How can I unlock an iPad 3 with an activation lock with an unknown Apple-ID Bought a a second hand ipad  from a yard sale the person had it set to  new installation. I looked at it before I bought it to make sure it powered up, and I got it home and connected to my laptop to start the process I found I i could not go any further be cause the ipad had been locked by another apple Id. When I went back to show the person they didn't know how that had happrned and they didn't recognize the apple Id and now they wont do anything to help try and reset it nor give back my money  and now i'm stuck with a locked Ipad and no money. What can I do now?

With the iPad powered off, press and hold the Home button, connect the USB cable from PC/Mac to iPad.

Continue holding the Home button until you see the "Connect to iTunes" screen, then release the Home button.

Open up iTunes to see iPad in recovery mode.


Antivirus in Macbook Do we need to install antivirus in OS X? I'm using macbook Pro 13" currently. Which antivirus is recommended (and free)? Any other better way to protect information in OS X?

I think you mean OS X, not iOS? MacBooks run OS X. iOS is the OS on iPhones, iPads, etc.

Some good, free antivirus options for OS X are Avast and AVG.

You're definitely safer if you use them. There are viruses out there for OS X. That said, it's not as needed as it is on Windows. I personally don't use any antivirus on OS X, because I feel that it slows down the system a little bit. I feel the risk is rather small, so I am willing to take it.

It comes down to how careful you want to be. If you don't mind your system slowing down a little bit, and want to minimize the risk of viruses as much as possible, then get antivirus. If you don't want the small slowdown, are wise enough to spot obvious traps like fraudulent websites asking you to install programs, etc, and you feel the risk is small enough, then don't install it.


Getting Apple Cinema HD Display working in Windows 7 x64 Does anyone have any experience trying to get an Apple Cinema HD Display working in Windows 7 x64? Note: This isn't for a Bootcamped Mac, it's for a Dell XPS Laptop.

Is this even possible?

Thanks a lot.

This question is old, but in case anyone is still looking, a driver that works is here:

http://www.holstschumacher.dk/p/brightness-controller.html

Look for the link to Beta Versions and Old Releases for the latest.

The beta version works with Windows 10 Creators update as of 12/25/2017.


What are the sharingd and sharedfilelistd processes? What are the sharingd and sharedfilelistd and why are they running?

I'm on OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

In a nutshell, sharedfileslistd is an XPC helper agent that provides SharedFilesLists private API in CoreServices that gets called by, for instance, by LaunchServices APIs and works with so-called SharedFilesLists - special property lists that contain NSURL BookmarkData entries. These are used for recent documents/servers/hosts that you see in Apple->Recent Items menu, Favourites/iCloud items/Bonjour hosts that appear in the Finder sidebar, Recent Documents in applications' Save/Open dialogs) and such.

sharingd is sharing daemon that enables AirDrop, Handoff, Instant Hotspot, Shared Computers, and Remote Disc in the Finder.


Apple Mail warning: Unable to verify message signature After upgrading from Sierra to Mojave (macOS 10.14), Apple mail started to display the warning Unable to verify message signature above all signed and encrypted emails. When clicking on Details, it says:

The digital signature is incorrect. The message may have been tampered with or corrupted since signed by (sender's name).

We are using S/MIME certificates signed by a self-signed root CA, but I doubt that this is the problem. When checking the certificates in the Keychain app, they are reported to be valid and good. However, if in Apple Mail, I get the above message and click on Show Certificate, the root certificate is reported to be valid and trusted, but the S/MIME certificate is nonetheless invalid for no obvious reason.

Note that some report similar problems for emails with attachments only.

This seems to be due to a bug in Apple Mail, at least in macOS 10.14.1, but possibly introduced in macOS 10.13.5 as an attempt to mitigate the EFAIL security hole.

When Mail is set to not automatically load remote content (Preferences > Viewing > Load remote content in messages is not checked), then the warning message Unable to verify message signature is displayed for every S/MIME signed message.

You can get rid of the warning by either

Setting Mail to automatically load remote content (set Preferences > Viewing > Load remote content in messages to checked) not recommended
Clicking on the "Load Remote Content" button displayed on the right of the warning message

However, for security reasons, it is not recommended to load remote content unless it is from a trusted source.

I consider this a major bug for the following reasons:

It makes no sense that the verification of signatures is dependent on loading remote content, because the signature file is an inline attachment
There was no such dependency before
The warning is strongly misleading

I even consider this a severe security problem because:

Loading remote content is considered a security problem that can even lead to the leakage of encrypted content as described by EFAIL
The user won't be able to have the message signature verified without loading potentially dangerous remote content

The fix was originally intended to stop the Mail app from loading HTML content without the user's consent. However, the way it is implemented now, this leads to also not loading the signature attachment.


NO audio on macbook air 2010 so I have my macbook air (late 2010) and it has been working fine for a good while, now all of a sudden for no reason (Ok i may of dropped it but the drop was less than 1 foot and mac showed no damage after) but the speakers dont work and when i plug my 'kotion each' (headphones) into the port the audio symbol is grey and no audio ANYWHERE.

yes I have tried to wiggle the headphones and have looked many other places no luck...

A drop is a drop - 1 foot or 10 feet - you dropped it.

More than likely, you broke something on the I/O Board

This goes for around $70 on Amazon.  I just purchased one to fix a friends 2012 MBA and it was super easy to fix.  You just have to remove the back cover and one screw holds this board in place.  It removes pretty easily.


Is it possible to allocate fixed amount of storage to members in an iCloud Family? I want to setup a Family plan on the new Apple One offering. At the time of writing this, Apple includes 200GB storage on the basic family plan, but this is shared among all members of the family. Is there a way to allocate a fixed amount of storage to each user?
I'd like to set it up and then have my parents use the iCloud storage to backup their iPhones, while my sister and I will probably use it for backups and file storage. The problem is, if I don't allocate each member 50GB, one person will end up using more than their fair share of storage, and you know that will just end in a big fight.
If this is not possible, is the alternative possible:
Can each of the members of the family get their own subscription for a 50GB plan, but then have that billed through to my account as the organizer of the family? That way I'll still pay for their storage, like I offered to do, but the subscription is on their account and therefore no fighting over storage?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

You cannot allocate storage from the shared pool. However:
If each member gets their own 50GB but you have a shared payment method specified (do you pay for applications they purchase? if so then you have this turned on) then all the iCloud Storage bills will go straight to you.
My recommendation is to try sharing 200GB first - if you've already tried this (your writing seems to indicate you haven't) or if it immediately fails then you could split it up - but you may be overestimating how much any individual person's storage will grow based on what's available.


Why does the iPhone 4S treat a generic 30 pin cable as a line out source? I have an iPhone 4S, the original iPhone 4S AC to USB adapter, and a generic Dynex brand 30 pin cable. When ever this cable is connected to the iPhone sound will not play over the built in iPhone speakers. If headphones are plugged in they work fine, but when they are removed sound will not play on the iPhone's built in speaker. If I swap in the original cable that came with the iPhone it works as expected. Any ideas why the iPhone 4S thinks this cable and configuration is a line out source?

That's a third-party cable, not an official Apple cable, so what's probably happening is that for some reason that cable is bridging the 2nd and 11th pins, telling the device to send the audio out the 3rd and 4th pins:
From http://pinouts.ru/PortableDevices/ipod_pinout.shtml:

2  GND     Audio & Video ground (-), internally connected with Pin 1 on iPod motherboard
3  Right   Line Out - R (+) (Audio output, right channel)
4  Left    Line Out - L(+) (Audio output, left channel)
11     AUDIO_SW    If connected to GND the iPhone sends audio signals through pin 3-4, otherwise it uses onboard speaker.


macOS Sierra: Wrong 'Date Modified' column when searching in finder I did ample research before posting this.

I am using macOS Sierra 10.12 on a brand-new iMac, and when I search my files (I am searching for all .psd files in a folder with many sub-folders) the Date Modified column in the search result doesn't match the files' info.

For example, the first .psd that pops up from the search is dated yesterday 2AM in the 'Date Modified' column (in list view), but opening the file info reveals the correct date, which is today, as I have just created the file.

I tried a number of solutions I found online:

Rebooting
Relaunching Finder
Resetting the system preferences for date and time
Deleting com.apple.finder.plist and the sidebar.plist and relaunching Finder

At this point I don't know what to try anymore.

Edit: I forgot to say that if I view the files in Finder in list mode, without searching for them, the dates are correct! It's only when I search.

Edit 2: Here is a screenshot of the problem, search window on the left, regular window on the right.

I can't determine whether it happens only with .psd files, but here's some more data which might be useful: The files are shot on a camera, then downloaded on a Windows computer, then transferred to my iMac on an SD card. The dates on both date created and date modified fields don't match with the dates they were shot, downloaded, nor transferred.

If I create a new PSD or JPG or TXT file on my Mac, it displays correctly both in search and regular browsing.

I really need to be able to sort these files by date modified!

I am also experiencing the same issue and here are my findings.

I am assuming the difference between file and EXIF dates are clear, otherwise ask google before reading my post.

I edited the dates of 3 raw image files (A, B, and C.CR2) as following:

File creation date: Jan 1, 2016 - 3:00PM;
File modification date: Jan 1, 2016 - 4:00PM;
EXIF Date time original: Jan 1, 2016 - 5:00PM.

After editing the dates (see attached picture !):

The top right Finder window containing the 3 files shows the edited file creation and modification dates under the "Date created" and "Date modified" columns;
The top left Finder window displaying the search results (I wrote "cr2" in the search field) shows the "Date time original" EXIF timestamp (shooting date) under the "Date created" column and the "Date time digitized" EXIF timestamp under the "Date modified" column (cf. metadata in the Lightroom window). Note the "Date time digitized" EXIF timestamp under the "Date modified" column is the "File modification" date prior editing the dates.

