Water spilled into the keyboard of my Macbook - would this affect the quality of the files saved on it? Water spilled into the keyboard of my MacBook Pro. It still works the way it used to, but the pictures saved on the computer seem to have gotten pixelated. How could I recover the original quality of those photos?

It's highly unlikely that spilt water on your keyboard will result in your photos becoming pixelated. Instead, it's much more likely that spilt water will damage some of the components of your MBP (depending on what you did immediately after the spill and how long it's been since).

If your internal drive was damaged, then you'd have all sorts of problems reading from and writing to the drive, which means it wouldn't still work the way it used to (as per your question).

As a test I would copy some of these photos onto a USB drive and try viewing them on another computer just to see if they still look pixelated:

If they do, then you know your data has been corrupted.
If they don't, then you know you've most likely got another problem with your MBP (e.g. damage to the graphics card, damage to the screen, etc).

If you don't have access to another computer, then email the photos to your smartphone and view them on that.

As an additional step it would be worth testing your hardware.

Testing your hardware

You don't specify your model of MacBook Pro, so it's not clear whether you need to use Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics to do this. If your MacBook Pro was introduced:

before June 2013, it uses Apple Hardware Test. Follow these steps.
after June 2013, it uses Apple Diagnostics. Follow these steps.


No search results in the Contacts app on IOS 9 On my iPhone 6 running IOS 9.1 (release 13B143), I cannot find any results when searching in either the Contacts app or in the Contacts tab in the Phone app. I have hundreds of contacts, but no matter what letter I type in the search field, I get no results. Example:

But before I started typing, I could see dozens of contacts with last names starting with "A". This is a new problem; everything was working until a week or so ago, when I first noticed this issue.

Note: this is not the same as the many questions about Spotlight search not finding contacts, such as this one. Spotlight actually does find my contacts. So do the Messages app and the "Invitees" pane in the Calendar app. The Contacts and Phone apps, however, do not.

How can I fix this?

I figured this out. Somehow, I had two different contact cards marked as "my" card: one named "Ed Cottrell" and one named "Edward Cottrell." I have no idea how both of them got marked as "my" card; I don't even know where the second one came from. On my phone, only one of them showed up. In the Contacts app on my Macbook, both of them appeared. Anyway, this gave me an idea that this might be the source of the problem.

I took the following steps:

Delete one of "my" cards on the Macbook.
Exit the Contacts app on my iPhone (fully, as in double-pressing the home button and dragging the app upward).
Relaunch the Contacts app on my iPhone.

At this point, the "Groups" label appeared in the upper left corner of the Contacts app. I had been seeing a circular "reload" arrow, but no "Groups" label.

Tap on the "Groups" label.
Uncheck all groups.
Tap "Done."
Tap on the "Groups" label.
Check all groups.
Tap "Done."

And now, my contacts search works again. This was a pain, but at least it's fixed.


"Announce the time" in Date & Time preference pane does not work I have enabled "Announce the time" In the Date & Time Preference Pane. However, no announcement happens. It used to happen and then stopped some time ago.

Mac OS: 10.14.6 Mojave

Any suggestions as to what I can try and do? Any property that I can set using command line to make it work.

For what it is worth, it appeared to me that my Speech settings in Accessibility Preference Pane were corrupted somehow. If I played any voice in Speech section of Accessibility Preference Pane, my System Preferences application would hang.

I ran this command in the terminal tccutil reset Accessibility and restarted the computer.

Speech module started working.

I had to reenable permissions to applications that required Accessibility access under Preference Pane - Security & Privacy - Accessibility.

Hope this helps anyone else who has this problem. I am no expert so perhaps others can chime in on the underlying details as to why tccutil reset Accessibility worked to address my speech preference pane.


Multiple IP addresses for same host name in /private/etc/hosts? I have a corporate mail account (exchange 2007) that uses a self-signed SSL certificate.  No matter what I do, Mail always complains about this when I connect.  If I look at the details it always says the certificate name post does not match the dns name I used to connect.

I had the bright idea to add an entry in /private/etc/hosts that mapped the name post to the external IP of the server.  This works beautifully and the certificate error is gone and everything works when I am out of the office.

The problem with this is that when I am in the office I need to access the server by its internal address, and the only way I could connect was to remove the line I added to hosts, or to change the IP from the external IP to the internal IP.

Now for the question: Is there a way I can format multiple entries in the hosts file for the same host name, but with different addresses?  I know this is done with real dns servers, but it appears not to work in a hosts file.  The idea is for the name lookup to return both IP addresses and Mail will fail over to the second address when the first does not work.

I know there is a setting in Mail for internal and external names for the server, but using this brings back the original certificate errors. After some thought, I also wondered what would happen if I make a second entry for the same name but using IPv6 instead of IPv4?  Should have IPv6 some time later this year, and if I understand correctly you can have one name listed twice in hosts when one address is IPv6.

Unfortunately, the answer is no. The hosts file is a static lookup file, and because of this it has no concept of multiple-address per name failover, round-robin, or other features baked into the name resolver.

You can specify multiple names for a given IP address, but not multiple IP addresses mapping back to a single name.

Dare I ask, why can't you access the external interface of the mailserver while internal to your office? We configure all of our clients to use Mail/Jabber externally so they never run into this issue.

Despite conventional wisdom, using the external interface when internally does not "pull all the way across the internet", if configured correctly, of course.


Is disabling spell check systemwide still possible in Sierra? I wanted to comment my question directly in the thread Is it possible to disable spell check systemwide? , but I do not have enough reputation to comment, so I opened a new thread:

I just upgraded from El Capitan to Sierra and wanted to disable spell check as always for years now with this procedure:

sudo mv /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources \
        /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources.disabled
killall AppleSpell

Unfortunately this procedure doesn't work anymore as the Resources file does not exist anymore in System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents

Does anybody know how to get rid of the spell check in Sierra?

You can disable the feature that automatically corrects misspellings but it still underlines misspelled words. Go to System Preferences, Keyboard and click on the Text tab. There is an option on the right to correct spelling automatically. Make sure this is not checked.


Lion restoring windows throws DO NOT HAVE permission When I restart my computer it tries to restore my open Preview PDFs. Clearly I opened them (and I've tried every which way to do that so the whole new sandbox methods will retain permission), and yet I keep getting it.

I nuked the Saved State Folder (which oddly is the only app, Apple or 3rd, with a symlink to within its Container…) and it went away for a bit. But I just got it again. Oddly though it was only for half the open files. (five PDF whitepapers open in one window, sitting in the same folder, three opened, 2 gave Permission Errors)

Any ideas? It keeps restoring because every time I close the laptop it goes into deep sleep immediately. I have no idea if this is a fluke on my machine or a Lion thing. Upon wake up it just stalls and then does an entire reboot — thus trying to restore everything that was open from before.

Despite that having its own degree of obnoxiousness at times, it's somehow worse when it does it but fails. And it makes no sense to me that it'd only fail on some files and not others, especially when they're sitting in the same folder. The sandbox permission shouldn't relate to the Saved State restore, anyway.

To solve the permission errors, just boot from your recovery cd(insert cd and reboot while holding alt/option) and click in the menubar on 'Utilities' and select 'Disk Utility'. When you are there, you can choose 'repair disk permissions' (get ready for about 2 hours of not being able to use your computer).

In preview, close each document and then quit the app, that should do the trick.


Is my external USB drive causing erratic sleep/hibernate behaviour? I've been reading up around sleep settings as I keep finding my Late 2012 Mac Mini in a weird hung state each morning that requires a force-reboot (it's like running Windows 10 years ago!)

I thought the "deep sleep" function was to blame but when I ran pmset-g I got this:

System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standby              0
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 womp                 1
 autorestart          0
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 powernap             0
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            10
 sleep                60
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 hibernatemode        0
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         10
 standbydelay         4200

However Difference between autopoweroff and standby in pmset says:

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

I have an external USB hard-drive as the 2nd drive on my SSD MacMini as my main data drive. If this is turned off, I recently noticed the system won't boot (folder with a question mark) which seems odd for an ancillary drive. Either way, would the presence of this drive prevent deep-sleep/hibernate/standby?

It will sleep a couple of hours fine, it's only overnight it has issues
It generally still has lights on my connected USB mini-hub when it is frozen
It typically "semi-wakes"; the screen recognises an active input and typically I get a black screen with a responsive mouse cursor

I started writing a totally different question but then was thinking whether my USB drive might be a culprit here or I should be looking elsewhere?

How can I tell if the Mac is is sleeping Vs standby Vs hibernate Vs deep-sleep to track down which transition or action is causing the problem?

To determine the sleep mode it is using, you would have to peruse the system.log in the Console.app (Applications > Utilities).

The problem when trying to wake it up sounds like there is an issue with the external USB drive not responding properly.  It could be a compatibility issue with the drive, the "USB mini-hub" is getting in the way, or a power-related issue where the USB hub needs power from the Mac to spin up the USB drive but it can't until the Mac responds.

Try plugging the drive directly into the MacMini instead of using the USB hub and see if the problem continues.

You could reconfigure the power management settings to not sleep.  The MacMini uses very few watts of power when idle so the cost is minor compared to the issues here.

You could also try using this command to configure the USB drive to not power down when idle.  This might trick the MacMini into thinking it is still being used so it wouldn't go to sleep.  (It has been a long time since I used this command so I'm not sure it still works)

/usr/bin/touch /Volumes/USB_DRIVE_NAME/.keepDriveAwake


Is the time required for incremental Time Machine backups greatly affected by the number of files? Is the time required for incremental Time Machine backups greatly affected by the number of files being backed up? I have a large number of files on my Mac that very rarely change and aren't "mission critical". If they greatly affect backup time I'll exclude them from Time Machine but if they don't I'll just backup everything. Backup size is a non-issue for me.

