"Other" taking up over HALF of my storage space I've recently gotten a new computer (16" base model with 8GB GPU), and its 500GB of storage had dropped to just 80 when I checked it. Here's the screenshot:

I've checked through all my folders, and adding all the items in (from the above window) Documents -> File Browser, as well as every other unique item in the sidebar, comes to roughly 445GB. So all my files take up less than half of my storage space, while this Other takes up nearly the rest! I am unable to work productively (recording videos) as I have no room to store them. Where can I find out what this is, and how to delete/remove/edit its contents? This problem didn't occur on my other computer (also running Catalina).

Edit

I have tried these solutions from the duplicated question and from the Apple forums, and neither of them have worked, even after restarting multiple times. How can I remove, or even access, this storage space?

sudo tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done
tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

From duplicate:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <snapshot number>

One snapshot failed to delete entirely - I wonder if this is the one causing the oversized storage?

I state once more - the solutions listed here and here did not help at all, if anything worsening the problem (the used space is now 287GB). Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Another edit - DaisyDisk also did not show these files:

You can try Daisy Disk and it will give you a pictorial view of your drive and what is taking up space. It has a free trial so you can use it without buying it.  There is also a free app called Disk Inventory X which does about the same but lists the sizes of everything it "sees". It also makes a colored map of you disk. I highly recommend you use these to scan your disk.

How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?
 and linked: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/linked/5353


Applescript dialog - return/enter special keys (such as page down)? I am creating an Applescript that show a dialog where the user should be able to enter either any common character (such as a) or any special key (such as page down or ⌘). How can the latter keys/key codes be entered into a regular text field in an Applescript dialog?

As promised:

display dialog "Enter your ASCII keycode" default answer ""
set a to the text returned of the result
tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character a)

Heres a list of all the possible key codes.

Common ones:

  You can use any ASCII code, for the arrow keys this will be:

  tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character 31)
  --down arrow

  tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character 30)
  --up arrow

  tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character 29)
  --right arrow

  tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character 28)
  --left arrow


Using 2 displays with full screen applications I often use dual heads on my MBP, and I was wondering if there was a way to have separate applications running in full screen on each display? So for example full screen mail on one display and then my other application running in full screen on the other?

No fun, but the answer is no. Best you can do is choose which screen your app goes full screen on, which is a minor improvement on previously. It's tricky to accomplish due to the new screens workflow, an extended desktop onto a 2nd monitor is still just one 'screen', and you want it to display 2 different screens simultaeniously - a not unreasonable request, but one which is sadly unsupported at present.


Besides Skim, what OSX PDF viewers support SyncTeX? I hope this question is not a duplicate. I use a lot of pdfLaTeX in my daily work on OSX (10.8). I've been using Skim and its SyncTeX support to preview PDFs and link forward and backward and that's fine. There are a bunch of PDF viewers on OSX and I'm wondering if others also support SyncTeX (commercial or not). I tend to prefer standalone editors and previewers instead of integrated environments such as TeXShop, but I'd like to hear about all types of PDF viewers that offer SyncTeX support. I'm not finding that this information is easily accessible on the web so answers to this question might serve as a handy reference.

For starters, it seems the standard OSX Preview doesn't support SyncTeX. Is that correct?

If you don't mind using macports you can install okular:

port install okular

Consider editing the port file if you want to use kile (KDE's TeX editor) as well, as it depends on texlive and most mac users already have a TeXlive installation through MacTeX:

port edit kde4-kile
#remove the line which contains texlive
port install kde4-kile

After installing okular (and optionally kile) open okular and go to Settings > Configure Okular > Editor and insert the command to start your favorite editor( %f stands for the path, %l for the line). This question on tex.so describes the setup for kile.

Finally click on any part of the PDF while holding shift to use reverse sync.


How can I quickly set the sound output device on Big Sur? Before the update to Big Sur I could ALT+click on the sound icon in the menubar to change output devices (as described in this answer).
Now, on macOS 11.0.1, when I ALT+click on the sound icon I only see the internal speakers, while I have more output devices:

The Sound window in the System Preferences does show all output devices and lets me select them:

How can I quickly switch from Internal Speakers to the USB audio devices I have (like in Catalina)?

Not sure what the issue was, but a restart solved the problem: the output devices in the sound menu now match those in System Preferences.


Sizzling Sound on Yosemite in Multi-Output (Aggregate Device) from the 2. Device I recently wanted to play my music through multiple output devices at once:

My Macbook Pro's internal speakers
Bluetooth Speakers

As i have found from the internet i have created a Multi-Output Device through Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup, and it works. The problem is, the 2nd device (not the one which is selected as master device) gives a sizzling sound, which is independent of the source. So, when I select the Built-in Output as master, the bluetooth speaker sizzles, and when I select the bluetooth speaker, my built-in speaker.

Does anyone have this problem?

Try making sure that your source format (Hz) and bitrate are set to the same on both devices.  My guess is that if they are different, you may have one receiving information at one rate but transmitting as another.


Ordering of events when printing/pdf-ing from iCal Spent a few hours searching on Google and in other forums - I know this issue has come up before, but I couldn't find a single answer or solution anywhere.

It seems that when I go to print the calendar (or turn it into a PDF) it decides to completely randomly re-order my events. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. In iCal they are in a perfectly logical, organized order.  When I go to print, they appear randomly mixed around.

I have attached some photos: The first is from iCal, second is what the pdf looks like. Note that not only does it re-order the events from the way they appear in iCal, but the way it is re-ordering the events appears to be changing at random from day to day: compare the blue events on the 17th and 24th in image 2 - these events are repeating weekly events and were not entered into the calendar manually. There is absolutely nothing different about the events on the 17th and the 24th, yet they appear in a different order on each of those days. The orange events are not repeating events and were each entered manually on their given days, but they too are being re-ordered randomly from day to day. I've noticed that this isn't just an issue for all-day events - the exact same problem occurs when multiple events occur at the same time (8am, for example).

Has this just been accepted as an unfixable issue? Super frustrated, spent hours putting a year-long call schedule together for my residency program only to find it's a confusing mess when I try to print it or turn it into a PDF. If there is no solution, does anyone have suggestions for an easy to use app that I can use to generate a PDF calendar that looks similar?

I am using a MacBook Pro with 10.7.5 installed.

I have resorted to taking a screen shot of the full page view of my calendar using command-shift-3.  This saves the screen image to your desktop.  The image isn't as nice and bright, but it is in the proper order.


ECDSA ssh key on 10.8.2 I used ssh-keygen -t ecdsa to generate an ECDSA key, but  I got the error
unknown key type ecdsa.

man ssh-keygen says:

 -t type
         Specifies the type of key to create.  The possible values are ``rsa1''
         for protocol version 1 and ``dsa'', ``ecdsa'' or ``rsa'' for
         protocol version 2.

Does anyone have any insight on this?

The manpage describes the ability to generate ECC keys because the version of OpenSSH 5.9p1 (the version that comes with Mountain Lion) can potentially support ECC. However, the actual build of OpenSSH that came bundled with Mountain Lion appears to lack ECC support1. The manpages are not modified when ECC support is not included in the compiled binaries.

If you want or need ECC support, you could use MacPorts (or probably Homebrew) to install a build of OpenSSH that does support ECC. You might run into some incompatibilities though:

the bundled ssh-agent (started automatically by launchd) will not be able to handle any ECC keys (you would have to start your own instance of the “custom”-built agent, or type your password each time you use an ECC key with the “custom”-built ssh), and
the “custom”-built tools will not have Apple’s patched-in Keychain integration.

1 OpenSSH’s configure script does some checks to make sure that the available OpenSSL library is new enough and includes various bits of ECC functionality; the bundled version of OpenSSL seems to satisfy these requirements. I am not sure why the bundled version of OpenSSH was built without ECC support.


Apps don't show up on Spotlight search When using Spotlight on my Mac, and I type Spo... (trying to launch Spotify), I get suggestions for  the Spotify website, some apps from the App Store, and files containing a fraction of the word "spo" but no Spotify.app.

When trying to search for other apps using Spotlight, if the app shows up, the focus is not on the app, it is on a web search for the app name. This is really frustrating, as i type quickly and Spotlight launches Safari instead of the app I'm searching for.

I need to mention that I did a fresh install of OS X for 2-3 weeks (didn't restore my stuff from time machine backup. I did it the old fashioned way (copy/paste to external HDD, then back to Mac), but after my install Apple released an OS X update.

Please bring some light on this situation.

Anil (https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/40587/anil) answered in this question (Applications Don't Show Up in Spotlight). It worked for me on Sierra.

Here is his solution:

Turn off spotlight:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

Unload it:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Load It:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Turn on spotlight again:

sudo mdutil -a -i on


Read information inside PDF? I'd like to automate the invoices I receive from a particular company. Unfortunately they name the files very strangely and the filename is not at all related to invoice number, or date. So I'm trying to find something to extract information from inside the PDF. I would look for particular strings and numbers. I can think of Spotlight that would be able to do that, but I don't think that's the best way. Suggestions and solutions to this particular problem are welcome.

Thank you!

For that kind of things I use Hazel. I have a very easy way to filter PDF contents based on rules. The below image contains a rule that I use to organise my invoices. Hazel keeps watching a folder, and acts on every new file there based on your defined rules.


Screen capturing Android tablet via Mac I'm working on a project that requires me to screen-capture game play from a game on a Pixel C tablet, but I have an iMac.  I'm wondering if there's a way for me to plug the tablet into the iMac and get the tablet's screen to show up on my iMac screen so I can record the game play footage.
Does anyone know if this is possible?  Or know an alternate way to record the screen from an Android tablet via a Mac?

