Is too much charge time bad for your iPhone? Possible Duplicate:
  Can I safely charge my iPhone 4 overnight on a regular basis?

Is leaving the phone on the charger overnight really really bad for your iPhone?

Nah. Electricity is PULLED to devices that use it, not PUSHED from the plug. The phone is smart enough to stop pulling when its battery is full.

EDIT: However, an adapter can provide incorrect voltage for a device. Don't take what I said there and wire your iphone power adapter to a 220 source, for instance. You can OVERDRIVE a device with too many volts, but you can't send it "too much" of the right voltage, because the amperage is a function of the device's draw. I know I just said that assuming that you understand the difference between volts and amps, but there it is; they're different.


What do I type to produce the command symbol (⌘) in Mac OS X? What combination of keys do I press to produce the command symbol (⌘) on Mac OS X?

(I copied the above symbol from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_key.)

If you're just looking for the Unicode versions of Mac OS X keys, you can use this Apple support document to copy and paste them:

Mac keyboard shortcuts
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236

⌘ Command (or Cmd)
⇧ Shift
⌥ Option (or Alt)
⌃ Control (or Ctrl)

More generally, Mac OS X provides a pane to insert special characters. You'll find it under Edit -> Emoji and Symbols in any program that takes text input. The Command key symbol can be found by searching for it's name "place of interest". To insert the character, double click it.

If you're really hardcore and are looking for a way to type the character by entering the Unicode hex code, this is possible:

Go into System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input Sources, click "+", scroll to "others", select "Unicode Hex Input" and click "Add"

From the input source selector in the menu bar, select "Unicode Hex Input"

To enter a Unicode character, hold down option and type the 4-digit hex code for the character and it will be inserted. In this case, it would be option+2318.


Problem with my applescript to export keynote files to powerpoint I've a big problem with an export applescript. I would like to export many keynote files to powerpoint files. I found this script below, but there is an error that tells that the menu item "Exporter..." ("Export..." in English, my version is in french) doesn't exist.
When I change "Exporter..." by "Fermer", it works very well!!!?

May you help me?

below the script I've written:

set thisFile to "/Users/kyou83/Documents/pépépé.key"
tell application "System Events"
    tell application "Keynote"
        activate
        open thisFile
    end tell
    tell process "Keynote"
        click menu item "Exporter..." of menu of menu bar item "Fichier" of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
And here the error description

error "Erreur dans System Events : Il est impossible d’obtenir menu item \"Exporter...\" of menu of menu bar item \"Partage\" of menu bar 1 of process \"Keynote\"." number -1728 from menu item "Exporter..." of menu of menu bar item "Partage" of menu bar 1 of process "Keynote"

I cannot believe how simple the answer was. Instead of three periods, i needed to use an ellipsis character in my string.

As I use the azerty keyboard (I'm french) you have to press alt;! to generate an ellipsis.


iPad only charges up to 1% and at that, only if charged from 0% I plugged my iPad 3 in order to charge it. However, after a couple hours I noticed that it hadn't been charging.

It goes like this: First, it's completely off. Then, I plug it and charges up until it is on again with 1% battery and it won't charge any further than that. If I shut it off or the battery drains again, the same thing happens again.

Just one more thing, twice instead of the Apple logo, there was the iTunes icon. The iPad stayed like that but went back to normal after a reboot.

I have never had any problems with it, any ideas?

It sounds like its about time to buy a new cable and possibly an ipad charger. I go through cables all the time on my iphone/ipad. They always get frayed where the cord meets the lightning plug.
Go to best buy and buy a new one, worst comes to worst, you can always return it. If the new cable doesn't work, its time to call apple and send it in for service.


Find iPhone on another MacBook is not showing my MacBook's old location I lost my MacBook around 18 hours ago. When I log into Find iPhone on another MacBook, it is not showing me the last location of my MacBook.

Why would this be? Can I resolve this?

It seems like you didn't turn on that feature or you turned it off, which can be done in the settings. If this is the case, then it's not possible to turn this feature back on if the MacBook is already lost.

I recommend turning on Lost Mode if you haven't already.


Wacom Bamboo - no pressure sensivity I have a Wacom Bamboo tablet. I installed Wacom drivers, and Wacom dock. Now I can use both the pen and touch, but there is no pressure sensivity when using the pen (I tried using it in Photoshop). Is there a tool to diagnose the pressure?

In the Wacom settings panel System Preferences - Wacom you can adjust the pressure sensitivity  by clicking the pen in the Tool panel. and test it by applying pressure anywhere in the tip feel box.  For the Bamboo there is no sensitivity indicator.
###The status bar will indicate the pressure.
Page 42:  Bamboo User Manual

In Photoshop (CS 4 and above) you have to set your brush sizing to pen pressure:

***Note:
The screenshots from above are for an Intuos 4 but they should be very similar for the Bamboo Pen.
If your not getting any sensitivity send an email to Wacom support.  They are very helpful and responded quickly with instructions on how to fix a problem I was having with Illustrator crashes.


Macbook Air 13" 2014 battery drain Okay well so this Macbook i have isn't giving me a full time its rather dying our very fast!! even after i don't know resetting the smc and the nvram and i have no idea whats going help its really urgent!!

Sadly the solution you seek is to stop using Firefox. It drains your battery much faster than using Safari.

Close Firefox then use some Apple products and run them until your battery is very low. Then record that time. If that time is less than advertised then that is when you have a problem with the battery.

There is no issue with your computer if your battery is drained and you are using thrid party apps.


Activity Monitor data, in recent history? Lately my MacBook Pro has a lot of moments where it slows down for a few seconds, stops responding to keys and touchpad, displays a rainbow wheel of doom, and then comes back. If I go to the Activity Monitor program, I see something like this:

The CPU was just getting loaded by something, but now it's not there, so I can't see what it was. It's hard to get to the Activity Monitor quickly when it's happening, because the entire system is slow and unresponsive.

I wish there were a way to click on those blue peaks and see the CPU usage data at that point in time. Anyone know a way to do something like that? In other words, a way to find out: "What was bogging my computer down 10 seconds ago?"

Instruments.app can be used to profile Activity monitor data. But this is not viable for constant background usage as this itself might lead to the beachball. I haven't used it a lot, but see if you can find how to reduce the data collection.


Why does Calendar.app offer these addresses when I type "at home" in the location field? I don't recognize any of the addresses offered by Calendar.app, when I type "at home" in the location field.   I'd like to be offered my own home address, but these look like they might be a data leak from somewhere...

I sync Calendar.app (version 8.0 (2034.9)) with Google calendar, and typically use Fantastical on iOS. My Mac OS is 10.10.5,

At Home is actually the name of a store (and so is At Home Inn & Suites).

If you want to set the location of an event to your home, either your name, or the first few digits of your street address. Your home address should bubble up to the top.


How to navigate a lot of tabs in Google Chrome on iOS (iPad) I have an unknown enormous number of browser tabs open in Google Chrome on iOS (iPad). The number of tabs has quietly grown over time, primarily through following links in Gmail that then opens a new tab in Chrome.

But how can I easily manage and view all these tabs? (To ultimately close what I no longer need.)

The only methods for viewing/switching tabs, that I'm aware of, is to carefully slide the tabs left/right to slowly reveal the tabs or swipe on the address bar to navigate forward/back through the tabs. Neither of which is a practical solution to managing an enormous number of tabs. (I don't even know how many tabs there are - there are loads!)

Ideally, I would like to view a vertical list of all the tabs (as you can on the Android app), or maybe even a thumbnail of each open tab (as you sort of can on the Android app - as part of the aforementioned list). But there does not appear to be anything like this on iOS?!

In the most recent version of Google Chrome (currently on version 55.0.2883.79) has actually gone a long way to resolving this problem. There is now a Windows-like button to the right of the tabs (and the new tab button) that now displays a scrolling page of tab thumbnails.

Tapping that button results in a page of thumbnails representing the open tabs (you can swipe left/right to show Incognito Tabs and other devices that you are logged in to). However, the first few times I did this, only a few of the tabs were represented by thumbnails. It either took a bit of time or some navigating between the tabs for the remaining thumbnails to display...

I had amassed in excess of 111 tabs (rough count of 37 lines of 3 tabs)! Some tabs were seriously old! Chrome itself worked perfectly OK with this number of tabs (I think the tabs just go to sleep as navigating back to them triggers a full reload), but scrolling through this long list of thumbnails the first time was a bit jerky on an iPad Air 2.


Installing USB drivers Is there a way to force macOS to reinstall a set of USB drivers for a device?

I have a pair of headphones from Sennheiser that are no longer recognised, i.e. not shown as an output device in the Sound Preferences.

Drivers and firmware get updated as part of OS installation and all OS installations now are archive and install which means the OS builds up a clean OS with all the drivers needed, patches firmware and then runs the migration script to move in any custom drivers you have.

That's a great first step if you ever feel your firmware or drivers are not up to snuff.

If you don't have a caching server locally - then download the OS installer from the Mac App Store then run the installer over lunch or when you're done for the evening. You can also boot to recovery or internet recovery on newer Macs and reinstall.

Caching server will cache the installer, so you might be done with the download at LAN speeds (6 minutes or less) and the install takes maybe 10 minutes for the part everyone has to run. Your migration could take 1 minute to 30 minutes based on how many software and extensions you have.


Is it possible to hide all theme related packages from Cydia? Cydia is spammed by too many skinning tweaks and it is real hard to browse for more interesting applications.

Do you know a way to make Cydia hide the theme-related packages?

Cydia > Sections > Edit

Turn the toggle to "Off" next to the "Theme" sections.


How to open files at last position in Textwrangler? I am using Textwrangler (Version 4.5.3) to edit a set of files and I switch between them very often.
Instead of opening all files separately I selected the whole folder containing them and opened this.

My problem now is:

Every time I switch from i.e. line 600  of file A  in folder XY to file B in folder XY/Z, and then back to file A I have to scroll back to line 600, as Textwrangler opens this file again at the first line.

