Mac Mini (Late 2009) - Recommended OSX Version for it? I have a Mac mini (Late 2009) (hw.model: Macmini3,1, 2 GB RAM) that I've got hooked on my TV primary as a "media consumption" device... but a while ago I updated it to:

Mac-mini:~ javier$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.8.5
BuildVersion:   12F2518

and it crawls along, which is quite painful. I'm debating whether upgrading it to Mavericks or Yosemite might bring some relief for performance... I don't need a blazing computer, but taking 2 minutes to load VLC is a bit too much IMO...

I have thought about upgrading the RAM and maybe getting a better (larger) HD as 160 GB isn't too much these days, but I don't know if that might be throwing money down the sink...

Thanks in advance for any tips!

The answer to your question, in short: It is always advised that you have the latest possible OS for your computer. This is due to the myriad of bug fixes and security patches that come along with new OS updates and intermediary releases.

I would suggest bumping up the RAM to the highest possible as well, but at least to 4GB. This should result in an immediate performance boost and result in smoother system operation. Switching the HDD can also help, but is less urgent.

If all else fails, you can always try restoring the operating software to a new state. Often, systems will change over time and become loaded down with old/unpatched/inefficient software and/or changes made to files that result in degraded performance. A new clean wipe will ensure you are running the best software available for the machine.


Analogue military time watchface Is it possible to get an analogue military time watchface on the Apple iWatch 2?

Like this...

Not at the moment. You can send feedback to Apple about this: https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html.


Which countries / regions are iTunes / Apple vouchers available for? Where can I find out in which countries iTunes vouchers are available for purchase?

Unless someone has assembled a Wikipedia entry to track this, you would need to read the terms and conditions for each country.

The website is optimized for people to find out terms in one region at the moment.

https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/

Back in the early days, 2012, there was a matrix for this, but as the store has grown to 150+ countries and services, OS, features have made maintaining that a multi dimensional chess board of trackers.


Watt and voltage for DIY iPhone charger I'm working on making a simple solar to USB charger for my iPhone 5s, and I was wondering if the watt/voltage mattered for the solar panel I'm using. I know the product can handle the higher values of the iPad charger, but I need to know if there's any real limit.

Voltage does matter, it must be =<5V.  You can use a simple voltage regulator to keep yourself from going over.  You can also wire the panels so that they don't go over 5 (if each panel does 1.5V, 3 panels get you 4.5V, which will work but be slower.

So the 4 panels will give 6 Volt and the 5 Volt Zener diode will cut off the access 1  volt

Wattage is based on Voltage and Amperage.  The iPad can use up to 2.1 Amps.  Solar panels will always make the same voltage, but the more sunlight the more available amps.  You do not have to do anything to limit the amperage as the iPad will not pull more amperage than it needs.  This is the same way a flashlight works, a battery could dump all of it's power at once, like a capacitor, but the lightbulb doesn't need or want all that, so it draws only small amounts at a time.  This is also why a charged capacitor, which is designed to release current very flash like in a camera's flash, can also power an LED for a relatively longer time.


Will Bluetooth speakers and/or USB speakers work for sound when there is a broken headphone jack stuck in my macbook port? I bought a Macbook for a low price because it has a headphone jack broken off in its port. I have tried some of the fixes for removing the jack, but it is broken deep in the port and unfortunately didn't come out in one clean piece. I would really like to be able to have some sort of audio, and I'm willing to buy Bluetooth speakers or speakers that plug into the USB, but first I want to know whether they will override the headphone port.

Also, the volume control on the menu is greyed out so I can't control volume. I have read that you can fix that by removing and reinserting your headphone jack, but I obviously can't do that here.

Does anyone know whether that will prevent me from using other speakers?

[]
[]2

Yes, a Bluetooth and/or a USB speaker will "override" your audio input.  It all depends on how you configure it.

In System Preferences > Sound, you can setup which audio device does what.

For example, in my setup, I play all the "Sound Effects" through the Internal Speakers, however, I could select the USB Audio device I also have installed.  For your case, you would select either the USB/Bluetooth Device.

You could even use both a Bluetooth audio device and a USB device

For example, in my Output configuration, I can choose Internal, USB Audio, or Bluetooth

And...

Depending on your Application, it can even select which audio device to use for it's individual output.  Here's the configuration screen from VOX:


HEX-/RGB-colors in Terminal I'd appreciate to be able to use my Linux colorscheme in Terminal.

Is there a way I can specify HEX-codes or maybe RGB-values?

You can specify the colors as RGB from the second tab of the color picker:

You can specify a color as a hex code by installing Hex Color Picker.


Deleted account still being detected (OS X El Capitan) I recently got a Macbook and easily set up my user account (admin), plus a standard and guest account.

One day, I opened the computer and the screen was frozen. After waiting a few mins, I forcefully shut it down by holding the power button. When I turned it on, my account was gone, only the standard and guest accounts were left.

I logged in to the standard account. I could see my admin account on the User list. However, no matter what I tried, I could not access it, it just wouldn't show up on the login screen. I ended up changing the standard account to an admin account and deleting my original admin account completely.

A few days later, I tried to create a new admin account with my name. However, when I put my name in, it said that this name was being used by another user, even though I had completely deleted it before.