From a Mac perspective, this is no different than capturing video from an analog or digital source.
Depending on the output of the Android Tablet, you can use an  analog capture device  or a digital (HDMI/DisplayPort) capture device.  That interace will allow you to input the video to your Mac.  You'll also need capture software (these devices come with it).  I have used both and currently use the HD60S for capturing output from all sorts of devices like laptops, iPads/iPhones, an XBox (not much) and a DVD/VHS player for trans-coding old movies.
The critical part comes down to your Android tablet and what video adapters it supports.  Basically you need an adapter like the Lightning to Digital AV Adapter that allows you to connect an iPad/iPhone to a screen or projector but one made for Android - an Android to HDMI adapter.  Unfortunately, that's not something I can recommend as Android isn't very much discussed here (and I personally avoid Android like the plague - my experience is limited here).
However, you connect that adapter into the video capture device described above, and you can record game play to your hearts content.


After updating Mac 10.11.6, /cores is filling with core dumps Can any one suggest to me how to delete the /cores directory, which is filled up with lot of core dumps automatically and my profile crashes. Any help?

In Terminal, execute the following command: rm -f /cores/core.*

If you get a permissions error try: sudo rm -f /cores/core.* and type in your password.


Merging two disks to one? I installed MacOS on disk 0. I have one HDD drive which is split into multiple disks. Now I would like to merge disk 0 and disk 1 (same hdd) to one disk. Is it possible and what should I do? For illustration I have added a screenshot with the current partitioning.

You can use Disk Utility.

Personally, I would copy all data from each partition to another storage device; creating a parent folder for each partition (using Finder); or, create a disk image (.dmg, etc.) file using Disk Utility.  Then, you can recover if anything goes wrong.  Here is an article describing the different types of disk images, how to make them, and why one might choose one over another:
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/create-a-disk-image-dskutl11888/mac

But, if you intend to merge two partitions, both containing data, relying on a software process which cannot be undone (sans great expense, difficulty, and uncertainty)... you are braver than I am.

Here is an article describing the different partitioning options:
https://www.lifewire.com/disk-utility-add-delete-resize-existing-volumes-2260078

If you want to run any Erase security options, you are better off running them on each partition BEFORE deleting each.  But, if the HDD is a SSD (or FLASH), I believe those options are irrelevant.  Wherever you see "APFS", that volume is on a SSD (using MacOS 10.13 or later).

If either partition is bootable, you will need to make it bootable again.  I noticed that "Install MacOS..." is one of your partitions.  Here is an article describing how to use Terminal (sudo... createinstallmedia command) to do that:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

But, I have never attempted to use a bootable installer partition for "additional storage"; may not work, or have unexpected results.


Mystery Sound on my Macbook - Triggers every 3-5 Minutes! Weiiird problem.

Every 3-6 minutes something is triggering my computer's text-to-speech to say the word "nut." I have zero programs running in the background, I know it is internal because I can see the task operating when I used a sudo fs_usage (screenshot)

How can I find what's causing this sound? I previously fixed this problem by deleting all my system's voice files — but after an update to Mojave the sound files are back and so is the ghost sound.

I can provide any system reports/files you need but you'll likely have to walk me through the necessary commands, etc.

Side note: I'm the co-creator of The Nut Button, so more likely than not someone is messin' around and got this bug on my laptop.

wow yup thank you @Ian C. there was a scheduled crontab. I used crontab -l to list all schedueled tasks and crontab -r to remove them

thanks!


Can you add up front size at Preview? Preview is a very useful application on OS X, for example, when I am previewing a .doc document, can I increase the preview's font size? command++ does not work.

Preview is not actually opening the document for formatting/editing.

It opens a image of it, so no you can not change the font size, but you can increase the size of the image it self.


iOS - Which user data are apps able to collect by default? On iOS, I'm often considering using the mobile website of services instead of their app because of possible privacy concerns. Now I'm wondering if this is actually unnecessary.

So my question is: Which device or user data are apps able to collect without granting any explicit permissions?

Can they read my phone number, IMEI, can they see other installed apps etc.?

Let's assume it's a freshly installed app that I've never opened so far.

It might be simpler to approach this from the perspective of what info iOS developers must explicitly ask the user for permission.  If it's not included in this list then the user must assume a developer can access that info without asking the user for permission.

As an iOS developer for a few years, I know that Apple locks-down almost all user info. I can access very generalized info such as the device you're using, model number, but I can't tie it to a specific person unless I ask your permission first.

My goal, and hope, is that others will [edit] and add to this answer as more info is found/discovered/released.

Source for the quote below is from Apple's developer docs.

  Data protected by iOS system authorization settings includes location,
  contacts, calendar events, reminders, photos, media, and many other
  types as well.

That's pretty broad but it gives you an idea about what developers can't access without asking your permission first.  Here's another list from that same document that indicates the data and resources protected by system authorization settings:

Bluetooth peripherals
Calendar data
Camera
Contacts
Health data
Health sharing
Health updating
Homekit
Location
Microphone
Motion
Music and media library
Photos
Reminders
Siri
Specht
TV provider


Old Mac OS X, cannot get admin access, boot safe or single-user mode, nor reinstall I have inherited an old Mac OS X 10.5.8 + original install DVD.

Model: Power Mac G4
Identifier: PowerMac3,6
Processor: PowerPC G4 (3.2)
DVD: Mac OS X Leopard Install DVD Version 10.5

I'm trying to reinstall from scratch, including erasing all the existing data.

I have the username / password for a standard account, and can log in using this.

I cannot get the install DVD to run. I have tried numerous things including:

Booting directly from disc ('C' key)
Booting into safe mode (Shift key)
Booting into Startup Manager (Option key)
Booting into single-user mode (Cmd + 'S')
'su' and 'sudo' from a command-line terminal (user is not in the sudoer's list)
Making various changes via 'System Preferences' (asks for admin account)

There appears to be only 1 account - the standard account I am logging in with. There appears to be no admin account of any kind.

The attempts to boot with the various keys depressed appears to have no effect whatsoever. The normal boot sequence runs. The DVD is ejected during this boot sequence.

Only holding down 'shift' prevents iTunes auto-running after login. (Which means the keyboard works, I guess!)

The only thing I haven't tried (I think) is to use an old Ubuntu CD (Disk Utility asks for admin account) to wipe the drives and see if we can force a boot from the install DVD that way. But that seems a bit drastic, and is permanent if it doesn't work.

Is there anything I haven't tried, in order to regain control of this Apple hardware?

I have tried all of the solutions found at these questions:  -

MacBook Pro won't boot into safe mode or from DVD
Constantly ejecting OS X install disc when trying to boot

Update:

By physically unplugging and removing the hard drives, the computer is forced to boot from the installer DVD. Obviously at this point there is nothing to install onto, but it proves that both the DVD player, and the DVD do work.

Further Update:

By physically unplugging and removing only one hard drive, I have discovered there's an entire 2nd install sitting there. This install, same user account / password does have admin rights.

Give this a try.  If you can get to single user mode you can remove the file that OS X checks for during boot to determine if the Mac has already been setup.  If it doesn't find the file then it boots to the setup assistant, which allows you to create a new admin user.

Try resetting PRAM:

Shutdown the Mac
While holding ⌘+option+P+R, power on the Mac
Continue holding all four keys until the Mac has chimed (restarted) twice, then release the keys and allow it to boot normally

If that fails, or you still can't boot to single user mode, give this a try.  Resetting NVRAM:

While holding ⌘+option+O+F, power on your Mac, after a few seconds you should be greeted with the Open Firmware screen.
Type and click return: reset-nvram
Type and click return: `reset-all'

Hopefully by now you can boot to single user mode.

Boot to single user mode (⌘+S while powering on)
Type and hit return: /sbin/fsck -fy
Type and hit return: /sbin/mount -uw /
Type and hit return: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Type and hit return: reboot

This should boot your Mac to the setup assistant.  From here you can create a new user account, which will automatically be designated as an administrator account.

Hope that helps.


What are the physical differences between an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 4? I'm wondering what physically has changed between the CDMA iPhone 4 / GSM iPhone 4 and the new iPhone 4S.

the placement or number of bands interrupting the metal side case
micro SIM slot location
camera and LED opening / placement
home button
receiver / front camera / proximity sensor placement

Superficially, the buttons on the 4S seem to align with the CDMA model spacing as opposed to the GSM spacing

I ask to know and for the practical application of people that want to reuse a precision case or protective film are going to find differences. I'm looking for first hand knowledge or reports of people taking a micrometer to the shipping hardware and doing a comparison.

The iFixit Teardown says that it has the same front panel (i.e. same positions for the Home button, LCD, sensors and earpiece). Other sites have also confirmed that it's the same layout as the CDMA iPhone 4.

It should work with any case made for the CDMA iPhone 4, and some of the less precise GSM iPhone 4 cases (i.e. ones with large cutouts around the buttons). It should also work with any Apple bumper purchased from January on, as those were designed to work with the GSM & CDMA iPhone 4.

The 4S also has 4 symmetrically positioned black strips (gaps between the antenna segments), 2 on each side, just like the CDMA 4. It also has a GSM slot, which is pretty much the only distinguishing feature between the CDMA 4 and the 4S.


How can I stop the App Store asking for a password in OSX? I want to update some apps downloaded through the App Store in OSX (not iOS). Is there a way to allow OSX to do this without insisting for a password every time?

In iOS you are able to disable the password requirement for free apps and updates. Is there a similar setting in OSX?

As of macOS Big Sur 11.1, there's a setting in "System Preferences" » "Apple ID" » "Media & Purchases". Change "Free Downloads" from "Require Password" to "Never Require".


iPhone Google Reader client with updating home-screen badge for unread item count? Could you recommend an iPhone Google Reader client with updating home-screen badge for unread item count?

I'm interested in an app that's able to update the badge while the app is not running.

Update: I'm aware that when you quit an app it can no longer perform certain tasks. However, iOS is capable of receiving push notifications to update badges on the home screen regardless of whether the app is running or not.

