Triple boot- on a mid 2010 iMac11,3 Having tried this before and rendered the mac partition unbootable, I decided to try again.

With help, I managed to retrieve my data, wipe the HDD and reinstall Mac OS Sierra via internet recovery. Now I am trying to reinstall Windows 10 and then Ubuntu 16.04 but am stuck at the first hurdle.

I tried to use Boot Camp assistant to create a new partition for Windows but was informed that Windows 10 is unsupported on this Mac (Windows 10 was previously running on this machine but I had updated from Windows 8.1). No problem, thought I, I'll just dig out the Windows 8.1 DVD... Same message as before: "Windows 10 cannot be installed on this Mac" eh? Not wishing to give up, I made a FAT partition using Disk Utility.

I then made another partition for the future Linux install. Feeling optimistic, I booted from the Windows 10 DVD in legacy mode and got to the point where you choose which  partition to install Windows on. I keep getting the message "Windows cannot be installed on this partition" even when I format or delete the partition to leave free space.

Last time I "solved" this problem by booting in EFI mode and installing that way. This broke the partition map and left Mac OS unbootable.

What is the best way to install Windows on the partition without destroying the ability to boot Mac OS too? Really, I would like to then install Ubuntu on the other partition but one thing at a time...

I have read other posts on this topic but the solutions suggested do not seem to work in this situation.

Output from Diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS                  1.5 TB     disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                514.0 GB   disk0s4

The iMac has 8GB of RAM and I want the OSs to have roughly the space shown above. I have not started to install Linux yet and the Windows has failed to install so far.

OK so I have managed to install Windows 7 via bootcamp and then update to Windows 10, good so far, both OSs booting. Then I re-sized the Bootcamp partition from Windows to make space for Linux but guess what? The partition editor won't let me create a new partition in the unallocated space and Ubuntu won't install into it. I have already got 4 primary partitions and no more is possible. Still, I've got two OSs working again...I have updated the diskutil list and it doesn't show the resized windows partition. Is there any way of installing Linux in the free space without wrecking everything?

OK, so I went ahead and made 3 new partitions using Disk Utility and installed Ubuntu 16.04 onto them following instructions from
Installing Ubuntu on Mac with macOS and Windows already installed
 Result: Mac and Ubuntu still boot fine but Windows now won't boot and gives a message " Missing Operating System" when I try to boot from it.

This is the new diskutil list output:

    /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS                  1.3 TB     disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                        EFI                         6.5 GB     disk0s4
   5:           Linux Filesystem                         198.7 GB   disk0s5
   6:                 Linux Swap                         15.2 GB    disk0s6
   7:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                514.0 GB   disk0s7

Anyone got any ideas for how I can rescue the Windows install?

Whatever happens, don't worry, because

You only lose what you haven't backed up™

So, if you don't have a backup of your system, make sure you create one:

Download and install "CloneZilla", a FOSS disk cloning utility, on a USB drive, in UEFI mode. Google is your friend, but this is a guide for you
Now attach a blank HDD the size of your hard drive and reboot your Mac in Clonezilla
Clone your internal hard drive over to the backup disk (make sure you don't do the other way around). The interface is pretty intuitive, but the procedure could take a while, regardless of how much data you have on your disk.

Now, make an ExFat partition on your disk using Disk Utility, launch the Windows installer, format it and install Windows.

Apparently in your case this seems not to be working and - in EFI mode - Windows messes up your EFI system.

I have a couple of suggestions.

The first: install Windows on a secondary HDD. This makes everything much easier, and you don't have to deal with countless other issues such as messed up partition tables and wrongly erased volumes. IIRC a secondary Hard drive can be installed in your system and - considering how cheap they are - it's really worth it.

The second, and most complicated (and maybe dangerous) is to run an Ubuntu (or any other distro) live session, open GParted, unmark your EFI partition as such (making it not appear as an ESP, but rather as a generic partition) and create two ExFat partitions. The first of them has to be very tiny (~200 MiB) marked as ESP, the other one - instead - should be as big as you want your Windows C: to be. After this is done, install Windows in EFI mode to the big ExFat partition (after having formatted it), then re-run GParted and re-mark the original ESP as such again. Now you can install rEFInd from macOS and boot your system in Windows by selecting the secondary ESP you created upon boot. If so you want, you can tweak rEFInd to boot an OS automatically by default, have a custom theme and do many other fancy things.

If you have no idea on how to do all of this, I'd recommend against doing it. Also remember that it's old hardware we are dealing with, so compatibility might not be the best, if existent at all.


How can I make macOS require my password once per day, before Touch ID? My Mac is configured with Touch ID and most of the time I want that, but I want to configure a policy such that the first time I wake it up after 6 AM it requires my password, or such that it requires my password once every 24 hours.

Is that possible? If so, how?

If you've not already set your security preferences to require a password after some amount of sleep and/or screensaver, there's really no benefit to forcing a login at the beginning of the day - it's been vulnerable all that time and locking it at 6:00am only to be unlocked again for the rest of the day makes it a moot security policy.

But, if you want to force an authentication event every day at 6:00am you'll need to do the following:

write a bash script that locks the computer.  There are two methods...

pmset
CGSession

have that script run every day at a prescribed time using launchd

A note about the scripts/terminal commands

I encourage you to test them out first before handing them over to launchd.  Just type out the command(s) in Terminal to see if they work.
You must set the script to be executable by using the command chmod +x <nameofscript> or this won't work at all.

Using pmset

Assuming that you have "Require Password" after some amount of time after you lock the screen or activate your screen saver, you can use the following command in a bash script to sleep your computer once per day:

pmset sleepnow

The script can be saved in ~/Library/Scripts and can be called whatever you like.  Let's use sleep1.sh for this example

#!/bin/bash
#
/usr/bin/pmset sleepnow

Run that script and your Mac will immediately go to sleep and if you have a password set, depending on the time interval you set, once you wake it, it will ask you for a password.

Using CGSession

This uses the "Fast User Switching" mechanism to lock your desktop.  You can test it out by issuing the following command:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

When you execute this command, your desktop will be locked and you should be greeted with a login screen where you have to select a user (if you have multiple) or enter a username and password.

The script, like the previous example can be saved in ~/Library/Scripts and can also be called whatever you like.  Let's use sleep2.sh for this example.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Get User ID
id=$(id -u <username>

# Put the system to sleep but switch to current user
/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend -switchToUserID $id

Note: If you intend to do this for all logged in users (if you have multiple users on your machine), change the id line to look like this:

id=$(id -u `whoami`)

This will ensure that the command uses the user id of the currently logged in user.

Using launchd to make this run every day

To get this to run every day, we need to have an daemon kick it off at a prescribed time.  macOS comes with such a tool and it's called launchd.  I go into further detail about it in the post
launchd plist format for running a command at a specific time on a weekday.  However, for our purposes here, we'll use a basic .plist to start this script every morning.  I like to use the file naming convention com.user.XXXX.plist  Replace "XXX" with whatever you like, for this example, I'm using com.user.lockmachine.plist.

Also be sure to reference the script you plan to use, script1.sh or script2.sh

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.user.lockmachine</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/<username>/Library/Scripts/script1.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
      <key>Hour</key>
      <integer>6</integer>
      <key>Minute</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

How do you want to run this daemon?

Where you put the script matters.  See the linked post for more details, but decide if you want this to be for just you or for all users.  Here's a quick summary:

Just you - put it in ~/Library/LaunchAgents
For all users - put it in /Library/LaunchAgents

Then from the directory where you put the newly created .plist, load it using launchctl

sudo lauchctl load com.user.lockmachine.plist

Authenticate away!

You're done.  Once per day at 6AM your machine will be forced to go to sleep or have the session switched (depending on the script you selected) where you'll be forced to authenticate.  There's no point in doing this on login or at boot because if you're this concerned about security, you wouldn't have auto login enabled bypassing authentication.


How to Screen Sharing / VNC to an iMac without waking the display? I have an iMac mid 2011 at home. When I was not home, I may need to access my mac with Screen Sharing. However the iMac display will turn itself on when I connect via Screen Sharing. The problem is I don't want to scare my family at home (with the elders and kids) as the iMac "turn itself on suddenly".

This is a problem specific for iMac. On MacBooks (Pro, Air, whatever) I can set the brightness to the lowest setting so the screen is black (i.e. the LED light is off). However on an iMac you cannot turn off the LED backlit by setting brightness. The display is still bright and everything is clearly visible even on lowest brightness setting.

Therefore these solution are not working as the display will turn on as soon as you move your mouse or hit any key on the keyboard via Screen Sharing.

Sleep Display (by Ctrl+Shift+Eject)
Using the code listed on http://pastebin.com/8CMaxGeP

Question:
Is the a way to keep the iMac display off entirely while you accessing it with Screen Sharing?

OS X Lion added per-user screen sharing: the ability to have multiple remote desktop sessions active on a single Mac at the same time. It's not a perfect solution, but you may find it good enough for your case.

When you connect to your Mac via Screen Sharing make sure the session is in Control Mode, not View Mode. You can switch modes by pressing Cmd+Option+X in the Screen Sharing app.

Once in Control Mode, look under the View menu and you should see an entry that says "Switch to Virtual Display". Select that to change the session to a virtual display, not the current desktop display, and log in as yourself.

The main display on your iMac should go to sleep according to your screen saver and energy settings once you've disconnected your remote session from the physical display and moved it to a virtual display.

The only flaw in this approach is I know of no way to start Screen Sharing on a virtual display from the get go. So the initial connect always wakes up the physical display.

Update for Mavericks

The "Switch to Virtual Display" option in the Screen Sharing app went away in Mavericks. Instead, upon connecting to the other Mac with Screen Sharing:

  If someone else is already connected to the Mac as a remote user, a dialog asks if you
  want to share the display with the other remote user (Share Display), or log in
  concurrently using a different user name and screen (Log In). Choose the option you
  want.

  If you choose Log In, you will share the Mac with the other remote user, but you won’t share the same screen.