Any idea how to solve this?

Open up terminal from /Applications/Utilities and run this command sudo sysadminctl -deleteUser username
Replace the word username with the shortname of the account you’re trying to delete.
This will delete the actual account and it’s home folder so be sure you don’t need anything from that account.


What is the default working directory of a script run via launchd? I'd expected this to be easy to find on Google, but wasn't able to discover anything.

I know that the working directory of a launchd agent/demon can be changed via the workingdirectory key. However, this key is optional. If no working directory is specified, what does macOS use?

TL;DR

The default value is /, as in

<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>/</string>

Explanation

The WorkingDirectory in a launchd .plist is an optional key used to specify a directory to chdir(2) to before running the job. If this key is not present, then the root / directory is used.

I verified this by running a shell script as both a Launch Agent and a Launch Daemon that, when run, appended a directory listing to a text file. In all cases, without the WorkingDirectory key, the output was the root  / directory of the startup disk.

Depending on whether or not it was run as root or the current user the output as root also contained the hidden directories even though that was not explicitly set to output by the script.

As a side note, the PATH passed to the shell script when run as both a Launch Agent and Launch Daemon was:

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Note that this was tested under OS X 10.8.5.


Bluetooth Assistant keeps popping up! On my Mac, whenever I turn it on, the Bluetooth Setup Assistant automatically pops up. I always have my Bluetooth on, on my phone. Could that be why?
Also, when I turn off the bluetooth on my phone, the Assistant doesn't go away. It only goes away if I unplug my mouse and plug it back in.

It keeps searching for bluetooth keyboard and mouse for some reason.

iMac is on Mojave (latest versions)
My mouse is a Macally Mouse

Turning off the bluetooth settings seemed to work!


iphone upgrade - did it back up? If you tell iTunes to upgrade your iPhone from os4 to os4.versionupdate (example)...

Does iTunes automatically back it up before attempting upgrade?

my phone is currently in recovery mode - and I don't know whether it backed up or not (you rookie!!!)

EDIT I have browsed to the back up folder, i.e.

C:\Users\<MY USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

There is a folder with todays date: \a6fbdb939e60771c51f18a68a41e8e0e2d230dcc - would this be the backup done before attempting software upgrade?

iTunes creates a backup of your iPhone everytime you sync it, not only when you upgrade it.

If in doubt, sync the iPhone before upgrading.

Here is an Apple Support article about the subject: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766


Can you put 2012 macbook air 13 inch ssd in macbook air 11 inch 2012? I am thinking about doing something like that. Or would it not work?

Yes, it will work as they are the same type SSD between those two models.


What's the latest version of Boot Camp Assistant that can be installed on Snow Leopard? And also, where do I download it? Currently it says Boot Camp Assistant is version 3.0.4. And Software Update says everything is already up to date but I see some people say they have version 3.3 on Snow Leopard so yeah I'm rather confused.

Apple Insider says 3.3 update if for people using Boot Camp 3.1, maybe that's why.

Did you try downloading it directly from Apple's website ?


Mail app. damaged, losing all my email I upgraded to macOS Sierra and now the Mail app won't open. Even though the Mail app. does not open, at Apple they told me there is nothing I can do and I will lose all email that I have on my Mac. I have very important data in my emails.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

Any email you have stored on your Mac from your Mail app is located in your user account's library folder. More specifically, in macOS Sierra you can access your mail data as follows:

Make sure you're in the Finder
Press and hold the option key
Click on the Go menu and select Library
Your user account's Library folder will open (you can now let go of the option key)
Within this folder is located a Mail folder. This contains any Mail data actually stored on your Mac.

Now, assuming you have Time Machine backups, all of this should already be backed up. However, if you don't, then you could copy this Mail folder onto a couple of USB drives for safe keeping until you sort out your Mail app issue.

NOTE: It's not clear from your question how you upgraded to macOS Sierra, nor what type of email account you have. As a result, we cannot advise how much data, if any, you have in your Mail folder.


MacBook Air has suddenly become very slow at booting and shutdown I have a Late 2010 MacBook Air, and it has a 256 GB SSD, 2.13 GHz processor, and 4 GB RAM. It has been lightning fast ever since I bought it and I upgraded to OS X Lion and it was super fast. Boot time was 10-12 seconds (time to get to login screen), shut down time was 3 seconds.

During the last couple of months, my MacBook Air seems to be have slowed down regarding boot time and shut down time. Current boot time is 50-60 seconds, and shutdown time is 10-15 seconds.

I do not know the reason for this. Applications don't seem to have much lag though. It is my boot time that is a MAJOR problem!

I recently cleared a lot of useless memory on my computer and emptied the trash, and cleared the cache memory (with an app), and computer has a LOT of free space and no applications are loaded on start-up either.

Can anyone tell me how to get back the original boot time performance?

Issue: After entering the password the computer would appear to freeze and become unresponsive. After about 20 mins it would eventually log in. User was claiming that browsing the internet was very slow and he could only access one page at a time.

Resolution: I had unbound the mac from the Active Directory domain and it fixed the issue. As it turns out the computer name had been removed from the AD Computers list.


Visualise on a map the location of the photos inside a folder Is there a software that I can point to a folder to see a map of the area of all the pictures present in that folder? With tiny thumbnails or dots.
Similar to what can be done directly on the iPhone, but for OS X.