What I want now is an option that makes it possible to let Textwrangler "remember" where I left off last time I had it open.

I looked through all preferences in TextWrangler but couldn't find an option that does what I want.

Try a program called Brackets.  It does exactly what you want.  Its also a really cool looking editor, and only requires one window.

Link to Brackets by Adobe: Here


How to purchase Lion OS without going to Mac App Store? I would like to purchase Lion, but the Mac App Store requires a credit card, and I don't have one. Are there any other options which don't require a credit card?

Just to note, you can (at least in the UK) use the App Store with a debit card.

However, if you don't have one of those either, and you're not having any issues with OSX 10.6, why not continue using it for now? In August, Apple will start selling 10.7 on a USB drive, which you can purchase with cash in an Apple Store.


I can't connect to my Apple ID I can't connect to my Apple ID due to connection fail as it says, but my connection is good, I can connect to iCloud, visit sites,..., I just can't download books and apps on my Mac any more. I could do it before.

Go to your account at https://icloud.com and sign out of all devices. Try signing in your Apple ID after logging out of iCloud on all devices.


Is it possible to use AT&T 3G on a Verizon LTE iPad? According to the new iPad tech specs page, in addition to their separate LTE bands, both the Verizon and AT&T models ship with:

  UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz);
  GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

So it's clear that the Verizon LTE iPad has the radios and the bands to use AT&T's 3G network. It even has a micro-SIM tray. Would it be possible to get an AT&T micro-SIM and use AT&T 3G on a Verizon LTE iPad?

For me, this would be the best of both worlds. I don't live in an area with LTE yet, but given the rollout pace from Verizon and AT&T it's very likely that Verizon will get to my area long before AT&T will. However, currently, I get pretty good AT&T 3G coverage on my iPhone, and it's significantly faster than Verizon's network. So my idea is to get the Verizon iPad but use the AT&T 3G if I can, until I get Verizon LTE coverage in my area (or I visit an area with Verizon LTE).

Would this work?

Turns out I wasn't the only person that's been interested in this. There's an article on MacRumors that states that this is indeed possible, which is good news for me. The person that discovered it wrote:

Big question on everyone's mind buying the Verizon iPad was whether data from AT&Ts 3G network would work on this iPad, or if Verizon/Apple would block this.
I was one of the first to obtain a Verizon iPad and can happily confirm that this is allowed! I used my ATT iPhone 4S sim card and took out the Verizon sim, and data worked! You must apply the AT&T APN carrier settings before this works though.
BTW APN carrier settings can be changed here: unlockit.co.nz

edit: I just tested this and it works. Changed the APN, put my iPhone SIM in, and it worked.


iPhone IMAP GMail push Seeing as Yahoo (japan) got imap push to iOS devices working today (it's working on my phone now), is there a way to set it up with a GMail account?

Gmail doesn't offer IMAP push for iOS (IMAP idle isn't supported by iOS Mail), but Google Sync (which actually uses MS exchange mobile protocol) which doesn't only push your mails but also syncs your contacts and calendars (if you wish to).

As of Janury 30, 2013, Google terminated Active Sync support for free users.


How to obtain the external IPv4 address via Terminal I'm trying to figure out how to obtain my external IP (IPv4) via Terminal without connecting to a remote website or service.

Here's what I've found so far - these all use remote/external checking:

curl ifconfig.me
curl icanhazip.com
curl -s checkip.dyndns.org | grep -Eo '[0-9.]+'
dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com

Is it even possible without checking some external source?

It is not possible without checking an external source.

In a typical networking environment, nothing on your computer knows the external IP address the computer is using to communicate with the public internet.  Instead, the computer has a private IP address and sends all traffic to the private IP address of a router which then forwards the traffic the the public internet using a public IP address.

The only reliable way to determine the public IP address associated with your computer's traffic is to contact an external source and have it tell you what IP address it sees your traffic coming from.


Chrome loses cookies on browser restart I have cookies set to 'Allow local data to be set (recommended)' and yet, whenever I restart Chrome, I have to re-login to sites like reddit/facebook/google which should be keeping me logged in.

Make sure that on those sites you select the "Remember Me" option, as websites can set an expiration time for the cookies, which is what appears to be happening here.


Mac OS Sierra - Disk Utility will not let me partition an external hard drive Within disk utility, the partition icon is grayed out.  If I mouse over it, it reads:  "Disks with Master Boot Record Partition Maps cannot be partitioned".  The history on this drive:  It is a 2 TB Seagate external hard drive that the Mac store reformatted for me to use with Time Machine. I had a problem right after I bought my Mac and we did this to backup my machine and literally restore it to a new machine.  Since then, I have used it with time machine and now want to re-partition it so I can store backups of additional files to the other partition (once it is created).  The current single partition is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".  Any ideas how to address this issue?  I would prefer not to have to erase the disk as part of the process (if possible).

I've just encounter the same problem, where Partition icon is grayed out. I found the solution.
Simply launch this command in terminal and the partition icon will not be grayed out anymore :
diskutil erasedisk hfs+ External GPT /dev/disk2

For clarity, in the above command, the path argument starts from /dev, not "External GPT "
However, this command will erase the disk, make a backup if needed before !
Source : Apple Discussion - Alberto Ravasio


On OS X are iTunes and the App Store apps one and the same? I have two MacBook Airs (Running the latest version of OS X 10.9). On one of the MacBooks I decided to get rid of some of the apps that I know I am not going to use. One of the apps that I got rid of was iTunes. But, the App Store forces me to reinstall iTunes... again and again.

So, now I am wondering are the App Store and the iTunes apps one and the same? Is that why the App Store forces me to reinstall iTunes again and again?

App Store is for acquiring OS X software and alike, while iTunes is for acquiring iOS apps and everything media-related (music, movies, podcasts, etc.). Although they are separate applications, the App Store application must be relying on the iTunes "engine" for some functionalities.


Can’t log into Mac due to symbols appearing instead of letters I am trying to log into my MacBook. Unfortunately the keyboard is typing in symbols therefore causing issues with my password. I’ve tried to re-start, but I still have to log in no matter what. I realize I need to access system preferences in order to fix the keyboard, but I can’t unless I log in correctly. Please help!

You can fix the keyboard without logging in using these methods:

If you have a guest account, you can log in there and change the keyboard there.
Boot into recovery mode (cmd + R) and you should be able to change the keyboard from there.
Safe boot by holding shift as your computer restarts, and it should reset the keyboard (probably? I'm not sure about this).


Running perl shell script from AppleScript on Mojave I have a simple AppleScript that calls a perl shell script to replace a string with another string (here one with two) in files with specified file extensions (here .txt and .xyz).

It used to work exactly as I have it below, but no longer does (possibly since updating to Mojave last year).

set CleanFiles to "
    s/one/two/g;
    "

set myFolder to choose folder with prompt "Choose a folder with files to be cleaned up:"
set theFolder to POSIX path of myFolder

do shell script "find " & theFolder & " \\( -name \\*.txt -o -name \\*.xyz \\) -print0 | xargs -0 perl -i -pe '" & CleanFiles & "'"

There is no error message, it seems to run but doesn't do anything.

What could be wrong?

The issue is that you need to quote file paths for unix, using the quoted form of command in AppleScript.  In other words, line three should read:

set theFolder to quoted form of (POSIX path of myFolder)

The problem happens because Mac variables can legally contain special characters — like spaces and single quotes — that the unix system uses. So, if you were to choose a folder named "My Test Folder", AppleScript would return its posix path as /Users/username/My Test Folder, but the command line invoked by do shell script would read that as three separate arguments, not one single file path. The quoted form of command quotes and escapes any unix special characters in the line of text so that they are not interpreted as special characters by the shell.


How to know if my iOS contains pirated contents This is my first question here and my question may sounds novice but I am going to spend my vacation abroad so I would like to make sure that my iOS devices are pirated free content.

I may have copied some contents from friends such as ebooks, music, videos, etc.  The problem that I have tons of apps so I may use multiple book readers such as iBooks, Kindle, and many others. Same applies for music and videos.

Is there a way to check all of the contents on my devices using an app or at least a systematic way for check up.

PS: my devices are 256GB and all apps are original and downloaded from app store.

I'm not a lawyer but I doubt you will have an issue here. After all a pirated eBook looks rather the same as a bought one (same for other media).

Having said that the only way possible is to open each and every app and check the content stored there. If you want to be really thorough you also may want to check old mails etc.


How to restore my disappeared addresses/contacts after upgrading to El Capitan? I just upgraded to El Capitan. I don't know if that caused the problem, but my Contacts folder on the dock is empty. I am sure the addresses and groups still exist since, if I create an email and type a group name into, say, BCC, they all appear.

How can I restore the Contacts "book?"

The contacts in your email may be different from the Contacts app, since Mail can check your past emails for addresses. Real quick though, is there a list of address books (local, iCloud, Facebook, etc) on the left side of the Contacts app, and maybe you are "in" the wrong one?

The first thing you should do to make sure you still have your addresses on iCloud, provided you used to sync them to iCloud, is to log on to icloud.com with your Apple ID and password. If you see your contacts on there, you're good.

Then you should be able to go to the iCloud account settings in System Preferences (you can use the Spotlight option in System Preferences to find it if you need help) and make sure you're signed in to iCloud and that you have Contacts selected to sync.

If they are not on iCloud, and you have a Time Machine backup, open Contacts and go in to Time Machine to restore them.


Which application can be recommended to save a whole site recursively off line? I have a tourist web site I want to archive for off line view on my iPad.

I want to crawl and save it in 2nd and 3rd level depth.

Which application can be recommended to save a whole site recursively off line?

SiteSucker is a great tool for this. They have both a Mac version, and a iOS version. I have used the Mac client a while ago.

If you want to do this on the computer, 'wget' is a great tool, and the -m flag will help you mirror the site to a local directory. You may have to install wget through homebrew or another similar tool.


How to run Excel on headless Mac? I'd like to run applescript to control Excel on a headless Mac.

I want to do it from the command line via ssh, and I cannot - there is no display to run applescript on, so osascript throws an error.