No Google Reader App that I have used/seen has had an option to do this.  It would require the app to be running in the background and checking, which Apple doesn't technically allow in the case that we are speaking of. This mostly has to do with how Apple gives certain privileges to Apps when multitasking.  It may be something that gets expanded on in the future but I have not seen any apps at the moment that will do what you asking.

I use the Reeder on both my iPad and iPhone and it has an unread counter home-screen badge but it won't update it will my phone is sitting idle.

I know it probably wasn't the answer you were looking for but I hope it helps.  Until Apple allows for better multitasking features to be available to developers, we won't see any apps that do this without extreme work arounds by developers or jail-breaking.

I don't recommend jail-breaking your iDevice but other will probably mention that it might be possible to do it through that kind of means, but that is your choice to go down that route.


Can iPhone storage be read without the 4-digit password? Or is it encrypted? I had a problem with the digitizer connector in my iPhone 5S so I can't use the screen anymore, I couldn't even unlock it to back it up.

So I send it to a logic board specialist to replace damaged connectors with new ones.

My iPhone is locked with a 4 digit password.

Is the data inside its storage accessible somehow without having the 4-digit password? like putting the storage in another logic board or connecting the storage to a computer using special devices and extract data.

Or is it encrypted and can be read only using the 4-digit password?

My iPhone is an 5S with iOS 8.3

Data on an iPhone is always encrypted.  To answer your question it helps to  understand a few things about encryption on the iPhone.  Your data is not actually encrypted with your passcode.  Each file is encrypted with a key.  Those keys are encrypted by other keys in several layers.  These layers enable granular control over which applications and processes on the phone can access the data.  Each of these keys are "strong" (meaning it is really long) and cannot be easily guessed.  At the final level the keys are encrypted using a combination of two pieces of information.  The first piece of information is tied to the hardware and is "strong" so it is not practical to try and guess it.  The second is your passcode.  A four digit passcode is considered weak and can be cracked in a matter of minutes if the person trying to break in can make a large number of attempts.  If someone has access to all your hardware then it would be possible to read your data.  If you have set your phone to wipe after 10 bad password attempts then it is harder.  However, it turns out that most people pick a passcode that can easily be guessed in less then 10 attempts.  You might be surprised how many phones can be unlocked with "1234".  If the person trying to get your data doesn't have your phone (e.g. they insert your storage into a different device) then it is virtually impossible to read your data.

In summary, if you have selected a passcode that is not easy to guess and set your phone to wipe after 10 bad password attempts then your data is safe, otherwise you might have cause to worry.


Ways to retain old App version Is there a way to revert back to the old version of an iOS app after having it upgraded?
I like the older version of the app than the new version and as a friend of mine is still using the old version, I think it mustn't be an absolute requirement from the app developers' end.

Yes, but only if you prepare for the downgrade before updating or catch it quickly after updating.

Before upgrading, find the app in question in iTunes.
Right/Control/2-finger click on the app.
Select "Reveal in Finder"
Copy and archive the .ipa file to another location.

Now you have a copy of the current version.

To downgrade...

Find the app you want to downgrade in iTunes.
Right/Control/2-finger click on the app.
Choose "Reveal in Finder"
Delete the .ipa file.
Navigate to your archived copy of the old (previous version) .ipa file in the Finder.
Drag the old .ipa file into iTunes.
The old App version is now in iTunes and ready to sync to devices.

Notes:

Be sure to delete the newer version of the app from your iOS devices before syncing, otherwise the new version will overwrite the old in your iTunes library during the sync process.
You can catch the old version immediately after updating.  Look in your Trash.  Old versions of updated apps are moved to the trash.  Of course, you can't have emptied the trash since updating for this to work.
Be sure automatic downloads are turned off (iTunes preferences, Store tab on a computer; Settings app, Store option on an iOS device).


Cannot connect to iCloud after sign-out today I sign out from iCloud from my Macbook and reboot.
After that I tried to sign in again from the System Preferences, but I always receive an error said: "You can't login at this time. Please sign in again."

Nothing worked so I tried to login to apple.com to manage my Apple ID and that worked.

So I tried to login in icloud.com from web and TA-DA! I cannot login there too.

I receive this error log: http://pastebin.com/dseJks18

Any ideas?

Might have to ask Apple, or get someone smarter than me to look at it, but this looks like the start of the problem to me; that looks a long response time to me

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:02:10 GMT:  DEBUG: <--  Response 4:  0  (489ms),  headers:   body: (empty)
Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:02:10 GMT:  WARN:  Could not decode JSON: JSON Parse error: Unexpected EOF

Answer form only used to be able to format correctly.


Does cloning with SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner clone everything from a HDD to a SSD? I recently purchased a Crucial M4 SSD 256GB for my Macbook Pro Early 2011. I bought the transfer kit that includes the USB to SATA cable. After I initially format the new SSD to be Mac compatible, I will use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my HDD to the new SSD.

Now my question is before I install the SSD internally in my Macbook Pro, will SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, clone everything I need for it to work?

Do they copy the OS and literally everything my old HDD had?

SuperDuper! doesn't create the Lion Recovery partition on the new disk so Carbon Copy Cloner is a better choice for cloning to an empty drive.

If you use SuperDuper, you'll need to reinstall Lion afterwards to create the recovery partition.  It's a non-destructive reinstall so all your data and applications are preserved (although it still sounds scary to me).

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?p=31750#post31750


Which OS is faster for my iMac Early 2009? I just got a new iMac Early 2009. It's running Mac OS X 10.6.8. I was wondering which Mac OS X version it would be faster to run on since it cannot run the latest macOS. As a developer that is new to Mac, I want something that will be fast and compatible with my current hardware situation & Development Tools. I was thinking Yosemite 10.10 or Mavericks 10.9. Any suggestions on what I should do?

Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo running on 2.66 GHz.

2Gb of RAM

Model Identifier is "iMac9,1"

If you need anymore specs just let me know.

I'm was sorely rempted to -1 your question and then comment, but the comment grew long. You're just trying to make the most of what you have and asking for advice so that's a +1 now.

Unless you define what "fast" is - it's hard for this not to be entirely speculative. Worse, when you define fast - then you make it very narrow and less useful.

The OS doesn't really change your CPU and your memory speeds. It doesn't change your filesystem and since you can't run High Sierra and APFS - you're stuck on HFS+ for that Mac.

About the best thing that can come of this "let's get an answer on which is faster - 10.11 or 10.12 or 10.10" is the suggestion to partition your drive and test each OS to your needs and then make your call.

The downside is you'll likely lose so much more time doing the measuring than just installing the latest OS that runs and then look to optimize what your bottleneck is when you reach them. Another downside would be if someone saw "10.12 is slow" and it discourage them from upgrading when for them it would be faster and/or more secure and no more slow.

I'd say - make a good backup, and then upgrade to the latest OS you can. Old software and not keeping your drive clean from needless files is likely to be far slower than whatever marginal difference you could ever measure on OS versions.

The upside of this is you'll have learned some skills on measuring performance and thinking about the end goal "swift and Xcode" and then can make decisions like - should I spend $$ on RAM and SSD or find a used Mac with those that is more economical than upgrading a core2 duo machine.


Do I need to keep Calendar app open in order to be notified about calendar events I think this question can be very trivial, but for some reason it seems extremely difficult to find a clear and explicit answer to this.
If I close the Calendar app (by selecting "Quit") and therefore its icon disappears from the Dock, is there still some daemon process running in the background and therefore I will still be notified about Calendar events? Or do I need to keep the app open?
For example, some apps like Microsoft Outlook must stay open in order to be notified about e-mails, therefore this is not necessarily something which is not needed to be said.
Ideally, is there any official or reliable source that says this? (e.g. official documentation)

Yes it does. If you set System Preference > Notifications > Calendar to Allow Notifications you should get a notification if you set the alert style to Banners or Alerts even if the app has been quit:


How to locate a file in Spotlight using folder and file name? I often want to navigate to a file or folder that does not have a unique name. Instead, the parent folder in combination with the file or foldern name makes it unique. Here are a few examples:

I want to open readme.txt in the folder called ABC rather than readme.txt in the folder called CDE or FGH.
Each year I teach a subject where the folders are organised subjectname/2011, subjectname/2012, etc. I want to be able to search subjectname 2012 because 2012 is not unique.

When i enter a part of the path and the filename into Spotlight, the file is not found. Spotlight does not seem to treat path information as relevant to the search.

What is a quick way of navigating to a file using spotlight when its name is not unique but you know a word or partial word that appears in its path?
Alternatively, is there another strategy for quickly locating a file or folder by name and a word in the file or folder's path?

Update, I have read that Spotlight treats the path in a special way. It can't be used in constructing searches.

kMDItemPath
Complete path to the file. This value of this attribute can be retrieved,
but can't be used in a query or to sort search results. This attribute can’t
be used as a member of the valueListAttrs array parameter for MDQueryCreate
or MDQueryCreateSubset.
Value Type:      CFString
Framework:       CoreServices/CoreServices.h
Header:      MDItem.h
Availability:    Available in OS X v10.4 and later.

If you're comfortable opening the terminal you could run the command

locate ABC/readme.txt

and it will give you the full file path to any files on your machine that are named readme.txt in a folder named ABC.

While you're there you can copy and past the path as an argument to the open command and it will open it for you.

Taking it one step further you can use the output of locate as the arguments for open with xargs

locate ABC/readme.txt | xargs open

Will open all files that have ABC/readme.txt on your machine just as if you had double-clicked them.


iTunes: How do I export a podcast as an mp3 to my phone? I downloaded a free podcast, I see it in my saved episodes. I want it off of my computer and ported to my cell phone. I am new to this interface, and while I understand there are many ardent fans, I find it mostly confusing to the max. I mean, can they make the print smaller?

How? Where is it?

Do I need to set up a account and sync my devices?

Podcasts can be synced to your iPhone when connected to iTunes. These will then be available in the Podcasts app on your phone.