If it matters, I have Time Machine backing up to a remote box that is usually on the local network.

Incremental backups only backup what has changed. The number of unchanged files is irrelevant during an incremental backup. If you suddenly change all of the "large number of files", the next incremental backup will take significantly more time.


Terminal: open-command -a flag - Why isn't it necessary for some software? When I use this command to open some text-file ...

> open myFile.text

... then it works perfectly fine. TextEdit opens up and I can read / edit the file.
Works with pdf-files the same way too.

But when I do this ...

> open Terminal.app

... then I get an error message:

The file /Users/michael/Downloads/Terminal.app does not exist.

I've found out that I have to add an -a flag:

> open -a Terminal.app

Then the command works as expected: A second terminal is opened.

The man-page of the open-command says:

*-a application

Specifies the application to use for opening the file*

Okay, well ... but ...

Why do some software work WITHOUT using the -a flag? While other software demands it to be there?

You are doing two different things here.

The text one is open a file with the application that open associates with the file extension.

The Terminal one is you trying to open a named application.

What open does is first look, using the full path name, for the file that is named, as you only give a file name it is a relative path it looks for that file in the current directory. (Thus for Terminal.,app it says it can't find the file and then gives up). When it has found the file it then searches for the default application for the file's extension, then sees if the application is running, if not it starts the application. Finally open sends a message to the application to deal with the file.

Passing -a to open tells open to use the named application, it searches its database for previously opened apps and so does not need the full path to find Terminal.app


Make iCloud photos upload from phone less aggressively? If I have wifi access, after taking a photo, by the time I go to edit or share it mere seconds or minutes later it's already been uploaded from my phone to the cloud. This then means the big delay grabbing the photo from the cloud.

Is there any way to try to make that better, other than turning off "optimize photo storage", which I can't do given my phone+library size.

(I'd also accept a rdar::// number if this is known issue)

Turn on Low Power Mode. Then automatic uploading won't happen.

Some people keep Low Power Mode turned on all the time. If you don't, you may turn it on before taking the photo and then turn it off after you've done processing it or uploading it to social media.


Is it legal to develop iOS apps on Windows? Is it legal to develop for iOS on a Windows machine? I have researched this on Google, but I do not seem to be able to find a direct answer, yes or no, whether it is legal or illegal to do iOS app development on Windows.

Here is an article that I have found regarding the legal issue (or lack of): http://www.pmbaty.com/iosbuildenv/legal.html

Is it legal to develop iOS apps on a non-Apple hardware such as a Dell or Lenovo machine or any other hardware which is generally made for Windows or Linux? or On vmware?

With regard to location, I am talking about India, or otherwise non-US resident.

Yes

…it's legal to develop iOS apps on hardware or software other than Macs and OS X respectively as it does not violate the Registered Apple Developer Agreement:

https://developer.apple.com/programs/terms/registered_apple_developer_20100301.pdf

You can develop iOS apps on any platform that you can, using a variety of software available. The legal problems come from running OS X on unsupported hardware, or running pre-release software without being a developer, etc.


locale: LC_ALL is empty In my ~/.profile

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

But $ locale prints empty LC_ALL:

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

How can I set LC_ALL to "en_US.UTF-8" ?

FYI, LC_ALL is an env var you DO NOT want to set from what I have been reading.  It is there for developers for debugging purposes when they need to quickly change all the locale settings ie. env vars you listed above for a particular environment as it overwrites / supersedes all the other locale env vars, thus that is why it is left unset.

cheers
Chris


How can I solve this BootCamp partition mess I've created? This is my diskutil list. I've gotten my new iMac today and everything was going great so I wanted to install windows via bootcamp. After it booted into Windows setup I had problems choosing and formatting the BootCamp partition that was created, so I deleted it and chose new. After this didn't work either I restarted and after several different tries I now have this mess of partitions that I can`t delete via BootCamp Assistant nor Disk Utility.

Does anyone have an idea how I can solve this so I can get to my original FusionDrive disk to try from the beginning?

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode
Open Terminal in the menubar > Utilities
Enter diskutil list to get the disk identifiers of your internal SSD (probably disk0), HDD (probably disk1) and the CoreStorage volume (probably disk3 or disk4 - apply the disk identifiers below according to the findings in your environment)
Now remove the seven partitions on the HDD with gpt:

diskutil umountDisk disk3 #the device identifier of the CoreStorage volume
diskutil umountDisk disk1 #the device identifier of the HDD
diskutil umountDisk disk0 #the device identifier of the SSD
gpt remove -i 9 disk1 #the device identifier of the HDD

Repeat the above steps six times but lower the index number (-i) by one in each step:

diskutil umountDisk disk3 #the device identifier of the CoreStorage volume
diskutil umountDisk disk1 #the device identifier of the HDD
diskutil umountDisk disk0 #the device identifier of the SSD
gpt remove -i 8 disk1 #the device identifier of the HDD

...

diskutil umountDisk disk3 #the device identifier of the CoreStorage volume
diskutil umountDisk disk1 #the device identifier of the HDD
diskutil umountDisk disk0 #the device identifier of the SSD
gpt remove -i 3 disk1 #the device identifier of the HDD

Resize the CoreStorage stack:

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID 2120g

with lvUUID: the UUID of your Logical Volume (8DC64131-3881-4971-B870-2FB6BFB58EDB)
Reboot to your main volume
Reinstall your current system to recreate your missing RecoveryHD or use this tool Recovery Partition Creator

Instead it should also be possible to merge all partitions (disk1s3-disk1s9) to free space and expand the CS LV then without booting to Internet Recovery Mode (untested):

diskutil mergePartitions Free Space disk1s3 disk1s9

Then reinstall your current system to recreate your missing RecoveryHD or use this tool Recovery Partition Creator


How to change device name in Profile Manager I run Maverick 10.9 Mac mini server. After enroll some new devices into Profile Manager I need to change their name. I can't find any field that could change the device name. Thanks

you can only change it if your devices are enrolled in supervised mode. use apple configurator 2 to enroll the device to MDM, then you can select the supervised mode option.

after it's successfully enrolled, you can then rename the devices via the profile manager.


What is the best way to automate PDF page extraction and conversion into jpg for downloaded files in iOS? From time to time I need to check a webpage, download a PDF file from there, find something inside, extract that page and convert it to an image. I can do it easily on macOS, but on iOS it gets more complicated. It would be great if I could on the way, using my iPhone.

I have been trying a way to do it using the apps I know. My last try was with Workflow, but it seems that it does not support PDF to JPG conversion. I may try to write some code in Pythonista and it can probably work out, but i would prefer a simpler solution. Is there an app/solution that can accomplish this?

I'm using this.

PDF to Images by Miles Jordan Software
https://appsto.re/us/eGbaY.i


Fishy moves at night Today, due to some reasons I factory-reset my iPhone. When I’m setting up (pressing those “Get Started”), I found something fishy in the Health app.

I rarely work after 1am, and recently I did start sleeping before midnight. I found that there are some walking records, timestamped at night, around 3-6am. My immediate guess is that someone moved my phone at night during my sleep.

I’m not sure whether it is normal. For example, is iOS using location service to locate my phone’s approximate location so as to calculate how many “steps” I walked, or is it solely using the motion sensors?

I usually put my phone near my pillow. However, because the numbers of steps are not small (at least 10), it should not be caused by my movement during sleep time.

Since I’m not asking with respect to information security, I’m not looking for counter-measures. So any ideas about the causes are welcome, even if they don’t address to solutions.

Short answer

Assuming there's no obvious explanation (e.g. sleep walking, getting up to go to the toilet, someone 'using' your phone, etc) then no, this isn't normal.

Long answer

Despite the "short answer" above, it's important to appreciate that in the absence of an activity tracking device (e.g. Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc)  being paired to your iPhone, then calculations are not as accurate at they could be.

At its most basic level*, a smart phone's activity measurement is performed by processing a range of calculations based on the data captured by tri-axial accelerometers. These accelerometers record acceleration in all three spatial dimensions (i.e. up/down, left/right, and forward/backward). This data is then fed into calculations to determine activities such as "steps".

Additionally, in the absence of any external fitness trackers you'll find that smartphones typically need to calculate steps in chunks and that there's a minimum number that can be reported (e.g. your iPhone isn't ever likely to tell you that you've just moved a single step, but it could say you've moved 6 steps). That's not to say it can't measure steps down to a solitary unit, just that part of the calculations involved mean that reporting figures like 6, 7, 12, 16, 137, 346, 1037, etc are possible, but not that you got up in the middle of the night and walked just two steps (because the minimum amount of data it needs to perform the calculations is such that it can't calculate just two steps on their own).

So, what all this means is that if the Health app is regularly reporting "fishy moves at night" of 10 or more steps, then either something is triggering this (sleep walking, getting up and forgetting about it, looking at the iPhone a number of times, someone else 'using' your phone, etc) or that there's some sort of 'fault' (e.g. faulty sensor(s), wrong time allocation, etc).

If the fishy timestamps are happening multiple times during the night, then it's less likely to be someone else using the phone and more likely to be you. If it's only happening once during the night and only occasionally, then it could be someone else using your phone, or just you doing something with it. However, in all scenarios it could be some sort of fault.

If it's of concern you could do some experiments to test for different scenarios, but otherwise it's probably not worth worrying about unless you're concerned with a high accuracy of step counts during these hours.

*You haven't specified your exact iPhone model, but in recent years the calculations performed have become more refined and take in data from other sources as well (e.g. gyroscope, location, compass).