I know there is on a Linux machine with X11 - I'm hoping something similar is available, but how to do this on a Mac?

You can use VNC to log into the mac from a client machine (iOS, android, PC, Mac) and establish the UI session, set excel to launch at boot and set the user account to automatically log in.

With remote working all the rage, apps like TeamViewer also work in headless Mac situations if you don’t want to vpn in to your local network.

Barring an assist, your remote access to the computer might need to allow ssh, and perhaps remote apple script so ssh and osascript could remotely script things directly from AppleScript.


Processes performed during MacOS installation I wonder on what so much time is spent during installation or upgrade to new MacOS. In other words: having strongest machine (MacbookPro) with fastest hard drive (1GB/s read/write abilities) and having fast internet connection (30Mbps) - why update between two consequent minor version (i.e. from 10.12.2 to 10.12.3) takes 30 minutes - even if update declared to be 800 MB in size. I expect in answers mentioning specific functional actions, if someone knows or can guess ones.

(If you can add anything to this list, it would be greatly appreciated.)

Firmware updates
Each and every macOS installer includes a firmware update package that has to run before the "regular" install process can be begun.


Disable the file extension change prompt When I change a file extension in Finder.app, I get prompted for confirmation.
How can I disable all of these? I always want to confirm the change.

In Finder go to the "Finder" menu and select Preferences.
Click on the "Advanced" tab.
Either Check or Uncheck "Show warning before changing an extension" depending on the behavior you want.
Note that it is not possible to change what the default action is (EG press Enter for [respectively] "Remote" , "Don't Add" , "Keep .png"). That is baked in to macOS as a default action. This is always going to be the action that will potentially NOT make a change that could cause a potential issue.


Does Catalina synch and backup devices running iOS 12? I've got one of the first generation iPad Airs and it will only update to iOS 12.4.2.  I'm trying to back it up and synch it using my iMac on which I've installed Catalina (10.15). The iPad shows in the sidebar of Finder but when I click on it, after a minute of waiting I get a message saying "The selected device could not be found."  I have no problem backing up and synching my iPhone which is running 13.1.2 and I've had no problems backing up and synching this iPad in the past. Does anyone know if the new method works with devices running iOS 12?

I would suggest you try this:

https://www.catalinaosx.com/macos-catalina-continuity-issues-device-timed-out/


iphone 4s cloud backup issue I have my iphone 4s set up to backup on the cloud and i have paid for extra storage place on the cloud i plug my phone up at night and have it connected to the wifi to backup when i sleep but it doesnt work i  then get notification that my phone has not backed up in 12 weeks...what should i check i am paying for extra space and yet nothing is getting backed up. Even when i am connected to my wifi and do a backup now it doesnt back up apparently...

My 4S wasn't backing up either. There are several things to try that might fix this. These steps worked for me.

hard reboot
upgrade to the latest iOS version
toggle off iCloud Backup, then toggle it back on


launchd with high disk usage launchd is producing a lot of I/O activity. In the last day and a half it managed to write 12 GB of data while reading 500MB.

I the logs I do not see anything suspicious. Any suggestion at where could I look?

Try to use the lsof utility

sudo lsof -p 1
# or
sudo lsof -p $(ps -U root | grep -w "/sbin/launchd" | head -1 | awk '{print $1}')

EDIT
There are can be other user launchd processes running with different process IDs, run

ps aux | grep sbin/launchd

To check PIDs of other instances of launchd.

It should list opened files by launchd. Try that to find there something suspicious.
You can also try an app called fseventer, it shows read/write events to the filesystem, or use app like Grand Perspective or Disk Inventory X to find this newly created huge file and investigate further what it is.


Headphone icon on display of iphone Why is there a headphone icon next to the battery % on my iPhone display and how do I remove it ? I haven't seen that there before

iOS 10.2 uses the headphone icon in the status bar (previously used for W1-enabled devices only, like the Beats Solo3) for every Bluetooth headphone.

When wireless headphones are connected, iOS 10.2 will show a headphone icon and battery level in the status bar.

I am still figuring out if you can turn if off. Will update my answer.


Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V on a Mac Mini Is it possible to run Windows Server R2 with Hyper-V virtualization on a Mac Mini (via BootCamp)? I am looking for a new server for my dev enviroment. A Mac Mini would be nice since I can take it with me to a customer site.

The short answer is yes.

According to the official Hyper-V system requirements page, in order to run it you need a processor that supports Intel-VT (Virtualization Technology). Most processors today support this, but to be sure I checked on the official Mac mini tech specs page as well as the Intel's list of processors that support Intel-VT.

From this, we can see that the i5 processor found on the Mac mini supports Intel-VT. I recommend upgrading the RAM if possible. Also, make sure that you are running one of the supported operating systems for Hyper-V. Hope this helps.


Problem with malicious Traffic in my MacBook I have been receiving warnings from my internet provider for a month now. This is part of the latest e-mail sent to me.

  "CenturyLink Security Services has received notification about malicious traffic
  originating from this account. This means that this computer or another
  computer on your network is trying to infect, attack, or gain unauthorized
  access to other computers on the Internet.

  This malicious traffic has been determined to be an instance of the "Mebroot"
  or "Torpig" virus.

  Computers infected with bots are considered compromised hosts. They may be used
  to send spam (also called Unsolicited Bulk Email, or UBE), scan other computers
  for vulnerabilities, take advantage of security holes, and/or be used as part
  of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.  These programs also allow
  computers used by attackers or spammers to hide their identity and location.
  These bots are often spread by viruses or worms."

I have changed the password 6 times. I even went to my mac store only to have them tell me that what CenturyLink says is impossible. This morning I ran a first aid "verify permissions" and found the following on my "Fugi... and HD options

Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/vpnd" has been modified and will not be repaired.

ACL found but not expected on "Applications/Utilities".

I am at my wit's end on this matter. Is there anything I can do to fix the problem?

The malware may be transmissible by macs, it's uncertain.  Regardless, you might, in addition to checking DHCP:

Ensure that your search domains in Directory Utility are not set to "Automatic", which will leave you open to rogue DHCP servers on your network.
Consider arpsniff or ArpSpyX or some modern equivalent. Those rogues would gain access possibly via ARP poisoning ( google that)
Little Snitch or some other application firewall would be useful here as well.
Turn off Xgrid, in fact, turn off sharing unless you are using it.


Snow Leopard Server in Parallels with Retina MacBook Pro (No DVD Drive) I'm trying to install Snow Leopard Server in a Virtual Machine in my Retina MacBook Pro, but I was unable to do it since I don't have a DVD drive in my MacBook.

I've done an DMG file from the original Snow Leopard Server DVD but, it has no effect, since Parallels cannot install Snow Leopard Server from a .dmg file.

Any ideas?

PS: I just want to use Rosetta.

UPDATE: I totally read everything wrong. My mistake.

You should be able to install Snow Leopard Server by converting your DMG to ISO. See this OS X Daily article for full details:

Convert DMG to CDR or ISO with Disk Utility

If you'd rather create the ISO directly from the original disk, that's possible too.


Appstore Policy: Why do apps stop using appstore and instead install from web sites? Today I've seen this message from SourceTree app (gui repo-manager):
'You have a behind version that supported now. We move from appstore and you need to download application from link below.'

Why did they abandon the appstore?

I think that appstore is a great app-manager, but why was this app removed?

From SourceTree's Blog:

Mac App Store Note
A final note just to say that we no longer publish to the Mac App Store due to sandboxing restrictions. Check Steve’s blog post about sandboxing for more information.


Can a Mac Mini drive three monitors? I'm the owner of three Samsung SyncMaster 245BW monitors (resolution: 1920 x 1200). I'm interested in getting a Mac Mini and was wondering if I'll be able to connect the Mac Mini to all three monitors such that I can have a separate desktop on each. Does the Mac Mini come with the hardware / software to do this? Thanks!

Alot depends on what Mac Mini you have. Early Mac Minis only had a single DVI out, later versions had mini DVI out, still newer versions had a mini DVI and a mini DisplayPort out, and the newest all metal version has a mini DisplayPort and HDMI out and comes with an HDMI to DVI adapter.

Negrino was correct in saying that you could get a USB to DVI adapter but you might only have to get one of them, depending on your Mac Mini's video out ports. If you have an early G4 or Core Solo Mini, you would have to get 2 adapters.

For a little clarification, are you planning on mirroring your desktop 3 times or having 1 desktop extended over 3 monitors? If it is the first option then you could simply get a VGA or DVI Y adapter that would mirror the image coming out of one port to 2 or more monitors.


Worthwhile replacing battery of 1st generation iPhone SE? I am considering replacing the battery in my iPhone SE. It drops from 70% charge at room temperature to 10% charge in the outdoor winter cold, then shuts off, leaving me stranded without connectivity.
When I bought the phone several years ago, there was a high profile problem where iOS upgrades would slow the clocks on older phones to make up for the short battery life.  Due to public outcry, Apple agreed to replace the battery for free.  Since I don't use the phone much, I didn't take advantage of that offer initially, and when I decided to, it was too late.
If I replace the battery now, it would likely cost under $100, including tax (about 12% here).  It is a 1st generation iPhone SE [1], however, and I'm not sure how able it will be to host many more iOS upgrades.  At some point, Apple will not allow upgrades in order to avoid untenable customer experiences.
For those who have visibility into the technology trend, how likely is it that in the next year, the growing procesing/memory demands of iOS upgrades will make them unsupportable by 1st generation iPhone SEs?
I hardly use the phone (not allowed to have one at work, don't need it at home), so the $150/year of amortized phone cost seems...OK, I suppose.  When I need it, however, I really need it, e.g., navigating a new city, looking up things or communicating when doing milk run activities.
I suppose that it's not the end of the world to be stuck without iOS upgrades, but I anticipate running into problems with web apps and webpage compatibility, as well as stale security.
[1] Model MP822VC/A

Generally, Apple supports iPhones for seven years—so going from the date it was discontinued in 2018, would give a window of support until 2025. Sometimes, due to specific hardware being able to run later versions of iOS, it may be possible to go beyond that point, but is a gamble.
If you're looking at extending the value, the $100 cost looks like a good deal—as long as you don't need the latest-and-greatest. Keep in mind, though, that the proliferation of 5G networks and changing carrier support may factor into your decision.