When you have your iPhone connected to iTunes view your device page in iTunes. Then click on Podcasts and from here you can manage your podcasts on your phone.

I am assuming that you are using iTunes and have an iPhone, you didnt state this in your question (although you have added these tags).


Wallpaper does get restored after a LogMeIn Rescue session I recently hosted a remote desktop session with a HP tech support who used LogMeIn Rescue for the remote screen share and control session.

As part of the session, LogMeIn Rescue removes the desktop wallpaper, so that it doesn't add complexity/bandwidth to screen share stream.

Usually the desktop wallpaper gets restored after the remote session is concluded. But this time it got restored only on my MacBook's built in screen and not on the connected external display (connected via HDMI via a Thunderbolt adaptor).

I've shut down and restarted my computer, but to no avail. Any ideas? I am using a 2017 MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave 10.14.x.

Have you tried going to System Preferences->Desktop & Screen Saver, then re-select your preferred wall paper on your secondary desktop?
LogMeIn recommends turning off the option to remove wallpaper if this keeps happening by going into the Preferences, General Settings, and uncheck the option for "Disable wallpaper and user effects on host computer", then click Ok.


How can I backup my email database and save them in PDF format? I am using apple mail email client and I am in need of backing it up. I just have a special requirement that how can I back it up in PDF format.

If you are using chrome then you are in luck coz there is a chrome app that lets you save your emails in pdf format. Have a look at this app here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-emails-to-pdf/dngbhajancmfmdnmhhdknhooljkddgnk?hl=en. This was the first thing that appeared when I searched for your requirement.

The other things that can help you backup apple mail as well as save the backed up email database in pdf format is this app here: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Mail-Backup-X.shtml

I hope this helps you. Thanks


In Mail.app, how can I set a recipient's default email address? When typing a recipient's name in the "To:" field, Mail.app will bring up an autocomplete menu showing all email addresses for that recipient (e.g., Home and Work). If I don't pay attention and just hit Enter or Tab to autocomplete the recipients name, Mail.app picks the first address.

Is there a way to choose the default email address that Mail.app selects for the autocomplete of a recipient? I'm not sure if this settings resides in Mail.app or the Address Book.

Example

In the example below, there are two email addresses for the recipient. Mail.app defaults to the Home email, whereas I'd prefer it to default to the Work email for this contact.

You can if you have the contact in a group in Address Book. Select the group, then go to Edit > Edit Distribution List... You can select the contact's default email address (the default one is marked in bold). As far as I know, this only sets the default address when emailing that group, though. I don't know of a way to set a default address for a "normal" contact. (After trying to figure out a way off and on for several years, I'm inclined to say it isn't possible, but hopefully someone will prove me wrong.)


Mountain Lion: AirPlay doesn't show up (but it works in iTunes) I have mountain lion and Apple TV. iTunes only displays the option for AirPlay. But it doesn't display on the OSX top bar.

I have a MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Airplay Mirroring in 10.8 is only compatible with machines that have a Core i-series processor. Your Core 2 machine is not on the supported hardware list for Airplay Mirroring with 10.8.

You should check out AirParrot, which is $9.99, but can do AirPlay Mirroring on older hardware (and OSes) as well.


Custom shortcut for switching input sources in macOS High Sierra I need to remap "Select the previous input source" shortcut in macOS High Sierra 10.13.

I recently installed fresh macOS High Sierra removing my previous OS and I found that there is no option to change default shortcut from Ctrl+Space to something else.

I used to use macOS Sierra and I managed to set this shortcut to Cmd ⌘+Space. I didn't use any third party software for changing it, however I don't remember how exactly I changed it.

Is there any way to reset it to some custom shortcut? Ideally I'd remap it to Caps Lock which is never used in practice, but Cmd ⌘+Space would also be fine.

UPDATE: After some research I found that it is already possible to remap switching to and from ABC to Caps Lock. There is an option in System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources:

But the question is still open since this allows only to switch to and from ABC, but having three input sources you are not able to switch to the third one.

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Input Sources:

Then double-click the shortcut listed to the right and enter your preference.

References:
macOS Sierra: Use global keyboard shortcuts (Published Date: Mar 28, 2017)
Mac keyboard shortcuts (Published Date: Jun 11, 2017)
OS X El Capitan: Use input sources to type in other languages (Published Date: Sep 15, 2017)
macOS Sierra: If a keyboard shortcut doesn’t work (Published Date: Mar 28, 2017)


Can I generate a clickable link to local file using relative path like "file:///~" This is the background:

in my company, we use Google Drive and often have to tell each other the path to a particular file. Paths are long as we use a lot of nested folders, so it's pretty boring and time consuming to browse through all that.

Now, in my previous company, we used a central afp server, so the path was common to everyone, therefore I had created an applescript script that could get the absolute afp path to the file, people pasted that path in a mail or chat and the end user could click on that path which automatically became a link and the finder would open, selecting that particular file or folder that the link led to.

The reason I can't use the exact same script is that Google Drive folder is in the user home folder. So if user's name is Foo the path will be file:///Users/Foo/Google Drive, while for user Bar the path will be file:///Users/Bar/Google Drive

Clearly the path generated from user Foo won't work for user Bar

Since, at least in the terminal, the path to file:///Users/username equals to ~, I made my script generate links like file:///~/Google Drive/pathToFolder, but they do not work :( Clicking on such a link will open the finder, but won't select the right file or folder

This is driving me crazy because it looks like it should work but it simply doesn't... is there any other syntax I should try? Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance!

Here is the solution.
The script that generates the link, generats a url that starts with a custom googledrive:// and then the path to the file in the Google Drive folder.

I then set lincastor to trigger the following script for urls beginning with googledrive://

on handle_url(args)
    set theUnixPath to |URL_PATH| of args
    set theUnixPath to (POSIX path of (path to home folder)) & "Google Drive" & theUnixPath
    set theMacPath to (POSIX file theUnixPath)

    #display dialog "handle url: " & theMacPath

    tell application "Finder"
        set theItem to item theMacPath
        if (class of theItem) is folder then activate
        reveal theItem
    end tell
    activate application "Finder"

    return 1
end handle_url

The script is super easy, it takes the url, attaches the path to the user homes folder and /Google Drive/, then uses this generated path to open the Finder and reveal the item


Mail application captures huge disk space I found my startup disk free space to be very low and decreasing every minute without any files be downloaded or copied to my Macbook pro. I stopped running programs one by one and found when I stop Mail application (the original apple Mail) my free space is not decreasing anymore.

I had two email accounts assigned to my Mail application to be synchronized: my Gmail and the academic email account. I just removed Gmail from the Mail application and at once 40GB was restored to my free space!!!

And my question: While GMail has only 10GB quota (and I have used much less than this quota) how the Gmail account on the Mail application can capture 40GB of disk space? Is there any solution to use Gmail account active on Mail application, but with small disk space being used?

Check that your are not keeping a copy of every email you've received, with their attachments. Under Mail / Preferences / Accounts, by selecting your account and then Advanced, you'll find an option regarding this matter.

There are several options which may help you saving some space.


How to run Xquartz in rootless mode? Is here any way to run the Xquartz in rootless mode?

So when start e.g. xterm, will get only one xterm window without the whole black screen background?

The problem was in the Xquartz preferences. Have clicked the "full-screen" mode. Unclicked it and all working nicely, without the black screen.


Can the built-in OS X "Location" feature auto select locations based on wireless networks? My home network is very secure, but my school's wireless network is open, which makes it vulnerable to wireless sniffing (e.g. with Firesheep). I just discovered the Location feature and I think it's really neat, but it doesn't make obvious a way to automatically switch Location based on which wireless network is currently connected.

Is this something which it is capable of, and if so then how do I set this up? Otherwise I guess I will use a program like NetworkLocation to do this; I'd just like to avoid paying for a program if possible.

(I'm using the latest Snow Leopard 10.6.5)

Since you mentioned Firesheep, let me put in a plug for Sheepsafe:

Sheepsafe was built to automate the task of switching your network configuration to use a SOCKS proxy whenever you join an untrusted network.
Sheepsafe works by keeping a configuration of known safe wireless networks. When you join an untrusted network, Sheepsafe switches to a network location that has a SOCKS proxy configured and starts a SOCKS proxy by SSH'ing into a remote server, thus protecting your browsing traffic from FireSheep and other snoopers on the local network. When you switch back to a safe network, Sheepsafe switches back to the default, trusted location and shuts down the SOCKS proxy.


Does AppleCare care if I've modded my machine? I have a 15" MacBook Pro whose SuperDrive I have removed and added a ssd. It's been running well like this everyday for 30 months.

I was using it the other day, and the video started to freak out with a bunch of lines on the screen printer the computer crashed and now it won't boot. When I turn it on I got a bunch of video artifacts and then the machine stops.

Seems like a pretty cut and dry hardware failure to me. I'd like to take it in to Apple to have them replace the logic board, but I'm worried that they'll balk when they see the modifications I've made.

Do you think that it'll be an issue with them, or are they likely to recognize the problem as being unrelated to the changes I've made?

Generally all changes you made yourself are not liked at Apple. They cancel your guarantee. But I don't think I will be an issue other than that. They will probably just replace it. I wouldn't tell them though, that you made these changes, because depending on how nice the person you get to repair your MacBook is, he'll maybe just ignore that you modified it, and maybe you have to pay less.


2011 iMac (high-end) taken apart, how to reassemble? Well, this is awkward.

I set about disassembling my iMac in attempt to fix a problem, and the problem is fixed, but now I'm not quite sure how to put it back together.

Does anyone know where I can find a guide on how to put it back together?

Do you think Apple repairs (store & authorized dealers) will take my iMac and put it back together if I asked them to? (Out of my pocket of course, my warranty expired)

Nothing is better than iFixit replacement guides (link for your 27 inch 2011 model). This tutorials are technically correct and safe to apply. Hi-res pictures are also available. Additonally you can try to find some videos in Youtube


Adium is displaying only Facebook contacts who message me first When I look at my Facebook contact list in Adium, I can see only people who write to me first. When I enable show offline contacts I can see all of them displayed as offline, however when I go directly to Facebook, many of them are displayed online.