AppleScript: if selection empty, select all I've made many AppleScript module for TextWrangler but this time I face a "stupid" problem:
The idea: if nothing is selected in the text, set the selection to all the text.
I've made many tests, without any succes. Here is the last one:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    set my_selection to (get selection)
    set nb_mot to count words of (my_selection)

    if nb_mot < 1 then
        tell application "System Events"
            keystroke "a" using command down
            display dialog "Select all"
            delay 1
        end tell
        set my_selection to (get selection)

        delay 2
        set nb_new_mot to count words of (my_selection)
        display dialog "After select all " & nb_new_mot
    end if

    set var_1 to (replace "(" using "(" searching in my_selection options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false})
end tell

When I select a part of the text, it's okay. When nothing is selected, I enter the if block, but this give me an empty selection.

Any idea how I can grab only the selected text when there is something and perform a select all and copy that if no text is selected?

The reason you get an empty selection, i.e. when nothing is selected and set my_selection to (get selection) returns, e.g., insertion point before character 1 of text document 1, the if statement block fails with the

tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "a" using command down

portion of the code because TextWrangler doesn't have focus.

The keystroke command goes to whatever has focus, so before you have System Events keystroke something, activate the target first, e.g.:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    activate
    -- delay 1 -- # Uncomment and or adjust the value of the 'delay' command as/if necessary.
    set my_selection to (get selection)
    set nb_mot to count words of (my_selection)

    if nb_mot < 1 then
        tell application "System Events"
            keystroke "a" using command down
            display dialog "Select all"
...

That said, you can omit the activate command and use the following example AppleScript code:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    set my_selection to selection
    set nb_mot to count words of my_selection

    if nb_mot < 1 then
        set my_selection to characters 1 thru -1 of text document 1
        set nb_new_mot to count words of my_selection
    end if

    set var_1 to (replace "(" using "(" searching in my_selection options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false})
end tell

Note for clarity, I've remove the display dialog and delay commands along with all of System Events code, and other unnecessary code, as the following line of code is all that's necessary if the nb_mot is < 1:

set my_selection to characters 1 thru -1 of text document 1

The Event Log and Result of this example AppleScript code is:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    get selection
        --> insertion point before character 1 of text document 1
    count every word of insertion point before character 1 of text document 1
        --> 0
    get characters 1 thru -1 of text document 1
        --> characters 1 thru 499 of text document 1
    count every word of characters 1 thru 499 of text document 1
        --> 70
    replace "(" using "(" searching in characters 1 thru 499 of text document 1 options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false}
        --> 3
end tell
Result:
3

As you can see it replaces the three ( in:

set var_1 to (replace "(" using "(" searching in my_selection options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false})


How to automatically resend iMessage when Internet is accessible? When using Messages, if I don't have an Internet access for some reason and the message does not send, I have to manually go back and resend any unsent message.

Is there any way to do this like WhatsApp, where it just waits until the Internet access is available and then sends without any user intervention?

Unfortunately this feature does not exist on the iPhone.

You can provide feedback for the feature to be added here. For now, you will just have to live with it or use another app like WhatsApp.

  There is no such feature as yet on iPhone.

(Source)


I am only seeing 1:50 of estimated run time on a new MacBook Pro battery. Problems? I have bought brand new MacBook pro 15-inch model with highest specifications in this June. I have also installed newest Mac OS, Lion.

However, how it could be strange, when cable is not plugged it, battery shows me that there is only max 1:50 of vitality (nevertheless, despite the fact that there is written in the official web page (http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html) that the battery work is "up to 7 hrs wireless web".

I do not know what the problem is, is this OS problem or the issue with the battery.

Update:

Okay, after all your recommendations it shows me almost 4 hours on 98% of battery. Here is the screenshot (is it normal to have 4 hours with these processes running?):

What are you doing when you are testing?  The "up to 7 hours" is for basic web surfing with little computation going on. If you're pushing the system hard, it's inevitable that estimated battery life will show as lower.

Estimated battery life is essentially (battery level remaining / current power usage). As usage goes up, estimated life goes down.  That's standard for all laptops, by the way.  Of course, all manufacturers quote the highest life value, but then most laptops don't spend much of their time being pushed hard.


How to disable permanently Messages on iOS I am trying to disable Messages on iOS because it is continuously sending SMSs to a foreign number (doing so wasting my credit).

I disabled Messages and FaceTime from the Settings, but Messages still asks to send SMSs for registration. Where can I disable it?

On your iPhone, go to:

Settings > Messages and flip the "iMessage" switch to off.

You will still be able to send and receive regular SMSs, charged by your carrier or included in your monthly plan, but not iMessages. And they will stop trying to activate by sending those SMSs to a number abroad.

See http://osxdaily.com/2014/04/15/disable-imessage-ios/ if you want some screenshots.

If this fails then there's an hick-up with your phone or SIM. In that case, try resetting the "Network settings" (you'll lose all saved WiFi credentials):

Settings > General > Reset > Reset NETWORK SETTINGS and confirm. Be sure to really choose "Network Settings".

After the device restarts you can still do a soft reboot, this usually clears most small issues:

with the device turned on and unlocked press and hold the Power Button (top or side, in newer models) and the Home Button (front) together, i.e. at the same time
keep holding them for 10 seconds and until the device reboots and you see the white Apple logo on screen. You can then let go off the buttons.

Finally, Apple also posts some troubleshooting, if you want to attempt again to re-enable iMessage in the future, and still come across the same problem: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201422


How can I run a shell script that prompts for user input from within Applescript I have two pieces of code. One is Applescript and the other a Bash shell script. The shell script needs to run concurrently with the applescript, return some values and then exit. The problem is the shell script's read -p prompt does not pause for user input when called from within applescript using do shell script "/path/to/script.sh".

I thought maybe

display dialog "Query?" default answer ""
set T to text returned of result

could replace the read -p prompt but I can't figure out how to make either way work. How cam use either of these methods to properly ask and wait for user entry?

I realize I could cut the applescript in two sections placing one at the beginning of the shell script and one after the last shell command.

#!/bin/bash

osascript ~/Start_Script.scpt

echo 'enter some Text'
read -p "" T

## for things in stuff do more
## stuff while doing other things
## done

osascript ~/End_Script.scpt

This is what I've been doing and it does work. But it requires using the terminal which is fine for me. But if I wanted to show someone like my Mom.. well she's just not going to open the Terminal app. So it would be nice to find a way to emulate the read -p command within Applescript itself and be able to pass a variable along to the embedded shell script.

AppleScript embedded in a shell script is often messy, hard to read, and hard to quote properly.

I get around that by using this sort of construct.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

read -r -d '' applescriptCode <<'EOF'
   set dialogText to text returned of (display dialog "Query?" default answer "")
   return dialogText
EOF

dialogText=$(osascript -e "$applescriptCode");

echo $dialogText;

-ccs


Can I charge my mid-2012 MBA using its USB 3.0 ports? My magsafe charger reached its peek. It doesn't work anymore. I'm looking for a way to charge it while I'm still waiting for my new one,  I was curious if I can charge it using the other ports it have.

You cannot charge it using its USB ports. In newer macs my understanding is that you can charge them with their USB C port. The only solution would be to order a new charger from Apple or pick one up from Best Buy. They’re about $100 USD or $125 CAD.


OS X software RAID 0 with 6x SATA SSD? I will be able to use a former video editing "Mac Pro" :) for a bit, free to configure anything I want in software.

I would like to experiment with setting up OS X software RAID 0 with 6x SATA SSD.

No data reliability required, I will have to relinquish the box after a few tests.

Is this the very best I can get from the storage layer of this machine? Does it make sense to RAID 0 6x SSD drives? Will I be able to install OS X on the software-striped logical volume?

If you have theoretical arguments in favour or against, please explain your rationale. If you have practical experience with OS X software RAID with no parity, that would be ideal!

I suspect that 6 SSDs can provide more bandwidth than the SouthBridge Controller on the MacPro can support (maybe 8Gbit/s or 1GB/s)? This may also depend on the model of MacPro that you're using.

The throughput supported by the drives themselves may also come into play...Some SSDs achieve reads of about 250MB/s, while others support rates around 480-500MB/s. Your 3Gb/s SATA ports will probably top out at 375MB/s

My money's on a benchmark of about 1GB/sec for your 6xSSD RAID-0 volume's read rates...Probably a little less for writes...You can probably attain the same speed by striping 3 or 4 drives together.

You can definitely install OS X on this striped volume, but you may not be able to put the recovery partition onto that drive.

Regardless, the AJA Kona System Test is a good utility to use for this benchmarking. I'd be interested to hear what you find.


What app can I use to create mockups for websites? I'm looking for a free or commercial software for Os X to create mockups for websites. Any suggestion?

Balsamiq Mockups is a good one, fairly cheap and very good - http://balsamiq.com/


How I can save a screenshot of an iPhone application? I want to take a screenshot of an iPhone or iPad application to share.

How is that accomplished?

Press the home button and the sleep button simultaneously. Newer phones have the sleep,on the side instead of the top but save images the same.

This will save a picture of the current iPhone screen to the "Photos" application. From there, you can either email it to anyone you want or sync it to your computer.

Assistive touch also works on newer iOS versions.

How can I create iPhone screenshots without the lock button?

On iOS 11 screen recording might be if use for capturing transient events where your reflexes or the device itself isn’t responsive enough at the correct moment.

How do I take a screenshot in iOS without hitting the Home Button and the Power Button?


How does Apple's two year warranty in Europe work? The EU has recently forced Apple to abide to the two-year warranty period mandated there. As I understand it, this is not a maker warranty, but a retailer warranty, so to keep things simple, assume for the following that I bought the product directly from Apple.

Does it also apply to the online Apple shop, or only the retail stores?
Does it only apply to Italy (where a complaint was originally filed)?
Is this equivalent to a one-year extension of the normal one-year Apple Care you get?
Can I claim warranty (for a product bought in Europe) in Apple Stores outside of Europe (as I can with Apple Care)?

