Can I set Dark Mode dynamically on my iPhone like I can in macOS? I have a Mac with Mojave installed and I can set my desktop background to be Dynamic:

This means my desktop picture will change from a hot sunny desert picture to a cool dark night-time desert picture.

Is there a way for me to set the dark mode on my iPhone so that it does the same thing? I would like it to be bright during the day and dark at night.

Assuming you have iOS 13 installed, follow these steps:

Go to Settings
Tap on Display & Brightness
Enable the Automatic option (it’s just below the Light and Dark images at top)
This will reveal the Options setting - tap on this
You can now choose between Sunset to Sunrise or setting a Custom Schedule
Selecting the:

Sunset to Sunrise setting will mimic what macOS does with its Dynamic Desktop (i.e. change from Light to Dark mode based on your location)
Custom Schedule setting means you can manually select the exact times you want it to change from Light to Dark and back again

NOTE:

Since you're also wanting your iPhone background image (or Wallpaper) to change dynamically, you will need to go to Settings > Wallpaper and toggle the Dark Appearance Dims Wallpaper option. This doesn't work in the same was as it does in macOS, but your Wallpaper's appearance will change somewhat whenever your iPhone changes from Light to Dark and back again


How to create user only for wiki? Does anyone know how I would create a user, maybe by email address, that would only be able to access a specific wiki on lion server?

I'm trying to allow access for clients (not OS X clients) that are associated with a wiki for a project we are collaborating on.

In the OS X Server app interface. Under users you can select the user then click the button next to the plus button at the bottom and click Edit User Access to Services. Deselect everything and leave only Wiki.


Can you mirror an iPad to a TV via HDMI adapter while iPad is locked? I have an iPad connected to an HDTV using the [Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter] (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD826ZM/A/lightning-digital-av-adapter). When the iPad is on everything works nominally: the iPad screen is mirrored to the TV.

Is there a way to continue to push the screen contents when the iPad is locked or smart cover closed? I don't need to see what's on the iPad, I'm basically just using it as a projector.

I know airplay will continue video playback when a cover is closed (at least in some apps). I'm trying to do the same thing over the Digital AV Adapter cable.

In the settings screen within the "General" tab is an "Lock/Unlock" Boolean that controls whether the device sleeps when the screen cover is closed. Turning this off will maintain the screen contents when the iPad is locked or smart cover closed, but it means the device screen is on until the auto sleep timer triggers.


Is Thunderbolt on the same bus as FireWire and Ethernet on a late 2012 Mac Mini I use a late 2012 Mac Mini as a music server. My expensive, external audio digital to analogue converter (DAC) was connected to the Mini by FireWire. After a lightning strike the Mac Mini FireWire and Ethernet ports do not work.

Is it likely that the Thunderbolt port is also burnt out. I am proposing to use a TB/FW adapter.

Any suggestions please.

After a lightning strike the Mac Mini FireWire and Ethernet ports do
  not work.

The Mac mini got hit by lightening and still functions?  I am surprised that you only lost two ports

  Is it likely that the Thunderbolt port is also burnt out.

Likely, but it's  impossible to tell from this distance.  To know for certain, you need to plug in a device to test functionality.

  I am proposing to use a TB/FW adaptor.

This sounds like an excellent idea.  If you plug it in and it works/doesn't work then you have your diagnosis.

The only other suggestion other than trying things to see if it works is to run Apple Hardware Test (AHT).  Hold the D key while booting from a powered off state with the AC adapter connected.

However, it sounds like you lost some key functionality when the Ethernet port died.  It's probably a good time to take it in for service or upgrade to a newer model.

On a side note, a good (and cheap) bit of insurance is to get a UPS Back-Up Power Supply with surge protection.  I personally use CyberPower UPSs on all my Apple gear (APC everywhere else) because they are compatible with macOS.

Speaking from personal experience...in 25+ years in IT in the lightning capital of the US (Florida), I have been hit by lightning twice and never lost a single piece of gear.  I did lose two APC units to lightning strikes (both at work), but I never lost any equipment.


Copy Date Modified from Finder into Google Docs Spreadsheet I'm on a Mac, looking at a list of files in Finder. I can copy the filename into a Google Spreadsheet by selecting all, copying, and pasting directly into the spreadsheet.

The next column over in Finder is "Date Modified". I would like to get that copied into the spreadsheet as well. How can I accomplish that?

This will require (to the best of my knowledge) a trip to the Terminal.

Open Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities and CD to the directory you want to list. Once there type in

ls -al

And you will get a listing similar to this:

MAC:~ steve$ ls -al
total 56
drwxr-xr-x+ 23 steve  staff    782 Apr 27 18:20 .
drwxr-xr-x   6 root   admin    204 Nov  2  2014 ..
-r--------   1 steve  staff      7 Nov  2  2014 .CFUserTextEncoding
-rw-r--r--@  1 steve  staff  14340 May  6 17:51 .DS_Store
drwxrwxrwt@  3 steve  staff    102 Sep 12  2013 .TemporaryItems
drwx------   2 steve  staff     68 Jun  1 18:56 .Trash
-rw-r--r--@  1 steve  staff    291 Sep 12  2013 .apdisk
-rw-------   1 steve  staff   1858 May  4 11:14 .bash_history
drwx------  11 steve  staff    374 May 16 18:12 .dropbox
drwxr-xr-x   3 steve  staff    102 Aug 10  2013 .plex
drwxr-xr-x   3 steve  staff    102 Dec 29  2013 .plexht
drwxr-xr-x   3 steve  staff    102 Jun 26  2014 .python-eggs
drwxr-xr-x   3 steve  staff    102 Aug  9  2013 .xbmc
drwxr-xr-x   4 steve  staff    136 Mar 26 13:34 BitTorrent Sync
drwx------+ 10 steve  staff    340 May 26 10:55 Desktop
drwx------+  6 steve  staff    204 Dec 14  2013 Documents
drwx------+  5 steve  staff    170 Apr 30 12:44 Downloads
drwx------@ 20 steve  staff    680 May 28 08:29 Dropbox
drwx------@ 52 steve  staff   1768 Nov  8  2014 Library
drwx---r-x+  9 steve  staff    306 Jun  4 18:30 Movies
drwx------+  5 steve  staff    170 May  5 11:57 Music
drwx------+  3 steve  staff    102 May  5 19:00 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x+  4 steve  staff    136 Aug  8  2013 Public
iMini2:~ steve$

(I've customized my shell a bit so your prompt will look a bit different)

And in there you will have file dates you need.

If you spend a little time with google and the man pages built into the O/S you will find ways to alter the output to suit your particular needs.


iMovie doesn't appear to be able to use all the available space on iPad When trying to save a 15-minute movie from iMovie in order to upload it in the YouTube app, I frequently get the message "Storage Full: There is not enough space left on this device. You cannot share until you free some space."
This despite the fact that Settings shows "28.8 GB of 64 GB Used" and that iMovie is using only 1.29 GB of that. (It also shows that iMovie was "Last Used: 12/12/18" which is clearly false; is that a clue that the storage graph is inaccurate?)
How can I get iMovie to use this 35G available space for its export?
iPad Air 2, iPadOS 14.2, iMovie 2.3.2 (5087)

I talked to several advisors at Apple Support, and eventually learned that this is a known bug that has impacted others besides me, and that engineers are working on a solution, but it is not known when that solution might be released.
Meanwhile the only workaround, since this is our only Apple device, is to download the clips that comprise this video from iCloud to another computer, edit the video again in an editing app that runs on that computer, and upload it from that computer.


Improptu restarting of Macbook Pro while in Sleep Mode A week ago I bought a Macbook Pro Retina (mid 2014) version - and in the first few days of running it I have noticed about 4-5 times that the Macbook occasionally restarts itself - so far always in sleep mode.

Even if the lid is closed, I can hear the opening chime when you restart a Mac.

I'm concerned that this is a hardware issue and one I'll have to go to Apple with, but I wanted to know if anyone else had this issue that they have already resolved, in case this is something that's due to software rather than hardware.

I don't believe there's a heat issue (I don't feel it running hot), and I don't believe there's a setting in 'System preferences' or similar that's causing this. Also, I haven't seen any note on the Macbook about a kernel panic.

This is almost always hardware. Each time this happens, when you notice it, run sudo sysdiagnose from terminal.app and keep track of the times. You might find some clues looking at the system.log in each case to narrow down what was happening before the failure.

Also, you can start the Apple service online - sometimes they offer to run a diagnostic remotely, but usually that's for iOS and not Mac, but it might not hurt to request info on what a hardware repair might look like and/or cost from Apple. See https://locate.apple.com for your options there.


How do I use FTP via the command line to download all files? I tried to use Filezilla and Cyberduck for file transfer over a simple FTP server. The problems I have is:

Filezilla: When I use it for file transferring, I check the "Activity Monitor", the "% CPU" usage is like 150% - 200%. I was shocked. My mac start to become lag, so I stop it.
Cyberduck: When I download a folder from ftp, about 60mb, inside have small files (*.php, *.jpg etc). It took about 8 hours to download the files(there is a time indication of how much time left in cyberduck). If I use filezilla, it only takes about 1-3 mins. I notice, when using Cyberduck, it keep setting the permissions first, not really transfer the files directly. And it took quite long.

Thus, I went to google, and I found that mac can use Terminal to connect to ftp server and download files.

ftp hostname
mget * (download all the files)

Now, another problem, let say, in my ftp I have:

- blog(folder)
    - php(folder)
    - img(folder)
- others folder

I want to download "blog" and its subsequent folders and files. Can I do it in 1 command line? If no, how do you download my "blog" folder?

I remember in unix/linux command, there is something like this:

- remove -R blba

which remove the folder blba recursively (its subsequent folders and files), I wonder if mac's terminal ftp command can support this.

Please advise

The curl program could help you download an FTP file, but it specializes in one-off URLs (http, ftp, etc). It is possible to use Perl to script something up to list then download, but its much easier to use wget!

