MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan - Photo Problems I'm new to MacBooks and I take a lot of pictures. One of the things I appreciated of my previous Windows computer was that the photo organization was great.

On my Mac, when I download my photos into Pictures folder in Finder, it doesn't sync to my Photos Library. I have to go through and import every photo. And if I want to edit a photo in photos library, it doesn't update that same photo in my Pictures folder.

I have a blog so I'm all the time uploading photos online. And if I want to upload a photo that I edited and try to open it from Photo Library, it won't let me. It only pulls up the Pictures folder, which doesn't have any of my edits.

The reason is that, when you sync photos with the app, pictures are copied in the Library, so it is actually created a new version of each photo. When you modify it in the app, you will only edit that copy, and not the original one.

If you want to access the edited photos, you have 2 options:

Just drag the pic from Photos to a specific folder: the photo will be copied again, with all the previous edits you made.
You can directly access the Library. Just go to Finder > Pictures > Photo Library. Right click on it > Show Package Contents > Masters: here you have all the photos, classified by date. Now you can treat each photo as it were in a normal folder.


Parrot OS install in Parallels on Mac I have been using VirtualBox for years to run Windows and many Linux distributions but recently I purchased the Parallels program and am currently porting over all my virtual boxes. All of them work flawlessly except Parrot OS (Debian based) and I just can't figure out why. I install it perfectly fine but when I try to boot it it hangs at the message below:

I have tried nomodeset, upgrading, booting from live (which also doesn't seem to boot), reinstalling the X.Org LightDM packages, tried pretty much everything I could find on Google. Because of this I think it is something to do with the Parallels settings and how it handles the OS.

The Parallels settings I am using are as follows:

2 Processors
3 GB RAM
128 MB Graphics Memory
64 GB Storage

I also have "Isolate Linux from Mac" selected under security

If you have any idea of something to try that would be much appreciated (since it is Debian based, Debian based fixes may work).

disconnect the virtual machine and make this configuration, in my work, I have the latest version of parallel. try this.

Note: the example print is with the Kurumin configuration but works with the parrotOS


How To Install Kali Linux (or Debian) on Macbook Air (Original 2008 Model) Recently got an old macbook air 2008 model. I am a linux guy and I am very new to Mac OS X. I tried but I just prefer to have my familiar debian running on this laptop. On a PC I would do this easily, but Mac is a different story.

Could anyone tell me if it's possible to run Kali Linux (Debian 6) on the original Macbook Air (proper installation, not on a virtual machine on Mac OS X) and if yes, how?

GUI
You can use the native OS X Disk Utility.app to split, resize, create & remove partitions as desired.
CLI
If you prefer to work with a UNIX-style bash shell, there are tools available via OS X's native Terminal.app command-line interface.

One of these would be a good start:
root@host:~# diskutil
root@host:~# diskutil list
root@host:~# diskutil listFileystems
root@host:~# diskutil activity

Once you have a bit of info, you might want a few of these:
root@host:~# diskutil splitPartition
root@host:~# diskutil resizeVolume
root@host:~# diskutil eraseDisk
root@host:~# diskutil eraseVolume

Boot from your installation media by holding the alt/⌥ option key during startup.


Will iCloud backups of iOS devices restore the iOS Keychain? Prior to iCloud, it was necessary to explicitly encrypt iOS device backups in order to include passwords stored in the iOS Keychain. Indeed, this was an important and recommended use of encryption, which allowed easy migration from device to device without having to reenter passwords, but it us unclear whether iCloud backups behave the same way. In fact, it's difficult to tell from the layout the settings UI in iTunes whether encryption applies only to local backups, or to those iCloud backups as well (though the former seems to be the case):

Are iCloud backups of iOS devices encrypted by default? Do they store iOS Keychains, so that after a restore of an iOS device from an iCloud backup, all saved passwords are available there?

I do not believe the keychain is included under the iCloud umbrella. It covers: apps, mail, contacts, photos, calendar, and reminders. Additionally, application data is backed up for supported apps (currently not many)

My guess is that the password will need to be provided when restoring an iPad iCloud backup.


What is the "128 font limit" in classic Mac OS? I was reading about Bill Gates' famous "640KB" quote, when I came upon http://www.faktoider.nu/640kb_eng.html, a nice article about the quote and its historical context. However, the article also contained this curious paragraph:

  This wasn't, of course, the first or last time such limits were set; all systems that handles memory, or does some other kind of addressing, have built-in limits somewhere, and when they are designed the limits are set comfortably high. But that doesn't mean the designer is convinced that the limit will suffice forever. (A similar example in the Macintosh world is the inital limit of 128 fonts - not on a single machine, but on all Macs, worldwide. This fact is somewhat less well known than the 640 kB-quote.)

(emphasis mine). Now, that's a weird limit to have - worldwide, Macs could only have 128 distinct fonts? At what point was that ever true, and how could such a limit even work? Googling this suggested there was a limit of 128 font suitcases on classic Mac OS, but that applies to a single machine and not "worldwide". I couldn't find any other information about this font limit.

So what does this 128-font limit refer to?

As per http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Fonts_on_Macintosh, System versions 7 to 9 supported a maximum of 128 font suitcases and each suitcase could store multiple fonts.

However, according to http://laegernelipkesgade.dk/Fonts/kptype/Kontrapunkt%20Typefaces/README.txt
Macintosh System 9.x allows you to open 512 suitcases at once. Macintosh System 8.x and earlier only allow you to open 128 font suitcases at one time. If you exceed these limits, not all the fonts you install will work.

If you search for "128" you should find the above statements.


Xcode 4.1 stuck trying to load debug symbols from iPhone 3G I submitted the following as a Xcode bug report, but I'm post it here in case somebody is experiencing the same problem and can shed more light into the matter.

I use two devices for development: my iPhone 3GS, and a friend's iPhone 3G running 4.2.1/8C148. I could debug with both of these devices using Snow Leopard and Xcode 4.0.2.

I recently upgraded to Mac OS X Lion 10.7/11A511. I uninstalled the whole developer tools by using 'sudo /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools –mode=all' and I installed Xcode 4.1/4B110 using the Mac App Store. I've been happily coding with my iPhone 3GS, but I won't longer work with the iPhone 3G.

When I connect the 3G, Xcode 4.1 asks for collection of the debug symbols. If I accept, it starts copying the files, but it gets stuck at roughly 80% of the process (see the attached screenshot #1 for the Organizer screen). If I look in the Activity Monitor I can see the DTDKSymbolHelper process eating up all the resources (see attached screenshot #2).

If I force kill DTDKSymbolHelper, Xcode will finish collecting the debug symbols and will believe that my 3G is ready for use. However, when I try to run my app on the 3G, the app copies successfully and it is run, but then the console shows several errors (see attached txt file), and the app gets stuck at the Default screen. The DTDKSymbolHelper process is spawned again, and it perpetually eats all the resources again.

If I exit the App via the home button and disconnect my iPhone 3G from the Mac, I can launch the app again and it runs perfectly, updated to the latest version.

If I connect my 3G to the Mac again, Xcode will ask again for collecting the debug symbols, and if I accept, it gets stuck at the same place.

I acknowledge that the most sensible thing would be to restore the phone in order to see if that fixes the problem, but I wanted to try and get to the bottom of the problem first.

In my Macbook Pro + iPhone 3GS this problem is 100 % reproducible, so please ask for any piece of information that you need.

Expected Results

Xcode 4.1 ether successfully finishes collecting device debug symbols, or it shows an appropriate error message.

Actual Results

Xcode 4.1 gets stuck indefinitely, with process DTDKSymbolHelper eating up all the system resources.

In case anybody is still interested, this issue changed slightly with Xcode 4.2, and I posted an updated question here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7922308/xcode-4-2-error-0xc002-when-trying-to-use-a-jailbroken-iphone-3g-for-developmen


Any way to sort each column differently in the Finder? Is there any way in the Finder to sort each column in column view by different criteria? When I select a sort order, it applies universally to every column.

For example, I would like to sort a particular folder by kind, but the contents of a subfolder of that folder by date.

There may be a third-party way to do this I haven't heard of, but there is no way to achieve what you want here using native OS X settings.


Extend the passcode lock timeout on iPhone 4S and iOS 5 connected to exchange Preface

I have an iPhone 4S running iOS 5 and to prevent Find Friends from asking for a password every time it is opened I have enabled the passcode lock and set it to the max of 4 hours. This is fine as in reality it means at most once a day BUT it is now connected to our works exchange server which apparently is aloud to force the iPhone to remove the 1 hours and 4 hours lock options meaning I have to put in the passcode lock almost every time now which I do not like.

Attempts to fix

I have tried several tricks I found which apparently have been "fixed" by apple like disabling the exchange, changing the lock to 4 hours and re-enabling the exchange but this doesn't work any more.

I have found a few older posts about changing the "maxGracePeriod" in some of the iPhone config files like this post: http://modmyi.com/forums/member-written-iphone-news/700148-extending-time-passcode-lock.html#post5480817

So I jailbroke my iPhone and using iPhone Browser on my PC connecting to my now it and also iFile directly to look for these files but it appears that ether they have moved the files or my iPhone doesn't have this file.

Question

SO:

How can I remove the restriction Exchange puts on my iPhone of 15 mins max before the passcode is required?
OR maybe remove the requirement for Find Friends to require the passcode lock at all (I will amend the question to reflect this if this is the final result)

It appears I was slightly half wrong! The above mentioned post is correct and I managed to find the specified directory:

/var/mobile/library/configurationProfiles/PublicInfo

but only with iFile (not iPhoneBrowser). So I edited the files mentioned: "change maxGracePeriod and maxInactivity to 14400 (it's in seconds, not in minutes) in the files EffectiveUserSettings.plist and Truth.plist." and after a re-spring "4 hours" appeared as an option! Also I can now see that directory in iPhoneBrowser (may have been a fault?)

Hope this helps someone else!


Remove Sound Output Device How do I remove an output device on a MacBook air? My computer has two outputs: Internal (which I want) and Belkin S52, which I want to remove. I have tried looking this up, but most of them are for sound flower or boom. I have tried looking through extensions and audio plug-ins, but I can't find it. It, for some reason always changes my sound from internal to Belkin S52, meaning I can never hear anything unless I manually change the volume setting, and some times it just goes back to Belkin for seemingly no reason. Is there a solution?