The dates were edited with "A better Finder Attributes" app. Note that the result is the same if the dates are edited through terminal with the "touch" command.

Hence, I conclude the problem described in the OP is due to the fact the Spotlight search result displays the file EXIF dates, while a normal Finder window display the file creation and modification dates. I assume this is not a problem but an intentional behavior; however, this is clearly very misleading.

I hope my post fully explains the inconsitency reported in the OP.

(MacOS Sierra 10.12.1, A better Finder Attributes 5.37, Lightroom 6.6.1)


How to stop decryption of external drive I've searched on the internet for a while and asked my question on apples website discussions.apple.com as well, however I haven't found and answer yet and people aren't responding on apple's site so I'd though I'd give it a go here.

So, I have an external drive (1TB) that I made journaled encrypted when I first started using it. By now I also have some video files and pictures on them that I'd wish to show on my TV. However, whilst encrypted I could not view the files other than on a Mac (I was trying to view them on a media player connected to the TV). Thus, I opted for decrypting the drive, since I used up almost 900 GB of the 1TB there are quite a lot of files and I understood the process might take a while.

The thing is, every time I plug the hard drive in it starts taking up storage space. I use a Macbook Pro and don't have a lot of storage space on the macbook itself, hence the external drive and why this is really annoying. To be clear, it is my MacBooks storage space that gets filled up when I plug it in, since this happens every time I can't use the drive on my Macbook anymore either, because every time I can only use it a few minutes before I get warned that "My macbook is almost out of storage space, please remove some files". When I unplug the drive I can literally see the free storage space increasing. So some process is taking up storage space whilst it is working on the drive.

I thought this might be spotlight but I'm not sure since it could also be the decrypting process copying files or something. Is there a way to know why my storage space get filled up, and if its the decrypting, is there a way to stop this process so I can copy my files to another drive? And if it's spotlight is there a way to disable this because putting the drive in the privacy tab of spotlight is somehow also not doable.

I don't mind wiping the drive, but I do mind wiping it without backing up the files on the drive (Yes, in the future I will back up my files better so this won't be an issue again), so a solution to stop the storage filling up is very welcome.

Thanks in advance!

The first thing I would do is open Spotlight system preferences and disable indexing of the external drive. It is a privacy setting.

Next, disconnect from the Internet and restart the Mac with the external drive connected. You might need to free up 5 or 10 GB of space to let things have enough room to sort out the decryption.

There isn't an abort that I'm aware of, but you can use diskutil cs list to get a reading on the encryption / decryption progress and plan if you want to let it run or if you'll need to take the external drive to another Mac to let it finish.

If you have a second USB drive, you could install a clean OS onto that drive and hold option. Boot to the empty/vanilla OS on the USB drive and let the external decryption complete.


How to enable a disabled User Account on a MacBook Pro running OS X El Captain? I disabled a User Account in the System Preferences > Users & Groups > Right-click on a User > Advanced Options... > Login shell: using: /bin/false

Now the disabled account is visible in the login window but is gone under System Preferences.  I used sudo chsh <username> /bin/bash and sudo chpass -s /bin/bash <username> in Terminal and it didn’t bring it back.

Usually the proper disable Login Shell value is: /usr/bin/false instead of /bin/false. So I don't know if your /bin/false is just a typo or not.

Even using the false UserShell I haven't been able to reproduce your problem though.

You can try the following: open Terminal and enter

dscl . read /Users/user_name

to check if the user user_name is still there.

Then check UserShell:

dscl . read /Users/user_name UserShell

To modify UserShell use:

sudo dscl . change /Users/user_name UserShell /bin/false /bin/bash

Depending on the value found previously you may have to use /usr/bin/false instead of /bin/false as shell which should be replaced.

Then recheck UserShell:

dscl . read /Users/user_name UserShell

which should yield:

  UserShell: /bin/bash

Exit Terminal and open System Preferences. The proper UserShell value should make the lost user visible again in the System Preferences > Users & Groups.


What kind of Barcode Reader USB can work on El Capitan / iMac I don't know anything about Apple world... Our customer did have a Macbook (I think) and now he did switch to an iMac (I think with El Capitan?).

A simple barcode reader USB did work on old Mac. It did "beep" and it did write the scanned number properly on the screen.

With new iMac now the barcode reader does "beep" but it doesn't write anymore on the screen (on an Excel / Notepad / Browser etc etc etc).

Reading on the internet seems a well known bug of El Capitan.

Someone has tested some USB barcode reader and it works on El Capitan? For now not a big problem the cost... Or do you have a workaround?

Thank you

A USB bar code reader should just work out of the box.

I am personally using a Symbol (aka Motorola, aka Zebra) bar code reader.  Upon plugging it into my iMac running OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), it just shows up; no drivers were needed for the install.

This is the exact model bar code reader I am using for this example:  Symbol USB Bar Code Scanner PN# LS2208

I have been using this (and another Symbol scanner, but I no longer have it) since I got this iMac with Mavericks (10.9.x) and I never need to install drivers for either of the scanners.

Doing a scan of a simple UPC bar code sends the characters to whatever application I am using (in this case, Notes)


Why is there a left bracket before my bash prompt? I've notice that after I execute commands, a left bracket character will appear before the previous line. It seems to be partially dependent on what's in $PS1. I've tried unsetting $PROMPT_COMMAND and $PS1 but that did not make a difference. Here is an example of this happening in Terminal.app:

I figured it out. I went to View->Hide Marks and the [ characters disappeared.


How to remove the annoying quit message by closing iterm2 - prevent logoff/shutdown/reboot If I quit iTerm2 I always get the "Quit iTerm2? All sessions will be closed." message - independent of the settings in preferences. I don´t tick the three options under "General/Closing" - all regarding the closing mechanism. Normally the message doesn't have to appear, does it?

It´s annoying that I cannot reboot my system without explicitly quitting iTerm2. If I don´t close is by myself the system will hang/block the shutdown.

Under "Preferences" -> "General" -> "Closing" was a "Confirm 'Quit iTerm2' command" checkbox which worked for me. The "Profiles" -> "Session" -> "Closing" -> "Do not prompt before closing" option did not help with the shutdown case.


How do I switch between application windows with keyboard shortcuts? Say I have two windows of a browser running, how can  I switch between those two windows? like Command + Tab?

⌘ Command + `

will cycle between windows of the current application when using i.a. US keyboard.


App or Service to Automatically Backup Photos in iCloud Photo Library? This is my situation:

MacBook and iPhone both using Photos.app and both using iCloud Photo Library
Neither device has enough local storage to keep the originals, so they're both set to the Optimize Storage option
I'd like an automated backup solution for the photo collection in iCloud Photo Library...

I've read How do I backup photos *from* iCloud Photo Library - along with other Q&As and pages, so I'm aware I could do things like:

Change the location of the library on the Mac, to an external drive, and switch the setting to *Download Originals...
Use iCloud.com to download photos, on any machine with a big hard disk or the current Mac, to an external drive...

What I'd prefer is an automated backup process. I know that iCloud Photo Library is fairly new; does anyone know of a Mac app, or an online service, that uses a user's iCloud credentials to take regular backups?

Turn on automatic backups.
Whenever plugged in, locked, and connected to wifi, the device will backup.

Call Apple if you are not sure how to turn on backups.


Is it possible to change the SSH_AUTH_SOCK path? I would like to have the ssh-agent socket inside my home directory, but currently it is created inside /private/tmp.

I see that the agent is managed though launchctl and this plist: /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist, but I don't know how to modify this file to have the socket, for example, at ~/.ssh-agent.sock.

I ended up with the following plist:

<?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.openbsd.ssh-agent</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/ssh-agent</string>
        <string>-l</string>
    </array>
    <key>Sockets</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Listeners</key>
        <dict>
            <!--
                 <key>SecureSocketWithKey</key>
                 <string>SSH_AUTH_SOCK</string>
            -->
            <key>SockPathName</key>
            <string>/Users/myusername/.ssh-agent.sock</string>
            <key>SockPathMode</key>
            <integer>384</integer> <!-- 0600b8 in decimal -->
            <key>SockPathGroup</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>SSH_AUTH_SOCK</key>
        <string>/Users/myusername/.ssh-agent.sock</string>
    </dict>
    <key>EnableTransactions</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

The only downside is the need for an hard coded username. If somebody know how to solve this as well...

I just overwrote the default file at /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist, then I executed the following commands:

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist
launchctl start org.openbsd.ssh-agent


What is "signpost_reporter"? Today I updated my 2014 MacBook Air to macOS Mojave 10.14.5 as it just released. After the update finished, I checked console logs and noticed in 'System Reports' there's a log named "signpost_reporter[date & details].cpu_resource".

In the console log the path is /usr/libexec/signpost_reporter, a path i've never seen before until today.

I also updated my family's iMac to 10.14.5 but no signpost_reporter log was created after the instillation finished.

What exactly is "signpost_reporter"? What is it's function?  Why did I get a log for it?

Signposts is a developer feature created by Apple to help developers diagnose performance problems in applications.

Essentially developer can create a “signpost” marking the beginning and end of performance critical operations. The signpost system then automatically times these intervals and makes them available to profiling tools on the local machine.

The signpost_reporter program is used to report these timings back to Apple. I.e. it allows Apple to monitor performance on non-developer machines by sending the telemetry data from the signpost feature to Apple. For example Apple might be interested in knowing how often customers experience problems with a specific feature being too slow.

Without seeing the actual log entry, it’s not possible to say why you got a log entry for it. However rest assured that your system works just as well with and without the signpost_reporter.