Here's an example. In this case I tried to connect a Screen Sharing session from my iMac to my wife's MacBook Pro where she was already logged in. This is the dialog I get when trying to connect:


How can you tell if an iPhone camera photo has been fully uploaded to the Photo Stream without using a computer? I'd like to know if the photos were uploaded yet, but an indicator isn't apparent. I'd like to know without resorting to checking a desktop/laptop. Is there one I'm missing?

In the photos app, you should be able to compare between the "camera roll" and the "photo stream" in the albums tab.

The picture shouldn't appear in the local device's Photo Stream until it is uploaded.

To see this in action, go to the Albums tag. Take a screen shot. (Power + home)
The photo will appear in the Camera Roll and (net willing will within a few seconds) then appear in the Photo Stream.


Renaming "A's MacBook" to "C's MacBook" I see that my Mac is called "A's MacBook" on the network.

How do I rename it (i.e., change the hostname) to "C's MacBook"?

That's the question. Here are the details:

Having read various suggestions to create a superfluous admin account before migrating using Time Machine, I went ahead and used "A Admin". The trouble is that that resulted in the hard disk getting named "A's MacBook", which does not match the directory under /Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk.

One can rename one's "Computer Name" under Sharing in System Preferences.


Use an iMac with Thunderbolt as an external display I can't manage to connect my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) Display with my  MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018).

I have an Apple Thunderbolt 3 USB-C cable, both computer are on (logged with an admin user), but nothing happen when I press Cmd-F2.

I tried to use AppleScript in case something was wrong with my keyboard, but same issue.

tell application "System Events"
    key code 122 using command down # Cmd-F2
end tell

Tried the other way round (from my MacBook Pro) same thing...

FY, I don't think this is an issue but both computer are in a different VLAN

iMac : 10.15.4 (19E287), MacBook Pro 10.15.5 Beta (19F72f) (pretty sure had the same issue when both was in 10.15.4)

I should had read the KBase better .... Use your iMac as a display

  Note: Target Display Mode isn’t supported on iMac models with Retina
  display. Only iMac (27-inch, Late 2009), iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010), and
  iMac (Mid 2011 to Mid 2014) support Target Display Mode.


Mac connects to network with no problem but browsers can't connect to websites I am using macOS Mavericks (10.9.5) and Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all do not connect to websites even though the network is clearly connected.
But browsing when booted into safe mode works.
I've read many articles and tried the following solutions:

Set DNS servers to Google DNS and open DNS.
Reinstalled operating system through the internet recovery.  The internet for the recovery worked as expected, so this issue is something specific to browsing.
Added Chrome, Firefox, Safari to Mac firewall.
Removed System Configuration folder from library/preferences
Disabled McAffee antivirus put on by work IT
Ran McAffee scan and found nothing
Renewed DHCP

Anyone have any ideas?

Turns out my AV had entered a proxy that was blocking my connections.

It might be worthwhile to check:
System Preference > Network > Choose your connection > Advanced > Proxies > remove any active proxies


Music player sometimes skips all songs and won't play I have a problem on my iPhone 5s (running iOS 10).

Sometimes my music player doesn't play music and just skips all of my songs, but after I reset my iPhone, it works well again.

At first I thought this was just a regular crash, but as this problem became more frequent, it's become annoying to me.

Is this a bug on iOS 10 or does my iPhone have a problem?

This appears to be a bug that was fixed in iOS 10.3. My Music app started behaving as expected after I updated my iPhone.


How does macOS High Sierra generate bold weights for its system font? Apple's new system font, "San Francisco", has two versions - "Compact", for display on small screens like the Apple Watch, and a regular version for display on larger screens like macOS devices.

I am looking to replace the system font on my Mac from SF Regular to SF Compact. This is the procedure I'm using:
https://www.macissues.com/2014/11/21/how-to-change-the-default-system-font-in-mac-os-x/

Previously, the macOS font files in the /System/Library/Fonts folder included separate .ttf files for each font weight (bold, light, regular, etc.) On High Sierra, however, there is only one .ttf file containing a single font weight (regular).
The file is located here: /System/Library/Fonts/SFNSText.ttf. Using Fontforge, I replaced the alphanumeric glyphs of this font with those from the SF Compact file /System/Library/Fonts/SFCompactText-Regular.otf.

After restart, the following happens:

Any interface text that would normally be bold now fails to render.

For reference, with stock system font:

So, my question is: How does macOS display generate bold type instances of the system font?

What's interesting to note is that even when I only modify certain characters ("C", "r", "m"), the entire bold string ("Chrome") fails to render. This leads me to believe that the individual glyphs are not the issue, rather, something is being changed during Fontforge export. Fontforge does have a feature which allows for "Multiple Masters" - different weights and widths of a font contained in the same TTF file, but the original Apple-provided SF font (SFNSText.ttf) does not include any "Multiple Masters".

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: I am aware that there are also Display and Text variants of both fonts (SF and SF Compact). The menu bar uses the Text variant, so I am focusing on that one.

If you go to Apple Fonts you can download the SF Pro or SF Compact Fonts. When I download and open the SF Pro I got 30 .otf files for Text and Display fonts. I installed these using Font Book. This installed SF Text and SF Display. SF Text contains 16 variations ranging from Regular to Bold and including Semi-Bold, Heavy Italics, and Text Light among others.


How to ping a network host at regular intervals? I am trying to debug WiFi connectivity issues on my home network. I have a Macbook and a Linux desktop client. I would like to run ping on both machines and compare their results. I am comfortable with Linux, this question is exclusively about the Macbook.
$ ping 192.168.0.1 | while read pong; do echo "[$(date +%s)] $pong"; done
...
[1596203814] 64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8900 ttl=64 time=9.800 ms
[1596203815] 64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8901 ttl=64 time=5.546 ms
[1596205241] Request timeout for icmp_seq 8902
[1596205241] 64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8903 ttl=64 time=26.988 ms
[1596205242] 64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8904 ttl=64 time=4.397 ms
...

As you can see from the timestamps there is a 20+ minutes gap at some point. I let the setup run for 3 hours and this happened on 5 different occasions. The Macbook was locked with Amphetamine running, the lid was closed but an external display was connected through a USB-C hub with HDMI output. I do not believe the Macbook can go to sleep under these circumstances.
Would anyone please know how I can fix my setup to ping at regular intervals, without any large gap?

The Macbook was locked with Amphetamine running, the lid was closed but an external display was connected through a USB-C hub with HDMI output. I do not believe the Macbook can go to sleep under these circumstances.

I wouldn't be so sure. Just check the output of pmset -g log | grep "Display is turned off" - if it happened when the ping got interrupted, you Mac went to sleep. I find Macbooks particularly stubborn when the charger is disconnected.
Also note that if the external display was turned off, or switched to another input, this can also be sometimes detected (depends on model/connection, I assume), so this could also trigger the sleep.
There's no magic switch to ping to issue  echo requests regularly - it does that by default.


How to get Safari to accept Untrusted Certs on iOS8? (like Chrome) It looks like Chrome on iOS8 has the ability to 'user accept' untrusted SSL Certs but Safari simply blocks them with an error.

The scenario here is that the phone (and iPad) are viewing an internal corporate staging environment, piggy-backing off a mac plugged into the internal network. The actual mac can view the site without an error.

My question is: How to get Safari to accept Untrusted Certs on iOS8? (like Chrome)

This looks more like a SSL negotiation error; I suspect this is a settings issue, not so much a certificate issue;

an incorrectly configured proxy (possibly on the shared connection or even on the phone)
a mismatched SSL/TLS setting (e.g. SSL version)
the server failing the negotiation give a possible NAT or IP range issue with the phone (shared link with the Mac)

A Wireshark trace could help diagnose the differences between the Chrome and Safari connections.

First attempt to rule out the shared link and get the phone on to the same corporate network as the host. Failing that, reset the Safari settings on the phone.


Why do I need to put sh before running .sh files? When I want to run .sh files in Terminal, I need to put sh in front of them.

Is there any way to avoid this, and thus save typing?

If you're running your script from the shell, you don't actually need the #!/bin/sh shebang as outlined in this this answer–every Unix-like system I've used, including OS X, will default to /bin/sh if no interpreter is specifically specified (though it's a good idea as non-shells won't know how to execute your script unless you give the shebang.)

You also don't need an .sh extension.  You do need to set executable permissions, e.g.

$ chmod +x script.sh

(The $ is the shell prompt; I'm using it to illustrate commands you give to the interactive shell.  Don't type it!)

However, I think what your confusion is is that you have created a script, e.g. script.sh, in the current directory, and are trying to execute it by simply typing script.sh.  e.g.

$ cat >script.sh
echo hello, world
^D
$ chmod +x script.sh
$ script.sh
-bash: script.sh: command not found

(^D means control-D.  You will find this notation in many writeups on using Unix.)

The fact that script.sh in this case is a shell script is only half the problem; your actual issue is that, by default, the shell will not search the current directory for a program.  However, this works:

$ sh script.sh
hello, world

because sh is taking the script as an argument.

You can execute a script–or, again, any executable–in the current directory, if it is marked executable (i.e. chmod +x), by specifying that you want to run the one in the current directory:

$ ./script.sh
hello, world

You can also move the script to a directory on your PATH.  I recommend /usr/local/bin for this if your script is intended to be used system-wide, or a bin directory in your home if the script is only for you.  The latter requires you to add $HOME/bin, which expands to your new bin directory, to your PATH by adding the following lines to your .profile in your home directory:

PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH

Finally, you can, if you want, actually add the current directory to your PATH, which will allow you to just go to a directory containing script.sh–or any other executable–and type

$ script.sh

to execute it.  However, I do not recommend this practice, as an attacker can now trick you into running an arbitrary executable by dropping an executable script (named, say, ls) into a directory you will be in.  If you really want to do it, though, just add the following to your .profile:

PATH=.:$PATH
export PATH


After resetting default keychain, I cannot connect to Wi-Fi I used at that time I was going to install vim on Xcode; and I saw I've gotta reset default keychains (or something like this; system language is not set to English) and I did so.

