Output device changed but not getting sound output I am using macOS Mojave v10.14.5. After I plugged in my headphones (while the MacBook is not plugged into power and opening KMPlayer to listen music on speakers), I was unable to get the sound output my headphone. Still the actual sound came out from MacBook Pro speakers instead of headphones.
Any idea on this issue?

Are you sure KMPlayer is not overriding the default speaker setup? Have you tried going to Main Controls > Audio > Audio Renderer and setting your device as default?


Macbook white A1181: Startup manager, just mouse pointer I'm dealing with my friend's Macbook White A1181. Original hard drive died a few weeks ago so we installed a brand new Samsung 840 EVO (256GB).

I've read several tutorials on how to reinstall OSX on a new fresh hard drive without luck. After the chime, I press alt/option key then the mouse pointer appears and that's all. I waited for ˜30 minutes and nothing happend.

Also tried with all those key combinations and nothing: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255. If I didn't hit any key, I got a flashing folder icon with a question sign.

Hope you can help me!

You need to either insert a Mac OS installer DVD in the optical drive, or a Mac OS installer USB drive in a USB port. You then need to boot from the installer by holding the option key while starting the computer up, then clicking the installer in the list of available devices.


What does it mean when folder items are shown in bold lettering in Finder? I see some items in Finder show up as bold and I wonder what that means. The example I have attached is somewhere under ~/Library. It's the most recent place I've seen this, not the only place. It also happens outside of ~/ and its subdirectories. It looks like a feature more than a bug. I wondered if it had to do with Git (maybe MacOS High Sierra shows Git statuses in Finder by default the way Ubuntu does), but no. I wondered if it's a Time Machine thing too (i.e. files not yet backed up may be shown in bold). I don't have a definitive answer. I haven't seen this advertised as a feature anywhere on Apple's site or any similar questions in Apple's support site. If this is a feature, I'd really like to know what it's for.

Thanks!

It makes it bold when the file name is truncated due to lack of space. If you move the horizontal bar to the right to see the full name it will un-bold.


How to add a network printer on mac that requires authentication In our office, we have a printer accessible through our network. I was able to find and add the printer to my mac, which is El Captain, but it is not working since it requires authentication. When adding the printer, there is nowhere I can insert my credentials.

Also, when added, there is nowhere I can authenticate! Any help is appreciated.

Right-click on the toolbar in the gap between Windows and the Search bar, then choose Customise Toolbar….
Add the Advanced button to the toolbar and Done.
Choose the Advanced tab you just added.
Choose Type: Windows printer via spoolss.
For URL, enter smb:// followed by the address you were already entering.
You will need to manually set the driver. Choose a Driver… → Select Software….


Undeletable videos on iPod Classic I have several videos that are taking up a lot of room on my iPod Classic, and I would like to delete them.

The problem is that these videos do not show up in any of the listings from which I can delete them; this "listings" I'm referring too are Music, Movies, Podcasts, and Books.  (They do show up in playlists, but this does not help my cause; selecting these videos through such at list at most lets me delete them from the playlist.)

FWIW, the media kind for all these videos is iTunes U.  I am not able to change this media kind in the Get Info > Options dialog, because the option is grayed out.  (For no other item in this iPod do I see a grayed out Media Kind option in this dialog.)

My question boils down to:

  How can delete these "zombie" videos?

Possible complications:

The version of iTunes I'm using is 9.2.1.  (Version 10 was hatred-at-first-sight for me, and I have never given it a second chance.)
The iPod is hugely out-of-sync relative to my main iTunes library.  I have disabled automatic sync-ing, because my main iTunes library is far bigger than I could fit in this iPod, even though, over the years, I have deleted stuff from my main iTunes library that I still have in my iPod.  (In general, I find iTunes' sync-ing behavior too bewildering, therefore disabling automatic sync-ing is the only alternative I consider safe.)
If I select the iPod icon in iTunes, and choose the iTunes U tab, all the controls on the resulting screen are grayed out.  (This is possibly related to [1] or [2] above)1.

Thanks!

1 Complication #3 above suggests that I may be able to get some traction if I were to enable synchronization, since this could (conceivably) result in a re-enabling of the currently disabled iTunes U tab.  Unfortunately, doing so would, of course, set off synchronization, which I most definitely do not want.  One possibility would be to create a new empty iTunes library, start iTunes with this empty library as its library, and then enable synchronization.  This would ensure that nothing gets copied from my laptop to the iPod (or so I would hope), but it does not guarantee that the contents of the iPod would be left untouched.  (How do I know that the sync-ing wont cause the entire contents of my iPod to be wiped out?)  Of course, in any case, even if I can turn-on auto sync-ing safely, it's anyone's guess whether this will lead to an ultimate solution to the problem of deleting the unwanted files.

On an iPod Classic there is no way to delete them from the device. It needs to be connected to iTunes to do it the official way. The problem will be that it has been so long since your last sync that it may make too many changes to your iPod. You could connect it to iTunes and cancel the sync, then go to the iPod's main page and select to sync manually. At that point you should be able to update the media on your iPod in a more controlled way.


How can I get bluetooth devices to connect without repeatedly opening the Bluetooth preference pane? I have a bluetooth mouse (a Microsoft Designer Bluetooth) connected to my 2012 rMBP running Sierra.

The mouse works fine when it is connected.  For some reason, however, when it is disconnected in usual circumstances (sleep/wake, inactivity, etc), it usually doesn't reconnect, unless I open the Bluetooth preference pane.

I don't have to do anything in the preference pane.  Merely opening it suffices to get the connection working, and the effect is almost instantaneous, sometimes happening before the preference pane visibly opens.

Thus my questions are:

Why does this happen?  What does opening the preference pane actually change?
How can I get the device to connect properly, rather than needing me to open the preference pane every time?

I assume this is some sort of problem with power-saving configurations, but there are no user-discoverable options for this in macOS.

I believe there has been many cases of Microsoft Designer Bluetooth mouse users having issues, so as a minimum this product appears to be very fussy.

However, one thing I have seen that does work in some cases is to make sure it's the first Bluetooth device paired to your computer.

In a nutshell you need to reset both the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller. However, this will reset all connected Bluetooth devices, including a keyboard and mouse.

In other words, this will remove all existing pairing information for Bluetooth devices, so each will need to be reconnected.
I have some steps you can follow, but I strongly suggest you read all of the steps first before commencing (or perhaps print out the instructions / view them on another device).

Before starting, ensure you have the Bluetooth icon showing in the menu bar. If it is not there, open System Preferences > Bluetooth and enable the option Show Bluetooth in Menu Bar.

Also, since you're trying to resolve an issue with a Bluetooth mouse,  you will need to use another mouse to follow these steps:

Hold down both the Shift and Option keys and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar. Once the menu is showing, release the keys.
From the Bluetooth menu, choose Debug > Remove All Devices
Hold down both the Shift and Option keys again and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.
From the Bluetooth menu,  choose Debug > Reset the Bluetooth Module
Shutdown your Mac
Ensure your Microsoft Designer Bluetooth mouse is fully powered off
Restart your Mac
On your Mac, click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar
Select the Set Up Bluetooth Device option
On the mouse, press the power button down and keep it down for at least 5 secs. The blue light should start blinking
Once the Setup Assistant finds the mouse, select it from the list and click on “Continue”.
Now pair your mouse
If you have any other Bluetooth devices, you can go ahead and pair them now (or you can do it later). However, the point is to pair the Microsoft Designer Bluetooth mouse first before any other Bluetooth devices!

Let me know how you go.


Can't load a specific webpage using Chrome or Safari while logged in, but they work on other account and Firefox also works I'm trying to access The Guardian's website, and I get errors with both Safari and Chrome.

In Safari:

  Safari Can't Open the Page

  Safari can't open the page "https://www.theguardian.com" because Safari can't establish a secure connection to the server "www.theguardian.com".

In Chrome:

  Your connection is not private

  Attackers might be trying to steal your information from theguardian.com (for example, passwords, messages or credit cards). NET::ERR_CERT_REVOKED

EDIT: The problem appears to have morphed somewhat in Safari, and I've found the same issue with Kinja. Now, instead of it refusing to load the page, it loads a page that looks like this:

Both sites appear to have certificates issued by GlobalSign Organization Validation CA, and both have the error "This certificate has an invalid issuer".

When I use Safari on my wife's user account or use Firefox on my own account, the website loads fine. How can I fix my browsers on my user account such that they also successfully load the website?

So far, I've unsuccessfully tried:

In Safari, going to Preferences > Privacy, clicking 'Manage Website Data…' and deleting everything.
Going into Keychain Access and resetting my login keychain to the default.
Deleting the Safari-relevant folders in ~/Caches.

Neither fixes the problem, but the problem is not present on other user accounts, so I don't think it can be a system-level issue.

So, after an evening of poking at the situation and trying to work out what's going on, I eventually worked it out.

As it transpires, there was an issue with the CRL and OCSP caches on my account on my iMac – other users did not have the same problem as a result. These caches are not deleted by deleting anything from ~/Caches, which is why the issue didn't resolve when I tried that.

The answer came from the Apple Developer Forums, who pointed me to a page on the GlobalSign website. The solution is to open Command Prompt/Terminal and enter one of the following commands, then reboot.

Windows

certutil -urlcache * delete

OS X (pre-Sierra)

sudo rm /var/db/crls/*cache.db

 macOS Sierra

sqlite3 ~/Library/Keychains/*/ocspcache.sqlite3 'DELETE FROM ocsp;'


XDM software starting up on login but not present in Login items I am using XDM (Xtreme Download Manager software) on my Mac.

When I login then the XDM software is started. But I do not see it in Login items(System Preferences → Users & Groups → Login Items tab.)

How is the software starting up if it is not present in Login items and How do I stop it from opening automatically on Login?

We have to change the settings below in the XDM application (Tools -> Options-> Advanced settings -> View settings.)

I used homebrew to install XDM and this option is selected by default.

If you look at the source code you'll find that the automatic start is controlled by a LaunchAgent called org.sdg.xdman.plist stored in ~/Library/LaunchAgents.

public static void addToStartup() {
  File dir = new File(System.getProperty("user.home"), "Library/LaunchAgents");
  dir.mkdirs();
  File f = new File(dir, "org.sdg.xdman.plist");
  FileOutputStream fs = null;
  ...