I'm not familiar with the Belkin S52, but assuming it's a sound device the first thing I would try is using the Audio MIDI Setup app to remove it.

Follow these steps:

Launch the Audio MIDI Setup (by default, this app is located in Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup)
Once open you'll see a list of devices on the left-hand side
Select the Belkin S52
Now click on the minus - button to remove it
Follow any prompts you may get

If the minus - button isn't available, or the Belkin S52 isn't listed, you may need to clarify your question to include details on what the Belkin S52 is and how you installed it originally.


How to determine if Macbook Pro Retina anti-reflective coating is damaged and/or removed? (Preliminary remark: I'm not entirely sure if this type of question, about hardware damage, is encouraged on this SE site. Apologies if it doesn't belong here.)

The screen of my MBP Retina 13' (early 2015) started showing some odd 'stains' a few days ago, covering about 20% of the screen. Didn't think much about it, until I read about 'Staingate' later (silly name, but oh well).

Here's my problem/question:

I'm not sure if what I have is actually damage to the coating (i.e. 'staingate') or not.

On the one hand, the stains looked similar to those on the pictures people posted.

However, before I read about the possible coating issue, I was able to remove these 'stains' with a soft, clean microfiber and some warm water.
It took a while to completely do so, basically, rubbing persistently for a while, but without using force, just light pressure.

I am wondering now if (a) these were just regular (but rather persistent) stains, and I simply cleaned the screen, or (b) if I rubbed off what I thought were stains, but in reality, was some screen coating.

Is there any way I can determine this?

For example, how would I be able to tell if my screen lacks the coating? Can you usually see your own reflection in a coated screen if the screen is turned off? I can do so now, but don't recall if that was always the case.

The machine is still under warranty, and if it is in fact screen damage, I will try to get it covered. But before going to the store, I was hoping I could first determine if it's worth/necessary to go there, hence, this question.

(disclaimer) I'm answering my own question, just in case someone else faces a similar problem, even though I realize the question itself maybe never really belonged on this site.

I had a chance to compare the screen of my Macbook Pro Retina with another (identical) model that does suffer from actual stains, i.e. partially removed anti-reflection coating.

The good news is that, apparently, I did in fact only 'rub off' some very solid dirt, that only looked like the 'stains' that some people see on their damaged screens.

How do I know the other one had a damaged screen?

When I cleaned my screen, I removed some 'silvery' stains, revealing a dark, almost totally black color of the screen/glass. In the case of the other, damaged Macbook screen, the opposite was the case: cleaning/rubbing seems to have removed the dark parts of the screen, and revealed the silvery stains.

How to tell if the coating has peeled off or not?

If you're unsure, the coating is (in all likelihood) still intact.
The silvery stains are very noticeable, and while I couldn't tell whether the other screen seemed more reflective or not, I could tell definitely that the stains are not even nearly dark in any way. In other words, when I removed the dirt (as I know now) from my screen, the resulting dark color of the screen when turned off, while not perfectly black perhaps, is drastically different from the damaged parts of the screen, which I can only describe as 'dirty grey/silver'.

Wasn't that kind of obvious in the first place?

Maybe. I'm a bit slow sometimes.


I lost my iPhone and need help figuring out my iCloud email My iPhone 6 got stolen at school and I'm trying to figure out a way to track where it is to see if I just lost it or someone took it.

Unfortunately I need to know my iCloud email. I know the password but I forgot the email. I don't have a back up email for it. It was an iCloud email and something fairly NOT simple. I need answers to how I can track it without knowing my email.

I actually called them and this is what they suggested:

Check if you received an email from Apple on emails that you use.
You can ask your friends if you ever talked with them on Face Time.

My personal recommendation would be to call them yourself and ask them. I am sure they will be able to find a way.

Also, I found this. Hope it helps!


Does Xcode Has Keyboard ShortCut for going back and forth in programming? In xcode you can go back and forth in your program by swiping the mouse.

Is there an additional keyboard shortcut for that?

In visual studio 2010, for example, you do so by Ctrl - and Ctrl Shift -

How do you that in xcode with the keyboard?

Yes. The keys in Visual Studio 2010 that you refer to (for others that are unaware) are known as "Navigate Backward" and "Navigate Forward" and work as described in the the following Microsoft Blog allowing you to quickly move back and forward between places you’ve already been in your code, via a "Jump to Definiton" in Xcode, for example.

The equivalent keyboard shortcuts in Xcode 4 are:

Navigate Backward:

Ctrl + ⌘ + Left Cursor

Navigate Forward:

Ctrl + ⌘ + Right Cursor


How can I remove Firefox using terminal? I'm a beginner with Mac OS X. Would somebody please tell me how to fully uninstall Firefox using Terminal on Mac OS X Lion?

I'm experiencing hangs and crashes with Firefox 5.0.1, so I want to remove it then re-install it.

Thanks so much in advance.

To remove Firefox.app:

Login with an administrator account
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Firefox.app/

You get the same result by just dragging the Firefox app from /Applications/ to the trash.

If the crashes continue after reinstalling, deleting preferences and support files in the user library may help:

~/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox*
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox
~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla
~/Library/Mozilla
~/Library/Caches/Firefox


Equivalent of airodump-ng for Max OS X Is there any equivalent of airodump-ng for Mac OS X (it only runs on linux), providing an overview of the current wireless traffic on nearby Access Points, i.e:

number of captured data packets
list of devices currently associated with each AP

You can install it using brew

  brew install aircrack-ng

Or using port

  sudo port install aircrack-ng


Command Line Tools beta 1 for Xcode 11.0 offered as an update in the current latest public release of macOS Mojave 10.14.5 I am running the current latest public release of macOS Mojave 10.14.5 (18F132) with the current latest public release of Xcode 10.2.1 installed.

When opening System Preferences app → Software Update, I am offered an update for Command Line Tools beta 1 for Xcode 11.0.

I am pretty sure that I am not currently enrolled into Apple Developer Program. Neither have I knowingly or unknowingly installed any developer/public beta software profile on my Mac.

Why is this beta release of CLI tools offered as an update? Should I install it? How do I remove it?

Why is this beta release of CLI tools offered as an update?

This update is mistakenly released by Apple for everyone. This has happened last year as well when the betas for macOS Mojave and Xcode 10.0 were released for developers by Apple during WWDC 2018.

See the Q&A from last year (2018):

Beta Command Line Tools offered as update—why?

  Should I install it?

No. You should not install it as it is not meant for you.

  How do I remove it?

Simply ignore the update and it should go away automatically.


Can the cp command be used to restore a hard drive? My cousin contacted me for tech support because her computer was refusing to boot to the startup drive, and the issue turned out to be a corrupted drive that Disk Utility refused to fix, telling us to format the drive. I looked for a way to back up her files and found this answer, which says that you can use Recovery HD's Terminal's cp command.

Her computer is currently running cp -pRv "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/" "/Volumes/EHD" and it seems to be working, copying every file on her computer to her external drive. Since it's not Time Machine, though, putting everything back in its place is going to be a hassle. I was wondering, once we format the drive, could we just use cp again? How much of the setup process would that get done for us?

To clarify, could we, for example, not even bother reinstalling OS X or anything, just run cp -pRv "/Volumes/EHD/" "/Volumes/Macintosh HD"? Would that restore everything and make it functional?

Yes, you could just copy it back, but it may not be bootable.  That can be fixed by installing OS X over the top of your files. It should preserve what is there and make it bootable.


Flashing folder at start up, all recommended troubleshooting has failed I really hope someone might be able to help with this cause I am getting frustrated beyond belief.

I have a MacBook Pro with Mavericks OS X 10.9. About a week ago it crashed while I was printing, first my desktop went gray while still displaying my desktop folders and froze. I manually shut it off and upon restart I got the flashing folder with a question mark.

so far my steps have been:

Holding shift at start up - the screen stays grey and freezes (doesn't even get as far as the flashing folder)

⌘ + R - continues into internet recovery mode

disk utility - Disk0 and mac OS X base system are available

under base system / first aid / verify disk - I get an all green and no repairs are needed
under erase and restore - all options are grayed out

when closing out of the OS X Utilities window and going into start up disk - no disk is available

Reinstall OS X - I am able to get though licensing agreement and then it stops on selecting the disk to install on because no disk options show up and there is no searching indicator or failed message.

I have taken my hard drive out and placed it in an enclosure where I was able to access and copy the files through the USB on an older laptop that is running Snow Leopard.

As far as I can tell, my hard drive is fine, all the files were available, there are no strange sounds while it is spinning and I am completely at a loss. Please help.

*** EDIT: troubleshooting also includes:

holding D during start up and running the extensive hardware test. No problems were detected.
holding command + option + P + R during start up until the starting sound plays twice to reset NVRAM. It went right back to the flashing folder
holding command + S at start up for single-user mode and my laptop doesn't register, it goes straight back to the flashing folder (same with just holding S, though when I looked it up, everywhere else advised command + S).

Since I am unable to do anything productive in disk utility, is there anything else that anyone thinks might work?

Hate to say it, buddy, but if disk0 and base system are all you got, and if base system is part of disk0, your MacBook Pro isn't seeing your hard drive. Reset the SMC if you can (Shift+Control+Option+Power while plugged in, then press power again after releasing all keys.) But if that doesn't work, it's either the SATA controller, the connection to the drive, or the drive. At that point, it's a store visit.


Why can't my iPad connect to any other machines on the same LAN? I had an old iPad 2 lying around and decided to fire it up to test out a webpage I was making on my computer. Both devices are on the same LAN, connected using the same wifi ESSID and on the same subnet: 192.168.87.0/24.

Web Server IP: 192.168.87.22
iPad IP: 192.168.87.23
Laptop IP: 192.168.87.24

It's a Google Wifi with excellent signal strength.

This turned out to be a feature of Google Wifi :-| The missing detail above is that I was using the guest net feature of Google Wifi, since the password was easier to type ... The guest net feature has a security feature that no guest devices are able to see each other, meaning web dev and pinging devices is a no-go.