User needs to login twice We're currently sampling High Sierra 10.13.1 on a few machines in the office. One of the users is getting a strange issue after a password reset.

When she reboots she's prompted for a password as usual; using the new one doesn't work. Entering the old one we get the grey progress bar, and after a while a second login-screen appears, at which she then has to enter the new password.  How do we fix this? This kind of 2FA is quite undesirable.

Cheers,
Tink

It sounds like the FileVault encrypted drive is allowing the old password (first login) to unlock the drive. But, instead of automatically logging in as the same user, the password reset is causing the second login.

You will need to login to an local admin user and remove the user's ability to decrypt the drive on the command line...

sudo fdesetup remove -user username

Then add the user back in using...

sudo fdesetup add -usertoadd username

Or, with macOS High Sierra, you can use the "Enable Users" button located in System Preferences -> Security -> FileVault.

I do not know if this is normal after a password reset, but you may want to confirm that your password reset procedure is correct.


How can i reset my Terminal? just some time ago i installed the OS X Server app on my mac and since this day it always appears server as the chosen directory in my terminal.

But because i dont really like the Server application i just removed it but the server in my terminal is still left.
So i wonder now how i can get the default back like users/...

I am running mountain lion on my mac.

I am a real newby to both mac and usage of terminal but i need it know for some work and i just get errors every time i am trying to enter something.

Goto your HomeFolder -> Library -> Preferences and delete the file : com.apple.terminal.plist

That should reset the settings on your Terminal


Is it safe to reformat drive during Recovery Mode install? I've inherited an almost brand new 13" Macbook Pro Retina. I'd like wipe the hard drive clean and start with a fresh install of Mountain Lion. I've done this a million times before... but never while booted from the Recovery Partition. So I just thought I'd have someone who has experience with this check my math here.

Take a look at the following photo of the Mac booted into Recovery mode with Disk Utility running. Can I safely click on the "500.25 GB APPLE SSD S...", go to the Erase tab, wipe it completely clean, and then use it as the target for the install? Will that keep the Recovery Partition intact?

Seems reasonable to me... but I've been advised against this approach. I've also used Apple's Recovery Disk Assistant to make a bootable USB stick just in case. Is there any reason that I should boot off of and install from that instead?

Bonus Question: When I'm erasing and reformatting disks, I never know if I should click on "500.25 GB APPLE SSD S..." or "Macintosh HD". Thoughts?

The difference between the 500gb and Mac HD is pretty simple actually. The parent is the actual hard drive that holds the partition (Mac HD). You use that to re-partition if you want to split or change the partition table.

So you should use the Mac HD if you just want to erase and install.

The disk1 in your screenshot is the recovery partition. You probably can't erase it or remove it (not sure as I haven't tried). The icon indicates that it is a mounted drive and not an actual hard drive.

So click the Macintosh HD, erase, format, target for install. It's not long ago I did the same on my MacBook Pro.

Happy fresh laptop!


Mavericks GMail mailbox loses messages Even after the 7.0 (1822) update, Mavericks Mail is not keeping synchronized with the GMail IMAP server. A mailbox with hundreds of messages in it suddenly has only the latest added message. Then it will show only messages added since that message.

I have tried mailbox Rebuild, re-checking mail, close Mail and open it again. Nothing seems to help. The messages in the Mail mailbox don't match what's in the filter by label on the web interface.

Is there a way to force Mail to re-synchronize a single Mail mailbox (to a GMail label) without deleting the entire account and spending another day or two rebuilding the whole database?

A related question asks about messages in Mail (inbox) that are not in GMail (inbox). This question is the reverse, messages in GMail (archived label) that are not in Mail (mailbox). The answer may or may not be the same!

NOTE: After 5 days of daily use, the mailbox has just restored itself. That's a long time to wait! Unfortunately, for the time being (until I detect a recurrence of the problem) it will be difficult for me to evaluate the effectiveness of solutions offered.

If it happens again, try the following:

Right click any Gmail folder that is missing messages and select "Get Account Info".

This forces Mail to search through the entire Gmail account for messages and will restore missing messages in all folders for that account.

The missing mail problem occurred for me when I upgraded from Mountain Lion to Mavericks 10.9.1 with Mail 7.1 (1827). I had unsuccessfully tried:

clicking "Get new messages in all accounts"
synchronising the mailbox
taking the account offline and then back online
rebuilding the mailboxes
un-enabling the account, restarting Mail and then re-enabling the account.

Only getting the account info solved the problem for me.


Looking for GSview for OSX Does anyone know where I can find a copy of GSview that will run on OSX?

I have already tried the following:

I searched for a Homebrew recipe for GSview, but I didn't find one.  (BTW, I already have the ghostscript-9.05 recipe installed; AFAICT, this recipe did not include GSview.)
I downloaded a copy of MacGSView_2.0b3_Installer.bin, but when I click on it, an error message tells me that it can't be opened because "the Classic environment is no longer supported."
I downloaded the source code, hoping to be able to build the executable, but AFAICT the download does not include any instructions or scripts for installing under OS X (or even under Unix).  More precisely, the little Unix-oriented information I was able to find in the download seems to be entirely obsolete, since it mentions files names that do not remotely resemble the files in the downloaded zip file, etc.  (A set of instructions for building and installing the app from the contents of this download would be an entirely acceptable answer to this question.)
all the hits I get when I Google for GSview OSX, even those that include the string "OSX" or "OS X" in the title, are actually for Windows executables.

You could try MacGhostView:

http://www.kiffe.com/macghostview.html

If you have Mountain Lion, you will also have to install XQuartz:

http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/


rEFInd is not working in macos high sierra 10.13.6 on 2018 MacBook Pro 13 inch even after proper installation I have installed rEFInd in my mac by going into recovery mode -> open terminal -> csrutil disable -> cd "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/username/Downloads/refind-bin-0.11.2" -> bash ./refind-install -> csrutil enable -> reboot
But on reboot it shows and loads the Apple icon first and then opens the Boot Recovery where I need to select my hard disk and restart the mac and it boots into macos without showing rEFInd option at the beginning. How to resolve this?

EDIT: You'll have to run the ./refind-install program in macOS after you've run csrutil disable in the Recovery OS. This will most likely solve any issues you have with installation.

Original answer: I think your problem is that you've tried to disable csrutil through a terminal in MacOS, which won't work. Try following the steps in this article to go into Recovery OS, run csrutil disable; reboot in the Terminal, and then try going through the normal refind install steps. It's your choice if you want to re-enable System Integrity Protection afterwards, but again you'll have to do it through Recovery OS.

Hopefully this advice was interesting and useful to you, and I wish you good luck.


"DYLD_" terminal error? So, I've done some searching.. and still haven't found a solution for this. I'm not even sure what has caused it. There are no DYLD_ or LD_ flags being set at all, but I always see this when I open the terminal up.

dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/usr/bin/login) is setuid or setgid

Would definitely appreciate help with this.

So, apparently it was the new Umbrella client by OpenDNS causing this error. I uninstalled it and continued to get this error until I restarted, which was making me think that it was something other than this client. However, after some testing.. it's confirmed that it's this client that's causing it.

So, yeah.. This definitely wasn't a duplicate or related to any of the duplicates that have been posted in the comments in the question.


What features are lost on the Lightning to 30 pin dock adapter? The materials from Apple say that the following features are not supported on the Lightning to 30 pin dock adapter and cable: Video and iPod out.

What exactly are these features?

Lightning to 30 pin adapter and Lightning to 30 pin cable

The iPod out functionality is actually a very specific feature that was added only very recently. Only a few cars actually support it, so the vast vast majority of appliances should continue to work fine.

  Here's the thing, though: "iPod Out" doesn't actually mean "audio output from an iPod." It's the branding for a very specific feature for cars and remote-screen tools that was included in iOS 4, which delivered a customized iOS graphic display via the in-dash screens when the device was docked

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/13/lightning-30-pin-adapter-works-with-analog-audio-ipod-out-doe/

For the Video functionality, this will be coming soon - the connector is capable of it, but it most likely requires additional circuitry in the adapter to implement it.

  As with the 30-pin connector, the Lightning connector supports video output; Apple told Macworld that Lightning-to-HDMI and Lightning-to-VGA cables will be available “in the coming months.”

http://www.macworld.com/article/1168555/what_apples_new_lightning_connector_means_for_you.html


US Letter or A4 PDF - which is better for iPad? I am given the option to download a US Letter or A4 formatted PDF - Which fits the iPad screen better?

Letter.  A4 is slightly longer and narrower than US Letter, and would result in wider borders at the side to fit a full page vertically.  US Letter won't fit perfectly, but the aspect ratio of it's dimensions are a much closer fit to the iPads 4:3 (or 3:4 in portrait) screen and the slimmer borders top and bottom would be less noticeable than the A4 equivalent:

        Millimetres Inches

        Width   Length  Width   Length
A4      210.0   297.0   8.26    11.69 (3:4.24 APPROX)

or 6% too long when scaled to fit the shortest edge, resulting in vertical borders when scaled to fit the longest edge

Letter  215.9   279.4   8.50    11.00 (3:3.88 APPROX)

or 3% too short when scaled to fit the shortest edge, resulting in horizontal borders when scaled to fit the longest edge

See this link for good comparative info and this one for a ratio calculator


My RAM was bad ("three beeps" bad) until shuffled I've got an early 2011 13" i7 MBP, OS X 10.10.3 (the public beta version before the one released last night) with 10 GB of RAM – one of the original 2 GB modules in the bottom slot and an 8 GB module that's now a few months old in the top slot. Yesterday morning, I opened my computer to reveal a black screen after it had just been working a few minutes ago. I tried to turn it off and back on, and ended up getting the three-beep pattern that indicates bad RAM. I opened up my computer's back, and here's what I tried (and what happened when I attempted to power on after trying it):

Pulling out and reinserting the RAM - no change.
Pulling out the 8 GB and trying to boot with just the 2 GB - no change
Pulling out the 2 GB and using just the 8 GB in the top RAM slot - no change
Putting the 8 GB in the bottom slot - it booted fine!
Adding in the 2 GB in the top slot -
no problem!