I've done little search and it looks like many people are having issues with Facebook chat in Adium, but I didn't find any fix.

Did you setup your account using the "Facebook chat" wizard?

If so, you can delete this account, it's not working anymore since Facebook enabled to Jabber access.

You should try to create a Jabber-type account and enter those informations:

Username: your_facebook_username@chat.facebook.com
Password: same as your Facebook profile
Server: chat.facebook.com
Port: 5222
Use SSL

You can find more details on the Facebook Chat about page.


Beautiful, outlined font name in Mac OS X What is the font called in Mac OS X, like the main navigation bar at the top of this site, or something like the font that shows the date at the top right of Mac OS (It has the sort of white outline)?

EDIT: Never mind.  Problem solved.  I edited the text-shadow: attribute in my CSS so that my text was outlined in white.

The default font for Mac OS X is Lucida Grande


SSD Partition Corrupted I recently installed a dual-drive setup where I have an SSD and an HDD. I had installed the OS and Apps on the SSD, and other stuff stayed on HDD. Recently my battery died, and I have been using the laptop on power (taken the battery off) because of which it would experience sudden shut down (due to frequent power failure in my area)

Yesterday when I started the Mac, it loaded up a grey boot screen with a loading bar. The loading bar took about 10-15 minutes to complete and then the Mac shut down again. I restarted and same thing happened.

I then booted in Recovery Mode, and found out that the SSD Disk is showing up fine (Verified). However, the partition on it is greyed out and the Disk Utility can't seem to repair it.

I want to know what I should do now (will most likely re-install OS X), and if the problem is with the SSD or is it just that something went corrupt (at the OS level) on the partition?

OS X Mountain Lion, SSD: 128 GB Samsung Evo, MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011 Model

Thanks!

Sounds like a reinstall to me.

Every time you get a power-cut or you have to force-shut the power on the computer, you should run Repair Disk in the Disk Manager afterwards, because the HFS+ filesystem really is not very robust. Leave it for too long, with too many power cuts, and you could end up with an un-repairable partition.

So I sincerely hope that you had a backup, and it looks like you get to go through the OS X install procedure.

Oh - and go out and buy a replacement battery! It will be worth it in the long run, if only for providing enough power to allow you to shut down the machine properly in case of an extended power outage.


Why does iTunes create multiple exact copies of my music files and hide them from view in Finder? Quite a while ago I downloaded an Indie/Rock Playlist and added it to iTunes, and it was all good. There weren't any doubles of songs or anything, in iTunes. But just now I've noticed that in the folder where iTunes saved these songs, there are additional copies of the files with a 1, 2, or 3 appended at the end of the file name.

I can only see these files from the command line, using the "ls" command for example. Finder doesn't show them, not even when I set Finder to show hidden files.

$ ls -l
...
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   7449751 25 Mar 14:35 106 Senseless 1.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   7449751 25 Mar 14:35 106 Senseless 2.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   7449751 25 Mar 14:35 106 Senseless 3.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   7449751 25 Mar 14:35 106 Senseless.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff  12230233 25 Mar 14:42 107 Shameless 1.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff  12230233 25 Mar 14:42 107 Shameless 2.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff  12230233 25 Mar 14:42 107 Shameless 3.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff  12230233 25 Mar 14:42 107 Shameless.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   5977984 25 Mar 14:45 108 Shocked But Not Surprised 1.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   5977984 25 Mar 14:45 108 Shocked But Not Surprised 2.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   5977984 25 Mar 14:45 108 Shocked But Not Surprised 3.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   5977984 25 Mar 14:45 108 Shocked But Not Surprised.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   4913269 25 Mar 14:42 109 Skeletons 1.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   4913269 25 Mar 14:42 109 Skeletons 2.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   4913269 25 Mar 14:42 109 Skeletons 3.mp3
-rw-r--r--  1 jeremy  staff   4913269 25 Mar 14:42 109 Skeletons.mp3
...

Some songs only have one or two copies (never more than three), and some songs don't have any. Does anyone know why iTunes does this? And does anyone know how to make these files appear in Finder?

Update: I did a search on the rest of my music and found two other albums with the same problem. One has doubles of every song, the other has triples. Also, Finder appears to be showing the duplicates now, I don't know why. Maybe has to do with the OS X update that happened a couple days ago.

This is likely happening because of the playlist and letting iTunes sort your music. Everytime you import the playlist the playlist imports the songs and then iTunes organizes those songs. For some reason it doesn't realize that's importing already organized songs. Find the playlist and delete it and the problem should go away chances are it's an .m3u.


Can I know if an email recipient downloaded a mail dropped file in Mail.app? I have send a large file with Mail.app with the "drop" feature and would like to know if a recipient downloaded it. Is it possible to have such a information?

This information is not available without asking the recipient.


OS X Mail.app: Old mail not downloading/showing after reconfiguring exchange account Context: Mail.app in OS X 10.7.5, connecting to MS Exchange Server 2007.

For whatever reason, my company has two domains where I can access the Exchange server. I was using one of them, but for some reason address book sync was broken.

I closed Mail.app, Addressbook.app and iCal.app, deleted the old account, and created a new one that used the other domain. This fixed syncing the address book.

Unfortunately, while my calendar came back safe and sound, the same can't be said for the mail account. All my new mail is arriving fine, all the folders are shown, but old mail is not being shown in the message list pane for any of the folders. Clicking "Get new messages for all accounts" button does nothing whatsoever.

However, if I open the Account Info dialog from the context menu of one of the folders, it does show the correct message count and size. The messages are also available on the IMAP bridge that Thunderbird is using on another machine, and on webmail. So they are clearly still there.

Why would Mail.app not download/show the old messages, and how do I fix that?

The 'find the answer to your question 5 minutes after asking it' syndrome strikes again: using the Mailbox menu's Rebuild command fixes the issue. You can select all the folders for which this needs to happen before using the menu item to save yourself some time (but beware that all this syncing might take a long time if you've got a big mailbox).


How to use Finder's "Open With Application"? (Apologies in advance if the menu names aren't exactly right -- I'm not using Mac OS X in English, so I'm guessing at the translations.)

I was curious what the "screen sharing" shortcut had in it, so I opened up my ~/Library/Application Support/Screen Sharing/ folder, right-clicked on the "VNC Internet Location" (*.vncloc) file there, and chose "Open With Application -> Other".  Then I chose TextEdit.app.

I thought this would open the file (which looks like an XML plist) in TextEdit.  Instead, it switches to the Screen Sharing app!

I switched to TextEdit myself, and used File -> Open, and found the *.vncloc file, and it opened as a plain XML file just fine.

Am I misunderstanding how the Finder's "Open With Application -> Other..." works?

No, you're not. The Open with Application will do exactly as expected, open whatever file you've chosen with the selected Application. For your weird behaviour, perhaps you double clicked it, or it just bugged somehow and didn't catch the new application as the one it should be open with.


Change app icon permanently I know how to change an application icon, but when that app updates (e.g. browser), icon reverts to the one that application has.

I imagine, that the update process works something like replacing the package I have, with a new one, so the icon change occurs because the new package simply doesn't have that icon associated.

Is there a way around this? Is there an app/prefPane handling this? Or do I have to change icon every time an app updates?

You have to change the icon every time it updates because, as you have correctly pointed out, the Package is replaced and therefore your icon is overwritten by the original one.

To make your life easier, you might want to take a look at CandyBar, it makes that job easier :)


Fatal error after brew update interrupted While my system was performing a $ brew update && brew upgrade we had a power failure and my iMac shut down while updating packages/dependancies.

After rebooting I tried to run $ brew update && brew upgrade again and encountered the following error:

  fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/': transfer closed with outstanding read data remaining

  Error: Failure while executing: git pull -q origin refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

$ brew doctor strangely returns a clean bill of health.

Solved. The problem was running $ brew update && brew upgrade together.

It was causing some kind of Git formula conflict.

I ran $ brew update and then $ brew upgrade, formulae were updated and all is good.

Am now able to run both together again.


How do I install SciPy and VisualPython on OSX Mavericks? I am attempting to download and install both SciPy and VisualPython so that I can get them to work with each other. I've looked at the release notes for SciPy 0.14.0 and 0.15, and they  appear to be compatible with Visual Python, which requires Python 2.7.9. After downloading this version I checked (using python -V) that my computer uses this version.

I downloaded Anaconda and Visual Python, but upon running two test files provided by my professor, each returned the following error:

    $ python elect.py
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python: can't open file 'elect.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

I tried running these programs while in the parent directory, where I got this error:

    $ python elect.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "elect.py", line 2, in <module>
    from scipy import *
ImportError: No module named scipy

I have MacPorts and Homebrew installed (though MacPorts is not updating libgcc, but that's another question) if you think those will help. I would have linked to the release notes too, but I haven't got enough reputation. A search for SciPy release notes 0.x should yield the correct site. Thank You!

When you install Anaconda, it installs a different version of Python, which has SciPy, NumPy, pandas, matplotlib, and whole lot of goodness bundled with it. However, those libraries won't automatically become usable by your other Python version that comes pre-installed on your computer (or any other Python version that you installed yourself).

From the command line, try which python - this will tell you which Python you're using on the command line right now. If what is printed has the word 'Anaconda' in it, you are fine, and you should be able to use scipy. If not, then that is not the right Python associated with scipy.

In your shell configuration file (typically .bashrc or .bash_profile) Anaconda makes the required change to make sure that you start using the Anaconda version of Python. From your output, it seems that it didn't get your username right. In the path, the username should be your actual username on the computer. Try to make that change, restart your terminal or a shell session, and try again. It might also simply be that you never restarted your terminal. Let us know what you find.