It isn't quite correct that "the EU" has forced Apple to abide to these regulations. Rather, an Italian judge forced Apple to abide by Italian law. As a result, Apple has seen the light and adjusted its policies to comply with EU directives across the EU (as it was required to).

EU countries implement EU directives, but generally have some freedom in those implementations. So details in individual countries may differ, although your questions are general enough that the answers below probably apply everywhere.

The regulations that Apple now has to comply with don't provide for warranty per-se. They do make retailers responsible for providing a product that is functional for its expected, reasonable lifetime.

In general:

Yes, the online shop is a retailer, so it is responsible for providing you with a functional product.
No, these regulations apply in the entire EU, and AFAIK all EU countries have implemented them. Apple must comply in the entire EU. However, details of the rules that Apple must comply with may differ in specific countries.
Not really. While Apple serves as a manufacturer and a retailer here, the EU rules specifically apply to retailers, not manufacturers. In addition, AppleCare may provide protections or services that retailers aren't generally expected to provide, or can't (as in your question 4.)
Maybe. Apple may provide this as a service, but it isn't required to. If you bought an Apple item from an EU Apple Store, you can't then require a US Apple store to service your device; it's a different retailer.


How to load a 2nd copy of OneCast with a new license? I am trying to use OneCast to control 10 Xboxes, I have successfully got up to 6 that I can control, I can view all 10, but can't control all 10. The issue I am having is that when I load the app multiple times it loads it under the same User ID, and due to license limitations of the app I can only connect up to 3 Xboxes under a license.

I was able to load 3 more copies of OneCast as a root user giving me access to a total of 6 Xboxes. When I load as another user other than the root user I cannot control the apps with a controller as the bluetooth does not recognize the apps under a different user as the bluetooth connection is ran as a root user which gives it access so far to at least 2 user accounts, the root user and the one that I am currently logged in as. I need to boot up Onecast as the current User I am using but need to have it boot from scratch so I can enter in multiple License keys, giving me access to control all 10 Xboxes.

Here are the commands I have used.

This command lets me view the connected Xboxes but not control them

echo "Password" | sudo -S -u User2/Applications/OneCast#2.app/Contents/MacOS/OneCast

This lets me control up to an additional 3 Xboxes for a total of 6

echo "Password" | sudo -S /Applications/OneCast#2.app/Contents/MacOS/OneCast

Is there a way I can edit the .plist file to adjust how OneCast Loads? How do I find where the app's code verifies which user is loading it?

This is a clear violation of their licensing terms.

  Our single-user licenses provide access to the software on one or more
  personally owned machines. Each user needs just one single-user
  license, regardless of how many machines the software will be used on.
  Please note that there is also a limit of how many different Xbox One
  consoles may be used with each license key, so don’t share your
  license key with others. Licenses found to have been shared will be
  restricted.

So, based on the behavior of the application you are describing, it is working as described - on a per user basis. You can install it on as many Macs as you like, but if the users are different, you're in violation.

I don't advise trying to circumvent this restriction as they seem to imply the ability to disable the software. If you need additional XBox connections or additional functionality, it's best to contact the developer.


iTerm in a mode I'm not familiar with. How do I get it back to normal mode When I am running on the command line using iTerm, it is in a different mode than I'm used to, shown in the images below.

When I try to type a command it shows all the previous variations of that command. When I try to run a commandit often adds other options to the command line. How do I get out of this mode?

This looks like what happens when you start typing a command and then hit cmd+;. The options in that mode are  :

iTerm2: Highlights for New Users: Autocomplete
Any text that exists in a tab or its scrollback buffer can be autocompleted in that tab. To use autocomplete, type the beginning of a word and then press cmd-;. An autocomplete window opens showing the top 20 choices for words beginning what you have entered. The list can be filtered by typing a subsequence. The filter can be reset by pressing backspace. If you make a selection and press return, it will be entered for you. If you make a selection and press tab, your autocomplete will be extended with the selection.

To just get "out of this mode" – not making a selection – hit esc.
This then could therefore be for this special case a setting found 'automated' in  Preferences>Profiles>Advanced>Triggers:

If that's the case, then clicking edit should open a sheet-pop-up where you see some entries, one of them providing this now unwanted feature.

In the lower left here is a plus and minus sig box. Select the unwanted trigger and delete it.

Alternatively, you might just create an entirely new profile (first picture with "Default" + "TUSTEP"), click the plus sign  in the lower left, and compare settings with your former "Default"-profile (in case you have some more sophisticated settings).

The files at
~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist
~/Library/Application\ Support/iTerm2
might also be worth a look.
If there are external 'input manipulators' installed (text autocompleter, scripters, listeners to events) things get more complicated…


How can I move my notes from one folder (gmail) to another (iCloud)? I use Notes on my iPhone, iPad and Macbook Pro. Of late, the gmail syncing has been unreliable. I want to move all my gmails notes to the iCloud folder.

There doesn't seem to be a way to 'move' a note, apart from deleting and recreating it.

My question is: How can I move my notes from one folder (gmail) to another (iCloud)?

The following worked for me:

Go to the folder that represents the notes stored on the external server
Click Edit and choose the notes you need moved, or just swipe from the right on the individual note and tap Move
Choose the destination target and folder: either local, or iCloud

This actually moved my note from an external, IMAP-connected server to my iCloud.

The screenshot shows both On My iPhone and iCloud options not greyed out, which confirms they're both available, and the note in question is currently located elsewhere.

But yes, it does seem like it won't let us do it the other way around, that is, move the notes from iCloud/iPhone to an external server: it simply doesn't show up in the destinations list.

  My question is: How can I move my notes from one folder (gmail) to another (iCloud)?

Seeing that most likely your Gmail account is connected via IMAP, I believe the above should work for you in the from Gmail to iCloud mode, as requested, but again, keep in mind, not the other way around. Make sure you have the latest version of the app installed.


"This Apple ID is valid but is not an iCloud account" Trying to sign into iCloud on my Macbook and I get this error message. I've also had some trouble signing into the same account with iCloud on iPad and iPhone, but the messages there are even more vague.

My Apple ID is a gmail address - not anything from iTools/Mobile Me and existed as an Apple ID before iCloud was released.

Go into System Preferences » Users and Groups » and then under your name on your login it says Apple ID. Put your details in there and that should sort out your problem. Well, at least it did for me.


Why is Quit disabled in Mail.app? Recently, when I try to quit Mail, the Quit menu option is actually disabled and the keyboard shortcut doesn't work (it "beeps" just like when you try to do anything that isn't permitted). Screenshot for proof:

Any idea what's causing this and how I can prevent it from happening? The only "solution" I've found is to force quit Mail...

I'm running Mail 6.2 on 10.8.2.

This problem has previously been reported and apparently hasn't been resolved. Apple's solution is to force quit Mail. If you are not especially loving Mail, and don't mind upgrading, Mozilla Thunderbird is an excellent replacement option. I use it on a daily basis, and it never has issues. Hope this helps!


Global Proxy - Tunnel All Traffic to Proxy How do i make OSX go through a proxy server for all the applications that use internet?

The system preferences proxy network setting only routes depending if the application supports it, but an ideal solution would be a way to tunnel everything to a proxy.

I believe this question has been asked and answered over at Superuser: https://superuser.com/questions/802967/how-can-i-make-sure-all-my-macs-tcp-traffic-goes-through-a-socks5-proxy


Isn't XCode meant to be free? I have a Mac running 10.7 Lion. I have the lastest compatible XCode installed but it isn't able to work with my iOS 10 iPad. It will work with my old iOS 6 iPod. I wrote an extremely basic app which compiled successfully and ran fine in the virtual device, however the system won't let me run or install the app on my iPod. I see I have a certificate issue and to obtain one I need to be part of the Apple Developer Programme.

I'm guessing that in the latest release of XCode this won't be an issue, and I can make apps and run them on my iPad for free as long as its for personal use. I know my Mac can't run Sierra but if I got hold of one which could would this be the case?

I don't want to have to pay a £99 per year Apple Dev Prog fee.

The actual problem is that side loading of apps without needing an Apple signed certificate was added to iOS 8. You'll want to upgrade your iOS and Mac OS to get to the level where Xcode can self-sign and self run based on your free AppleID instead of a paid and signed developer certificate.

It that fails, you would have to get a newer device to use the free entitlement of running code you self-sign and side load from Xcode.


How to remove an empty group in Launchpad I installed Google IME and uninstalled it. Then, as shown in the image below, an empty group is left in Launchpad. (I think it should have been removed automatically when the group became empty.) How can I remove the empty group manually?

OSX 10.10.2

Previous answer didn't help me on Yosemite - when I dragged app into the empty folder the app just disappeared for a while and the folder was still there, empty and disturbing. But then I've found a way to fix it without resetting Launchpad:

Click and hold any random app until all icons start shaking, then drag the app on the folder, DON'T RELEASE, and drag back into its place. Right after dragging back the empty folder has disappeared.


Problem with 1 Mac (out of 4 different Macs) having issue connecting to Airplay In our office we have an AppleTV 4th gen, 32gb, hardwired to our switch which in turn is hardwired to our router.

For Wi-Fi we have a Ubiquiti access point hard wired to the same switch as the AppleTV.

For 3 users running a mixture of Yosemite and Sierra connecting, disconnecting,  etc. from the AppleTV when their computer is connected to Wi-Fi works fine.

One user always has issues where they can connect. The icon in the top bar goes blue, and the AppleTV either stays on the home screen or goes black, but their screen is not mirrored. Sometimes it connects fine, but sometimes it doesn't.

Info on the Mac in questions :

Mid 2012 MacBook Pro 13" (non 4k, one of the last ones with user upgradable RAM)
i7, 16GB RAM
Was running Yosemite, so I upgraded them to Sierra, but the problem still persists.
The Mac itself doesn't seem to have any other Wi-Fi related issues. In fact, often when the issue occurs the Mac is connected to Wi-Fi, running Google Drive,  Dropbox, etc. absolutely fine.