What you're describing is a $2 Mac app called Photo Geolocation from the Mac App Store:
Photo Geolocation


Change Black Macbook Pro screen to something cool when music is playing? When I am playing music on my Macbook Pro and don't touch the computer for a while, the screen goes black and the music is still playing. How do I change the black screen to something cool that goes with the music?

With iTunes in foreground, either press ⌘T or select View > Visualizer, choose the animation, and select View > Show Visualizer.

The visual effect will change with the music: enjoy!


Siri is giving out wrong phone number for my business I am an optometrist and when people use Siri to find me Siri is giving my home number instead of my office number.  How can I correct this issue?

The process used to be opaque and therefore complicated, but Apple now has a self-service web app for small businesses to self-list:

https://mapsconnect.apple.com/

I've not had any issues with updating and creating listings and the email feedback you get is quite helpful if you run into any questions or snags.

If you fail to update your own listing directly with Apple, you can also try to get other data sources like Google Maps, Yelp, etc... correct in case Apple pulls data from other sources. I recommend making an Apple entry for your business rather than letting the system try to guess the correct information.


How to change font size and font for all profiles in terminal? So I have many profiles in my terminal preference, as shown below

I would like to be able to change the font for all of these different profiles at once

  3024 Day, 3024 Night, AdventureTime...

Right now I have to make such change one by one, how do I change the font once and for all?

Please let me know if it is not clear enough of what I am trying to do. Thanks in advance!

Very easy with an AppleScript code (here an example where all profiles are set to Menlo Regular 18 pt, note that "Menlo Regular" is named "Menlo-Regular" in font name):

tell application "Terminal"
    set ProfilesNames to name of every settings set
    repeat with ProfileName in ProfilesNames
        set font name of settings set ProfileName to "Menlo-Regular"
        set font size of settings set ProfileName to 18
    end repeat
end tell


Can I share network access from Ethernet over WiFi? I have 3 devices:

A Linux server
A MacBook
An iPad

I currently have no router. But, the Linux server and MacBook are connected by Ethernet through a switch. The MacBook and iPad are connected by Wi-Fi,  the Wi-Fi network is created by the MacBook.

The MacBook is able to connect to Linux just fine, through ssh and view webpages hosted on the Linux server. The iPad is able to view pages hosted on the MacBook but is unable to connect to the Linux server. It appears that the MacBook keeps the two networks separate. I tried using the internet sharing feature on the MacBook. Sharing Ethernet to devices through Wi-Fi, but it doesn't help because it's not the Internet I want to share it's a local network.

Is there a way to have my MacBook share its Ethernet connection over WiFi so that the iPad can load pages hosted on the Linux server?

It sounds like you are looking to share your ethernet connection to Wi-Fi devices, this is possible although there is an exception where your ethernet connection implements authentication, but your Mac will state this.

To get started:

Open System Preferences
Navigate to Sharing
Enable Internet Sharing (left hand list)
Set the "Share your connection from:" dropdown to your ethernet port
Check the "Wi-Fi" option in the list "To computers using:"
Click "Wi-Fi Options" and configure the options for the network you'd like to create
Press "OK"

Now try connecting a device to the newly created Wi-Fi network.


Why do I have to "renew Touch ID purchases" all the time? I have an iPhone 5S, and I have automatic app updates disabled as I like to manage these myself. However, when I do, I have to enter my Apple ID password every time?

If I make new purchases, it seems to go through with the Touch ID; however, if I update an app I am forced to manually enter my password.

I have the 7.0.1 update and apple store purchases under the General => Fingerprint section in Settings, which is turned on.

I have searched the apple discussion forums and the common answer seems to be the update. It's not that.

So short question is, why do I have to actually "Confirm Apple ID password for  to renew Touch ID purchases" all the time?

How can I have it use TouchID as I have it set in the settings?

Security, if someone else puts his finger into touch ID, he could purchase everything. Or if someone logs in with his apple id on your phone, you could just buy things without knowing his password.

Touch ID isn't linked to your Apple ID, but to your phone


How do I remove a user via single user mode in 10.7? I occasionally will setup a user's machine that has been in for repair beyond the simple re-install of the OS. For example: install a new hd, install the OS, create a user, install updates and then reboot into single user mode running a slew of commands to remove that user and give the machine back to the client with the welcome video on boot.

Below are the commands for 10.5 and 10.6 I have used over the years that is a walk-thru for any tech to accomplish regardless of experience. The 10.5 one has worked with 10.6 too, with the exception of line 8 or 9 due to some changes.

I'd like to find a list of commands or a script or something that would be the most proper and efficient way to do this in 10.7. Remove the user, delete any trace of it and on next boot return to the new user setup screen.

Removing a user and returning to the account setup screen (10.5)

 + s at boot (Single-User Mode)
mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist
dscl -f /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default

Command prompt changes into Directory Services Command Line Tool

cd Local/Default/Users

ls - outputs a list

delete
cd ../Groups
delete admin GroupMembership
delete staff GroupMembership
exit

You are now at the Regular Command Prompt

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
rm -rf /Users/

Choose one

shutdown -h now (Shutdown)
shutdown -r now (Shutdown and Restart)

There are several problems with the script you posted.