How to check how much RAM a program uses? Is there any recommended way of checking for this?

There is another thread:

How do I find how much disk space a program is occupying?

I ask this question because I was under the impression that disk space is not the same as RAM. My computer is running slow and I would like to get to the cause, and the first thing I want to tackle is finding out which programs are taking up the most RAM.

Thanks!

If you go to the Utility folder on your Mac, open the Activity Moniitor.
Then go to the Memory tab.
There you will see who is using how much.
There is also a Disk Tab, where you can also see who is using how much on active basis (when programs are running). You wont see the passive usage (how much information is stored) in that window.
In this example the application Firefox
Using Memory:

Using Disk space:

How much space is a Application occupying on the disk, is answered by looking in your Finder -Applications then under the - Size coulomb.
Again in my example, the Firefox occupies 147 MB of permanent disk space, which is not the same as the information above which was for the active situation.
Back to your original problem- slow computer:
In the Activity Monitor look now in the CPU tab to see who is most active there.


Can AppleScript be used to downloading files from a web page? I want to write a script that searches a web page for an updated file, then downloading it when detected. There is no command I have found that does this, accept Automator's download URL function, that I believe just gets the HTML, not the file.

Tell me if I am wrong or if AppleScript can do such a task?

P.S. I would not like to use any Internet libraries.

You have a couple options here, oh the power of a mac!

Option 1:

Use the curl command, documented here.

I would use AppleScript to run the Curl command and any other command you need to run in order to fetch the file you need to analyze, process it to check for the updated file, and then use the curl command again to download the updated file.

If you don't want to use AppleScript, Automator is another option.

Option 2:

Using Applescript, you could have it trigger another script written in perl, php, or the language of your liking, which could be written to do the same fetching, analysis, and fetching of the updated file.  This will provide you the flexibility to write in whatever language you choose based on your comfort level with that language.

An example of writing an AppleScript to trigger another file could be:

do shell script "php ~/Library/Scripts/MyCustomScript.php"

For either option, if you write an AppleScript you can use a program like FastScripts (Also available in the Mac App Store), which adds an icon to the menu bar through which you can easily access your AppleScripts to execute them, but it also provides the added benefit of being able to assign keyboard shortcuts to your AppleScript to trigger them even faster.


iMessage Alternative for OSX El Capitan, with iMessaging I've been having problems with iMessaging on my Macbook Pro (iCloud account issues, which Apple support hasn't been able to fix over three support calls) for over a year.  I really need to send texts and iMessages from my laptop (it works on my iPhone and iPad fine).  Is there a non-Apple application I can use for this?  I can see multiple reasons why one would not exist, but I thought I should ask.  Thanks!

Mac is a closed system, and Apple takes many safety precautions to ensure that it stays that way, and that nothing is tampered with. Though there are indeed many ways, they all come with a consequence. My advice would be to schedule your Mac for an appointment at the nearest Apple Store and have them take a closer look at it. To schedule an appointment, you can either call in or go to their website apple.com/retail/geniusbar and follow the steps accordingly to your problem. This is the best way to get everything set back to normal.


iTunes Home Sharing on Apple TV drops after a few minutes on Belkin N750 Just bought an Apple TV and connected to my TV and all looks good. I'm having an issue with Home Sharing, however. The library is found, I play something from the library, it plays for about three minutes, then drops. I then cannot find the library in the "Computers" section of Apple TV. If I then quit iTunes and start it again, it shows up again on the Apple TV and I can start again only to be dropped three minutes later. I have seen some posts blaming the router not supporting Bonjour. I am on the phone now with Belkin.

Using: Apple TV connected via HDMI to a Panasonic LED TV, streaming from a MacBook Air 2010

I really think this is a Home Sharing issue.

Working with Belkin we found an update to the Belkin router that fixed the issue. You may want to update if you are not up to date, version: 1.00.49. The standard update check in the router settings did NOT find this update.

en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5359


Running a Windows VM from external flash drive I'm using a MacBook Pro Retina 15" with only 256 GB SSD storage, however, for my new job I need to be able to run Windows on it. I'll need to install Visual Studio and some other tools on the Windows system, so I need quite a bit of storage, maybe around 100 GB should be enough. There are very small USB flash drives with capacity of up to 256 GB, would it be a good idea to run the VM on that? I want to avoid using a big external hard drive, since they are not really convenient, just too big. Also, I don't have enough storage on the local SSD drive.

Running the VM from a USB drive is definitely possible, but far from optimal.

I use VM for running Project and Visio on my mac (never from USB though), and it made a huge difference when I switched to SSD.

Some numbers: A decent internal SSD will have a speed (sequential read/write) of around 500 MB/s while a fast external SSD will do around 300 MB/s, and a top notch USB 3.0 drive will be around 140 MB/s (a lot USB 3.0 drives are bellow 20 MB/s)  - Source: SSD Benchmarks, USB Benchmarks

To put this into perspective, a top notch usb drive should perform nearly as well as an old hard disk drive, so it's definitely viable. But it will only be half as fast as a good external SSD drive and 1/3 as fast as your internal drive.

This makes a huge difference when running VMs. Keep in mind the bottleneck here is the actual read/write operations on the drive, since the USB/Thunderbolt bandwidth allows for much greater speeds.

Whatever you chose, make sure you're getting a fast performance unit, since speed is very important for VMs. I really recommend making sure you get a Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 drive.


Does the Appstore store a registered user's address? For example would it be possible for a retailer to have a user download their app, make an in-app purchase and have it sent directly to them without requiring the user to enter an address?

Apple does store the registered user's address and uses it for it's own purposes (see: (Physical) Apple Store app), but it does not disclose any of this information to third parties. I've never seen In-App Purchases used for physical goods, and I highly doubt Apple will provide a developer/publisher with user information to send physical goods.


Making file associations launch a certain extension, but with a console program? It is possible using the right click menu on "Open With" to get the option to choose an application to open a certain file extension.  You can then say "Always Open With This".

That works if the program is packaged as an OS/X bundle (which is actually a directory containing lots of stuff under the hood).  But is there an easy way to make it so a regular console program could be used to open it by passing the file path as the first parameter on the command line?

Even if you turn on the "All Applications" it leaves Open grayed out on console programs.

Is this the kind of thing which would require an Automator script of some kind, or is there another way?

Yes, you need to wrap the console program in something that turns it into a Mac app, Automator being the easiest way.

Select 'New' in Automator's File menu and create an application. Application's in Automator automatically receive the selected files and folders.

You just need a single Automator action, "Run Shell Script". The body of the action is the console command. You then set it to pass input as arguments.

Once you save it you can use it in an "Open With" dialog but you will have to browse to it using the "Other" selection.


Stop iMac from sleeping when used as an external display I have an iMac which I sometimes use as an external display for my Macbook Air. Normally, I want the iMac to go to sleep after about 30mins except when I have the Air attached.

Is there any app (or Applescript?) out there which will change/disable the sleep time when it's being used as a display, but still let the iMac sleep when the Air is not connected?

Theres a very popular app called caffeine that sits an icon in your menu bar, and when you click it the app prevents your computer from sleeping either indefinitely or for a predetermined period of time.


Mail window doesn't appear until I enter full screen? I'm having a very strange problem with Mail on a new iMac which is running 10.10.3.  The Apple store migrated the user's home files over from an old MacBook, which was running Snow Leopard, and everything worked fine for a few weeks.  Then the problem appeared: Mail wouldn't show any windows when starting.  The program was clearly running; the menu bar showed "Mail" and a dot appeared under Mail's Dock icon.  Also, Mail's "window" menu had entries for "Inbox" and two message windows which were open the last time Mail was shut down.  The weird thing was that choosing "Enter Full Screen" from the View menu actually worked; the Inbox window would appear full-screen, and I could then choose "Exit Full Screen" and the Inbox window would appear normally.  Quitting and restarting Mail made the problem happen again, though - no window appeared.

Apple's chat and phone support have had me deleting plist and lock files from various locations, but no joy.  They have actually talked the user through two complete reinstallations of Yosemite, which took 24 hours each time as her net connection is very slow.  They have said something very odd, which I doubt is correct: they think the problem with Mail may have been caused by me copying files over from another Mac.  Here's what I did: I made a subdirectory in her Documents folder and copied everything from the home directory of another user on a Mac Mini to that subdirectory.  I did this to preserve those files as the Mini is old and the user wants to get rid of it.

I don't see how copying files - no matter what files - to a subdirectory in Documents could possibly have broken Mail's ability to display its window when starting up.  Mail is fixed now, after two reinstallations of Yosemite, but I haven't copied the files over again.  Apple's support guy is recommending that she buy a new backup drive and copy the files to that instead.  I don't like this for two reasons: one, it means spending more money, and two, the files won't be backed up as they would be if we kept them on her iMac.

Can you think of anything which could have caused Mail to stop showing its window only when first started, or any way in which copying files over could have caused it?  Can you offer any insight into this weird problem?

Update: After a trip to the Apple store where the staff reinstalled Yosemite yet again, Mail is working normally.  But here's the kicker: a few weeks later, Safari started doing exactly the same thing - no window appears when you run the program, but entering full screen makes it appear, and exiting full screen then works properly.  Does anyone have any ideas?

When you copy your Home folder be aware that there is a Mail folder in your Library folder.

/Users/yourhomefoldername/Library/Mail

You would not want to move that one to prevent problems.


Installing Julia using Brew It appears that brew does not have a Julia formula. This is quite surprising to me, am I missing something?

Apparently there's a brew tap that can be used instead (staticfloat/julia). Before going for that solution I wanted to know if that's supposed to be the most straightforward way to do so.