Why isn't my iPhone 4S charging (apparently) only in some places? I charge the phone at home using the Apple wall adapter that came with the phone and an Amazon basics 30-pin-to-USB cable. I have been doing so for over a year (i.e. since I purchased the cable).

I was charging the phone at work with the Apple 30-pin-to-USB cable that came with the phone, connected directly to a port on my work computer. I have been doing so for at least a year as well.

About a week ago, my iPhone stopped charging at work. It continues to charge at home.

What I've tried so far (to no avail):

Turning off my phone.
Soft-resetting my phone.
Replacing the 30-pin-to-USB-cable with a third-party, yet certified, cable.
Replacing the 30-pin-to-USB-cable with another Amazon basics cable; the same cable (per Amazon) that works at home (tho not the actual same instance of that cable).
Connecting (all of the three) 30-pin-to-USB-cable(s) to a wall adapter.

I have not update iOS within at least month of this issue.

I'm upgrading iOS to 8.2 (from 8.1.x) now.

EDIT – it will charge at work if I turn it off.

EDIT1 – I tried plugging the wall adapter into (a) the surge protector into which the power cables for my computer and monitors are plugged-in; (b) an outlet in my cubicle; and (c) a wall outlet in my office. None worked.

EDIT2 – I tried all three cables, and the wall adapter, that I had at work, in the outlets I use at home. None of the cables worked. The wall adapter worked with the lone cable I have at home that works. In summary, even using a (working) wall adapter, I can't charge using any of three cables at work. I can charge my phone with those same three cables tho if I turn my phone off! At this point, I'm worried some aspect of my work environment caused, directly or indirectly, damage to the cables, so I'm loathe to bring my lone working cable from home to test it.

But the cables work if I turn my phone off!

EDIT3 – To add more confusing info, I replaced one of the three cables that wasn't working – the one that's the same (as far as I can tell) as the one cable that does work – and the replacement doesn't work at home (while my phone is turned on). Maybe the dock connector in the phone is damaged but somehow (???) the one cable is damaged in some particularly complementary manner that the phone can still charge (while turned on) when connected to it. The same cable for which one works and two don't (while my phone is turned on):

AmazonSmile: AmazonBasics Apple Certified 30-Pin to USB Cable for Apple iPhone 4, iPod, and iPad 3rd Generation - 3.2 Feet (1.0 Meter): MP3 Players & Accessories

It is possible that there is a problem with the port on the computer, either with the device now being blocked (which is sometimes done via policy in enterprise environments) or the port malfunctioning/disabled altogether. Do other devices, such as flash drives, work if you plug them into the same USB port you were using with your iPhone?

If no devices are working in the port, try the following:

Windows/Mac Desktop/Macbook w/ removeable battery:
1) Shut down the computer
2) Unplug all items from the computer, including power
3) Press and hold down on the power button for ~7 seconds
4) Plug power back in
5) Plug other devices back in
6) Start up and see if the port has started to work again

Macbook without removable battery:

1) Turn off device, unplug all devices except Magsafe charger
2) Hold down left Shift, Control, Option, and Power button at the same time for ~5 sec (note you may see a change in the Magsafe LED color for a second)
3) Power machine on and see if device connects

Sometimes a glitch in the System Management Controller (yes, even on Windows machines) can cause a USB port to go dead. If it continues to not work, reach out to your IT dept./technician to see if perhaps there is a hardware failure.


Finding MacBook power status from command line (AC plugged in, or not)? I want to start some rsync jobs in macOS Sierra 10.12 when the power and home network are connected, I know how to use the ipconfig command to check the IP address, but is there anyway to tell whether the power is connected besides grepping the system_profiler? (Which seems a lengthy exercise to get the small snippet)

The pmset command has much shorter output than system_profiler:

pmset -g batt

The first line on my MacBook says "Now drawing from ..." either "AC Power"  or "Battery Power" when it runs.


Filtering junk mail on iPad Is it possible to filter-out junk mail before it reaches my I-pad-mini's inbox - as Outlook does on my laptop?
As mentioned in the above question, my e-mail programme is Outlook.
Oops, sorry - my e-mail provider is TalkTalk.

Use Gmail as a POP client to your mail server, and use Gmail App.

Gmail spam filter is awesome. I see less than 10 spam emails a year...


Which versions of Xcode are not updated to take advantage of HiDPI/Retina displays? I've been looking over the release notes for Xcode and can't find one that says it's been enabled for HiDPI mode and the retina display MacBook Pro. By enabled, I mean that Xcode will run on the new retina hardware - not that you could make an app that will then work on Retina.

Either:

I missed it in reading the notes
All versions of Xcode on Lion already have this so it's not called out as new.
No versions (publicly available - not prerelease or NDA) yet support retina displays

Has anyone figured out which versions of Xcode do not support retina?

The current non-beta version of Xcode, 4.3.3 for Lion, works fine on a retina device but certain UI elements are not retina-enabled. Most notably the little "LCD" screen that sits in the top middle of the toolbar, it looks quite blurry on a retina MBP. Also the Play/Stop buttons, and many other UI elements.

However the text used to render your code is crisp.


How to get the temperature of MacBook hardware without extra software? We can use iStat Menus and other software.

Is it possible to get the temperature of MacBook hardware components without extra software? To use only programs already installed/delivered with MBP?

There seems to be no discernable way to find the temperature of hardware components purely without 3rd party software.

Reference:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12919985#message12919985


Can I change sensitivity of line input level? (as opposed to setting the volume) I'm connecting a standard stereo tape output to an iMac line input socket. Setting input level in System Preferences > Sound > Input > Line In requires the slider to be barely "off the stop" before the blue level meter hits hard right.  Can I lower the line input sensitivity somehow?  There's no output level control on the tape output.

I'm running Mountain Lion.

Have you tried using LineIn by Rogue Amoeba?


app store wont let me download free apps when I try to download a free app it asks for my credit card info, and I don't have one and I say none but it just restarts and wont let me pick none.

Do you participate in a family share?
maybe the admin credit card is out of date?

I had the same problem because his credit card was not valid anymore.

if not maybe apple just trying to make people put a credit card on individual accounts.


MacBook Pro screen wobbly I have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro. I have dropped it a couple times in a case but not far (maybe 2 to 3 foot drop onto carpet). The screen has become wobbly like it is loose or something. I don't want to bring it to apple because I don't want to make the trip.

my question is why might it by wobbly and how can I fix it(I don't have the money to buy a new one)?
thanks in advance!

It's likely that the hinge needs tightening or replacing as Allan suggests, I would strongly urge that you take this into Apple for service as they are the best equipped to do this.

However there are guides online on how to fix this issue, it requires following the take apart guides available online including from sites such as iFixit, and adjusting the screws.

The following guide seems pretty clear cut to me, usually I'd write out the instructions, but the photos are useful here and there are numerous other guides:
http://schock.net/articles/2012/02/20/how-to-fix-a-wobbly-macbook-pro-screen/

What I will stress however is that you backup you Mac, and recognise that you could damage the device beyond repair by servicing it yourself and that Apple and their Apple Authorised Service Providers will not service any product which has been serviced by an unauthorised provider, including yourself.

i.e. If this isn't your main computer, then fine, but if this is your only computer, you have no plans to buy a new one soon, and it's not a major issue then I would not attempt this repair.


Unable to install Boot Camp on iMac For some reasons I could not install Boot Camp on my iMac.  I tried to defrag, reinstalled OS X, repair hard drive but nothing seems to be working. I kept getting error "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved".

I have VMware Fusion but it seems to be very slow to what I want to do on my computer. So my only option is Boot Camp (unless there are other software like Boot Camp out there).

Any suggestion I should do?

Personally, I got around this issue by doing a complete reformat and reinstall of everything. I installed OS X first from disc, then created the Boot Camp partition, then installed Windows.

It definitely isn't the prettiest solution, but a solution nonetheless. I would advise at least waiting to see if anyone has an idea for how to move those "unmovable" files before diving head first into this.


Disallow iOS version updates on iDevice Is there a way, with like a .mobileconfig profile or else, to disallow update of iOS version on a device? OTA or cable.

You can disable OTA updates by installing the Apple TV beta profile on your iOS device. If you are an Apple Developer you can obtain the beta profile from the Downloads section. Installing this profile changes the software update catalog location to the one used for Apple TV updates, and therefore iOS reads the catalog and finds no updates suitable for iOS.

If your device is jailbroken, you can install NO PLS RECOVERY which prevents your device from entering recovery mode initiated by iTunes, preventing iTunes from updating the device.

It's not possible to prevent someone with physical access to the device from entering DFU using the buttons on the device and restoring iOS.


How can I disable the iPhone's microphone? I would like to disable the internal microphone for everything. My device is jailbroken and I have tried 'Disable Microphone' in MyRepoSpace, however that just gets rid of the Voice Memos app instead of actually disabling the microphone.

Is there a way to disable the microphone, such as deleting the drivers? Or do I have to physically break it?

Deleting mediaserverd from launchdaemons removes all audio and recording. However, it also makes the device hang for several seconds when something tries to play audio.

If security is a major concern, I'd assume that a software hack is not the solution. There still is a chance of malicious software importing code which re-enables the audio functionality.

I read NSA guidelines for Mac OS X 10.6 about disabling iSight on Macs where is was recommened to physically remove the webcam for absolute security.

If you do not want to physically remove your iPhone's microphone, I would try to distort the audio as good as possible - that would leave a spy with imprecise mumbling noises. The iPhone 4 can be muted quite effectively by just closing the hole at the bottom. There is a good chance that closing the hole of the microphone has the same effect. You could apply prestik or hot glue for example.


Where are the popcorn time temporary files stored on OS X Mavericks? I want to find the location of temporary files created by popcorn time so that I can stream via the chromecast player to my TV. I can find that on Windows but don't know where  is it located on Mac.

I found the answer here.

Open Terminal.app and enter the following command:

open $TMPDIR/Popcorn-Time

This will open the Popcorn-Time storage directory, and from there you can copy the file away to where you want it.