Text plus hiding messages on lock screen How do I keep message from displaying on lock screen with text plus. Can't make adjustments with app or in settings

Go to settings-> Notifications and select the app. Now there is an option "show alerts in lock screen" that you could turn off. Also you could switch from alerts to "none" if you dont want to have alerts at all


How do I change the date format in iOS? I live in the U.S., so my region is in the U.S. I want to make the iPad use the following formats:

Fahrenheit for temperature
Kilometers for distance
USD for currency
YYYY-MM-DD date format
HH:mm 24-hour time format.

How do I set up iOS to respect these preferences of mine?

The time and date format can be set according to the generally accepted usage in a particular region in iOS devices.

Regions are selected in Settings>General>International>Region Format.

Sorry I misunderstood the question, I'm adding in the following more details.

Independently from the region you can always set the 24-hour time format in: Settings>General>Date & Time>24-Hour Time, the temperature scale in Weather options and the distance scale in: Settings>Maps.

Anyway, as far as I know, you can't set date format and/or currency, in a different way from the specified region.


Any reason not to change the root shell to bash? The default shell for root (at least on Yosemite) is /bin/sh.  Would there be any problem to changing it to bash (or better yet zsh)?  As far as a I know bash at least is backward compatible.

I need a more robust shell to run things like iTerm's shell integration.

The path of the shell is the only substantial difference I can see between sh and bash - if you look carefully at /bin/sh on OS X, it's really bash (perhaps compiled with a flag to make it know it's filling in for sh since the binaries are slightly different).

mac me$ md5 /bin/sh /bin/bash
MD5 (/bin/sh) = 2cc3c26641112c1bd0173f396b7d7662
MD5 (/bin/bash) = 5d7583d80e5314ac844eedc6d68c6cd7
mac me $ ls -l /bin/sh /bin/bash
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  628496 Aug 28 02:02 /bin/bash
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  632672 Aug 28 02:02 /bin/sh
mac me $ sh --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin15)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
manoa mac me $ bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin15)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

So, if somehow iTerm is barfing on /bin/sh even though it's already bash, you could change shells. I'd say running things from your user with sudo -H is always better than enabling root, but that's a discussion for another thread:

Is it 'OK' to use the root user as a normal user?
OSX Mavericks Root User

If you want to test the change:

Change my shell to a different bash version at /usr/local/bin/bash?
chsh doesn't change $SHELL


Can you save an iMessage drawing? I'm wondering if you can save a Digital Touch drawing made in iMessage on iOS10.

For example I made this drawing:

Please do not reuse without permission

I took a screenshot of it but it's not the best option.

Once in the messages, if I press and hold the drawing I can "Copy" it, then  paste somewhere else (for example in a Note). But the resolution seems lower.

Is there a way to keep it as an image in the best possible resolution?

You can save it. After you send the drawing, underneath the word "keep" should appear. Click on it to save the drawing.


What can a Mac do that a Windows machine can't? Can I have some definitive answers? Also, what are you forced to do on a Windows machine that is not required on a Mac?

A Mac is licensed to run some Apple software that is not licensed to run on non-Mac hardware.  Other than that, they are both Turing-complete computational engines that can emulate any other computational engine given enough time and memory.


Original iTunes Library Gone, How to ReBuild Library On New Drive? I have lost my original source itunes library music and files.

However, I do have backup copies of everything on an external disk, I copied the original files and organization structure of the old library to an external disk.  (we'll call this external disk 1)

I need to rebuild my library in a hurry, on a new external disk! (external disk 2)

My question is, how do I do this, so my new library (on external disk 2) is exactly the same as the original?

Any help you could provide me with would be sincerely appreciated!

Looking forward to hearing your solution!

The simplest way (fewest steps) is

Copy the iTunes folder from old (disk 1) to new (disk 2)
Start iTunes with the option key depressed and select the library from the new (disk 2)

Do edit your post or comment back if there are additional factors to take into account or if this doesn't work for some reason. Assuming your backup is good, complete and you preserved the correct location of all the files - iTunes will remember the new disk as long as it's always connected before it starts.

If things look good - I would check the following as well

Verify the iTunes Media Folder Location in "Advanced Preferences tab" is pointing to the correct folder on new (disk 2)
Select File -> Library -> Organize Library from the iTunes menu to have iTunes apply the current settings from the previous step.

Down the road once you are sure things are working - it might be better to keep only the Media Folder on the new (disk 2) and move all the other files to your home folder. This lets you start iTunes for iOS device syncs and such when the external is not connected. I wouldn't do both things the same week. Just get things working for now :-)


Remove menu bar apps from menu bar in OS X What is best method to remove menu bar apps from MacBook Pro Retina running Mavericks?  I've tried Broomstick and a few others with no real easy success.  I've also tried going through System Preferences / User Groups and then Login Items

I may be misunderstanding, but to remove items from Finder's menu bar is quite simple:

Hold down Command and drag the icon from the menu bar. Poof! It's gone.

This works for all Apple based menu bar items, and some third party items. Usually, when it doesn't work for a third party application, there is an option within the app itself to remove its icon from the menu bar.


Creating a Bootable USB drive for a PC on a Macbook I recently had a little mishap on my PC machine and now my HDD is completely cleared.

I have a 32GB USB, a Windows 8.1 full DVD iso, and my macbook pro 2013 with Yosemite on it.

I tried using Bootcamp to install Windows 8.1 on my PC but it doesn't launch so I'm assuming that'd only work on a Macbook (for some odd reason). All I get is the annoying flashing underscore thing.

The steps I took in BCA were I launched it and selected "Create a Windows 7 or Later install disk" and it ran from there.

I checked out this question but it wasn't much help. Some say UNetBootin works others say it doesnt. I don't want to try anything that is not confirmed.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

There's a simpler way than above. It's dd.

If you need a new .iso, Microsoft have Windows 10 USB ISOs on their website for download.

Plug the USB device into your mac, and open terminal.

Type diskutil list and note what the address of your USB is (should be /dev/diskX where X is a number).

If you don't have pv installed, it's worth installing because you get a progress bar for the next bit. If you have Homebrew, then you can just run brew install pv in terminal.

With pv:
type pv -ptearb <full .iso path> | sudo dd of=<your usb address>. You should get a prompt for your password.

Without pv:
type sudo dd if=<iso path> of=<your usb address>, enter password, and away you go. dd won't show a progress bar though, you need pv for that.

To speed up dd in both cases, you can use /dev/rdiskX rather than /dev/diskX.

Be careful with dd - if you get the device wrong, you could overwrite your OSX drive


How do I change the default gmail calendar on my iphone 4? I have three calendars in my gmail (one for me and my two kids). When I add an appointment on my iphone, it defaults to my son's calendar unless I manually check my calendar every single time.

Go to Settings->Mail, Contact, Calendars. Scroll to the CALENDARS section. There you will find the option: Default Calendar. Change that to the one you want to be default.


How can I configure macOS to mimic the double press spacebar function from iOS? Using iOS I have grown to love double-pressing the spacebar to enter a full stop / period, especially when using a keyboard with my iPad.
When I enter " " +  " " I would like the system to output ". "
Is there any way I can enable this same option in OS X / macOS?

System Preferences > Keyboard > Text

Add full stop with double-space

or

Add period with double-space

I not sure when this was introduced but it is available in macOS Mojave 10.14.


Removing right-command as "show desktop" I just got my Mac several months ago, and set my right-command as show desktop shortcut. Now, I want to remove it, but I totally forget how to remove this silly thing. I have checked several places as shown in the images below, but both shows that show desktop shortcut is F11, and I don't know where else should I find the configuration where I set my right-command as the show desktop, so could anyone help me?

PS: I use OS X Lion 10.7.2

For those who like me didn't find the right answer ;-).
I accidentially turned on "Show desktop" on left "Command" key.
It has nothing to do with "Keyboard shortcuts" preference!

Go to "Preferences" -> "Mission Control" and change "Show Desktop" key from listbox to something useful.

Remember even if it doesn't show "left Command" key it uses it ;-), so change it.


how to re-mount USB drive Possible Duplicate:
  How do I mount ejected external USB flash storage?

So, I plugged a USB drive.
Then ejected it.

But it's still connected to my machine.
is there a way to force a re-connect and avoid having to plug it out and plug it in again?

Same goes to a password protected volume on my SSD or HD. It asks me for a password. I cancel. As a result the volume is not mounted. Is there any way to force it to ask me again without rebooting?

For the USB, you will have to go to the extreme trouble of plugging it out, and then back in i'm afraid

For the SSD, you could try and open up disk utilities, and the volume should be greyed out on the left, all you need to do, it select the volume, then click the mount button on the top. I have done that with a volume on my MBP, but it might be different for a password-protected drive.

Hope this helps!

Rory Costello


Enable touch indicator for iOS app demo video recording I would like to record a demo video of an iOS app with QuickTime on Yosemite. (I found this tutorial) Is it possible to enable a tap indicator, like a small circle, for touch events so users can easily spot where the author tapped?

defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ShowSingleTouches 1

How did I find this setting?

Hidden options can be found by running the command below and then, well, figuring out what they do. They are undocumented and can be removed at any time.

strings /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/Simulator | grep -E '^[A-Z][[:alpha:]]+$'

If you can be bothered to go through the garbage add

| grep -E '(Enable|Disable|Show|Number)' | sort

I got

AppleTVRemoteWindowDidShow
EnableKeyboardSync
NSDisabledCharacterPaletteMenuItem
NSDisabledDictationMenuItem
NSScreenNumber
ShowChrome
ShowChromeUIRects
ShowPinchPivotPoint
ShowPinches
ShowSingleTouches
ShowUITestMenu
TouchBarShowRemoteTemplate

ShowChrome is Window > Show Device Bezels. ShowChromeUIRects draws some lines around the bezel. The pinch ones are self descriptive. ShowUITestMenu displays a disabled menu in the simulator bar (?). I’ll test TouchBarShowRemoteTemplate when I’m back in my Macbook touch. I don’t know what the others do.