The wireless access point I connected when I reset keychain stopped working; but other aps work as usual. The system says it cannot connect to Wi-Fi network and suggests to start diagnosis.

The diagnosis didn't give me any solution and I have no idea to solve this. Other computers successfully work with that Wi-Fi though. How can I get my computer connected to Wi-Fi?

When you reset your keychain you are actually discarding the saved password for websites and wifi networks. So, unless you are able to retrieve the old keychain in the Keychain app, I am attains you will need to enter those passwords again.

You can also check if you have enabled the option iCloud Keychain in Preferences > iCloud, in case you have used it before. It stores passwords in iCloud. So if you have disabled this inadvertently, maybe you can make it work by reenabling that feature.


Show package contents from command line When working at the terminal, I often use the open . command to open a finder window showing the current working directory. But if the current directory is actually a package, like a .app application or a .vmwarevm virtual machine, open . launches the application or the virtual machine instead.

How can I open a finder window showing the contents of a specified package?

I’ve tried open -A /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app ., but that didn’t work.

You can simply cd into the package to open it in Terminal, then open Contents to open the contents in Finder.

For example, to open the contents of Safari.app in Finder, you can run the following:

cd /Applications/Safari.app
open Contents


GarageBand iOS on iPad Air, MIDI cable, Roland/Wurlitzer: How do I make something out of this combo? I just got a 3.5mm to MIDI adapter so I can use it with my Roland EXR-3 Interactive Arranger or use it with my Wurlitzer Omni 3600, which both have in and out MIDI ports. I just want to use the cable, and involve Garageband in the use of it. How do I either:

Make the sounds from Garageband come out of the keyboard's speakers (either using the keys on the keyboard, or just playing the virtual keys on the screen), or
Record sounds from my keyboards into a Garageband track?

The two objectives you have are not possible to achieve as such using a MIDI adapter cable.

The MIDI adapter cables carries a digital protocol with information such as note on/off with notes, velocity, etc., pitch bends, patch changes, etc. No analog waveforms or other representations of actual sounds are sent over MIDI.

Therefore transferring actual sounds from Garageband to the keyboard's speakers is not possible - and similarly recording the sounds made by your keyboard into a Garageband audio track is also not possible.

If you want to achieve those objectives, you'll need instead to purchase analog audio cables and a audio recording interface for the iPad - or use the 3.5" input (not that well suited).

What you can achieve with the MIDI adapter is to use a MIDI-compatible app to send out MIDI notes to the keyboard which can then play its own sounds through its speakers.

Similarly you can record MIDI notes from the keyboard into an instrument track in a MIDI-compatible app. However, when playing it back, the audio will come out through the keyboard's speakers - and the keyboard will need to be connected to playback the track.

Alternatively you can use GarageBand with a virtual instrument, which will create the instrument sound from the MIDI notes and play it back through your iPad's speakers.


Interesting Mac OS X error Has anyone ever seen an error like the one pictured below on Mac OS X? What is it? The system is 10.6.6. I'm quite experienced in OS X but I've never seen such a thing. I was booting in verbose modem, and it looks like the verbose mode came "through".

Looks like a kernel panic in Verbose mode.


How to schedule VLC recording with cron? I've created the following crontab:

0/5 * * * * /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -I rc rtp://@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5050 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=2048,acodec=mp3,ab=192,deinterlace}:standard{mux=ts,access=file{no-overwrite},dst=/Users/me/Pictures/video.ts}' --run-time=10 --play-and-exit >> /tmp/log.txt 2>&1

But in result log.txt contains the following text -

[00000001002300c8] [cli] lua interface: Listening on host "*console".
VLC media player 2.2.0 Weatherwax
Command Line Interface initialized. Type `help' for help.
> Shutting down.
[00000001002300c8] [cli] lua interface: Requested shutdown.

and empty (0 bytes) video.ts.

What is wrong here?

You're using the rc (remote control) interface, which expects input on the command line - i.e., expects and interactive session.

From cron try the dummy interface:

0/5 * * * * /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -I dummy rtp://@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5050 --sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=2048,acodec=mp3,ab=192,deinterlace}:standard{mux=ts,access=file{no-overwrite},dst=/Users/me/Pictures/video.ts}' --run-time=10 --play-and-exit >> /tmp/log.txt 2>&1


Avid Sibelius on macOS Sierra - linking folders Notational software Avid Sibelius installs preferences into the following path: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Avid

That folder contains House Styles, Keyboard Shortcuts, Plug-ins and everything else one needs to professionally use the software.

I would like to have an automatic backup (or synchronisation) of this folder in a non-library folder.
My intent is to have it mirrored to iCloudDriveso that it gets automatically backed up and I may be able to just copy-paste it into a new installation on a new machine should the need arise.

Any idea on how to obtain this?
Thanks

You just need a short script (even a single line command would work) to make a dupe of the files to your iCloud folder

Your iCloud folder is found locally on your machine in /Users/< username >/Library/Mobile\ Documents

(replace < username > with your actual username and be certain to notice the backslash before the space in "Mobile Documents")

If you want to avoid having to preface a backslash before (a.k.a "escaping") the space, put the whole line in quotes:

"/Users/Library/< username >/Mobile Documents/foo.bar"

I would use tar to create a single file archive and gzip to compress it to save space.  The command below will accomplish both:

$ tar cvfz "/Users/username/Library/Mobile Documents/Avid_Backup.tgz" "/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Avid"

You could then use Automator to run a shell script executing the command at a predetermined interval (Automator Calendar Alarm)


Unknown wifi connection in my Connection dropdown menu My problem is that I have this strange wifi connection name as shown in the attached image below among my wifi connections. Each time the name is different which is always a randomly generated haphazard mixture of letters and numbers. Is it possible that my system be infected with some malware. I have reinstalled the OS, El Captain, to get rid of this particular issue but at times I can still see the connection there. Do I need to worry about this?

Any ideas will be appreciated.

Regards

This is quite likely (no guarantee) that there is someone nearby with a WiFi device (Phone, printer, WiFi 4G router, etc) that generates a different name each time it turns on.

Note that the signal strength is pretty low. so it is not likely all that nearby. Using a WiFi stumbler might give you more information about the device as most WiFi devices will often self-identify with a Manufacturers name or model number. The stumbler software could also potentially help you locate at least which direction the WiFi source is.

Is it possible that someone is nearby trying to hack into your systems? Yeah. Is it likely? No, unless you have a lot of money or have access to valuable information or goods, or a person of interest to someone gathering intelligence on you it is unlikely you are a persistent target of attack.


Detach active Chrome tab using AppleScript I want to open current active tab in Chrome to a new window.

The intention of this to split tabs side by side (for use with BetterSnapTool).

I am new with AppleScript and find reading this a bit difficult. Can't really discern from methods and properties.

This works for me using the latest version of Mac OS High Sierra.

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell its window 1
        set theURL to URL of active tab
        close active tab
    end tell
    set the URL of active tab of (make new window) to theURL
end tell

If you would like to see the two windows now side-by-side, Try this...

tell application "Finder"
    set currentDesktopBounds to bounds of window of desktop
end tell

copy currentDesktopBounds to leftBounds
set l to item 3 of leftBounds
set l to l / 2 as integer
set item 3 of leftBounds to l

copy leftBounds to rightBounds
set r to item 3 of rightBounds as integer
set r to r + 1 as integer
set item 1 of rightBounds to r
set item 2 of rightBounds to 22
set item 3 of rightBounds to item 3 of currentDesktopBounds
set item 4 of rightBounds to item 4 of currentDesktopBounds

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell its window 1
        set theURL to URL of active tab
        close active tab
    end tell
    set the URL of active tab of (make new window) to theURL
    delay 0.2
    tell its window 1
        set bounds to leftBounds
    end tell
    delay 0.2
    tell its window 2
        set bounds to rightBounds
    end tell
end tell


How can I make phone calls on the internet IPhone 6 I have a remote location were I have only satellite service, no cell service.

When I first purchased my iPhone 6 to my surprise I received messages (voice) left on phone at this location. I couldn't call people back but could text them over the internet.

Now after returning to the remote location I can not get any more messages left on my phone from voicemail. I am still getting text messages, which I also did with my iPhone 4S.

Did an update wipe out this ability or have I turned something off by mistake? I have all of my data turned on to WiFi.

Sounds like you want to enable Wifi Calling on your device. Turn on Wi-Fi calling in Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling. For more, check out the Apple page on Wifi Calling.


How do I add a featured iTunes Radio station to my stations on iOS? On iTunes for Mac I can right click a station to add it my stations. I tried a long press on a featured station on iOS but that doesn't bring up any options.

According an Apple support doc:

  You can add a featured station to My Stations by tapping the Info (i)
  button, then tapping the Plus (+) button to the right of "Add to My
  Stations."


How to download any file to iPad from a cloud drive through the browser? Is there a way to download files from a cloud drive to the ipad through its browser?
I made a dummy text file and uploaded to a cloud drive with a public link,
https://tinyurl.com/6whmxito
and then accessed it through the iPad through both Chrome and Safari.
The link works, but I'm not able to download the text file (or any other file).
This download-via-browser was also confirmed successful in all other non-apple devices (PC, phone, etc.).
Is there a step missing?

From my findings, it appears that you simply can't download files with any default free browser.
The most practical way was to use VLC and transfer the file over WiFi from any other device that supports browser file downloads.
Steps that made it work were as follows: (https://techlog360.com/wireless-file-transfer-from-pc-to-ipad-iphone/)

Connect iPad to the same WiFi network as the other device.
Download the file with any other device that supports downloading from a browser.
On the iPad, install VLC.
Open VLC, on the Network settings, turn on "Sharing via WiFi".
On the device, open the browser and input the IP address that appeared in the step above.
Press the + button, select the files from the device, and upload the files.
The files are then located in "Files (Apple app) -> On My iPad".