You can install Julia using cask:

$ brew cask install julia

$ brew cask info julia
julia: 0.4.2
Julia
http://julialang.org/
Not installed
https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/julia.rb
==> Contents
  Julia-0.4.2.app (app)
  Julia-0.4.2.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia (binary)


iPhone SMS: Same Contact, Different Phone Numbers Is there any way to differentiate between a contact with different phone numbers in Messages?

Select the contact in the Messages app, then scroll to top and tap Contact Info.

The number to which this thread is sent to is highlighted.

But there is no way to know that from the "homepage", at least without jailbreaking.


How to isolate apps from the internet? Can I completely isolate apps on mac from the internet, without installing any additional software ?

I need a sort of firewall to isolate them
thanks

No, you can't without additional software. The only solution would be to cut the Internet connexion of your computer.

You can block incoming connexions though, using the standard Mac OS X Firewall (accessible in the Security & Privacy panel of the System Preferences). When activated, when an application wants to start listening on a certain port, you are prompted to allow or deny the listening.

With additional software, you can use the excellent Little Snitch application that allows blocking outgoing connexions as well.


Install Wireguard CLI without homebrew? I am building an application that creates VPN tunnels using wireguard.
Currently wireguard is available as CLI only through brew or port. (Official Download Page)
To avoid installing homebrew, I downloaded pre-built binaries from here
But that throws "unidentified developer" error and fails to run.
How do I fix this? Does it need signing or is there something else homebrew seems to be doing which I can replicate?
Or is there a 3rd party option for signed wireguard binaries for macOS (couldn't find through Google).
Thanks!

Try to open your binaries.
Open System Preferences.
Go to Security & Privacy and select the General tab.

Source


My Desktop folder is missing from favorites menu and also from Finder Preferences. My Desktop folder is missing from favorites menu and also from Finder Preferences. How do I restore to the favorites menu?

I'm assuming by your Favorites menu you mean in the Finder's Sidebar?

To rectify this:

Go to Finder
Select Finder > Preferences
Click on the Sidebar tab
Make sure the Desktop checkbox is ticked
Exit Preferences

If you mean that the option for your desktop isn't actually available in the above Preferences, try the following as a test:

Open a window in Finder
In the Sidebar, click on your username
In the list of folders, you should see the Desktop folder
Now drag the Desktop folder to your Favorites in the Sidebar

Let me know how you go.


Restricted files on El Capitan? So I wanted to hide the Finder icon on my Dock.
According to this answer - How can I remove the Finder icon from my Dock? I am suppose to edit DockMenus.plist file. When I tried I had no permission to do that. I tried to use chmod (also with sudo) on that file with no effect, same message from terminal - Unable to change file mode on DockMenus.plist: Operation not permitted. I ran ls -lOe on that file and I learned that apparently there is new permission flag called restricted.

I still don't know how to get permission to edit that file. Does anyone have any solution?

I have solved this issue only by booting to Recovery Mode (press CMDR during restart) and launching Terminal. This terminal doesn't care abour restricted flag on files. Also found answer here:
How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on OS X 10.11, El Capitan?


Can't resize iTunes 11.0.2 I own a 2009 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 24-inch Led Cinema Display. I have always been able to resize iTunes horizontally and vertically (both being connected to the Display and not being connected).

However, for no apparent reason, I am not able to do that anymore in both situations. I can't make the window smaller than a certain width and height (being the minimum width approximately the width resolution of the 13-inch MacBook Pro).

I've tried resizing by using option and clicking on the green button, and using option and resizing, as recommended by other users but none of these solutions have worked.

How can I allow resizing again?

Try changing the the window's minimum width value. To do so just:

Go to /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/YourLanguage.lproj and open the AppConfig.plist file. ( I'd use a text editor to open it, as it's easier to modify the file this way.)
Look for <key>browser-window-minimum-width</key> and change its integer value.
Save the file and Restart iTunes.


Backup iPhone without iTunes I recently dropped my iPhone in water and it was working fine right after that, but the next morning I was prompted with an ‘activation required’ screen.

I’m afraid ‘activating’ will wipe out everything on my iPhone, so I’m trying to back everything up before doing that.

However, both iTunes and a third party tool called iMazing won't let me back anything up before activating.

I know that none of the data has been affected by the water because (a) it shows up in iMazing and (b) the lock screen still has my old wallpaper, language settings etc.

So, 2 questions: does activating my iPhone restore it back to factory? And how can I backup my iPhone without iTunes on Windows/Mac/Linux?

Question 1

The activation message doesn't mean it will do a factory restore, no, however it is possible that not all to the data will be retrievable even though you can see it.

Question 2

If you cannot get to the Settings app, which you can't from what you've described, then without activation there is no way to use iCloud to backup. iTunes would be the only option in this case.

Do you have an iCloud backup by chance?


Can't boot into OS X Recovery Mode I would like to  I've recently installed Debian Linux on my Macbook, which required repartitioning the hard drive.

I now can't boot into Recovery Mode. Holding down Command+R on boot brings up Internet Recovery Mode. Holding Option on boot brings up the Startup Manager, which lists the Recovery HD, but if I select it, regular OS X boots.

I'm using a Retina MacBook Pro Early 2015 13" on OS X 10.11.4

$ sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
    start       size  index  contents
        0          1         MBR
        1          1         Pri GPT header
        2         32         Pri GPT table
       34          6
       40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
   409640  843043264      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
843452904    1269536      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
844722440  123046872      4  GPT part - 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4
967769312     262144
968031456    8811424      5  GPT part - 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F
976842880     262147
977105027         32         Sec GPT table
977105059          1         Sec GPT header

$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   1 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
*2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  843043264] HFS+
 3: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 843452904 -    1269536] HFS+
 4: 83 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 844722440 -  123046872] Linux files*

 $ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            431.6 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                         63.0 GB    disk0s4
   5:                 Linux Swap                         4.5 GB     disk0s5

$ diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

From the results you posted, I can see the GUID for the Recovery partition is wrong. This is partition number 3 in the tables. The correct value in the GPT would be 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC. The fdisk command also shows the value to be wrong in the MBR table. Here, the correct value should be AB. If you can not boot to your Recovery partition after repairing these tables, then I would assume the contents of the partition is corrupted.

As far as I know, there is no utility in OS X for this type of repair. (Technically, you could use the dd command, but no sane person would attempt using dd to fix this problem.) I would recommend downloading and installing the gdisk command from here. To install, you may have to modify the setting on the "Security & Privacy" pane of the "System Preferences".

To use the gdisk command, you will need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP). Normally, this can be done while in Recovery mode. Since you can not boot to Recovery mode, you can use a product called "rEFInd". Many Linux users already have this product installed on their Mac computer. If you do not, you can create a USB flash drive version which can be used to disable/enable SIP. The instructions are given here.

  Note: Since you have Debian Linux already installed, you may be able to execute gdisk from this operating system. Since I do not have this operating system installed, I am not going to pursue this further. You can obtain more information from this site. Also, gdisk may be available by booting from an external Emergency Disk. If available under Linux or from an Emergency Disk, you will not have to disable SIP.

Once gdisk is installed and SIP is disabled, you will need to make three changes. These changes involve modifying both the GUID Partition Table (GPT) and the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table. The changes are listed below.

Change the type GUID for partition 3 in the GPT from
48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC to
426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC. Note: gdisk uses a value of
AB00 to represent the value 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC.
Make sure the attribute for partition 3 is 0002000000000000. In
the example below, I assume the current value for the attribute is
0000000000000000. If not, make the appropriate corrections.
Change the id for partition 3 in the MBR table from AF to AB.

In the example below, I create and mounted a sparse image as /dev/disk1. I then used this image as input to the gdisk command. This was done to simulate the conditions on your computer. You will be making changes to your /dev/disk0.

Steelhead:~ davidanderson$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk1
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: hybrid
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): t
Partition number (1-5): 3
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): ab00
Changed type of partition to 'Recovery HD'

Command (? for help): x

Expert command (? for help): a
Partition number (1-5): 3
Known attributes are:
0: system partition
1: hide from EFI
2: legacy BIOS bootable
60: read-only
62: hidden
63: do not automount

Attribute value is 0000000000000000. Set fields are:
  No fields set

Toggle which attribute field (0-63, 64 or <Enter> to exit): 49
Have enabled the 'Undefined bit #49' attribute.
Attribute value is 0002000000000000. Set fields are:
49 (Undefined bit #49)

Toggle which attribute field (0-63, 64 or <Enter> to exit):

Expert command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h

WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.

Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 2 3 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y

Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): af
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AB): ab
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #4)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 83): 83
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk1.
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.
Steelhead:~ davidanderson$

At this point, I would restart your Mac.


AppleScript : repeat with each item from end to beginning I'm trying to do a repeat form a list but I would to repeat from the last item of the list to the newest instead of the another way.

How can I do that knowing that this will do in the wrong order :

   repeat with each from 2 to count of items of creationDate
        --
    end repeat

What I'm trying to do is to return the item number of the latest item which content the text "whatever"

Update

repeat with anItem from 1 to count of items of (reverse of creationDate)
    set xitemOnMyList to item anItem of (reverse of xID) as text
    set trustitemOnMyList to item anItem of (reverse of trustSource) as text
    set dateitemOnMyList to item anItem of (reverse of creationDate) as text

    if xID contains xNumber and trustitemOnMyList is equal to "whatever" then
        set myResult to dateitemOnMyList
    else
        --
    end if

end repeat

  Can’t make item 14 of reverse of

You didn’t mention the contents or how your lists interact, but there are a few ways to start from the end of a list:

set creationDate to {"now", "later", "yesterday", ”whatever", "never"}

repeat with anItem from (count creationDate) to 1 by -1 -- step backwards
  log "Item:  " & item anItem of creationDate
  log "Index: " & anItem
end repeat

repeat with anItem from -1 to -(count creationDate) by -1 -- negative index
  log "Item:  " & item anItem of creationDate
  log "Index: " & anItem
end repeat

repeat with anItem from  -(count creationDate) to -1 — reverse items
  log "Item:  " & item anItem of (reverse of creationDate)
  log "Index: " & -anItem -- normal index into the original list
end repeat

repeat with anItem from 1 to (count creationDate) -- reverse items
  log "Item:  " & item anItem of (reverse of creationDate)
  log "Index: " & -anItem -- negative index into the original list
end repeat

The kind of indexing and size of the lists used needs to be consistent across multiple lists or you can run into errors with out of bounds items.