"No trouble found." -Apple Hardware Test (both basic and extended) last night

So, here's my question: How'd my RAM spontaneously go bad enough to cause the beeps of death, and how'd the solution end up lying in switching which module goes in which slot?

I couldn't possibly venture a guess as to "why" except to chalk it up to Murphy...

However Mac O/S is very picky when it comes to RAM. It is my guess that Apple updated some of the code in the O/S that checks for issues with RAM and it noticed a problem.

That it now works with the RAM effectively swapped is even more puzzling. It is possible that there is an issue with something in the RAM slot itself, either physical or "electro-mechanical."

If the RAM is within warranty I would contact the folks you bought it from and swap it out on the chance that there is a strange issue with the RAM itself.

Sorry, no real definitive answer. It could be just a random occurrence and if you swap the RAM again it could work fine. Or the Earth could veer out of it's orbit and go crashing into the sun... Sometimes troubleshooting hardware and software issues leads you down a road that makes no sense, but if your "fix" works then leave it be and hope for the best.

Any any time I hope for the best, I make sure I have a recent backup...


Using fn+F1 and fn+F2 keys change brightness instead of being used as standard function keys When I press fn+Function key, most keys are used as standard function keys. However, F1 and F2 still turn the brightness up and down instead of being normal function keys, even with fn being pressed. How can this be fixed? I'd still like my brightness keys to change the brightness, but only when fn is not pressed.

Make sure the commands aren't duplicated in Shortcuts
System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Display


Random shutter sound Every once in a while I hear a loud sound from my Mac. It sounds like either a camera shutter or a keychain lock/unlock. It all started a couple of weeks ago.

I fear something is snapping shots of my screen and beaming them somewhere.

I've scoured Google and found others have experienced the same issue. Based on suggestions, I've installed 2 Anti Virus apps (one at a time, of course), scanned my computer, and found nothing; checked Activity Monitor for unknown processes - none I could identify; looked at all the regular places (~/Library/LaunchDaemons, ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchAgents) - didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

What am I missing, what else should I try, or am I just overreacting and there's a simple answer?

Your search for the origin of this sound may progress on 2 paths:
which application produces it and which sound is it.

Which application?

Here is an easy way to control if this sound is coming from
a standard screen capture.

Type the following command twice:

ls -lu /usr/bin/screencapture

First, whenever you want.
Next time, just after you heard the shutter sound.

This command will display you the time when this command was last run.

Which sound?

Quick identification

Here is a 1st attempt to be sure of which sound is used.
You can't try to recognize a sound by firing an application and trying
all the sound it can produce with its graphical interface.

The only practical approach is to use fast command lines just after
you heard your unsolicited sound.
Open a Terminal or xterm window and enter as is these 4 lines of
command defining short name functions to test 4 approaching sounds:

shutter() { afplay '/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/Resources/CoreAudioAUUI.bundle/Contents/Resources/Grab.aif' ; }
lock() { afplay '/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockClosing.aif' ; }
unlock() { afplay '/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockOpening.aif' ; }
safe() { afplay '/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/Resources/CoreAudioAUUI.bundle/Contents/Resources/Sticky Keys Locked.aif' ; }

On Mountain Lion, these sounds have moved. Then these functions have to be defined with:

shutter() { afplay '/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/system/Grab.aif' ; }
lock() { afplay '/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockClosing.aif' ; }
unlock() { afplay '/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockOpening.aif' ; }
safe() { afplay '/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/accessibility/Sticky Keys Locked.aif' ; }

Keep this window open, and as soon as you hear the unsolicited sound,
fire these four commands in turn to hear which one was played:

shutter
lock
unlock
safe

Next, to be sure, you can once more verify the access time of the identified sound file with the -lu options of ls. For example, you can
confirm that the lock sound was played with:

ls -lu '/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockClosing.aif'

Deep search

If this quick approach fails, here is a command to identify the file
which was used by the system to play a sound within the preceding hour
(-atime -1h):

find /Library /System/Library \( -type d \( -name "iTunes" -o -name "GarageBand" -o -name "Apple Loops" \) -prune \) -o \( \( -name "*.aif*" -o -name "*.wav*" -o -name "*.m4a*" \) -atime -1h -exec ls -luT {} \; \) 2>/dev/null

If this command doesn't report anything, the next step will be to run
the same deep search within your HOME directory:

find ${HOME} \( -type d -name "iTunes" -prune \) -o \( \( -name "*.aif*" -o -name "*.wav*" -o -name "*.m4a*" \) -atime -1h -exec ls -luT {} \; \) 2>/dev/null


Device is picking up the wrong IP Address from DHCP I have an iPhone 6. It is the only device in the entire house that picks up the wrong IP address. Other iPhones, non-Apple devices, laptops, desktops, etc. are fine. But my phone is always assigned a link-local IP-address (169.254/16) instead of a private IP-address (192.168/16).

Due to this, it won't even connect to the Internet and I have to type everything manually in Static. I don't want to do this. It was fine till a few days ago. I don't understand the computer terms and would want it to be in layman terms.

Also, we have only one router at home. Everything works well (except my iPhone). Can I understand why this is happening and what can I do to make it right?

PS: The phone is fine. Hardware is fine. I tried the network reset. I tried the software reset too (using iTunes).

First let's clear up some nomenclature inaccuracies...

Your iPhone didn't "pick up" a link-local address from the DHCP server.  It assigned itself a private IP based on Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA).  There's a huge distinction here and is relevant to the problem you are having:

DHCP hands out IP addresses based on a configured pool of addresses.
APIPA self assigns an address when, for whatever reason, it doesn't get one from DHCP

So, armed with this knowledge, we know one of two things happened:

Your DHCP server didn't respond or ignored/denied the request for an address
Your iPhone didn't request or it rejected/ignored the DHCP offer.

DHCP server

It's entirely possible that the issue is with the DHCP server on your router. It may have been configured for a small amount of leases and at some point you hit the limit (your previous lease was given to another client).  You may have also "blocked" your client (iPhone from the DHCP pool).  Given that your iPhone is the only device not connecting, it would be beneficial to look at the router's DHCP config to see if you have any limitations or restrictions in place.  Restarting it wouldn't hurt, either.

Your iPhone

It's also entirely possible that an update or a configuration change has "hosed up" your networking configuration.  Usually, forgetting the wireless network and re-connecting will solve the issue.

However, one of the best ways to narrow down the possibilities is to connect it to another network.  Take it to your favorite coffee shop, a friends house, or anywhere that has a WiFi network that you can attach to easily.  If you can connect there, then you know the problem is with your home setup.  If it fails on other networks, you most likely have a hardware issue which means it's time to take it in for service.


Is there an alternative to the native file transfer handler in Finder? In Windows you can replace the native file handler with TeraCopy, I was wondering if there were a similar solution in Mac OS X. Because the current handler is not that great.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I recommend and use UltraCopier which is the closest I found to TeraCopy.

An alternative is ForkLift, which doesn’t just handle file transfers, but lots of other stuff, too.


How to wipe an old white MacBook? Reading over Apple's documents on how to wipe a machine, it's all about internet installs. Now it's been so long since I did anything with this machine, I don't recall the process... was 10.7.5 an internet-based install?

What options do I have to wipe an old white MacBook?

The short answer is...

Using OS X boot media or your recovery partition (if available; Command+R), boot into it like you are going to do an install.  However, when you get to the first screen, launch Disk Utility and do a "Secure Erase" of your hard drive.

Once that is done, you can stop there and have a white MB with no OS or you can continue and install an OS for the next person who becomes the new owner.

Can your white MB support Internet Recovery?

If it is the 2010 model (their last one before resurrecting the line last year) and you had Lion installed with the EFI Firmware update, you can use Internet Recovery.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313

There's no harm in checking...just press Command+Option+R during boot.  If you get to Internet Recovery, then you have it.  If not, then chances are, your MB doesn't support it.


Why are all dependencies forced in Homebrew FFmpeg 4.1? When upgrading to the latest FFmpeg (4.1) through Homebrew, I noticed that an overwhelming number of new dependencies were installed. At the same time, brew info ffmpeg revealed that all installation options were gone. So someone decided that there is only one FFmpeg, then. All or nothing. Where can I find information about this decision and the reason for doing so?

Issue 31510: Remove all options

See Remove all options from Homebrew/homebrew-core formulae #31510:

  Options in formulae don't produce a good user experience because they have to be built from source, we don't test them in CI and each combination of options provides a new chance for new failures to occur. We should seek to (eventually!) remove all options from formulae in Homebrew/homebrew-core in favour of enabling as much non-exclusive functionality as possible in a given formula for widely used options or encouraging the community to maintain their own custom options in a tap (e.g. https://github.com/denji/homebrew-nginx/blob/master/Formula/nginx-full.rb). As an absolute last resort if we need to depend on the same formula multiple times with different options (e.g. #13133) we can consider vendoring formulae using resource blocks or even duplicating formulae.

You can explore the history of the ffmpeg formula to see other changes to the dependencies and options.


Can read mail on iPhone but not on computer I can check mail on my Phone because the password was inputted when set up.  After a while I forgot it and cannot check mail on my computer!  I tried to retrieve it by using the "I forgot ..," but after many tries, not successful.  How can I find out the password that I "saved" in my iPhone ?

You cannot. Use iforgot password technique to set a new password.


iTunes automatic downloads log-in prompt The iTunes on my secondary computers (i.e. the computers I don't sync my iPod and iPhone to) are now prompting me twice to 'log-in to my iTunes account to enable automatic downloads' before I can play any music - first when I open iTunes and again when I go to actually play a song. While I have music in iTunes on my non-primary computers, I don't need or want them to be connected to my overall iTunes account - I buy almost nothing through iTunes and just don't want or need them to be connected.