What brand of SSD does apple use for their LATE 2011 MacBook Pros? The ones that came out on October 2011. Models #:

  MD311*/A,  MD313*/A,  MD314*/A,  MD318*/A  or MD322*/A

The SSD options are listed here with no detailed information:

http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD322LL/A?select=select&product=MD322LL%2FA

Note that https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/9113/what-brand-of-ssd-come-optional-on-macbook-pros is NOT a duplicate question as the answer is not specific to these model #'s

I bought a Apple SSD which is OEMed from Toshiba.  The model is TS256C. http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/17/apple-adds-speedier-ssds-to-latest-batch-of-macbook-airs/

When installing this SSD into my later 2008 MBP, the TRIM is automatically enabled in Lion.  However, other brand SSD, you may need to manually enable the TRIM.

So I guess the later 2011 MBP may using the same OEMed Toshiba SSD.


How does iMessage know that the recipient is an iOS 5 device? When you send a message using the Messages app, iOS seems to magically figure out that the recipient is on iOS 5 and automatically switches over to iMessage (blue messages instead of green SMSs).

  Does anybody know (or fancy a guess at) how iOS 5’s iMessage knows the recipient is an iOS 5 device? I’m stumped.

(I asked this question on Twitter a few months ago and wanted an easier way to refer to the answer!)

Slight revision It seems that the below has changed slightly, and Apple now checks which numbers/emails have been activated per device for sending messages. Therefore, my mobile number on my iPhone can be registered on my iCloud account, and allow me to receive message sent to my mobile number to be received on my iPad. Therefore you can have the conversation appear on multiple devices at once, and switch between them. iMessage will keep these conversations in sync. I disable this by specifying which accounts to be linked to which device when configuring iMessage.

To expand on alexmuller's answer it uses the Device ID to determine if another device is running iOS 5. This is done during registration, or when iMessage is configured under phone settings. Effectively the Device ID and Apple ID's/Mobile numbers are stored on the Apple Servers.

It checks the Apple servers to determine if a number or email address is registered as an Apple ID and using iOS 5. It will then send the message via the Apple Servers first. It also uses text fallback, so if the other user is not using an iOS device, or iMessage is unavailable or down, or your data connection is down, it will send the message as a text. Text fallback can however be disabled. This does not affect normal texting.

On the phone itself iMessages are identified via a blue background, and can show Delivered/Read for each message. SMS to the same person is still shown in a green background.

It also uses the Device ID to determine which device to reply to. I have my email address and phone number configured on my iPhone and on my iPad only my email address.

In Example

I send a message to my wife's iPad using her email address from my iPhone, she receives it on the iPad, and the reply is sent back to my iPhone.
I send a message via my iPad to her email address, the reply is sent back to my iPad, and not my iPhone.
She sends a message to my iPhone using my mobile number from the iPad, it comes to my iPhone and bypasses the iPad completely and the reply goes back to her iPad.

It's intelligent enough to know where the message came from and where to reply to.


Mojave upgrade complete, but warning that Server is out of date? I received a OS X "Server" update from the store a few days ago.  Something about prepping for Mojave.  I've now done the Mojave update too.  Every boot I get a big warning box about my version of Server not being supported anymore.  Nothing new in the store so far.  What can I do to fix this?

Appears to have been some kind of bug.  Later on received an app update that fixed the issue.


iMovie crashes on start up. How can I fix it? iMovie version: 10.0.5

OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.9.5 (13F34)

It crashed with these information:

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:]: object cannot be nil'
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException
abort() called

And here is the thread-0  info

    Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
    0   libsystem_kernel.dylib          0x00007fff903f9866 __pthread_kill + 10
    1   libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff9170135c pthread_kill + 92
    2   libsystem_c.dylib               0x00007fff935c8b1a abort + 125
    3   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff914f5f31 abort_message + 257
    4   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff9151b952 default_terminate_handler() + 264
    5   libobjc.A.dylib                 0x00007fff9155f30d _objc_terminate() + 103
    6   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff915191d1 std::__terminate(void (*)()) + 8
    7   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff91519246 std::terminate() + 54
    8   libobjc.A.dylib                 0x00007fff9155f0b0 objc_terminate + 9
    9   libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8a9142a1 _dispatch_client_callout + 28
    10  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8a9141fc dispatch_once_f + 79
    11  com.apple.Motion.effect         0x00000001105f69c8 +[FFMotionEffect registerEffects] + 91
    12  com.apple.Flexo                 0x0000000107baccc7 +[FFEffect(RuntimeBundleLoading) _registerEffectsInBundle:atPath:] + 135
    13  com.apple.Flexo                 0x0000000107d5652d +[FFPluginDirectoryScanner _scanDirectory:withExtension:scanned:delegate:didLoadSelector:] + 653
    14  com.apple.Flexo                 0x0000000107d56991 +[FFPluginDirectoryScanner scanForPluginsInDirectory:withExtension:delegate:didLoadSelector:] + 961
    15  com.apple.Flexo                 0x0000000107bad0fc +[FFEffect(RuntimeBundleLoading) initEffectRegistry] + 284
    16  com.apple.Flexo                 0x0000000107bc30b5 FFInitializePart2 + 85
    17  com.apple.Flexo                 0x0000000107b98c86 +[Flexo finishInit] + 22
    18  com.apple.iMovieApp             0x000000010739cceb main + 1515
    19  libdyld.dylib                   0x00007fff905f25fd start + 1

Hold the alt or option key and open iMovie. Than choose your library.iMovie should open now.


Mysterious GDB hangs after clean & build OS: Mac OSX 10.14.6
GDB version: 8.2.50.20190226-git
g++ version: 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.16)

The Problem: Whenever I clean and rebuild my simple "Hello World" c++ application (using g++) and then try to debug it using gdb, gdb will hang indefinitely. But the weirder part comes next: if I go to the activity monitor and kill the running gdb process, then run gdb again (killing it if it hangs again), eventually gdb will work and I'll be able to step through my code. I've followed the steps described here to properly code-sign gdb, so that doesn't appear to be the problem. Mac Experts, any idea why rebuilding a C++ executable would prevent GDB from being able to debug it until GDB has been run & killed a few times?

For reference, here are the raw terminal commands that the Makefile generates:

$ rm -f -r ./build/Debug
$ rm -rf ./dist/Debug
$ mkdir -p ./build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX
$ mkdir -p ./dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX
$ g++    -c -g -MMD -MP -MF "build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/welcome.o.d" -o build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/welcome.o welcome.cc
$ g++     -o dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/welcome_1 build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/welcome.o

And here's what happens when I run gdb:

Starting program: /Users/matthewboyle/NetBeansProjects/Welcome_1/dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/welcome_1
[New Thread 0xf03 of process 33622]
[New Thread 0xd03 of process 33622]
(It just hangs after this point, I have to kill the process)

I ran into the same problem and was able to resolve it by compiling with GNU g++ and including level 3 GDB debugging info.
$ g++-10 -ggdb3 FILE.cpp

Addendum: adding my toolchain versions for posterity.
$ uname -a
Darwin manco.local 19.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0: Thu Oct 29 22:56:45 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.141.2.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64 i386 MacBookPro15,2 Darwin

$ g++-10 --version
g++-10 (Homebrew GCC 10.2.0) 10.2.0
...

$ gdb --version
GNU gdb (GDB) 10.1
...


How to edit icon for Korean input source? I use the English and Korean input sources on my Macbook.

For some reason or other, the English one has a U.S. flag as its icon, but the Korean one has a completely different icon — the letter "⬜" instead of the Korean flag. This really bugs me.

I've tried using the program Ukelele to make my own input source with the Korean flag as its icon, but apparently Ukelele doesn't support the Korean input method.

So is there a way to edit a preexisting input source? I'm looking to change the icon of the default Korean input source on the OS X.

EDIT: Apparently StackExchange thinks all Koreans must be spammers. The letter "⬜" (which has been replaced) looks like this: https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%95%9C

Go to System/Library/Input Methods/KoreanIM.app and view its Package Contents/Contents/Resources.  There you will see .pngs for the various Hangul IM's.  Try replacing the relevant one of those and see if that does the trick.


Apple Watch acceptable accuracy? What is the expected/acceptable accuracy level of Apple Watch distance measurement? We have two series 4 watch - one mine and one that my wife wears. When we go on hike together and start "outdoor walk" exercise on both of our watches we're getting ~5% discrepancy for distance tracked. Is that expected?

I think this is totally expected it can happen, but not be the usual experience.

Apple has an article explaining how to start over in the calibration. If the measurements start off wrong - they won't get back to accurate in my experience and one watch I had didn't have my phone nearby when I set it up, and ended up with my step length 10% off.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516

I'd run through all the items from the top and see if you can get the step length accurate for the terrain you're most likely to want the numbers to be accurate. I've set up about a watch about a dozen times, and I only had one time it was off enough to need a recalibration, so it's hard to guess how common this is from anecdotal reports like yours and mine.


How can I allow the cursor to continue moving immediately after clicking the trackpad? I have a Macbook, though I assume this behavior occurs on all of Apple's newer trackpads (the multitouch ones where the entire trackpad acts as a button).

For a split second after clicking the trackpad, the cursor won't move (try it!), even if you continue sliding your finger across it. This probably improves usability in some areas (like double clicking), but I don't like it. Is there a way to disable this behavior?

Edit:

I went to a local Best Buy, and every single Macbook had the same behavior. The pause is for only a split second. If you try spam-clicking as you move your finger across the trackpad, does the cursor move at all? If you click fast enough, it won't move.

I tried moving the curser with my left-hand, and clicking with my right as I dragged. Nothing unexpected happened; The curser changed temporarily during the click then reverted.


How Do I Stop FileVault from Decrypting my MacBook Pro? Somehow I stupidly started to turn off my FileVault on my MacBook Pro.  Not exactly sure how I did this, brain fart.  Now my machine is trying to decrypt what I assume are all my files.  Right now I have the decryption paused, but it is waiting for me to hook up my power cable to complete the decryption.  I'm afraid when I run out of power and hook up my power cable to recharge my machine, the decryption will restart.  I want to stop this process and go back to the way my machine was before.  Is there some way for me to stop the decryption and restart the FileVault?

Ideally, let it complete and then turn FileVault back on once it's done. Not elegant but should work.