However, wget is not a standard program of OSX so you will need to manually download, compile, and install it (relatively easy task, as long as you have Xcode installed.)

Install Xcode from the App Store.
Download wget source
Open a Terminal into the directory you saved the source.

Run the following commands:

    $ tar xfvz wget-latest.tar.gz
    $ cd wget-*
    $ ./configure && make

The wget binary will be produced in a src subdirectory. From here you can run the binary directly as ./src/wget or install into /usr/local/bin:

    $ sudo make install

Now, you only need to run wget -r  ftp://username:passwd@server/path/to/download and your FTP site will be recursively downloaded from that path!

Just remember that the /path/to/download is relative to the username you login with... and FTP passwords are notoriously unsecure :)


Proper backup procedure for upgrading to iOS 5? I keep telling my Dad to upgrade his iPod touch from iOS 4 to iOS 5, and his response is "but I'll lose all my data". Can I be confident that simply backing up by right clicking in iTunes and clicking "backup" from the menu will backup the iPod exactly as it is, so that it can be restored with the only difference being the new OS? I seem to remember reading that iOS devices keep two partitions, one for data and one for the OS, so in theory this should be good to go. I'm just not sure if there's anything obvious that I'm missing.

Does backing up in iTunes preserve absolutely everything from photos to contacts to home screen layout? If not, is there a way to back it up manually?

Well, your backups store all of your data, excluding media and apps.  But, if you have been syncing with iTunes, all of your media should be already there.  And, the upgrade process does not wipe data so you should be good to go.


iPad being using in wall mount battery swollen Ive got an install with an iPad mini 4 installed in a wall mount running locked to a single app. The wall mount has a POE to USB adaptor built in.

The iPad is powered by a TP link POE adaptor : https://www.tp-link.com/uk/business-networking/accessory/tl-poe150s/

The install has been live since Oct 16. Today i noticed that the iPad has "popped', see photo here : https://imgur.com/a/AHAdkMM - Presumably the battery has swollen.

Has anyone else had similar issues with an iPad in a wall mount on constant charge ?

Can this be avoided by using a different charger rather than the POE adaptor ?

In another install i have the same setup, but power the iPad from the POE switch, i could programme the switch to turn off the POE for an hour every night at mid night would that be a good idea ?

This always (eventually) happens if you use a Lithium battery long enough (and assuming nothing else breaks first).

It also happens prematurely and would be covered by AppleCare / Warranty even if you do everything right in less common circumstances.

To counteract this use newer hardware on iOS 11.3 or higher which have charge management features to optimize for always plugged in situations.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208710

Secondly, the cooler you can keep the battery, the less likely thermal fatigue will accelerate aging and eventual failure, but this expansion or a refusal to charge ultimately happens even if you keep the device permanently cool and properly managed and charged.

The main thing you can control is when the battery discharges and when it charges. A lower wattage charger is probably marginally safer since it will generate less heat when charging since the charge takes longer, so I would possibly consider very lower wattage chargers if you had a fleet of 100 of these and never needed a fast charge and could get away with trickle or low charge rates.

I wouldn’t change anything based on less than 3 or 4 failures since you’ll waste more time and resources swapping out chargers and not get much data in return. Once you’ve seen one iPad get a swollen battery, you’ll know how to gently touch the screen and detect the bulging before it separates the glass and get it in for diagnosis and a spare battery. Your failed unit or iFixit will show where on each screen to test for pressure / contact on the backside of the LCD panel.

I like the idea of powering them down somewhat regularly, but I don’t have evidence that in a population it will make any difference whatsoever. For people that need the battery to work, keeping it used in all ranges of the charge / discharge cycle can probably help marginally - but if you always run on power, it won’t really matter if you have an accurate measure of charge status and could get away with every 6 months draining and wiping and setting them up so you know which are starting to age.


Can't un-mute sound when mini-jack unplugged Situation: when I'm at my desk, I have speakers plugged in to my Macbook Pro and everything is working fine.

The problem occurs  the next time I boot the computer without speakers connected: I'm now unable to mute or change the volume at all, it's set to maximum and greyed out (see screenshots in attachment).

I can solve this by plugging in some headphones, father that the option becomes available again. After that, it works again but the problem reappears after a reboot.

I've had this machine for about 2 years now, haven't had this issue until I installed Lion (first the GM release and now the version from the App store) so this feels like a software issue. I didn't upgrade to Lion but did a clean install and I've tried it with another user account as well, same issue.

Any suggestions?

If you are seeing the greyed out output volume when no headphones or plug is physically present than the physical switch to detect a plug missed the unplug event.

The system things you still have speakers connected and is routing the information to the jack.

Check for lint with a magnifying glass or very gently blow some clean compressed air. Service might be an option if this is something that happens very often.

Responding to the comments about this happening each time at reboot, that would indicate that the hardware is somehow saving headphones on as a default setting or the hardware is mis reading things at boot. Resetting NVRAM might help if it's a saved setting issue.

There are only 3 things in play here:

The physical package in the jack that is responsible for sensing if anything is inserted and telling if it's a metal jack or an optical jack.
The brains of the hardware - storing settings in NVRAM and turning the physical sensor into something the software can show you on the screen.
The OS - Lion or Snow Leopard

I would be very surprised it's Lion related - but I've seen strange things before where software doesn't make the correct read on a sensor. It's good you can restore things temporarily by plugging / unplugging a jack. If you took it to a repair shop, they would hopefully test your mac with Snow Leopard again to rule out lion before doing an actual repair on the jack or the hardware. If this is something you can depend on - it happens each and every time, you might test by booting from a backup or installing Snow Leopard onto a USB drive and testing. It sure sounds like an odd but reproducible thing you have happening to your mac.


Code completion in TextWrangler I've been looking for it, but I can't seem a way to enable it. Is there a way to enable code completion in TextWrangler?

I need it for C/C++.

TextWrangler does not natively support code completion BUT because it is so extensively
AppleScript-able, such capabilities can be added on. In particular, BBAutoComplete adds code completion features to TextWrangler. BBAutoComplete is free (donations accepted).

Disclosure: I have no connection to C-Command Software, but I did file a bug report that led to the release of the latest version of BBAutoComplete, and served as a volunteer beta tester. It's pretty amazing software.


Not enough space on disk to install App Store app, but which one? I get this popup about once a day, but I don't know what "product" App Store is talking about.

I tried going to Launchpad, but nothing seemed to be in the middle of downloading (no icon was greyed out). I have 14GB space free, so whatever it is, it would need to be pretty big. The biggest I could imagine would be xcode, but I already have that installed.

Is there a way to find out what this popup is referring to?

Check the "purgeable" space of your APFS disk with Disk Utilities. It seems Finder count this space in free space, but not App Store.

But you can trick macOS to clean up APFS by creating a huge garbage file, then deleting it.

You can create a huge file that will force macOS to clean purgeable files to free you space. In order to do so, type this command in a terminal:

dd if=/dev/zero of=~/hugefile bs=15m

It will create a file called hugefile in your home folder, which you can check the size with Get Info and stop when it's big enough for you, using ControlC. Or you can simply let it run until you are out of space in the disk and things start to stop working.

This command takes a long time to allocate the memory, you can also stop it when it's 5~10GB.

In practical, what I have done earlier is letting dd run for about 30 seconds, then killing it with ctrl+c, and deleting the file:

rm ~/hugefile

Hope this will help in your case too. Then App Store happily installed the update if it is trying to udpate.


Boot Camp: The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned I recently reinstalled my macOS from Catalina to High Sierra to try and install Windows 7/8, but I keep running into a problem: The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned. You must have at least 40 GB of free space available.
Here is the startup disk:

and diskutil list:
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         1000.0 GB  disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1000.0 GB  disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh SSD - Data    715.8 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 119.9 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume macOS High Sierra       107.6 GB   disk1s5

I tried the time machine solution, it didn't work, so I assume it's got something to do with me downgrading to High Sierra. Any help?
EDIT: I tried manually to create a partition via Disk Utility but it wouldn't let me, only a maximum of 28.5GB.
Just in case, I'm ready to erase the Macintosh SSD - Data Volume which I haven't erased when reinstalling macOS High Sierra, I have all the data backed up on my hard drive via time machine.

That 715.8 GB "Macintosh SSD - Data" looks to be a remnant of Catalina. Catalina creates a System disk and a Data disk and uses firmlinks to make them appear as one drive in Finder.  But the System disk is read only.
Meanwhile your macOS High Sierra volume is using only that volume for everything.
I think if you delete the APFS Volume Macintosh SSD - Data 715.8 GB disk1s1 you'll have enough free space.  You backed up your data right?


Creating a Bridged Network Connection in Terminal Okay, I'm struggling a bit here. I'm not all that good with Terminal and sorting out network issues using it but I've managed to scrape by so far.

Without using Internet Sharing (because controlling that via Terminal as per my question here doesn't actually seem to work in Yosemite) how can I share my internet connection from one interface (lets say en0) to another (again, lets say en1)?

I kind of understand that Internet Sharing creates a bridge (usually called bridge100) and then uses bootpd (I think) to establish a DHCP server and NAT to route all traffic from 192.168.2.xxx (which is the bridged network) through to your primary network.

How can I get the same result without using the Sharing pref pane?