Don't remove /Users/Shared - iTunes needs it and will fail on certain store and sharing operations.

dscl on Lion will still whine if you start it (it's looking for the missing plist) - even if you launch /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist as Ingmar Hupp has suggested.

I've never been one to worry about cleaning up the groups since I'm deleting user 501. The system will just add UID 501 back into the Admin and Staff groups the next time the Setup Assistant boots, so I do the following: (assume the short name of the user 501 is test)

⌘+S
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/
rm test.plist
rm -rf /Users/test
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
halt

I do use the official Users & Groups Preference Pane to delete all users except 501 and/or create the test user as 501 as needed since launchd can have jobs stuck if the users you are clearing aren't trivial users set up for simple updates as your case allows.

I would avoid saving a WiFi password or setting up WiFi outside the user account or use ethernet for your updates if you want to be fastidious about leaving as little of your settings behind (especially if the SSID/name isn't generic like Apple Network or has WEP/WPA keys).


Pages: Formula/Equation Editor Does Pages have an in-built formula editor? If yes how do I access it? If no, are there any third party software I can use?

You can use Grapher.app (in /Applications/Utilities or via Spotlight), enter the formula there and then just copy&paste the formatted formula into Pages.


deleted photos still take up storage I have deleted all my pics including from recently deleted and i have 45GB in icloud but still my photos are taking up a lot of space even though there is nothing in the photo album. Please help urgent issue!!

I had this problem for a long time with my 16gb iPhone. After a lot of looking I discovered iExplore and this tip:

http://iexplorer-support.macroplant.com/customer/portal/articles/1325738-how-to-delete-all-photos-from-an-iphone-or-ipad

Essentially, Photos caches lots of files and due iOS bugs, the caches don't always get cleared up.

I used the solution on the above page and cleared up 2GB of space.


Problem sending mail to Yahoo Group from Gmail This problem is not strictly an OSX problem, but I do not know a more suitable site.

I belong to a club which uses yahoogroups.com for group mail.

Recently every message I send to the group from my MacBook using Thunderbird fails with an error message

Your email was not delivered due to a suspected guidelines violation. Please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/local/guidelines.html

I might addd that that link fails with 404 page not found which doesn't inspire confidence, but I have no choice but to use Yahoo.

Following up other links I found the following:-

As a spam prevention measure, email messages sent to Yahoo Groups without SMTP-authentication often result in failed delivery, citing a “suspected guidelines violation.” This happens most frequently because you're attempting to send your message using an external email application (Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.). You can avoid errors by enabling SMTP-authentication within your email client or email service.

I have enabled SMTP-authentication in Thunderbird.

I normally use Gmail as my SMTP server and have enabled SMTP-authentication in Thunderbird.
I can send mail if I use my ISP as SMTP server, but I can only use this if I am directly connected to the ISP, not when travelling.

Can anyone help with this problem?

You probably need to use a Yahoo! email account as Yahoo! are probably trying to spite Google and make its users select the whole packet thst they offer.


Can you install a homebrew forumula without updating Xcode? I am trying to install a homebrew formula, but it just tells me that I need to update Xcode. Everything worked correctly before and I can't install the update, first of all, my internet speed is very bad, and when I click update in the App Store it just says "waiting".

I tried reading the output of brew help and such but I couldn't find any "force" or similar option. Is it possible to do what I am trying to do?

I found the file which prevents me from installing anything. It is /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/extend/os/mac/diagnostic.rb

What I did to solve this was commenting out lines 65-82 and then locking the file so it doesn't get overwritten.


Program to delay audio output I have a video that has audio several seconds in front of what it should be. I'm looking for an independent program that will delay the sound output. Is such a thing possible and more importantly is it free?

Yes, You can use VLC. You can adjust the audio during video playback. Perfect for when you have sync issues.

With the most recent version of VLC (Version 1.1.9) the keys to adjust the audio during playback are:

g - Audio delay up

f - Audio delay down


Keyboard layout not usable in all programs I have used Ukelele to create a keyboard layout file (foo.keylayout) that lives in ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts. I used a US english layout as a base and have added some keymappings that let me type æøå (Norwegian characters) by pressing the left alt/option key and the ', ; and [ keys, plus some other symbols I use often – all using the left alt/option key.

This works great in most programs, like this text area in Chrome, in Finder, Macvim, Terminal… almost everywhere.

But, in Evernote and Sparrow, these mappings do not work, and if I show the current layout in the menu, I see that it switches back to the US layout when I bring one of these programs to the front. It is not possible to switch to my own layout in the dropdown menu – it switches back to US again immediately.

Is it possible to fix this – or is this because of the technologies used by Evernote and Sparrow?

Things you could try:

Move the keyboard layout to /Library/Keyboard Layouts/. Keyboard layouts in the user library can't be selected in password dialogs or the login window.
Change the ID from Keyboard > Set Keyboard ID... in Ukelele.
Save the keyboard layout as a bundle instead of an XML file.

To apply changes to a keylayout file, you can for example run sudo touch /Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/ and log out and back in.


Using iPad as second screen without sidecar I have a MacBook Air 2017 which is not compatible with sidecar, and since I upgraded to Catalina it doesn't work with the third party service I had been using (DeutDisplay).

