Where's iPhone 7 microphone located? From Apple’s official specs the bottom side holds two grills in addition to the Lightning port. Apple shows that the right grill holds built-in stereo speakers and a built-in microphone. The left grill only holds a built-in microphone. This suggests that only the right grill has speakers and that there are two microphones (one in each grill).

This is somewhat confusing, because it means the left grill only exists for cosmetic purposes. Also, why would they put microphone and speaker so close?

Are my assumptions true? Is there only one microphone or two? Are there also speakers in the left grill, or only in the right?

The iPhone 7 has four microphones (and yes, that grille is there strictly for symmetry):

Two of them are located on the bottom, on either side of the Lightning port. The one near the old headphone jack has been there since the original iPhone, but iPhone 6s added another by the speaker grille as well.
One is located on the back, between the True Tone flash and iSight camera. This microphone was added in the iPhone 5. You can check out photos of iPhones prior to the 5, and it is not there.
The last one is located inside in the earpiece. This microphone was also introduced in the iPhone 5, to perform noise cancellation on the voice coming in during calls. Phil Schiller mentioned both #2 and #3 during the iPhone 5 keynote.

All 4 microphones are used for active noise cancellation (reducing ambient sounds) and beamforming (detecting the location of the sound source), with one being picked as the most appropriate for recording (depending on closeness to the sound source, and on clarity). For instance, while shooting video, the rear microphone would usually be picked. Since iOS 10, you can record videos in stereo, so two microphones are picked in those cases.

Do note that all 4 microphones are always listening for “Hey Siri” functionality. You can test this simply by holding up any of the microphones to your mouth and whispering “Hey Siri.” No matter which microphone you whisper into, Siri will trigger. Whisper away from them, and Siri won’t come up. iOS picks the best microphone at any given time.

Finally, the microphone located by the speaker grille may be used to cancel out noise from the speakers while sound is playing, just as the one inside the earpiece does for voice coming in (and now also for sound playing on an iPhone 7). And of course, sound isn’t constantly playing through your speaker, so in most instances it can simply be used for regular noise cancellation and beamforming.

In summary:

iPhone 6s, 6s+, 7 and 7+ have 4 microphones.
iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, SE, 6 and 6+ have 3 microphones.
iPhone 4 and 4s have 2 microphones.
All older iPhones include a single microphone.

Since Apple has a tendency to remove technical specs for iPhones it no longer sells, here’s a screenshot of the iPhone 6s’s bottom dual-microphone setup, for posterity:

And iPhone SE:

PS: On iPhone 4 and 4s, the second microphone is also located at the top rather than by the rear-facing camera.


apple imac 2008 BootCamp i have a 2011 imac downstairs in my house and i created a usb windows 7 install on that and when i plug it in it notices it as an install disk however when i plug it into my imac 2008 and click insall windows 7 this comes up

The installer disc could not be found.
 Insert your Windows installer disc and wait a few seconds for the disc to be recognized.

i do not know what to do as it is noticed on my other imac it noticed it.

To paraphrase your question:

You ran Boot Camp Assistant on a 2011 iMac to create a Windows 7 install disk on a USB drive using an existing Windows 7 install CD.

This worked when installing Windows 7 into the Boot Camp partition on that iMac but it is not recognised when attempting to do the same on an older iMac.

Is that right?

If so your problem may well be that some of the drivers required by the older Mac are not on the USB drive. Try creating the install USB using Boot Camp on the older Mac and it should work fine.


Syncing photo library to PC - Number of photos does not match I am trying to consolidate my photo library with my girlfriend's, across several devices. I am having some problems getting her iPhone photos to my PC.

What I tried so far:

1) I accessed her iCloud via browser. However, apparently you cannot download photos in bulk there.

2) I installed the Windows app for iCloud that also has an add-in for the file explorer to download pictures. However, this app is outright broken. First, it stopped syncing after a certain number of pictures. I reinstalled the app and the app started syncing again, after the same number of pictures, but different MB folder volume. So there must be something off.

3) I connected her phone via USB to my PC. Before, I made sure that I enabled the option to store high-resolution versions on the device, and not only on the cloud. I then transferred the pictures.

However, I still have some issues:

1) The folders were named e.g., 120APPLE and 100CLOUD. How come that there are two types of series of folders, one called APPLE and the other CLOUD?

2) The number of items was completely off the count in the iPhone app. In the App, it was 7777 items. The count of transferred files was 7926. Also, if I only count the CLOUD or only the APPLE folders, I do not get the same count.

Any ideas what could be the explanations for the two issues I am facing?

Windows has an application called Windows Photo Gallery. I think Windows 10 has it out of the box, for Windows 7 you can download it for free from MS site (or at least you could). It is a MS try for local photos keeper, it keeps all photos in actual folders, not in a giant database. So I use it mostly for importing photos from the iPhone. It sees the device, shows all the photos by dates (and actually by events, can be several in a one day, pretty neat). I never delete old photos from my phone, so import finds them all every time. But you can deselect all and then select only for the last two days, for example.

If you have this application I recommend to try it.


Macbook pro 2016 keeps getting panic mode I have a Macbook Pro 13" 2016, without Touchbar (16G1036, macOS 10.12.6) that has been randomly crashing since it was purchased.
Last week it gave the message Your computer has been shutdown due to an error twice.

What are the most likely causes for this - and is there high hopes in Apple care finding and fixing an unpredictable issue like this?

is there high hopes in Apple care finding and fixing an unpredictable issue like this?

Yes. And if your MBP is still under warranty, I wouldn't think twice about calling Apple. They can assist over the phone and may even be able to run some diagnostics remotely. And, if necessary, depending on where you live they may be able to send someone out to you if it can't be resolved over the phone. The worst case scenario is you will need to bring it in to Apple or one of their authorised repairers.

  What are the most likely causes for this

Now this is not so easy to answer, as there is a multitude of possible causes for this behaviour. However, there are a few things you can try yourself. See below.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens as this will be useful if/when you contact Apple.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
If there's anything you've identified that will normally cause a crash, then try repeating those steps while in Safe Mode to see if you can get your MBP to crash again. If there isn't, try using your MBP for long enough to see if you can get it to crash.
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Once again, test to see if your still crashes

If you find that your MBP works fine while in Safe Mode, but not when booted normally, then let me know and I'll explain the process of identifying the culprit (it's likely to be a login item, corrupted font, or kernel extension).


How to Install PIL in El Capitan with Pip? I would like to install PIL by Pip but the code is unsuccessful

pip install PIL
Collecting PIL
  Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement PIL (from versions: )
No matching distribution found for PIL

I know the outdated thread here about How can I install PIL on mac os x 10.7.2 Lion, and my versions should be ok, since they are most updated.
My Pip and Python versions in OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan

pip --version
pip 8.1.1 from /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages (python 2.7)

My pip is installed by sudo python get-pip.py of the mother site.
I have the newest xcode installed

gcc --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 7.3.0 (clang-703.0.29)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin15.4.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin

How can you install Pil in OS X 10.11.4?

This is because PIL is not setuptools compatible (https://mail.python.org/pipermail/image-sig/2010-August/006480.html) and has as such probably never been installable through pip. I think in general it should be considered deprecated in favor of Pillow which is an actively developed compatible fork of PIL.

So what you want to do is pip install Pillow, and also consider different pip usage since El Capitan like described in another thread here.


A checklist for child proofing an iPad pro I have gifted my 9 year old a iPad. However before I let him use it, I need a checklist of all the steps i need to do to child proof the iPad.

Configure safari so that all bad searches are blocked
All bad sites don't open
Search results don't return explicit content.

does apple provide such a list. I googled and I found snippets of information here and there. But I need a complete list of steps.

Keep in mind no filter is 100%.

To limit access to adult websites, enable Settings → General → Restrictions → Websites → Limit Adult Content.

To enable SafeSearch on Google to hide adult content from search results, go to https://www.google.com/preferences and ‘Turn On SafeSearch’.


Using a Macbook Pro alongside an iMac If I have a 27" iMac, I understand I can use the display as an external monitor for my Macbook Pro. Presumably I can use the bluetooth keyboard as well as an external input?

Can you still run the iMac (and maybe instantly switch between them?). e.g. if I'm working on the Macbook using the iMac as a display, can I still listen to music on the iTunes library that's on my iMac, or switch to it to read a file (or download something from iTunes etc)?

Using your mac in target display mode would waste it's potential as a more power computer than your MacBook. Try an app like Teleport. It lets you network your multiple Macs together so that a host Mac's mouse and keyboard can be used to control other Macs. It works very similarly to multiple displays on a single machine, and even the clip board is shared between the two! The only issue is that you can't drag windows between the two displays (which are actually running on two separate computers), but at least both Mac's power can be used.


What is "~/.asdasd/asda.jar"? I found a curious little .plist in my LaunchAgents, and I'm worried it could be a rootkit or other backdoor. Here are its contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>Label</key>
   <string>com.asdasdasd</string>
   <key>ProgramArguments</key>
   <array>
      <string>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_73.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java</string>
      <string>-Dapple.awt.UIElement=true</string>
      <string>-jar</string>
      <string>/Users/LoganDark/.asdasd/asda.jar</string>
   </array>
   <key>RunAtLoad</key>
   <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Can anyone assist me in figuring out what this is? Should I be worried?

The file name does not match an Apple-supplied program, nor is it a well-known Mac program (i.e. very popular program).

However, it might still be legimate. The name sounds like something you would come up with if you were just typing any random name. It could be someone that you have loaned your computer to that were playing with creating their own program.

Make note of the time stamps of the files involved to see if that can give you a clue to remember what happened around that time. Perhaps you have created it yourself and forgotten about it?