How to hide Spotlight in menu bar but keep the ⌘Space keyboard shortcut? I want to hide spotlight from the menu bar

I never click this button.

So I followed the instructions here and used this code to change the Spotlight file in some way:

sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x47\x40\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00)\x42\x40(\x00\x00\x80\x3f\x00\x00\x70\x42)|$1\x00\x00$2|sg' Spotlight

It hid the menu-bar icon, but it also disabled the ⌘+space keyboard shortcut that I use a lot.

Is there a way to hide the icon in the menubar but allowing the keyboard shortcut to work?

I just saw this other question asking the same thing but for Yosemite.

The accepted answer doesn't work for me on High Sierra, and all the other answers suggest using third-party tools like Bartender which I don't want to do.

The easiest way I know to do this is with a third party app like Bartender (https://www.macbartender.com). The app is used to hide pretty much any menu bar icon, and has a lot of great features. It's kind of a "must have" for and Mac Power User.


Can my daughter's iPad mini upload photos to Photo Stream without downloading photos from my devices? I just bought my daughter an iPad mini for her birthday, and I have everything set up with iCloud like mine, because if she takes a picture, I want it to show up in my photo stream so that I see what she's taking pictures of. But - I don't want all of my pictures to go into her photo stream. Is there a way to do that?

No, this is not possible. Enabling My Photo Stream to allow photos to be uploaded to the Photo Stream also enables downloading of the Photo Stream to the device.


How does Apple's Power Nap interact with File Vault? If a machine is periodically waking up to check for updates with Power Nap, does this also mean the disk encryption keys are always in RAM? If so, this makes a DMA attack against a "sleeping" Mac possible.

In general, Apple disables FireWire DMA in states where the computer isn't unlocked for use. There were some states they missed early on (see Todd Garrison's description of the problem), but they tightened the access controls in 10.7.2 (see CVE-2011-3215 here).

Power nap adds a new DMA-should-be-disabled state, so there's a possibility that it might have reintroduced this vulnerability, but I would expect Apple to have handled this correctly. Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone who's actually tested it (and I don't have a power-nap-capable Mac myself).


.cshrc got empitied, aliases are loaded in opened terminal, how to retrieve them? accidentally my .cshrc file got deleted, which had many aliases. I have terminal tab opened in my linux machine, which has all these aliases loaded in it. How can i retrieve it so that i could write them back to .cshrc file and get it back?

From the manual, it seems that alias should list all of the aliases in the currently running shell:

  alias [name [wordlist]]

  Without arguments, prints all aliases.  With name, prints the
  alias for name.  With name and wordlist, assigns wordlist as
  the alias of name.  wordlist is command and filename
  substituted.  name may not be alias' orunalias'.  See also
  the unalias builtin command.


Import and create iPhoto Event from folder name I would like to automatically import a folder to iPhoto (eg. with Automator). The Event Name should be the name of the folder with the images.

Is this possible with automator?

In addition, this is the default behavior if you simply drop the folder onto the iPhoto icon. There is no direct need to make an Automator action unless you are doing this for many many folders.


Cannot add accounts to messages on Mac on my MacBook Pro Mid 2015 Version 10.14.6 I cannot add any other account (Jabber, G-Chat/Hangouts etc,) to messages.

Can you still add third party accounts to messages?

I tried to add it over online accounts (no option to tick messages) and I tried to add it in "message".

If you look at Apple’s support article about the messages app, nowhere does it mention being able to use third-party messaging services. Whereas in 2014, according to web.archive.org, the article said 3rd party messaging platforms where supported. It appears Apple has removed this feature.


How much storage does iOS 12 require? I have a iPad air 1st gen 16GB (model A1474).

I want to install iOS 12 on it, but I am not sure if 16GB is sufficient storage.

Right now I have iOS 9.3.5, and I can't see how much does the iOS itself takes, but I have enough storage for many apps and music.

Does anyone know how much storage does the iOS 12 takes on the iPad? I am afraid I will not have any storage left for apps and data.

After installing iOS 12, and then restoring my device to factory default I see that the iOS take 5.1 GB.


Separate download of Photos App for Yosemite I accidentally deleted the Yosemite's Photos App from my Applications folder but I can't seem to find a separate download link anywhere.

It can't possibly be that I have to re-install Yosemite just to get the app, can it?

If you use Time Machine, just restore the app (and its data, if applicable) from an older backup. If not, reinstalling OS X is probably the best idea, as Photos is not available on the Mac App Store and I definitely wouldn't try to download it elsewhere (so don't just type "Mac Photos.app installer" in Bing or Yahoo or Dutch and download whatever comes up). You could copy the app over from a friend or family member, though, if you wish.


play-with-mpv python server problem I'm used to use Play with MPV Chrome extension on Arch linux which works also on MacOS. The problem is it isn't working as service for me on MacOS.

If I start directly play-with-mpv in terminal, the server is listening on port 7521 and I can run youtube video in MPV with right click inside Chrome.

If I start play-with-mpv as LauncherAgents service with proper plist it starts, listens but does nothing.. right inside Chrome on Play with MPV does nothing.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>play.with.mpv</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Users/e/Library/Python/3.7/bin/play-with-mpv</string>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Port listening

Python    2673              e    3u  IPv4 0x51d94fea3b0e559f      0t0    TCP *:7531 (LISTEN)

Content of the play-with-mpv server launcher

#!/usr/local/opt/python/bin/python3.7

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys

from server import start

if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw?|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(start())

I also tried to put play-with-mpv inside Users & Groups > Login items with the same result as in LaunchAgents.

play.with.mpv.plist is located at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/play.with.mpv.plist

Tried also load it via launchctl

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/play.with.mpv.plist

While direct calling play-with-mpv in terminal the request is working and mpv pops out

http://localhost:7531/?play_url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoY1TNKO-bY

but as a running service that address is unaccessible and does nothing. Weird is I can ping localhost at port 7531, is up and running and listening.

I'm very new in MacOS so please be patient with me :) Thanks

UPDATE

as for now this is partly working (added PATH and full python3.7 path)

<?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>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/Users/e/Library/Python/3.7/bin:/usr/local/bin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>play.with.mpv</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/python3.7</string>
        <string>/Users/e/Library/Python/3.7/bin/play-with-mpv</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/play.with.mpv.stderr</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/play.with.mpv.stdout</string>
</dict>
</plist>

BUT there's still something unordinary. The video is dropping frames (around 3-4/s). If I run that same video directly from terminal with eg; mpv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoY1TNKO-bY or by running the play-with-mpv server manually, the video is running fine, zero dropped frames.

Got it working. Here's the full solution:

Plist: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/play.with.mpv.plist

<?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>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/Users/e/Library/Python/3.7/bin:/usr/local/bin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>play.with.mpv</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/python3</string>
        <string>/Users/e/Library/Python/3.7/bin/play-with-mpv</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/play.with.mpv.stderr</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/play.with.mpv.stdout</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Mind the PATH to python3 - find it with which python3 and the play-with-mpv python script!

Load plist:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/play.with.mpv.plist

mpv config in ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf

video-sync=display-resample

if this does not help, try this instead

opengl-early-flush=no

That video-sync parameter was the key - not a single dropped frame anymore.


Is OpenOffice for Mac OS X ready for use? I am helping a friend set up a brand-new MacBook. She is migrating from a Windows environment and is used to OpenOffice. I have very little OS X experience.

OpenOffice 3.3 has a native Aqua port for OS X > 10.3.

Is this port regarded stable and ready for end users? Is it fully integrated into the OS X environment like Apple's own iWork, or are there shortcomings or compromises one needs to be aware of?

I used Open Office, it does the job ok. No crashes, quite feature complete. However if you really don't want to pay anything for an office suite, I'd go for Google Docs.

If you do want to pay, then definitely go for iWork. It's the only one that's fully integrated with OS X (especially if you have Lion).


How do I keep my session when I reboot in OS X? When I reboot my machine, I'd like it to reopen all my programs and windows, and put them back in the same place, after restarting. how do I do this?

(I'm on 10.6, and use spaces)

ReLaunch does what you want. Also see a similar question on SuperUser.

The only major limitation of Relaunch is it does not (yet) support Spaces (virtual desktops).


terminal not executing/saving commands My terminal wont "restore all commands"; it only opens up blank window group. This exact thing works on another mac, with the same os version. What am I doing wrong/how can I manually edit the group to do what I need?

I achieved this by setting up a profile for each terminal window in Terminal>Preferenes>Profiles (write in the command you want to execute at startup in "Profiles" tab "Run command"), then open each window by right-clicking terminal "New window with a profile" and then saved the window group as I described before, hope this helps somebody


Can you upload photos directly to iCloud website from a PC (w/o iCloud for Windows SW)? iCloud website, Photos section doesn't have any options to upload photos. I was able to upload picture files to iCloud Drive so hopefully they show up in Photos app on iPhone? I was helping a friend move some stuff on a Windows PC at work & visiting the site via Firefox. I cannot load iCloud for Windows on my work PC.