Does anyone know a way to use my iPad Air 2 as a second monitor for my computer?

Astropad and their luna display hardware and app are what you want when sidecar isn’t fast enough or doesn’t support your hardware.

https://blog.astropad.com/astropad-vs-apples-sidecar/
https://lunadisplay.com/

I’ve used Luna since the kickstarter days and you should be able to find one used if you need that specifically instead of the full AstroPad app. The new hardware is excellent as well, so give them a chance if you like what you see.

I used duet before and the astropad performance and experience on the Mac side were substantially faster, more reliable and used less cpu / energy.


Is my system vulnerable to Apple's new password-in-clear-text bug? With the latest Lion security update, Mac OS X 10.7.3, Apple has accidentally turned on a debug log file outside of the encrypted area that stores the user’s password in clear text.

How can I determine whether my system if affected by this issue? If so, can I work around it, and also determine which users’ passwords have been exposed?

As stated in the article linked in the question:

  Anyone who used FileVault encryption on their Mac prior to Lion, upgraded to Lion, but kept the folders encrypted using the legacy version of FileVault is vulnerable. FileVault 2 (whole disk encryption) is unaffected.

The password shows up in /var/log/secure.log. To look for it, log in as an Administrator, open Terminal.app and run

sudo grep -i passwordAsUTF8String /var/log/secure.log

Have a look at the result (if any) to see whether passwords appear in plain text.

For additional information see

Apple update to OS X Lion exposes encryption passwords
Apple Legacy Filevault Hole


How do I make sure the firmware for my newly installed SSD is up to date for Mac OSX? Note: cannot use optical drive Installed a 2nd HD (SSD) onto my 15" MBP and wasn't sure how to upgrade the firmware. SanDisk 120 GB SSD. Anyone know?

Run software update from the apple icon.  If there are any updates it will tell you but you should be good to go as the SATA interface is the same so the only firmware change needed is wear leveling and trim.  You can check if that is enabled by clicking on About This Mac>system info> more details> then in the sidebar of system profiler click on the Sata listing. Then scroll down in the right hand pane and next to trim it will say yes or no.  If it is not, there is software like http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/ that enable trim support.


Where are login options stored? How can I read Login options from terminal (Automatic login, Display login windows as, Network Account Server etc.)?

Most of these settings are stored in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist. The "Show fast user switching menu" setting is stored at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist (for each user account on the system).

The Network Account Server settings are stored in your Directory Services database. You can utilize the dscl command to look at various settings dealing with your Network Account Server. I recommend using man dscl to look at the details of this function, but as an example I can use the following command to see the Active Directory domain I'm bound to at work:

dscl localhost -ls /Active\ Directory

For Open Directory you would use:

dscl localhost -ls /LDAPv3

Additional Note from OP: .plist files are coded in binary. To read them in Terminal you will want to make a copy of the file that you can tinker with, and convert that copy into XML format. Use the cp command to create your copy and plutil -convert xm11 examplefile.plist to convert to readable XML.


Change Finder window text size via AppleScript or shell? I would like to create shortcuts to "zoom" my Finder window text size.

I have tried in AppleScript

tell application "Finder"
    if text size of list view options of front window = 10 then
        set text size of list view options of front window to 16
    else
        set text size of list view options of front window to 10
    end if
end tell

which works but I cannot see the change until I "refresh" the window by closing and re-opening it.

I tried adding

update items of front window

but this does nothing.

Any way to do this elegantly?

I'm on El Capitan.

Ze'ev, amigo:

This sounds like a job for the shell, and we might get you the functionality you desire in possibly two ways.

First, let's try the elegant method: Without closing any windows, send a SIGHUP to the Finder process, shell-side, after you change that parameter in the AppleScript.   Specifically, add the line:

do shell script "pkill -1 -l Finder"

The second argument to pkill -- the '-l' -- is for debugging purposes.  If this works, remove the '-l'.

On a side-note, the font size change is also something that can be changed from the shell-side, via the 'defaults' command.

Please let me know if that works out for you.

Best of luck,

F.


Missing glyphs from some fonts Some international fonts (such as Devanagari and others in that area) are apparently missing some glyphs.

Checking the lower left of wikipedia I get squares ("missing glyph symbol"), and going into that site I get only squares too; however, checking in other sites it appears many glyphs are there, but a few are missing.

What can I do to fix this? What could be the problem?

This is like asking "Why is my dictionary missing some words?"

Just like no dictionary contains every possible word, no font contains every possible unicode glyph. Remember that someone has to actually create the font, and they aren't going to spend the time to get every possible glyph from every possible language. Especially when the number of glyphs defined is always increasing.

From wikipedia:

  No single "Unicode font" includes all the characters defined in the present revision of ISO 10646 (Unicode) standard, as it is continually adding more & more languages and characters. As a result, font developers and foundries are also incorporating those new characters in newer version or revision of a font, and correcting their previous errors if there were any.

If you are interested, you can see on Wikipedia a comparison of some common Unicode fonts together with the code blocks that they cover.

You might try installing Gnu unifont, which seems to have the most complete coverage. To install, just download the font from the site, click on the file, which opens a font preview in FontBook. Just click "install" and you are done.