OK, why is my iPhone 5 now a super electromagnet? Please don't tell me it is the speaker magnet. I assure you it is not. Have had it a couple years, and this just started a few months ago. It will pick up nuts and bolts, I can toss it up against my fridge, it will stick. Same on my gunsafe, toolbox, car, and anything else metallic. This is not normal, and not healthy. So what is the answer? Anyone?

I know you said Please don't tell me it is the speaker magnet, but I have opened a number of iPhone 5 phones and this is the only magnetic part within the whole iPhone 5 - so it can't be anything else.

And when you say I assure you it is not the speaker magnet, how do you know? What evidence do you have?

The reality is it can't be anything else. If you check this iPhone 5 teardown you'll see everything that's inside your iPhone 5. While some parts are magnetic in the sense that they will stick to a magnet, the only magnetic source is the speaker magnet.

Also, because the iPhone comes with a compass, it has been very carefully designed so that any magnetic fields do not interfere with that. In other words, Apple hasn't placed any unnecessary magnets in the phone except for the speaker magnet (which can't be avoided).

Finally, while I'm no medical expert, the concern around mobile phones has always been around the electrical signals they require to operate, not about magnets. If you're concerned you can use an appropriate case (if you haven't already got one) and/or use a bluetooth earpiece/headset for calls.


How can users find out or download what information Apple has about them? The issue of digital privacy is becoming more prevalent in the minds of many smartphone and social media users, especially after controversies such as the recent Facebook / Cambridge Analytica scandal.

To their credit, Google and Facebook each offer a service allowing their users to download all the information they hold about them.

Does Apple offer its users the same service? If so, how do users go about obtaining that information?

Apple does in fact provide such a service, although it's not yet an instant1  download scenario like what is offered by Facebook and Google. To access the information Apple currently has about you, follow these steps:

Go to: https://www.apple.com/privacy/contact/
A Privacy Questions page will open
Select the Privacy issues option from the drop-down list
A form will appear with six mandatory fields
Enter your region, name and email address (Note: Apple will use this info later to help it match your identity, so you will need to answer these truthfully)
Enter something appropriate for the subject
In the Comments field enter a small description of what you're after. You do not need to go into any great detail - simply request a copy of any personal information they have and a history of anything you've purchased/downloaded from Apple services
Click on the blue Submit button
A Thank You message will appear
Apple will initially respond by requesting further information from you (e.g. your street address, phone number and details about Apple products you own)
After verifying your identity Apple will send you a .zip file containing your information

NOTE: Be patient - your request is likely to take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

1 It's not necessarily an instant service from Facebook or Google, but you'd typically be able to download the data within a few hours. While Apple is moving towards a similar self-serve model, it's not currently ready in most parts of the world, although it will be available in Europe before the end of May 2018.

Below are some related articles which may be of interest:

I downloaded all my Facebook data. This is what I learned.
How to download your Google data and what you'll find.
Apple took 8 days to give me the data it had collected on me. It was eye opening.

NOTE: I have no affiliation with USA Today or the author (Jefferson Graham) of the above articles.


Eudora email migration When Lion comes out, PPC Rosetta support for the Eudora email app is reported not to be available.

Which contemporary Mac OS X email clients might support the most painless and reliable importing and use of 10 years worth of of Eudora messages, contacts, filters, and settings?  Which current and supported email clients have the largest subset of Eudora's capabilities?

What problems might I encounter during a complete Eudora export, and how might I avoid them?

I've used Eudora Mailbox Cleaner to varied success for a few recent-ish switchers, with the added bonus (for me, at least) that it can import messages from Thunderbird. It is, however, a PowerPC app in itself, so you'd need to run it before upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.


Why are my iMessages showing as coming from my email address when I've set my Caller ID to my phone number? When iOS 5 first came out, I added my @me address to my iPhone and iPad. People could iMessage me at my email address, and I'd see it on both devices. This wasn't always perfect, and recently I decided to forgo this, and just use my phone number on my phone and email address on the iPad.

So, I switched the caller ID on my phone to the phone number again, deleted all my text message threads that were created when I was using the email address, and started a new thread. Somebody who didn't have my email address saved in their contact asked why my text messages were coming from an email address, and another reception confirmed that when he tapped 'Contact Info' at the top of the message thread, my email address was highlight in blue, NOT my phone number - indicated that this is where the message was coming from.

Does anybody know why this is happening? Is there another setting I need to change? I'd really prefer to not have them come from my email address, because then any replies will goto both my phone and my iPad - which I don't want.

Go to settings on the iPhone.
Go to the 'Messages' settings.
And select Receive At.

See what it says there.
It should be your phone number not Apple ID or email.

If you have a Apple email listed. You can remove it by.

Clicking the 'Apple ID youremail@me.com'
You will get a popup which lets sign out thus removing the mac email address.


iPhone setting to turn off auto-detection of phone numbers? In Safari and the Notes app on iPhone, wherever there are strings of numbers they get linked and treated as phone numbers.

I'm sure there was a setting to turn this off but I cannot find it. Where is it?

(Note: I'm not asking for how to prevent this happening on web pages as in this question, just a setting for my phone.)

It is currently not possible to disable the automatic linking for phone numbers, web addresses, and email addresses on iOS 7, and it never has been possible on previous iOS versions.


Free Space Won't Delete I am running OSX Yosemite. I had free space on my partition, (see picture below) but now it wont delete. I change the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and then when I hit the " + " button it loads for about 1/100 of a second, and then shows on the screen that it partitioned it. When I click away from the partition tab onto the first aid tab, it goes away and becomes free space again. (NOTE: I am trying to MERGE the free space with my first partition, not make a new partition, but i have to make a new one to merge it with my first partition.)

If you boot into the recovery partition (hold down option on boot) - and select the disk utility from the utility menu (do not reinstall OS X) you should then be able to resize the partition.


Why developers download Xcode.xip file? What's inside the xip file ?
Why don't download from app store?

Inside the xip file was just Xcode.app. Developers(in fact anybody) can download the xip file from Apple Developer Website. Downloading from there is the same as downloading from the App Store. Probably is because if App Store is slow you can download from alternative(or some other reason). If you have a paid developer account, you can download a beta version of Xcode by downloading the xip file, which is not available from the App Store.


Can't sign in to iTunes and App store I own an iPhone SE running iOS 12.3.1.

I clicked on a webpage link to for Google Translate and got the message that about inability to log in to the App store.  I thought this might be due to the fact that I never log in to iCloud.  In the course of troubleshooting, I changed my Apple ID password, got forced to change my Apple ID from MyOldAppleID to AnEmailAddress@somewhere.com, logged out of iCloud from attempts made today, powered down, powered up, logged back in, got forced to use 2-factor authentication, found that there were two GUI navigation pathways to get to the App Store, and tried them both:

Settings -> Top option -> iTunes & AppStore
Settings -> iTunes & AppStore -> Sign In

In the 1st case, the "iTunes & AppStore" field stays "off".

In the 2nd case, the "Sign In" link remains blue, and the area to the right remains blank (I assume that it is unblank if I'm logged in).

In both cases, clicking on the App Store "Retry" button simply re-displays "Connot Connect to App Store"

I am in a foreign continent across the pond, so have limited options for getting real time forms of assistance.  I am also on the road (well, in a diner), so can't do lengthy power, consuming changes.  Not sure if there is an Apple store in Berlin, but not sure that I want to waste the valuable and short amount of time here running around the city fixing the iPhone problem, though frankly, I've already done to a significant degree.  However, I may have to suck up the inability to install a translation app.

The only thing that I didn't do was choose to merge my navigator options and contacts with iCloud during the login.  It doesn't seem logical for that to be necessary to access the App Store. I chose to switch to Apple to get away from being at the mercy of the juggernauts in privacy relinquishing ways.  If uploading contacts is needed to in order to access the App Store, then in essence, Apple is holding the phone functionality hostage for not just my own personal data, but also data of everyone I know, who never agreed to having their info in the cloud.  I hope this is not the source of the problem, but it's the only remaining wild card that I can think of right now.

It looks like it was just a matter of time before Apple sync'd its user authentication information across services.  The new iTunes login seems to work now, 1.5 days later.

It sure would have been nice to be have been notified of this when forced to change the ID, and it would have taken zero effort in the course of developing the change process.


How can I get Thunderbird to send in HTML? I use Thunderbird 60.7.0 on my iMac (running Mojave 10.14.5) but seem to be unable to send messages in HTML format.

I have my Gmail account set to Compose messages in HTML format and this is my default SMTP server.
I have Global Addressing Preferences Send Preferences set to Send the message in both plain text and HTML
I have entered a domain to which I regularly write as HTML domains
The entry in my Address Book is set to Prefers to receive messages formatted as HTML

Unfortunately, no matter what I try, messages are in plain text!

I have tried :-

using Edit as new message on a previous HTML formatted message.
Write from address book
Write from tool bar

Ideally I would like to be able to tell Thunderbird to use a format on a message by message basis, but can find no such option.

How can I get Thunderbird to send in HTML?

I have since discovered that Thunderbird IS sending in HTML, it is just that I seemed to be unable to compose messages in HTML, although I could cut and paste HTML.

I have resolved this by enabling View/Toolbars/Formatting Bar (although I don't know WHY it wasn't enabled).

I would still like to be able to tell Thunderbird to use a format on a message by message basis, but can find no such option.


When does macOS delete local iCloud Drive files? I want to free disk space.

Apple documentation about this says "When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac".

Ok, so I have this 25GB file in my computer that I'm going move to the Documents folder and I'm wondering if it will really delete if from my computer once it has uploaded because I need more space to copy other projects into my computer.

"When storage space is needed" is pretty abstract to me, I wanted to know how this really works.

“Your Mac keeps all of your recent files on your computer, but keeps your older ones only in iCloud, ready for you to download when you need them again”, Apple says.

So as long as you still have enough free space on your hard disk the files will stay there.