Make a global shortcut for a particular app From Apple KB - Use global keyboard shortcuts on Mac,

Note: You can create keyboard shortcuts only for existing menu commands. You cannot define keyboard shortcuts for general purpose tasks such as opening an app or switching between apps.

I want to know if there is a utility or a hack to make a shortcut for a particular app work even when the app is minimized. In my case, I am trying to assign a shortcut to OBS to start/stop recording even when minimized.
To explain better, consider this scenario. My active app is Firefox (or any other app). OBS is running in the background and is visible in the top menu bar. I press a shortcut key combination and OBS starts to record screen. Currently, this doesn't works if the active app is not OBS itself. The reason is, this shortcut is local to OBS. I want a way to assign it as a global shortcut.

It sounds like you want to switch to the OBS Studio App so you can switch scenes, etc.
You can use Automator to create a custom service to launch the application of choice and bind a global keyboard shortcut to do so.

Open Automator, select New Document and Choose Quick Action (Service)
In Workflow Receives (Service Receives) drop-down list select No Input
Drag Launch Application from the Actions list to the right side
Select the OBS App as the Launch Application
Save the Automator Quick Action (Service) as "Launch OBS"
In System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Services scroll down and find Launch OBS and set a keyboard shortcut for it.

This will open OBS and bring up the minimized window and it will unhide it as well.

There's a great deal of potential solutions that may be even more useful in controlling OBS. If you rethink your workflow a bit, the deeper problem is controlling OBS while you are streaming or recording.
OBS has a websocket API and can be remotely controlled via a web browser but it can also be remotely controlled via iOS/iPad Apps as well as actual hardware controller boxes (stream deck or MIDI controller) with a myriad of programable buttons and dials to control OBS and a lot more.  You can add an inexpensive second monitor, even an old iPad setup as a second monitor and put OBS on the iPad.


Stop Terminal from Making Irritating Noise As you fellow devs can imagine, one of the most irritating things I experience in my daily programming life is this silly noise that Terminal makes every time I enter an invalid key. I've went to System Prefs and turned off all sounds for notifications and yet this same stupid noise that terminal makes keeps on inundating me with notifications that I have entered an invalid key sequence.

Any way of stopping this or is Terminal conspiring against me.

From Terminal.app's preferences (Terminal menu -> Preferences), go to the "Profile" tab in the top pane, make sure your profile is selected, then click the "Advanced" tab in the right-hand pane. Under the section "Bell" there's an option for "Audible bell" which you should deselect. There's also an option for "Visible bell", which is a very useful alternative.


Why has Spaces become unbearably slow? I have an iMac with this spec:

I have two external monitors, both 4k. Recently, Spaces has become almost unusably slow for me. Switching between spaces on the main display (usually between full-screen IntelliJ projects) using the trackpad is the laggiest. It will scroll a bit, pause for a second, then jerkily scroll the rest of the way. I think I managed to speed it up a little by removing files from my desktop, but that certainly hasn't fixed the problem.

If I open Spaces, then dragging them to rearrange them takes several attempts, because the drag usually fails to start (or at least takes longer than the 30 seconds or so I've tried waiting), and even hovering over different windows takes a couple of seconds before moving the blue highlight.

For some reason, things seem smoother on the external monitors, which only have about two applications each on them.

Most things, like dragging windows around and opening menus, happen just as smoothly as you'd expect them to.

I may not be able to pin down exactly what the bottleneck is, but in effect - OS X tracks every single window opened across all apps and then has to lay them out for each space and decide if a window is visible, occluded by another window or in the dock or hidden entirely by Finder hiding an app.

All of this calculation is pushed to the GPU for buttery smooth animation. At some point, you will exhaust the resources on the GPU whether it's the amount of pixels being stored, the total size of each window, the number of spaces and calculations to be made, transfer speeds from the CPU / RAM to the caches on the GPU. When you hit that bottleneck, either the GPU can't be as efficient or it rejects the work entirely and then you see the CPU doing the rendering.

My suspicion is you are getting the CPU to render which would explain the dramatic drop off in responsiveness. Also - you are pushing somewhere in the order of (5120x2880) + ( 2 x (4096 x 2034) ) = 31,408,128 pixels

If you can make this happen on command - I bet an Apple Engineer would love to look over sudo sysdiagnose WindowServer when the machine is performing miserably. A call to AppleCare or a visit to a genius bar would be the step to get engineering involved.

In the mean time - you might be able to experiment with reducing the load on the GPU by:

less apps with windows open
less windows open per app
fewer virtual screens to contemplate
more hidden windows
re-cabling the displays so they connect directly to the Mac and not daisy chaining them.

For your 4k external displays - are you in MST or SST mode? - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206587 - if you went to SST, that might alleviate the bottleneck or require less concessions on the window count at the expense of a 30 Hz refresh rate. The 5k iMac is listed as only supporting one 4k display in MST mode, so that could be an explanation the issue you are seeing.


Turn by turn navigation GPX file app We wanna start doing car rallys and these routes are delivered using a GPX files.

What we are looking for is an app that can make a route from our home to the start of the gpx file and then start navigating the GPX route.

Gpx Navigator

  Getting Started. GPX Navigator gives you a powerful, great way to navigate yourself through your own custum routes routes. GPX Navigater includes useful features like follow yourself on map or use the special navigation board to see where is the next GPS point of your journey.
  Create your own GPX file. Use free, online solutions to create your own files and plan your trips. Bike Hike Cruise Creator The Hug
  Import your files to GPX Navigator. You can easily add your GPX files to GPX Navigator, using iTunes File Sharing (in Apps tab). iTunes File Sharing

GPX-Viewer

  Import and view GPS eXchange format (GPX) files. GPX-Viewer views GPX files exported from many GPS devices and other apps that create GPX files.

  Import the files using iTunes file sharing, your Dropbox account, eMail, an URL, or for iOS8 and above, from iCloud.

  Download files to your device for offline viewing.
  Chart elevation vs. track points or distance.
  Send the waypoints to Apple Maps.
  Email the file.
  Create folders to better organize your GPX files.
  Set different location tracking modes.
  Selected routes show as a different color to easily visualize.
  Hide or show the waypoints on the map.
  View track points on map.
  Track points show distances and other values.


Can I use one 8GB RAM module in place of two 4GB modules? I have a MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2012 and one of its RAM slots appears to have been damaged (The computer restarts when moved too much). So I can only have one RAM module in it. I was reading on Apple's website for changing RAM: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201165#1.
They state that my computer is only able to have a maximum of 8GB RAM.

My question is, can I have a single RAM module with 8GB instead of 2x 4GB RAM modules as they mention on the website?

For the MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2012, Apple only officially supports 8 GB RAM, 2 - 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM; however, it can actually support 16 GB. So in theory you should be able to use a single 8 GB PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM.

You can purchase a single Crucial 8GB Single DDR3/DDR3L 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) SODIMM 204-Pin Memory For Mac - CT8G3S160BM  from Amazon, currently $48.17 USD.

Or:

OWC Memory 8.0GB PC12800 DDR3L Module, currently $45.99 USD.

Crucial 8GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM Memory for Mac from Crucial, currently $49.99 USD.

Have a look at the iFixit MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 RAM Replacement Guide.


How to sync only those photos that were taken this year? In my Photos.app (Mac), photos were taken from 2013, all of which are supposed to be synced to iCloud since OS X upgraded to EL Capitan.

It's not possible to sync all to my iPhone because the total photo library size is bigger than 5G.

Is there a selective sync tool to determine only this year's photos or some could be synced rather than all of them?

You can specify in iTunes, whilst the phone is connected.

Select your device at the top, then in the left-hand column, select Photos.
You can choose any or all Albums, Faces etc in the lower half of the screen [not shown] & additionally a specific time period to include all photos from.


Resize APFS partition and move it to another hard drive I have a 500 GB external USB disk that contains a 465GB "APFS container", with Mac OS X Catalina, bootable (with the trick "Press and hold the Option (Alt) key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac")
I need to use this disk for something else, and I need to move it to another 320 GB disk.
How to do that?

First how to shrink the 465 GB to 300 GB (only < 100 GB are used)? Is it possible from another Mac OS High Sierra computer or another Linux or another Windows computer?

Then how to copy the partition to the 320GB so that it will still be bootable?

Apple documentation states you should be able to replicate a bootable APFS container to a new drive. Unfortunately, the GUI based software from Apple is wrought with bugs. Below are the steps I preformed to successfully clone Catalina macOS 10.15.5 to a new USB drive. To be honest, I admit this was tested using a VirtualBox virtual machine.

Boot to macOS Recovery. I booted to the macOS Recovery APFS volume on the 465 GB USB drive.

Plug the 320 GB drive in a USB port

Open the Disk Utility.

Under the View pulldown, select Show all Devices.

Highlight the 320 GB Drive, then select the Erase button.

Use the selections shown below, then select the Erase button.

Quit the Disk Utility, then open the Disk Utility.

Highlight the MyNewUSB volume, then select the Restore button. From the Restore from pulldown list, select the existing external USB macOS volume, as shown below. When finished, select the Restore button.

Note: This will replicate the macOS, macOS - Data, hidden Preboot and hidden Recovery volumes.

When finished, quit the Disk Utility, then open the Disk Utility.

Visually, check the results.

Quit the Disk Utility.

Shutdown the Mac.

Unplug the 465 GB USB drive.

Start the Mac and immediately, hold down the option Key until the Mac Startup Manager icons appear.

Hold down the control key and select to boot from the 320 GB USB drive. Note: This first boot took longer than normal.


How can a keyboard be shared with an iPad? What are the ways for both an iMac and an iPad to share the same physical keyboard?

If it's possible to share a regular Apple bluetooth keyboard between both devices without jailbreaking the iPad, I think it would be my favored option.

I don't think you can. Bluetooth is designed such that pairing is two-way (computer <-> device). You can't pair to a second device without un-pairing from the first device.


Create bootable macOS USB for a non Apple computer I tried several ways to create a bootable macOS USB for a non Apple personal computer. I expected it to work exactly like my bootable Ubuntu USB. macOS bootable USB seems to be working differently. It seems that it only works on Mac. My laptop does not detect my Mac bootable USB as a bootable one on startup.