How to reach websites that have failed while offline? When I try to open a website when my connection is down or while my modem is starting up, my Mac flags this url as unreachable.

When the connection is finally open and internet available, I still can not reach this web site as if the Mac doesn't try to reach it again and still displays me the error page. Other web sites (that I didn't try to reach while offline) are reachable...

Is there a way to reset this information so that the Mac really tries to reach url ?

I don't think you are seeing anything out of the ordinary here. My connection goes down all the time, and it's never been immediate for me, but refreshing does bring the site up faster.

My theory is that it just takes another amount of time for the browser to sort out that the connection is available again; the browser periodically pings the system to see if there is a connection available, and the lag you're seeing is waiting for the process to run its course again. Perhaps it pings once a minute as opposed to once every few seconds for fear of bogging down the processor.

Computers, as a rule, don't like it when things unexpectedly fail and thus take longer to get back up and running as opposed to when everything goes right.


Computer doesn't detect my iPhone 7 When I connect my iPhone 7 to my computer, the PC does not detect it. My Iphone notifies me that it is connected and the battery is charging but it does not allow me to transfer works data.
How do I fix it?

You could try to connect your iPhone to the computer trought Wi-Fi and not trought USB cable.
However, in the following link you will find everything you need.

This is the link


Is Magic Trackpad feature-equivalent with built-in MacBook touchpads/trackpads? TLDR; for testing touchpad interface on a MacBook, would a desktop with Magic Trackpad be suitable?

We are developing a cross-platform application Win/Mac and though we develop mostly on Windows, MacBook users are a key demographic, specifically this raises issues with trackpad functionality.
None of us have MacBooks but I have a MacMini so I can test the Mac build - but only with a mouse. I wondered if getting a TrackPad would let me test gestures a)work as planned b)are user friendly in a realistic way. If so, which version would be adequate?

Yes, the Magic Trackpad or Magic Trackpad 2 should allow you to test gestures and work out if they're user friendly.

The only problem I can see is if you have very odd gestures or use of the track pad that relies on the specific physical size of the trackpad (which is normally not the case). The size of the trackpad varies from Mac to Mac (i.e. older models typically have smaller trackpads).


How to disable "right click acting as left click" I have this problem where I press the right click, and the mouse moves a few nanometer over the contextual-menu. When a release the right click, the system acts as if I just did a left click on the contextual-menu and do the action like "copy" or "change page"... This can lead to pretty annoying consequences.

The solution would be to stop the right click being treated as a left click when the mouse moves over the contextual-menu before the right click is released. I don't know if that's possible but honestly I doubt anybody use that feature in the first place.
Another solution would be to make the contextual menu appear after the right click is released, instead of after the right click is pressed, if that is possible.

You're clicking for too long.

Short click & the menu will wait for another distinct click.
Click & hold & it will trigger as soon as you let go.

If your mouse has a dodgy button, it may let go before you think you did, causing behaviour 2.

With behaviour 1, you can just take your time wandering around sub menus without having to click anything until you're completely ready. The menu will just wait for you.


automate app launch at midnight ? How might I use Automator or Applescript to launch iTunes at midnight, and kill it at 5am ?

(This is the only time when I have unlimited bandwidth..  rural sat-based ISP.. ugg.)

Thanks.

This is the easiest, non-technical, method:

(I'm on Snow Leopard, I've edited these to match Mavericks - the exact buttons to click may be wrong)

Make an Applescript and type this: tell application "iTunes" to activate
Open Calendar.app
Make a new event today for 00:00
Set it to repeat every day
Alert should be Open file. Select Other > find the applescript you just made
Make an Applescript and type this: tell application "iTunes" to quit. Save it somewhere
Make another event tomorrow for 05:00
Set it to repeat every day
Alert should be Open file. Select Other > find the applescript you just made

Done!

The calendar app does not have to be running to allow the events to take place.


Can’t log out of iCloud on iPhone - ‘Verification Failed’ So when I try to sign out of iCloud on my iPhone, I get the message - enter password to turn off find my phone. After entering the password, a message comes up stating ‘Verification Failed - There was an error connecting to iCloud’.

What I’ve tried so far:
1) Resetting all Network Setting,
2) Changing Apple ID password.

Neither works! Any help is really appreciated. Thanks.

I just solved this by making sure under cellular you have “settings” enabled. I didn’t have it toggled in and I was not on a wifi service when I was trying to log out of iCloud.


How can I sync my new iPad on Ubuntu? I use Ubuntu 12.04 and I would like to add some songs and videos.

Check this thread out
https://askubuntu.com/questions/994/can-i-sync-with-my-iphone-4-and-ipad

otherwise you might ask directly on askubuntu.
You can log in on askubuntu using your stackexchange credentials


Alert sound for incoming emails I've searched everywhere but couldn't find it , Would you please guide me where I can find the default MAC Osx sound alert file for new email

Regards

All sounds are stored in HD -> System -> Library -> Sounds


How do I get 'New Terminal at Folder' functionality when dragging a folder to the terminal dock icon? Sometimes I like to open folders in Terminal by dragging the folder to the Terminal dock icon. However this creates a new Terminal window instead of creating a new tab in my current Terminal window. How do I make Terminal open the dragged folder in the same window similar to the right click services option for 'New Terminal at Folder'.