Here is an interesting solution to share internet with a layer-2 bridge but without using NAT/DHCP (not required)/Internet Sharing Pref Panel at all:

Create a shell script ethernet-bridge.sh in /usr/local/sbin with the following content:

#! /bin/sh
# ######################################
#  coded by Nat!
#  2013 Mulle kybernetiK
#  GPL

command=${1:-start}
shift
proxyarp=${1:-no}
shift

start()
{
        sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
        sysctl -w net.inet.ip.fw.enable=1
        if [ "$proxyarp" != "no" ]
        then
                sysctl -w net.link.ether.inet.proxyall=1
        fi

        ifconfig bridge0 create
        ifconfig bridge0 addm en0
        ifconfig bridge0 addm en1
        ifconfig bridge0 up
        if [ $? -eq 0 ]
        then
                syslog -s "Ethernet Bridge is up"
        else
                syslog -s "Ethernet Bridge failure"
        fi
}

stop()
{
        ifconfig bridge0 destroy

        sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=0
        sysctl -w net.inet.ip.fw.enable=0
        sysctl -w net.link.ether.inet.proxyall=0

        syslog -s "Ethernet Bridge is down"
}

case "$command" in
        start*) start
                ;;

        stop*)  stop
                ;;
esac

and make it executable:

chmod 755 /usr/local/sbin/ethernet-bridge.sh

Then put the following XML into /Library/LaunchDaemons as com.ethernet-bridge.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.ethernet-bridge.plist</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/usr/local/sbin/ethernet-bridge.sh</string>
        </array>
        <key>UserName</key>
        <string>root</string>
        <key>GroupName</key>
        <string>wheel</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</plist>

Then modify the file and load it:

sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethernet-bridge.plist
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethernet-bridge.plist
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethernet-bridge.plist

The plist will enable the bridge mode while booting.

Check with ifconfig -a if the bridge is visible.

To stop the bridge mode just enter:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/ethernet-bridge.sh stop

To restart the bridge mode just enter:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/ethernet-bridge.sh start

Now set up the clients with a fixed IP/netmask/Gateway (the internal IP-address of the briding machine)/DNS or properly set up a DHCP server on the bridging machine.

Additionally you have to set up a static route on your router to the network  you provide Internet Sharing to (in your example (en1)).

Until now the syslog messages don't work - I'll try to improve the script pertinently.

A similar approach is outlined here, but I didn't get it to work in Yosemite


Read .pages files in Windows I used a Mac from about 2008 to 2012. I uploaded .pages files on to Dropbox and have since lost access to this Mac, but I have access to the Dropbox where the files are. I am currently using Windows 10 and would like to read these on my Windows machine.

However, all the fixes I've looked up seem to rely on viewing some kind of Preview.pdf by converting the .pages to a .zip. My machine actually auto downloads these .pages files off dropbox as a .zip automatically, however in the QuickLook folder there's only a thumbnail.jpg. No preview. Aside from that there's some kind of index.xml.gz and Pkginfo. Is there any way to be able to read this old file?

Well, it's not exactly a solution, more of a workaround, but Google Docs now read .pages files and will in many instances be able to show the contents. It depends on what version and how complex the .pages documents are.

The current version of Pages will be able to open Pages '09 files if you have a Mac owning friend.

Thirdly, if you rename the file extension to zip, and unzip them, you will see a preview of the contents that can be of some use to you.


Device to extend bluetooth range? Is there device that will extend the range of Bluetooth? We currently have a Mac Mini setup to control a board room, but we have problems with a magic mouse when it is on the other side of the room from the mac mini.

Yes. They're called "Bluetooth Extenders." I have never used one so I can't offer specific advice, but I did look into them once for a similar problem.

Here's the one I planned on buying. Note that I never did so this is not a recommendation, just a suggestion: http://www.amazon.com/Miccus-Home-RTX-Bluetooth-Transmitter/dp/B00713RSE0


Mac OS booting till 100 and hanging A week ago my Mac stopped booting. It goes till 99-100% and stops. Booting in safe mode does not help.
I brought my Mac to restore it. They have reinstalled my OS and restored my files. It was working fine at this point.

But, I need all the programs that are there installed and I have restored everything from a backup and got the same problem.

Any ideas what it can cause and what I can do against it?

MacBook Pro late 2013, macOS 10.12.6

I suspect DSMOS is corrupt.

DSMOS stands for Don't Steal Mac OS and is a kernel extension (kext) that's highly encrypted.  If that get's corrupt, there's pretty much no way to recover - you need to do a fresh install.

Solution

Do a clean install of Sierra then, using Migration Assistant move your data and programs over.  It sounds like you are doing a full recovery - don't do this.  Use Migration Assistant.


How can I change the speech rate while text-to-speech is going on? Is it possible to do that? I currently activate the text-to-speech feature by hitting CMD+SHIFT+S. However, while reading textbooks, I sometimes need to go slower to increase understanding, or pause. How do I achieve that?

Thanks!

Go into system preferences and into speech, then select the tab "Text to speech" the second option down is speaking rate, adjust the slider :)


External hard drive unplugged while running iTunes...Corrupted files I have nearly 2TB of Movies and TV Shows copied to iTunes on an external hard drive. Last night, I was unplugging a cord behind my desk and I accidentally unplugged my HD. Well, when I plugged it back in and tried to open iTunes, it said that it was corrupted.

I couldn't figure out a work around for this so I made a new iTunes Library and pointed it to my media. I still couldn't get it to recognize my movies etc. This morning I tried to manually open one of the movies with Quicktime player and it says that it is not a movie file. HELP!!! This was days and days of work to transfer my DVD collection over.

The first recommendation is to run Disk Utility to repair the external drive. If it is a simple corruption Disk Utility can occasionally fix it.

The next step from that would be to run a higher-end data tree repair utility, such as Disk Warrior. This software costs a bit of money but is better at repairing serious directory structure issues such as this.

You could also attempt a software-based data recovery using a program like Data Rescue. This software is just a bit pricey though, and at some point you will want to consider how valuable this data is. For instance, if it's a simple matter of re-downloading purchased movies or re-ripping DVDs it may be worth saving the money.


Disable iPhone numeric keyboard auto-toggle When using the iOS keyboard and inserting an apostrophe or a space the keyboard automatically toggles from the numeric screen back to the qwerty input screen. I'm finding this really annoying, so how do I turn this 'feature' off?

E.g. When typing in a UK postcode or commenting numbers in a spreadsheet cell

I only have experience with iOS 7 and iOS 8. Sadly I don't have any experience with iOS 6 or lower.

Ok I might have found a solution:

IOS 7, 8 AND 9 beta 1 and 2:

1) Go to settings, then keyboards

2) Uncheck ALL the options on that page.

3) Test it (in the app where it's affecting you)

OR:

Just uncheck split keyboard and see if that works.


App to change pitch of the sound coming out from the mac I use a mac retina and want to change the pitch coming out of my mac. Its like if I am listening to music, I can up the pitch (like in garage band) and make it sound like a chipmunk singing. Is there any free apps to do that?

I am not aware of anything that will do this task in real time as it requires some math to do the pitch shift. It is possible to take the alert sounds and process them to a different pitch like you said using an audio editor and then assign custom sounds, but an ongoing pitch shift would take some processing and I do not believe that there is a solution for that currently.

I have experimented with changing sample rates and the system adjusts for that and plays the proper pitch so it is not a simple task.


Is there a "Focus Editor" shortcut key in Xcode 4? Cmd-1..n are handy for changing and focusing the different navigator tabs so I don't have to take my fingers off the keyboard, but is there a shortcut for giving the focus back to the editor after focusing, say, the Project navigator with Cmd-1?

Aw crud, there are all sorts of "move focus to" commands in the Navigate menu that I somehow missed earlier... The combo for "Move Focus to Editor..." is Cmd-J, for example.


Connect 3 monitors to Macbook Pro (2018) using one cable? I want to have three external monitors connected to my Macbook Pro. I want to try keep it as neat as possible so, are there any hubs or ways I can connect three external monitors to my Macbook Pro with one cable?
Previously I've had two external monitors but an issue I ran into is how my Macbook would position the monitors every time I unplugged and plugged them back in (probably because my mac couldn't distinguish each monitor uniquely) so I want to try and avoid those kind of issues.

You can totally do this. Pick any AMD GPU that meets your needs - there are several that drive 3 to 6 displays in the $120 to $200 price point and put that in a thunderbolt 3 EGPU case.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0745GHN53/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_DT.yFbXV1S9X3

Pretty much anything you can put in a PCI slot will work over thunderbolt and one cable. Basically you’re putting a GPU for the new Mac Pro like the Radeon Pro W5500X MPX Module in an external enclosure.

https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MXM52AM/A


If I exclude a folder from Time Machine, will it be deleted from old backups? I want to save space on my backup drive by excluding some folders I don't care about. I also want them to be deleted from my old backups so I can keep them for longer.

If I add folder exclusions, will the folders also be deleted from my backup drive?

No - once a file is saved to a backup drive, you retain the history of how that file looked.

Similarly - an exclusion only changes what is considered to be backed up going forward, the exclusion does not apply retroactively.

You would need to enter Time Machine and explicitly delete all backups of the excluded folder to have that cleanup of backed up files be surgically removed leaving the rest of the back up intact. The gear control allows you to select delete all backups of the selected file(s) and folder(s)

There’s also hope we can use a command line tool to script the gear UI removal of a specific file / folder from the command line.

Is it possible to use `tmutil delete` or another command to prune one file from multiple backups?
Delete all backups of specific file/folder with tmutil

The only exception is if Time Machine runs out of space to make a new backup. Then and only then, when the Time Machine drive becomes full, backup copies of a file will potentially be erased. The oldest backups get purged first, so most people can get back the file from backups weeks or months ago even if the one from two years ago gets deleted.


Is "ignore volume ownership" the default for non-system partitions? I realise it is the default for external drives but not sure about other partitions on a users system drive. I don't have separate partitions on my machine so I can't look for myself ;-)

I only have an NTFS partition next to my HFS+ partition, so I can't verify this. But all my external's have "ignore volume ownership" disabled and I'm pretty sure I didn't set those.

Why do you need to know this? It's hard to help without some background information.