For Xcode the command should be:

strings /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Versions/A/IDEKit | grep -E '^IDE[[:alpha:]]+$'

and the defaults command should carry the prefix com.apple.dt.Xcode. For instance

defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexerActivityShowNumericProgress 1

ShowSingleTouches is truly useful, but most options are meaningless or just noise. The command above for instance, shows you the number of files that are being indexed, instead a generic progress bar. Thus, just noise.


How do I set up a Mac to use both FileVault and Boot Camp? I understand FileVault will encrypt the volume Mac OS X is installed on. I guess this means that Windows won't be able to read it.

How can I set up a MacBook to use FileVault for the Mac OS X partition and still use Boot Camp? Can I explain to the Boot Camp software that I want a third partition accessible to both systems?

Can I use Microsoft's disk encryption for the Windows partition at the same time?

It is possible to use Bootcamp with the new Filevault.  The exact method of achieving this may differ depending on if you already have Filevault turned on, and want to install bootcamp, or if you already have bootcamp, and want to turn on Filevault...

Either way, you will need to ensure that you use the very latest bootcamp drivers package (4.0), which either need applying to your existing windows install or writing to CD/USB stick prior to beginning the bootcamp installer.

To check your current BootCamp level, run Boot Camp Assistant and select About from the menu bar, at the present time the current version is Version 4.0.1 (429).


USB drive (Fat32) stuck on read-only. Unable to erase or partition I bought a SanDisk USB drive about a month ago. It's currently formatted as MS-DOS (Fat32), and it's stuck on read-only and I'm not sure how to fix it. (and there is no physical switch on the usb) In particular, under 'Sharing & Permissions' of 'Get Info' it just says 'You can only read'.
Using Disk Utility I tried 'First Aid', which failed:

I also tried 'Erase', which also failed:

Then I tried 'Erase' on the disk, didn't work either:

I've also tried a no. of commands in terminal:
diskutil eraseDisk free EMPTY /dev/disk2
>> Unable to begin erase operation: A writable disk is required (-69772)

diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk2
diskutil eraseVolume free free /dev/disk2
>> Error: -69888: Couldn't unmount disk

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk2 bs=1024 count=1024
>> dd: /dev/disk2: Permission denied

Try format it in another computer - anything will do. If it still won't, or if it shows the same data even after formatting, assume the write-protect firmware has kicked in & it's now dead.
There's a full work-through of this issue on our sister site, Super User - What can I do if my USB flash drive is write-protected or read-only?


Is the Photos To Disk third party app still available? I want to convert a photoslibrary file to a system of folders corresponding to Photos events with jpg images instead of the Apple Photos format. An earlier thread (started by Manchineel) said that Photos to Disk can do this, but the link given (https://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Mac-OS/Photos-To-Disk.html) says the link is gone and the website http://www.photos-to-disk.com/ is expired.  Does anyone know where I can purchase this software?

The website is available in the Wayback Machine, and version 2.1 can actually be downloaded through there, although the newer version 3.5 cannot be.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180609143433/http://photos-to-disk.com/downloadbuy.html
The bigger problem, though, is there's no way to buy a license key anymore, because the developer's FastSpring page is no longer available. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way around this.
As a user of an older version of OS X (10.9), I run into this problem all the time while trying to find compatible software, and it's very frustrating! If you're a developer reading this, please consider making a public license key available somewhere before closing shop—future generations may thank you!


I am a windows user, want to build a safari extension I am a windows user, want to build a safari extension, But i want to first know is there any way to test my extension in windows ? what is the latest version of safari for windows that apple support and if i build the extension on this version is that will run correctly on the latest safari version ?

The latest version of Safari for Windows is 5.1.7.

Extensions are made with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so depending on the exact functionality you want in your extension, it should work on all Safari versions that support extensions. Extensions were introduced in Safari 5.0.1.

For more information, see this page.


will signing out of icloud delete all my notes permanently? I am supposed to, as part of troubleshooting my iCloud account error messages, sign  out of icloud then back in.
I get the pop-up that logging out will remove all the Notes from my mac.

When i log back in, will my Notes be restored to my mac?

You should be fine. Refer to: If you sign out of iCloud to get a better understanding of what will happen with your documents and data (including photos. etc).

However, if you're concerned and you have another device (such as an iPhone or iPad), you can ensure they are logged into your iCloud account so you can see/access the notes on those devices.

And of course, it goes without saying that you should ensure you have a backup regime in place (such as using Time Machine).


Can I sync an iPhone to multiple computers without erasing all the applications? I have followed advice from this website to sync my iPhone on multiple computers, but it is determined to erase my applications. I have about 50 apps on my iPhone.

If you try to untick "Sync Applications" on the Apps tab iTunes says "Are you sure you do not want to sync applications? All existing applications and their data on the iPhone will be removed."

However if I don't tick sync apps (bearing in mind my laptop is new) my computer tries to remove all the apps, because it doesn't "own" any applications.

Is there any way I can sync without deleting all my apps?

It is really annoying, isn't it.

One thing that works reasonably well is for you to right click on your device in iTunes after connecting it (but before syncing it) and select "Transfer my purchases". That will copy your apps to the local copy of iTunes, so if it syncs it won't wipe things out. Not for apps at least. Music and video is a whole other headache.


Why does iOS 9 have different glyphs for some characters on keyboard vs. on screen? With the new San Francisco font in iOS 9 (honestly, I had never paid attention to this in previous versions), I notice that, for some characters, the glyph that actually gets put on the screen after pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard is different from the glyph on the keyboard itself.

This happens, for example, with the apostrophe, as you can see from this screenshot.

Does this happen for a reason?

This problem has existed an every version of iOS until 10 as far as I know, and best I can figure is intentional since it probably would have been fixed by now. It's just more visible with San Francisco.

I don't know why Apple does it. Could it be that it looks better on the keyboard?

iOS 11 no longer has this behavior as it has added "smart quotes" à la Microsoft Word. Most of the time, as a result, you you will see the character you expected to see typed.


Sharing an AppStore download across computers With the impending release of Lion, I'm wondering whether there is a way to download an app from the Mac AppStore only once, but use the downloaded installer or binary on more than one machine.

This is especially important for Lion, as I understand that will be a 4GB download. I have two Snow Leopard machines to upgrade, and considering the draconian data caps we have down here in New Zealand, I'm trying to avoid having to perform 8GB of downloads in order to upgrade them both.

Is this possible, or is it a limitation of the architecture that a shared app has to be downloaded via the AppStore on both machines?

Technically, the press says it will be possible and supported for businesses and schools, but you may need to pay for volume licenses. It's just not yet clear if this will be economical or feasible for individual consumers.

In general, you will have to download each purchase once for each mac. Updates will come up as small delta packages to reduce the load on you as well as Apple. Lion itself seems to be getting extra handling as a special case.


Making good use of HD + SSD combo on a new iMac I am setting up a new iMac that has a 2 terabyte hard drive and a 256GB SSD drive.  The Operating System came installed on the SSD drive.

My intention was to put the OS on the HD based on its longer potential lifespan and use the SDD for things like the Photoshop scratch disk.  Getting things set up this way at this point would seem to require me to re-install the OS and specify the HD, which would not be the end of the world because I  have not done much configuration yet.

Are there other options I should be considering here?  My goal is maximum long term reliability, but I do also want to take advantage of the SDD's strong points.

My first advice: don't fret too much over SSD lifespans or performance degradation. While it has been an issue (and still is), for almost everyone it's not likely to be an issue over the lifespan of your computer. Far more likely that you'll want to replace your iMac before the flash runs out of writes. Additionally, the Samsung and Toshiba drives Apple currently uses are are more in the reliability end of the spectrum, rather than sacrificing lifespan for huge speeds.

Secondly, to really get the most benefits out of the SSD, you'll want to put your OS and apps on the SSD, and big files like movies, music and photo libraries on the HD (if you keep the metadata files like iTunes Library.itl on the SSD, you get speed improvements opening big libraries, without having to store the big files there). The most noticeable improvements from SSDs aren't the huge sequential r/w speeds, but the smaller random access speeds, which you really notice for OS and app start times, and any memory paging to disk.


Can you still set a background color style in Textedit in Mavericks? I had some background text color styles on my old mac and now have Mavericks - but I don't see any way to create a style for a highlighter-type background (for a sentence, paragraph etc.) - The Fonts panel doesn't have background color anymore, just an entire document background color.

Does anyone know how I can get this functionality again?

This might depend on whether your document is formatted as rich text (.rtf, .docx, etc.) or plain text (.txt).

If your document is plain text, I'm not sure why you would want to do this anyway, since your color changes won't be saved when you save the document.

When the document is formatted as rich text, you should see the rich text editor toolbar at the top of your window. The highlighting button is in the center, and looks like an "a" with a red slash through it (if you have no highlight color selected).  When there is a highlight color selected, it looks like an "a" with the highlight color as the background.

Hope that helps!


VM ware Installation I am planning to install VMware software in order to launch another OS while running my current OS. I have research something about it but still would like to ask questions on the common installation problem? Hope you'll share your personal experiences.

From my personal experience, I have had several problems encountered. This includes corrupt iso, improper installation of the OS resulting to a not running OS and etc. I have found this thread and I believe this is very helpful for me during the process of fixing my error. http://www.techyv.com/questions/common-problem-installing-vmware-tools


Raise/lower brightness is extremely slow Whenever I try to raise/lower my screen brightness with the F1 and F2 buttons, it takes a couple of seconds before the brightness changes, and I can't stop it from raising/lowering the brightness

Raising/lowering the brightness is also a very slow process

Is there any way to bring this back to normal function/speed?

I have a mid 2012 13" MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra.

I suggest you reset your SMC (System Management Controller).