I was able to do it two different ways:

First, drag and drop the folder directly into the window you want the path copied to by clicking and dragging the folder, using Cmd+Tab to open the Terminal window you were working in, then dropping it on the Terminal window.

Second, drag and drop the folder onto the Terminal icon in the Dock like you were before, but hold it there for a few seconds until the window you had open appears, then continue dragging the folder into the Terminal window and dropping it there.


Are app-related trademarks allowed as keyword for an app in the App Store? I'm building an iOS 8 iPhone app that lets user upload photos to Facebook.
Can I set the term Facebook as a keyword for my app in iTunes Connect or will that lead to a rejection by Apple?

You shouldn't use trademarked words as keywords for your app:

  When choosing a keyword, don’t use competing app names, company or product names, or trademarked names. Avoid inappropriate or objectionable terms or irrelevant words such as celebrity names; all keyword submissions are reviewed by Apple.

Source: iTunes Connect Developer Guide: First Steps: Identifying Your App in iTunes Connect: Set Up Searching and Browsing: Keywords: Get the Best Results; emphasis mine.


Smartfolders- Can I narrow the query? When using Smartfolders in Mac OS 10.6.5, is it possible to choose where to search beyond the 2 button choices?  One button is usually "This Mac' (too broad) and the other one is a folder that has never been the one I want - in fact, I would want to exclude a particular folder (ie the Library folder in my user directory).

Since we are given a choice of 2 places to query, why not any particular branch of the directory?

Ok, there’s a way to “hack” into SmartFolders and change the locations.

Rules:

You can’t do it from the UI
It involves having the smart folder saved
I wrote it in spanish a long time ago in a blog post (spanish)

For the sake of helping you (I’m assuming you don’t speak spanish), I’ll transcribe the relevant information here.

Please note that the blog explains how to add more than one location to the search, not how to exclude (something I don’t believe is possible).

So, the short version:

Save your smart folder, the search location is really not important (we’re going to change it!) but make sure you use the searching “terms” that you want. Name it something like: IHATESMARTFOLDERS. Ok, you can name it differently if ya wish ;)
Go to your ~/Library/Saved Searches and you should see your saved smart folder.
Once you have located your smart Folder, you have to open it with a text editor like TextWrangler (or anything that can save Plain Text). Do not use Pages…
Once you have it in your favorite editor, go to the end. You’ll see something like this:

<key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
<array>
           <string>/Users/martin/Desktop</string>
</array>

Note My smart folder was created for searching on my Desktop.

Good. As you can see the path is in an Array. If you know something about arrays, you’ll know that they are a collection of items. This means we can go ahead and add more items to this particular collection:

For example:

<key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
<array>
         <string>/Users/martin/Desktop</string>
         <string>/Users/martin/Pictures/MacStuff</string>
         <string>/Users/martin/Pictures/Me</string>
</array>

I have added two more folders to my smart -not so smart- folder.

Now in order for this to start working you have to:

Save the smart folder (remember to use plain text!)
Restart Finder.

And voilà.

Sadly, I haven’t found a way to exclude a location.


Replace windows installation on Macbook pro with Ubuntu I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) running OS X El Capitan with dual boot Windows.

I would like to replace windows with Ubuntu 18.04.

The command disktil list shows:

#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS SSJony                  127.0 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                128.2 GB   disk0s4

I would like to increase the size of the Mac by half, to around 192 GB and the rest for Ubuntu. How can I do this?

First step would be to delete the Windows partition using a program like Disk Utility of GParted (which is often included in the Ubuntu live disk). This will give you some unallocated space that you may be able to expand the MacOS partition to.

After you've increased the size to what you want, you can run the installation of Ubuntu and create a new partition out of the remaining unallocated space. This can usually be done during the installation process.


Xcode auto-quit in Mountain Lion On Lion, Xcode quit on its own when it was downloading documentation with no windows open. Is it safe to have Xcode download documentation in Mountain Lion or will it still quit on its own if all windows are closed?

According to OS X Daily, you can disable auto-terminate in Lion and Mountain Lion with the following terminal command:

defaults write -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool yes

This sets the NSDisableAutomaticTermination flag in the defaults database that OS X consults to get various settings.

Note that this will disable automatic termination for all applications, not just Xcode.


Is there official documentation for the Mach-O file format/ABI used by OSX that still exists as of December 2018? Why can't I find any official documentation for the file format?

I've seen this link a lot, but it seems that they've taken whatever used to be there down.

The best I could find was some blog posts and this mirror of the older documentation on github. This information still seems to be accurate, but why did Apple take this down? Has the documentation been moved somewhere? Have they deprecated some of the information in that document or perhaps the file format as a whole?

Edit I have been looking into this a bit more, and it seems like the mirrored documentation isn't actually completely up to do date. For instance, when compiling a source file with gcc -c the resulting object file includes a load command of type LC_BUILD_VERSION. This command type is not present in the documentation, but the corresponding data structure is present in /usr/include/mach/loader.h (which is now present in 10.14 only when installed from a package). It looks like there are more load commands that aren't documented as well.

With my previous comment, it appears that the loader.h file located at https://opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-4903.221.2/EXTERNAL_HEADERS/mach-o/loader.h.auto.html

IS the official documentation. Near the top it says

/*
 * This file describes the format of mach object files.
 */

And the comments in the file are more extensive than I realized.