I would check the contents of the asda.jar file to find out more about what it is. Take a copy of the file and rename it to asda.zip. Unzip it to find out what it contains. It might possible give you a clue as to what it is.

And ofcourse -  if you still don't know what it is, consider your computer to have been compromised. In that case you should format the computer and restore from a backup from before the file was introduced, or alternatively do a clean install of macOS.


iPod Touch thinks it's full when it isn't I just got a refurbished iPod Touch.  I synced it to my work computer rather than my Mac at home because it is mainly for PodCasts.  It was working great, until I put my music on iTunes over a network share at home and accidentally told the iPod Touch to sync all music.
Ever since then, every time I try to sync my iPod Touch it tells me that it does not have enough space to sync all the data I am trying to sync.
The problem with that, is I'm only trying to sync about 30 total Podcasts, all of which are audio and none are longer than an hour.

I have reset the iPod to factory settings and still get the same thing.

In fact, I just told it (after a restore to factory settings) to sync nothing.  Literally unchecked every sync option in iTunes and it is still telling me I have too much data being synced.

The iPod itself tells me that it has 6.5gigs of free space, but iTunes says I have 15.7 gigs of Music synced to it.

Anyone seen this before or have any idea what I can do?

Uummmm....I figured it out....
under the Books tab, the "Sync Audiobooks" option was checked....but it was below the visible portion of the screen so I didn't realize it was checked until my network drive with my audio books got disconnected and on an attempted sync it said it couldn't find the files.

OOPS!!!  I feel sheepish.


Changing Apple ID on iPad to match Apple ID on iPhone My daughter bought a new iPad and gave me her old iPad.  However, her old iPad has her Apple ID associated with it.

I want to change that ID to the same Apple ID I use on my iPhone. Is that possible?

What part of the iPad do you want to add a new Apple ID to? There are several different places to enter an Apple ID.

Messages

Settings > Messages > Receive at:

App Store

Settings > Store > Apple ID:

Alternatively, you can go to the App Store, click on "Top Charts" at the bottom. Scroll to the bottom and you can sign out and enter a new Apple ID.

iCloud

Go to Settings > iCloud > Account:


Cannot open sparsebundle to review Backups.backupdb I'm trying to open the Backups.backupdb folder and when I try to open the sparse bundle I get the following error message.

  The application "DiskImageMounter.app" can't be opened. -36

Can anyone help?

First, disable Time Machine backup. Then Try this: https://blog.davekoelmeyer.co.nz/2011/03/03/browse-a-time-capsule-disk-image-in-the-mac-os-finder/


What is the maximum capacity for a Time Capsule's hard drive? I am thinking of buying a Time Capsule with a small hard drive and upgrading the drive to something larger. There is ample documentation on the web as to how to do it, but I am having a hard time finding any details as to what the upper limits of drive size are. It's especially confusing since there are four generations of Time Capsule, and each one may have a different upper limit. So, what is the upper limit of each? And, if you only know the answer to one specific one, that would be great, too.

Nobody seems to know what the official drive size limits are, but I just connected an 18TB hardware RAID to a 1st generation Time Capsule, and it works. To duplicate my setup:

Configure a 4-drive hardware RAID using this enclosure:

https://www.newegg.com/sans-digital-tr4utbpn/p/N82E16816111149

(I used four 6TB drives and set it up as a RAID 5)

Connect the RAID enclosure to the SATA connector on the Time Capsule's logic board using this cable:

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16812119251?Item=N82E16812119251

This Time Capsule has pretty much been gutted over the years, so the only thing left is the logic board itself. It's powered by a 2A 5VDC external brick, WiFi and routing are disabled. It's just a hack NAS at this point...but it handles an 18TB drive.


Can someone be reading my iMessages? Someone has told me they can read my messages I send through iMessage. Is what they are saying true? Can someone do this?

They can only view this information if they are logged into your account on their iDevice.  For example, an iPhone, iPad and MacBook all on the same account will receive all messages sent or received from the other machines (barring a lack of network connectivity).

My suggestion to you is to change your password. They will be prompted for the new password and will no longer be able to view new messages that you send or receive through iMessage. I would also change the password associated with your email account if you use similar or identical passwords for these accounts.

Existing messages that they have captured will not be removed from their device, so be wary — anything incriminating that has already been gathered is in their hands.


After unlocking apple id and sign in to iTunes I cannot unlock my iPhone I have got a second hand iPhone (5s) of my friend and it has been restored before and now has hello on the screen.

i get his Apple ID and password for that. My friend his self has iPhone 6 with the same Apple id and password and it is turn on and on line. So I connected the iPhone (5s) to iTunes for restoring again iPhone. Then iTunes asked me for applied and password. After entering applied and password, iTunes told me this applied  has been disabled and you have to reset password so I reset the password and ask my friend to check his email for verify and he did that and applied unlocked.

Now I sign in to iTunes with verified applied and password and click on my iPhone in iTunes. iTunes again says enter applied and password? I entered verified applied and password. Now again it says “you cannot unlock iPhone with m…@gmail.com.  Also I sign in to i cloud.com and in find my iPhone I can see just my    friend mobile Please help what is the problem? After unlocking applied and sign in to iTunes I cannot unlock my iPhone.  Please how can I solve this problem and unlock my iPhone, Apple id and password of my friend does not have problem because I can sign in to iTunes and I cloud from computer.

This is what it looks like when your iOS device is activation locked.

Bypassing it is practically impossible unless you are the original purchaser.

How can I bypass Activation Lock?

See that thread for how to get a hold of Apple's support, but basically you either need to re-enter the locking user account and password or you need the person that controls that account to log in themselves to http://icloud.apple.com and remove the lock against this hardware.

Regain control of the account that was used before to lock the iPhone
Unlock that device with that previous account
Activate the iPhone with your account to lock it to yours


Preview won't display diagram in PDF I have a PDF opened in Preview where on one page a diagram should show, but it doesn't. The same holds for the program "PDF Reader Pro Lite" and probably other PDF readers. But if I open the PDF in Google Chrome or "Adobe Acrobat Reader DC", then the diagram is visible. Does anyone know why it won't work for certain applications?

I am running macOS Mojave 10.14.5, and all applications are up to date.

The PDF file format contains are series of code-like instructions that have to be interpreted and then rendered into a displayed image, and there are different 'engines' that do this in a variety of ways. Apple's own CoreGraphics engine works differently from Adobe's. Of course, both contain a number of bugs!

It's also possible that the PDF was not created 'to spec', and different engines are more or less forgiving in how they deal with syntax errors.

You could try Exporting it from Preview as a PDF, which will 'rinse' the PDF data through CoreGraphics, and which might fix the problem. Or it might do nothing; or it might hide the diagram when viewed in any reader.

PDF Reader Pro Lite is likely to use Apple's native APIs for creating windows with a PDF view.


TextMate not saving files in UTF-8 I set my prefs to save files in UTF-8 (the default). But I've noticed that my files are not UTF-8 but US-ASCII.

With my newly created file:

file -I myfile

=> myfile: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

What gives?

I'm not an expert in the field, but I believe the reason for this is you probably saved your test file only with ASCII characters. When using only ASCII characters UTF-8 is simply indistinguishable from it. It's when you start using characters that are outside ASCII scope (e.g. accents in other languages, like ąśćż in polish) the difference is noticable.

Try copy&paste the characters I used as an example, save your file again and test it.


Spotlight / Finder - search words within files and preview occurrence When searching for specific words inside documents, upon getting the results, is there a way to then preview in the document where that word occurs without having to first open the document and perform the search again within the application?

Ideally, I'd like to hit spacebar and have the preview jump to that section of the document of the first occurrence of the word.

Would also consider 3rd party search tools if that provided the functionality.

I develop a file search tool that is based upon Spotlight: HoudahSpot.

In addition to the Quick Look preview, HoudahSpot provides a text preview. This shows a plain text version of the selected search result. If you found the file by searching for text content, text preview will automatically highlight the words you searched for and scroll to the first occurrence. You can also search within text preview.

If you searched by text content, HoudahSpot will also pass the text you searched for down to the application used for opening the file. In many applications you can then press command-G (find next) to highlight the first occurence of that text.


What is the purpose of the Shift+F3 keyboard shortcut? F3 and Cmd+F3 are two useful shortcuts on a Mac. What is the purpose of Shift+F3 and Shift+Cmd+F3?

They seem to do the exact same thing as F3 and Cmd+F3, but perform the animation much slower. What is the practical purpose for this?

The shift modifier has been around for most animated sequences since at least Panther (10.3).  I don't know that there was ever an official reason given but it's widely assumed that it was built in at the request of Steve Jobs in order for him to highlight Expose' as he announced it to the world at the 2003 World Wide Developers Conference. You can see this announcement here, with the slow motion effect being used for the first time around the 2:00 min mark.

Mac OS X Panther - Expose demo

Given the crowd's reaction I think it's clear why Apple didn't remove it from the final version.  It's always been one of those little easter eggs that Mac users use to impress their PC using friends.

So there you go, no practical purpose, just a bit of fun for Apple.  You can also use shift to slow down most functions that have an animation.  Minimizing windows, opening Mission Control, etc.


Will a USB VGA Video Adapter Work on MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012) Well I'm attempting to get 2 monitors working on a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012).But I'mm so nervous that i will waste my money on the adapter,and i use to play games on a Mac.

So, I think it was easier 2 have double monitor for gaming. I'm going provide a picture of the adapter in question

Yes, it will work.  There's no reason it shouldn't.  But, You have a Mid 2012 which has a Thunderbolt port which is compatible with mini Display Port (mDP).

Why not use an Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter?

This will be going from a digital video signal to an analog video signal.  It's just my opinion that going from video to video is better than going from USB to video.