The process can be tricky, but you will know if you succeeded if the MagSafe Plug light changes color momentarily as you do the reset.

The reset of SMC depends on your Mac model, so follow the instructions here.


Macbook Pro Retina 2015 display issue on startup I'm having some trouble with my MacBook Pro Retina display.

When it  starts up, the display momentarily shows strange colours in 'blotches' on the screen (see image). This just lasts for a couple of seconds before the regular login screen shows up.

Is this likely to be a hardware or software issue? I had a warranty repair on it about 18 months ago and since then the screws on the bottom keep loosening, so I'm not sure if this is connected.

This is most likely a hardware issue since the weird colours appear before the login screen loads.


AppleScript – Pages export to PDF fails due to Sandbox permissions I'm trying to create an Automator workflow to export selected Pages documents to PDF. So far, everything goes well, except for the final export step.

on run {input, parameters}
    repeat with _document in input

        tell application "Finder"
            set _directory to get container of file _document

            set _documentName to name of _document
            if _documentName ends with ".pages" then ¬
                set _documentName to text 1 thru -7 of _documentName

            set _PDFName to _documentName & ".pdf"
            set _incrementIndex to 1
            repeat until not (exists file _PDFName of _directory)
                set _PDFName to ¬
                    _documentName & "-" & (_incrementIndex as string) & ".pdf"
                set _incrementIndex to _incrementIndex + 1
            end repeat

            set _location to (_directory as string) & _PDFName
        end tell

        --set _location to (POSIX file of _location)

        tell application "Pages"

            activate
            open _document

            with timeout of 1200 seconds
                export front document to file _location as PDF
            end timeout

            close front document

        end tell

    end repeat
    return input
end run

This gives me a Sandbox permissions error.

error   17:49:38.117966 +0100   sandboxd    SandboxViolation: Pages(3846) deny file-write-create /Users/brunoscheele/Desktop/Test.pdf
Violation:       deny file-write-create

After reading up on it here, it looked like I could fix this by changing _location to a POSIX file.

So I added;

--set _location to (POSIX file _location)

However, that then gives me the error:

Pages got an error: "macOS:Users:brunoscheele:Desktop:Test.pdf" could not be interpreted as a file URL.

Using export front document to (POSIX file _location) as PDF gives me the same error.

Does anyone know how to set the _location properly, so you don't run into permission issues?

You are very close. Edit your export line to look like this:

export front document to file _location as PDF

It's the word "file" that you were missing.

Note: I tried the script again and it did not work, even with the word "file" added. However, while experimenting I found that if I changed this line:

set _location to (_directory as string) & _PDFName

to

set _location to (_directory as string)

then the script would of course error. But then, if I undid the change, so the line again looked like this:

set _location to (_directory as string) & _PDFName

the script began to work! I am using Pages 6.0.5, macOS 10.12.2.

I can't say what is causing this behavior.


Where can I find screencapture to replace mine that is broken? Some days ago I've accidentally replaced my /usr/sbin/screencapture with a newer one from 10.8 with the hope of getting more options for that command.

However now it doesn't work and I'd like to get the older one (compatible with osx 10.5.8) to fix the problem.

Where can I find it?

If you had 10.7 or a newer version of OS X, you could download an OS X installer from the App Store and use Pacifist to extract the screencapture binary from the installer. I'm not sure if something similar is possible with a 10.5 installation DVD.

Alternatively, if you upgrade to a newer version of OS X, it should also replace the screencapture binary with a new version.


Apple Mail - my sent email marked as spam in client's inbox Email sent from the same address, but sent from my iPhone, are being received as normal. It seems that only email sent from my computer (Mac Pro 2013, trashcan) are being marked as spam in my client's inbox. My email address is my own domain (my first name at my https domain dot ie) and I have been emailing some of these clients successfully for a decade. Can anyone help? My domain is not blacklisted. thanks

It seems that the problem was with my SMTP settings. I had to authorise my IP address in my website control panel, and in apple mail I had to turn OFF 'automatically manage connection settings', so that I could select the port, SSL, and authentication recommended from my web host.


Does Homebrew get removed after upgrading Mac OS? I recently upgraded my Mac from 10.13 to 10.14 and I can't seem to find my Homebrew. /usr/local is practically empty; just MySQL remains. Does brew get removed after an OS upgrade? Should I install it from scratch? What about the packages I installed using homebrew on the older version?

You should run brew update and see what happens. If Homebrew refuses to run, reinstall it using the command at https://brew.sh.

You should then run brew upgrade to make sure you're running the latest packages. If brew list shows no packages, then it looks like you'll have to re-install these packages.


Create macro for Sketch App I want to create a macro for Sketch. I want to execute some commands, for example, save the file, run some plugins, etc. Is there a way I can do this?

I'm using a Macbook Pro with OSX 13, I use this app called Sketch (for creating web and app designs and prototypes). As a part of my workflow I use some plugins to export and organize artworks. I would like to automate some processes by executing a macro or a script, and make the App execute some commands automatically. (Go to the Plugins menu, select an option, and so on).
I'm not sure if that is something that can be done, but it will be helpful to save some time.

I haven't used Sketch, so can't comment on how well it may work with Automator, but one option would be for you to create an Automator workflow to try and replicate your actions.

There are many online resources that can help you get started. Below are three of them:

Automator Help (Apple's official Automator guide)
MacOSXAutomation.com
Automator World

You can also use Automator’s ability to record what you’re doing to create the basis of your workflow and then modify it to meet your needs. To do this:

Open Automator
Press commandN (or go to File > New)
Select the Application option
Click the Choose button
Click the red Record button (located at top right of the toolbar)
Now carry out one of the tasks you want to automate (i.e. switch over to Sketch, click on the Plugins menu, etc)
Automator will record your actions to try and copy your workflow
Stop the recording
Now back within Automator save your workflow

NOTES:

Recorded Automator tasks are far from perfect and often require you to manually edit them to work the way you want, but it may be a way for you to get started.
Depending on what you're doing, you may need to give permission for things to work. For example, if you create an application you may need to go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and within the Privacy tab select the Accessibility option in the Sidebar and then give permission to what you've just created so that it can control your Mac.


Air plane mode schedule Is there any way to schedule airplane mode in iPhone?
I create an automation in shortcut
But it’s send me a notification and I should to run that manually and it won’t work automatically.
Is there any way!?

Hey Siri, turn on airplane mode.

That automates turning on airplane mode very well for me. I hope this meets your needs based on the requirements listed.


Automatically update multiple file names? I work at a printing company and we are constantly copying/repeating previous job folders containing multiple files that begin with a job number. We go through the filenames manually and update the numbers by just copy/pasting. Just wondering if there is a solution of some kind available to automate this process?

EXAMPLE

We use a simple file system e.g. a folder named "41777 Co. Name – (Business Cards)" which contains usually about 5 files with the same name, having just some simple variations, e.g. "41777 Co. Name – (Business Cards) PROOF" or "41777 Co. Name – (Business Cards) PLATE", etc. For a lot of jobs, we simply copy the folder and then manually update the number for the folder and files.

Since we do this every day, many times, I was just wondering if there is any way to somehow only once enter the new number and have the files automatically update with that number.

There are a number of ways you could do this. Below I explain two possibilities.

Do this natively within the Finder

You don't specify what version of macOS you're running. But a feature that was first introduced in Mac OS X Yosemite will do exactly what you need. To use this feature you would use the following basic steps:

Copy the folder named "41777 Co. Name – (Business Cards)" and rename it to "52888 Co. Name – (Business Cards)"
Open the "52888 Co. Name – (Business Cards)" folder
Select all five files within the folder
Right-click on the files
Select the Rename 5 items... option from the context menu that appears (obviously, the '5' will be whatever number of files you selected at Step 3)
Select the Replace Text option from the drop-down menu in the window that appears
In the Find field, enter 41777
In the Replace field enter 52888
Click on Rename

Note: You may want to also check out the Add Text and Format options to explore the other possibilities.

A Better Finder Rename

If you're looking for much more advanced options, or are still using an older version of macOS, then A Better Finder Rename is an option worthy of consideration.

This software provides a huge range of renaming options - too many to cover here - but it's been a well supported package for at least ten years now. You can also download a free trial (assuming you have Mac OS X Lion or above).

Other native options

Mac OS also provides AppleScript, Automator and Terminal, all of which could be used to batch rename files in the manner you want. Since it's most likely that you'll be able to use the Finder option, and because using AppleScript, Automator and/or Terminal is a bit more involved, I won't go into any detail here.

However, should you wish to have more info on these options instead, let me know and I'll update my answer.


Where are the settings for microphone input volume stored? I'm trying to write a script that detects a change in this setting:

However, I'm having trouble locating the .plist file where this setting is stored. Does anyone where I can find this file?

Edit: I feel like it may be located at /Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
however, I can't narrow down the numeric value that corresponds to input volume

I don't know in which file the value is stored, I haven't found any file change in your suggested file when I changed the input volume.

But you can access the value via Terminal and AppleScript:

osascript -e 'input volume of (get volume settings)'

This will get your input volume as a number between 0 and 100.


Mac equivalent of /etc/nsswitch.conf for PHP chroot I've setup a chroot for my PHP server running behind nginx on mac.

It works except for any call to a CURL request fails with an error like cURL resource: Resource id #43; cURL error: Couldn't resolve host 's3.amazonaws.com'

Most guides to setting up a chroot environment say that you should map certain files to be available inside the chroot. The only file I can't find to map is /etc/nsswitch.conf which apparently doesn't exist on Mac.

What is the equivalent file on a Mac? Or what file/socket should be made available to the chroot environment to allow DNS lookups to work?

It turns out that on OSX the DNS lookup is done through the service mDNSResponder service which is running as a socket at /var/run/mDNSResponder.

It does not use /etc/nsswitch.conf or /etc/resolv.conf so there is no way of mapping those files into a chroot. Instead it's a better idea to use a localhost proxy.