Automator service for FTP I am currently using SFTP on my MacBook to perform file transfers with my brother's Linux (Ubuntu) system. Every time we need to share a file, I start the FTP server on my Mac by running the following command on Terminal:

  /Users/Amit/Documents/Scriptlets/ftps.sh open

The content of this script is as follows:

#!/bin/sh
if [ $1 = 'open' ]; then
sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist
echo SFTP opened
fi
if [ $1 = 'close' ]; then
sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist
echo SFTP closed
fi
if [ $1 = 'check' ]; then
ftp localhost
echo check
fi

Once done, I give my local IP address, user name, and password to my brother who is already connected to my Mac over wifi and he uses that information to establish an FTP connection with me and share files.

The problem with this process is that I need to open Terminal every time I want to run this command and I need to enter my password there. Is there any way to automate this so that I just click an automator menu item on any of my Finder windows and feed it the password programmatically without manually opening up the Terminal program? Also, is there any way to ensure that my brother (or anyone I am providing my username and password) is able to access only a designated folder (preferably, Public folder) during the FTP session and nothing else?

Here's what I'd prefer to do every time I need to perform a file share with someone: I'd like to be able to just click on an (Automator) icon on my finder menubar to activate FTP on my system. Upon clicking, the Automator action should just open up FTP server on my laptop (the password being fed to it through the code itself) and throw a popup confirming the connection as active with the IP address that I need to relay to my brother so he could attempt to connect. Once the file transfer is done, I would like to just click on the same icon again and get a popup confirming that FTP has been closed. Is it too complicated a process?

Why use Automator when you can stay in bash?

I found a really cool little script called appify that will instantly turn other scripts into actual applications. You can try it a few times to observe its behavior. Since you already use bash, I am hoping that this answer as an alternative to exactly what you are asking for is acceptable.

The idea is to split your script into 3 distinct scripts:

1: start ftp service on preferred network interface only

 #!/bin/bash
 #start ftp service
 #sudo="/usr/bin/sudo"
 #launchctl="/bin/launchctl"
 say="/usr/bin/say"
 networksetup="/usr/sbin/networksetup"
 tail="/usr/bin/tail"
 head="/usr/bin/head"
 cut="/usr/bin/cut"
 curl="/usr/bin/curl"
 currentInterface=$(networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder |tail +2 |head -n1 |cut -c5-12)
 getExternaladdress=$(curl ipecho.net/plain)
 SiriSays="say -v Samantha"
 #sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist
 #your command will start ftp on all network interfaces
 if [ "$currentInterface" = "Airport" ];
      then
           networksetup -setpassiveftp Airport on
      else
           networksetup --setpassiveftp Ethernet on
 fi
 $SiriSays "ftp service has been initiated for the"
 echo $currentInterface |$SiriSays; $SiriSays "interface"
 $SiriSays "Your external IP address is"
 echo $getExternaladdress | $SiriSays
 exit

2: stop ftp service

 #!/bin/bash
 #stop ftp service
 #sudo="/usr/bin/sudo"
 #launchctl="/bin/launchctl"
 networksetup="/usr/sbin/networksetup"
 say="/usr/bin/say"
 tail="/usr/bin/tail"
 head="/usr/bin/head"
 cut="/usr/bin/cut"
 currentInterface=$(networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder |tail +2 |head -n1 |cut -c5-12)
 SiriSays="say -v Samantha"
 #sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist
 #your command requires sudo
 if [ "$currentInterface" = "Airport" ];
      then
           networksetup -setpassiveftp Airport off
      else
           networksetup -setpassiveftp Ethernet off
 fi
 $SiriSays "ftp service has been terminated"
 exit

3: check ftp service status

 #!/bin/bash
 #check ftp service status
 networksetup="/usr/sbin/networksetup"
 say="/usr/bin/say"
 tail="/usr/bin/tail"
 head="/usr/bin/head"
 cut="/usr/bin/cut"
 currentInterface=$(networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder |tail +2 |head -n1 |cut -c5-12)
 SiriSays="say -v Samantha"
 if [ "$currentInterface" = "Airport" ];
      then
           networksetup -getpassiveftp Airport |$SiriSays
      else
           networksetup -getpassiveftp Ethernet |$SiriSays
 fi
 exit

Then apply the appify script to them

What you're left with is three little apps to put in your dock that, when launched, will start or stop the ftp service on your preferred network interface, or tell you what's up with ftp, respectively, and should not require any admin password. I only had time to test the first one, so if they don't work as I hope they do, then you can comment out or delete my logic and use your launchctl method.


How to dump the content of keychain from the shell? I'm testing the following command-line in the Terminal:

sudo security dump-keychain -d login.keychain

which I'd like to use to save all my passwords into a file.

However when I run it, it keep asking me for each item if I want to allow the access, despite I'm selecting 'Always Allow'.

Is there any workaround?

There is Keychaindump tool written by Juuso Salonen which is a proof-of-concept tool for reading OS X keychain passwords as root.

Basic usage:

$ sudo ./keychaindump ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Example output:

$ sudo ./keychaindump
[*] Searching process 15 heap range 0x7fa809400000-0x7fa809500000
[*] Searching process 15 heap range 0x7fa809500000-0x7fa809600000
[*] Searching process 15 heap range 0x7fa809600000-0x7fa809700000
[*] Searching process 15 heap range 0x7fa80a900000-0x7fa80ac00000
[*] Found 17 master key candidates
[*] Trying to decrypt wrapping key in /Users/juusosalonen/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
[*] Trying master key candidate: b49ad51a672bd4be55a4eb4efdb90b242a5f262ba80a95df
[*] Trying master key candidate: 22b8aa80fa0700605f53994940fcfe9acc44eb1f4587f1ac
[*] Trying master key candidate: 1d7aa80fa0700f002005043210074b877579996d09b70000
[*] Trying master key candidate: 88edbaf22819a8eeb8e9b75120c0775de8a4d7da842d4a4a
[+] Found master key: 88edbaf22819a8eeb8e9b75120c0775de8a4d7da842d4a4a
[+] Found wrapping key: e9acc39947f1996df940fceb1f458ac74b877579f54409b7
xxxxxxx:192.168.1.1:xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx@gmail.com:login.facebook.com:xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx@gmail.com:smtp.google.com:xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx@gmail.com:imap.google.com:xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx:twitter.com:xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx@gmail.com:www.google.com:xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx:imap.gmail.com:xxxxxxx
...

Other tools:

CocoaBeans/KeychainDump at GitHub
dumpkeychain from EnCase App Central (Windows)

See also:

Breaking into the OS X keychain
Examining Mac OS X User & System Keychains
Convert OS X Keychain exported entries into logins for 1Password import at GitHub Gist


How can I add an audio menu in the Finder? What is the easiest way to add menu item to finder that switched audio from internal to external(headphone). I have to switch back and forth often and going into control panel every time is a pain in Snow leopard. Is there a way to do this with Applescript?

You can ⌥-click the volume menu in the menu bar to quickly select which audio output device to use.


Why "Documents & Data" is consuming so much space in iPhone? Looking at the iTunes storage information associated to my iPhone 5S, it seems that Documents & Data occupies around 3.5 GB of space.

On the other hand, on the iPhone, Documents & Data stored on iCloud are around 300 MB (so much less).

Which value should I trust? Moreover, if iCloud just requires 300 MB to store documents and data, what is the meaning of the 3.5 GB data that appears on iTunes?

Well it is normal. You can refer to this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201656

If storage amounts on an iOS device differ from what you see reported in iTunes

  Since iTunes categorizes cached files as Other, reported usage for
  Music or Videos might differ. To view usage on your iOS device, go to
  Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage.


Keep dual screen active with MBP and iMac, after hibernation/sleep I have an older iMac (2009) as a second monitor for a MacbookPro (2015). Both are running El Capitan. By hooking up a thunderbolt cable I can activate the second monitor feature using Cmd+F2 just fine. I only have one (wired) keyboard, so once activated I pull out the plug from the iMac into the MBP.

However, a couple of times a day I leave my system and it'll go into energy saving or hibernation. Afterwards, the dual monitor link is broken. I have to switch the keyboard from MBP => iMac, press Cmd+F2 and replug the cable back into the MBP.

It's kind of a nuisance really. Is there a neat way to prevent the "link" from breaking when the system goes to sleep?

Of course I'm not really interested in disabling sleep mode entirely, nor using a tool like caffeine for this purpose.

You are probably best served by this app here:

https://github.com/duanefields/VirtualKVM

Download here: https://github.com/duanefields/VirtualKVM/releases

Basically "Automatically toggles Bluetooth and Target Display Mode when you connect a Macbook to your iMac via Thunderbolt."


Command Line Firewall I have decided to add a firewall to my computer and have heard of applications such as 'Little Snitch' which help to give me control of inbound and outbound connections on my mac running macOS Sierra. Is there (free) application which would allow me to configure the settings via the command line? The default firewall is also an option, however, I would like to determine the ports myself and preferably the server address that is sending or receiving data from my computer like little snitch allows.To review what I want, Is there an application which would allow me to block ingoing and outbound connections on my mac through the command-line while allowing me to say what ports and addresses are allowed to communicate on my computer? It would also be good if the application is free.

There is, and it comes with macOS by default.

Little Snitch is an application firewall, that's a whole different story. It blocks applications from accessing the network.

Assuming you want to block ports and servers, just configure pf from the command line to do what you want. Start by reading through "man pfctl", or e.g. How to block abusive IP addresses with pf in OpenBSD?

If you want to have a GUI after all, you might want to check out the (free) IceFloor to configure pf.

To determine the ports yourself and preferably the server address that is sending or receiving data from your computer use the build in command "nettop".


Locked out of Apple ID I changed my Apple ID password sometime in the last year. I don't really remember the password, since I use Touch ID almost exclusively. I wanted to enter the password on my computer, and could not get the password right, thus now I am locked out for 8 hours at a time.

I do not have my recovery key. Two-factor authentication is active.

So now I'm reduced to trying one possible password every 8 hours. I try once, get rejected, get put on an 8 hour freeze.

Is there any way to get out of this cycle? If I wait 48 hours (or something else), will I get a fresh crack at trying multiple passwords?