EDIT:
It was a new iPhone & friend didn't have it with him. I had downloaded photos+contacts from his old flip phone that I was trying to upload to iCloud website. See my answer below as I believe the new-ness of the phone/iCloud/Apple-account was the cause & I overlooked that.

Log into iCloud.com, open the Photos web app, and you should see an Upload to iCloud icon in the upper right corner.


Connect second monitor to MBP and new Cinema display I have the latest MacBook Pro http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/ running Lion and I plan to purchase the new LED display http://www.apple.com/displays/

What I would like to do is hook up a 19" LG LCD monitor in portrait mode. This will allow me to put the MacBook in clam shell mode and still have two monitors.

What is the best way to make this happen?

Thanks

Updated with more detail below...
In order to power your LG LCD your best bet may be to use an external device to power the monitor. Matrox's Dual Head 2 Go would fit your needs. It has been updated for Thunderbolt equipped Macs.
You may run into some strange side effects of using a system like this though. Up to now Matrox's DH2GO causes a Mac to recognize the two monitors connected as a single display. This means your main menu is split across the monitors and dialogs that pop up may show up somewhere between the two.
Conjecture Lies Below
I don't know how Thunderbolt may change this (either at a hardware or software level) but it's likely that it could as Apple will need to pay attention to this type of setup now that they are advertising a MacBook powering two displays via Thunderbolt.
They may also use it as a way to push people toward two Apple Displays instead of a hybrid setup like you suggest.

Update
Apple has added a knowledge base article on this topic which may answer many of your questions. You can find it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4885
How the displays work will depend on the exact computer you have (including the screen size of a MBP) check the details included in that article.
Also, there's an article in Macworld with some details on what happens if you connect an older monitor to Thunderbolt chain. In short for some strange reason you may need another Thunderbolt peripheral to get both your monitors working correctly.


How to lock screen OSX without setting “immediately” in Security & Privacy settings I would like to lock my OSX screen at any time, irrespective of whether "Immediately" is configured in the general tab in Security & Privacy settings.

Is this possible?

Thanks

The Keychain Access App is located in the Utilities subfolder of the Applications folder.

In the Keychain Access App, open Preferences and under the General tab you can tick the box Show Keychain status in menu bar. It'll put a padlock symbol that's resident in your menu bar that when clicked will provide you with a menu, the first menu item is Lock Screen. After setting the preference you can exit the Keychain Access App.

You can select the menu item to lock your screen.


Is there a way to quickly teleport a window from one display to another? I have multiple displays at my workstation, and I'm looking for a way to quickly "teleport" a window -- whether it's full-screened or not -- from one display to another.

When I was on Windows, I used an application called DisplayFusion that allowed me to middle-click on a window's titlebar and instantaneously move it to the next monitor. I'm looking for something similar to that.

It is possible to do this in Mavericks?

BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool allows you to set a trigger to move a window to a second monitor, such as the one below:

Trigger: Doubleclick Window Titlebar; Predifined Action: Move Window to Next Monitor

Alternatively, a mouse button, keyboard shortcut, Apple Remote, Magic Mouse or trackpad gesture could be set up as the trigger.

Slate

Slate is an extremely customisable tool that allows you to set window layouts/positions through keyboard shortcuts. Combining this with a BTT gesture, you can create a gesture-driven window movement tool for free!

  Slate is a window management application similar to Divvy and SizeUp (except better and free!). Originally written to replace them due to some limitations in how each work, it attempts to overcome them by simply being extremely configurable. As a result, it may be a bit daunting to get configured, but once it is done, the benefit is huge.


Problem in creating a new apple id I bought a second hand iphone 5s, I erase all content and settings, then i want to create my apple id, to download apps and all, i completed the procedure to create an apple id but at last the device showing me that "this device is no longer eligible for creating a free icloud account" how can i solve this problem?

The previous owner should "Un-link" his/her icloud account from the device so you would be able to use it.

To erase all content and settings by choosing Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. OR from the icloud account online.... Then his/her Apple ID and password needed. After the device is erased, you will be able to proceed with the setup process.


Could anyone tell me if this EFI should be listed like this Having had a mess up on a fresh install I somehow messed it up and got a blank volume that I could not get rid of.
Stabbing in the dark as I haven't got a clue really, I came across a thread on a similar thing.
Gave it ago in terminal and it went.
I now have it looking like this..
I realise the recovery partition has gone but this is what I also wanted to do as I want to do a complete fresh install.
After all that long winded text, can anyone tell me if the part that lists EFI should it list it twice as it is in the screen capture or should it just be a single EFI listed...hope anyone can follow that.
Thanks for any replies.

I do not see where your EFI partition is listed twice.
What I do see is that your EFI partition is named EFI, perhaps you were seeing that?
At the top of the diskutil list command, the first row is a header row that acts as a legend for the columns below: Number (#), TYPE, NAME, SIZE and IDENTIFIER.
Type and name are the same thing, which is how it usually is: the EFI partition is called EFI.
Note that in some situations I have seen an EFI partition with no name. It doesn't need a name to work, but macOS needs to recognize it as an EFI partition for the Mac to be bootable.


Extract wallpapers from macOS installation CDs or disk images without installation Is there a way to extract wallpapers from macOS installation CD without performing installation itself?

Yes, I understand 7zip can unzip dmg file as a simple archive. But what next? I don't see any wallpapers after unzipping.

My ultimate aim is to get the original unaltered desktop background pictures included with Mac OS X versions 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9.

I admit this answer may be a little presumptuous of me.

Assuming I'm reading between the lines correctly, if all you're wanting to do is grab a copy of the macOS desktop background image from an earlier version of macOS, these are readily available from many websites.

For example, you can download 5K versions of these images at Every Default macOS Wallpaper – in Glorious 5K Resolution.

NOTE: I am not affiliated in any way with the website above.

[UPDATE}

After discussion with the OP it was established that what they were after were all the original desktop background pictures from Mac OS X versions 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9.

On the off chance anyone else will want/need these, I have uploaded a .zip file containing all of these in their original unaltered state. After clicking on the link just click on the button representing the download option you want (slow v turbo).

NOTE: The file was uploaded to uploadfiles.io at the request of the OP. I have no affiliation with this service.


Reinstall macOS Mojave on MacBook Pro with Windows installed I was installing Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro without Boot Camp, because it's SSD capacity is only 128 GB. But now I need to revert back to macOS Mojave. Is it possible?

I tried downloading the installer for macOS Mojave and make a USB bootable drive, but somehow my MacBook doesn't recognize the USB at first boot (holding the Option key).

Any solution?

Is it possible and very simple to reinstall macOS Mojave on your MacBook Pro. An easy approach would be to perform the Internet recovery. Using Internet recovery, your MacBook Pro connects to Apple's servers, and download and install macOS over the Internet.

To learn more about installing macOS via Internet Recovery, you can follow the instructions in the Apple Support document:

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery


Mac: Regular expression to parse scutil command output I've below output from scutil --nc show <service id>

Connected
Extended Status <dictionary> {
  ConnectionStatistics : <dictionary> {
    ConnectCount : 6
    ConnectedCount : 3
    DisconnectedCount : 5
    MaxConnectTime : 1874
  }
  IPv4 : <dictionary> {
    Addresses : <array> {
      0 : 10.20.15.181
    }
    ExcludedRoutes : <array> {
      0 : <dictionary> {
        DestinationAddress : 115.112.149.120
        InterfaceName : en0
        SubnetMask : 255.255.255.255
      }
      1 : <dictionary> {
        DestinationAddress : 115.112.149.120
        InterfaceName : en0
        SubnetMask : 255.255.255.255
      }
      2 : <dictionary> {
        DestinationAddress : 115.112.149.120
        InterfaceName : en0
        SubnetMask : 255.255.255.255
      }
      3 : <dictionary> {
        DestinationAddress : 115.112.149.120
        InterfaceName : en0
        SubnetMask : 255.255.255.255
      }
      4 : <dictionary> {
        DestinationAddress : 115.112.149.120
        InterfaceName : en0
        SubnetMask : 255.255.255.255

I wanted to take out ip addresses from Addresses : <array> from below

IPv4 : <dictionary> {
    Addresses : <array> {
      0 : 10.20.15.181
      1 : 10.20.15.182
    }

How to write regular expression for it?

You could try something like this:

scutil --nc show <service id> | sed -n '/IPv4/,/ExcludedRoutes/p' | sed '/ExcludedRoutes/,/{/d'

sed -n '/IPv4/,/ExcludedRoutes/p' will show text between IPv4 and ExcludedRoutes, both included.
sed '/ExcludedRoutes/,/{/d' will remove the ExcludedRoutes line.

The result will be like this:

$ cat file <replace-with-your-command> | sed -n '/IPv4/,/ExcludedRoutes/p' | sed '/ExcludedRoutes/,/{/d'
  IPv4 : <dictionary> {
    Addresses : <array> {
      0 : 10.20.15.181
    }


No sound and volume icon I have a Mac mini and the sound has disappeared.  I have also lost the sound icon off the toolbar.  I went to preferences for the sound and see that mute is checked.  I can't un-check it because it is in gray-scale.  Any ideas?

Try to open the system preferences then click sound,on the sound you can see the Internal Microphone below the Name,on the lower,beneath the output you can see the Show Volume in Menu Bar,you can put some check on it and everything's gonna be alright :)


Any idea why I can't edit a file even if I run vim as root? I am on OSX Mojave and I have a file with the following permissions:

-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   2.7K Jan 31 04:32 settings.json

I did a sudo su - and now whoami returns root.

Any idea why I still can't save any change I make to this file? When I try to :w in vim I get "settings.json" E212: Can't open file for writing.