Is it possible to create a bootable macOS USB, by using Ubuntu 20.04 - Windows 10 dual boot HP laptop, with persistence (optional) so that I can use it by just plugging it in during boot up for building my flutter projects?

macOS doesn't generally support installing and running on non supported hardware, i.e. non Apple computers. Apple, unlike Microsoft doesn't license its operating system for running on commodity PCs.

  It seems that it only works on Mac. My laptop does not detect my Mac bootable USB as a bootable one on startup.

This is by design. A macOS bootable USB can only boot a compatible Apple Mac computer.

  Is it possible to create a bootable macOS USB for by Ubuntu 20.04 - Windows 10 dual boot HP laptop with persistence (optional) so that I can use it by just plugging it in during boot up for building my flutter projects?

Generally speaking, no.


Why would an iPhone 4S drops from 100% charge upon unplugging it? I have notice lately (in last two months or so) after disconnecting my iPhone 4s (with iOS 6) from the charger in the morning after an entire night of charger it immediately drops from 100% to 98%.  Is this a sign of a problem or normal battery aging.

I do perform the monthly battery drain til power down as recommended by Apple

It’s neither a problem nor a sign of ageing.

iOS devices, since the first iPhone, have used a method of charging their Li-ion batteries, which is different from normal charging as you know it.

Suppose your device is at 10% charge and connected to the charger. The device will charge up to 80% in 2 hours. This is called fast charge. Now the device will charge up to 100% in another 2 hours. This is called slow charge.

When the device reaches 95% actual charge, it displays “100%” as the current charge in the status bar. The device keeps charging till it reaches 100% actual charge, at which point charging is stopped and the battery discharges naturally. Note that still the displayed charge is “100%.” Now, when the battery reaches 95% while discharging, charging starts again and continues till you reach 100%.

This cycle is repeated until you disconnect the charger, at which point the displayed charge changes from “100%” to the actual charge, which may be anywhere between 95%-99%.


How to mount an APFS volume as a user's home directory? TLDR;
I can mount an APFS volume on /Users/foobar, where foobar is not an actual user, but mounting fails when trying to mount to /Users/newuser, when newuser is an actual user.

BACKGROUND:

I'm trying put my home directory on an encrypted external SSD so that I don't have to use filevault on my boot drive-- I need the machine to boot up and autologin so server processes can start up after a power failure. All the gritty details on what I'm trying to do are in this gist, but I will try to discuss the essential points below.

Before actually trying to move my own home folder, I created a Standard user called newuser to experiment with. I removed /Users/newuser and replaced it with a new empty folder. I also created a /Users/foobar folder (no foobar user). When I try to mount either with

sudo diskutil mount

or

sudo mount_apfs

I get errors when trying to mount on /Users/newuser but both commands work with /Users/foobar. Both directories are empty, have the same Unix permissions and ownership, have no ACLs, flags or extended attributes. /Users also appears to have no special properties that are visible to ls.

I also tried mounting on /home instead /Users as suggested here, and when I first created the /home/newusers directory I was able to mount on it, UNTIL I changed newuser's home directory in the Users & Groups Preference Pane. Once it became the official home directory I could no longer mount.

Evidently something in the system (Mojave 10.14.2) is refusing to mount over a user's home folder.
Is there any way around this?

(I just saw a recent question dealing with this but didn't see any new ideas to try)

I found the workaround was to mount the volume on /home and create a subdirectory as my new home directory. As

sudo mount_apfs -o noauto,nobrowse VOLUME_UUID /home
sudo rsync -a /Users/myhome /home

Then change the user's home directory in User & Groups Preference Pane Advanced Options to /home/myhome

I have updated my gist with the complete instructions for mounting an encrypted external drive as a home directory.

UPDATE: After using this for a while I discovered problems with backup software. Notably, Backblaze will not backup custom mount points, and Time Machine will back it up, but the volume is not visible in the restore GUI. In fact, it confusingly displays localsnapshots of the files "underneath" the mount point in /home.

So I caved and just decided to mount the thing in the default /Volumes. I works swimmingly and the gist has all the details.

Oh and by the way, I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the home directory. I recommend using that or equivalent (SuperDuper) as opposed to rsync as the developers of these apps are up-to-date on how to copy all the myriad Apple file attributes, extended attributes, ACLs, flags, etc., etc.


Bizarre problem with Safari: I can't click links in youtube Whenever I click on a video, or really any link at all on youtube nothing happens. To follow a link I've been right clicking->open in new tab. I think this is being caused by some sort of inconsistency with what javascript libraries are installed and what youtube expects me to have. I'm running safari 12.1.2. The issue seems to stem from an uncaught error in the 'onYtNavigate_()' function. I've pasted the console output below. Any suggestions? I'd like to be able to click youtube videos again haha.
[Error] TypeError: b.getDebugString is not a function. (In 'b.getDebugString()', 'b.getDebugString' is undefined)
    onYtNavigate_ (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:20896:298)
    (anonymous function) (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:8578)
    dispatchEvent
    Bb (webcomponents-hi-sd.js:76:366)
    dispatchEvent (webcomponents-hi-sd.js:144:259)
    fire (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:9134:238)
    onEndpointTap_ (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:12129:178)
    (anonymous function) (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:8578)
    dispatchEvent
    Bb (webcomponents-hi-sd.js:76:366)
    dispatchEvent (webcomponents-hi-sd.js:144:259)
    _fire$$module$third_party$javascript$polymer$v2$polymer$lib$utils$gestures (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:8830:177)
    OFa (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:8854:355)
    click (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:8851)
    _handleNative$$module$third_party$javascript$polymer$v2$polymer$lib$utils$gestures (desktop_polymer_inlined_html_polymer_flags.js:8819:208)

DOWNLOAD THAT
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204036
It worked for me


iCloud Status of Apple Music After iTunes Match Scan I just purchased and ran iTunes Match on my collection. Approximately 80% came back as Matched, 10% as Uploaded, and an additional 10% came back as Apple Music.  All my files were previously ripped or purchased MP3s.  I completely understand and expected the Matched and Uploaded results, but have no idea why the others are coming back as Apple Music. I am subscribed to Apple Music, but only have iCloud sync enabled on my PC running iTunes 12.2.2.25 (which appears to be the latest version).  Any idea 1) why these are showing up as Apple Music, and 2) how to I get them to switch to Matched as I believe they should be?  Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

If a song in your library is recognized and is on apple music, iTunes will automatically switch the status to apple music. Currently, there is no way to switch them.


How do I change the order in which login items execute under OS X 10.8.2? If I remember right, in earlier versions of OS X, it was possible to "drag-and-drop" to rearrange Login Items so that they start in a different order.

Under OS X 10.8.2 this doesn't seem to work. Short of deleting all the entries, then re-adding them by hand in the new order I want, how else can I conveniently re-order them?

I don't see why Apple would intentionally remove this feature, maybe it's a bug. I'm not too interested in weird work-arounds like external Automator or Applescript scripts with custom delays, etc. Hoping there's just some little thing I'm overlooking.

Here's a screencap of the window I'm talking about:

I use TinkerTool (free) to handle that little job.

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html


Can MS Outlook work with iCloud? Can I iCloud-sync my iPad 2, iPhone 4S and Outlook 2010? I haven't been successful getting iCloud to work with Outlook 2010 on my Windows 7 PC. My iPad 2 and iPhone 4S are iCloud synced. Is it hopeless to get all 3 together: iPhone, iPad and Outlook 2010?
I get into iCloud on the PC, start the sync with Contacts and it fails.
Should I just give up on PC/iCloud and just use iCloud for the 4S and iPad?

You should be able to set this up by using these instructions. You need to make sure you have the iCloud Control Panel for Windows. I've set this up on numerous occasions and it's worked well.


Safari reuses already existing tabs instead of opening new ones If I click a link in say an e-mail or application and that exact link already has an open tab, Safari will focus that tab instead of opening it anew at the end of the current window.
I would prefer this behaviour to be different because moving the focus is really distracting and often I want the new tab to open in the current window/context.
Is there a way to change this?

In Safari Preferences -> Tabs -> Check the box for "⌘-click opens a link in a new tab".  Then use ⌘-click to force it to open a new tab in Safari when clicking the same URL domain.


Mac mini (mid 2011) fan at full speed constantly I upgraded my Mac Mini's HDD to a new SSD... Since then the fan has been running at full speed constantly. I placed back the old drive but that did not fix the problem. I also tried using SmcFanControl but that does not work at all.

In addition, I reseated the fan connector just to be sure, still no joy. Can anyone recommend another option?

I'm running Yosemite...

check the thermal sensors. I broke one off of my Mac mini trying to upgrade the HDD and the fan ran at full speed since. I had to replace the Logic Board to fix the problem.


Is there a utility that allows to open a terminal window with a shortcut? I often use the Terminal application, especially to commit code to a Git repository, and I don't want to have the window always open. Is there a utility that allows to open a terminal window using a shortcut?

Check out iTerm2 (see also the Google project page). You can bind a key combination as a way to show/hide the terminal. In a way, you achieve the same thing as the before mentioned Visor; yet, iTerm2 offers more functionality than Terminal.app.

Combine this with alfred/quicksilver and iTerm2 profiles for more hotkey awesomeness.


The AppStore is temporarily unavailable. Please try again This is very frustrating. We are not able to download apps from App Store, as we keep getting error message "The AppStore is temporarrily unavailable. Please try again". I falied also to login to App Store.

I log in to Member Center, but fail to login to "iTunes Connect-Submit and manage your apps on the App Store."

It it app store which has issue or it is the app.

There is a major (worldwide and lasting more than an hour) disruption with all the App Stores showing as down on Apple's status page. For future reference, it was clear there were issues with the store for more than an hour before the status page showed that outage.

The good news is that the history is backdated showing when the issues started and also that some of the outages have been resolved already.

Support links are at:

https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
https://developer.apple.com/system-status/


Can I check power usage of my macbook? A while back my Macbook Pro battery started acting up. Now I pretty much have to have it plugged in all the time otherwise it'll turn off. Also, I am getting (replace soon) battery status. I'll change the battery ASAP.

But, I've just noticed that my electricity bill may went up so much because of this. So, Is there a way I can estimate the amount of power I've consumed last 30 days? or is there anyway I can check and estimate?

Thanks

I think it's unlikely that your total electricity bill went up significantly because of this. A battery is just an "energy container": the energy it contains came from your wall socket.