The Wi-Fi AP is a Ubiquiti UAP AC PRO c. 450mbps 2.4ghz throughput, c. 1300mbps 5ghz throughput.

At all times the laptop is <6m away from the AP. All other devices that work fine on the Apple TV connect to the same access point and have no issues. At most there are <10 concurrent devices (inc. phones and tablets) connected at any one time, but usually one or a few devices are active (eg. currently connected and being actively used for browsing etc.).

Any ideas ?

I have not been able to fix the problem, after about 3 hours of trying.

Fortunately i found a work around which is Airparrot, it seems slightly counter intuitive to use a 3rd party app to run an native OSX function when speaking to another Apple product, but it works really well on the machine i was having an issue with.


How can I back up 2 internal drives to a single Time capsule? I recently reinstalled Lion on an SSD and have all my media on the original HDD on my MBP.  I was hoping Time Machine would recognize my existing backups in Time Capsule but it wants to start a new backup image. Also, it looks like Time Machine wants to only back up my SSD. So, my questions are:

Can I back up both drives to one time capsule image as if they were a single logical drive?
How can I access my old backed up data in the existing image?

Time Machine's thinking is backup everything except what you tell it not to and the time machine hard drive itself. It should not matter how many drives you have connected, they should all be backed up to the time capsule just fine. In other words, you can backup multiple sources but only on one destination, as long as this destination shows up as a single logical drive in the Finder.

Just check in Sys Prefs > Time Machine > Options if the other HD isn't just simply added to the list of exceptions, don't see how it would end up there by itself, but just in case.

And I don't think you can keep working with the same backup, since you divided the data in to 2 separate logical drives. Time Machine just does not think like that. Better start from scratch, perhaps backing up the current backup set to another drive if you need to preserve all the previous backups... Some people need to be able to go back in time to a specific point. I care only to have one up-to-date copy, don't care much about having 30 different ones.


Do AirPods have sound delay? I have gone to an electronics store and have tried on Bose and Beats headphones, both of them have a pretty annoying sound delay which is insanely apparent and anyone who says it’s imperceptible must be deaf.

While listening to music it doesn’t matter and for videos it wouldn’t be that bad, for phone calls especially slower or international VOIP which already have the delay, it is absolutely horrible.

I noticed that the more expensive the receiver - the lesser is the sound delay, I also noticed that it is some sort of low power garbage which causes that delay to happen.

Example: streaming Bluetooth music to my PC one time is super snappy almost perfectly in sync without any perceived delay, some other time there’s like a half a second delay (distance would be irrelevant) although I am tempted to try to force high power by moving too far from the receiver, and then seeing if that has forced high power low latency

Example 2: I have these cheap $25 bluetooth earphones for running, they have a really bad half a second delay.

Considering radio waves travel with the speed of light, I am very tempted to deposit a log of blame on the “low power” protocols and inability to force high power low latency protocols for this issue.

Low power protocol is fine for synchronizing irrelevant garbage to/from your watch, music, file transfers, I strongly disagree how it is being used for media and calls.

That said, I wonder how is the delay on AirPods in comparison to latest (2k17/18) Bose. Bose delay isn’t that bad, but still would add an annoying delay for phone calls.

Yes, there is a noticeable delay (latency) with the AirPods. This is so with any wireless headset - but the amount varies according to the chosen codec, quality (frequency range, samples per second, etc), and protocol.

Basically any wireless headset has to balance bandwidth, latency, power usage, etc.

If you use AirPods for streaming music, playing videos, etc. the delay is not a problem. The AirPods will use higher quality settings for the best audio possible.

If you use AirPods for phone calls, Siri, or similar - the quality settings are automatically lowered to better balance these factors for that use case. In some cases you're perfectly okay with 8 kHz mono sound.

If you intend to use AirPods for listening to virtual instruments in GarageBand triggered by a MIDI keyboard - you're not going to enjoy it. These instruments require a high quality setting for the audio to sound their best - but you'll then have a very noticeable delay (latency) between hitting the keyboards on the keyboard and hearing the sound from the AirPods.

For those types of scenarios, wired headphones are still the best.


Restart on password unlock? I have my an old iphone 5 running iOS 10 that I decided to get repaired. I never knew until now of this lock out forever thing that happens if you get the password wrong 10 times in a row until I read about it yesterday.

So a couple days ago I try to figure out my old password and get to the 60 minute deactivation. This boggled my mind since I never seen it go this long. But I think I know what my password is now (strongly) but am not 100% sure. If I turn off my phone for a few days, would it somehow restart the password count and I could try a few more times?

If I turn off my phone for a few days, would it somehow restart the
  password count and I could try a few more times?.

In a word, no. You can try restoring your phone to factory settings using these steps at Apple Support.

If you backed up your device, you can restore your data and settings after restoring your device. If you never backed up your device before you forgot your passcode, you won't be able to save the data on your device.

Quoth Apple:

If you don't have iTunes, download and install iTunes on your Mac or PC. If you don't have a computer, borrow one from a friend, or go to an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.
Make sure that your device isn't connected to your computer, then choose your device below and follow the steps:

iPhone 6s or earlier, iPod touch (6th generation or earlier), or iPad with Home button: Press and hold the Side (or Top) button until the power off slider appears.
Drag the slider to turn off your device. Connect your device to your computer while holding the Home button.
Keep holding the Home button until you see the recovery-mode screen.

In iTunes, when you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Restore. iTunes will download software for your device. If it takes more than 15 minutes, your device will exit recovery mode and you'll need to repeat steps 2-4.
Wait for the process to finish. Then you can set up and use your device.


Is there a keyboard shortcut for minimizing Mac OS X windows? Is there a (hidden) keyboard shortcut for minimizing the frontmost window (that works in most apps)?


Screen flash disabled but happens anyway My Mac has started flashing the screen instead of beeping. It's exactly the same effect as you'd get if the Accessibility pref pane's "flash the screen" option was enabled, except that it's not enabled.

I also verified that the preferences property list file affecting this setting shows it as being off. In ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist I see:

<key>flashScreen</key>
<false/>

In case it makes any difference, the system sound is otherwise normal and not muted. I'm listening to music from iTunes, but getting screen flashes instead of beeps.

This happened a couple of weeks ago, and rebooting the Mac got things back to normal. Why does it keep happening? Is there something I can do to stop it from repeating again? The screen flash is going to give me a seizure.

In a similar situation, I was about to give up and reboot, but then I found that restarting the audio daemon resolves the issue:

sudo killall coreaudiod

The symptom was: in the "Sound Effects" system setting panel, selecting alert sounds didn't do anything (usually it triggers a preview of the selected effect). My guess is that OS X fails to play an alert sound, and falls back to the visual cue.


Where does Photos store Live Photo videos? The Photos app in OSX El Capitan can import Live Photos from my iPhone.  But when I look in the folder where photos are stored, ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters, I don't see any videos there.  (Under iPhoto, Live Photos were imported as separate video and audio files.)  So where is the video piece stored?

On OSX 10.12.4 with Photos version 2.0 (3150.4.120) they appear to be stored in ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/media/master/$NUM/00/jpegvideocomplement_$HEX.mov.  These don't appear to be indexed by Spotlight.


Multi-user trackpad 2 support My spouse and I share a Thunderbolt Display but we each have our own MBP, I work from home in the daytime and she uses it in the evening for online night classes in school.

This works great because all of the peripherals are attached to the display. Keyboard, printer, external drive, etc - just plug in a single cable and good to go. The exception to this is the Magic Trackpad. We eventually broke down and got two because of the hassle of unpairing and repairing it since it doesn't support being paired to multiple computers.

With the Trackpad 2, it has a lightning connection and according to the product page, "Magic Trackpad 2 pairs automatically with your Mac, so you can get to work right away."

If I have a Trackpad 2 and leave it connected to the Thunderbolt display all of the time, will it "just work", no pairing funny business, and essentially act like a USB trackpad?

Well my Magic Trackpad 2 arrived and yes, when plugged in with USB, it acts exactly as I expected it to. The Trackpad still supports bluetooth, but when connected with USB, that takes precedence.


Default program dropdown in preferences – where is this list retrieved from? Most OS X programs have a ''default program'' dropdown list in their preferences. For example, here's what I see in Mail.app:

From where is this list retrieved? How does each application know what other similar applications are available on the same computer?

lsregister, found in /System/L*/Fr*/CoreS*/V*/A/F*/L*/V*/A/S*/ manages this list by looking in the Info.plist of all the apps on the system. Apps register themselves as being able to action certain files (such as Mail registering .eml) or protocols (such as mailto: which is also registered by Mail) and lsregister makes a note of this.

For more information about Uniform Type Identifiers, see:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/understanding_utis/understand_utis_declare/understand_utis_declare.html


USB port not functioning on a user account, works on another This is a 15" MacBook Pro (Early 2011 model).

In one user account, only a single USB port works. When logging into another user account, both USB ports work. What could be causing this? What would you advise as a fix (short of rebuilding the user account)?

I have solved the problem.  I booted into the Lion recovery mode and repaired the disk permissions.  It is now working fine. Hope this can help someone else.


Less free space after securely erasing free space? I use a mid-13 13-inches Retina MBP 256gb with macOS Sierra 10.12.2.

I recently decided to securely erase free space using the following terminal command:

diskutil secureErase freespace 1 /Volumes/HD

After completing its task, I got 50GB of free space instead of the 80GB I had before the operation.

Could it be a remaining temporary file used by secureErase?

That's it. Do you have external SSD and FileVault enabled? Having SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space commands aren't needed for SSD drives 'cause a regular erase command makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD.