As far as "worrying" about whether it will work or not work, if you buy from a reputable seller like Amazon, or even eBay with their "Buyer Protection" you shouldn't have to worry that your item won't work.


How does the volume control work on my iPod touch? OK, I'm going to sound like an idiot for asking this, but...

How's the volume control work on an iPod Touch (iOS 4)?  I always seem to surprise myself when I discover that the volume is up when I assume it's down, or vice versa.

I've owned (pre-iOS) iPod, and they were easy: there's one volume setting.  For the iPod Touch, having a speaker, running "OS X", and using the Mac OS X semi-transparent gray volume icon overlay, I figured it'd be just like my Mac.  That is, two separate volume settings, one for the speaker and one for the headphones, and it uses the correct one depending on whether there's something plugged in.

After a while, I found that it doesn't work this way.  I can't figure out quite how it works, though.  One thought was that maybe the volume control is per-app, but that doesn't seem to always be true, either.  Or is it per-app and per-headphones/speaker?

Another aspect that confuses me: when setting the volume, sometimes I get the Mac-style gray icon overlay, and sometimes it uses a round slider in the app itself.  It doesn't seem to be just the app: sometimes the YouTube app shows the gray overlay, even when its own slider is visible!  Is this visual distinction supposed to be useful to me?  It seems like it might be, but I haven't figured out the pattern yet.

Can anyone explain to me how this is supposed to work?  Or is there any official documentation on how the volume controls work?

I'm so confused...

EDIT: Example: I go to Flashcards, set the volume to 0%.  Go to home screen, set volume=50% (up from 25%).  Go to Youtube, set volume=25%.  Start playing a video, it shows volume=0% now (why?), so I turn it up to 25%.  Exit, go back to Flashcards, volume here is now 25% (why?).  (This is all with no headphones plugged in -- I'd like to understand the simple case before I even try to figure out how headphone volume works!)

It's obviously not simply a per-app setting: I've never set the volume in Flashcards to be anything other than 0%, yet it keeps getting turned up, in this case to the volume I set in Youtube.  But the Youtube volume isn't a global setting, either, since I set the volume on the home screen, and Youtube showed me 2 different volume settings (depending on whether a video was playing), and neither of them used that setting.

My next theory was that there's a "shared app volume" setting that was used by Flashcards and Youtube-but-only-when-not-playing-video (but not by the home screen, which is silly, since the home screen doesn't have any sound).  So I tried setting the volume in Youtube-not-playing-video and going back to Flashcards ... nope, in this direction the Flashcards volume stays the same.

My latest theory is that Youtube-not-playing-video can set the shared-app-volume, and Youtube-playing-video will read the shared-app-volume, and Flashcards will both set and read this volume.  (And Youtube itself has 2 volume settings, neither of which is the same as the one I set on the home screen, so I always have to just set the Youtube volume twice.  And double this if I decide to plug in headphones.)

This is the simplest theory I've found to explain most of what I'm seeing, but it seems completely insane.  If anybody has a way to explain this that doesn't involve epicycles, I'd love to hear it.

You’re technically right. There are two settings, one for the speaker, one for the headphones. Both volumes are independent; if you have volume low on speaker and connect a headphone, you’re going to get the headphone volume, and that’s what you’re going to adjust until you disconnect it.

Now, applications can alter the device’s volume, but they can also have their own independent volume level. For example a game might have a volume setting and if you put it all the way down, the ipod’s volume (alarms, music, etc.) is not altered. As far as I can remember (should check the latest iOS SDK) that is possible.

Applications can of course mute themselves without altering the device’s settings.


imei check said server down on a imei check it said server down, please could someone tell me what it means, as I bought a sencond hand iphone 3gs and cannot get it set up, plus I need it unlocked as its on at&t network to work in the uk, all help would be appreciated, thanks

Activation failed when a communication with Apple servers was expected.

(Official unlocks rely on having Apple send your device a list of approved SIMs during activation, and thus having the unlocker request Apple to approve your device for all cards).

This sounds like an occasional, temporary error: if it persists, I would be inclined check the hosts file on your computer to make sure it isn't redirecting any Apple servers, although I haven't ever heard of a modification that would break activation in this way.

The "043" in your serial number stands for "made in year (201)0, week 43": you can use the jailbreak tool redsn0w to install and then remove the iPad baseband, enabling you to software-unlock your iPhone as described in this guide: http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-downgrade-iphone-3gs-3g-06.15.00-to-05.13.04-baseband-for-unlock-and-working-gps/


I have the same number on 2 different phones with 2 different carriers I recently switched carriers and everything was done over the phone. I provided my account number etc from my old carrier to my new carrier and authorized everything to be transferred over.

I purchased a new sim card for my new carrier and placed it in my iPhone 6. When I called back to activate the iPhone 6 I called from my old iPhone 4, which was registered with my old carrier.

I expected as soon as the iPhone 6 was activated that the iPhone 4 with my old carrier would cut out, but it doesn't seem like this was the case. Now I have both phones connected to separate networks each using the same number and are fully functional.

I didn't think this was possible, does anyone have an explanation?

When porting a number from one provider to another, it may take a few hours for the old network/provider to complete the process. If the situation still exists after a full business day, give the old provider a call to sort it out.


TarPit not working in Mavericks One of my favorite applications appears not to be working after making the upgrade to Mavericks. I am referring to TarPit which creates easily archives for me. I just loved this application since on command line creating a tar.gz would also include the .DS_Store files, and other similar nonsense.

So, is there a workaround and making TarPit work again? Is there an alternative to TarPit?

I have this alias in my ~/.bash_profile:

alias tarc='COPYFILE_DISABLE= tar --exclude .DS_Store -c'

It can be used like tarc -zf directory.tgz directory or tarc -f directory.tar directory.

Setting COPYFILE_DISABLE tells tar to remove extended attributes, ACLs, resource forks, and Finder information. tar uses AppleDouble files (the files that start with ._) to store metadata by default, and it also knows how to convert metadata stored in AppleDouble files back to the native formats, but unarchiving applications on other platforms usually keep the ._ files.

$ touch a;xattr -w key value a;tar -cf a.tar a;tar -tf a.tar
./._a
a
$ COPYFILE_DISABLE= tar -cf a2.tar a;tar -tf a2.tar
a


How do I tell the iOS Music app to regenerate its metadata? To clear storage space in order to upgrade to iOS 8, I went to Settings/General/Usage/Manage Storage/Music on my iPad and deleted all my music (I have it all stored in iTunes on my Mac at home.)

I got the space back and installed iOS 8 over-the-air. But now when I go to the Music app, it looks like my music library is still there—the metadata (including album art) still shows. When I tap on a song, the name greys out and a "Stop" icon in a circle appears on the right hand side of the table.

(When I go into Settings/General/Usage/Manage Storage/Music, it tells me all my songs are still taking up 41.2GB, and lists each artist with their individual usages.)

How can I force the iPad to dump and regenerate its cache of Music.app metadata?

If you have iTunes Match, you would simply disable that on the device, power it down and then sign back in to iTunes Match in the settings app under Music.

If you don't have iTunes Match, connect the iPad to iTunes and then sync the music back over USB or Wifi if you enable wireless syncing of that device.


iTunes Match music gone missing I have been an iTunes Match for several years, since shortly after they introduced the service.  Recently I noticed that entire albums were missing off my phone, or weirder still, that some albums would have two or three tracks present and the rest missing.

After checking that I did not have “Only Offline Music” selected, I did the obvious: I logged out of my Apple ID account and logged back in. A lot more music disappeared. Now roughly 90% of my music is missing.

Some artists are entirely present, some have taken huge hits, and a lot have exactly one song each.

I have also deauthorized my main computer (which has all my music) and reauthorized it in the hopes that would force a resync, but no such luck.

I should also mention that I never signed up for Apple Music, not even the free trial. I know there were some problems there, but that’s not the cause of my woes.

So what is going on here?

Finally figured it out: in the Settings app, under Music, “iCloud Music Library” was somehow disabled. Problem solved!


Can I connect more than one external monitor with only one thunderbolt port? Mid-2011 iMac 21.5 inch
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600S CPU @ 2.80GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB

Right now, I connect an external monitor to my iMac using the one thunderbolt port that I have. Is it possible to connect a second external monitor? If so, how?

thunderbolt dock will do it.  get one that adds dvi, hdmi or passthrough thunderbolt.

my caldigit does hdmi + passthrough thunderbolt so i can get 2 displays on there.


Changing Metadata of an Epub in iBooks How can I edit the metadata of an Epub file? I would like to alter the title, author, and cover art, similar to how I was able to do so in iTunes (get info).

Just started using iBooks on Mac tonight. I was worried about the same thing.

Here's what works:

Go to List view in iBooks »
Click once on a book (anywhere on the line) »
Wait a couple of seconds »
Click once on the data that you want to change or enter »
That entry will become editable

You can edit anything: Title, Author, Category, etc. Voilà!


Any way to use disassembled MacBook Pro keyboard and trackpad as input to Mac mini? I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro (non-retina) lying around that I don't need. It does not startup, but it's keyboard and mouse work fine. I have no use for the computer anymore.

I also have a Mac mini and I was wondering whether there is any hardware/software that allows me to use the keyboard and trackpad from my MBP as direct input to my Mac mini, just like an external keyboard/trackpad, without having to go through the OS on my MBP.

In other words, I was looking for some sort of adapter that would connect my keyboard and trackpad from my MBP to a USB input which I could use on the Mac mini. I do not want a solution like this: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/338568

Thanks

In theory it is possible - but there's no on-the-shelf solution that you can go out and buy.

You would either have to make it yourself (requires experience with electronics and programming) or hire someone to build a solution for you. In either case, such a solution would cost many, many times more (considering the cost of your own time) than simply buying a new keyboard and mouse.