If the battery won't hold charge, then the Mac is just using the electricity it needs to run.

If the battery will hold charge, then the Mac is using the electricity it needs to run PLUS refilling the battery. You can of course use the Mac on battery, but then you're recouping the extra you used to fill it.

Let's say your Mac needs 10W to run, and 20W to fill the battery over 2.5 hours. You normally use it for 5 hours a day. With 'no' battery: you use 10W to run it, for 5 hours: 50Wh per day.

With a working battery, you charge up the laptop (while it's off) at 20W for 2.5 hours (50Wh), and then use that charge over 5 hours or so.

Or, you could use it on power for 5 hours, while charging the battery: 30W (running and charging) for 2.5 hours plus 10W (running) for 2.5 hours. That's 100Wh, but now you've got a full battery, which will see you through tomorrow.

TL;DR: Assuming you're spending the same time on your Mac, your energy usage should not change much. But it's worth getting the battery replaced anyway.


How can I best configure this hard drive? I have a Mac Mini with two hard drives inside. The 1st one has an OS installed, and the files I work from.
But I wanted to have the second one be used partly for storage, and partly have an OS installed in case the first HD crashes.
I'm imagining that if my main drive fails one day, I will be able to keep working uninterrupted by updating drive 2 with Time Machine.
However in the meanwhile, I'd like to use Drive 2 for storage (while booting from drive 1). I found this article, but it doesn't really say if this scenario would let the user use the rest of the partition for storage if the computer is booted from another drive.
Does this sound like a logical plan, and how would I format and instal the second drive?

You can partition the 2nd drive leaving ample room for the system software. Then you can install the system onto the 2nd drive or clone drive 1 onto drive 2 and have a backup of everything on drive one. Cloning allows you to use the 2nd drive as a startup drive. The downside to cloning is that you copy the entire contents from drive 1 to drive 2.  Installing the system software avoids this problem. But as @Steve Chambers said, if you just install the system and hard drive 1 fails, you need some way to get the data off drive 1. If you clone you have the data from disk 1. But it will become dated the longer you use disk 1. I'd suggest you install just the system on Disk 2 and you should be able to use the other partition for whatever you need.


ping $(hostname) has request timeout but nslookup $(hostname) works Why does ping $(hostname) fail with the output below?
PING deeznuts.noodleofdeath.com (10.186.132.10): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4

same with direct IP address:
PING 10.186.132.10: 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4

but nslookup $(hostname) work with the following output?
Server:     10.153.50.27
Address:    10.153.50.27#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   deeznuts.noodleofdeath.com
Address: 10.186.132.10

What do I do to make ping work? When I am on another machine on the same network, I can ping deeznuts.noodleofdeath.com successfully.
The contents of my /etc/resolv.conf is the following:
#
# macOS Notice
#
# This file is not consulted for DNS hostname resolution, address
# resolution, or the DNS query routing mechanism used by most
# processes on this system.
#
# To view the DNS configuration used by this system, use:
#   scutil --dns
#
# SEE ALSO
#   dns-sd(1), scutil(8)
#
# This file is automatically generated.
#
search noodleofdeath.com
nameserver 10.153.50.27

First off ping and nslookup are two totally and very different things:

ping is sending an ICMP packet to the specified host directly
nslookup is querying a DNS server for the IP address of a hostname

If the host is down (for example), ping will fail.  However, if you do an nslookup it will still return the IP address of the host you're querying.  Remember, DNS is essentially an address book - it translates or maps names to numbers.
Why does your ping fail?
There are any number of reasons, but these are the "big three:"

host can be down
it can be configured to not respond to ping
the firewall can block/reject ICMP packets - from either/or both your computer, your network; their computer, their network

When I am on another machine on the same network, I can ping deeznuts.noodleofdeath.com successfully

If others can ping it, the host is obviously up and not rejecting packets.  To find out why packets on a particular machine is being dropped, you need to do a packet capture with something like Wireshark to see where the packet is going and where it's failing.
I would look at these factors (in order):

firewall on the local machine that could be dropping packets
network firewall (local network) blocking ICMP/ping packets from a particular host, range of addresses, subnets, or networks
firewall on the remote machine blocking/dropping packets from particular hosts
network firewall on the remote network blocking/dropping packets from a particular host, range, or subnet.

An easy test to see if it's related to something security like the firewall or IPS software is to assign the IP of the machine that can't ping to a different machine.  If it fails, it's security related.  If it works, it's your host.
I can't rule out any IDS/IPS software that may be running on the remote.  For instance, if a host or firewall sees too many pings from a particular node, it will stop responding to requests from that node.  This is a very common tactic in preventing DDoS attacks.


MacBook Air freezes and then won't start up (interrogation folder) So I own a MacBook air Air 13 11" which worked fine for about 15 months after I purchased it on Adorama.

One day, I was using it and it froze. Command+Option+Esc would't work so I had to push power button to shut it down. When I turned it back on, it showed me the interrogation folder. Internet recovery didn't work and the computer couldn't even read/recognize the internal SSD. So I got the SSD replaced and the computer worked fine for a week. Then, same problem again.

Sometimes I turn the computer on and it works fine. Sometimes it gives me the interrogation folder. Today I froze 3 times already. Then I have to open it, take out the SSD, put it back on, turn on the computer. It works for a while and then it freezes again...

Ever happened to anyone? Any idea what could be going on?

Try the Fool Self-test tool on DriveDx (has trial), there is also in App Store


USB boot on mid 2010 Intel Mac mini I have a mid 2010 Mac mini. I recently did an SSD upgrade in it. I tried using Internet Recovery to reinstall Mac OS X Lion (after which I am planning to upgrade further).

However, the setup never downloads for me saying The item is not currently available.

Do I have the choice of USB boot? If not, is there a way to fix the error itself?

macOS High Sierra 10.13 is the last supported release of macOS for Mid 2010 Intel Mac Mini.

macOS High Sierra - Technical Specifications

You will need another Mac running macOS to create a USB bootable installer for. Instructions to create a bootable USB media can be found here:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS


iTunes "Home Sharing" doesn't work with Apple Lossless files I'm wondering whether anyone else has had problems with iTunes Home Sharing working with Apple Lossless formated audio files?

I have iTunes 10.2.1 on both machines and it will not even start to play lossless music, only MP3 and other lossy formats.

I'm wondering whether anyone else has any workarounds or if this is just the way it is?

Thanks.

iTunes Home Sharing works for me to send playable Apple Lossless songs to iPhone / iPad and another Mac streaming songs.

There may be a problem with your setup since it is supposed to work and does for me. Perhaps someone else will chime in with their experience - but I have seen it work recently at several friend's houses as well as in my setup.

I'm fairly certain I would have noticed a problem back at 10.2.1 as much of my Beatles collection is stored in lossless format but I'm not 100% certain there wasn't a bug in a previous version of iTunes.

You could rule that out by upgrading to the latest iTunes 10.3.1.

I am guessing there is another problem but am at a loss to guess what it might be without more information on your setup.


Are there apps that enable "sticky" / "magnetic" / "docking" windows? I am looking for an app that makes windows stick to each other (if anybody used WinAmp back in the day you know what I mean).

This would be great when using apps that have several windows that I want to treat as one window - so if there is another method to accomplish this please do tell!

I found Zooom/2 that makes windows snap to each other when moving via Zooom/2's keyboard shortcuts, but the windows do not stick to one another when you move one of them.

Divvy was my tool of choice for a while. It works like Zooom/2, so it will not fulfill your needs completely, just as the other suggestions on this question.

Stata 10 used to have 'magnetic' windows but the functionality disappeared, much to my sadness, in Stata 11. This change makes me believe that OS X must be resisting that functionality.

I think that the whole Exposé logic is working against that kind of functionality in the minds of many (but not mine: I am very sympathetic to your problem, I hate messy screens too).


Yosemite fail - how do I revert back to snow leopard? How can I revert back to snow leopard? My machine won't start up. Macbook pro 17"

Power off the Mac and then power it on holding option
Insert the Snow Leopard DVD once the grey screen is presented and choose to boot from Snow Leopard media
Wipe the Mac with Disk Utility (erase/repartition the internal drive)
Install Snow Leopard

Your Mac should have come with CD/DVD discs that allow you to reinstall the OS. Boot the system from that media (insert disc hold C while booting) and reinstall the OS. You can order a replacement from Apple or get one on the used market if you don't have yours.


Error while trying to open new Emacs.app after upgrade to Yosemite After upgrade to Yosemite I get this when trying to launch new Emacs app from command-line. I've spent yesterday trying to figure out what's the problem, so today I decided to ask here.

➜  ~  open -n -a Emacs
LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed for the application /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/24.3/Emacs.app with error -10810.

Edit: might be helpful, info from /var/log/system.log:

Oct 20 16:02:49 Kostiantyns-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.system): Caller not allowed to perform action: open.2674, action = service submission, code = 1: Operation not permitted, uid = 501, euid = 501, gid = 20, egid = 20, asid = 100005
Oct 20 16:02:49 Kostiantyns-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.system): Caller not allowed to perform action: open.2674, action = legacy spawn, code = 1: Operation not permitted, uid = 501, euid = 501, gid = 20, egid = 20, asid = 100005
Oct 20 16:02:49 Kostiantyns-MacBook-Pro.local open[2674]: spawn_via_launchd() failed, errno=1 label=[0x0-0xbf0bf].org.gnu.Emacs path=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs flags=0 : LaunchApplicationClient.cp #963 LaunchApplicationWithSpawnViaLaunchD() q=com.apple.main-thread
Oct 20 16:02:49 Kostiantyns-MacBook-Pro.local open[2674]: spawn_via_launchd() failed, errno=1 label=[0x0-0xbf0bf].org.gnu.Emacs path=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs flags=0

While I don't know what exactly happened, turns out if you won't launch this from tmux -- you'll be just fine.

// thanks https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/3093


Database app, accessible from Mac, iPad and Web I feel very out of my depth with this query, but not being able to do it isn't really an option so I am going to have to learn how one way or another.

I have been tasked with building an application /  database for a Chauffeur company. I have done similar things before in Microsoft Access for other customers, hence getting this request, but this customer wants to be able to run the app on their Mac, and not install Windows. My only real experience of coding is HTML/CSS and some VBA when using Microsoft Access. For these Access DBs I have created separate front and back end files to allow multi user access and also remote access (the back end file being kept on the company server).