Also, if you don’t include freespace word, diskutil will start securely erasing the entire disk, instead of just the free space! 1 means single-pass method run of random numbers.

diskutil secureErase freespace 1 /Volumes/SSD

Be careful with it. Securely erased means there’s no chance you’ll be able to recover the data.

Read this useful AD post: Why is a secure erase 'not necessary' for SSD ?


How can I export my iPhoto library so I can import it on another computer? I want to export my iPhoto library so that I can import it onto another computer and still keep the Events I've organized etc. How can I do this?

Everything in your iPhoto Library is stored in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library.aplibrary (note that the extension is hidden by default).

Simply copy that file to whatever Mac you'd like to move it to. Just make sure you are running the same version of iPhoto in both cases to minimize incompatibility and error.

Apple has an article about moving it if you are interested.


What are the different types of System Services using Location in iOS 5? With the new iOS 5 comes new way of managing Location Services. This allows you not only manage which applications can use Location, but also which System Services are allowed to use it.

There is total of 6 items on that list and I'd like to know a little bit more about what they are and how are they used:

Cell Network Search - I am not quite sure how GPS can help with that?
Compass Calibration - I guess I can see how GPS can help with that.
Diagnostics & Usage - I guess your position is stored in diagnostic & usage reports?
Location-Based iAds - That goes off without a doubt
Setting Time Zone - There's already loud about it being overzealous and draining battery. I'm more than fine with it being off as so far my iPhone deals well with time zone adjustment from network time.
Traffic - This bugs me a lot. It does not affect traffic in Maps.app and seems to be used frequently, too. What for? Any ideas?

Cell network search: when in presence of two or more network antennae, probably it register which one is better where (so it has to know where), in order to automatically connect to it the next time you''ll be in the same place.
Diagnostics & Usage: possibly related to the one above, about battery life draining with different antennae
Traffic: I guess this one is to collect data for a yet to be announced product (see the Apple Q&A regarding this.


If you backup your iPhone using iTunes, is it a full backup even if on the iCloud settings it's not? I only have 5 GB of iCloud storage. So my iCloud backup settings on my iPhone, i didn't include Photos (cause I have 6 GB worth of photos).

Now if I wanna do a full backup of my iPhone, does the manually backup option on iTunes work?

Will it be a full backup? I checked the backup size on my Mac and it says 7 GB, so is it safe to assume that it was a full backup?

It is "full" in the sense that everything that is ACTUALLY on your device is backed up (minus payment and password/security settings for obvious security reasons), but it is NOT full in the sense that not everything you see on your device is truly "on" your device. Some stuff is merely just a shortcut (for the sake of a longer explanation) to items stored in iCloud.  The details and differences of iCloud and iTunes -based backups, along with what is excluded (such as those shortcuts) in an iTunes backup are documented here, courtesy of Apple, on their support site.


Disk space not freed up after deleting files and emptying Trash I had approximately 50Gb of Windows VMs on my MacBook Pro internal SSD (128Gb) (OS X 10.7.3).

I copied them to an external drive, then deleted them from the internal drive, then emptied the Trash.

When I look at disk usage in Activity Monitor it shows the same level of usage as it did prior to deleting 50Gb of files.

Any ideas why the space hasn't been freed up?

The answer relates to changes to Time Machine backups in Lion.

My understanding is that when a TM back up is attempted when the back up disk is not connected, a back up is made in /Volumes/MobileBackups.

These back ups do not go away the next time TM runs with the back up disk connected. I am not sure if the OS will eventually reclaim this space.

You can disable the local back ups by running one of the following commands (depending on your version of Mac OS):

sudo tmutil disable localsnapshot

# for older versions:
sudo tmutil disablelocal

After you run this command /Volumes/MobileBackups is deleted.

I'm sure there is a good reason for the local backups and I don't necessarily recommend disabling them, but they were - in combination with some large deleted folders - the cause of disk space appearing to be still in use.

You can re-enable mobile backups by running:

sudo tmutil enablelocal

More info here - http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars/18


Clash of Clans Difficult village transfer I first started playing clash of clans on my iPod 4th generation.  I soon realized I wanted to start over because I upgraded too quickly and wasted gems.  I started over and my new village (lvl 65) is much better than the old village (lvl 50).  I recently got an iPhone 5c and want to transfer my lvl 65 village over.  I have tried but only my lvl 50 village will transfer.  What should I do?

Clash of Clans is designed so that a user can have only one CoC account associated with an Apple ID.

There are multiple ways to start over in the game. You can delete the app and restall and then not continue the game when prompted or you can create a new Apple ID and start a new account on it.

If you deleted the app and started over, you shouldn't be able to transfer the account to a new device. If you used a different Apple ID then just login with it.

If this doesn't help you you can send Supercell a support ticket or an email and they will help you.


iPhone voicemail does not display my messages, tells me to call voicemail i have an iphone 6 running iOS 11.0.3. I recently received a sound from my phone indicating a voicemail, even though no phone call preceded it. When I check my voicemail, I see a blank screen with 'Call Voicemail' in the center. If I push on the message a phone pad comes up for me to call voicemail. I've never done this so I called my own number. It asked for my password. I don't recall ever setting up a password. I made some guesses but they didn't work. Why am I getting this call voicemail message and is there anything to do if I can't recall my password?

You should probably call your carrier and ask them to sort it out.

From this Apple Support article:

  Only your wireless carrier can access and manage the voicemail account for your phone number. On your carrier's customer-service page, look for steps about how to reset your password online or over the phone.


How can iPad battery remain on 100% charge over night? I'd like to know, what is "wrong" with iPad batteries (and probably with batteries for all other Apple mobile stuff) in absolutely positive way -- why they're so good in idle mode power consumption?

My six years old (!) iPad, charged up to 100% the previous day evening shows -- after whole long night of not being used (screen dimmed off, but WiFi connected) -- again 100% in the morning.

What am I missing here? For past 5-10 years I have been using about 100 different mobile devices from a really significant number of manufacturers (but only this iPad from Apple) and absolutely none of them was able to keep the same battery charge over night.

Typical idle-mode power drain schemes started from loosing 1% of battery charge per each hour at worst up to 2-3% power drain for whole night at best. But, I have never, ever met another device that when turned on and connected to local WiFi hasn't lost even a single percent of battery charge.

It nearly looks like a mythical impossibility. How it is possible that Apple's batteries all able to offer such exclusive performance while the whole world of mobile devices around -- can't? Are these measures true, correct and verifiable?

I assume most (if not all) the other devices you refer to were various Android models? If so, how long has it been since you've used a device with a very recent version of Android?

The reason I ask is that Apple's iOS has always been more efficient in its battery management. This is why Apple gets away with using batteries of lower mAh ratings. And it's the reason why Google launched Project Volta - because they needed to make Android more efficient at its core.

In a nutshell, Project Volta resulted in improved efficiency starting with Android 5.0 Lollipop. It achieved this through a series of optimisations (e.g. a new battery saver mode, job scheduling APIs which restricted certain tasks to only activate over Wi-Fi, and performing tasks in batches to minimise the overall time that internal radios were active.

Of course, since that time Apple has also made improvements in how iOS manages power consumption.

However, in terms of answering your question Are these measures true, correct and verifiable? when referring to an iPad still displaying 100% after being idle with Wi-Fi activated all night, the only way for you to know that in your exact circumstances is to do some testing, keeping in mind you need to ensure:

that you have the exact same apps running during these tests
all apps (and iOS itself) must be the same version
the start and end times (and therefore also duration) are identical
the ambient temperature at the time was identical (in other words, you'd have to do this in the same air-conditioned environment set at the same temperature)

In a nutshell what you would do is something like the following:

Fully charge the iPad and disconnect it from AC power at 10pm
At 8am play a movie at full volume and full brightness
At conclusion of the movie, take note of the battery percentage
Play the movie again (still at full volume and brightness)
At conclusion of the movie, take note of the battery percentage again
Play the movie yet again (still at full volume and brightness)
At conclusion of the movie, take note of the battery percentage again (assuming you've still got a charge)

Now fully charge the iPad and leave it connected to AC power until 8am the next day, at which point you disconnect from power and perform the same test (i.e. same room, same movie, same volume, same brightness, etc).

Compare the differences in your battery percentage and determine how accurate that 100% reading is.

I suspect that in reality an iPad will use some battery power overnight with the screen dimmed off and WiFi connected, but that the usage will be quite negligible.

Only you can decide, based on your test results, how true, correct and verifiable the measures (i.e. battery charge indicator) are.


Google Drive won't start, odd 'Butt' menu bar icon I just reinstalled OS X (10.11) and am now unable to get Drive working.

When I start the application, a menu icon () appears, which seems to be the word 'Button' clipped short to fit, but I can only see the first three and a half letters, so it may be something else.

Then.. nothing. Nothing more happens. Completely repeatable, I've killed it and tried again, rebooted, shut down and turned on, deleted the folder in ~/Library/Application Support/, nothing.

It was fine on this machine (2013 MBA) with 10.11 prior to disk wipe and reinstall.

Any suggestions?

Months later, this is still an issue. My only workaround is to launch it via:

sudo /Applications/Google\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Drive

then it's fine!

But it doesn't seem to be a permissions issue. I've reinstalled Drive countless times; I've wiped my disk and reinstalled both OS X and Drive too. I also tried disabling SIP. Nothing.

I contacted Google support when I first had this issue, after hours of being told to do what I told them I'd already tried they watched my screen as I did it again, but unfortunately had nothing to suggest. I've been waiting 5 months and occasionally following up on the promise of "a specialist" getting back to me, nothing yet. (Spiel about the jeopardy of my subscription package goes here.)

Extremely grateful for any suggestions - I don't really want to be running it with sudo.

I had to re-insall Google Drive upon El Capitan Upgrade. Make sure you have the latest version. For some reason it was not auto-upgrading for me.