Edit:

Now

open $TMPDIR/Butter

Edit:

Changed again,

open $TMPDIR/Popcorn\ Time


What Time Does My iTunes Gift Get Received To The Recipient? I've purchased my sister a gift from iTunes for tomorrow (29th Nov) and was wondering what time roughly would she receive it? - GMT

I tried it before and receive it within minutes. Make sure she checks her email spam filters.


Unable to update third-party apps on macOS Sierra -- temp dir not writeable Since upgrading to macOS Sierra I can't update any thirdy-party app and have to uninstall/install updated app to keep it on the latest. I didn't have this issue with El Capitain.

The reason why I can't is that temp dir is unwriteable. One of the apps showed me this: Error: Could not create temporary directory: Permission denied.

Running echo $TMPDIR shows me /var/folders/h_/5_gcf0l53kx7qm0_f39tl9nw0000gn/T/. I changed almost everything regarding permissions there, including (but not limited to) chmod, nouappnd, and nouchg. I know Apple takes additional security measures regarding folder permissions rather than chmod but being initially a Linux user, I'm not sure which are nor which steps should I take to solve this problem.

I Tried following steps presented here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5275515?tstart=0 regarding home folder and tweaking for my issue, but it still persisted

This indicates that the permissions on that folder have become corrupted, or were changed by some other process.  My suggestion would be to follow the directions in the link below, and reinstall Sierra from the Recovery Partition.  Doing so, should reset the permissions on that folder, which should then allow you to successfully run the installer.  Just make sure to pay attention to the part where they say, "Skip Step 2 because you will not be erasing your disk.".

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7715561?start=0&tstart=0


Do there exist any products that provide USB-C to DisplayPort with USB Power Delivery? There's no way to connect a display over DisplayPort (to get 4K@60Hz, whereas all the abundant HDMI-having docks/adapters/hubs would operate at HDMI 1.4 limiting to 4k@30Hz) while charging the laptop at the same time.

Looking for a product that supplies passthrough power while NOT converting to an HDMI signal.

Usb type c to display port adaptors with 4k 60Hz resolution are available on the market.

In order to get a 4k 60Hz resolution output on the display port side your usb-c port must support Display Port alt mode. Laptops that have this type of usb-c ports are MacBook, ChromeBook Pixel™ and Dell™ XPS™ models 15 and 13.
When the usb-c port does not support the Display Port Alt mode then the max resolution is limited (mostly to 1080p) regardless of an extra power supply for the adaptor.


Reducing Pocket app size I have the Pocket app on an iPhone and an iPad. When I check storage usage, they are over 2 and 4 GBs, respectively. Why is the size so big in both cases? The app itself is under 100 MBs according to the App Store. All the saved articles are just text. I have no videos or images.

More importantly, is there a way to reduce the space taken up by the app? There does not seem to be a way to delete archived articles.

Pocket's customer support gave this information to another user who had a very similar problem (albeit in 2014):

  [When an item has] been Archived or Deleted ... we attempt to remove all associated files. However, we have learned more recently that some information can be retained under certain circumstances. This is why logging out and back in dropped Pocket’s storage usage so dramatically.

Logging out and back in causes the entire local storage to be cleared, at which point only items on your List (not Archived) are re-downloaded.

They also said they were adding a way to limit storage usage as well as make cache cleanup more efficient, though that does not seem to be true in your case.


Do I get same charging speed when I use a MacBook's usb port to charge my iPad? I like to use my MacBook Pro's usb port to charge my iPad, but do I get same charging speed as compared to using the included power adapter?

From the Apple iPad Charging Support Doc.

The fastest way to charge your iPad is with the included 10W USB Power Adapter. Your iPad will also charge, though more slowly, when attached to a computer with a high-power USB port (many recent Mac computers) or with an iPhone Power Adapter. When attached to a computer via a standard USB port (most PCs or older Mac computers) iPad will charge, but only when it's in sleep mode.

Your 10W iPad charger (which is different to your iPhone / iPod charger) is the fastest way to charge your iPad. It is faster than your Mac or PC's USB port.


How to safely and conventiently have an external drive connected to an OS X laptop We all know that notification 'Drive X was not ejected properly'. I have a laptop, which I use regularly at my desk with monitor etc, as well as on the go. I want to be able to back up my data to an external drive, so I've got a 1 TB drive connected via a USB hub alongside my mouse an keyboard.

It's a real pain trying to remember to eject the disk before I unplug the laptop to take it somewhere. Especially when I'm in a hurry I often forget. I've seen that notification countless times when pulling out thumb drives but nothing ever happened so I stopped taking it seriously.

That is, until my backup drive got corrupted. It's now in a state where disk utility consistently fails to reformat it and time machine can't write to it. I have two other USB devices this has happened on, but they were fairly old ones I used infrequently so I assumed something else had made them fail.

Why does OS X require users to be so careful ejecting drives? Both Windows and Ubuntu (the other two OS's I've used) seem to handle this fine. Is there a way that I can have this drive consistently connected so that backups happen automatically, but that I don't have to worry about the drive being damaged?

Actually, the assumption behind your question is incorrect.

While other operating systems may manage the ejection of external drives differently (to some degree), they still require users to eject or safely remove them prior to physically unplugging them while the computer is still powered up.

The reason why this is important is that any computer (regardless of OS) can initiate a read or write sequence while it's powered up. It's important to note that not all read/write sequences are initiated by the user. Often they're initiated by the OS or other software, so even though you may think it's safe to remove that drive, it in fact may not be.

In terms of how you may be able to have this drive consistently connected so that backups happen automatically without the worry of damaging your drive, there's no 100% safe way without either ejecting the drive or fully shutting down a computer first. However, your next best bet is to ensure you close the lid of your MacBook prior to unplugging the laptop and taking it somewhere. By doing this and waiting a few moments the MacBook will go to sleep and unplugging the external drive will be safer (although not 100% safe).


Run nrpe on boot w/o a logged in user Running a Mac mini with server app. (El Capitan 10.11.4 & Server.app 5.1)

Installed Xcode, brew, and nrpe via brew.  Works fine as such. It's not sensible to have to remote desktop to it and log in just to get monitoring up and running.  Given that FileVault is active logging in automatically is not an option.

How do I make nrpe start if the machine gets rebooted without interaction?

EDIT1:
OK, couldn't find an easy way to make this work; so I disabled filevault after a brief discussion with the team. But on boot (and with an automatic login) nrpe still doesn't start automatically ...

Citing http://launchd.info:

~/Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchAgents are used for the currently logged in user.
/Library/LaunchDaemons is for running things as root ( or the user specified with the UserName key) when the machine boots.

The key (no pun intended), however, is that plists placed in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ must be owned by root:wheel and should be chmod 644.

So, just because nrpe creates a plist does not mean that it will run on boot without login.

I installed it via brew myself, and at the end it says:

To have launchd start nrpe at login:
  ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/nrpe/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Then to load nrpe now:
  launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.nrpe.plist

I would recommend that you do this, instead:

chmod 644 /usr/local/opt/nrpe/homebrew.mxcl.nrpe.plist

sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/opt/nrpe/homebrew.mxcl.nrpe.plist

sudo ln /usr/local/opt/nrpe/homebrew.mxcl.nrpe.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/homebrew.mxcl.nrpe.plist

The first line makes sure that the permissions are correct.

The second line makes sure that the ownership is correct

The third/last line links the file from /usr/local/opt/nrpe/ to /Library/LaunchDaemons (note the absence of a ~ which is intentional).

Then you need to make sure that the file does not exist in ~/LaunchAgents, which would be confusing:

rm -f "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.nrpe.plist"

That will delete the file (if it exists).

Important

By placing the file in /Library/LaunchDaemons you will be telling nrpe to run as root. That may be OK, or it may be a very bad idea. I don't know the answer to that question. However, to be safe I would make it explicitly run as a user other than root unless I was absolutely sure. Also, I would use launchd's ability to log errors to see if it is running OK.

To do this you will need to edit the plist mentioned above. Here is the file as it is originally created, as of 2016/04/20:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>org.nrpe.agent</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/usr/local/bin/nrpe</string>
    <string>-c</string>
    <string>/usr/local/etc/nrpe.cfg</string>
    <string>-d</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
  <key>ServiceDescription</key>
  <string>Homebrew NRPE Agent</string>
  <key>Debug</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

and here is the version that I would recommend:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Debug</key>
    <true/>
    <key>GroupName</key>
    <string>staff</string>
    <key>InitGroups</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.nrpe.agent</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/nrpe</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>/usr/local/etc/nrpe.cfg</string>
        <string>-d</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Homebrew NRPE Agent</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.nrpe.agent.stderr.log</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.nrpe.agent.stdout.log</string>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>INSERTUSERNAMEHERE</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Replace INSERTUSERNAMEHERE with the actual username of the user that you want nrpe to run as.

Deprecated

Note that according to LaunchControl (which is the best app out there for managing launchd plists) the Debug key is deprecated for OS X 10.10 and will be ignored.

Reboot

Once you have the file in place, the best way to test it will be to reboot the system and do NOT log in on console. Instead, after the boot process is complete, log in via ssh and make sure that the process is running, and check the two log files to see what, if anything, you see there.

I hope this helps.

ps - spend $10 on LaunchControl. It's a great app. There is no registration code so you don't have to pay for it, but you should because the developer trusts you to if you use the app.


Don't have view options in finder I'm trying to change the icon size on my desktop.
This should be easy via the view options. If finder would offer them.

I tried to get access to the options via the finder menu, cmd+j and I tried the right click on the desktop. But nothing worked. The menus just do not include a link to the view options.

Could anyone help?
pit!

It can be confusing at times.

Set finder to open as icon.

Then in finder while viewing icons you will find a small slider at the bottom right of the finder window.
It looks like this:

EDIT:
To change icon size on Desktop:

Click on:
Show View options

in Finder with desktop background (close all other windows)

You will get this,

allowing you to change the Desktop icons sizes.

Alternative method to use making sure the Desktop is the TOP window (in focus) use this method.

If none of above works for you, check the date of the "com.apple.finder.plist" in Library, and if not very recent than Delete it.


Can't delete Exchange account from Mail or Internet Accounts preferences The Yosemite upgrade completely hosed Mail—it just won't talk to the Exchange server anymore.