So onto my query (apologies for dragging it out)...

I need to be able to build something that the single user can open and run on his Mac, so he can view, add, change jobs and their details. He also needs to have the same access on his iPad, although purely viewing would suffice.

As regards the web access, basically he wants to be able to go onto his "Booking System" application, go to "New Job" and send a link to his client, where they would click the link in a browser, fill in the details (Name, Contact Number, collection and drop off addresses, collection date and time etc...) and when they submit this form the details be updated on his booking system.

My issue is I do not really know where to start. What kind of database development environments are available on OS X (like MS Access is for Windows) which I could use as a starting point?

Short answer, grab FileMaker Pro. The iPad app integrates nicely with the desktop, and it runs on both Windows and Mac.

Additionally, since you are comfortable with HTML, CSS, and VBA, you might want to try NSB/AppStudio, which can use PhoneGap to generate a native iOS or Android app. We've created several apps to be deployed in the field for such things as product catalogs, quality checklists, etc. and it works pretty well.


Is office for the mac the only way I can open and save as word documents? When apple people interact with people who use MS word, is the only way to do this by purchasing Office for the Mac or can pages make do?

I believe pages can output to a format that is word friendly correct?

There are various solutions for dealing with Word documents on the Mac:

Quick Look, built into all versions of OS X since Leopard, can preview Word documents. It doesn’t always get the formatting right, but it’s good for a quick inspection.
Pages, part of the iWork suite, can open (in .doc and .docx) and save (in .doc) Word documents. This isn’t perfect either. One useful feature is that it shows you a list of warnings when you open a document, highlighting Word features used in the document that aren’t supported in Pages. Pages costs $19.99 in the Mac App Store.
NeoOffice is an open-source port of OpenOffice to the Mac, which can open and save to a wide variety of formats, including Word documents. NeoOffice can be downloaded for free from their website.

There are a handful of other word processors on the Mac that can handle Microsoft Word documents (Nisus Writer Pro and Write both spring to mind), but I don’t have enough experience with any of them to say how good they are at handling Word’s formatting.

If you’re using advanced features of Word, or very complicated formatting, then your best experience will be using the native Microsoft apps. But for simple formatting, any of the apps I just mentioned will probably be sufficient. It really depends on what sort of documents you’re likely to be dealing with.


iPod Touch won't play music or videos I have a 2nd generation iPod Touch and I can't get it to play any media files. Everything else seems to be working fine on it, it just can't play music or videos.

For instance, when I tap a song in the music app, I see the "Now Playing" view for about 1 second before it goes back to the list. It's as if the song started and ended in .01 seconds. But no music ever starts. Whether I have earphones plugged in or not, nothing plays.

When I trying to play YouTube videos or iTunes Store song previews, I get errors like "This movie could not be played" and "Could not play preview".

So far I've tried a hard restart, resetting all settings, erasing all content and settings, restoring in iTunes (EDIT: w/o restoring from backup), restoring using DFU mode. None of these things have worked. I would appreciate any other suggestions. Thanks!

When you restored the iPod did you then put the backup onto it restoring it back to how it was before? If so restore it again and set up as new. Past doing this you're out of options and it would point towards a hardware fault.


Use SIM card on international roaming only for voice calls (sans mobile data) I would like to know whether I can use my iPhone 6 with Pakistani SIM card to make and receive phone calls while roaming in UK. I would not like to consume any mobile data (for Internet/background activity).

I wish to use the SIM card solely for making and receiving phone calls. I would only like to use Internet via free Wi-Fi whenever it is available.

Is it possible to use my SIM card on international roaming on my iPhone 6 this way? I wish to minimize international roaming costs.

Yes, it is possible to use your SIM card with international roaming without using any data. Just make sure the Mobile Data is turned off under Settings app → Mobile Data on your iPhone 6.

Additionally, under Settings app → Mobile Data → Mobile Data Options, you can choose to turn off Data Roaming. This is a smart settings which will prevent data usage while roaming. (You may have your reservations regarding this setting, but turning off Mobile Data gives complete peace of mind).

As long as the Mobile Data is turned off, you’ll be fine. No app will do any data transfer/use Internet this way (as long as Wi-Fi is also turned off).


How to share my iMac's wifi internet connection with another iPhone over wifi? My iMac is connected to an iPhone's hotspot to get its internet connection.

I have another iPhone that requires internet connection, but it can't connect to the hotspot.

Instead, I would like the iMac to serve as another hotspot, from which the other iPhone can connect through wifi.

Therefore, the connection would look like this:

iPhone A (wifi)-> iMac (wifi)-> iPhone B

How can I achieve this? I went to Internet Sharing in the iMac, but it doesn't seem to have an option to share the iMac's wifi connection to other iPhones using wifi.

The wireless card in your iMac, which is what is responsible for handling Wifi connections, is only capable of one connection at a time, to explain it most simply. The card cannot connect to a Wifi signal (your iPhone's Hotspot feature) and broadcast a signal at the same time.

However, a solution to what you wish to achieve may be possible if you can use USB Tethering as opposed to Wifi Hotspot on iPhone A. Then your wireless card on your iMac would be free to broadcast a Wifi signal for internet sharing.

I have not used any iPhone OS version since 3.1.2, where it was not called "hotspot" anywhere and the settings for tethering were even in a different set of menus. However, a quick search seems to show that you can activate USB tethering by going into your Personal Hotspot on the phone (Settings > General > Cellular > Personal Hotspot) while USB and Bluetooth are turned off. Then turning on Personal Hotspot, and tapping "USB Only" when prompted. USB tethering is also supposedly turned on even if Wifi and/or Bluetooth are on, yet I personally prefer to not have them on, and especially to not have the phone making a hotspot if I'm only going to use USB for connectivity.

Be advised, the iTunes Helper process is required to be running to provide the network interface for iPhone USB Tethering. This requires iTunes to be installed. If the iPhone does not initially provide you a network connection on your iMac, install if necessary and open iTunes, and it should start the iTunes Helper process and also add it to your login items.

At this point, your iMac should have a connection through your iPhone via USB. You can enable Wifi Internet Sharing in System Preferences and you should be good to go. Internet Sharing on most Macs, and I'm pretty certain on every modern one, produces a network in Infrastructure Mode. Which means there should be no problems connecting to it, even for devices that don't support certain other modes such as ad-hoc. So your other iPhone (B) should work fine.


Is it possible to add other networked sources to the Apple Dictionary program? The standard Apple Dictionary program in Lion provides access to Wikipedia. This appears to be a direct look-up (i.e., not to a cached local copy of Wikipedia).  I'd like to add other sources that way, such as for Urban Dictionary.  Can this be done?  If so, how?

There are a few things you could do, but none of them are exactly what you're asking for. If you have a dictionary in the StarDict format, you could convert it for use in Dictionary.app with DictUnifier. You could also develop your own dictionaries, perhaps using the project template available as a supplemental download to Xcode.

Those would create static dictionaries, though, not a "live" dictionary source like we have for Wikipedia. Wikipedia has special support files built into the Dictionary.app package. Cheaters!

My approach to this kind of thing has been to use the web search module in Quicksilver to add every dictionary I might want to check against (Oxford English Dictionary, Wolfram|Alpha, Black's Law Dict., Google "define word, etc.), along with a keyboard shortcut that sends QS any selected text (or I can just bring up QS and type my search directly). Alfred, et. al., probably also have a similar feature.

This approach only searches one dictionary at a time, but usually I know which one(s) will give relevant results. Results come up in your browser; all the QS web search module does is format the URL for each source to perform the appropriate search. Also, since we're not using Dictionary.app these dictionary options will not appear when you CTRL+CMD+D on a word. (In fairness, neither does Wikipedia!) All that said, this approach requires minimal setup and is really quick.


How to mount disk by UUID or LABEL in OS X El Capitan? I get the UUID and label of a disk from diskutil info disk0s4

diskutil info disk0s4
   Device Identifier:        disk0s4
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s4
   Whole:                    No
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      Untitled

   Volume Name:              Data

   Mounted:                  No

   File System Personality:  HFS+
   Type (Bundle):            hfs
   Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended
   Journal:                  Unknown (not mounted)
   Owners:                   Disabled

   Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 PCI
   SMART Status:             Verified
   Volume UUID:              F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8
   Disk / Partition UUID:    1738336E-68DD-46B1-997E-57469CF0472D

   Total Size:               338.0 GB (337984569344 Bytes) (exactly 660126112 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (not mounted)

   Device Location:          Internal
   Removable Media:          No

   Solid State:              Yes

mount using the volume label does not work:

$ sudo mount -t hfs LABEL=Data /Users/user/test
GetMasterBlock: Error 2 opening LABEL=Data
GetMasterBlock: Error 2 opening LABEL=Data
mount_hfs: error on mount(): error = -1.
mount_hfs: No such file or directory

mount using the volume UUID does not work with or without quotes:

$ sudo mount -t hfs uuid=F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8 /Users/user/test
GetMasterBlock: Error 2 opening uuid=F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8
GetMasterBlock: Error 2 opening uuid=F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8
mount_hfs: error on mount(): error = -1.
mount_hfs: No such file or directory
$ sudo mount -t hfs UUID="F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8" /Users/user/test
GetMasterBlock: Error 2 opening UUID=F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8
GetMasterBlock: Error 2 opening UUID=F8C88B2D-5412-343B-8969-254F3AC559B8
mount_hfs: error on mount(): error = -1.
mount_hfs: No such file or directory

mount using the volume identifier works

mymac:~ user$ sudo mount -t hfs /dev/disk0s4 /Users/user/test

Update:

My goal is to put the mount line in /etc/fstab as I want to mount a volume to a custom mountpoint.

When using OS X, it's usually more advisable to use diskutil for disk-related activities.

