SD card left with barely any space after formatting it to ExFAT I'm currently trying to jailbreak my Wii with an SD card and am using a MacBook Pro (El Capitan) to format the card to ExFat. The card is 32 gigs, but is reduced down to a mere 30 MBs after formatting to ExFAT via Disk Utility. I need to put one 40 MB file and one 2 MB file in the card, but it isn't letting me. FAT32 isn't working either. Here is the link to the specific SD card I'm using.

That card is 32 MB not 32 GB - unfortunately you misread the capacity by a factor of 1000