The keyboard connector on the mid-2012 MacBook Pro does not feature USB or anything that you can simply plugin to a new computer. Instead it is a special connector, for which you require an adapter board, and the signalling is not USB or anything standard on a Mac Mini - so you would need to create a PCB with a microcontroller or similar to convert the signals from the keyboard into a USB HID device for the Mac Mini.


Can all Mac executables be copied between machines? Many programs for OS X simply ask to drop the executable into the Applications directory. This obviously means that copying the executable onto another machine is possible without problems.

What about applications that go through an installer (for example iWork) - do these do something extra? Can I simply copy the Pages executable onto another machine and have it run?

No

If the application requires an installer, it needs to be installed on each machine. This includes pre-MAS (Mac App Store) iWorks and Microsoft Office 2011 for example.

Only applications that were not downloaded from the MAS and explicitly specify installation by copying the executable can be copied between machines.

Applications purchased through MAS can be copied between machines as long as the user logging into MAS on the target machine is the same user that originally purchased the application.


What is the MD5 or SHA1 checksum of the OS X 10.8.2 update? I am choosing to download and utilize the OS X 10.8.2 dmg update method, since I have multiple Macs to update. For one reason or another, the download did not finish completely through the web browser. I continued and completed the download with wget --continue <url> in a terminal.

I would like to be sure that the file is without corruption, but Apple doesn't seem to post checksums with the downloads. What are the MD5 or SHA1 checksums of both the 10.8.2 delta and combo update dmg files?

They never post hashes because they make silent update of their combo updates!!!

the 10.8.2 has been modified between the first release date and december : they included the 10.8.2 Supplemental Update, and of course did not notify about it on their websites...
Build number has also been updated.

Thank you Apple to make updates even more transparent compared to Microsoft!


Using iFile to change lock screen passcode I would like to know where to go in iFile to be able to see your ipod passcode and be able to change the 4 digit code through iFile. I am running iOS 5.0.1.

It should be, is for sure in iOS6 and will ever be encrypted in future iOS versions. I doubt you can bypass the code.

However there is a securityleak in iOS 5 (since you have 5.0.1) I think you should check out this post online

The post contains this video, on how to bypass the lock. I hope that will help you out rather than changing the code via iFile.


Xcode code folding case statements Is there a way to make the case statements in a switch be folded?

I am using the Xcode 4.5.2


Multiple Apple IDs on one iMac I've got an iMac that was set up by Apple when we bought it.  My wife and I have seperate logins. We share applications but are separate users. I have an Apple ID and use iCloud for the iMac, an iPhone and an iPad.

We're getting an additional iPhone for my wife.  Can she set up her own Apple ID and thus iCloud and have it connect to her "section" of the iMac?

Yes, if you have separate user accounts (ie. there are two login options when you boot your machine), then each account can be associated with its own Apple ID for iCloud.

All preferences, documents and other customizations are individual to each user account. By default, Applications are shared (they get installed to /Applications), but you can install an application for just one user by installing it to the Applications directory within the users home directory.


iPad iOS 10 - Can I hide songs in the Music app that I have purchased? I have a brand new iPad and upgraded to iOS 10.

I have thousands of purchases on iTunes that I don't want cluttering the lists in the Music app.  This was very easy on my iPhone 6 (iOS 8.4).
I don't see an option in Settings > iTunes, Music, or iCloud.

How do I hide them?

I don't have a computer to do this through iTunes on a PC or Mac.

Yes, you can 'hide' them.

From the main screen, tap on Downloaded Music.

You'll then be on a screen which is basically exactly the same as the previous one with options for Albums, Artists, etc, which will only show music on your device.

To make it more accessible, I suggest tapping Edit in the main Library screen and dragging the Downloaded Music row up to the top. Note also that whatever you make visible or hidden on this Edit screen will also take effect on the Downloaded Music screen (eg making Compilations visible, Artists invisible, etc).

Note, there is no option to get rid of the initial Library screen. IE we want to effectively make the Downloaded Music screen the top level - there is no way to do that.


launchd: Confusion on semantics of bootstrap and bootout etc. after reading manual pages I've read the following manual pages on launchd: launchctl, launchd, and launchd.plist.

However, nothing is really said in these manual pages regarding what the launchctl boostrap and launchctl bootout (sub)commands actually do (see below). Is it to be inferred from their names?

Futhermore, I cannot find information in the man pages, regarding what user/group the service (agent/daemon) runs as. However, launchd.plist mentions UserName/GroupName for controlling the user/group for the system domain. So, what user are per-user services in /Library/LaunchAgents or ~/Library/LaunchAgents run as?

Finally, I would expect I need to bootstrap/load my daemon's .plist, but after putting the .plist in /Library/LaunchAgents or /Library/LaunchDaemons, it was automatically loaded (run) at system boot. Indeed, RunAtLoad=true, but what's the purpose of bootstrap, if services run anyway?

man launchctl:

 bootstrap | bootout domain-target [service-path service-path2 ...] | service-target
          Bootstraps or removes domains and services. When service arguments are present, bootstraps and correspondingly removes their definitions into the domain.  Services may be specified as a series of
          paths or a service identifier.  Paths may point to XPC service bundles, launchd.plist(5) s, or a directories containing a collection of either. If there were one or more errors while bootstrapping or
          removing a collection of services, the problematic paths will be printed with the errors that occurred.

          If no paths or service target are specified, these commands can either bootstrap or remove a domain specified as a domain target. Some domains will implicitly bootstrap pre-defined paths as part of
          their creation.

LaunchAgents are basically  the same as LaunchDaemons, except that:

LaunchAgents runs only after the user Logs in, process runs on the Logged in UID (User ID) with the logged user privileges. Process can interact with the logged user via GUI.
LaunchDaemons runs on boot time, before the GUI is up, during the progress bar on the boot screen. It run as root, there is no need to have any logged user, run in pure background (like windows system services, or Linux rc.d daemons), it cannot interact with any user on the GUI. [This is basically for system services, but you can have your own service] (personally I have a launchDaemon that downloads and update my /etc/hosts file blocking some malicious URLs, it is a bash script I created as a service)

/Library/LaunchAgents/  - (For all users) [load after any user logs in]

~/Library/LaunchAgents/  - (for a SPECIFIC user) [load after he/she logs in]

--
To load means 'run the service', you load it on memory. But it may not run exactly on load time, if your internal plist setting sets for example a timer to run, after X hours.

Eg:
I create my custom daemon /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.updateHosts.plist

I will load it:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.updateHosts.plist

'Load' must point to the path/to/file.plist

**you may have to kickstart it after loading, this way it will be executed, finish, and wait for the next execution time (if it is a timed service like mine)*

Since it is on LaunchDaemon, it is a system service.

[a brief pause here about launchctl]

Because to continue we need to understand the MacOS process execution architecture:

MacOS Bootstraps domains, sessions and namespaces

Additionally to BSD process contexts [ UID ], MacOS has the Mach bootstrap process contexts, called namespaces.

A namespace is like a 'place' or grouping, where various process runs.

Bootstrap namespaces are arranged hierarchically. There is a System global namespace, below it we have a per-user namespace (non GUI), and below it we have a per-session GUI namespace [created by the WindowServer when the user logs in via GUI] .

Hierarchically, each lower level can access all their upper-levels namespace services (their parents services processes)

----
    System_Namespace
         Per-User_Namespace
             Per-Session_Namespace(GUI WindowServer)
----

Technically the GUI per-session namespace is
called 'Aqua' Session by Apple's API docs.

The hierarchy above shows the System Domain, the User Domain and the Session Domain (which belongs to the user, each user has its own)

An expanded view with 2 logged users is below:

``

//   System_Namespace [System]
//      |
//      ------ PerUSER_Namespace [Background] [user 501]
//      |      |
//      |      ----- PerSESSION_Namespace [Aqua] (MacOS GUI WindowServer) [user 501]
//      |
//      |
//      ------ PerUSER_Namespace [Background] [user 502]
//             |
//             ----- PerSESSION_Namespace [Aqua] (MacOS GUI WindowServer) [user 502]
// ----
//

``

This is exactly the root of the security architecture of the MacOS, it is called the Mach Layer, that works in conjunction with the BSD Layer (which takes care about user file permissions and other linux/bsd/unix permissions).

MacOS has 2 distinct security mechanisms integrated and working together: the Unix + the Mach security mechanisms.

Continuing about launchctl, when you are about to create a daemon/service you have to choose where it will run, which domain, and which context.

First, lets print the system domain services, this will list all launchdaemons, loaded or not, enabled and disabled one.

sudo launchctl print system/

Now, lets print the user domain services: (considering userid 501, you can find other users id numbers with the command:  id username

sudo launchctl print user/501

Note: Catalina also accepts the syntax: sudo launchctl print user/admin <- username

You can also query a PID, and check under which domain and namespace it is running:

sudo launchctl print pid/784 (considering 784 is the PID of Finder for example)

> $ sudo launchctl print pid/758
com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.Finder.758 = {
    type = process
    handle = 758
    active count = 91
    on-demand count = 1
    service count = 90
    active service count = 2
    activity ratio = 0.02
    originator = /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app
    creator = Finder.758
    creator euid = 503
    uniqueid = 758
    external activation count = 0
    security context = {
        uid = 503
        asid = 100008
    }

    bringup time = 20 ms
    death port = 0x52a63

    in-progress bootstraps = 0
    pended requests = 0
    pending requests = {
    }
    subdomains = {
    }
    pending attachments = {
    }

    task-special ports = {
             0x3fc73 4       bootstrap  com.apple.xpc.launchd.user.domain.503.100008.Aqua
             0x15f03 9          access  com.apple.taskgated
    }

Under Security Context:

uid = 503 -> process is running for user id 503
asid = 100008 -> process is running on GUI session 100008

com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.Finder.758
com.apple.xpc.launchd.user.domain.503.100008.Aqua

Means:

Finder, which has PID 758
was created by launchd,
under the user domain,
for user 503,
which is running a graphical interface with session ID 100008.