"No problem," I think, "I'll just delete the account and start over as it's all on the server."

If I try and delete the account from Mail.app's preferences, it says "The Mail account “foo@bar.com” is shared by other applications on this Mac. You can remove this account in Internet Accounts."

Ok, so I click on Internet Accounts, it opens Preferences, and the Exchange account isn't there.

(Interestingly enough, I get the exact same problem when I try and remove the account via Contacts and Calendar's preferences—even when "Enable this account" is unchecked in all three.)

So how do I force Yosemite to delete all traces of an Exchange account?

The thing is since MountainLion with cached preferences. You could try the following really hard solution (last line of defense), which trashes all you Apple Mail settings and all of your Internet accounts including twitter accounts etc. et al:

backup your Library folder to somewhere else like your Desktop or another HD
from Terminal, delete the folder "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail" and "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.internetaccounts"
from Terminal, delete Apple Mail Preferences with "defaults delete -app Mail" (this resets your apple mail plist to default values)
logout and login again.

If this doesn't work, copy your Library folder back and we have to find another way.


How to access Garage Band stock sounds? I have used stock sounds from iMovie (where they are called "sound effects") and would like to browse more, for example footsteps or rain to add on a podcast. Apple allows the use of loops and audio samples, as long as they are not repackaged as loops:

individual audio loops may not be commercially or otherwise
distributed on a standalone basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole
or in part as audio samples, sound effects or music beds."
So don't worry, you can make commercial music with GarageBand, you
just can't distribute the loops as loops.

I am unable to download the Essential Sounds library for lack of disk space (I downloaded 1.1 GB of the 2.1 and the compressed download expanded to 24 GB). This page mentions that Garage Band comes with 50 sounds:

When you download GarageBand from the Mac App Store, you’ll immediately get 50 sounds, 500 loops, 1 drummer, and 2 basic lessons for guitar and piano.

But I cannot find where in the app those sounds are.
I would like to access them, e.g. browsing the stock sounds and then showing them on disk or exporting them on a track to import into my Digital Audio Workstation (which is not Garage Band).
Does Garage Band come with stock sounds? How can I access them on Garage Band for macOS Mojave 10.14.6?

On my macOS BigSur system, the Apple Loops are located at:
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple


How can I screen share into a remote coworker's Mac? I have a coworker who should do some testing on a Mac but is a Windows user who has no desire to learn the Mac. If I could just log in to his Mac, which is on a wireless network, and do his work for him I would be so much better off. I am about 2000 miles away from him, however and we are not on the same network (it's a small company).

So...is it possible to remotely take over his computer by enabling remote administration in Settings, without being on the same network?

There is a long list of options, I'll just mention a few

you can both set up an iChat account and use screen sharing there
both parties can install (and log in to) Skype which provides screen sharing as well
install TeamViewer on both machines

In your situation I would probably go with the TeamViewer option.


How do you bind a key sequence to shell command? Using stock Terminal.app on El Capitan, the effort is to set up a shortcut in a sense, that upon press it would execute a specific command.

Consulting man pages for bind command following steps have been taken but yielded no results.

First approach was to place the setting inside ~/.inputrc file and let the login session do its work. The current state of the file is:

"\C-s": "ssh hostname"

Second, used bind command directly.

$ bind '"\C-s": "ssh hostname"'

appendix:

GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin15)

Add a newline character to the end, for example:

bind '"\C-s": "ssh hostname\n"'

Another thing is what key sequence you want to bind the command to, and if it's not already handled by the system. For example, for F12, which is available, you'd use:

bind '"\e[24~": "ssh hostname\n"'


Holding down the option key isn't allowing me to select Windows/OS X on startup I have Windows 7 installed on a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

According to Apple's Boot Camp Installation and Setup Guide, pg. 10...

  Select an operating system during startup

  You can select which operating system to use during startup by holding down the Option key.

  This displays icons for all available startup disks and lets you override the default setting for the startup disk that is in Startup Disk preferences (OS X) or the Boot Camp control panel (Windows), without changing that setting.

  1 Restart your Mac and hold down the Option key until disk icons appear onscreen.

  2 Select the startup disk with the operating system you want to use, then click the arrow beneath the icon.

I'm finding that holding down the option key has no effect -- the machine boots into whichever OS was last running.

This is true whether I'm starting from the shut-down condition, or restarting.

I've tried hold down each of the two option keys and I've tried holding down both at once.

I've tried pressing the keys from before the startup chime and just after.

The only way I've been able to control which OS starts up is to restart from the Boot Camp control panel in OS X in either OS.

Any thoughts on how to get the machine to behave as described in the docs?

I had a similar issue and the below trick solved it.

  Resetting NVRAM

  Shut down your Mac.
  Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
  Turn on your Mac.
  Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
  Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
  Release the keys.

Source: https://support.apple.com/kb/ht204063


Critical VLC media player security flaw. Remove VLC from my Mac? My brother rang me at work today to say I needed to remove VLC media player from my Mac because of some critical security flaw in the program that allows others to remotely run code on my computer.

Thing is, I use it all the time, so this would be a major deal having to remove it.

My question is:

Do I have to remove it, or can I just quarantine it somehow?

Assuming you have macOS installed on your Mac and you’re talking about the macOS version of VLC, then you do not need to remove VLC at all.

According to CERT-Bund, the highly respected German security agency that discovered this flaw, only VLC versions written for the Linux, UNIX and Windows platforms are prone to injected malicious code.

This issue was first discovered in version 3.0.6 and it is still present in version 3.0.7.1 (see the latest advisory).

As an aside, your question about quarantining VLC would not have applied as it’s not a virus as such. The only fix is to download and install a version of VLC in which the code has been fixed. The VideoLAN organisation is aware of the issue and is currently working on a patch, so hopefully it won't be too long for Linux, UNIX and Windows users of VLC.


On iPhone and iPad, how do I get the latitude and longitude number from the Maps app or Google Maps app? For example, on a desktop computer, if I enter in Google Maps website:

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

I can easily get in the URL

37.769425,-122.48840

If I use the Maps app or Google Maps app, is there a way to get the latitude and longitude number easily?

For Apple Maps:

Open Maps for iOS.
Touch and hold an area of the map.
Pull up the "Marked Location" drawer. There is a section with latitude and longitude.

For Google Maps:

  On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Maps app Google Maps.
  Touch and hold an area of the map that isn’t labeled. You'll see a red pin appear.
  At the bottom, tap Dropped pin. You'll now see the coordinates.


Is it possible to reduce the size of a chrome window further than normal? I would like to be able to reduce the window size of a chrome window to make it easier to view a tiny video playback whilst using other tabs on a laptop.

At the moment, the minimum size takes up a lot of space on the screen. Is it possible to make it smaller, either through a tweak in Chrome or MacOS?

I suggest that you use a PIP extension that can allow you to view almost any video like you could using the Safari browser. You can basically watch the same video regardless of your active desktop. Here's what I use.

The only issue I face is that the PIP doesn't work on fullscreen windows and for such situations I am forced to use Safari.


Mac Mountain Lion on screen keyboard Is there a way that, when you switch language inputs for your keyboard, the onscreen keyboard will automatically show up?

I asume you want to show an onscreen keyboard when changing your keyboard layout. One obvious approach is to use AppleScript, and that is what I've done here. I think this approach is not error prone, but it works.

At first, in the Systems preferences select the keyboards you want to use, and make sure you tick 'Show Input in menu bar'

Then check if your languages are available in the 'Input menu' in the top right corner of your menu-bar.

So, now the keyboards are available from the menubar. We can use applescript to invoke with the menubar and start your onscreen keyboard.

(* A function to change the language and activate the keyboard app *)
on changeKeyboardLayout(layoutName)
    (* Close the current language keyboard app *)
    tell application "KeyboardViewer"
        quit
    end tell
    (* Change the keyboard layout *)
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
        tell (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 where description is "text input")
            click
            click menu item layoutName of menu 1
        end tell
    end tell
    (* Open the new language keyboard app *)
    tell application "KeyboardViewer"
        activate
    end tell
end changeKeyboardLayout

(* Call the function with the keyboard name as variable *)
changeKeyboardLayout("U.S. Extended")
(* changeKeyboardLayout("Canadian English") *)
(* changeKeyboardLayout("U.S.") *)

You can use Automator to make an Application or a Service of this AppleScript and and even attach a keystroke to it.


How can I close the mail function in terminal? Every time I open the Terminal.app, it shows You have new mail. I want to know, how it is caused and how can I close the mail function.

I do not wish to see any mails and the above message when I launch the Terminal.app.

To read the mail you have, use the mail command. man mail will give you instructions.

To delete all mail without reading it, run

sudo rm /var/mail/$USER/*


How can I show seconds on macOS BigSur's menu bar clock? I work in an environment where seconds are critical.
Is there a way to display the time with seconds in the menu bar on macOS Big Sur? More specifically, I am referring to the Date and Time at top right in the menu bar which users can click on to open the Notification Centre.
The instructions I find on the Internet seem to pertain to older macOS versions, and are no longer applicable.

On macOS older than Big Sur, the System preferences can be configured to show seconds on the menu bar clock:

Apple has changed up the menu bar on Big Sur specifically and people have opinions about that for certain. There is no seconds display that’s easily enabled on 11.3 and below.

How do you remove the time from the menu bar in Big Sur
macOS Big Sur - how to show exact time when clicking on analog clock in the menu bar?


Safari won't open in Yosemite I recently got my computer re-imaged. Everything was working fine on Yosemite until about an hour ago when my Wi-Fi abruptly disconnected. The AirPort icon gave me the rainbow spinner, so I restarted my computer. The Wi-Fi issue disappeared upon restart, but Safari (which had been open as my default browser before the restart) now refuses to open. When I click on the app in my dock, applications folder, Launchpad, and anywhere else, it doesn't open. The icon doesn't bounce, and the app won't work even when I click on a link in an email or something. There's no crash log. Any fixes for this?

I would check Activity Monitor while you are clicking the Safari icon. See if there are any processes like "Safari" or "Safari Web Content" that is showing up, and see if there is a red "not responding". This probably will not happen if the app does not even bounce, but it's worth a try. You can also try basic things like right clicking, clicking "Show all windows" or going to Options and clicking asking to this desktop. Also, have you been working with multiple displays recently? The safari window may be "stuck" on the other display, so you should check it out by plugging any back in.