Like you said in a comment , it's a file in Bitdefender antivirus's folder, so there is a chance that the software is blocking anybody to access writing the file.

Have you tried to stop Bitdefender to unlock the file ?

Otherwise, if you try to copy the file, then modify it and put it back in the folder, did it works ?


In Textedit, is there a way to save all open files at once? In Textedit, is there a way to save all open files at once?
As of now, I have to save them one-by-one. I wish there's a Save All option, or is there some hack-ish Way through the command line or something where I can do this?

Apple offers various ways to control documents in apps in System Preferences > General.
Ask to keep changes when closing documents
If you turn this off, then MacOS will automatically save documents when their windows are closed.
With this setting off, you only need to save when you create the document. After that, changes will be automatically saved as you make them, with versions showing each change. You can Close All (Option Command W), or just Quit the app at any time, and all files will be automatically saved with the latest version.
Close windows when quitting an app
If you turn this off, then Untitled documents that are open will be secretly saved (in the bowels of the user Library) and will open again when the app is relaunched.
If you turn this on, then you should be prompted to save each Untitled window in turn before Quit.


Dictation disables f8 play/pause hotkey I'm trying to use dictation in order to dictate into a text editor a recording that I listen in a headset - played by VLC.

There's a big problem with the fact that, when dictation is running, the f8 play/pause hotkey is not functioning (in a Macbook Air).

Is there a solution to this?

I have found that the problem is in fact with the way Dictation can or cannot work with VLC and other media players, except iTunes (I have also tried Clementine and MPlayerX).

Dictation pauses iTunes when it is started with the Fn key and un-pauses it when it is stopped (double-click Fn key) - a great feature, which doesn't seem to work with VLC.

The way the Fn key is meant in Dictation (pausing the player) is not the problem, but rather the solution to what I need Dictation for. It provides Fn key as an alternate and better solution to the pause/play media key. But I will have to use it only with iTunes.


Edit pages document programmatically I want to know if it's possible to edit pages document using Python or other scripting tools.
I need to modify the paragraph style of lines containing a date (e.g. 2020/05/02), which can be easily done by a script. But I don't know how to do it in Pages.

There are two approaches you can take.

OSA / AppleScript

Use macOS's Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) to interact with the Pages application.

Apple continue to support AppleScript within Pages. You may find this approach is enough, with iWork Automation's helpful examples.

Decompress, Edit, and Recompress

Alternatively, you can directly edit the Pages document using a custom script.

Pages documents used to be a compressed archive of XML and supporting files. More recent iWork documents (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) use iwa named files which are also documented but compressed versions of the data.

From the excellently documented open source project iWorkFileFormat comes this description:

  Components are serialized into .iwa (iWork Archive) files, a custom format consisting of a Protobuf stream wrapped in a Snappy stream

If this sort of technical scripting is your idea,
start by unzipping the file, apply your script to the resulting data files, and recompress.


Why on iPad or iPhone, the $0.99 click is so easy, but to download my purchased songs, it is so XYZ tough? I bought a song on iTunes on my iPad, but the song is greyed out. How can I get the song back?

Also, how can I download the song to my iPad or iPhone?

I believe if the song is present on your iPad/iPhone library it will be grayed out in iTunes (on iOS) probably the purchased playlist?

In regards to that downloading again without repurchasing, ONLY applications purchased can be re-downloaded for free without repurchasing. Songs and audiobooks require you to re-purchase. This is because the record companies have explicitly stated this in their agreement to Apple. Whoever told you that information was wrong.

However, if you email Apple, you can request to restore all downloads. This means everything you bought will be available for download again (except some that have changed name or have been removed from iTunes store) but do note that this can be used one time only. It's for people who had their laptop stolen and lost everything or a broken hard drive with loss of data.

Hope that clears things up.


Can I use an extra bluetooth with macbook pro retina? I'm using a bluetooth earphone very often. It works really well with iphone and ipad, but it just doesn't work well with macbook pro retina 15". The range and connectivity are pretty bad.

I'm thinking about buying an external bleutooth adapter. Can I use it?

Yes, as @Buscar웃SD said, you can use an external Bluetooth adapter. On my Macbook Pro 13" I had to use Apple's Bluetooth Explorer to set my USB adapter as the active controller. This page describes how to download and use Bluetooth Explorer.


Monitor processes during startup that changes umask Two days ago I began noticing permission problems with my web projects, I had to keep resetting permission so apache could read or write. What a pain! After hours of confusion I finally realized that any file created by a process I own receives the permission of 700 and my umask was set to 077.

I found the OSX 10.3 and up instruction to change my default umask. I made the change and restarted my computer... and again 077. I manually set my umask to 022 like the default would have it be, and about an hour later, while writing this I check my umask and it's set back to 077.

So my long-winded question is how can I monitor my system for a process that updates my umask? I would love to launch an agent at the beginning of startup that will check watch and log any process that updates my umask. Is this possible?

after further research I realized that it was my Terminal app (iTerm2) setting the umask. This was due to a bug and an update was already available. This issue caused a great deal of stress and setback.


How to delete synced photos from an iPad? How can I delete photos from photos on my iPad.  They were copied when I did a sync with the computer. I'm talking about 1650 photos and I don't want all of them.

Sync again with the computer, this time when it is plugged in, click on the iPad, and navigate to syncing options, and Photos, uncheck, Sync Photos. Then sync


Closing iPhone SE cover does not lock the phone I have an iPhone SE with a Decoded Case.

With my Samsung I was used to just close the case and it would automatically lock the screen. How do I turn on this feature on my iPhone?

The desired feature requires hardware support to be built into the device, which iPhone SE doesn’t have. In fact no iPhone support automatic screen lock with cover based cases.

However the same feature is built into modern iPad(s) (iPad 3 and later) when used with compatible cases.

This feature require presence of magnets in both the device and the case. iPhone doesn’t come with build in magnets.

Also, the website for the case in question nowhere mentions support for this feature.


Deleted time machine backups from external HD, but did not free space Time machine backups filled my 4TB external HD.  To free space, I deleted a handful of the particular backups from:

/Volumes/Winston's 4TB/Backups.backupdb/

Those files ended up in the trash bin and trying to "empty" the trash bin erred indicating the folder was in use.  So, I deleted the contents through terminal:

cd /Volumes/"Winston's 4TB"/.Trashes/
sudo rm -rf /501/2018-0*

Finder now shows the trash bin being empty, but the space has not been freed up on the drive.  How do I recover that space?

Enter Time Machine - there is an icon on the menu bar. Scroll back using the arrow keys on the screen until you get to the older backups. Near the top of the window, there is an icon that looks like a gear. Click on this icon and one of the options in the pull-down menu is to delete. Use this to delete backups.


Keyboard shortcut to decrease playback speed on YouTube doesn't work with Chrome (on german keyboard layout?) The playback speed on youtube.com can be manipulated by using keyboard shortcuts < and >.
However, on my MacBook only the > for increasing playback speed seems to work while < does nothing.
What do I have to do, to make < work as well?
Is there a way to decrease playback speed with another key?
Edit: According to the keyboard shortcut list on YouTube Shift+, and Shift+. should increase/decrease playback speed as well. Both combinations do not work either.
Edit2: As @Tir Dy pointed out, it works in Firefox.

I have exactly the same problem and found a solution:

Go to Preferences > Keyboards > Input Sources
(Systemeinstellungen > Tastatur > Eingabequellen) and add another
keyboard layout, e.g. "English".
Activate the keyboard input in the menu bar (checkbox below called
"Eingabequellen in der Menüleiste anzeigen" in German).
Now you can switch the keyboard layout to English and then
Shift-press "," or "." on YouTube in order to slow down or speed up.

  Background information:

  On US/UK keyboards the < and > symbols are on two different
  physical keys next to the m key and both of them have to be
  shift-pressed.

  On a German keyboard the < and > symbols are both on the same
  physical(!) key (right next to the left shift key).

  Probably this is the cause problem, so the < does not get detected,
  because YouTube thinks both functions (speed up, speed down) need the
  shift qualifier pressed simultaneously.


Mac mail mail from cron From sandeep@Sandeeps-MacBook-Air.local  Fri Mar 23 20:04:23 2018
X-Original-To: sandeep
Delivered-To: sandeep@Sandeeps-MacBook-Air.local
From: sandeep@Sandeeps-MacBook-Air.local (Cron Daemon)
To: sandeep@Sandeeps-MacBook-Air.local
Subject: Cron <sandeep@Sandeeps-MacBook-Air> /Users/sandeep/Library/cootie.pl/cootie.pl cr
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=sandeep>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=sandeep>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/Users/sandeep>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2018 20:04:22 +0530 (IST)

/bin/sh: /tmp/iu.sh: No such file or directory

I'm getting this mail quite often. What is this about? Is my Mac ok? Do I need to update something or delete anything?

$ crontab -l
4 * * * * /Users/sandeep/Library/cootie.pl/cootie.pl cr

You get mail from cron whenever a cron command fails. In such cases you can use

crontab -l

to see which commands cron executes. From there you have two options

Run EDITOR=nano crontab -e to edit your crontab and remove the offending line
Fix the error in the script (/Users/sandeep/Library/cootie.pl/cootie.pl in your case)


What happens at the user/OS level when an SSD finally wears out? I have been reading up on SSD technology current as of 2011 and don't know of any first hand reports on what happens when an SSD eventually fails due to over use. I am most interested in the SSD that apple includes as a factory option - but aftermarket information is certainly welcome.