Now you can choose and control domain, namespaces and user for your daemon.

bootout means stop a service that is running, for ex:

sudo launchctl bootout system/com.apple.netbiosd

This stops the netbios daemon.

__
Lets go back to that service we created with this command:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.updateHosts.plist

load is the unique parameter that you pass the full path of the .plist file, all other launchctl commands works via reference from domain hierarchy!

So to print our service is: sudo launchctl print system/local.updateHosts
you dont't use the extension .plist, and the reference is system/process.name

The process name is what you define inside the .plist file under key Label:

        <key>Label</key>
        <string>local.updateHosts</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>

The bootstrap parameter is to force load your service while choosing which domain or namespace you want to make it run, ex:

sudo launchctl bootstrap user/503 /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.updateHosts.plist`

/Library/LaunchDaemons/local.updateHosts.plist: Service cannot load in requested session

The command above returned error because my service .plist only allow my service to run as a system service, otherwise it would have been started for user 503.

bootstrap let you start any service or XPC service bundle under other domains/namespaces. Basically you choose a service AND a target for it to run.

Additional sintaxes:

sudo launchctl start system/local.updateHosts

sudo launchctl stop system/local.updateHosts

sudo launchctl unload system/local.updateHosts

sudo launchctl kickstart system/local.updateHosts

If you want to go ultra-deep on this topic, I suggest this excelent documentation from Apple, it is very technical and very detailed:

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/contexts/contexts.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000905-CH212-BEHJDFCA


Enable Multicast on Mac? Following enabling-multicast-on-your-macos-unix, I am trying to enable multicast on my machine. Firstly, I checked if my network interface supports multicast by running below command:

ifconfig -a

Output I got is:

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=10b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,AV>
    ether 68:5b:35:d5:26:76
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect (none)
    status: inactive

Then, I added the multicast address, using command:

sudo route -nv add -net 228.0.0.4 -interface en0

Then, I checked if multicast IP is visible in my route table, using command:

netstat -nr

And yes, there is an entry in my Routing table:

228.0.0.4/32       68:5b:35:d5:26:76  UmS             0       10     en0

Then I run the below command on my mac:

ping -t 1 -c 2 228.0.0.4

Gives me below result:

PING 228.0.0.4 (228.0.0.4): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0

--- 228.0.0.4 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss

Then, dropping the IP from Routes Table as follows:

 sudo route -v delete -inet 228.0.0.4

and added an entry with interface to en1:

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether a8:bb:cf:20:fb:1a
    inet6 fe80::aabb:cfff:fe20:fb1a%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x6
    inet 192.168.2.124 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 192.168.3.255
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active

then there is an entry in my Routing table as below:

  228.0.0.4/32       1:0:5e:0:0:4       UmLS            0        0     en1

Running sudo tcpdump -ni en1 host 228.0.0.4 gives me:

 tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
 listening on en1, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
 15:51:21.962437 IP 192.168.2.124 > 228.0.0.4: ICMP echo request, id 21017, seq 0, length 64
 15:51:22.966098 IP 192.168.2.124 > 228.0.0.4: ICMP echo request, id 21017, seq 1, length 64

And running ping -t 1 -c 2 228.0.0.4 command, gives me below result:

PING 228.0.0.4 (228.0.0.4): 56 data bytes

--- 228.0.0.4 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss

Can anyone help me in enabling the Multicast.

Thanks!

No IP-address is visible/configured and the status of your en0 is inactive.

Adding a route to en0 is obviously possible though. It's still impossible to ping an inactive interface/unreachable network.

Configure an IP-address for en0 and attach it to a network and you should be done. If you have a second Mac configure the same multicast address and check the outgoing pings from the first Mac with sudo tcpdump -ni en0 host 228.0.0.4.


How do I ensure that the macOS root account bug is fully fixed on my machine? There has been a large amount of confusion around Security Update 2017-001, especially due to rumors of the fix being reverted when running macOS version 10.13.1.

I am looking for a way to be fully sure that my Mac is protected. In this question I'll detail the steps I followed in trying to ensure that my device is secure, and note the conflicting information I have found which points to no precise answer.

Looking at the end of Apple's support page related to this update, I see:

  [If] you see MRTConfigData 1.27 in the Installations list under
  Software in System Report, your Mac is also protected.

Under Software in System Report, the latest version I see of MRTConfigData is 1.26 dated December 1, 2017.

The second part of this paragraph also notes:

Open the Terminal app, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
Type what /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd and press Return.
If Security Update 2017-001 was installed successfully, you will see one of these project version numbers:
opendirectoryd-483.1.5 on macOS High Sierra 10.13
opendirectoryd-483.20.7 on macOS High Sierra 10.13.1

Running the above command correctly lists PROJECT:opendirectoryd-483.20.7 on my machine, which is indicated by Apple as the correct version.

If I attempt to reproduce the original bug by going to Preferences > Users & Groups, then clicking the lock icon and trying to log in as root using an empty password multiple times, the login dialog does not let me through.

The fact that I won't be allowed to log in as root no matter how many times I try gives me an indication that the issue might indeed be solved, but I   am still receiving conflicting information about this from my system.

In Directory Utility, when I open the Edit menu, I see the option Enable Root User. This tells me that the root user is currently disabled, which as far as I know is one of the conditions for triggering the bug: the root account gets enabled once you attempt to log in with it once, and then works without a password.

Lastly, what is most suspicious is that in Directory Utility, when I search for root in Directory Editor, the root user account is listed with a password of *. Unless it is a placeholder for any password, this looks suspiciously similar to a one-character (or even empty) password. I am confused whether this means that a password for this account is set at all.

How can I conclusively determine whether the root account issue is fully solved on my computer?

You can't at this point. The security patch only runs once and Apple hasn't released a new full point installer that guarantees you're patched.

What you can do is set a secure root password and watch for log in attempts and successes and disable sharing until Apple releases a full OS point release with no need for a Security patch to be put on top of one or more unpatched full point releases.

My answer here stands:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/307244/5472

If you can’t install the official patch or don't want to trust that it worked, then

You don't want to disable root user on High Sierra only.

To secure your Mac, enable root with a long secure password.

We are not changing this at work until the next full point release is out for macOS which would likely be 10.13.2

I reason that since this was a race condition and Apple pushed the patch so quickly - we're pretty sure it's solid, but what if you got the patch before you upgraded to 10.13.1 and now it needs that patch a second time or what if the installer didn't really do it's job. Low chance either happened, but only you know how bad a breach would be on your computer with someone having total control.


Is it possible to use the Rōv scanner that ships with Delicious Library for general purpose scanning? I have the package of a Microvision Rōv bluetooth barcode scanner and the Delicious Library software and it works awesomely well to scan UPC of books, dvd, and gadgets of all sorts into the library.

What I'd like to do is scan some other data using this hardware and don't know how to get at the data that the barcode scanner captures but that Delicious Library is bypassing (serial number, IMEI, etc...). I have asked both companies for assistance with this, but wondered if anyone here had an answer before I get the "official responses". I will answer / comment as I get responses from the companies.

Does anyone have recommendations for software to scan arbitrary bar code data into a spreadsheet or structured text file so I can parse these other fields and use this scanner for data entry past what the Delicious Library software allows?

Bmike

From memory, Delicious Library includes the software component required to communicate with serial io devices such as USB and Bluetooth scanners like the Microvision ROV

Thee may be other ways to interface but the recommended solution from the scanner manufacturer is a piece of software, SerialMagic or SerialMagic Pro from a company called Serial IO

http://serialio.com/products/SerialMagic/index.php

Currently retailing at 50 USD


Microsoft Remote Desktop sessions closed when Macbook Pro display turns off I'm using Microsoft Remote Desktop on OS X Yosemite to control a Windows desktop and a few virtual machines.

Whenever the display on my Retina MacBook Pro turns off, it closes all remote desktop sessions.

Is this because it is also disconnecting the network connections when the screen turns off? Is there a setting I can adjust to prevent this from happening?

Thanks for any help!

EDIT:
I think this was actually an issue with a wifi connection issue that many people are having with Yosemite. RDP connections were being dropped when wifi went down, I just didn't notice the wifi dropping when I wasn't actively using the computer. Many people with the same issue here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6601963

Does it do it when the screen sleeps, or when the computer sleeps?

If only when the computer does, then set System Prefs > Energy Saver - Computer Sleep to never & Display Sleep to whatever you like.

You can then test using System Prefs > Desktop & Screensaver > Hot Corners & assign one corner to put the display to sleep.


MacBook Air camera's not working When I turn on the Photobooth or Zoom app, the green light keeps on blinking and the screen just shows gray color. What to do?

A blinking webcam light means there’s a fault with your webcam.  It could range from a simple hang up of the hardware or driver to an out of date firmware update or the webcam has failed altogether.

The first thing you want to do is reboot.
If the issue still persists, reboot in Safe Mode (hold Shift while booting).  This will make it so only Apple drivers and software is loaded to remove possible conflicts
Make sure your system is fully up to date
Run Apple Diagnostics (hold D while booting)
Try a USB webcam.  If you get to this point and the USB webcam works, it’s a hardware failure of the webcam itself. You’ll have to decide if you want to replace the webcam which requires disassembly of the display or get use a USB webcam.


Automated iTunes tagging? I'm looking for an app that alows me to quickly update tags from imported media in iTunes. Something like itunify used to when it was free.

Nothing that automagically analyses the music and downloads all lyrics. Just a tool that makes it easy for me to e.g. 'remove n characters from left' or 'switch title - author' etc.