Alternatives to MetaX? I'm trying to rip some DVDs on my Mac, the boxset for a TV show, using Handbrake. I'd also like to automatically fetch metadata - show name, episode name, etc. But MetaX isn't getting any metadata for me for this particular TV program. Any other Mac apps I can use that do similar?

Some that I've found:

iFlicks.app
Vidalin
iDentify

I've yet to find one that does everything I want.  iFlicks.app comes close, but the feature I want that's missing is the ability to tag chapters.  You can always use more than one app, but I don't like the idea of different programs overwriting my metadata.


Using screencapture when remotely logged in to a headless mac via ssh I'm trying to use screencapture from the terminal, when logged in over ssh, to a mac that has no screen attached. I can screen share to the machine, so I'd like to capture the same display.

However when I try it, I don't get an image file.

Here's what I've tried...

screencapture -tpng /Users/slomojo/Desktop/image.png

and...

sudo screencapture -tpng /Users/slomojo/Desktop/image.png

and finally,

sudo launchtl bsexec $(ps -ax | grep loginwindow.app | awk '{print $1}' | head -1) /usr/sbin/screencapture -tpng /Users/slomojo/Desktop/image.png

None of which work... (note that the last attempt is getting the PID for loginwindow.app and attaching the screencapture process to it as suggested by the OS X man page.)

Update

FYI I'm running OS X 10.6.8.

Additional update.

I didn't mention that the machine doesn't have a screen attached, (I usually connect to it via VNC/Screen Sharing) I jumped to another machine on that network and the command works ok, (of course I guess!)

I should also mention that, as I'm logged in on the remote machine on the same account as the local GUI session, the first version of the command works fine.

In fact, just the following without all the launchctl stuff works fine:

screencapture -tpng ~/Desktop/image.png

However, I still need to figure out how to screencapture on the headless machine, ie. capture the same display I'd see over screen sharing.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the screen sharing session may create/teardown a virtual screen device when it's connected/disconnected. So I'll try to do the screencapture when I can get a screen sharing session running at the same time.

Update #2

I tried doing the screencapture while another machine had a screen sharing session open on the same user account as the ssh session, no dice.

However, interestingly enough I was in the same room as all the boxes in question and the target box made the "shutter" sound when I ran the screencapture remotely.

Looks like it's not possible to screen grab on a displayless mac, without some serious additional work, I will VNC to it remotely instead.

I'm not sure if this will work, but, it's worth a shot...

What is you create an Automator script to take a screen capture, and then run that using the terminal?

Similar to what is described in this TUAW article, however, without the part that mails the screen capture to you.

Save the Automator script as an application, SSH in, and run open /path/to/the/automator.app


Can I connect a Windows 10 machine with USB C to a Thunderbolt display? This question is related to How to connect a USB-C-based MacBook to a Thunderbolt display? and Connect a Thunderbolt Display to windows 8 desktop but not quite the same.

I have a Thunderbolt monitor and have been using it with using a newer Macbook Pro using a USB C to Thunderbolt adapter.  This setup works fine.

I am going to be getting a Windows machine using an NVidia RTX 2080 graphics card, which has a USB C port.  Will I be able to connect this machine through the Apple USB C -> Thunderbolt adapter to a Apple Thunderbolt monitor?  If so, should I expect any performance degradation?

No.

TL;DR: Thunderbolt 3 uses the USB-C connector and includes USB 3.2 signaling (including a DisplayPort signal), but a USB-C connector does not necessarily include support for Thunderbolt 3.

Few things to understand here.

USB and Thunderbolt are technology standards, both of which establish their own connectors, communication and connection protocols, power delivery standards, and other specifications. Both USB and Thunderbolt support carrying multiple different types of data/power.
USB and Thunderbolt both have multiple revisions—1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.2 Gen 1x1, 3.2 Gen 1x2, 3.2 Gen 2x1, 3.2 Gen 2x2, 4.0 (upcoming), and 1, 2, 3 respectively. Don't worry, everyone hates the USB names as much as you do, and yes, they did change it on you.
USB-C is a specification for a physical connector type (like USB-A, USB-B, mini USB, and micro USB), not a protocol in itself. While the physical connector does allow/limit what can be carried, it does not in itself specify what if carried.
USB-C can carry (or not carry) USB data (ranging in speeds from 2.0's 380 Mb/s to 4.0's 40 Gb/s (upcoming)), power, or any one of the display-oriented "Alternate Modes" (DisplayPort, MHL, HDMI, and confusingly, Thunderbolt Alternate Modes respectively.)
Thunderbolt 3 uses the USB-C port. USB 3.2 supports it, but does not require it, except for USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which requires it.
The upcoming USB 4.0 is effectively identical to Thunderbolt 3, but it's not out yet anyways, so who cares.
The Thunderbolt display, no matter what, requires a Thunderbolt input, not just a display input, and will not function with just a display input. Basically, the Thunderbolt display is a Thunderbolt dock with a display attached to it, with no way to attach just the display part.
Although Windows tends not to play nice with Thunderbolt displays (and 2011 and newer iMacs in Target Display Mode), they will work with some finagling.
The USB-C port on the RTX 2080 implements VirtualLink, a proposed USB-C alternate mode that isn't quite the same as the other standardized Alternate Modes, but from a practical standpoint, is often largely compatible.

Whew. Got all that? Let's run through some scenarios.

Works (usually): Connecting a Thunderbolt Display to a Thunderbolt 2 enabled Windows computer (including Macintosh in Bootcamp.)
Works, but only under macOS because the adapter still doesn't work under Windows for reasons that I really don't understand and Apple couldn't seem to explain to me over the phone either, and even then only after updating macOS to... some version of Mojave not sure which: Connecting a Thunderbolt Display to a Thunderbolt 3 enabled computer using Apple's Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 (not USB-C to Thunderbolt 2!) adapter.
Probably, but might not actually work: Connecting an Apple Cinema Display to your RTX 2080 via it's USB-C port using an adapter.

N.b.: Different USB-C ports, as well as cables and devices, can support different parts or levels of the USB specification. Make sure everything in the chain is up to spec!

Still confused? Understandable. Thunderbolt 3, as frankly a godlike specification as it is, is massively confusing. The split between various individual companies, consortiums, regulatory/specification bodies, implementors, vendors, and most of all, the confusing marketing and specification of USB-C makes this an absolute mess to understand. I don't blame you for thinking this would work, but sadly, it won't.

So, my advice? You could go ahead and throw a Thunderbolt card in your motherboard, assuming you have one that supports it (or are willing to switch to one that does.) However, the easier solution is probably just to get a different display.


Ethernet Not Visible In Settings On my iPad 2017 (5th Generation) the Ethernet section in Settings (see image below) is not displayed.

Do I have to unlock it somehow (similar to Developer Tools on Android) or is this feature simply not available for my hardware?

As can be implied from the title of the right-hand side, this feature requires a Belkin USB-C LAN Adapter to work, and currently either an 11-inch or a 3rd gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro.


How to add additional partitions to Windows under bootcamp I have a MBP on which running OS X 10.8.4. Recently using bootcamp I installed Windows 7 on it to use some windows specific software. I wanted to have 3 different partitions in windows, where OS and apps are installed on 1 and my data remains on other 2.

However, due to some restrictions with bootcamp, I wasn't able to create partitions before installing windows (bootcamp require single partition in Mac OS X to setup windows).

Then, I installed windows first and tried to create partition via Disk Utility and then lost my windows installation. Later based on a post on apple discussions, I was able to repair boot partition for windows and get it up, but its no longer showing my mac hd and other 2 partition which I created.

So wondering, if there is any safe way to make those 2 partitions available in my windows OS along with HFS+ drive, which was being shown earlier but later no longer accessible in windows. (I even tried re-installing bootcamp drivers with no luck).

Your problem is likely related to your partitioning method. When you edit a Windows 7 partition with Disk Utility it will let you do it but it doesnt work very well and will likely cause a lot of problems.

Your best option would be to back up your partitions data to another drive and then re-create the bootcamp partition using BootCamp assistant as you did before. But when it comes to partitioning the Windows 7 Partitions only use Windows disk management tool (Can be found by right clicking on computer and going to Manage->Storage->Disk Management.

Windows 7 for adjusting Windows 7 partition (NTFS)
Disk Utility for adjust any OSX (HFS partitions)


AirPort Utility not showing AirPort nodes, which ARE there, and I AM using them Today neither of the AirPorts show up in the AirPort Utility.  I know the hubs are there, that's how I'm accessing the Internet.  They appear with the yellow caution indicator /!\ and when I click they say "Device not found".

AirPort Utility on Mavericks, both up to date.  AirPort hubs: one is last year's AirPort Extreme model, and the other is the new AirPort Extreme AC model.  I believe they are both up to date (and can't check now)  Both in bridge mode on wired network.  Laptop is on Wifi (via those same AirPort hubs)

What I've tried (that hasn't worked):

Exit AirPort Utility and restart.
Power cycle the AirPort hub.
Tell AirPort Utility to "Forget" one of them, and then click "Other Wifi Devices", now that one doesn't show up at all.

Oddly rebooting the Mac seems to have fixed it.

Sure, seems like an obvious idea in hindsight, but at the time I was in the middle of a bunch of other stuff so didn't try that.

Also, since I was actually connected to it for Internet wifi, I certainly didn't think the Mac was having any trouble.

Well, if anybody else has this problem, it's something to try.


Is it possible to restore songs from an iPod to iTunes? I have a 160 GB iPod Classic and a Windows 7 desktop with iTunes containing roughly about 13,000 songs. My external hard drive containing all the songs crashed but I managed as long as all the songs' file names were in iTunes and when the iPod syncronised with iTunes, the songs remained on the iPod. Recently I had my computer reinstalled and iTunes was formatted and wiped clean, now if I sync my iPod I know my iPod will be wiped clean as well.

So is it possible to recover songs which are there — on the iPod — but not in iTunes or the desktop?

There is no end to the people that will offer to sell you some software to do this.

Here is a long list:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991

There should be several free ways to do this including this one:
http://download.cnet.com/PhoneTrans/3000-18553_4-75736709.html

Many advertising free downloads but are crippled and will only allow a few songs at a time.