If there are no overt signs of aging and wear, might it be possible to measure how much extra storage space remains to cover for failures and wear leveling? (assuming the SSD controller will pool memory and avoid bad/overused blocks before failure)

I am somewhat familiar with failure modes of hard drive storage but looking for similarities or differences between HDD and SSD. For example, the OS can detect (presumably using fsck and journaling) problems writing new data reliably to a HDD and warns you the drive is now mounted in read only mode. Tools like Drive Genius allow all sorts of testing specific to HDD but I'm unaware of tools that dig into SSD for whatever data may be available.

Rather than guessing or predicting how long an SSD will last, are there objective measures we can take to document how storage is aging and check in on wear leveling statistics to measure what happens when SSD are close to the end of their useful lives?

"Does it just get slower and slower
  running garbage collection more and
  more often trying to find a place to
  store data as the flash storage system
  degrades?"

^^ This is what I've seen on two occasions (Aftermarkets tho, possibly the same in Apple drives).

They didn't entirely stop working because I eventually replaced them, since things become like a Windows XP after three years of use and no maintenance.

Another SSD I remember failing did it probably from day three, when it failed to mount on a few occasions. Then it failed to mount again later the same day until it eventually never mounted again. It was under warranty and I replaced it.

The SSDs I still have (non Apple) don't show signs of shrink, probably because the space you lose is not a lot compared to the size of the drive. I'm guessing that would be the case.

Although drives tend to live 2-3 years (SSDs), I'd say be prepared for a -possible- change after 1 year.


MacOS mdfind/mdutil issue and updatedb command : how to index all the files on my /Volume (root /) A simple question : on Linux, updatedb command which is launched a second time seems not to reindex all the hard disk.

On MacOS Catalina (or maybe for previous), it seems that the command sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb reindexes all.

Is there an option for locate.updatedb to only update what's new ?

I thought about doing : sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb -u but I am not sure.

mdfind is a great tool but has got no transparency about its dameons mds  : I said this since suddenly on my MacOS, mdfind stopped finding recent files, and it was very frustrating. Moreover,  it takes a long time to index all the Volume (several days in my case, 2TB HD).

So I wonder if locate.updatedb command that updates from what is already existing is possible ?

On Linux systems, where updatedb is performed, this command is very quick because the whole database is no reindexed.

I just want not to reindex all the /Volume at each time I launch locate.updatedb on MaOS.

UPDATE 1:

I have killed all mds and processes relaled to mdutil and mdfind. Then, I launched yesteray a :

mdutil -E / :

here what I get when I do a ps aux | grep mds :

$ psu | grep mds
root              9607   0.0  0.9 11835260 285804   ??  Ss    9:20PM   2:14.29 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mds_stores
root              9606   0.0  0.2  6866808  71984   ??  Ss    9:20PM   5:27.05 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Support/mds .

I don't understand why it doesn't return all files which normally should be found : example with mdfind -name README, it only return a partial of the expected result (nothing is displayed into my $HOME).

Moreover, the loop glass on right top indicates that indexing is fully carried out but from my opinion, this is too fast, I have 1.2TB of data of index : is it normal, what do you think about this ?

Any suggestion/explanation is welcome.

The updatedb program on macOS is a very different program than the updatedb program on Linux. In contrast to the Linux program, the macOS program does not attempt to reuse existing database data about directories that haven't changed.

There's no option for the macOS program that will make it behave like the Linux program.


No notifications on iPhone 4 running jailbroken iOS 6.1.2 I have recently been given an unlocked iPhone 4 GSM, upon which I have installed a jailbroken (but not hacktivated) iOS 6.1.2 using snowbreeze. Calling seems to work fine, as does everything except notifications. They appear to be turned on in the notification centre settings, but I never get any.  I am not using the Apple Mail app, but I have Gmail, Facebook, Twitter installed and connected.  Can anyone suggest how I might fix this?

It appears that this was caused by restoring an iCloud backup from a previous install which had been hacktivated. Notifications will not work with a hacktivated iPhone, and it seems as though they won't work with a restored iCloud backup of a hacktivated iPhone either.

The solution is therefore to restore the jailbroken image and set it up as a new phone. This will then activate with Apple's servers and notifications will work.


Aggravating IPhone problem, apps when downloaded on one phone go to all phones When I download an app on my iPhone, it is automatically downloaded to my parents iPhones. It is extremely aggravating when my little sister shows me her iPod with all my games. How do I stop this? Everything with iCloud is off.

Try this on your sister's iPod /parent's iPhones.

Go to Settings -> Stores
Disable Automatic Downloads


Horizontal lines on screen and burned image rendering on macbook air 2015 The exact problem as mentioned in the Title appeared out of the blue one day and all the text and  images on the screen of my Macbook Air 2015 are beyond comprehension as the screen is constantly flickering. The level the texts and image is getting burned is beyond comprehension.

I had tested with a mini-monitor to VGA connector on an external monitor and I get a flicker-free stable display on the external monitor.
Does that imply the flex cable that connects from the logic board to the monitor is faulty?
I have tried SMC reset and NVRAM/PRAM reset but that did not solve the issue.

Looks like your lcd panel is dead/damaged. You might want to get it replaced or replace it yourself.


Can I use a MacBook as a server with the lid closed? I have an old MacBook laying around, and I wonder if it's possible to use it safely when the lid is closed? I want to run it as a network device, store files in my home network on it etc.
Is there a way to use it just plugged in to power and ethernet, close
the lid and let it run as a server?

To use a MacBook as a server with the lid closed, all you need to do is to ensure that it's powered on and not in sleep state.
Closing the lid of a MacBook by default puts it into sleep mode irrespective of whether it is plugged into power or running on battery.
One common way to keep the MacBook powered on with the lid closed is to connect an external display (and keeping it plugged-in to power, to make sure that it doesn't run out of power) to your MacBook.
If that is not feasible, or is not an option that you are looking for, you can refer to the solution in the linked discussion:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/361398/279727

You can accomplish this in  terminal. No additional software needed.Display global power settings: pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         1
 standbydelayhigh     86400
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 proximitywake        1
 standby              1
 standbydelaylow      10800
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             1
 gpuswitch            2
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 highstandbythreshold 50
 womp                 0
 displaysleep         10
 networkoversleep     0
 sleep                1 (sleep prevented by sharingd)
 tcpkeepalive         1
 halfdim              1
 acwake               0
 disksleep            10

To stop sleep entirely:sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1To revert, allowing sleep again:sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0


Playing/Pausing iTunes while another app plays media While browsing on Safari and listening to iTunes I come across a video and then press the "play" button on the keyboard (to stop the music while I watch the video) it starts/stops the video instead of the music (I have no control over the music).

How can I quickly play/pause my music without affecting the video?

If you're not averse to downloading some of the most useful software I've ever installed you can set the play/pause button (on my keyboard fn+F8) to always control iTunes using Karabiner-Elements.

Just add something like the following rule to ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json

{
   "description": "Play/pause button should only control iTunes.",
   "manipulators": [
      {
         "from": {
            "key_code": "f8",
            "modifiers": {
               "mandatory": [
                  "fn"
               ]
            }
         },
         "to": [
            {
               "shell_command": "osascript -e 'tell application \"iTunes\" to playpause'"
            }
         ],
         "type": "basic"
      }
   ]
}

You may remove the "modifiers" part if you normally press F8 without pressing fn to play/pause iTunes.

Then in Karabiner-Elements you'd add your new rule as a complex modification:


iTunes Store: "Your payment method was declined." Last night I attempted to purchase an app from the App Store on my iPhone 4. The previous day I had purchased an app with no issues, and this time was told that my payment method was invalid. When I clicked 'Continue' to fix my information, everything was correct so I re-inputted my credit card security code and tapped done. No, fail, declined.

I called my bank as I am currently vacationing in Ireland, and if my debit card (the card my iTunes account uses) starts getting declined I will have issues. No, no problems, they had a note in my account that I was traveling, and there are no holds or flags on my spending. She also noted that the iTunes store had requested a verification of $0.99 but had not charged the card for the amount.

I returned to the iTunes store on my iPhone and attempted again to input my credit card information. Still declined. I entered a second credit card. Declined. I opened up iTunes on my laptop (OS X 10.6, iTunes 10) and checked my account information there. No prompt about it being incorrect when I log in, unlike on the iPhone which tells me – even for free apps – that my payment method was declined as soon as I input my password.

I attempted to purchase the app from the store on my computer and sync it to the iPhone. As soon as I click on purchase, I am asked to authenticate. As soon as I authenticate, I am asked to fix my credit card information. As soon as I fix my credit card information, I am returned to the screen I was at previously where I elected to purchase this app (in this case, that screen is the home page of the App Store).

Two different cards, no issues with the bank, no way to get it working in iTunes proper on the desktop or through various attempts in the App Store in the iPhone. Any ideas? Any suggestions?

I actually had this issue before too. I am not sure what caused it, but after waiting a couple of days, it worked again. Here are people discussing it on the Apple Support Forums, but there doesn't appear to be a resolution. I think mine may have been a transient service issue or something. It never happened again after this.


WPA2 Enterprise TTLS PAP connection for iPad I can't connect to my university's enterprise wireless using my iPad. It uses WPA2 Enterprise with TTLS and PAP. When I enter my username and password it asks me to accept a certificate which is not verified, when I click accept it tells me that the username or password is incorrect (though they are correct). What should I do to fix this?

Okay so I figured it out myself. Apple provides a configuration utility for configuring WiFi and some other settings.

For Windows - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1466

For Mac - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1465

I created a configuration profile using it and entered the WiFi settings there -

Security Type - WPA/WPA2 Enterprise

Protocols

EAP Types - TTLS

Inner Identity - PAP

Authentication

Username - yourusername

Password - yourpassword

I then emailed this configuration profile to myself and opened it from my iPad and it worked.