You want Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes. Simply download the scripts and put them in:

~/Library/iTunes/Scripts

Note: You'll likely have to create the folder. From there, you'll see the scripts pop in the iTunes menu.

His scripts cover everything from modifying play count to find and replace specific words in a song's given field.


Removing IMAP mail on iPhone not visible in Outlook trash If I remove an IMAP-configured mail from a custom-domain (I've bought it via a domain-registrar), it should throw it in the trash-bin. However, these deleted mails are not visible in Outlook 2010.

Am I missing something, or is this a bug?
The mails I've deleted last (about 3 of them) are still visible in the trashbin on the iPhone, the others (about 20 or 30 of them) are gone.

Make sure that the messages are not being trashed into the generic mail trashcan on the phone. The need to specifically be trashed in the IMAP account's trashcan.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > (Your IMAP Account) > Account > Advanced > Deleted Mailbox and make sure Trash on the Server is selected. Not Trash on the phone.


Simple image manipulation application I apologize in advance if this question does not belong, but .. what software do you use for simple image manipulation on your mac?

Tasks I am looking for to do, are no more complicated then:

Re-size existing image to certain, specific size
Create image with a certain size

I am working on an iOS application and have found out that instead of worrying about how to re-size images, scale them etc .. i should just get images of the size i need (doh!)

I am not looking for things like Photoshop, rather something much simpler (and free if possible)

Thank you for your time.

Pixelmator is a great image editor for OS X if you don't need all the bells and whistles of Photoshop. It's only $30USD, an order of magnitude cheaper than PS, and has a free trial.

I think this is the best choice for beginners or those with more lightweight needs. Because it's Mac only, it integrates with the core technologies of the OS better than even Photoshop does, so it's a very natural learning curve for an OS X user.

However, if you need something totally free, you can also check out the open source GIMP project, but this is starting to approach the complexity and power of something like Photoshop.


How do I resolve duplicate "in the cloud" songs in iTunes 11? When I installed iTunes 11, for some reason it re-downloaded all my purchased "in the cloud" songs even though they were already in my library.  So now I have duplicate songs, one that matches the cloud, one that has my rating, playcounts, etc.  For example:

I want to tell iTunes that they're the same songs- I tried to delete my old copy then, when it asks me to locate it, point to the new copy, but when I delete the cloud entry it doesn't realize that they're the same.  Is there anything that I can do to fix this?

Note: I do not have iTunes Match, and this is on a Mac, if that's relevant.

Edit: Of course I could delete my local copy and download and use the cloud copy, but I want to keep ratings and play/skip counts.

Like Harry reported, the problem can be dealt with by disabling "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases". But then you don't see your Cloud-based music if you haven't downloaded everything.

I found that re-enabling this option seemed to reconnect with Cloud and resolve the duplicates problem without losing any history.


What's the battery life of the new iPad 4G with LTE disabled/enabled? I saw a video about the new iPad and it showed that you could disable LTE.

Apple had to increase the battery capacity in the new iPac because upgrades like LTE and the new display draw significantly more power.
Question

What's the battery life of the new iPad 4G with LTE disabled/enabled?
Apple's product specs are unspecific: "Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using cellular data network."

I'm not sure. But what I do know it the fact the battery in the new iPad has 70% more capacity and people describe it as massive.

It has a massive 11,666mAh (the iPad 2 has just 6994mAH). The same battery in an iPad 2 would give...

  To put that in context, an iPad 2 with with this new battery, if such
  a device existed, would probably last close to 17 hours on Wi-Fi.

So I'm as curious as you are about the finding of the new battery! I'm waiting for the first reviews (it shouldn't be that long anymore since the first iPad are already sold...)


If I'm not a gamer, what are the reasons I might need a higher-end GPU? I'm buying a 27" iMac and having trouble understanding why I may need a higher-end GPU over the next 4-5 years (intended usage).  I do lots of picture editing (Photoshop, Lightroom), movie playing (1080p on an external monitor), and some small time video editing with iMovie.  Is it superfluous to upgrade to the higher end gpu for my purposes?

For your current needs, the higher end GPU will speed things up a bit, but won't be absolutely essential.  However, upgrading your GPU now will make your iMac a bit more future-proof, allowing it to continue to run applications like these at a decent performance level in the future, as they will need more power as time progresses.


Some songs are not syncing with iCloud in iPhone I have some songs that are not synced with iCloud. I reset the iPhone, removed all the songs in iPhone to resync, but it doesn't work. What's wrong with this and how can I fix it?

I had the same problem, I fixed this bug doing this steps:

Remove the musics with this problem (also remove from iTunes Match).
Update iTunes Match (if you use)
Sync the iPhone
Add the musics again from my backup (not the backup from iTunes Library, I've all my musics in other place)
Sync the iPhone


PDF document with notes has yellow squares, can't remove them I have a PDF document with a lot of notes. There is a yellow square in every note, and if I remove the note using the inspector, the yellow squares doesn't go away:

I need to print this document and it's unusable with all these yellow squares. How do I remove them?

PS: I already removed the notes, but there are still yellow squares.

Here is how you can remove the notes from the linked document.

Open the linked document in Preview.
control click on the note icon and select Delete Annotation.

Or:

Open the linked document in Preview.
Click the note icon, which opens the note.
Press the esc key to dismiss the note but leave the note icon highlighted.
Press the delete key.

Or:

Open the linked document in Preview.
Click: Preview > Tools > Show Inspector
Click: Annotations Inspector
Click the Type column, so all the notes are at the top.
Select all the notes, then press the delete key.

I've uploaded a modified copy of the linked document here.


How do I get the path to a DMG (disk image) file given the mounted volume path? I tried hdiutil info -plist, but if I shift the DMG file elsewhere after mounting it, it doesn't update the DMG path. If I right click and select 'Get info' on the volume, I'm able to view the correct DMG path.

A somewhat pedestrian way would be to retrieve the name of your DMG file from the output of hdiutil and then search for it, e.g., via

hdiutil info -plist | grep dmg | sed 's/<string>\([^<]*\)<\/string>/\1/' | xargs basename | xargs mdfind -name

You may need to modify the grep dmg part to be smarter if you have several images mounted, or you loop through all DMG files reported by hdiutil, e.g.,

for F in `hdiutil info -plist | grep dmg | sed 's/<string>\([^<]*\)<\/string>/\1/'`
  do basename $F | xargs mdfind -name
done

However, none of the above takes your mount path as input. To do that, you could add a sed command in the pipe that extracts the paragraph of interest, e.g.,

hdiutil info -plist | tail -r | sed -n '/\/Volumes\/MOUNTNAME/,/dmg/p' | grep dmg | sed 's/<string>\([^<]*\)<\/string>/\1/' | xargs basename | xargs mdfind -name

Perhaps it is also easier to work on the direct output of hdiutil info, without the -plist flag.


Why does OS X Mail fail to recognize that an e-mail address belongs to an existing contact? In OS X Mail, when I enter the name of a person to whom I have sent a previous e-mail, I'm often presented with a suggested e-mail address, corresponding (roughly) to the most recent frequently sent-to person matching the entered name, or part of a name. These suggestions make sense, and I realize that they are coming from my previous recipients list, but what I don't understand is this: often, though the proposed address is associated with a contact in my address book (and is marked as such in the Previous Recipients list), it is not recognized as being associated with the contact in the sent message. For example, if I have a contact, say:

Joe Stack
joe@aaa.com
joe@bbb.com
joe@ccc.com

and I have been corresponding a lot recently with him at joe@bbb.com then when I begin typing his name in the To field rather than proposing

Joe Stack

along with context menu containing a list of all of the e-mail addresses from his contact information, I get

Joe Stack <joe@bbb.com>

with no alternate choices of e-mail and no connection to his contact. In fact, in the context menu for this address, I'm given the option to Add To Address Book rather than Show Contact Card (and if I add it, it is added as a distinct additional entry, so that now there are two entries with joe@bbb.com as an e-mail address).

What could be causing Mail to fail to recognize that the joe@bbb.com address is for an existing contact? This behavior has been going on for some time (at least since 10.6) and continues in Mountain Lion.

I was having the same issue. To resolve it, I went into the previous recipients list and removed all entries of the offending address, as well as any other email addresses associated with that person. From that point forward, when composing an email it correctly pulled the Address Book entry and not the independent address.


File or directory called ~ (tilde) in the root of my startup volume I just noticed that I've got a mysterious file simply called ~ in the root of my harddrive. I suspect that I've created it by accident while using terminal.

I know about using ~ as an alias to quickly get to the current user and I use it extensively, so there is a reasonable chance that I've been wanting to create a new file and possibly been in the process of writing something in the lines of touch ~/new_filebut changed my mind and accidentally pressed enter after touch ~?

But that does not explain the fact that the file is 3.1MB?

Furthermore, the file appears as a file in Finder, but if I try doing either cat ~ or vim ~on it in terminal I'm told that it is actually a directory. But doing an ls -l suggests something else:

-rw-------    1 root  wheel   3.0M Apr  3 13:37 ~

And have a look at the creation date ...today at 13:37 (ie. LEET).

I discovered that there are a couple of threads where people experience the same thing and the answer seems to be some application failing to write to the user directory, but the timestamp is what makes me suspicious (tin foil hat?).

Could this be something malicious?
Can I log what or who wrote the
file somehow?
Can I figure out what's inside it?
How can I make sure
it is safe to delete this file/directory or whatever it is?

Edit: Regarding this question being marked as a duplicate, I explicitly mention that I've read the original thread and none of my four questions above have been answered in that thread, so please read the entire question before flagging.

Could this be something malicious?

No, this is simply a file on your computer that happens to be named the same as a shell expansion. It doesn't have the execute bit set, so can't be executed as a binary file by Terminal. A malicious app probably won't be creating a ~ file in the root of your hard disk.