I don't use windows so I cannot recommend one or the other but I would not pay for something you can find for free if you just look a little bit.

Good Luck


Make Activity Monitor show more than 4 cores worth of CPU usage in the Dock Is it possible to force more than 4 cores in the Dock, this looks like a feature apple does not want after checking out Mac OS X: Activity Monitor shows one CPU Usage graph on systems with more than four cores

On Macs with more than four cores, a single graph showing aggregate usage of all the CPU cores is shown in the main Activity Monitor window, in the CPU History window, and on the Dock icon when configured to show CPU Usage or CPU History.

If I want to use Activity Monitor is my only option:

To see the CPU usage for each core individually on systems with more than four cores, use the CPU Usage window or Floating CPU Window. These windows can be viewed by selecting them from Activity Monitor's Window menu.
Note: The CPU Usage window cannot be displayed if CPU Usage is being shown on the Dock. To stop showing CPU Usage on the Dock, choose View > Dock Icon, then select any choice besides "CPU Usage", such as "Application Icon".

Is there any way around this? With aggregated CPU view it could be harder to detect when a process is hanging or hogging a CPU thread.
Here is how my CPU history is displayed in the Dock:

Here is how My CPU usage is displayed in the Dock:

Here are my other windowed / Floating options that I have available in Activity Monitor:

There is a bug in Activity Monitor v10.8.0 (806).  If you select Dock Icon > Show CPU History, is automatically closes the floating window and appears in the dock.  If you attempt to switch back to the floating window, sometimes only one core appears.

Solution:
- Close floating windows
- Dock Icon > Show Memory Usage
- Quit and Restart Activity Monitor
- Dock Icon > Show Application Icon
- Quit and Restart Activity Monitor
- Monitors > Show CPU History

Now you should see all of your cores/vccores.  :-)

This bug is not always reproducible, but I've experienced it before.


Make display in yosemite / el capitan look like Mavericks Ever since Yosemite came out, I have not been able to look at my screen for more than 10 minutes without it causing me a headache. I was hoping that this would be resolved with El Capitan, but that wasn't the case either.

Is there a user guide or software patch out there to make the system brightness / contrast / white point settings look like they did in Mavericks? The reason I have to be using El Capitan, is that the latest Xcode doesn't work with Mavericks.

Thanks much.

I though initially you meant you wanted the old skeuomorphic UI back… but you just mean that the display has changed or lost its colour profile. There should be no automatic change in your colour settings between Mavericks & Yosemite or El Capitan, so the first thing I'd check is whether your correct profile is still present & active.

Check the profile exists & is active in System Prefs > Displays > Color

If not, or if you can't quickly find one that suits you, then hit the Calibrate… button & attempt to recalibrate manually. It will talk you through the process quite comprehensively, but it isn't a hugely accurate process - sometimes going through it a couple of times you get a better result.

More accurate calibration, of course, would require a hardware colorimeter, which would probably be a different question. I put a couple of budget recommendations at the end of this answer - https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/185936/85275


How to send attachments to windows users properly I already have Windows Friendly attachments enabled, but I'm still having a problem. Whenever I send a image attachment to windows (Outlook) users, it comes as an inline image, not as an attachment. They can't save the image like a regular attachment.

Hm, I haven't encountered this problem before, but it might be due to the formatting Mail.app does to the messages. Try making the message plain text by clicking "Format" in the menu bar and selection "Make Plain Text".


Which USB to RS-232 serial drivers are installed by default on macOS? In macOS 10.14 Mojave and 10.15 Catalina, are there any USB to RS-232 serial drivers installed by default?

macOS 10.14 Mojave

Running the following commands, I found FTDI, but there could be more.

$ cd /System/Library/Extensions
$ ls | grep -i ftdi
AppleUSBFTDI.kext


Increase size of sparsebundle for TimeMachine I am using a sparsebundle store on a linux server. It worked well until today.

Today Time Machine tells me that the size of the sparsebundle (500gb) is not sufficient. So I use hdiutil command for increasing the size of the sparsebundle: hdiutil resize -size 600G xxx.sparsebundle. The command works fine but Time Machine seems to not see the increase of the size of the sparsebundle (it only sees that the size is 500gb and so it can't continue to backup).

Do you have any idea for solving this issue?

NB:

the sparsebundle is encrypted
Time Machine mounts automatically the sparsebundle (linux server configured with afp and netatalk).

Version:

ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion:  10.10.1
BuildVersion:    14B25

Double-click the sparse bundle to mount the Time Machine Backups or Backup of <computer name> partition (but don’t select it). That may take a moment.
  Select the sparse bundle again, and click the Partition tab towards the top of the
  window.

  Type the desired size in the space provided, or, in the diagram that appears, drag the lower right corner of the partition all the way to the bottom to fill the volume, or drag it upwards to shrink it, click Apply and confirm.
  As part of the process, Disk Utility will do a verification of the data in the partition, so it may take quite a while. You can see the log of what it's doing by selecting Window > Show Log in the menubar.
  When done, and you quit Disk Utility, you may get an Operations still in progress message. As long as the log says "Partition Complete," it's done, so click Close.
  Eject the sparse bundle before starting the next backup.

Source: http://pondini.org/TM/A8.html


Shortcuts suddenly stopped working in Chrome browser I don't know why but all shortcuts related to controlling tab in chrome suddenly stopped working and i have no idea why.

I haven't installed or changed anything. Just doing the same usual work. The only recent thing that I did earlier (which I never did before) was, opening the emoji keyboard using the control+cmd+space shortcut.

Alright I found the solution.

Apparently, Chrome disables tab shortcuts when it's in fullscreen mode.

I exit the fullscreen and now the shortcuts are working...


Turning on the flashlight with Siri I asked Siri to turn on the flashlight but she answered "Sorry but I'm not able to do that". Is there any way to enable Siri to turn on the flashlight? I use an iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 8.1.

A quick dash round google gives me the impression that it could do it in iOS 7 beta 1, but the function disappeared after that & was never in a release iOS.


Device Emulation for testing We have a web design agency and we're wanting to test development on an ipad air 2, we have a couple of ipads that we often test our builds on but of course new devices are being regularly being brought to the market that feature newer technology, higher resolution screens etc. and it becomes counterintuitive to possess an endless array of older and new devices for testing on.

So, my question is, what are the currently available services, paid or otherwise, for Apple device emulation?

I suggest getting Xcode on to your machine. Of course, you don't need to use Xcode itself, but you can use a companion app (it's bundled with Xcode) called iOS Simulator. They have a Safari app that you can open your webpage in.

And, it's free.


How do I get audio CD to open in iTunes for ripping? I have a Macbook Pro (latest version) and iTunes 10.1.1.  I have the preferences set in iTunes to prompt to import an audio CD when it's inserted into the drive, and my System Preferences set to throw audio CDs over to iTunes, but whenever I put in an audio CD, it just starts playing (and not through iTunes).  I don't see any other players pop up w/ controls, either, and if iTunes isnt' already open, it doesn't open but I see the same behavior (i.e. music starts playing).

Any ideas of what I am missing?

Can you use Expose to show all of the windows running? Have you tried with different CDs, to make sure it isn't one of those CDs that has an application on that just plays the music.

I've just tested with the same settings as you (System preferences - Music CD, open iTunes and iTunes, Ask to import) and all it did was open iTunes.

Another possibility, have you got any other media player applications running?


Delete or voice over all text in Dragon Dictation free app for iPhone? I have an iPhone 6 running ios9 and the free app for Dragon Dictation.

Is there a command or sequence of commands (voice or keyboard) to delete everything in the recording and start over?

I've just started experimenting with the Dragon Dictation free app. So far, it's my understanding that:

Once you've started, the only way to start over is to send the recording (such as to email).
You can use the keyboard (NOT voice commands) for discrete edits, such as to cut, copy, or delete a single word.
Dragon Diction free app is limited to the same commands as Siri; it can do everything that Siri can, and nothing more.

The other posts I found on stackexchange appeared to ask about those small, discrete kinds of deletions. My question is about deleting all of the text. Affirmations or corrections about my understanding of the capabilities of the free app are also welcome.

To delete the entire recording using the keyboard:

Tap keyboard.
Tap screen.
Tap and SELECT ALL.
Tap CUT.

If you don't see SELECT ALL, then tap again to dismiss the choices, and try tapping lightly in a different area of the screen.


Is Mac OS X keeping constant track of my processes? I own a 13-inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, running OS X 10.9.5. I came to notice a while ago, that after having forced a reboot (by holding down the ⌽ Power button) the system asks if you want to restore the windows that it previously had open.

I'm just baffled by this. Does this mean the system is keeping a constant track of everything I open and close? I mean, if it does, this surely has a performance impact (which I happen to have noticed actually).

My question is then, is there any sort of configuration that I can tinkle to make it stop doing this in the hopes of getting it run faster?

Simplified explanation: When an application is started, an entry is written to disk that says this app is currently active. When an application quits, that entry is removed. When the system starts and finds entries in this list, it's an indicator that the system crashed or did not shut down properly and it can offer to relaunch those apps for you. It takes virtually no practical overhead at all to track this.

Each application individually may also be tracking which documents you opened pretty much the same way and then reopen your documents when it is being launched. There's no need to "constantly track the state of everything", the system just needs to make a few notes here and there when key events happen (such as an application launching or quitting).


How to see root user processes in Activity Monitor? I am wondering how to show the root user processes in Activity Monitor. On my mac, my personal user and root user show up, but on my sister's mac, only her personal user processes show up in Activity Monitor. How do I also show the root user in Activity Monitor in addition to other users' processes?

Below are the pictures of my computer and my sister's Activity Monitor. The dark one is mine with the root user (and other users not shown), and the light one is my sister's, without root user.

View menu > All Processes

Default is just My Processes.


Why do system information and du show drastically different numbers I'm getting messages that I'm running out of disk space. "About this mac" > Storage shows this:

Note that it says I have 172 GB available, over a third of the disk.