How to open .EML files on iPad As an iPad users sometimes I need to open .msg and .eml files. Sometimes email files types come as attachments in email messages. How do I open such type of mail in my ipad?

Email file viewer app from Kupon B.G known as Klammer. That is available in Apple's App Store. It will open Outlook .msg files, standard .eml files, and also winmail.dat files on your iPad.

First open email using the iPad's Mail application.  The file attachments were immediately visible in the email.

To view the file attachments just simply touched the .eml file we wanted to view, pressing on it for a full two seconds.  iPad then opened a window asking us which application we wanted to use to open the file.  then choose Klammer

It will view .eml file immediately appeared rendered in full html formatting.
It is a very simple app  for opening .msg and .eml email messages.

Klammer is no longer a free app, it is now $0.99 USD.


Is there a way to add a login item in the terminal without triggering a permission dialog on macOS 10.14 and above? For context: I am working on a script whose purpose is to install a specific application and also add it to the user's login items. This program may need to be deployed to a large number of systems so it is desirable that it be installed without any user input on the target machine.
Currently this is being done via a command along the lines of osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make login item ...' which works fine in versions of macOS prior to 10.14. However, in more recent versions executing this command triggers a dialog requesting Automation (AppleEvents) permissions, which prevents the install from running unattended.
Is there either an alternate way to add a login item that does not require additional permissions, or else a way to grant the required permission without user input?

I don't have a lot of experience administering/doing mass deployment of scripts over Jamf but I am positive the following links would be very helpful for you. I believe what you are looking for is how to work around Apple's Preferences Policy Control Payloads (PPPC).
Please take a look at the following resources:
GitHub - homebysix
Apple Official Doc about PPPC
GitHub - Jamf
Basically, you want to figure out what you want to explicitly whitelist and preauthorize these using the MDM profile utility and deploy the profile you created along with the payload.


Allow system to sleep even with audio stream running For a bit of background info: I have a 2010 MacBook Pro 15 with OSX 10.10.2 installed.

I'm looking to make the laptop go to sleep even when a proccess that sets PreventUserIdleSystemSleep=1 is open. In this particular case, it as coreaudiod.

I was thinking of something similar to the Windows powercfg -requestsoverride for specific processes/drivers.

You can use a third party tool like Power Manager to make your Mac sleep after a period of inactivity.

Unlike OS X's Energy Saver, Power Manager can put your unused Mac to sleep even when an application or process has requested otherwise.

Disclaimer: I wrote Power Manager and can answer comments about how it works.


How to dim non-jailbroken iPhone below dimmest factory setting? At night, in the dark, even at its dimmest setting, my iPhone 4S is still bright enough to annoy my wife.  I've searched all over for an app or setting tweak that would let me go "dimmer than dim".  But no app seems able to do that and the only tweaks I've seen are for jailbroken phones (mine is not).

Does anyone know how I can make the screen dimmer?

If you find the minimum brightness still too bright for night-time reading, Apple has finally added a screen filter in iOS 8.  Typically Android offered a way to reduce the minimum brightness via apps when the screen was still too bright for nighttime reading even when set to zero but now you can enable this in iOS:

Go to Settings → General → Accessibility → Zoom.
Enable Zoom.
Triple-tap on the screen to bring up zoom options.
Choose filter: low light.
Go back to Settings → General → Accessibility → Zoom and change the zoom region to full screen.
Turn Zoom off.
Go to Settings → General → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut and set it to Zoom.

Now when you push your home button 3 times quickly it will dim the entire screen for night-time reading.


Mouse issues when hovering over certain areas I would post this question directly on the Apple discussion site, but it appears to be having issues (if I log in, I get a redirect loop leading to browser error message).

I believe this issue could be related to the High Sierra update, as I believe I started seeing this issue sometime after updating.

When hovering over certain areas, the pointer rapidly switches between cursors and the mouse movement speed lags heavily. This happens the same whether I'm using the trackpad or a USB mouse.

Previously, I thought that the issue was isolated to a single application, WebStorm, and I thought that it was isolated to only hovering over hyperlinks, when the mouse cursor attempts to change to the hand icon. It would rapidly change between the hand and the text cursor and the mouse would get stuck there because it gets slowed and choppy while hovering over that text.

However, I recently noticed this happen in Google Chrome as well. Specifically (and consistently), when you enter a password for a website and the "key" icon shows up in the address bar, it asks if you want Google Smart Lock to save the password...when hovering over the white space next to that text in the bubble, it does the same thing, switching between the arrow and the text cursor.

I searched, but I can't find anyone else that seems to be experiencing quite the same issue. Others have reported issues with the mouse cursor, but not exactly the same problem I'm seeing.

I may try and revert back to regular Sierra, but I wanted to see if anyone else is seeing the same thing or has any idea how to fix it?

Here is a video showing the issue in WebStorm: https://imgur.com/m00slwn

And here is a video showing the issue in Chrome: https://imgur.com/gsKM0mn

The screencast doesn't capture the mouse cursor rapidly changing, especially in the Chrome video, but it is much more drastic than shown in the video.

I'm not sure if this is the same issue, but just in case it helps you or anyone many years later, this is what happened to me and how I solved it.

I use a larger than default cursor from the accessibility menus because otherwise I can never find the darned thing. On my Macbook Pro (new machine) I have been frustrated by the mouse feeling like it is wading through treacle when I move it over an area with lots of links in Chrome.

The right hand side of a Stack Overflow post would be a great example as the cursor is changing from arrow->hand->arrow over and over again as you move the cursor across the related links. Compared to moving the cursor over the empty space next to it I would have to move the physical mouse 2-3x as far on my desk.

I seem to have just solved this by changing the cursor scaling in the accessibility menu to a different (but similar, non-default) value.

From interrogating the values with

defaults read com.apple.universalaccess mouseDriverCursorSize

at the command line I have noticed that some values cause the problem and others don't. For example the default and max values of 1 and 4 do not cause a problem, and nor does 2. I did see the problem with 2.096360005605382 but its not just about being an integer as I didn't see the problem with 2.577354260089686.  I have no idea what this information means.  Perhaps some sort of cursor scaling performance bug with specific cursor sizes?

Anyway this may be unrelated to your issue as your pointer does look about normal size in those videos, but you could try playing with this setting.


Chrome delays first scroll Preface: I have opened a new issue in the Chrome bug tracker because no-one could help so far.

On my OS X Mavericks, Chrome shows an annoying issue: When I open a longer web-page, like the list of questions here on SE, the first scrolling action after a couple of seconds is delayed by about 1/10 second.

This is not restricted to scrolling by mouse. When I hit the arrow keys for scrolling, the delay appears too. I have read almost all posts about scrolling lags on OS X, but all issues I have found seem to be different. My machine is really fast and I cannot complaint about other performance issues. I'm using Chrome 34.0.1847.137 and my system is

Usually, the issue shows as follows. I read a bit on the page, scroll down and the reaction on the screen is delayed. When I don't wait a few seconds between two scrolling actions, everything is fine. This is really annoying because after a while you really pay attention to this issue and it drives one crazy.

I have tried to turn on the frame-rate monitor in Chrome, but this looks fine. Funny enough, it shows the same delay. During scrolling this monitor constantly tracks frame-rate. During the delays, the frame-rate monitor freezes too.

I have tried to turn off extensions and tweak the chrome://flags/ settings without success. It seems like Chrome is going into some kind of hibernate after some seconds.

I should mention, that no other applications show this behaviour. I have tried Safari which seems fine and in other applications I haven't noticed anything unusual.

Does anyone has a solution for this?

Additional information: I need to wait about 5 seconds without doing anything before the issue appears. So when I navigate, scroll, etc and then wait 5 sec, the scrolling delays. Every scroll-direction is infected: up, down, left and right.

I too have this issue.  If you stop scrolling for 5 seconds because your reading, then go to start scrolling again, there is a freeze or delay of about 1 second.  its noticeable, and very annoying.  There are no viruses, and its not a plugin.  (I don't use chrome extensions or plugins.)  Safari doesn't have the issue, and its machine specific.  The identical Chrome on an older iMac, identical OS, doesn't have the issue.

My guess is that chrome has "frozen" the page, to save on CPU cycles, and has to release that and start live rendering it again when it sees you start scrolling.  Or maybe its a delay of swapping between graphics mode on the hardware...?

Some interesting extra notes...if a text editor panel is open, such as the one you comment on here, the issue does not exist.  If an active video such as on youtube is playing in the window, then there is no lag scrolling either.

If you are scrolling up, there is never a delay, its only scrolling down that has the delay.

You see the mouse pointer change for the items that would be scrolling under it before you see the page even move.  So this indicates its some lower level thing that is going on, and most likely graphics related.


Programmatically mark file(s) to be ignored by Time Machine I'm writing some code that produces a kind of package file, however it includes a kind of working database that isn't strictly necessary (as it can be re-computed) but is best kept bundled with the package file.

Anyway, the problem is that the database can get quite large, and often changes are fairly small, this means that these databases are always being backed up by Time Machine, which is very wasteful as they don't really add anything important to back-ups.

I can't really ask the end-users to mark these databases manually for every package in their Time Machine preferences, especially if they move the package file around and forget. But I also don't want these databases to be waisting a bunch of space in their Time Machine backups, as it could cause premature pruning of old backups with no useful benefits.

I've already considered moving the databases into the user's ~/Library/Caches folder but this is a lot more complicated to manage. The database is also useful within the package as it eliminates a somewhat lengthy pre-compute step.

So; is there any other means by which I can tell Time Machine to ignore a file or folder? Ideally something I can do via script, but if it requires a small program it's not a huge issue.

There is a C function 'CSBackupSetItemExcluded' you can use to tell Time Machine to exclude a file.

You can find it documented here...