This is the box that pops up twice (that has somehow autofilled my email address even though I've never used the account on this machine's iTunes):

I checked system preferences and didn't see anything that would appear to disable the pop up, but anyone know how to get rid of it?

I realize this is a fairly basic question but it's super annoying. Both computers this is happening on are macs, if it matters.

EDIT: This is what the Store Preferences page looks like - I don't see an option for disabling downloads, only ways to enable it via an iOS device or to a different account.

Essentially, there are two different options you can try - depending on the way you want to use iTunes. I'll be writing this answer for Mac users, but Windows users can probably suss it out using these instructions.

Both options will only require you to click "Store" from the menu bar from within iTunes.

Option One (red) - If you intend on using the Store, you can simply click the "Authorize This Computer..." menu option. This will prompt you for your password and tie your computer and iTunes library to your iTunes account.

Option Two (blue) - If you don't intend on using the Store and would simply like to not see the dialog box prompting for your password, you can click the "Sign Out" menu option.

One of these two things should solve the problem of the persistent password prompt.

Best of luck!


Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 GPU upgrade I want to upgrade my Mac Pro 2,1 to El Capitan. If I go for an HD 5770 gpu does it have to be a Mac specific card. Are there any other compatible GPUs.

Yes, it needs to be a Mac specific card. The Mac specific part is basically the firmware on the card - so some cards can be purchased in the PC/Windows variant and then you reflash the firmware to make it Mac specific again.


Mounting an external hard disk clone that shares the same partition GUIDs as the source/host hard disk Recently my Macbook's hard disk started to get badblocks and I promptly managed to make a disk clone with ddrescue into an external drive through an Ubuntu live session. I successfully cloned everything without much issues.

When I plug this external drive using Ubuntu I can access all partitions. But unfortunately when I try to access this drive on macOS itself the Apple_CoreStorage partition doesn't mount.

Here's my diskutil list output:

paulofreitas@Paulos-MacBook-Pro:~$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +498.9 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 F0CA4975-A73D-46D6-92AB-4A4DDF3DFFF7
                                 Unencrypted

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                  Apple_HFS Storage                 2.0 TB     disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         499.2 GB   disk3s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk3s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Time Machine            1.5 TB     disk3s4

The external hard drive is the /dev/disk3. The first 3 partitions are an exact copy of /dev/disk0 at the time I did the clone. The last partition Time Machine was later created with the free disk space that was left.

I can't mount /dev/disk3s2 inside macOS although I can do that when using Ubuntu. Am I missing something? What should I do to mount this partition?

Update

From what I've understood the problem happens because both /dev/disk0s2 + /dev/disk3s2 and /dev/disk0s3 + /dev/disk3s3 shares the same disk label. My /Volumes/Macintosh HD lists the Macbook filesystem itself, ie. it's the /dev/disk1 (from /dev/disk0s2).

Actually this happens because both disk GPT GUID and partitions GPT GUIDs share the same UUIDs. I still haven't found a way or tool to change those partitions GUIDs safely (where I can mount them without compromising their data).

I have tested your set-up in a virtual machine with the same result - the second CoreStorage volume won't be mounted. Cloning a CoreStorage container to another disk with dd doesn't change the UUIDs of the CoreStorage items. So it's indeed a problem of the duplicate UUIDs of the Logical Volume Group/Physical Volume/Logical Volume Family/Logical Volume of disk0s2 and disk3s2.

The good news is: there is a man entry for a tool which can change the UUIDs of all CoreStorage metadata objects: man csunique.

Check the disk identifier of the duplicate with diskutil list. In your example that's disk3s2.

Then the command in your case would be:

csunique -v -n /dev/rdisk3s2 #dry-run
csunique -v /dev/rdisk3s2

The bad news is: I can't find the tool/script. It's neither in the path nor can I find a file with this name elsewhere on the disk. I checked this in 10.9/10.10/10.11/Recovery HD by searching the whole disk even inside packages with FileBuddy. A Google search wasn't successful.

Work in progress

You may change the various UUIDs manually by editing the raw disk content with a tool like HexEdit or wxHexEditor of course. AFAIR the pvUUID and the lvgUUID are located at the first block of disk3s2. The pvUUID/lvgUUID has several additional occurrences in the metadata area of the Logical Volume Group of disk3s2. Don't use arbitrary (ie self-made) UUIDs but try to generate them with uuidgen or online with a UUID generator. Some bits of the UUID have a special meaning and determine UUID version or the hash algorithm.

Example:

The diskutil cs list output of the original disk:

diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group C451C0F6-32F9-43AB-8E59-42D21AEFF650
    =========================================================
    Name:         SystemCS
    Status:       Online
    Size:         67859718144 B (67.9 GB)
    Free Space:   18948096 B (18.9 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume E46EF8F2-6399-45C1-B213-8628A518466D
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     67859718144 B (67.9 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family AAD268A6-FC66-43FC-A24E-11A1F23CA5DD
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 50B61719-7CB4-40D9-8AFC-F5CD37C1A66C
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk3
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          67488448512 B (67.5 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               SystemCS
            Volume Name:           SystemCS
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

The pvUUID (light violet) and lvgUUID (light yellow) appear in hex in the first block and the last block of the partition:

1st block:

last block:

and as text each four times in the last 32760 blocks (512 byte physical block size) of the partition in plist-like items.


How to move the desktop background? The situation I face is that I have a wallpaper that fills the screen but shows the wrong part of the actual image. So I am wondering whether I could possibly move the image so it shows me the proper section I'd like to see.

I can think of only two options, assuming that you need full control over which part of the image that appears on the display:

You can crop and/or resize the image using an image editor, so that it fits your display.
You can use my recently released app Fresco.

Note: I'm not aware of any other solution, tool or app that lets you select an arbitrary part of an image for desktop use.


How do I change a folder to a jar? I play Minecraft like many gamers and I am trying to make a profile where I can read the enchanting table language and I cannot get it to work. How do I change the folder that I used to edit it into a jar?

Compress the contents of the folder then rename the .zip to .jar


i am unable to download and upload app on my ipad mini ,! help me out what should i do to fix this? it is happening past twodays. iam from India, please help me out .

iTunes has just changed their T&C (Therms and Conditions).

You will have to first accept those to continue.

I just tried and it downloads the Candy Crash Saga.

Log out and back in.


Dashboard Widget for persistently editing a file Is there a dashboard widget that one can use to persistently edit a text file?

For example, suppose I want to have my changelog open all the time in a Git repository.

Many thanks.

Dashboard widgets are simple HTML applets, built using HTML, CSS & Javascript. So if there is a way to create an HTML webpage that does this functionality (namely, auto-loading a text file in an editable field with an option to refresh and save), then this can also be accomplished within a Dashboard widget.

It may be worth asking some of the folks at StackOverflow if you need help learning the code to accomplish this (web coding is better suited to that community), and you can use tools like Dashcode or Hype (my recommendation) to actually create your widget.


Toggling iterm2 with F12 hotkey on touchbar doesn't work Normally I use external keyboard with my macbook pro 2018 and never had any problems with toggling iterm2, I use cmd+F12 as a hotkey. But now I'm using laptop keyboard with the touchbar that shows F1-F12 keys by default unless I press fn. And toggling iterm2 no longer works, it seems iterm2 just doesn't recognize F12 key on the touchbar when it's closed, it works fine however when I type in a terminal. I'm on macOS 11.1 and iterm2 3.4.3 (latest as of now).

Turned out the issue was in Karabiner-Elements, after enabling "Apple internal keyboard" under Devices cmd+F12 started to work fine. After all, the issue wasn't in iterm2 ignoring F12 but in the fact that cmd+F12 combination didn't work.


Should I install iOS 8 on my iPhone 4s? What are the drawbacks of updating my iPhone 4s to the latest iOS? What are the advantages? With my phone plan, I cannot get the newest iPhone yet.

Advantages:

more security
more features: quick reply, continuity (if you have Mac &
Yosemite )

Disadvantages:
it will run slowly
you won't get a lot of the features that 5S and above have
could decrease battery life

If you have experience with ssh and jailbreaking, I would say go ahead but make sure you can downgrade using ssh just in case you don't like it.
However, if you don't even know what that is, I wouldn't recommend upgrading because there is no way to downgrade if you don't think you'll like it because apple already stopped signing ios7 and below.


iOS 13 (and web interface): Cannot share an iCloud folder I read about folder sharing feature recently added to iCloud (Can I share iCloud Drive folder with other iCloud user? and here).

Although I have iOS 13+ on my phone, I still cannot share folders. When I select folders, sharing button became grey and inactive. I checked web interface (icloud.com) and see the same behaviour.

Should I do something to activate this feature?

iCloud folder sharing was included in some of the early iOS 13 beta releases but Apple removed that feature in Sept 2019.

As of now, iOS 13.1.3 is publicly available stable version and Apple has not added iCloud folder sharing back.

Some sites, like this 9to5Mac site as well as this Apple macOS Catalina features page are reporting that it should be available again in the "Spring of 2020".


Command + Space Spotlight shortcut stopped working I don't know what made it stopped working. I use BetterTouchTools, but not command has that shortcut and even when I close it, Command + Space still doesn't work.

I checked System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts, and there is no yellow triangle warning, and again Command + Space has no other conflicts. I've restarted my computer and still the problem persists.

I don't know what else to try. Is there any way to check what is being triggered when I press Command + Space key sequence?

I am using a 15" 2017 MacBook Pro running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

Edit: This was on a work computer I no longer have access to, so I can't try any solution to see if they work.

same thing happen to my 2 MacBooks, must have been an apple update.
in sys pref, it seems the shortcut is still the same.

I pressed the "restore default" button, and it worked again on both laptops


PDF printing bug in OS X On a PDF created with Office for Windows, special characters are not displaying and not printing correctly in OS X. The rendering is correct on Chrome.