  Can I log what or who wrote the file somehow?
  Can I figure out what's inside it?

You won't be able to find out what wrote the file unless it was a process which wrote to the console (/Applications/Utilities/Console.app). You can look for processes which are currently accessing the file with sudo opensnoop -f "/~".

Seeing which processes (if any) are accessing the file may give you an indication as to what is inside the file, or you can open it with a text editor or hex editor and certain phrases might be recognisable to you, which may give you an indication as to

  How can I make sure it is safe to delete this file/directory or whatever it is?

If opensnoop says that nothing's currently accessing it and nothing accesses it whilst you use your computer, then you're not breaking anything by removing it. It's not a file that should be there, or is required by the system to function.

For more information about this subject, see this related question:

Tilde (~) File in Macintosh Directory


Lion clean install process I'm fairly new to Macs, so I wanted to check if this was a good way to update my machine. Also I'll comment on my reqs so perhaps there's a better way.

So, I have a MBP 2010 160GB Snow Leopard latest. What I want to do is update to Lion, but, as many have suggested it may be a better idea to do a clean install. Also, I've been wanting to upgrade my HDD to a 320 or 500GB, so I guess this is a good oportunity to do both.

I was thinking in:

Purchase and download Lion and make a bootable DVD.
Backup all necessary files in TimeMachine.
Make the HDD upgrade.
Install Lion in new HDD
Restore files/settings with TimeMachine.
Enjoy!

Does this make sense? What worries me more is step 5... Do you think this is  a good approach or do you have a better alternative?

Thanks!

I wouldn't complicate things with a DVD. Just set up your new drive using an external USB adaptor (or a full drive enclosure / drive toaster) and install Lion cleanly there. You can boot to it, migrate over apps or users. It won't get the Recovery HD until you swap the drives, but you can re-run (or re-download) the Lion installer a second time to have it drop the Recovery HD on the now internal Lion drive.


I messed up Activating my Iphone 6 While activating my iphone, I accidentally skipped the section where you call and activate your phone. My phone isn't sending messages or calls, and cellular isn't working. Is there any other way I can make it work?

What section where you call and activate your phone? there was no phone call involved in setting up the iPhone 6 (or my previous iPhones either).

If you are not getting any cellular services you will need to contact your carrier. The simplest way to do this is to call 611 from the phone, but they may need you to reset the phone (losing the call) so it may be simpler to just go to your carrier's closest brick-and-mortar store.


LAN map for Mac OS X I'm looking for a program that will create a visual map of my home network, I've found lanmap but it requires too many programs to be installed to be able to run.

Does anyone knows a native Mac app for the job?

iNet for Mac is available for download at the AppStore. It is a native osx app that shows you what your mac is connected to.


How to mass apply No Access to all folders but one for a specific user account only? (This is just experimenting for educational purposes.)
I'm the admin of the computer and I have SIP disabled. I wish to imitate iOS restrictions on macOS by prohibiting access (to one other specific user account, not me) to all directories except for 'Downloads' of their equivalent 'Users' folder.
Yes, the apps they launch can freely read/write from/to 'Library' and other system-related files as they normally would, but the user just never gets to access those directories (pretty much like iOS minus the sandboxed app-data)
When using Finder (or any other file browser) they can only access their Downloads folder.
Managing their system (installing/uninstalling apps etc.) is of lesser importance as I, the admin, can do it for them when asked.
I think I can implement this by applying a 'No Access' rule to their user account for all directories, which attaches a red flag icon to the folder and does not allow one to access it when clicked.
Instead of going through every single folder to do this with cmd+I, can I do this with Terminal for all directories minus 'Downloads'?

Any access on macOS is running with the credentials of the user owning a process, so you can't prohibit user access to e.g. ~/Documents or ~/Library while still allowing applications started by the same user from accessing content stored there. I've never tried but removing user access from ~/Library most likely will even prevent the user from logging in (in a probably unpleasant way).
This is vastly different from sandboxing on iOS where each app basically has it's own sandboxed space within the filesystem (which ensures that app A can't access data of app B unless both are coded specifically to support this) and where app-specific preferences etc are stored within the sandbox itself.


Hierarchal folder permissions problems MacOS Snow Leopard and Lion: permissions set for a folder aren't inherited by new files copied into it or created in it.

This is actually the correct mode of operation for your OS. This improves the security of the operating system by ensuring that all expanded permissions must be intentionally set, rather than simply inherited. However, you can change this by using Access Control Lists (ACLs) in OS X.

Using the Terminal app in Application > Utilities, navigate to the parent folder in question using the cd command. Then, run the following commands:

chmod -R 774
chmod +a "group file_inherit,directory_inherit" .

The first commands allow everyone in the folder's user and group to access all files and folders in the directory, and allows people outside the group to read the files. The second sets those permissions to inherit  to all new files and folders within the shared directory.

For more information on chmod syntax and man page, look here:
http://ss64.com/osx/chmod.html

And here is a general chmod tutorial:
http://catcode.com/teachmod/


Installing Mac OS X Mountain lion Apple iD Error Can someone please help me with this Issue? Im trying to install mountain lion and i always get this error! My Mac Is a 2007 iMac, kind of second hand, 320.07 GB WDC Hard drive.

It means that the Apple ID that you signed in with has no record of purchasing Mountain Lion. If you purchased Mountain Lion, use the Apple ID that you used to purchase it.

Alternatively, install Mavericks as it's free.


Can an iMac connected via Ethernet to an AirPort Extreme participate in the Wireless network? I have a home network made up of an AirPort Extreme and an AirPort Express that is set to extend the network.

Currently, my iMac is connected wirelessly but I have the option to connect it via Ethernet which I would like to try out.

My question is this: a number of features in iOS and OS X take advantage of the local wireless network (e.g., sending green bubble messages from the Mac through the phone, streaming audio through something like Airfoil, printing to a WiFi-aware printer).

If I connect my iMac with a wired connection to the AirPort Extreme, will it still be able to participate in the local wireless action?

If not, can I connect it through Ethernet for Internet access but leave the WiFi on just for the local stuff?

Actually you may have a minor, if understandable, misunderstanding of how a network works.

If you plug a Mac (or a PC, or anything else...) into a base station that other computers connect to wirelessly they are all on the same network.

Neither MacOS nor Windows, Linux or anything else differentiates a wireless network with a wired network coming from the same source.

Try it out, turn WiFi off on on your Mac and then try those things out, you will find that they still work just fine.

Note that the "green bubble messages" distinguish a text message (or SMS if you prefer) that goes over only your carrier's cellular network from the "blue bubble messages" (iMessage) which use your phone's 3G or 4G networking to send data through Apple's messaging servers. This is why your blue bubble messages never get to anyone who don't have an iPhone or a Mac.


How to clean uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader DC? Having to fill a government document I was suggested to install the
last version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC on my Mac (10.10.4).

I downloaded version 2015.009.20069 from Adobe server.

This software crashed 3 times on very basic PDF documents.
I didn't find anyway to print a document.
My root umask is 022 and nonetheless, this software installed in
/Applications with a mode of 775 which is a plain violation of my security settings.

Hence I would like to uninstall it. Unfortunatly, there is no uninstaller included with the package installer.

I thought this is because this software was a basic install of just
/Applications/Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.app.
Just to be sure, I made a fast find of all files arrived on my Mac
at the same time and discovered 2083 of them within:

/Library/Application Support
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/Preferences
/Library/PriviledgedHelperTools
${HOME}/Library/Application Support
${HOME}/Library/Preferences

This isn't exactly what one can name a clean and simple install.

Is there any complete and simple uninstaller of this piece of [censored] software?

I didn't find any professionnal answer on the Adobe server.
Hence I had to make it.

Here is the shell script I wrote with the help of another tool:
Find all files modified around a known one and which I fully tested after an unwanted install (on Yosemite 10.10.4).

Of course, this shell has to be run as root. This is why I
added the set -ex to check exactly which command is executed and to exit in the case of any error.

#!/bin/sh

# shell script to clean all files created or modified
# during the install of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

# exit on error and echo commands

set -ex

# check if a directory is empty
is_empty() { [ -z `find $1/. ! -name . -print -prune | head -1` ] ; }

# rm left empty dir
rm_ifempty() {
        if is_empty $1 ; then
                rm -rf $1
        else
                echo $1 not empty
        fi ;
}

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# stop and remove daemons

cd /Library/LaunchDaemons

launchctl unload com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist
rm -f com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist

launchctl unload com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist
rm -f com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist

cd /Library/LaunchAgents
launchctl unload com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.*.plist
rm -f com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.*.plist

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# remove the application

cd /Applications
rm -rf Adobe\ Acrobat\ Reader\ DC.app

# remove system wide preferences

cd /Library/Preferences
rm -f com.adobe.reader.DC.WebResource.plist

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# remove all Application dependant ressources

cd /Library/Application\ Support/Adobe
rm -rf ARMDC
rm -rf ARMNext
rm -rf HelpCfg
rm -rf Reader/DC

# Reader/11.0 should be kept
# if Reader directory is empty remove it

rm_ifempty Reader

cd /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/
rm -rf AdobePDFViewer.plugin
rm -rf AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

cd /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools
rm -f com.adobe.ARMDC.*

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# remove HOME dependant ressources

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe
rm -rf AcroCef
rm -rf Acrobat/DC

# Acrobat/other_versions shoud be kept
# if Acrobat directory is empty remove it

rm_ifempty Acrobat

rm -rf Linguistics

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support
rm -rf CEF

# crash dumps
cd ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports
rm -rf AdobeReader_*.crash

cd ~/Library/Preferences
rm com.adobe.AdobeRdrCEF.plist

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# remove receipts files

cd /private/var/db/receipts
rm com.adobe.RdrServicesUpdater.*
rm com.adobe.acrobat.DC.*
rm com.adobe.armdc.*


Change font style for pdf's using Preview As shown in the screenshot there are no options for changing the font under tools. I went through all main menu options and no features for manipulating the color, size, etc are there.