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/MacOSX/Reference/Backup/#//apple_ref/c/func/CSBackupSetItemExcluded


toggle playPause for iPhoto, script problem, probably global variable I need toggle playPause for iPhoto, so I wrote this script

global isPaused
try
    get isPaused
on error
    set isPaused to false
end try
tell application "iPhoto"
    if slideshow running then
        if isPaused then
            resume slideshow
        else
            pause slideshow
            set isPaused to true
        end if
    else
        start slideshow
    end if
end tell

I sent this command via ssh (with osascript -e '%s') and resume feature doesn't work (start and pause work correctly).

so I wrote helper script

try
    get toggle
on error
    set toggle to false
end try
tell application "iPhoto"
    if toggle then
        start slideshow
    else
        set toggle to true
    end if
end tell

it works correctly when I run it via AppleScript editor, but not if I run this code via ssh.

[edited]
I run scripts exactly this way:

osascript -e 'try
get toggle
on error
set toggle to false
end try
tell application "iPhoto"
if toggle then
start slideshow
else
set toggle to true
end if
end tell'

I solved my problem, global variable was reset, now I store variable in file, here is the code:

set thePath to (get path to scripts folder from user domain as text) & “myTempFile.scpt"

script theData
    property IsPaused : missing value
end script

try
    set theData to load script file thePath
on error
    set IsPaused of theData to false
end try

tell application "iPhoto"
    if slideshow running then
        if isPaused of theData then
            resume slideshow
        set isPaused of theData to false
        else
            pause slideshow
            set isPaused of theData to true
        end if
    else
        start slideshow
    set isPaused of theData to false
    end if
end tell

store script theData in file thePath replacing yes
return IsPaused of theData


Older MacBook Pro doesn't see new modern Bluetooth speaker, why not? MacBook Pro Mid 2012 readily connects to all my modern Bluetooth devices except it doesn't see my new Sony SRS XB43 speaker.
I turn off any devices that my MBP tries to connect to so only the Sony speaker is available with its Bluetooth light blinking to indicate attempting to pair, but it has never shown up on the MBP Bluetooth list.
The speaker readily connects to my iPhone 6 Plus.
From the Sony specs page:

Bluetooth
Communication System
Version 5.0
Compatible Profiles
A2DP/AVRCP/HSP/HFP/SPP
Supported Codecs
SBC,AAC,LDAC

From MBP system report

Apple Bluetooth Software Version: 7.0.6f8   Hardware, Features and
Settings:   Name: Mr’s MacBook Pro
Address:  14-10-9F-D0-3B-20   Bluetooth Low Energy
Supported:    Yes   Handoff Supported:    Yes   Instant Hot Spot
Supported:    Yes   Manufacturer: Broadcom   Transport:   USB
Chipset:  20702A3   Firmware Version: v156 c5918   Bluetooth
Power:    On   Discoverable:  On   Connectable:   Yes   Auto
Seek Pointing:    On   Remote wake:   On   Vendor ID: 0x05AC
Product ID:   0x8286   Bluetooth Core Spec:   4.0 (0x6)   HCI
Revision: 0x171E   LMP Version:   4.0 (0x6)   LMP
Subversion:   0x229C   Device Type (Major):   Computer   Device
Type (Complete):  Mac Portable   Composite Class Of
Device:   0x38010C   Device Class (Major):    0x01   Device Class
(Minor):  0x03   Service Class:   0x1C0   Auto Seek
Keyboard: On

Is there a way to manually enter the device address of the speaker to my MBP?
I have restarted MBP, debug Bluetooth on MBP to reset module, restarted again, turned speaker off and on etc.
Is the MBP so old now it cant see modern Bluetooth devices?
I havent been able to test this idea yet with a modern Mac to see if it can discover the speaker.
Any help much appreciated thank you

Thankyou for the level of detail you've provided. Saying that, it's unclear from Sony's spec page as to backwards compatibility.
Your MacBook can do up to bluetooth 4.0, the speaker is 5.0, which according to the standard is backwards compatible with 4.0 & 4.1.
When you say you've debugged bluetooth on MacBook, what steps did you use?
The bluetooth module is combined with wifi, so if you reset it I'm imagining you needed to setup wifi again?
If your investigation doesn't go anywhere, an option would be to buy a small usb bluetooth 5 dongle. You may need to tell the Mac to ignore the built in module. Details here. Force OS X to use Bluetooth dongle instead of built in controller
Hope you are able to resolve it. If not usb adaptors are pretty cheap.
Sorry should've added that specifying an address in bluetooth is not really a thing. device and service discovery are really the only path to connecting any bluetooth device.


How to password protect apps without Jailbreaking iiphone Is there an app for iPhone that allows you to password protect apps without jailbreaking the phone?

No, at the moment it's simply not possible within the constraints Apple places on apps. Without jailbreaking, the only way an app could be password protected is if the app developer builds it in. To do otherwise would require modifying the functionality of the parts of the system responsible for launching apps (Springboard), which Apple's rules don't allow, and I suspect that won't change in the foreseeable future, if ever.


Gifting an App from the App Store I want to purchase an iPad photography app now (while its on sale at half price) and gift it to a student later in the summer when she gets an iPad. Since I already own the app, the App Store doesn’t give me an option of purchasing it again. How do I do this?
If I’m teaching her, can I add my licensed copy to her iPad? She will not be using my Apple ID. She does not yet have an AppleID or I’d purchase it there for her.

Two things to overcome. First is you need to navigate to the app and to the right of where it says open - choose the box with the up arrow and underneath the pop up, the gift option arises. Second, only paid apps can be gifted.

You will have to enter an email address as an AppleID for the gift to be sent and I have never entered an AppleID that didn’t exist. If you can get the student to make their AppleID first, that might be required and I would recommend it if you know the sale duration allows this time.
I wouldn’t make an account for someone else and strongly recommend against it in general - that seems to end up badly for most people for many reasons. Here are other sale opportunities you might also consider while waiting for your student to get their account ready to receive your gift:

Apple offers discounts when you pre-pay a balance - sometimes 10%
Apple gift cards often are sold at a discount and can be gifted physically and via code


iTunes plays songs one at a time when stored on external drive I store all my music on an external hard drive. When I click on an album iTunes opens but only plays one track. Is there any way I can play a whole album or multiple albums?

Given that you say you're clicking on an album, and iTunes opens, it sounds like you're playing your music from the Finder folder, and not using iTunes itself. If you double-click a song, even if it's within the album's folder, you're just asking for that song.

Once iTunes is open, if you double-click and play a song from iTunes, it'll keep playing the whole album, or whole selection of songs that you've chosen.


Word for Mac: how to increase/decrease font size with (laptop) keyboard? Again, title says it all.

On a normal Mac keyboard, shortcuts for font increase/decrease are:

SHIFT CMD < - decrease
SHIFT CMD > - increase

However, on a laptop keyboard the latter doesn't work. I just can't reach the ">" key while CMD pressed. Turn on the keyboard viewer and see for yourself.

I press SHIFT, the "<" turns to ">", so far so good... but once i press CMD (while still holding SHIFT), it goes back to "<" so I can only decrease font size, but not increase.

These shortcuts are speeding up the workflow tremendously, I wan't 'em! :-)

Any suggestions? Thanx...

Microsoft Word for Mac 2019 now has built-in shortcuts for this:

⌘ Command+] increases the font size by one step

⌘ Command+[ decreases the font size by one step


External iSight camera with M1 Mac? I'm attempting to use a 2003-era external Apple iSight Camera with an M1 Mac mini via adapters:

iSight > FireWire 400 > FireWire 800 > Thunderbolt 2 > Thunderbolt 3

This same adapter chain works for video on a 2019 Intel MacBook Pro running macOS 10.15.6 Catalina. Audio required an additional fix, but is now also working on Intel.
On a new Apple Silicon M1 Mac mini, the video webcam does not seem to work. When first plugged in, it makes an autofocus sound and the green light turns on briefly.
Photo Booth is black and says:

There is no connected camera.

The FireWire Bus device is recognized by the M1 Mac's System Information:

Are there known FireWire support issues for either M1 Macs or macOS 11 Big Sur?
How can I use this iSight video webcam with my M1 Mac?

Links:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2272444/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252048140

Apple Bug Report:

External iSight FireWire Camera does not work on Apple Silicon
FB9029863

I too get the same results as you are getting. Works on my 2017 27" iMac but no audio.
This video indicates that the iSight camera needs to be updated to Firmware 1.0.3 for the audio to work properly.
For the updater you would need an older Mac. I have an old PowerPC G5 but have not hook it up to see if the updater would work on it but I plan to try it soon.

How to update external iSight firmware?
External iSight microphone audio not working

I did see on one of Apple's pages that it indicated an external iSight will work with Big Sur. No confirmation if it includes Big Sur.
It doesn't work at all on my M1 Mini but system info can see it so that to me indicates the connection is good.
When I called to ask Apple about it the person wasn't of any help. They actually had not heard of an iSight camera, internal or external, before. The best they could do was get provide the link to the updater.


Wake On Lan behavior with Mac Mini - how to put asleep and confirm wake success? Experimenting with Wake On Lan, I tested with a small Fujitsu Esprimo mini computer and a Mac Mini.
In a Windows desktop app "WakeMeOnLan" on another unrelated computer, I can see "green" dots for awake clients, and "red" dots for sleeping clients. I can put the Esprimo to sleep, so the dots turn red, but not the Mac Mini. How can I test if my Wake On Lan works?
Esprimo with Ubuntu

makes a "click" noise when switched on, so I know it worked.
The colored app indicators change between green and red, as expected.
SSH connection drops on sleep via pm-suspend.

Mac Mini with latest OS

LED stays on always
Monitor turns off when starting sleep via SSH and pmset sleepnow.
Even after sleepnow, the colored app indicators are always green (unless the Mac is really switched off, so I can't wake on lan anyway)
SSH connection stays alive
After some time of inactivity the MAC's LED pulsates slowly, which at least gives an indications of a changed state. Still, the colored indicator in my wake-app is still green not red.

With the mac I have tested hibernate modes 0,3,25. Energy saving settings are those:

[ ] Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off
[X] Put hard disks to sleep when possible
[X] Wake for Network Access
[X] Start up automatically after a power failure
[ ] Enable Power Nap

Output of pmset -g

How can I be sure that the Mac is sleeping actually? (LED, SSH connection,...)
I need a way to proof that my Wake On Lan actually works for the Mac. It might just be a typical Mac issue, but I have no clue about Apple stuff.