TL;DR:

To mount a volume/disk by identifier:

diskutil mount /dev/diskXsY          # mounts just that volume
diskutil mountDisk /dev/diskX        # mounts the whole disk

To mount a volume by UUID:

diskutil mount [Volume/Partition UUID]

To mount a volume by label:

diskutil mount [label]

Explanation

With diskutil, node identifiers (/dev/diskXsY) are interchangeable with UUIDs: in any diskutil operation (such as eject), a UUID can be specified instead of a node identifier. From the man page:

  DEVICES

  A device parameter to any of the above commands (except where
  explicitly required otherwise) can usually be any of the following:

  o   The disk identifier (see below).  Any entry of the form of disk*, e.g.  disk1s9.

  o   The device node entry containing the disk identifier.  Any entry of the form of /dev/disk*, e.g.  /dev/disk2.

  o   The volume mount point.  Any entry of the form of /Volumes/*, e.g.  /Volumes/Untitled.  In most cases, a "custom" mount
  point e.g.
                 /your/custom/mountpoint/here is also accepted.

  o   The URL form of any of the volume mount point forms described above.  E.g.  file:///Volumes/Untitled or file:///.

  o   A UUID.  Any entry of the form of e.g.  11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555.  The UUID can be a "media" UUID
  which IOKit places in an IOMedia node
                 as derived from e.g. a GPT map's partition UUID, or it can be an AppleRAID (or CoreStorage) set (LV) or member (PV) UUID.

  From man diskutil, section 'Devices'.

Obtaining these identifiers/UUIDs/labels are simple, with either of the following commands:

diskutil list                               # lists all connected volumes and their identifiers
diskutil info /dev/diskXsY | grep UUID      # gets the UUID of a connected volume

The returned values from these commands should look something like the following:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD           499.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

$ diskutil info /dev/diskXsY | grep UUID
Volume UUID:              1F340CD7-G071-4218-98DG-2D08G89CC57C
Disk / Partition UUID:    76E7G531-G6C3-5E37-C11B-BCEEC67D12G4

As shown above, the identifier can be found from the IDENTIFIER column, the label from the NAME column, and the UUID from either UUID field (either UUID will mount the volume).

By label:

$ diskutil mount Recovery\ HD
Volume Recovery HD on Recovery HD mounted

By UUID:

$ diskutil mount 67EG87EB-CB01-4ED9-082D-303F63CF6394
Volume Recovery HD on 67EG87EB-CB01-4ED9-082D-303F63CF6394 mounted

By disk identifier:

$ diskutil mount /dev/disk0s3
Volume Recovery HD on /dev/disk0s3 mounted

addition for edit to OP's question: mounting to a custom path

You can do this with diskutil mount and the -mountPoint option. From the man page:

  mount [readOnly] [-mountPoint path] device

  Mount a single volume.  If readOnly is specified, then the file system is mounted read-only, even if the volume's underlying file system and/or device and/or media supports writing; even the super-user may not write to it; this is the same as the rdonly option to mount (8).  If a -mountPoint is specified, then that path, rather than the standard path of /Volumes/VolumeName, will be used as the view into the volume file con- tent; a directory at that path must already exist.

  From man diskutil, section 'Verbs'.

The syntax to mount to a custom mountpoint is as follows:

diskutil mount -mountPoint /path/to/custom/mountpoint [volume (identifier/UUID/label)]

Bear in mind that /path/to/custom/mountpoint must be a directory, just like with mount, and that your identifier/UUID/label are specific to the volume (i.e. /dev/diskXsY not /dev/diskX). Mounting to a custom mountpoint cannot be done with diskutil mountDisk, and only works with a single volume at a time.


RetinaPad equivalent for MacBook Pro Retina? Is there anything like RetinaPad for the MacBook Pro Retina?

Essentially, it would be something that would automate the process of setting NSHighResolutionCapable to true so that text would render properly, even if all the graphics aren't updated yet.

If this doesn't exist, would it be something that could be accomplished using SIMBL?

It sounds like Retinizer might be what you're looking for. It's reversible, works on a per app/per user basis, and doesn't require you to edit the Info.plist files directly. I don't have an MBP, so I can't test it myself, but the pictures look pretty :)


Homebrew breaks with gcc out-of-date after Lion OSX install ➤ brew doctor

/Developer/usr/bin/gcc
/Developer/usr/bin/gcc
Your gcc 4.2.x version is older than the recommended version. It may be advisable
to upgrade to the latest release of Xcode.

We couldn't detect gcc 4.0.x. Some formulae require this compiler.

$GREP_OPTIONS was set to "--color=auto".
Having $GREP_OPTIONS set can cause CMake builds to fail.

Xcode 4.1 is installed, gcc -v:

➤ gcc -v

Using built-in specs.
Target: i686-apple-darwin10
Configured with: /var/tmp/gcc/gcc-5664~89/src/configure --disable-checking --enable-werror --prefix=/usr --mandir=/share/man --enable-languages=c,objc,c++,obj-c++ --program-transform-name=/^[cg][^.-]*$/s/$/-4.2/ --with-slibdir=/usr/lib --build=i686-apple-darwin10 --program-prefix=i686-apple-darwin10- --host=x86_64-apple-darwin10 --target=i686-apple-darwin10 --with-gxx-include-dir=/include/c++/4.2.1
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5664)

Any idea how to fix this?

Until all the kinks get worked out, you'll want to track 10.7 and Xcode 4.x issues at https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues

In this case, be sure you actively manage your $PATH variable to keep your preferred versions of redundant apps first in the expansion.

Always hard coding full paths is tedious, but lack of it causes these bumps when new binaries show up in your path unexpectedly.


Security for selling MacBook Pro for parts I'm looking at selling my MacBook for parts.

It's completely broken: it won't turn on or charge.

Is it possible to obtain files from it? If so, what security measures should I be taking?  Should I be removing the hard drive or do I not have to worry about it?

In my opinion, there is no need for concern. I genuinely believe that it is highly improbable that someone would take the time to retrieve data off an old hard drive. In time old credit card numbers that might be stored will expire. Perhaps you can change the passwords of frequently used websites. Thats a good measure anyway. So essentially the data would be useless. If it has proprietary information that is work related then you may take more caution.


How do I configure an iPad to use EAP-TLS? I try to connect an iPad (iOS 11.3.1) to a WiFi network which uses EAP-TLS. There is no way to specify EAP-TLS mode because of the lack of the certificate, so I need to import the certificate first.

I copied the client certificate to the device, and now, I want to install it. According to a few websites I checked, it seems to be easy:

  Open the certificate file on the device. IOS will recognise the file as a certificate file, and begin the import process. Tap install.

Source

  All Apple iPads and iPhones support PKCS1-formatted X.509 certificates, stored in files ending with .crt, .cer, .pem or .der.

Source

However, I'm clueless as what exactly I should do once I downloaded the certificate file on the tablet. It allows me to do a bunch of actions such as store it in Google Drive, but there is nothing which could look like an import tool, and it doesn't look like the device recognized the PEM file.

What should I do to make the device recognize PEM certificates?

CONFIGURING EAP-TLS AUTHENTICATION on IOS DEVICES:

Instructions were developed using IOS 11 and IOS/iPADOS 13.3 to configure both iPhones & iPads for EAP-TLS authentication using certificates.

If you wish to learn how the certificates were generated- or how to configure the EAP-TLS Authentication on the router's side (using a MikroTik)- please go HERE.

PROCESS OVERVIEW:

A) Configure Certificates:

For each device we will in turn:
- Download and configure the CA certificate
- Download and configure the Client Certificate

B) Configure Authentication:

Once the certs are in place and configured on the device, we next configure the wireless network connection that uses them.

C) Configure Connection:

Configure the WiFi connection to use EAP-TLS

PROCESS:

Configure CA CERTIFICATE:

Open Safari on your iPhone/iPad and navigate to where your certificates live.  Do NOT use any other web browser!! Safari will identify them as certificates and offer to install them.

There are (2) certs we'll be working with: The CA cert & Client cert

Download CA Certificate FIRST: "cert_export_CAF1Linux***.crt***" NOTE the ".crt" file extension.  Choose "Allow" when prompted.

Configure CA PROFILE:

Navigate to:  "Settings" > "General" > "Profiles"

Go to the CA certificate which appears as a "Downloaded Profile" and click it:

Click "Install" at top-right corner of screen

Enter device's 6 digit pass code:

Ignore warning displayed (we created the cert after all) and click "Install":

Click "Done" in top right corner of screen.

Verify the CA certificate installed successfully.

Configure CLIENT CERTIFICATE:

Go back to Safari and download the CLIENT certificate's pkcs12 cert which has the extension ".p12" to the IOS / iPADOS device. Choose "Allow" when prompted.

Configure CLIENT PROFILE:

Navigate to:  "Settings" > "General" > "Profiles" and choose the Client cert which appears as a new "Downloaded" profile and click it:

Install Client Cert:

This time you'll be prompted to enter the passphrase the pkcs12 Client certificate was exported with.  "Next" in top right corner will become active after successfully entering passphrase; click it.

After installing, the cert will initially display an incorrect status of "Not Signed".  Ignore this.  When we check it again it will show a status of "Verified":

Click "Profiles" to go back to main "Profiles" screen and choose the Client certificate profile.

The Profile now reflects the correct status "Verified":

WARNING:

Only proceed to next step "Configure AUTHENTICATION" after installing BOTH certs and each one's status report "Verified". You will be wasting your time trying to connect if this step is not completed properly.  And pulling out large amounts of hair in frustration...

Configure AUTHENTICATION:

This example uses a hidden network.  Go to "WiFi" > "Other Network" to begin setting the connection parameters for the EAP-TLS SSID.  Your connection parameters should look as below:

Client AUTHENTICATION:

When you finally connect, you'll be presented with a warning to "Trust" a certificate.  This will be the cert used by the Wireless Interface:

That's it, you're done.


How do I change the icon of Emacs installed via Homebrew? I am aware of the "Get Info" process of changing icons, but when I change the icon of Emacs, nothing happens

I installed Emacs with this command:

brew install emacs --HEAD --with-cocoa

When I run csrutil status I get disabled.

I am able to change the icons of folders but not apps

I found a way to change Emacs GUI dock and other icons.

Download png files from http://emacs.sexy/#icons, or use your own.
Take the largest png and convert it to .icns file with an online converter (google)
Open Finder, go to Applications, and right click Emacs to Show Package Contents, then navigate to Contents - Resources
Replace the Emacs.icns file with your own from #2.
HERE's the tricky part - then I had to also do the drag-drop trick.

In a NEW Finder window, go to Applications, right click Emacs and click Get Info.
Then from the other Finder where you have the new Emacs.icns file, DRAG it to the TOP LEFT small icon in the Get Info window.