The issue is the same as this one: Some PDFs created by MS Word 2007's Save-as-PDF feature (on Windows) don't display correctly on Mac OS / iOS

The file (created on Windows with PDF Distiller): https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8n7S6EXzIaJVXhOaFZncGZSdHc

The file (extracted from a document using print-to-PDF): https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8n7S6EXzIaJMkpxWHdCeEl2a0U

How can I resolve this?

This issue now appears to be resolved; previewing documents on ML 10.8.2 now show the PDF's rendered correctly.

I'm not overly sure when this was resolved (it may well be something that was fixed in 10.8.0), but it looks like Apple has implemented a work around for the bad font embedding from Word generated PDF's

The updated PDf you posted is as shown, and works fine under ML.  I've included the URL bar to show it's the right file.


"Could not load Vox Preferences preference pane." Solutions? I'm trying to install the Vox prefs pane so I can have it use the play/pause next and previous media keys rather than iTunes. However after installing, I get the error "Could not load Vox Preferences preference pane". I think the first time I installed it (I tried several times) it told me something about it needing an intel mac to run, which, of course, I have.

[Edit: The first warning after opening system preferences and trying to load the Vox pref pane is: "You can’t open Vox Preferences preferences because it doesn’t work on an Intel-based Mac." Curious. Vox is quite recent. Why would they distribute a prefs pane extension that only works on PPC macs?]

Anyone got any ideas as to what's wrong with this pref pane?

Running 10.7.5.

Yes, please try as me

Step 1: Menu bar Apple > Preferences > Users & Group > Choose your account > select tab "Login items". Then keep the windows where you can easy-to-see

Step 2: Enable "Show hide items" for your Finder (in this step please search Google)

Step 3: You are using Finder to browse into /Library/PreferencePanes/. Then right click item "VOX Preferences.prefPane" and choose "Show contens package". Browsing into Contents > MacOS, at here you will see "VOXHelper.app"

Step 4: Drag "VOXHelper.app" and drop into "Login items" at Step 1

Step 5: Reboot your Mac. If not work, retry with "VOX Preferences" file.


How can I remove the Parallels icons from Launchpad in Lion? I have Parallels Desktop 6 installed and after an upgrade to Lion I got a whole bunch of Windows app icons on Launchpad:

They look ugly and don't have a remove button.
They also don't exist in my Applications folder so I can't delete them from there either.

How do I get rid of them?

The original LaunchPad Cleaner would clean up the icons, but running parallels would undo the cleaning. The updated LaunchPad Cleaner V2 corrects that reversion and works to more permanently clean these parallels icons from the LaunchPad view.

Two other workarounds options are also available:

upgrade to the build that supports Lion, as suggested by patrix (free for v6 users);
disable Windows application integration by right-clicking Parallels icon in Dock, selecting Configure... for the running machine and unchecking Share Windows applications with Mac in Applications section:

Of course this will also make these shortcuts unavailable on Mac.


How to force Xcode(or any other app) to be on dark theme while macOS Mojave's setting is on light mode I love Xcode 10 dark theme, but I'd like to keep the whole OS on light theme. But by default to have Xcode on Dark theme you have to set the whole OS to Dark.

How can I achieve this?

Open Terminal and run the following:

defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool FALSE

source: https://medium.com/@pawelurbanowicz/boost-your-productivity-with-macos-mojave-enable-dark-mode-for-xcode-only-33d86e452ea9


iPhone playing songs NOT on any of my playlists I have deleted some songs my roomie used to listen to but they keep playing when I activate music play on iOS 7. I can't figure out how that would happen. A song will come on. I will go to my only playlist. It won't be there but it's still playing. Next week same thing. Makes  no sense. Help I hate his music!

Playlists are just organized subsets of your music library, so you might not have the song on the playlist, but still have it in the collection.  Even if you just have a single playlist, that doesn't mean that every song on your phone is in it. iTunes will default to the first song alphabetically if you tell it to "Play" when it doesn't have a playlist loaded (i.e. the first time after turning on the phone).

At least under iOS 6 (I haven't upgraded yet), you can see all songs by tapping the "Songs" tab at the bottom of the Music app.  If his music is there, you can delete it from there.  If it isn't, then there's something else going on.


Use [command]-[return] for shortcut My Problem

On my Mac I would love to emulate my Linux development workflow using key-binds. A core part of this workflow is that when I press [super]-[enter] a new terminal window opens.

My Attempts

I have an automator service that opens a new terminal for me, whether or not my iterm2 application is running.  I am trying to assign that service to a shortcut using instructions found here.  Unfortunately, I cannot seem to assign it the shortcut that I would prefer, which is [command]-[return].  Am I missing something? Is this just not supported, or is there a workaround that I could use?

Unfortunately, one cannot assign ⌘↩ in:

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services

However, one can assign ⌘↩ in FastScripts.

Note that I am not affiliated with the developer of FastScripts, just a satisfied user of the product.


How to remap a single key? I have a broken key on my Mac's keyboard and I need to remap it to some other key, by double press. Temporarily.
It's not a special but an alphabet letter one. I want to remap it this way:
"f" (broken) --> "double a"

How can one do it? Preferably without any third-party tool.
update1
This hasn't worked - double a won't get replaced with f whenever I type "aa" anywhere on my laptop. I want it to replace double a with f on the fly.

If the broken key is one of the characters, not function, or modifier keys:
Set up a text replacement for say ZZ -> A (broken key).
System preferences > Keyboard > Text.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-keyboard-text-preferences-on-mac-mh27071/10.14/mac/10.14.6

Word and other non-Apple apps can have their own text-replacement preferences that would have have to be set.
A long-winded way is to set up a "Service" or a Script Editor's "Script" to keystroke the key you need.

How do I automate a key press in AppleScript?


"Hold for Authentication" when printing through LP / LPR I have a Dell network printer mapped to my MAC.
I'm able to print from applications without any issues, but when I try to print using terminal (lp or lpr), every file gets held up on the printer with "Hold for authentication"

I'm able to enter my details for the printer and the job goes through, but I'm prompted every time I try to print using lp. Saving my details to the keychain does   not help.

I've seen this before. Try the following to resolve it:

Send something to print so that you get the Hold for authentication error
In Terminal enter lpstat -s
From the output identify the printer name - it should be preceded by device for and followed by a colon : and a printer address. For example, if your output looked like:

device for Brother_MFC_9335CDW: dnssd://Brother%20MFC-9335CDW._ipp._tcp.local.

Then your printer name would be Brother_MFC_9335CDW

Now enter the following command:

sudo lpadmin -p PrinterName -o auth-info-required=username,password

NOTE: Replace the PrinterName with your printer's name from Step 3

You should be prompted for your Mac user password - enter this and press return
Now try printing again as a test.

If it doesn't work, let me know and we'll troubleshoot further.

Since the above didn't work we'll repeat the process with some minor adjustments. More specifically, after Step 1 but before Step 2, do the following:

Open the Printer queue
Click on the 'Refresh' icon (it's the circular one with an arrow)
You should now get prompted for your credentials (i.e. username and password)

Now proceed with Step 2 from above.


Album Names in Photos app I moved from iPhoto to Photos, and now I can't see the albums arranged by name in the sidebar. All that organizing is gone! Is there a view where I can still see my list of albums?

As Tetsujin said, Command,alt,S works to toggle the sidebar, but alternatively you should be able to access you albums from the top middle of the screen (third button over):


High Sierra shows wrong disk usage for photos in information I installed high Sierra a few months ago and nowadays there seems to be a problem with System Information.app, it always shows the disk usage wrong like for example System 40GB but it shows photos to be 0KB even though I have 19GB worth photos and DaisyDisk reports correct disk usage.

I have tried booting into safe mode and rebooting, this persists after restarts

Screenshot:

I have run this scan as root user not admin.

so how do fix this missing photo sizing in system information.app?

I recently ran into this - on my 500GB SSD, my free space was only 5% where I expected more like 75%.  I found an answer in a blog that worked for me:

Apple state that they automatically remove local snapshots when disk space is low, but their definition of low is apparently only 5GB of free space remaining – not really much free working space in 2017 when you might want scratch space of 22GB for 1 hour of 4k 30FPS footage.
On older MacOS releases, it was possible to disable the local snapshot feature entirely, this doesn’t seem to be the case with High Sierra – but it does appear to be possible to force an immediate purge of local snapshots with the following command:

sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

From the tmutil manpage:

thinlocalsnapshots mount_point [purge_amount] [urgency]

Thin local Time Machine snapshots for the specified volume.
When purge_amount and urgency are specified, tmutil will attempt (with urgency level 1-4) to reclaim purge_amount in bytes by thinning snapshots.
If urgency is not specified, the default urgency will be used.


30-pin Dock Connector and 3.5mm jack Here's what I got, a Panasonic docking system without aux in. I want to use an AirPort Express and turn it into a AirPlay-enabled speaker, so I need a cable that has a female 30-pin connector at one end, and 3.5mm jack at another.

I did do some research on the Internet, I see people selling those, BUT, since I live in Taiwan, I can't get one. I'm wondering if I can buy two cables:

a 30-pin connector extender cable that has a female 30 pin connector at one end that I'll need to attach to the male dock 30 pin connector
a male to male headphone cable

If I knew the pin out for the 30 pin protocol, I might be able to cut and splice the two together.

What I'm needing to try this experiment is to know what the pin out is for a 30 pin connector and if I can simply wire the audio out from the AirPort Express into a female 30 pin connector by simply splicing wires. (or to hear from someone that knows that I would need to have some other resistor or voltage present to tell the dock that it's getting an stereo input from "my iPhone" which is really the cable to the express.

I'm trying the very same thing. I made one myself but the dock station didn't see anything connected so didn't enable the audio signals. I then saw a cable 30pin to 3.5 on the Internet which I ordered and this is doing exactly the same thing. The dock station only uses pin 1 or 2 for signal Gnd and pins 3 and 4 for left and right audio signal.