If you are being directed to enter a recovery key, your Apple ID uses Two-Step authentication, and not Two-Factor which doesn't require a recovery key.

If you lose your recovery key, you can create another one if you have a trusted device that is already signed into the account.  Without access to another trusted device, and without knowing your recovery key, you will be unable to sign in and generate a replacement key. See the FAQs at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204152.

If you use your Apple ID to log into your computer (as it sounds like the OP does), in some cases you can remove the link between the local macOS account and the Apple ID so that you can sign into the Mac and regain access to all of your data.  If you have a second Admin account, or if you are able to force the system to create a new one, then you will be able to manipulate your account to disconnect from Apple ID, and potentially create a new one, however your access to the existing Apple ID is lost if you can't provide the recovery key, and any data associated with the account will also remain unavailable.  This is a particular problem if you have been using iCloud Drive to store your Desktop and Documents.

In this case, you will be better off contacting your local AppleCare support line to assist you to regain access to your system, as they are likely to have either tools or process which can assist you in this case.


macOS Mail app displaying postal address next to email address I've reinstalled my dad's MacBook Air and now, for some reason,
we can see the postal address next to name and surname in Mail.
I've attached a photo.

As you can see, the photo shows a random email sent to us displaying
name and surname like it should, but also the postal address. How can I disable it so the postal address is not shown?

That is a Junk mail.

What they put in the TO field you can not change.

Somehow they have your Dads address in they records and put it in the TO field for some obscure reason.

However if you wish not to see emails like that then

Select that email

Click on Mail (top left)

then Preferences

and select rules

Now set it up as shown, and emails from CheapOAir will be Automatically deleted. You can undo this if you want to see them again.


Macbook pro can't access web Really strange problem just started on my 2010 mbp running mountain lion.

I reset my machine because I was having problems with outlook crashing (this is not strange well knows anyone who tries to make microsoft products work on a mac), and upon reset for some reason I can't access the web.

The machine appears to connect and obtain an IP address fine on wifi, but no traffic will come through, can't access web pages in any browser, FTP and mail clients don't work.
I tried plugging in the Ethernet cable and again the machine appears to connect without any issue, but no traffic will come through.

Other machines in my house are working fine.

Any ideas?

Update: I've also since found that if I login on this machine as a guest or as another user, everything works fine... Which seems very odd. Doesn't appear to be a DNS issue.

Check the /etc/hosts file by putting this command in Terminal:

cat /etc/hosts | open -f

Be aware this only lets you read the file, you can't edit it this way. Assuming the file is not lengthy, post the output here.


Password reset with Filevault recovery key not working My OSX machine somehow said my password was incorrect and I ended up using the recovery key to get in to the password reset step.
When I try to enter a new password and want to save that the fields just wiggle and I cannot continue. It does however somehow store the password because I cannot reset it to that one.

This system is managed using JAMF and as I said it has filevault enabled.

This video (not mine) shows what happens: https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/32075/reset-password-issue-never-seen-that-issue-check-this-video

How can I get out of this mess?

So it turns out you can ignore the shaking and select 'restart' after which the new password works. After logging in with it you'll be presented with another reset password screen but this one works.


Is it possible to have GPL software in the Mac App Store? Can you have GPL software in Mac App Store?

I know this is not possible in the iPhone App Store, but is it the same situation in Mac App Store?

NOTE: None of the answers below should be considered legal advice. If you require a legal answer to this question, consult a lawyer.

If you mean taking software that you do not hold copyright to, and which you are only allowed to use and copy because it was licensed under the GNU GPL, then no.

The FSF spells it out here: section 6 of the GPL says "You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein", and the Mac App Store Terms of Service explicitly add other restrictions.

The Software Freedom Law Center's legal representative confirmed this: the App Store agreements, on all platforms, are incompatible with the GNU GPL.

Apple seems to be disallowing GPL programs in the App Store as a matter of policy, but if you managed to sneak one through, then the author of the program could go after you for violating their copyright.

A completely different case is where you hold the copyright to a piece of software.  In that case, you are welcome to distribute it under more than one license.  (For example, Firefox was for a while licensed under the MPL, GPL, and LGPL.  MySQL is licensed under the GPL and also a proprietary license.)  So if you sell a program through the Mac App Store, you can also release it under the GPL -- assuming you are allowed to do each of these things independently.

(If you wanted to use somebody else's GNU GPL-licensed code in one of the App Stores, you could write to the copyright holder and see if they're willing to sell you an alternative license to their software.  They're under absolutely no obligation to do this, of course.)

VLC ran into trouble (I think) because copyright for the software was held by many different people, and the whole program was only allowed to be distributed under the GPL.  Some programs sidestep such issues by requiring contributors to assign copyright to them, but most don't.


Time Machine can't find AFP/SMB shares I have an Ubuntu NAS setup with both SMB and AFP shares, both of which I can access from my Windows machines and Macbook Air. I have also verified that I can copy files to these shares from my MBA.

But Time Machine on Lion doesn't show any of these shares, only "Set Up Other Time Capsule". What do I need to do for it to show these shares?

I've tried defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1 and defaults read com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes returns 1.

You need to use netatalk 2.2, which is the only version that supports Time Machine backups from Lion.


Control iPhone 6S with keyboard My dad dropped his iPhone 6S down the toilet

Luckily it still works, except for the whole of the touchscreen.

He wants to get the photos off, he’s got most of them but for some reason iCloud has left a big gap from September 2017.

I’ve bought a Lightning to USB adapter and plugged a keyboard in and managed to unlock it, but now I can’t go any further.

I can get to the settings app but can’t navigate through it with a keyboard. I can open Bluetooth settings but not enable it, I can long press the home button to receive the prompt to enable Siri but not enable it without touching the screen. Same with VoiceOver.

Can anyone recommend a way of controlling the settings without using the touch screen?

Have you tried to tripple-click the home button, or tripple-click f5 on the keyboard, to enable VoiceOver? I'm thinking that's what the accessibility shortcut is set to by default.
Once VoiceOver is enabled, you should be able to control the iPhone with the VoiceOver keyboard commands (turn on quick nav to navigate the iPhone with arrow keys only).


Unknown Xcode Instruments crash I am running instruments via Terminal:

instruments -t /Developer/Platforms/"iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/Automation.tracetemplate ~/Library/Application\\\ Support/iPhone\\\ Simulator/$simulatorSDKVersion/Applications/<randomUUID>/MyApp.app -e UIASCRIPT someJSFile.js -e UIARESULTSPATH Logs

for several test scripts.

But I keep getting sporadic crashes and this is interfering with the workflow I have set up.

Can anyone tell me what this means:

instruments[57679:1603] InstrumentsException : *** -[__NSCFString stringByAppendingString:]: nil argument
instruments[57679:1603] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[__NSCFString stringByAppendingString:]: nil argument'
*** First throw call stack:
(
    0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff90ed4f56 __exceptionPreprocess + 198
    1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff90598d5e objc_exception_throw + 43
    2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff90ed4d8a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106
    3   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff90ed4d14 +[NSException raise:format:] + 116
    4   Foundation                          0x00007fff939e9375 -[NSString stringByAppendingString:] + 91
    5   AutomationInstrument                0x000000010c5b6695 AutomationInstrument + 30357
    6   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8ad07a86 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 18
    7   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff8ad098f6 _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 308
    8   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff90e69e7c __CFRunLoopRun + 1724
    9   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff90e69486 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 230
    10  Foundation                          0x00007fff939d7f7b -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runMode:beforeDate:] + 267
    11  Foundation                          0x00007fff93a5bb56 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runUntilDate:] + 66
    12  instruments                         0x00000001091d03c1 _mh_execute_header + 13249
    13  instruments                         0x00000001091ce194 _mh_execute_header + 4500
)
terminate called throwing an exception

Thanks!

P.S. Not sure if this is the right site to post this question on.

I've seen that Exception before when I throw a Javascript primitive and it reproduces reliably and consistently with my Instruments-4.5 (4523).

Your comments state that this does not reproduce reliably.  Is it possible that your tests do not take the same path reliably (and hence, not consistently throwing), and this is why they only reproduce sometimes?  Before continuing, I suggest verifying that your tests are taking the same path consistently.

To verify throwing a Javascript primitive is the case with your tests, do these steps.

Find a Javascript test file that reproduces with your InstrumentsException.

Verify the Javascript test throws a Javascript primitive, as opposed to a Javascript Object.  Specifically, you want a line that uses "throw" but does not use "new" in the same line.  The relevant line should look like this,

throw "Who's your daddy";   //Instruments throws an InstrumentsException with this.

not

throw new Error("Who's your daddy?");  //Instruments has no problems with this.

Verify that your installation does actually throw that specific InstrumentsException when you throw a primitive.

throw "Who's your daddy";

At this point, you've got a pretty good suspect.  But you to make more certain, try removing the suspicious "throw" line or replacing it with something else, just to see if you can get the test to pass.


Equivalent of iOS' 30/30 (task manager) app for OS X 30/30 is a slick task manager for iOS devices that's also free. I'm trying to find an equivalent app for OS X. Some of the features in 30/30 that I would like to see in a mac app are:

Clean interface
Cycle a set of tasks ad infinitum (good for those long code-coffee-code-reddit-read-coffee-... cycles)
Start/stop/pause a task and adjust a task's time temporarily (e.g. +5/-5 mins)
Free or less than $5

Does anyone know of such an app? Here's a screenshot of 30/30 on an iPhone.

There's the Reminders app in Mavericks, but you can also try Anxiety: http://www.anxietyapp.com


Split a single page PDF into multiple pages Is there an easy way (in Preview or whatever) to scale up and split a PDF file with a single page into multiple pages? What I would like is to split say an A3 paper document into two A4 pages, to print separately and then put together with tape.

How can I do such a thing in OS X?

Adobe Reader can do this, too: It includes a Poster Print option in its custom print dialog.

It’s the first time I missed a feature from Preview (or the native OS X print dialog) that Adobe Reader has.