No restart required:


How do you remove SSL certificate exceptions on iOS? When connecting to a URL via HTTPS and the SSL certificate doesn't match (such as at a paid Wi-Fi hotspot), iOS shows a dialog asking whether the certificate should be accepted. If you accept the certificate, iOS adds an SSL exception and will never ask about that certificate again.

There are possibly two aspects to this: certificates accepted in Safari, and certificates accepted for network services in other apps.

The question is, how does one remove these exceptions, short of a full device reset? There seems to be no way to view or remove exceptions in the device settings.

I found a nice blog post that gives some good information and tips regarding ssl certificates.

Once the SSL exception is added there doesn’t seem to be a way to remove it in iOS 7. In previous versions going to Settings->Safari and selecting ‘Clear Cookies and Data’ would delete it. This no longer seems to work in iOS 7....

--

To remove the SSL exception on Safari on iOS 7.0.4 you can reset all settings (General > Reset > Reset Settings). Unfortunately it deletes all your settings (go figure); but it's one huge step better than a full restore that makes you lose your text messages.

I found instructions on how to do this in iOS 6 here and also here with pictures. This probably also works in iOS 5 but I cannot confirm (the Profiles page mentioned below likely doesn't appear until there are installed certificates to view or delete). See information about how this changed iOS 7 below if this doesn't also work there.
Remove Security Certificates
from the first link above:

Turn on your iPhone and click on the "Settings" icon in the main menu screen. Select "General" from the list of options that appear in the drop-down menu.

Select "Profiles" from the list of options that appear and a list of all the certificate on your iPhone will appear on screen.

Scroll through the list of certificates until you come to the one you would like to remove from your iPhone and click the "Remove" button on the screen. The certificate will then be removed. Repeat the process for any other certificates you would like to remove.

You can also manage certificates with the Apple Configurator in Mavericks, the iPhone Configuration Utility in Mountain Lion, Lion and Snow Leopard, and there is a Windows version. There are instructions available.

Information on how this changed in iOS 7.

SSL Detective
From my comment above, check out SSL Detective for iOS. As far as I've seen, it's the only iOS app of it's kind, and may help you determine which certificates you'd like to delete.


Simple electronics circuit simulation software for Mac I want to learn how basic electronic components work and test some basic sensor output etc. My circuits are really simple so i don't need any fancy stuff.

I think MacSpice is CLI so it's too hard for me, i really need GUI app since i know hardly nothing about electronic circuits.

Which app lists electronic components with real names like "resistor 200" and don't use cryptic component codes which are hard to newbie?

This is one of a kind App http://icircuitapp.com/

It has IPad app as well. with simulation capablities


What is this executable file named "Icon?" doing in my applications folder (and other folders)? Is this file a malware? Anyone know why these unix executables keep appearing in my folders? This is a fresh installation of macOS High Sierra.

No. It's not malware. These are often found which you create manual application icons by copying and pasting images from the Info menu.

Heres an Apple Script Application I made with a custom icon from Google.

Not sure why its there but its probably safe to delete and wont cause any harm if you don't.


How can I get an external display that is mirrored to have a smaller resolution than what I see on my Macbook Pro? I'm trying to help a sight impaired and somewhat physically impaired person. They have an assistant that uses the Macbook Pro while he watches on an external monitor.

The only thing is that for the sight impaired person to see what is going on while the assistant is working the resolution (mirrored) is so low, meaning bigger fonts, that it makes it difficult for the assistant to work on the Macbook Pro in that environment.

What can we do to remedy this?  Is there any software to make a mirrored external display bigger than the computer?

No, what you're asking for doesn't even make sense. If you want the display to be mirrored, then what's on the external display has to be exactly the same as what's on the internal display. What you need is a new external display with a larger physical screen size.


How to stop using Time Capsule as router? I have a Comcast router XB-6T and it's supposed to be better/faster than using my Time Capsule/802.11ac as a router. I'm on a iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6.
Currently I thought I was using my TC as a router in bridge mode (however the Comcast guy set it up and the TC says bridge mode off).  I am not very hardware literate but I'd like to make sure I'm using the Comcast router.  We do have Ethernet cables plugged into the back of the TC that goes to other rooms/devices and one USB on the back of the TC that goes to a printer.
I'd like to know if someone can give me instructions how to no longer use my TC as a router and instead use the Comcast router. I'd like to keep the same Network Name and would also need to know if I need to move any/all of the Ethernet cables from the back of the TC and plug them into the Comcast router instead; I don't know if there is enough availability.
Currently the back of my TC the slots are all full. If it makes more sense not to mess with it then I won't. Can someone advise what would be best to do and how to do it?

I have a Comcast router XB-6T and it's suppose to be better/faster than using my Time Capsule/802.11ac as a router.

Better/faster is very subjective.  You need to define what "better" and "faster" mean to you.  But for comparison:

Both are 802.11ac devices
Both have Gigabit WAN connection (the XB-6 claims "a maximum" of 1 GB throughput)
Both have Gigabit Ethernet ports.  Apple has 3, Xfinity has 2
Both have dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) radios

So, from a performance perspective, there's really nothing that stands out.

We do have Ethernet cables plugged into the back of the TC that goes to other rooms/devices and one USB on the back of the TC that goes to a printer.

Whether or not you have Ethernet cables plugged into the TC or the XB really doesn't matter.  The TC is plugged into the XB (it must be if you have Internet) then regardless of which device you plug into, they're all Gigabit, so there's no advantage to doing this.  The XB6 doesn't mention USB, so you'll want your TC to act as a print server.

I'd like to know if someone can give me instructions how to no longer use my TC as a router and instead use the Comcast router but also I'd like to keep the same Network Name

In order to configure your Airport Time Capsule, you need the Airport Utility and related documentation:

Airport Utility 6.3.1 for Mac
Airport Utility 5.6.1 for Windows
Airport Utility Users Guide

We don't know and cannot support your Xfiniti device.  If you want to use that device with the same name as your Time Capsule, you'll need to consult their support options.  That said, if you wish to use their WiFi, you have to make sure the WiFi on the TC is either

turned off; or...
set up in "client mode".

There's detailed information on how to do this in this Support Document.  If this is not something you're good with and/or don't know how exactly you want it configured, I highly suggest getting a local tech person to come out and set this up. There's simply too many variables for a succinct answer in this medium.  Additionally, there's no way of knowing how the XB is configured to properly advise you how to configure the TC.
Bottom Line....
If WiFi on your TC is working fine, then there's no reason to change.  In other words, if you're satisfied with the performance, there's no need to do anything.  If you want to maximize the efficiency and coverage of your WiFi, you need to bring in someone familiar with this kind of work.


Is it possible to include a shared calender from Exchange in the calendar app on Mac OS X? I've Mac OS X 10.9.5 installed. On this machine you can find the calendar app. In Outlook it is possible to add a shared calendar from exchange. Here I don't need a username/password. I can easily add this calendar.

Can I add such a shared exchange calendar to the calendar app?

The above doesnt' REALLY work for people, especially not with Outlook 365. Here's the way that worked for me:

With iCal open go to the menu bar at the top of the screen and select iCal, it's to the right of the Apple Symbol in the upper left corner.
Select Preferences
Once the Preferences window comes up select the Accounts section then select the Exchange account to bring up its information.
Now select the Delegation tab.
Under the list is a + sign. Click this to add a calendar.
Begin typing the user's name as above and the auto-completion will begin. Once you've found the correct user's name select it to add it under the Users column.
Under Accounts I can access: you will now see that user's name. You can enable or disable their calendar from displaying by checking or unchecking the boxes under the Show header.

I found these instructions from the USC website.


Why do I have a ~ file in the root of my drive? I just noticed that I have a 2MB ~ file in the root of my Macbook HD. This wasn't here last time I checked (probably months ago,) and my guess is that it is from a system crash the other day or maybe from the upgrade to Yosemite.

What is this file and can I delete it without incident?

This seems to be an attempt to write something to the ~ directory, but instead has been written to the file /~. This file isn't required by OS X, but if an app is still using it then deleting it could break things. Make a backup if you delete it.


Faster language/keyboard swapping I like making a habit to use the different languages I study, to keep that knowledge fresh. So I like typing in those languages when I get the chance. But swapping keyboards under OSX is just a little too cumbersome.

For example, I was just typing the name of one of my co-workers in its original 汉子 form instead of as an English transliteration. It's nice. It reminds me to pronounce her name properly, with tone, etc., which otherwise doesn't come naturally. The transliteration of her name is especially misleading. Everyone at the company is pronouncing it wrong.

But to swap into writing 汉子 I have to mouse up to the top menu bar, select a new keyboard, type, mouse back up to the top bar, and then select back into English. I know there's a keyboard shortcut, but with 5 different keyboards active in my menu, cycling through 5 to get to the one I want feels just as cumbersome.

Is there a way to attach a hotkey to a specific keyboard, or some other way to make swapping character sets lighter?

Try Kawa.

It’s an open source (free) language switcher for macOS.  You can use custom shortcuts or the menu bar to switch languages.


How to convert from evernote rich text to markdown on IPad? I am using  evernote on Ipad 2 and I have notes with some formatting , e.g. links, bold/italic fonts etc.
When I try to copy and paste the content to some HTML online editor, that accepts markdown, all formatting is lost.

Can anyone suggest how to convert from evernote rich text to markdown on IPad ?

I've tried http://html2markdown.com/, but pasted text from Evernote already lost all formatting instructions.
If someone will advise, how to convert  Evernote rich text to HTML string, it will solve the problem.

An answer for a similar question Is it possible to copy 'rich text' formatting on iPhone? suggests to find an app  to see the copied text in HTML form. Can anyone suggest the app?

Answer in http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/33759-markdown-wysiwyg-support-plz/?p=191298
pointed me to
http://markable.in/.

When logged-in (essential!) to the  http://markable.in/editor/ there is an option to import from EverNote, that will be translated to Markdown.
Note that translation needs review, because it could have some minor bugs.


Whether it is possible to connect Mac Mini to the Macbook Pro? Will it be possible to connect the Mac Mini to the MacBook Pro and use the laptop's screen, keyboard for working on Mac Mini?

Physically through a HDMI cable this isn't possible.

The MacBook Pro cannot take display input, only output.

This goes for any HDMI devices, not just a Mac Mini. You couldn't run a PS4 on your MBP screen for example.

The only way it might be possible is by sharing the screen in a method such as this.