How do I open a file as root in TextEdit on Lion? How do I open a file as root, in TextEdit? I've tried these commands as root, but TextEdit always say it's locked:

open -e /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
open -e -F /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
open -e -F -W /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

And of course sudo !! makes no difference.

You can open up a textedit instance as root by entering the full path to the actual executable :

sudo -b "/Applications/Textedit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit"

Once your root instance is open you could browse to the file you need or do this from the command line :

sudo su - root -c "open -e /etc/apache2/httpd.conf"


How to get file sizes of large files in OS X Terminal? I'm trying to get the file size of a big file (1GB +) using the OS X Terminal. I'm using du -sh. But also after 30 seconds I don't have any result, is there any faster command?

Thanks.

Say you are looking for big files in your home directory, use this command:

find ~ -size +1G

Replace ~ with the directory of interest.

Update

My original response was wrong, but I'll keep it to remind myself. If you are trying to get the size of a file, try this:

stat -f '%z' filename  # Normal file
stat -L -f '%z' filename  # symbolic link file

I have not figure out how to do it for a directory yet.


How do I reset Camera and Microphone permission on macOS Mojave? I'm using macOS Mojave and I want to use my camera and microphone to make a New Movie Recording in QuickTime Player. But when I try it gives me this error.

  QuickTime Player is not authorized to access the microphone.

I looked in System Preferences but the list is empty, and there's no + plus button for me to add an app, and I can't drag apps into the list. I think maybe this came up once before and I clicked Don't Allow. Now I can't get this prompt to come up again. How can I reset permissions so that the prompt comes back?

You need to use tccutil to manage the privacy database -- this involves opening the Terminal and using the command line! Here's how to do it for QuickTime Player:

tccutil reset Camera com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX
tccutil reset Microphone com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX

Other Applications

You might need to reset Camera or Microphone permissions for other apps too. If you know the bundle ID of the app you're trying to use, you can use this command:

tccutil reset Camera [com.WHATEVERBUNDLE.YOURAPPID]
tccutil reset Microphone [com.WHATEVERBUNDLE.YOURAPPID]

Examples for Common Applications

Safari

tccutil reset Camera com.apple.Safari
tccutil reset Microphone com.apple.Safari

Mozilla Firefox

tccutil reset Camera org.mozilla.firefox
tccutil reset Microphone org.mozilla.firefox

Google Chrome

tccutil reset Camera com.google.Chrome
tccutil reset Microphone com.google.Chrome

Slack

tccutil reset Camera com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap
tccutil reset Microphone com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap

The Nuclear Option

If you're running macOS Mojave (10.14) or if you just don't know the app bundle ID, then you'll need to reset Camera and Microphone permissions for all applications. This will remove any other apps that have been granted permission in the past, so you'll get prompted again by other apps.

tccutil reset Camera
tccutil reset Microphone

Once you've reset the camera and microphone permissions, you must quit your application before the change will take effect. Then you can restart your app and try using camera or microphone again, and the prompt should reappear.

Help, it's still not working!

Make sure that System Integrity Protection is enabled, otherwise these commands won't work correctly. To check, you can run csrutil status and it should say System Integrity Protection status: enabled.


disable failing AMD GPU on a 2011 MBP? from Linux, because of Sierra's SIP? My trusty MBP 17" 2011 is now hitting the failing AMD GPU issues.

This is what I understand from my research:

This has been a known problem, and Apple addressed with an extended warranty on these models's GPUs, which ended Dec 31st 2016.  My local repair shop, which is usually pretty handy, says it can't fix it.
You can revert to using just the internal Intel graphics.  Basically, boot into Single User mode and move some of AMD*.kext files from /System/Library/Extensions/ elsewhere.

This covers it pretty well:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyDu-Y_G1D8&app=desktop

Unfortunately, the System/Library/Extensions directory fall under Sierra's SIP protection so I can't carry out those instructions. crutils disable, to disable SIP, won't work in Single User mode. SIP can only be disabled in Recovery mode... which fails because it is a graphical environment and I have a failing GPU.

[EDIT re point 3 only] (as far as just the SIP issues goes:  https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/276433 is correct: Cmd + R + S, at least on Sierra, gets you recovery and single user and you can csrutil disable from there).

Question: Can I do the following:

Boot my Mac from a bootable Linux USB, mount the HD and move those AMD*.kext using Linux, thereby forcing use of the Intel graphics?

Anyone have any experience doing such a thing?  A particular challenge I have is that I'd have to prep the bootable USB from a Windows or Linux machine, as my Mac is stuck in single-user mode.

What Linux distribution/USB prep tool should I be using?  Mind you, I don't need to boot into a graphical Linux, just the command line is good enough and less likely to hit the GPU issue.

There is a fix to this that allows you to bypass the discrete GPU and always use the integrated GPU! You will have to boot into archlinux to bypass SIP and disable the discrete graphics card.

Moving just the AMD Kexts will allow you to boot up the Mac, but it will be very sluggish and slow. Following this method will allow you to completely use your Mac again! I typed this response off of my 2011 15 inch MacBook Pro that recently had its GPU fail.

Here is a link to a video I made discussing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBLJIepJXU

Original forum: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/force-2011-macbook-pro-8-2-with-failed-amd-gpu-to-always-use-intel-integrated-gpu-efi-variable-fix.2037591/


Replace spaces in this shell script with %20 I have this command from the question Can automation service to get the parent folder path? but it has spaces in it.

When it's ran it looks like this:

File Path: file:///Volumes/Desktop/Fortigate/Fortigate 200D/Policies.txt
Parent Folder: file:///Volumes/Desktop/Fortigate/Fortigate 200D

This is exactly what I wanted except that it has spaces and it needs to have %20 instead of the spaces in the file path.

Could someone show me how I would edit the shell script below to replace these spaces with %20?

toTheClipboard="File Path: file://$1 Parent Folder: file://$(dirname "$1")" pbcopy<<<"$toTheClipboard"

You can pipe to sed 's/ /%20/g' to replace spaces with %20.

toTheClipboard="File Path: file://$(echo $1 | sed 's/ /%20/g') Parent Folder: file://$(dirname "$1" | sed 's/ /%20/g')" pbcopy<<<"$toTheClipboard"


Does showing a flashing time separator slow down a Mac? Is there any reason to be concerned that showing flashing time separators would slow down my Mac, since the computer now has to keep flashing the separator? What about showing seconds? Why or why not?

No.
The menubar is controlled by the process SystemUIServer. It requires little performance with "flash the time separators" enabled.
There are other processes which are more significant for the CPU performance.

This screenshot is taken with flashing time separators and show seconds enabled.
You can easily verify this by resetting the menubar using:
killall -KILL SystemUIServer


How do I import photos from my iPhone into a directory? I have a new MBP running Yosemite. I like to keep my pictures and videos on an external hard drive in a file system so I can navigate to them (e.g. using Finder, Terminal, or a Linux VM). Photos only imports into a photo library which is an opaque object storing your photos. How do I import my photos from my iPhone into a specified directory?
Thanks you

The Image Capture application allows you to import photos and videos from connected devices into any folder you specify. (see: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH17894)

For organization, I use Adobe Lightroom, which also has the ability to import directly from iPhone.

Either way would be better than using Photos.


Lion not responding to mouse clicks over VNC Under Snow Leopard, I had no problems with VNC connections from my Windows 7 64-bit PC to my Mac mini. However, after upgrading to Lion, my Mac mini no longer responds to mouse clicks when using any VNC client on my PC. Oddly, the local cursor is moving and the Mac also responds to keyboard events - I just can't click anything.

I have enabled Screen Sharing/Remote Management and enabled VNC in System Preferences (obviously) and have checked Observe -> Control in the settings.

Has anyone experienced this or have a possible fix/suggestion? Any help is greatly appreciated.

This is a very popular issue. VNC server is not the only thing that has problem working with Lion.

I think the problem stems from the fact that; Lion can handle multiple user connections. So to make it work, you need to logout of your Mac first then try connecting remotely. More information in this forum..

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-1193137.html


What words trigger the screen effects in iMessage? The recent update iMessage on iOS causes certain words to trigger screen effects.
Also, there is a way to long-press on the send button, and bring up an interface for adding these effects.

I've found the following associations between screen effects, and the messgaes that trigger them:

confetti: "congratulations", "happy birthday"
fireworks: "happy new year"

What is the list of these?

Happy Birthday: Balloons
Congratulations: Confetti
Happy New Years: Fireworks
Happy Chinese New Years: Celebration
Pew pew: Light/Laser Show

Also if you hold down the send button you can access a set of effects you can add to your message like a (Slam/Loud/Gentle/Invisible Ink). Now if you hold down the send button, not only do you get those set of effects, but the effects above with the SHORT list of trigger words are accessible at the top of the screen.


Where iTunes stores my playlists and ratings I am wondering where iTunes keeps all my playlists? Locally on my computer or in the iCloud? I have created the new playlist on my Mac and I can see it on iPhone (without connecting it to MAC), so it looks like it is stored in iCloud. Is it right? Do I need to do something to backup them?

And the similar question about ratings. Where they are stored and how can I keep them between iTunes and Mac OS reinstallation?

Actually it stores the original on your computer.

The iCloud just gets a copy of it if you have set it up that way.

You can find the file in the ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

and in the iTunes Music Library.xml (located in same place)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201610


What's the difference between "open with" and "recommended apps"? Some applications show up in the "Open With..." menu for a given type. But some applications that don't show up in that list still show up in the Recommended Apps list if you choose "Other..." and choose manually.

What is the difference between these two lists, and what would cause an app to appear in one but not the other?

(Lightroom is one example that doesn't appear in the Open With menu, but does show up in Recommended Apps.)