Assuming the messages about running out of disk space were correct I did a df and indeed that shows that I only have 15 GB available:

$ df -kh /
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s1  466Gi  446Gi   15Gi    97% 1532132 9223372036853243675    0%   /

That's a huge difference. My trash is not the problem nor are local snapshots. Following https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/324443/233542, I deleted local snapshots and that only freed another 15 GB of data:

$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999 1
$ df -kh /
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s1  466Gi  431Gi   30Gi    94% 1532163 9223372036853243644    0%   /

du doesn't help me either:

$ sudo du -hs * 2>/dev/null
Password:
 16G    Applications
 17G    Library
  0B    Network
 16G    System
4.0K    TMVersion.ini
243G    Users
487M    Volumes
2.5M    bin
  0B    cores
4.5K    dev
  0B    etc
1.0K    home
  0B    installer.failurerequests
1.0K    net
177M    opt
7.8G    private
1.0M    sbin
  0B    tmp
10.0G   usr
  0B    var

That only sums to about 310 GB. That comes a lot closer to the About this mac storage output shown above.

If du doesn't show what is using this data, what can I use to determine the consumer of an unaccounted 140GB (172GB "About this mac" - 30GB shown by df) of disk space?

Cause:
The "thin" command from tmutil thinlocalsnapshots [sometimes] does not delete all data content.

When this happens, after thinning the localsnapshots you may notice that not all free space were recovered [this is the OP problem he asked for solution]
The only working solution to recover space is to manually delete all localsnapshots.
After thinning you must verify if the thin command was successful by executing both commands below:
tmutil listlocalsnapshots / and tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates
If their return is EMPTY, then everything was deleted.
Otherwise if they return something, then the thinning process did not recovered all free space. (see image below for such situation where I repeatdly run the Thin command and the List command)

On the above image, everytime the command tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates is run, there is a list output. (so there are data residues left)
Snapshot dates for all disks:
2019-08-28-082639
2019-08-29-113651
2019-08-29-135729
2019-08-29-145723
2019-08-29-155709
2019-08-29-181243

Solution:
It is necessary to manually delete them all:
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <snapshot>
One by one:
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-28-082639
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-113651
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-135729
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-145723
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-155709
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-181243

After doing, check again:
tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates
Snapshot dates for all disks:

There is no listing result as output. So now you have freed all possible space!
The OP got 152GB of free space by manually deleting all localsnapshots, which was not recovered by the thinning process.
This is very, very common on MacOS Catalina, I can assure it, and Apple is aware of it and changing things during the Beta phase. But it can also happen on Mojave and/or other versions.


Customizing Pages' outline using paragraph styles My document in Pages 4.2 for Mac has custom paragraph styles for a couple of levels of headings. I'd like to get a bird's eye view of my document that shows only those headings, not the paragraphs in between.

I can set whether each paragraph style is included or excluded in the table of contents (TOC), but I don't want to insert a Table of Contents into the document; I want to view this in a sheet, menu, separate window, or something else that is part of the application rather than the document.

I can switch to the outline view, but that shows everything, including regular paragraphs and list items. If I can get the outline to exclude those (or restrict to the headings), that would work.

I believe you need to use the Levels control.  In the screenshot below, my Body text (regular paragraphs) aren't shown, because I've asked the outline mode to show only heading levels 1 and 2.

(I'm using Pages 4.3 but hopefully this is the same in your 4.2?)


Time Machine Error -36 I have a NAS device attached to my router. I'm using it as a backup device for my Mac Book Pro. I'm getting the following error:

  The backup disk image /Volumes/SHARE-1/MacBookPro.sparsebundle could not be created (error -36).

I'm not sure what the problem is. The NAS device is a Buffalo external device with a SMB (FAT) format. Could this be the problem?

Yes, the FAT is the problem. Time Machine needs an HFS+ formatted drive.

That's quite logical, since files copied from your HFS+ system have many attributes that could not be handled by the FAT filesystem, not even counting the files too long, or the characters that could not be accepted as a valid filename on FAT drives :)


is there a notification on find my macbook? when you use find my iphone to locate a macbook does it notify the macbook that you are online?  If I sign into Find My Iphone on my phone and my macbook is in use by someone else, will they see that I have signed in?

Tested empirically...
No, not until I "Played a sound", which played & put up a dialog on the Mac, then I was sent an email, within 2 seconds, which of course arrived on both my iPhone & Mac simultaneously, telling me I'd 'Played a sound'.

So, you can check the location without any notification, provided that's all you do.


How can I stop iPhoto from uploading my videos to Facebook automatically? When I visit my Facebook page I see several random videos that I didn't upload. iPhoto has done this several times to me- scared of what it will post with my knowledge! I try to close it and sometimes I can not even close the application because it is still synching with FB even if I click quit.

Why does it do this?

When you add a Facebook to your mac, iPhoto can be set it to auto sync new photos.

To disable it change your Facebook password or search the iPhoto settings / Facebook permissions to disable auto sync. Alternately, removing the Facebook account from iPhoto or the OS (in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars preference pane) would do the trick as well.


Apple Mail, producing multiple duplicate drafts on gmail Apple Mail is producing multiple duplicate drafts on gmail.

After I send a message, there are multiple drafts of it left :-(.

That totally kills productivity and confidence. As I see the leftover draft, I'm never sure if I did actually send the message or not.
Not having a draft == msg was sent, but not in this case.

I had a similar problem with my previous company IMAP server.

What is the cause and how can I fix it?

Are you guys/girls using Apple Mail with GMail?

I've seen this behavior using Apple Mail since macOS Sierra. I haven't found a workaround d yet, but I know the email is sent because there is a copy in my Sent folder. Once a week or so, I go into the Google Inbox (should work for classic GMail too) Drafts folder and delete the email threads that are marked "Draft". This clears up the duplicates from Apple Mail on next sync.

My guess is Apple Mail, when saving drafts periodically to the server (Google) while one is drafting an email, is not using the right mechanism (API call) such that every draft version collapses into one on Google end. This incorrect mechanism results in each draft showing up as individual "drafts".


Can you override a Mac app's OS X version compatibility checking? I am wanting to use this app in Mavericks, but the following message pops up when trying to run it, '...[App] is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.9.1':

I am thinking that the app will work just fine, and that the developer has just put a restriction to not allow anything above 10.7.x in some sort of compatibility settings inside its Package Contents - or however OS version checking within an App works on Mac OS.

Is there a way I can force it to run in Mavericks myself, via something like tweaking with numbers in a file in the .app Package Contents, changing some setting in System Preferences or doing a Terminal tweak of some kind?

The above error is not the error provided by OS X. For comparison, this is the OS X error:

The error you have shown above will have been coded into the app specifically, and therefore not easily bypassed.

The best thing to do is contact the developer to see if they have a beta version of the app that you can test. Alternatively, wait for an update.

Also, code preventing the running of an app on a certain OS X version would usually have a good reason to exist, especially with utility software such as that. Bypassing it could have downsides…


How do I insure a Macbook Pro that's over a year old? I'm a huge clutz, and I constantly accidentally destroy electronics. A few days ago, I just barely caught my Macbook Pro as it almost fell off a balcony, and decided I really need insurance for this thing, specifically insurance that covers accidental damage.

The computer was bought over a year ago, so I can't get AppleCare, and from what I understand AppleCare doesn't cover accidental damage anyway. The laptop is a 2015 model 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro that costs over $2,000, and I'm terrified I won't be able to pay to repair or replace is should I break it.

How can I add insurance or a warranty of some sort so I won't have to pay for repairs, or at least have repair costs reduced to something manageable, should this happen?

AppleCare isn't insurance. You should start with Amazon in your country if available and then check your local / national insurance providers to pick a policy that meets your needs.

If you already have renters or homeowners insurance, a rider might be all you need to cover computer equipment for little hassle of shopping for a policy.


Being asked to log in to a different account to update Mac App Store apps I have an update for iPhoto available in the App Store but whenever I click the update button the following appears:

The account belongs to my wife, and as far as I know it's never been used on my laptop with the exception of, maybe 2 years ago, I created a guest account for her to try out OSX before she bought her own Macbook. But that account was deleted a long time ago, and since then I've updated tons of apps...so it's very strange.

Any ideas?

When you install Apps, you usually install them to the Applications Folder, which is accessible to all users, because it is in the ROOT directory, not just the users that installed them.  You can create an Applications Folder in a User's Folder and keep them for just that user, but it usually is the first way I mentioned. That way when you make a new user on the fly, you don't have to install all those apps again, waisting space. Also, that way you don't lose apps that may have taken time to install that other users need and use.

Applications that are installed to a computer through the App Store are linked to an Apple ID that was used to Purchase/Download it.  This is similar to iOS devices as well.  If I download an app on another persons iPhone using my account, they need my account to update it.

So this means one of two things:

Either your wife bought iPhoto (Or which ever other App is in question) or when you bought the computer, registered iPhoto to her account.

When you buy a new mac, it comes with iLife, and iLife is now downloaded through the App Store.  It will link those 3 Apps, to the Apple ID of your choosing so that if anything happens and you need to do a restore or something, you can download those apps you got for free again, no problem.

I had to do this when I bought my mid 2011 Mac Mini.

So she either purchased it or registered it to her account, and that is why it is still on the computer, because it is an App that can be accessed by any user that is on the machine, so it wouldn't have been deleted when she installed it/registered it.  You will need her sign in and password in order to update it.

I hope that this information helps you out.


Hide specific calendars in widget I'm running ios 11.1.1

I have multiple calendars linked to my phone (personal, work, wife, tv-shows,etc).

In the Calendar app, I was able to turn off my calendar which display air times of my favorite tv shows.  However, in the Calendar widget (when you swipe right from the home screen), it still shows the tv calendar.

These events are showing in both the "Up Next" calendar widget, as well as the normal calendar widget.  How can I select which calendars I want to see in the widget?  Turning them off in the Calendar app is not working, and I do not want to completely remove the calendar from my phone.