Adobe Reader is free (as in beer) software, it used to be called Acrobat Reader. (Do not confuse it with full-blown Acrobat or any other expensive Adobe product, which can probably do that, too.)


Can an app be on your device but not on any screen? I downloaded an app recently and when I was moving it from the screen it was placed after download; to another screen then I accidentally hovered over another app and made a folder. When I took it out of the folder I hovered over the section between the current screen and the next then I let go and the app had vanished (The app wasn't visible in any folders near the spot I hovered). I checked both screens. So I had to delete and re-install the app by going to settings and finding it on the storage menu. When I went to the app store and looked at purchased apps it was there and it had the open button but, it wasn't visible on any of my screens. Has this happened before?

Specs of situation:
- Using iPod 5
- iOS 9.3.5
- App downloaded: Google Authenticator

No... not permanently. It's possible you ran into this iOS 9 glitch, but the app should appear upon restart.

  Create a folder with all the apps you want to hide away. While the
  apps are still jiggling, drag the icon one page at a time until you
  get to a blank page then let go. Attempt to drag the icon one more
  page over from the blank page, then tap the home button.


The letter O on my MacBook no longer works I no longer get any functionality when typing the letter O of my mid-2015 MacBook Pro.
How can I troubleshoot this?

If the problem is due to debris under the key cap you can use compressed air to blow under the O keycap.  If that doesn't fix it then you'll need to replace the entire keyboard.  There are guides and instructions on ifixit.com.  It would mean completely removing everything to get to the keyboard underneath. The keyboard itself is low cost. The time it will take to disassemble and reassemble without breaking anything and putting all the tiny screws back in the correct holes makes it difficult enough that you may wish to have a professional repair it.


Dock on Lion using lots of cpu and RAM For some reason Dock process is using a lot of cpu and RAM ( 4GB+ at this moment ) as you can see on this image:

I tried to:

Kill the process
Restart Mac OS
Remove com.apple.Dock.plist/db and kill Dock
Logout and login again

Nothing worked. Note that i don't have VMWare or Parallels installed.

Any ideas of what might be happening?

If i login with another user, Dock works fine. But i really don't want to configure everything again :(

Thanks!

Some apps that 'update' their dock icons with information (e.g. Mail, App Store, myriad third-party apps that might 'monitor' things such as temperature, processes, network connections) can definitely cause big resource draws. I've had the whole machine move in slow motion because of this.

As a result, I generally turn off any dock icon updating, or as Apple calls them, 'badges', both from Apple and third parties, regardless of nature/flavour/complexity. I much prefer my information to reside in the menu bar anyway (where possible), and it generally doesn't eat up so many resources. This way I avoid the behavior in question, that I have only ever had intermittently, not constantly like you did (obviously this is not guaranteed to be what was causing your troubles).

You could also try deleting the dock cache file* (at least in Lion/10.7): com.apple.dock.iconcache inside…

/private/var/folders/**twodigitfoldername**/**crazystringalph+nums**/C/

Some people just go into Terminal and type:

sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.dock.iconcache

…however, this shows you all users' dock icon cache file. That's why I prefer to move through the GUI filesystem, because the other users' folders will be unreadable, so you can just find this through browsing/elimination. It's the only one you can actually read.

To get started

Make sure Finder is the front-most application
Press ⌘ cmd + ⇧ shift + G
Paste/type in /private/var/folders/ and click Go.

*Note: when you update the Finder dock icon this is one of the steps included in the process for Lion.


Handbrake x264 encodes .m4v/.mp4 not accepted in iTunes It seems like every once in awhile, when using Handbrake to encode a DVD rip to x264 with either the mp4 or m4v extension, I can't add the resulting file to my iTunes Library. When dragging and dropping, the Library window highlights like it's going to accept (If you try to drag an unsupported file, the window doesn't highlight, and the thumbnail you're dragging flies back to the original folder).

If I rip a handful of movies and do an overnight encode session, in the morning some of the files can be added to the library, some can't. I have to re-do the ones that don't work.  Is there a way to found out what the problem is? An iTunes setting that will output what it doesn't like about certain files? A piece of software that can validate the files?  The resulting files play in VLC and Quicktime Player regardless of if they're added to my iTunes Library.

Handbrake keeps individual logs for every encode. You can find them in ~/Library/Application Support/HandBrake/EncodeLogs.

If an encode fails, it should contain any relevant information on why it failed.


What gesture causes the page to zoom in? Sometimes, when I am moving the mouse cursor on my Mac Mini, Safari zooms in the page. I checked the mouse settings, and the only gesture that would cause that should be the double-tap, which is not what I am doing.
I have not noticed the same behavior with other browsers, or applications.

What is causing Safari to randomly zoom in the page I am viewing?

It appears not the be the case for the Magic Mouse, but with the trackpad, there is a pinch to zoom gesture also. If another finger were touching the trackpad, one finger's movement could be interpreted as a pinch.

Another option is that some part of your hand is coming in contact with the mouse surface and is being interpreted as a double tap. If you turn off the double tap gesture in System Preferences, does the problem persist?


Using 3 Monitor DP/HDMI Setup + Charging new Macbook Pro 16'' over max. 2 Cables I want to finally switch back to a Macbook Pro after some years of using a PC. However, I do not want to give up on my setup using 3 to 4 screens.

My plan is on using the MacBook Pro 16 Inch i9 model. My screens support HDMI and Displayport 1.2 with MST/Daisy Chain. I also need Gigabit Ethernet, a USB-C Connection for an external SSD and some USB Ports for my Soundcard, Midi Piano and so on and also want to charge the laptop.
I want to use for this a maximum of 2 Thunderbolt or USB-C Connectors (Which I can glue together so that I only need to plug one thing to connect or disconnect)

TL:DR -- my goal is (in short):

Connect min. 3 external HDMI or Displayport Monitors (Which Support Daisy Chaining)
Charge the Macbook Pro
Have Gigabit Ethernet and USB A Ports
Maximum of 2 Connectors
Should have good performance (so no airplay)

Idea 1: The usualy way - DisplayPort Daisy Chain/MST

Macbook => Dock => Display => Display => Display
                => USB Devices + Ethernet
        => Charger

Usually I would "just" daisy chain my DP Screens, however I've read that MacOS does not support DisplayPort MST? So it probably will not work.

Idea 2: Using 2 Thunderbolt Docks on 2 Ports

Macbook => Thunderbolt Dock => Display (via DP)
                            => Display (via Thunderbolt Adapter)
                            => USB Devices + Ethernet
        => Thunderbolt Dock => Display (via DP)
                            => Display (via Thunderbolt Adapter)
                            => Charger

the next Idea would be to use 2 Thunderbolt Docks on 2 different Ports and to connect 2 displays on each (Per dock one via DP and one via Thunderbolt adapter). However, as I want to also charge the Macbook, one of these docks must support power delivery - I havn't yet found one that supports the 100W that the new macbook pro needs. I also don't know if that would work.

Idea 3: Using 2 Thunderbolt Docks Daisy Chained

Macbook => Thunderbolt Dock => Thunderbolt Dock => Display (via tb adapter)
                                                => Display (via DP/HDMI)
                            => Display (via DP/HDMI)
                            => USB-Devices/ Ethernet
        => Charging

The most elegant solution seems to be using two thunderbolt docks in series.
and then connect one display via DP on the first dock and one via DP + one via Thunderbolt on the second dock. So I can use the other Thunderbolt connector on the mac for charging.

The devices would be e.g. Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock and WAVLINK USB C Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort

Will one of the above work? Any other Ideas (e.g. a dock with 3 Displayport outputs that actually work with OSX)?

Caldigit TS3+ can do 87Watt charge with a firmware upgrade, my mac even at full load have not started discharging the battery with this.

Please be aware, that there are many users (including me), that has issues with external displays connected to the Macbook Pro 16" specifically.
It will pin the Radeon GPU at 18watt+ and keep the laptop fans spinning around 3k rpm and 60 degrees C at idle.
Apple have not responded to the issue even calling support puts your trough random loops of tests that does nothing.


Launch "Printer Setup Utility" from terminal Background

Trying to load the Printer Setup Utility on OSX Mavericks from the terminal. This is for a setup app which has streamlined interfaces for setting it up.

What I've Tried

I've tried going into the .app folder and loading the utility directly (./System/Library/CoreServices/Printer\ Setup\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Printer\ Setup\ Utility ; )

However this merely results in a new terminal window being opened with the command being run in the foreground. Attempting to run it in the background results in no window popup, so that didn't work either. Navigating to the directory in finder and running it from there results in the same thing. So far the only way I've gotten it to run is by doing it the "proper" way of running through the System Preferences utility.

In Summary

How do I run the Printer Setup Utility from the terminal such that it opens in a window, similar to how you would open it in the GUI?

If you examine using ps the command launched by Printer Setup or when adding a printer through System Preferences, you'll note that it includes a -psn qualifier that directs the application as to the "process serial number" to use to communicate with the application. This effectively tells it how to connect and launch the windows necessary for the calling user/process and it's used for identifying various processes and instances of executables.

Unfortunately its unclear how -- or even if -- you'd actually use this to launch from the command line as its usage is normally invoked from within another calling application using system calls and it seems to imply that you need to create certain "Process Identification Constraints" as part of the call out.

Much of this seems to be marked up in Apple's online documentation as being Deprecated in OS X v10.9 so I'm not sure what to make of this or how to direct you for using it as Apple seems to be advising against the sorts of systems calls that utilize it moving forward. I'd expect to see the sort of calling mechanisms going away in future versions of OS X.

Further information is available at:

https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/Carbon/Reference/Process_Manager/Reference/reference.html

and

https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/Carbon/Reference/Process_Manager/Reference/reference.html#//apple_ref/doc/constant_group/Process_Identification_Constants

While I realize this doesn't resolve your issue, it does explain the behavior your observing and the reason why you're not getting the expected UI launching.