Emacs on Mac OS X - To Alt or Command? It's official. I love to hate Emacs on Mac OS X.
No matter what I do, I get a thorn in side.
When I try to write \ using Alt + Shift + 7 I get errors because Alt == Meta in Emacs. If I bind the Meta to the Command key I circumvent that error. All is fine. Till I want to use Meta-Tab. Now I'm suddenly trying to Command-Tab away from Emacs into some other application.
I'm furious at the moment, could anyone help me solve this problem? I would prefer it if I could have Alt as meta, not install aquamacs.org and not use the fn key.
Oh, by the way, I use Swedish locale.
EDIT 1:
First solution: add (global-set-key [C-tab] [M-tab]) to ~/.emacs. This will tie the Meta-tabto Control-tab instead. Not what I entirely wanted, but should work.

See the options under M-x customize-group ns

There you can adjust the behavior of the modifier keys. I have set the right alt to "No modifier" - that's the same behavior as on PC keyboards with Alt-Gr.

Another setting I like is to unset both alt keys and use the function key instead for alt.


Annoying shrill outgoing Facetime ring tone Is there anyway to stop the FaceTime ringtone heard on an outgoing call? I have tried the iPhone mute button and FaceTime mute icon with no success.

No, this is not possible without switching output device to another connected device which is muted, such as a bluetooth speaker or car stereo, or jailbreaking to delete the audio file from the filesystem.


How can I make a Macbook Pro to recognise a connected mouse as a mouse? Apologies for the vague title. Please tell me if I've done something wrong with this post so I can rectify it.

I have a Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse that works fine with my computer, apart from one thing. Even with the "Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless mouse is present" checkbox checked in Accessibility, my trackpad still accepts input even while my mouse is connected. I am able to move the cursor with the trackpad and the mouse at the same time, which I assume means that the computer is somehow not accepting the wireless mouse as a mouse. It is connected by Bluetooth and the options in System Preferences for mice still affect it. By the way, my trackpad turns off when I have any other mice connected.

Does anyone know how to get the computer to recognise the mouse for this option, or to otherwise spoof a connected mouse so that the trackpad will be deactivated?

Have you tried resetting the NVRAM?

Source:  How can I disable the trackpad when my mouse is plugged in on Lion?

How to rest NVRAM:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


Troubleshoot slow Big Sur wired network The wired network on my iMac is uncomfortably slow. Google's speed test (just for one quick and easy metric) frequently dips down to about 1 Mbps for downloads. A separate laptop on the same network at the same time, but through WiFi, will consistently show 250 Mbps.
Sometimes connecting the iMac to WiFi seems to improve speeds a bit. Sometimes they improve on their own. In any case the iMac never sees more than half the speeds a laptop does.
This is a new problem immediately after upgrading to Big Sur (i.e., no other changes to the system or network). I'm therefore assuming this is something to do with macOS. But I am at a loss to even begin to know how to troubleshoot the problem.
What in macOS can I check or tweak or investigate to get any handle on what's even happening, much less how to fix it?

The culprit here is the Cisco AnyConnect client. Apparently Cisco changed the way AnyConnect works for Big Sur (to get away from kernel extensions), and the new approach adds three "filters" that are visible in the Network panel.
The main filter shows as "connected" even when AnyConnect itself is not actually connected and indeed when the application isn't even running.
Removing the filters outright immediately restores network speeds back to normal. It also (unsurprisingly) breaks AnyConnect, which then tries to re-add the filters the next time it's run. That's going to be a problem for Future Me to solve.


Strange stripes in AirPort Utility window What are this weird stripes in only this window (AirPort Utility) and can I get rid of them? Sometimes this bug does not appear, but most still it do. I thought it depends on the screen resolution, but I was mistaken. MBP retina late 2013, OS X 10.9.5. Thanks!


Issues with Bootcamp trying to boot to a bootable device other than my HD A week ago, I attempting to load Windows (with Boot Camp) on my Mac Pro. The Windows 7 install CD I used had missing files, and thus I deleted the partition I created to house windows, not wanting to waste space on my hard drive. Eventually, I decided to to use bootcamp, and now, whenever I start my computer, there is a message that states: "No bootable device, insert boot disk and press any key", or something similar. Of course, I can hold alt/option or X at startup, but I don't want to have to do that every time I start up my computer, because normally I forget. Do you have any suggestions on how to stop this phenomena from occurring every time that I start my computer? (Note that I am looking for solutions - I understand why this is occurring)

It seems you are booting directly to your Boot Camp partition, showing you the No bootable device, insert boot disk and press any key message (probably due to the BIOS emulation)

To fix this, go to System Preferences and select Startup Disk. Select the appropriate disk and restart.


Is the connector the only difference between a Cinema Display and a Thunderbolt Display? Is the connector the only difference between a Cinema Display and a Thunderbolt Display, or are there other features that changed between the two models as well?

The Thunderbolt monitor includes a number of integrated peripherals as well as being a monitor:

Three powered USB 2.0 ports
FireWire 800 port
Gigabit Ethernet port
Thunderbolt port

The actual connector for MiniDisplayPort and Thunderbolt is the same, but Thunderbolt can pass many protocols over the same cable, not just A/V signals.


Using of mfind in general case : with or without extension for substring of a filename, even with a number I try to use mdfind to find files from a part (substring) of their filename which can be also a number.

For example, I have a file called 'GCph_WL_FoM_154.46_AND_SIMPLE_SUM_GCsp_XC_AVEC_NO-ZCUT_FoM_571.35.py'.

If I do :

mdfind '154.46'

or

mdfind -name '154.46'

or

mdfind 'kMDItemFSName == "154.46"'

There are not results for these different commands.

I would like to find all the files whose filenames (with or without extension) contains a substring as argument and without case sensitive, and mostly, working also with number for the substring (number could also be located at the end of filename).

Could anyone tell me how could I achieve this ?

UPDATE 1 : I have followed the procedure of reindexing posted on this link.

1) How can I identify the processes launched by the terminal command :

$ sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/Macintosh HD"

Moreover, unlike to what is indicated on this link, I didn't find .Spotlight-V100 file into "/Volumes/Macintosh HD" directory. I found it into /System/Volumes/Data/ directory : is it normal ? (I am on Catalina 10.15.3). I have deleted it.

2) Still about this reindexing, is there a way to get a progression bar, graphically or directly inside terminal. Indeed, I remind that I have a 2TB SSD disk and it seems it takes a very long time to reindex all the "/Volume/Macintosh HD". That's why I would like to get this progression   bar.

You are using mdfind correctly, but apparently there is a problem with your Spotlight indexes.

I attempted to reproduce the behaviour you observed, but it seems to work fine for me. In fact I got exactly the same results as user3439894.  First I created a sample file having the same name as your file.

touch GCph_WL_FoM_154.46_AND_SIMPLE_SUM_GCsp_XC_AVEC_NO-ZCUT_FoM_571.35.py

Then I tried two different search commands. Both of them produced exactly one result: the file created above.

mdfind '154.46'
mdfind -name '154.46'

I also tried your third search command, but it yielded nothing because the search term was incorrect. Here it is again, fixed, with * asterisks for wildcard globbing.

mdfind 'kMDItemFSName == "*154.46*"'

This is the answer to the question you asked originally. If you want a different answer, please edit your post to focus on one question.


How can I type Chinese on MacBook Pro? I would like to know how to type Chinese (simplified), using Pinyin, on my MacBook Pro.

I went to System Preference > Language & Text > Language, moved Chinese (simplified) on the list right after English, and then under the Input Sources tab, I check Chinese simplified and English.

After all these steps, I still have no clue how to type Chinese. (When I open TextEdit, I don't see any language selection.)

After select pinyin in your input language you can open any editor like textEdit:

when you start typing you see the box (like below box) and can select your desire word.


"View In Mac App Store" button in Firefox Does anyone know if it's possible to get the "View In Mac App Store" button on web based pages (e.g. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jellyfissh/id416399476 ) to open the mac app store when using Firefox? It only seems to work in safari atm.

My specs:
Running Firefox 4 on OSX 10.6.7 on Macbook Pro

It looks like Apple updated the code to detect which client you are when connecting to the app store.
I checked and they have script that called a function its.detect.Itunes which detects what browser and operating system you are on, and if it isnt Safari, the link does not return an app store link.

Interestingly it does seem to have handlers for chrome and firefox, but either they made a mistake or they are purposefully making it so you cannot use Firefox to one click browse the mac app store.

I checked if switching firefox's user agent worked, and while it did load the page momentarily, and the function clearly had a anchor link instead of a direct href, it immediately redirects to a blankly loading page forever.

At this point it looks like it is probably safari or bust.


Mac OS X menu bar music player Anyone know of a menu bar app that will allow you to pick a song out of your iTunes library and play it, without having to have iTunes running. Alarm Clock allows you to do that (but you need to create an alarm) but it's a great way of just playing the odd song or two. I know there's CloudPlay but I'd of thought there was a free menu bar app out there. There's apps like Ecoute but I just want something that is minimal for playing something when you want it.

I've found this app called Vox. I was looking for something similar to yourself and it seems to be the best option that I can find.
Here is an image of some of the UI (from their website, linked above):

(source: coppertino.com)
When the app is running, you also get menu bar icons like these:
The lefthand button shows a dropdown with the 6 next songs and has a shortcut to open the full app again:

A couple of points to note:

I've found that if you have playlists organised into playlist folders in iTunes, that unfortunately it won't recognise them all.
You have to reload your music from iTunes every time you open the app.

I know this is a late answer, but hope it helps! :)


What to do with equipment for old PowerBook 5300c and other Equipment? I found a box with equipment (PC Cards, cables, etc.) from my old PowerBook 5300c and I wonder what to do with it.

Here in central Europe it seemed that nobody needs something like that.

Are there people somewhere else in the world who still use 68k PowerMacs and would have any use for such things?
I'd happily donate the parts if I knew that they are useful for somebody...

remark: this question is not not meant as a small ad, but I'd like to know if there are maybe charitable societies which would distribute such technical equipment to people who benefit from it.

I would try something like eBay or classified ads, and then donation and or recycling after that if no one wants the stuff.