To determine if a computer is sleeping:

Use hardware, such as the ‘Caps Lock’ led on a wired keyboard as a proxy for sleep, or the connection light on certain bluetooth hardware
Prior to putting the computer to sleep, check for potential ‘Power Assertions’ that could be blocking sleep
Review the Console system logs afterwards, looking for messages relating to sleep and wake events
Ping the Mac’s local network IP address from another computer - a properly sleeping computer should not respond (at least not in a timely fashion) to a normal ICMP ping (but this may not be decisive for recent macOS versions on recent Macs)

Things like music playback or open SSH connections are good indicators of wakefulness but not of sleep, partially due to #2 above.
The pulsing computer LED is a prima facie indicator of sleep.

Note: if you have certain other Apple devices on your network (certain Apple TV and iPad models, and maybe other Macs and Airport devices), the indicator in your WoL app is likely green because you have “Wake for Network Access” enabled.
These devices monitor the network for connection attempts to your sleeping Mac’s local IP or MAC address - if they see that network traffic, they will send a WoL packet and wake your computer (it’s sort of a proxy WoL system). In this case, your Windows WoL app (or another network device) could actually be what is unintentionally keeping your computer awake.


Is Intel Iris 1536 MB ‘better’ than Intel HD Graphics 4000? I'm looking at a game which gives 'Intel HD Graphics 4000' as one of its requirements. My Macbook Pro Retina mid-2014 has 'Intel Iris 1536 MB'; will that be OK?

There are 3 types of mid 2014, two with integrated graphics & one with a discrete card.

The integrated chip is Intel 5100 or 5200 so yes, well within spec, even if you don't have the dual-graphics version with a GeForce GT 750M.

Source: Everymac


Is there a way to disable iCloud documents only Does anyone know if there is a way to disable iCloud for documents only? (I am using DropBox and would like all my documents to be in the same place).

I am using Mountain Lion and in my prefs there is an iCloud section where I can untick "Documents & Data". But what's the data part? I only want to disable iCloud documents.

Hope someone can help/clarify.

Thanks :-)

Having Documents & Data active doesn't mean that your documents get saved to iCloud. Some applications might choose to store settings and data that could be shared between your devices. If you disable Documents & Data you disable this possibility.

You can always check your iCloud account if there are any documents already saved. Go to 'System Preferences -> iCloudand clickManage`. You can here see what applications that are using the storage.

You can see that in my case I have documents from Pages and TextEdit. I have chosen to save them there. It's not anything that your computer do automatically.

I'm myself also using Dropbox for documents but I really see no reason to deactivate iCloud Documents & Data


Can I buy an iPhone 5C in the US and use it in Ireland? I'm going to New York soon, and the iPhone 5C is just $99 USD. I am wondering if  an Irish SIM work or if I would have to get it unlocked?

When you buy an iPhone in America for $99 it's probably a SIM-lock together with an subscription. Here you can find the different iPhone 5S models. Search on the internet which Cellular frequencies are used by your provider, and then compare on the site I gave you which models you can use. Mostly the $99 models are locked for AT&T, Verizon,... providers only. So when buying an iPhone in America, make sure you check to model nr on the back of the package.


restore last session of my text editor I am looking for text editor which can reopen all my saved/unsaved tabs that was there in the last session before my mac got restarted or text editor got closed unexpectedly.

I always have my text editor open in any of my desktops in mac but if for some reason I need to reboot or text editor gets closed unexpectedly, then if I restart my mac or reopen text editor then it should bring back all windows that was opened in last session whether saved or unsaved.

I tried with Sublime but looks like it didn't work for me. Any thoughts?

TextEdit, which is part of every version of MacOS, does exactly that, if you check this box when shutting down or logging out.

The downside is trying to discipline yourself to put things away once in a while.  At this moment, I literally¹ have three dozen "Untitled" text windows in my Dock.

¹The pre-2000 meaning of "literally"


View SMS Messages After Removing SIM If I remove the SIM from an iPhone, then will I be able to view the SMS Messages that I sent and received while the SIM card was in the phone after I take the SIM card out?

Yep. Just to confirm this, I took the SIM card out of my own iPhone 6S and all SMS texts were present.


What can I do when the power button does not put the macbook to sleep? I have this randomly recurring problem that a short press on the power button will not cause my Mbp mid-2012 to sleep. Besides that, everything is normal, i.e. I can still use it to power off and I can still put the laptop to sleep via any other means. Rebooting always fixes the issue.

Is there any service that one could restart to avoid the reboot?

My os is Sierra 10.12.6.

I would start with resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) to see if that resolves the issue for you.

How to reset the SMC on a mid-2012 MBP

Shut down your MBP
Unplug the power cable from your MBP
For 10 seconds, press and hold at the same time the shiftcontroloption keys (on the left side of the built-in keyboard) and the power button
After 10 seconds let go of all keys and the power button
Plug in the power cable
Switch your MBP back on with the power button.

Test it for a while and let me know how you go.


What does Safari iCloud sync entail? Does it sync browsing history and safe passwords? Or just bookmarks and the reading list?

Safari sync is for browsing history, bookmarks and reading list.

Passwords are synchronised through Keychain, a separate option in iCloud.


How to hide “Siri app suggestions” in iOS? When you swipe down on the homescreen, iOS 9 now displays a row of app suggestions below the Search field. Is it possible to hide this row?

Go to Settings > General > Spotlight Search and you'll see a switch for Siri Suggestions at the top of the screen.


How can I click "Do It!" button with keyboard? This was been question for a long time for me.
How can I click "Do It!" button? Do-It button means, a button will trigger destructive changes. So usually, that's not default button, and I don't know how to click it with keyboard.

I'm asking this because I got a real fantastically suiting situation for need of this.

If there's just one option hitting Space or Enter should do the trick, as the button should be preselected. If there are more than one option you could tab between them by enabling  All Controls under System Preferences / Keyboard / Full Keyboard Access.

When tabbing through, a subtle blue glow will highlight the tabbed component. Hitting Space will use it, while hitting Enter will use the default option.


Set Brightness to Full on Boot (MacBook Pro) I frequently have the problem where my laptop's screen is too dim prior to login and I can barely tell where my account or the mouse is. Is there a way to set the brightness to maximum on boot before any user has logged in by using the equivalent of an init script?

I've seen some useful applescript snippets here (How can I dim the screen from Terminal?) to adjust the brightness from the terminal, but I'm not confident these will work if no user is logged in.

edit:

creating an /etc/rc.local script

#!/usr/bin/bash
for i in {1 .. 1000}
do
    osascript /opt/utils/brighter.script
done

with an applescript script to brighten the screen

tell application "System Events"
    key code 113
end tell

only makes the screen a little bit brighter (perhaps a quarter of the way) and it doesn't seem to make much difference what number is used in place of 1000.

edit:

Trying to use screenbrightness in my /etc/rc.local appears not to work either. I suspect that the initial login screen that loads immediately is shown before the init script is executed.

Turn you screen fully bright. Open Terminal, type nvram backlight-level. Note the value. Create a logout hook to run nvram backlight-level=<value>. In my case the value was %a0%06.

If you run it interactively, you need to use sudo:

sudo nvram backlight-level='%a0%06'


Hard Drive Space Discrepancy? Anyone know why there would be a difference between the number shown at the bottom of the hard drive icon and the number of available space in '7.6 GB free of 272.42 GB' in the screenshot below?

Maybe: "750 GB SATA Disk" has one partition called "Macintosh HD" of that smaller size?

Consult Disk Utility, "Partition" for that drive...


Delete MacOS Sierra Installer .dmg after Update I downloaded the "Install MacOS Sierra.app", it says there I have to move it to /Applications and then run it afterwards to update my OS on local machine.

Now, after it ran through, can I cleanly remove the installer and any related files  AppCleaner offers me? Or are there some mixups with the updated OS Sierra system files?

I don't need the installer to use disk space, but of course don't want to crash my System by accidently removing something from ~/Library or wherever and then stand there with an unusable system.

Anyone already made some experiences with this?

Cheers,
Tobias

OS X Installer files are automatically deleted from Applications as part of the install process. Normally, it shouldn't need moving there, App Store ought to put it there directly as part of the download process.
They are very unlikely to have any 'related files' of the type that AppCleaner could find.

If you did want to keep a copy for the future, then you need to copy it outside Applications before running the Installer.


Why is there something white behind the "slide to unlock" in my lock screen? (iPhone 4, iOS 7.1) I get the following lock screen on my iPhone:

The image was taken by myself, i added a filter from the iPhone Filters, and when I set this image as background, there is this white thing behind the slider. Why is it there and why is it only partially there? The original image looks normal, like this:

It's just the Slide to Unlock's shinning effect that is less subtle on an iPhone 4 with a black background.

Some of the iOS7 effects and animations, like Control Center's blurry background, are less fluid and subtle because of the processing power of the device.


How can I fix an iPhone 2G that is stuck on the connect to iTunes screen? I have an old iPhone 2G (first generation) that I plan on using basically as an iPod touch (not using the phone portion).  I no longer have the AT&T service on that phone.  I installed an update to the firmware (stupidly) this morning because iTunes prompted me too... and now the phone seems to basically be bricked.  Upon completing the firmware update I was stuck at the "connect to iTunes/emergency" screen.

For the past 10 hours, I have tried to restore, I have booted into DFU mode. I have even resorted to attempted jailbreaks, all to no avail.  No matter what I do, I still get that "connect to iTunes/emergency" screen, and while the "iPhone" displays under Devices in iTunes, the iTunes page simply says "iPhone". There is no Summary Page, no iPhone section, no version section, no backup section, etc.

I installed iTunes 10.5 and I am pretty sure the firmware for the 2G phone is 1.1.3 (although I had attempted to roll it back).

Does anyone have any ideas on why this is happening and what can be done to get this iPhone back up and running?

Jailbreaking is the easiest way to kill the activation process, fortunately for you the 2G is cracked on such a low level is a one shot process there's a guide up on iClarified how to do it.

After that you should go have a look at which is a jailbroken firmware with a lot of the features that the iPhone 2G ended up missing out on.