OS X 10.7 Lion: Reset master password to FileVault 2 I need to reset or delete my master password to FileVault 2. This is the password found under System Preferences > Users & Groups > Service gear > Change Master Password. It's a backup in case a user forgets his or her account password.

(I accidentally set said password before writing it down in an awkward keyboard fumble.)

It's surprisingly simple.

Delete /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.keychain
Delete /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.cer

When you return to set a new password your old one will have been cleared.

Based on step 4 in How to create and deploy a recovery key for FileVault 2.


Macbook Air Battery life Does updating the Macbook Air to an Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 512 GB Flash Storage negatively affect the 12 hour battery life?

Yes, the i7 will extend battery life when doing processor intensive tasks compared to the i5, but eat up more battery when doing low exertion tasks. The more memory you have, the more battery life will be reduced as well — this is why Apple has kept the RAM relatively low in its mobile devices other than laptops. I do not believe that the size of the SSD should have a negative impact on battery life. The larger drives are faster and so should overall reduce battery usage, however, if the drive is crammed full this will reduce battery life simply because there is more information which needs to be available to be accessed.


Where are the AirDrop files after transferring to Mac? I used AirDrop for the first time to move files from my iPhone to my MacBook. I read the brief information on the MacBook itself when set it up. The files transferred but I can't find them. They were photos and a brief video.

Any idea where the files might be?

AirDrop defaults to the Downloads folder. When transferring from a device not associated with your iCloud account, i.e. someone else's iPhone or Mac, you may have the option to download to the Photos app for photos and videos. Check either of those and you should find the files.

As noted by Phong in the comments, clicking on the notification will take you to the file in Finder.


Why does Google Chrome fail to draw tabs correctly when the Discrete graphics adapter is in use? Google Chrome fails to paint browser tabs correctly while the Discrete graphics adapter is in use.

I have an Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro running OSX 10.10.5 (Yosemite) and am running Chrome Version 53.0.2785.143 (64-bit). This problem began about a month ago.

Not sure if this is still relevant to you but maybe this will help you:

MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues

Basically your GPU might be faulty and Apple will fix it for free.


Trying to create a symbolic link in OS 10.14.6 I'm trying to install a symbolic link but when I enter the command I think should work ("sudo ln -s /Applications/harris/idl87/lib/xop/xop2.4/xop /usr/local/bin/xop"), I get no response at all. ????

It's a Unix thing: no news is good news. The symbolic link is likely there. Try ls -l /usr/local/bin/xop and see if its there. The -l flag runs ls so that it draws an arrow back to what it links to.


Possible to use iTunes, Airport Express, and Apple Remote together? I have:

A large music collection in Itunes on my Mac
A nice set of speakers in another room
An iPhone

I know that it's possible to control iTunes on my Mac with the Apple Remote app on my iPhone (I demonstrated that to myself tonight). And I know it's possible to send audio from the Music app on my iPhone directly to an Airport Express (which I am considering purchasing).

But is it possible to control the iTunes on my Mac with the Apple Remote and send the audio to the Airport Express?

If it's possible, is it easy to switch between sending the audio to the Airport Express to the Mac with only the iPhone as a control (my Mac is connected to my TV and it's a pain to use the Magic Trackpad while in bed)?

Yes, everything you have described is possible. If you have an Airport Express or other airplay destination on your network, the remote app will allow you to select and control the output location.
As seen on http://www.apple.com/apps/remote/

Enjoy!


How can the 'mail' command be used? I've had my first Mac for about five months now. Though, even when I was a full-on Windows user, I never did things through a command line; I was pretty much for the GUI all-the-way..

But now that I have my Mac, I'm interested in learning a little about the Terminal and the commands used in it. So far I've learned how to do minor things, like moving, renaming, and deleting files, ect. But now I want to go for something different, like the mail command.

So tonight I figured out how to send mail to myself through the 'mail' command. But now I'm curious and asking if there's a way to send e-mail to people using say, Yahoo or Hotmail.

Sorry if this is a basic question, but I'm new and curious. Thanks.

It you want to send an email to a given address put it as an argument to the mail command:

mail -s "Some subject" toaddress@example.com

see man mail for other options

Any text you type after issuing the command you can enter the text for your mail directly in the terminal. To end mail text entry, enter a new line with a single ..

Do note that this just queues the mail for sending as if your mac were a functioning mail server. Local delivery to local accounts is easy to set up, to set up a working mail server that connects to the internet requires some more advanced set up as well as a relationship with someone else that operates a mail relay. This isn't a client that works directly with mail services like gmail / yahoo / hotmail or iCloud (MobileMe).


How to set up equal height columns with a title on top? This is what I'm trying to do on Pages '09: two equal height columns with a title on top. Any suggestions?

I just got it to work — inserted a layout break after my headline and set it up as a one-column layout and the rest of the content as a two-column layout. Applied some padding to it and it's perfect.


iPhone: why is the Add Call button disabled for 15 seconds? When I make a phone call, the add call button is disabled for 15 seconds... I.e. it's grayed out. Then it becomes active and works as I expect. But how I can set up conference calls without this delay every time?

You can only make a second call once the first call is connected. That delay is to connect and set up the first call.


Update from Mac OS Sierra to High Sierra causes App to crash I have a file sharing application which works like DropBox and Google Drive. The application works fine in Mac OS Sierra 10.3.2 and older. However when we update the OS to High Sierra (10.3.3) the app crashes.
Apple did move from Openssl to Libressl in the update.

Scenario.

I have a synch folder with 25,000 files. The desired behavior is for the application to push those files to the server.

Behavior.

After the 1000 file the app crashes. From the crash logs, it appears to be crashing on libcrypto.35.dylib

Theories.

I have a few theories as to what is happening here.

I have a race condition in the application that has been exposed in the OS update. This would explain why I do not see it in the previous Mac OS versions.
There is a bug in Apple's new version of Libressl. However I have not seen many complaints about this issue.

Crashing Thread Report

Process:               fileSync [8888]
Path:                  /Applications/file Synce.app/Contents/MacOS/File Sync
Identifier:            com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync
Version:               9.0.0
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           File Sync [8888]
User ID:               503

Date/Time:             2018-03-22 16:28:17.837 -0400
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.13.3 (17D47)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        FBE3606C-ABD0-D8A2-E971-ADD1A3955EFC

Sleep/Wake UUID:       45EAC198-3478-40FC-B89A-613ECA3EB94A

Time Awake Since Boot: 150000 seconds
Time Since Wake:       6000 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        12

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       EXC_I386_GPFLT
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process:   exc handler [0]

Thread 12 Crashed:
0   libcrypto.35.dylib              0x00007fff51d47ffa ERR_STATE_free + 58
1   libcrypto.35.dylib              0x00007fff51d48fac int_thread_del_item + 252
2   libcrypto.35.dylib              0x00007fff51d47f78 ERR_remove_thread_state + 104
3   libcurl.4.dylib                 0x00007fff5205a25b Curl_close + 186
4   libcurl.4.dylib                 0x00007fff52075c08 curl_multi_cleanup + 227
5   com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync   0x000000010cc3e317 CurlHttpClient::~CurlHttpClient() + 263
6   com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync   0x000000010cd430ab AwRestClient::QueryFileSystemChanges(unsigned long long, std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char> > const&, AwFileSystemChangeList&, AwRestResponse&) + 539
7   com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync   0x000000010ccd9fb7 AwFssMgr::PullRemoteChangesPrivate(unsigned long long, std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char> > const&, std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char> >&, unsigned long long&, unsigned int&) + 471
8   com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync   0x000000010ccd9c36 AwFssMgr::PullRemoteChanges(unsigned long long, std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char> >&, bool, unsigned int&) + 214
9   com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync   0x000000010cc72c46 AwController::RemoteNotificationListeningThread() + 2950
10  com.hds.osx.fss.File-Sync   0x000000010cc720ad AwController::RemoteNotificationListeningThread(void*) + 29
11  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff539e66c1 _pthread_body + 340
12  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff539e656d _pthread_start + 377
13  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff539e5c5d thread_start + 13

Question

Is there a bug in High Sierra that explains this behavior/crash report
If not what are the possible causes for this crash ?

An app terminating with signal 11 (SIGSEGV, segmentation fault) is usually an indication of bad memory access in the application code. It's very likely a bug. Your best bet is to file a bug with Apple via their online bug reporter:
https://bugreport.apple.com/

Alternatively, if you can find a reproducer that points to a bug outside of macOS, you could try filing a bug report directly against libressl: http://www.libressl.org


Installing ffmpeg from dmg and then running from a terminal, is there a better way? From here: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-mac I chose static builds 64-bit which too me to https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/

I then downloaded this:

and opened it using this:

which gave me this:

Last login: Wed Jun  6 09:41:56 on ttys000
david-selfs-Air:~ david$ /Volumes/FFmpeg\ 91200-g1616b1be5a/ffmpeg ; exit;
ffmpeg version N-91200-g1616b1be5a-tessus Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 9.1.0 (clang-902.0.39.1)
  configuration: --cc=/usr/bin/clang --prefix=/opt/ffmpeg --extra-version=tessus --enable-avisynth --enable-fontconfig --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopus --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-version3 --pkg-config-flags=--static --disable-ffplay
  libavutil      56. 18.102 / 56. 18.102
  libavcodec     58. 19.104 / 58. 19.104
  libavformat    58. 17.100 / 58. 17.100
  libavdevice    58.  4.100 / 58.  4.100
  libavfilter     7. 24.100 /  7. 24.100
  libswscale      5.  2.100 /  5.  2.100
  libswresample   3.  2.100 /  3.  2.100
  libpostproc    55.  2.100 / 55.  2.100
Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...

Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man ffmpeg'
logout
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history...truncating history files...
...completed.
Deleting expired sessions...7 completed.