I've figured out what I was doing wrong.  Since I use the Outlook app for my mail, I also went into the calendar section of that to turn off the calendar I wanted to hide. So hiding it in the Outlook Calendar of course didn't work.

I went into the Apple calendar app and unselected the tv show calendar, and now it no longer shows up in the widget.

This was just a matter of hiding the calendar in the wrong app.


MBP not booting, but HD seems fine My late 2009 unibody MBP won't boot. I have already booted in single user mode, ran fsck -fy until I get no errors. But when typing 'exit' or rebooting in verbose mode I see, after fsck runs:

Failed to issue COM RESET successfully after 3 attempts. Failing...
disk0s2: no such device
disk0s2: media is not present.

The HD appears to be working, because when booting in single user mode I can run fsck successfully and can browse the HD, listing directories, inspecting files.

I just don't know why the OS can read the disk but reports it as 'not present' when booting.

That's either a disk on it's way out or something has been corrupted and the OS is having problems mounting the drive.

Do you have your system disk?  If so, you could try booting into is by holding the C key while booting and run Disk Utility, then do a permissions repair and a disk repair if you can.

What fsck command did you enter?  fsck -f ?  If not then you should try that too.

If you can get into single-user mode then you can run the following command to repair permissions:

sudo diskutil repairPermissions /


Logitech x-240 Sound System not functioning with MacBook Pro When I plug the Logitech x-240 Sound System into the headphone jack of the MacBook Pro, the external speakers continue to play. No sound is transmitted through the Logitech speakers.

I cannot get the Logitech speakers to appear as a choice for sound output.

Logitech device does NOT have USB... only a headphone jack.

Do I need an adaptor?

Do you try to watch the content of "Sound" options in "System Preference"? Normally the type of stuff you connect on the jack output can be written on this page.

Do you try to connect another kind of speakers or headphone for trying?


Show history of IP addresses assigned to iMac for a period of time? Is there a way to view the list of IP addresses that were assigned to my iMac over a period of time (e.g., the last 30 days)? I'd like to get this information from the iMac itself if possible.

By default your mac won't keep a history of DHCP address and times.  I put together a launchd and script that should do the trick if you must have client side records for DHCP times and ips.

launcd plist called com.local.DHCP-History.plist that needs to be placed in /Library/LaunchDaemons/

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>DHCP_History</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/DHCPhistoryLog.sh</string>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/private/var/db/dhcpclient/leases/*</string>
    </array>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Here is the script it will run, I put it in /usr/bin/ but you can put where you want just make sure to change the environment path in the launch daemon.  You will have to create a folder called DHCP_History in /private/var/log/ to create the log files in.

DHCP_History.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# tron_jones 09-10-14

# Create a log for DHCP changes and put in new folder with date
dateVar=`date`
mkdir /private/var/log/DHCP_History/"$dateVar"
path="/private/var/db/dhcpclient/leases/"
logPath="/private/var/log/DHCP_History/"
for i in `ls /private/var/db/dhcpclient/leases/`
do
    cp "${path}${i}" "${logPath}${dateVar}"/DHCP_ChangeHistory_"${i}".log
done

Make sure that the script is executable and owned by root:wheel.  Run these commands to do that:

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/DHCP_History.sh

sudo chown root:wheel /usr/bin/DHCP_History.sh

Now every time DHCP gets renewed or changes it will create a file called DHCP_ChangeHistory.log inside /private/var/log/DHCP_History/thedate/


Recommended Bluetooth Receiver for Speakers? I have normal speakers which can be connected via a 3.5mm jack. I want to use those speakers wirelessly with help of bluetooth, so is there any bluetooth receiver device for such type of speakers ?

Yes, indeed there are a few bluetooth receivers out there you can buy.

Altough I don't own one, products made by Logitech never disappointed me. So I'd recommend the Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Audio Devices. It also got good customer reviews on amazon.com.

It features the needed 3,5mm Headphone jack and supports many bluetooth devices(including Android phones and iPhones).

But please do your own research before asking these questions and check out this guide. Stackexchange is not the platform for shopping questions. Also see this site for further information.

Sites that I find useful before purchasing hardware are The Wirecutter and the subreddit /r/BuyItForLife. The last one especially is the place to go for such types of questions.


Show desktop keyboard shortcut doesn't work I have F5 key bound to the show desktop shortcut in keyboard shortcuts. However when I press F5 on the keyboard (with fn on the built in keyboard, or with/without fn on the Apple wireless keyboard), nothing happens. If I try to bind it to anything else such as mission control or notification center, it just works. Any idea why?

Create a test user account on your Mac. Adjust this same setting. See if it works. If it does, I recommend moving the following file on your user account to the Trash:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist

Then log off & back on. This will reset all Keyboard Shortcut settings back to default. If it doesn't fix it or causes other issues, simply drag the .plist file back to its former location.


Is it possible to manually TRIM the unused blocks (free space) for an existing APFS volume? When migrating a MacBook from HDD to SSD, I did a block-level copy using dd. I believe for optimal flash lifetime and performance, it would be the best to issue a TRIM for every unused block in the new filesystem to inform the SSD controller (so it won't confuse my dd copy with a large file that occupies the entire disk).
Is it possible to TRIM the free space manually for an APFS volume on macOS (like FreeBSD's trim or Linux's fstrim)?  I've read that on HFS+, macOS's fsck has a TRIM pass, so TRIM can be triggered manually by running fsck -fy in single-user mode, and one should see a "trimming unused blocks" message. But it doesn't support APFS (I tried it and I didn't see any message about TRIM).

On APFS, macOS automatically performs a TRIM operation on the free disk space on boot via the AFPS Space Manager (spaceman). Therefore, as long as TRIM is enabled on the system (via trimforce for 3rd-party SSDs, see karolus's answer), you don't have to worry about it. There is no command and no need to manually trim the unused blocks.
Verification
If you want to personally verify the operation of boot time TRIM, you can search for spaceman-related messages in your boot log.
Execute the following command as root. It lists all messages from the kernel (--predicate "processID == 0") since the beginning of this month (--start $(date "+%Y-%m-01") and search for messages that contain "spaceman" (grep spaceman).
# log show --predicate "processID == 0" \
  --start $(date "+%Y-%m-01") | grep spaceman

And you can see messages like these
2021-01-13 11:54:28.559149+0800 0x1bc      Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (apfs) spaceman_trim_free_blocks:3009: scan took 7.102084 s, trims took 6.415750 s
2021-01-13 11:54:28.565684+0800 0x1bc      Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (apfs) spaceman_trim_free_blocks:3017: 28059445 blocks free in 247937 extents
2021-01-13 11:54:28.572872+0800 0x1bc      Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (apfs) spaceman_trim_free_blocks:3025: 28059445 blocks trimmed in 247937 extents (25 us/trim, 38645 trims/s)
2021-01-13 11:54:28.580121+0800 0x1bc      Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (apfs) spaceman_trim_free_blocks:3028: trim distribution 1:25496 2+:47953 4+:92857 16+:41261 64+:17838 256+:22532

The lines are too long to read, I slightly edited it to make it shorter. You should see logs lines that mentions "TRIM",
scan took 7.102084 s, trims took 6.415750 s
28059445 blocks free in 247937 extents
28059445 blocks trimmed in 247937 extents (25 us/trim, 38645 trims/s)
trim distribution 1:25496 2+:47953 4+:92857 16+:41261 64+:17838 256+:22532

As you can see, macOS just trimmed 28059445 unused blocks today. Assuming APFS uses a 4 KiB block size, it means the SSD has discarded 107 GiB of free space. And yes, it roughly matches the free space on my disk. Works as expected!


fseventsd is at 100%CPU when time machine on external hard drive is connected When I connect an external hard drive with storage space and also time machine on it, in activity monitor it shows a process call fseventsd taking up 100% CPU and it slows down my computer to a halt and i have to unplug and do a hard restart. How do i connect without this fseventsd?

This solution worked for me:

In Terminal, make a directory called ".fseventsd" (mkdir .fseventsd) in the drive mounted by Time Machine, and add a file inside called "no_log" (touch no_log).

It tells fseventsd process not to bother reading the backup drive.

The annoyance ceased immediately. Time Machine backup worked flawlessly.

I found the solution on the MacRumors forums.


Brand new MacBook Pro with Retina display - Mail, Preview and App Store freezes on launch I can never use most Apple-made apps on my MacBook Pro with Retina display, as the UI never responds, however Mail gets new emails and Preview displays images. It's just that I cannot click.

I can't close it and I can't use the menu bar, however it responds to keyboard commands.

I have to force quit these apps every single time. I don't have the 'reopen windows' option on, so I don't understand what is going on. Activity Monitor is normal.

Found out what it was.

Ink > Write Anywhere was enabled, when it shouldn't. As soon as it was disabled, the affected Apple apps started working again.

I thought it was something to do with the Wacom tablet I bought, but couldn't find any connection. Now I know it was Apple's own Ink software. Maybe I shall report it as a bug.


Can a Operator locked iPhone be updated to iOs 7? I was wondering if a locked iPhone (with a contract of 2 years) can be updated to iOs 7 and still working well and under the same contract.

There is no reason this should not work. Assuming your model supports iOS 7 of course.

I'd like to be able to tell you more. But there is just not much to say.

The lock to a certain provider is not affected by an upgrade to iOS 7. Provider settings will just be the same as well.


How to find out the wifi setting of a connected wifi network in MacBook Pro? I have access to a MacBook Pro and a Android phone.

I know the username and password to a secured wifi network, but not the settings of the network e.g. PEAP or something else.

The Apple laptop is connected to the wifi network. The Android phone isn't, and it automatically detects the settings of network, and says the settings it detects are not correct when the connection fails.

So I want to find out the settings of the wifi network in MacBook Pro.

Thanks.

Use the following command in a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities):

system_profiler SPAirPortDataType

You can also see this information via the GUI app System Information.

System Information > Network > Wi-Fi

Just type System Information in Spotlight.