"Open with..." menu shows up the "by default" App that the extension of the file is associated with on the system, as well as the other Apps that the system is certain that can handle that file extension too. Example: An image .jpg. Can be by default the "Preview.app", but will also offer you (in the case you have those Apps) Photoshop, iPhoto, Internet browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. summarizing: any App that the system knows that can manage .jpg files.

The "Recommended Apps" list are the Apps of the "Open with..." menu + the rest of Apps that for some reason (mostly developers not specifying it) the system is not certain if is able to open it or not, then you can see some Apps "disabled" because the system knows that it cannot handle that extension. Example of a disabled App in this list is trying to open a .mp3 with the "Preview.app" which is intended to handle image file extensions and not audio file extensions.

Have in mind that the "Recommended Apps" list could offer Apps that are not able to handle the file you're trying to open because the system has no mean (for that App) to know if can or not.


How can I change the volume level of the dictation sound in iOS? In iOS 12, the system make a sound when you start and stop dictating.  This sound is very loud and I cannot find a way to change the volume.  "Problem 1", here describes the issue, too.

In older versions of iOS, this was adjustable with the system volume level.  Now it is not.  Is this a bug, a feature, or is there a way to change this?

Get the keyboard active in any app or swipe down on home screen.
Press the Mic icon.
You don't need to say something, just hold down volume down button. Press the Keyboard icon to get out of dictation.

It will be muted afterwards. Your music and ringer volume will remain unchanged. I discourage doing this as the phone is then recording your sound which is something the company wants to warn you about.


What is the purpose of the extra room on Finder's "View Options" window? I am running 10.6.8 on a late 2008 MBP.
I know this has been the look of the "View Options" window for a while, but I just really noticed all of the extra space at the bottom. It's now being used in 10.7.x for the new and altered "View Options," which takes advantage of the extra real estate, but was there any use for it otherwise?  In other words, are there other options or preferences that can be added to this space?

It depends on the Finder view mode. There are different settings for List, Column, Icon and Cover Flow views, and depending on that, the panel is filled less or more.
Only in Icon mode the entire space is filled:


SMB share is very slow I try to mount a SMB share in Finder but I have two problems.

The time for mount is about 25s.
Folder listings; very slow when there are many elements inside.

The smb share is ending by .local. I know that this create a conflict with the Mac's Bonjour zero-configuration networking service but I can't chance my domain.

The others stations running on Windows 7 are working very fast.

Does it exist any solution to mount and list quickly?

The problem is caused by Apple's home made implementation of the smb protocol.  Using smb3 won't make a difference.

Server-Side Fix

If you have control of the smb server (Samba?) then you can fix this issue by enabling the vfs_fruit module.  If you are not using Samba then you'll need to find another way to enable "Alternate Data Streams" (ADS) and intercept OSX's "special" streams: AFP_AfpInfo and AFP_Resource.  I made notes of all the details at the plazko.io blog.
On Samba server you can fix the issue by enabling vfs_fruit in smb.conf like this:

vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr

Client-Side Fix

If you do not have control of the smb server, then your only option is to change the way your OSX client is handling smb.  The only way to do that is to replace Apple's implementation of smb with Samba.  I have never done this, but there is a tutorial here.

This is an excerpt of the answer I gave to Slow SMB connection Buffalo Linkstation.


Volume icon in menu bar disappear randomly in Big Sur Since I updated to Big Sur, my volume icon disappear and I always have to go on Preferences to display it again. I don't know what's the reason.
Is there a solution to that ? Is there a terminal command to make it appear again next time ?

I know why this happens.  Upon clicking the volume icon in the menu bar, if you misclick/misdrag anywhere but the allowable volume change slider it will interpret this as trying to rearrange the menu bar icon to another menu bar location.
My current "fix" is to use the open the control center menu and drag the volume back into the menu bar every time this happens.
EDIT: Seems to be fixed in MacOS 11.3


Airpod Pro - connecting to MacOS changes number of modes Apple support has this page which explains how to define which "modes" the Airpod Pro will switch between with the physical button. Note that this requires an iOS device. Using my iOS device, I can configure them to have all 3 modes available [transparency, off, noise-canc].

If I then take the Airpod Pro and connect them to any other bluetooth source, they will retain that setting. This is good.

If I then take the Airpod Pro and connect to a MacOS device (e.g. my MacBook), they immediately revert to having only 2 modes available [transparency, noise-canc]. I.e. the "off" setting is disabled. This is bad.

After this, AFAIK, the only way to get the 3rd mode back (tied to hardware button control) is to reconnect to an iOS device.

I'm hoping I'm mistaken. Please let me know if there is a way to keep them configured for all 3 modes, all the time, even after connecting to MacOS.

You can adjust your AirPods settings on your Mac by clicking "Options" next to your AirPods in your "Bluetooth" settings in "System Preferences".

To have all three modes available when using "Press & Hold", you can check the box next to "Off" under "Noise Control Toggles Between".


How can i reduce the file size of my images in Pages on my iPad? Our school teacher is using an iPad to take photo's of their artwork, etc and then using Pages (on the same iPad) .. creating a quick 'page' or two (inserting their artwork) and then emailing the page to the parents (as a pdf).

Unfortunately, the pdf is massive. Too big for most of us.

I'm guessing this is because the PDF is using the original size of the images.

When I send images as attachments in an email on my iPhone I get asked which size I would like - eg original, or small, etc. etc.

Q1. Is there a way we can get Pages to use a smaller image size?
Q2. When I sent an email to myself from that iPad and attached a single image, I was not asked to resize it :( Is there a way to do that, also?

Otherwise - what options do we have?

We do not what to leave the iPad to send these images. (ie. sync somehow and then use a desktop to do all of this).

Please help!

Best is to reduce the photos before they are added to Pages.

For printing they do not have to be more than 300 dpi.

For viewing on the screen about 75 - 100 dpi.

Pages doesn't do the job as you found out.

You can do it in Preview > tools > Adjust size (on a Mac)

If do not ant to leave the iPad then you can use one of the many external apps to do it.

Simple Resize (Free)

or Image Resizer+ ($0.99)

Additional Info:

The Resolution has the biggest impact on the file size, not so the size of the image.


How can I turn off VPN? I'm working on a friend's iPhone and every time I turn VPN off, it turns right back on.

Have you ever seen this before?

Any suggestions for what I could do to keep it turned off?

Actually there is another step in here...

iOS > Settings > General > VPN > ~YourVPN_Profile (Click the 'i' icon) > Connect On Demand (turn toggle switch to 'off') = sorted!

NB. Use the VPN option under Settings > General... Not the 'VPN' switch under Settings!


Search result -> filename instead of name (For smart folders) Can anybody help me out. I want to create a smartfolder with all my mp3's.
I renamed all my mp3's to correct full name. For example:

Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight.mp3

When I create a smart folder. It shows all my mp3's but with the name from metadata (ID3 tag) so only In the air tonight. There is no way to select filename in the colums. This is really annoying.

Does anybody know a solution? Or another program that does the trick? Or a hack?

I don't think you can customize Finder in that way.

There is a third party program that does just what you want: HoudahSpot.
This lets you add columns for any attributes known to Spotlight. There are hundreds to choose from.

Filename is one of the columns you can add. By default, HoudahSpot and many other applications on OS X show the "display name". This can be a localized version of the file name or something entirely different. E.g. Apple Mail stores messages in numbered .emlx files. It stores the message subject with Spotlight.

Full disclosure: I am the developer of HoudahSpot.


Advanced configuration for email notifications about Apple Developer Certificates expiration Mainly, I just wanted to ask the same question here, because the community here is active (comparing to what is seen on Apple Developer Forums, unfortunately):

https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/29994

So in other words, I need to understand who in my Developer Program receives the email notifications about impending expiration of the following:

iOS Distribution certificate
Apple Push Services certificates
APNs Development iOS certificates
VoIP Services certificates

I want the email notifications from Apple to be sent to specific set of email addresses.

It does not look smart to me sending such email to Team Agent only, since he may miss it (for various reasons) and the app functionality will eventually fail. Definitely this must be received at least by developers who are admins and are responsible for managing Certificates/Profiles on company production servers. I have a distribution list mailbox for all interested parties and would like to subscribe it to those expiration notification emails.

Thanks for your attention.

UPDATE 03-Jul-2017:

I have contacted Apple and they replied with this:

  Thank you for contacting Apple Developer Program Support. I understand
  from your email that you would like to receive notifications in regard
  to expiring certificates.

  By default, the Team Agent is the only person that will receive
  notifications. At this time Apple does not allow for multiple emails
  to be notified in regard to expiring certificates.

  I appreciate that you have taken the time to send us your feedback.
  Please be assured that all of your comments have been forwarded to the
  appropriate Apple team so they can be taken into consideration for
  future enhancements

  Should you have any further questions, you can reply directly to this
  email, or if you would like, give us a call:

  https://developer.apple.com/contact/phone.php

As you have the certificate on your production servers, you can just monitor them for expiration yourself - you do not need to rely on Apple for this.

Standard server monitoring software such as Nagios (and many, many others) have ready made plugins for exactly this. You can also use simple scripts with the openssl command in a cron to send multiple people an email when it will soon expire.


How can I transfer songs between Garageband for iOS and OS X? I have Garageband on iPad, iPhone and OS X. How can I transfer the music between them? I have enabled iCloud with iPad and iPhone but cannot understand how to get the music from there to OS X? I have tried iTunes and the file sharing option, but it is too slow, I am trying to find some faster way — I want that the sounds to be available between all of my devices without too many manual changes, hopefully automatically.

Basically: I create a song with the iPhone or iPad, I want it immediately available on OS X for processing, how to get it there?

I found a quicker way here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20126598#20126598

Basically, in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/XXXXX~com~apple~mobilegarageband you'll find the songs you've saved in iCloud from GarageBand on iOS.