[Process completed]

However when I open a terminal and try ffmpeg or man ffmpeg or even ffmpeg -i filename.mp4 -vn filename.wav(from here) all I get is

  -bash: ffmpeg: command not found

I must be close, is there a place where I now need to define a path for ffmpeg? I don't know how to do that, or what path to use.

Is there a better way?

You are supposed to copy the program from the disk image to your local folders. The usual place for these things is /usr/local/bin

So:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
sudo cp /Volumes/FFmpeg\ 91200-g1616b1be5a/ffmpeg /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg

and all should be good to go. Disabling SIP not required.

No need for homebrew or any other package handler to install a precompiled binary. You do need to read up on basic UNIX though.


Remote control an iPad to start app and activate Guided Access First I need to mention, that I'm not enrolled in the Apple Developer Program but willing to do so, if it would solve my use case.

We administrate several iPads in a museum. All iPads are hooked up in a stand and running the museum app (basically a website on a local server als Homescreen-App in Guided Access).

We are looking now for a way to restart the app and start the guided access without driving to the museum.
Is there a way to do this, without jailbreaking the iPads?

The most appropriate way for you to do this would be to migrate your museum application from a locally hosted website into it's own application.

Doing this will then allow you to launch the iPads into Single Application mode, whereas in the current configuration you'd be able to set Single Application mode to safari, but not then restrict safari to only your local website.


Changing character encoding from Unicode to Ascii I need to convert the character encoding in some text files created by a third-party app on my MBP Catalina 10.15.6.  I'm in unfamiliar waters here, so please indulge my ignorance.  Also, please note that the 3rd party app is not the subject of this question - understanding how to reconcile the different character sets used in macOS is the subject.
I use an application (LTspice) on my MBP occasionally.  There is also a Windows version of LTspice.  LTspice provides a GUI for creating a circuit schematic, and LTspice creates a plain text file (.asc extension) to encode the schematic and other directives and parameters created in the LTspice GUI; this is the file I need to convert.
I assumed the .asc files were not ASCII-encoded, and so I ran the file utility on the .asc file to learn how they were encoded:
% file -I '/Users/seamus/Documents/LTspice/Rounding demo-MacMod.asc'
/Users/seamus/Documents/LTspice/Rounding demo-MacMod.asc: application/octet-stream; charset=binary

binary?!...  This made no sense to me. I can open and edit this file in TextEdit.  All of the characters are recognizable ASCII characters - which I understand to be a subset of UTF-8.
My next step was to open the file in the BBedit app.  This revealed new information.  According to BBedit, the demo-MacMod.asc file reported by file -I as binary is actually: "UTF-16 Little Endian" format.  I know this is confusing... In an effort to clarify, I've placed a couple of screenshots below to illustrate how this file is rendered in BBedit and TextEdit.  The extra byte (¿) in the BBedit screenshot is a NUL.
I need a method (that I can automate/script) to convert these "UTF-16 Little Endian" files to "US-ASCII". I thought that the iconv tool would be perfect for this job:
iconv -l
...
# long list of character encodings which included:
US-ASCII
UCS-2LE UNICODELITTLE

UCS-2LE UNICODELITTLE looked like the best match to "UTF-16 Little Endian", but:
% iconv -f 'UCS-2LE UNICODELITTLE' -t 'US-ASCII' '/Users/seamus/Documents/LTspice/Rounding demo-MacMod.asc' > '/Users/seamus/Documents/LTspice/Rounding demo-MacMod-iconvASCII.asc'
iconv: conversion from UCS-2LE UNICODELITTLE unsupported
iconv: try 'iconv -l' to get the list of supported encodings

I don't know why I get this response. Clearly iconv -l says that UCS-2LE UNICODELITTLE is supported. Whether it's the correct match for "UTF-16 Little Endian" is another question, but I find nothing in the list that looks to be a better match.
So this is the gist of my question. I think it could be answered in one of two ways:

What is my error in the use of iconv, or in my reading of man iconv or iconv -l?

Is there another option for converting "UTF-16 Little Endian" to "US-ASCII" that can be automated/scripted?

SCREENSHOTS:
in TextEdit:

in BBedit:

With BBEdit this is easy. First open the file in BBEdit. If you let BBEdit install its command line tool you can even do this from Terminal with bbedit /path/to/filename. If the file has opened as the wrong encoding, select File > Reopen Using Encoding > correct encoding. I think it would be worth trying reopening using UTF-16 Little-Endian & UTF-16 Little-Endian, no BOM to see if either of those has the file open as desired. When you have the file correctly opened, select File > Save As.... In the Save As dialog box you can choose the desired encoding, & also the line ending type if that matters.
For dealing with inverted red question marks, probably null (ASCII 0), select Text > Zap Gremlins... for the dialog below...

Using the options shown there should give a state like what you see in TextEdit. Try different options on copies of a couple of your files.
Because BBEdit has a command line tool, you should be able script it once you have the correct options. BBEdit also works with AppleScript & Automator.
You can download BBEdit for free from the link I've given. It will start in demo mode, & when the demo mode expires it will continue to run in free mode where the features you need are still available.


I'm Getting Errors When I Try to do 'brew update' I want to install a gem. The instructions strongly suggest that I use Homebrew to install the gem dependencies. I have not used Homebrew a lot, maybe once years ago. I do remember that El Capitan already has it installed. I also remembered the 'brew doctor' and 'brew update' commands. First I ran brew update and got the following error:

[~]$ brew update
warning: unable to unlink CONTRIBUTING.md: Permission denied
warning: unable to unlink SUPPORTERS.md: Permission denied
fatal: cannot create directory at '.github': Permission denied
Error: Failure while executing: git pull -q origin refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

I had no idea about the details of this error so I decided to try sudo brew update. I got the following error.

[~]$ sudo brew update
sudo: /private/etc/sudoers.d is owned by uid 501, should be 0
Password:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require': cannot load such file -- mach (LoadError)
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/extend/pathname.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/global.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/brew.rb:15:in `<main>'

Then I decided to run brew doctor. I got the following error.

[~]$ brew doctor
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require': cannot load such file -- mach (LoadError)
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/extend/pathname.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/global.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/brew.rb:15:in `<main>'

I guess the ruby version 2.0.0 is the version of Ruby that my Mac Mini Server is using for the OS. I'm using a newer version of Ruby with Ruby Version Manager for my Ruby on Rails applications.

The last time I used Homebrew it was either with Mavericks or Mountain Lion. I have no idea where to go from here to solve this problem. None of the documentation I have found online addresses this specific error.

I've similar problems and my research suggests resetting your local version of the brew repo:

cd $(brew --prefix) && git fetch && git reset --hard origin/master

I'm about to try this myself.


How to delete a podcast from new ios6 Podcast app? The new ios 6 has Podcasts broken out into their own application.

I've got a bunch of old podcasts there for some reason. I can figure out how to delete all the episodes, but I can't figure out how to delete the podcast itself from the app. Is there any way to do this?

From the Podcasts view (left tab), press the Edit button at the top left (you may need to scroll up to see it). Each podcast will have an (x) button in its top left corner. Hit that button (it's small and can be tricky, but it works) to remove the podcast. Use the Done button at the top left when you're finished editing.


How to restart network services on Sierra? On FreeBSD/Linux, it is possible to restart network services by restarting a daemon.

Is there something similar in macOS Sierra?

You can tear down and start up the network interface using:

sudo ifconfig en0 down
sudo ifconfig en0 up


Is iTunes on Windows store up to date? Apple released iTunes update yesterday. Is iTunes on Windows store up to date? In store release date says 2017.
Is Windows store version updated same day as desktop setup release?
Are store apps updates checked, pushed automatically?
I forgot that I installed store version, ended up downloading exe then only I remembered that I'd installed store version.
It seems Apple removed check for updates in iTunes menu.
How to know if my iTunes is up to date?

Actually, Apple has only just in recent weeks made iTunes available on the Windows Store.

While it was originally planned to be released at the end of 2017 it ended up taking somewhat longer.

The version of iTunes on the Windows Store is the latest Windows version and, as you've discovered, updates are handled through the Windows Store updater rather than through iTunes directly.


Can I activate an iPhone without an Apple ID? I've been issued an iPhone and I can't seem to use it without an Apple ID.

Can I activate my phone without creating an Apple ID in the process?

Assuming you are on the first Apple ID screen below, tap "Forgot password or don't have an Apple ID?". From there, there is an option to set up an Apple ID later (or not at all) in Settings.


How to 'unregister' a file type / MIME with launch services I'm working on a document based application in Cocoa, the file is a bundle type (a folder which the Finder shows as a single file much like an application.)

I had everything working perfectly but then I made the  mistake of adding a reverse domain name type identifier to my file's type in my info.plist (something I later learned Apple explicitly warn not to do here). Well, this immediately broke my file type, documents from my application only look like folders in the Finder now, so there is no 'open' or 'open with' option on any of them and the data inside is exposed.

Removing the MIME identifier from my plist and rebuilding does not repair the registration of the files type in launch services, not even after explicitly pointing LSRefresh at the build (it is only a debug build).

Please, can any of you terminal gurus tell me how to remove the file type from the Launch Services database? I'm sure that if I can do that then everything will restore when I next launch the app.

Registering and unregistering apps and document types is done with:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister

To get help with the command simply use the h option.:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -h

In your case I would try to use the unregister option:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -u <path to bundle>

Depending on your app/bundle you may have to prepend a sudo and/or reboot afterwards.

Another step is to completely rebuild the launch services database:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

and/or installing RCDefault.app and trying to remove the MIME/bundle/whatever - which is possible sometimes.


Send Docs to iPad via email address like Kindle? Is there a way to send docs to your iPad (iBooks) via an email address endpoint like Amazon has for your Kindle?

Not directly to iBooks, no.  But you can email it to whatever email account you have set up on the iPad.  Then, using the Open With button you can send it to iBooks or any compatible app on your iPad.

I do this all the time with whitepapers I find on my work computer that I want to read on the train.  Alternatively, I send my self a link to the file if it's not behind a paywall or lead generation form.