This should be a dead simple operation - any tips here?

UPDATE  I had found references to preview having the ability to modify the text/font characteristics - specifically in the place my screenshot shows. They are not there however: is this a Yosemite specific limitation? https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4674837?start=0&tstart=0

Another update  One of the answers provided download links for pdfs. I have selected text field and right clicked. The screenshot follows: There are not any options for changing the font/font size: only the color. What is different for me?

On Yosemite (Preview 8.0), hit shift-command-A or select "Show Markup Toolbar" from the "View" menu:

Find font options by clicking on the italic A:


Contact names missing on calls and messages My contacts are on my phone and I can choose them from the contact icon. I can not choose them to make a phone call or send a message. Incoming phone calls and messages do not display the contact name, I have tuned off contacts in iCloud and then back on but it did not fix the problem.

I did something in Facebook that was sending out friend requests to everybody. On trying to stop that I lost my contacts being attached to my phone calls and messages

Maybe you had Facebook contacts on and turned it off when trying to solve the other issue.

Check on Settings > Facebook to see if contacts are on.

In order to be able to call and that incoming calls are identified your contacts need to have the phone listed. It also may need to be written in a specific format (+country code (area code) number, for instance).


Splitting LexisNexis text file For my research I have a number of text (txt or doc) files. These have a large quantity of newspaper clippings in them.

I'd like to split these text files. Each clipping starts with

  document X of Y

I know of the split command line tool - is there some way to use split to divide the large text file into the Y number of files as indicated in the larger single (doc or txt) file generated by LexisNexis?

Split allows for a regexp pattern match so simply:

split -p pattern longfile.doc

Would start each new file when pattern was found. Nailing down which regexp matches your specific file might be better suited for http://stackoverflow.com but perhaps you know how to craft regexp and didn't realize split would match a pattern.


Large zip files created in OS X cannot be opened in Windows When I compress a large directory in OS X, like 5-6 GB the resulting archive cannot be browsed in Windows / Total Commander. It hangs the app and stays at 100% cpu usage, like its trying to extract it or something. Does anybody know whats causing this? Smaller zips that have like 2-3 GB can be browsed instantly.

The built-in Archive utility on Mac OS X creates invalid Zip files when they are larger than 4 GB. This is still the case on Sierra (10.12.6).

In Windows 10, trying to open such a .zip file in Explorer fails, saying the file is invalid (which is true).

Current versions of Total Commander, 7zip and probably others have workarounds for this particular bug, and should be able to open and uncompress these large files.

Conclusion: do not create large .zip files (over 4GB) with the Mac built-in compressor but use some other tool instead.

For the gory details, see Apple Archive Utility (and ditto) and very large ZIP archives (which is, ironically, only available on archive.org since the original web site has shut down)


GRUB overwritten Refind/Mac bootloader - Unable to boot Getting desperate here, need some help

background:
I have a late 2012 imac, running OS X 10.10
Also i had Xubuntu & OpenSuse running as secondary OSs

I was using refind & everything was rosy.
Recently i updated opensuse 13.1 to 13.2 through a live USB.
This basically zapped my refind & goes directly to GRUB2 bootloader.

Now GRUB shows me options (and advanced options) for Xubuntu & opensuse 13.1 only
Though 13.2 was installed as an upgrade, it doesn't show up.
13.1 doesn't boot either even after choosing it in GRUB.
Xubuntu loads without problems.

Now the issues am having:

The Magic keyboard doesn't seem to be 'active' during the boot process, so pressing the 'option' key does not do anything.
I also think that GRUB is not recognising any other bootable USBs either.

How do i go about restoring OS X or refind?
Refind website says it's recommended to install refind via OSX if running on a mac as installing via Linux will corrupt the partitions...further

is there any alternate to pressing 'option' during boot?
(i have a normal USB keyboard connected)

Update - i was able to solve this situation.
The simplest solutions evade at times.

In case someone else runs into this, what i did-
In the grub menu i was trying to see if i could do something in the command line interface..
Just typed exit & immediately i was popped back onto refind.
Immediately booted into OS X & reinstalled refind..


Can Facebook and other iOS 5.0 apps be installed for iPhone 3G on iOS 3.1.2? I recently found my old iPhone 3G with iOS version 3.1.2. I'm planning to let my 4-year old nephew to use it. But then, I'm having a problem on installing apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. because these apps only support iOS 5.0 or later.

How can I install the apps I mentioned?

Note: This answer is no longer valid.
(See @stuffe's answer on how to install apps onto old versions of iOS)

The short answer is there is no way to install an app that was created for an iOS newer then the one you are running. You should connect the device to iTunes and see if you can get it updated to the latest 4.x iOS as many games and apps that target the 4 to 8 year old demographics will certainly work on that older OS.

The longer answer (and some related discussion on this site) is that developers of more powerful apps want to use the latest APIs that are introduced every iOS, and for a developer to create an app for an older iOS version, would mean he couldn't use the newer tools. Worse, it's more work to keep using the older API so cutting them makes schedule and financial sense. For example, a resource known as ARC (Automatic Resource Counting) has made a huge difference in reducing the time and cost of app development by automatically doing things that otherwise the developer would have had to manage.
Because these necessary APIs don't exist on pervious iOS versions, there is no way to run a newer app on an older iOS. Hopefully you can use the web versions or find acceptable apps to do the things you need this device to do to continue to be of use.


Foreign gift voucher not working I was given an iTunes gift voucher from the U.S. I'm australian and after poking around I realised I had to make a U.S. Apple ID. Once I had done this when I tried to purchase an item with this card, it says "Your purchase could not be completed" and behind that it says 'unable to connect to the Itunes store'. I'm not sure if this is a fault with me or with apple. Can anybody help?

If you have a valid US Apple ID, it should accept the US iTunes gift card.  It should not matter in which country you are physically.  I know because I do this myself.  Does your account show the correct balance, in other words was the voucher correctly processed?

I expect that there is just a small fluke and likely you should try again later to see if the purchase can be completed.


Is resetting iPhone to factory settings sufficiently secure to subsequently sell the phone? I have an iPhone 6 I want to sell. I just reset all the settings and removed all the data using the iPhone 6 option in the general settings. The phone now says "Hello" as a new phone would. I don't have a SIM card and cannot logon to the phone to confirm that all is adequately deleted.

Was the procedure I performed sufficient to adequately remove all of the data, such that another user would not reasonably be able to retrieve the data?

All the data on an iOS device is encrypted using strong encryption by default. The keys that are used to encrypted and decrypt our data are stored on the devices. When you choose to "Erase All Content and Settings" the device "obliterates" the keys. So your data is basically still there but no-one can read it anymore.

From the Apple's iOS Security document:

  Erase All Content and Settings

  The “Erase all content and settings” option in Settings obliterates all the keys in Effaceable Storage, rendering all user data on the device cryptographically inaccessible. Therefore, it’s an ideal way to be sure all personal information is removed from a device before giving it to somebody else or returning it for service.

  Important: Don’t use the “Erase all content and settings” option until device has been backed up, as there is no way to recover the erased data.

I'd recommend reading through that document if you are interested in the security features of iOS devices. There's a lot more to it, including multiple levels of encryption depending on which types of data, etc.


Problem with dots on macos mojave I updated my iMac and now I get dark blue and light blue color on the “dots” to close fullscreen instead of the normal green, yellow and red dots.

Can someone help me or this is or is this how the new OS looks?

Using the answer space as somewhere to park the image for now…

It looks  like you have a 180° Hue shift. I can achieve the same intentionally in Photoshop by doing that - note how it also affects all the icon colours in the same way too.

Two things to test.

Post a screenshot as well as your photo, to check whether it looks the same [hardware test].
Check Displays > Colour & make sure you have the correct profile chosen. Try a few different ones & see if they make any significant difference.

From comments above - & I had already tested this before posting this answer…
It doesn't look like Accessibility Colour Inversion, because even if you're set to Dark Mode, most of the Control Panel will look similar to these images, but icons such as Mouse would have turned black.


Safari hijacked by Safe Finder. Change homepage preference greyed out I must've downloaded this virus when I was prompted to download Flash thinking it was the real software. Now whenever I open Safari I get linked to this search engine. I had this issue with Chrome opening up TapuFind and a few other search engines - I fixed this by completely reinstalling Chrome.

I've tried many methods to remove it but can't get it to un-grey out:

Tried changing in the preferences panel but it's greyed out.

I don't have "Profiles" in my System Preferences.

I tried using Malwarebytes but it didn't help.
I tried a safe start with Safari (opening the app while holding down Shift) but that didn't allow me to edit the preferences panel.
Tried booting into Safe mode, but again that didn't help to let me edit the homepage.
Tried cleaning the Cache entirely but again, didn't help (as well at that list thing).
I don't think I have a modified hosts file

Is there anything else I can do to resolve this issue?

Deleting your Preferences properties file should do it.

Close Safari completely.
Open a Finder window and go to your Home folder (the one with your Username).
Go to the View menu, and select "Show View Options". (Alternatively, you can hit Command+J.)
At the very bottom of the options window, select (check the box) "Show Library Folder".
Now browse through these folders:
Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences
Once you drill down to Preferences, you'll see a file named com.apple.Safari.plist.  That's your preferences file.  Delete it.
Re-open Safari. Your preferences should all now be back to default.  You'll have to set things back the way you had them before, but you'll be rid of the messed-up settings.

That should do it!