Successfully launching a shell script from Finder when the path has a space in it Been trying to work this out this morning and beginning to wonder if this is even possible.
When launching a shell script through Finder, either by using the extension .command or opening .sh files in Terminal, the following command is executed:
Macbook-Pro:~ /Users/mulquin/Desktop/test/Path\ With\ Spaces/run.sh ; exit;
Could not open input file: /Users/mulquin/Desktop/test/Path

Trying it with quotes instead of escape characters yields the same result
Macbook-Pro:~ "/Users/mulquin/Desktop/test/Path With Spaces/run.sh" ; exit;
Could not open input file: /Users/mulquin/Desktop/test/Path

The users this is intended for are not tech savvy so asking them to open Terminal, browse to a directory and ./run.sh is unfortunately not an option.
I had a look at Platypus but the script location will be dynamic as the users will be running it from their desktops or other location they choose.
Has Apple really not noticed this issue or am I doing something wrong?

It turns out I was doing something wrong.
I erroneously believed the error message was caused by Mac OS X executing the script.
The reason this error was appearing was because inside my script I was executing something without escaping the space. Woopsie!


How to repair disconnected battery connector MacBook Air 2011 I "inadvertently" read foolishly broke the soldered pins in the MacBook Air battery connector while trying to replace the battery. Any easy fix??

There is no easy fix.

You may be able to salvage the battery connector.  If you can get it back into place and secure it with some tape and the the Mac functions, chances are the connector can be soldered back to the board.  (This is not a permanent fix, only a diagnostic)

If not, the connector and/or logic board needs to be repaired.

Either way, you won't be able to do this with a soldering iron - you will need a hot air re-flow gun and some technical skill to do this without un-soldering or heat damaging the components near it.

There are companies that specialize in repairs like this and are quite good at this type of repair.  They would be your best bet for repairing this type of damage.


Numeric keys (on the right side) doesn't respond at all I have keys responding problem on a brand new iMac (Yosemite) with new numeric keypad. The right side keys doesn't respond in any application. IT'S NOT the Num Lock (Clear) button! Just checked it. Also checked with old keyboard - same problem and the other way - the keyboard works perfectly on old iMac.

*The problem wasn't there from the initial start - it was ok for day or two. I did many installs (like Adobe CS) and preferences customization in a first day.

Just found it! In Accessibility preferences (Yosemite) > Mouse & Trackpad "Enable Mouse Keys" must be uncheked. Otherwise numbers behaves like arrows. Yoo-hoo, what a relief )


Command + f hangs Finder I just bought a new MacBook Pro running OS X 10.10.3 and then migrated from my old Mavericks MacBook Pro. Now when I search for a file using command+F, Finder hangs/beachballs/becomes unresponsive after just a few letters. Here's what I tried and what happened:

Removing com.apple.finder.plist or com.apple.dock.plist from /Users/username/Library/Preferences then rebooting (as suggested various places such as here) didn't fix the problem.
Trashing the contents of Library/Saved Application State/ then rebooting did fix the problem—for exactly one search, subsequent searches had the same problem as before. I deduce that the saved state might be a part of the problem.
Restricting the search to PDF or Document before I type search terms also fixes the problem, from which I think that the size of the set of files to be searched might be a part of the problem.

What is causing this situation and how can I fix it?

Based upon your descriptions, it appears to be an active bug related to smart search and regular search.

On page two of that discussion, one of the posters stated the following:

  Here is what finally fixed for me. I went in mail.app (whose search
  was totally misbehaving too), and I rebuild all the mailboxes in my
  accounts. (Select all the folders, "Folder" menu, "rebuild") When this
  finished, I rebuilt my index again, restarted and... it is working
  like a charm since then!


Keynote Presentation locking Is there a way to lock an iPad, playing a Keynote presentation, in presentation mode so that you cannot access edit mode at all?  We have a presentation which plays during a tour and if one of our guides, while getting the presentation set up, gets into edit mode, they can press our Bluetooth remote and it will add slides.  We use guided access mode once we are in the presentation we want, but there are two different presentations on the iPad and they need the ability to switch back and forth between presentations, but never the ability to add slides or edit the presentation.

How can the Keynote presentation itself be limited to read-only?

One possible solution:

Using Collaboration, the author can create the presentations on a different device, the share the presentations as a view only type.

Using a private Apple ID to create the presentations, different from the one set up on the iPad, would allow for more control of the presentations themselves without limiting the use of the iPad.


MacBook Pro is slow, will adding RAM help? I have an early 2009 13" MacBook Pro. I have used it a lot and at the moment and for a while now it is quite slow. I need to use various applications like Mathematica (for which it is quite slow if I use it now), Latex, web browsers, and a few other programs. Right now compiling Latex documents or running easy Mathematica code takes a long time and sometimes even will crash the computer for a couple of minutes.

I don't want to buy a new one since my University will buy me one when I begin my PhD next Fall but I still need to do work. Would adding RAM (I have 4GB DDR2 now) help any? What other steps could I take to improve its performance (except for standards like clean up).

UPDATE: Some other symptoms:

Mac struggles to open and quit apps
Mac struggles to scroll up/down on various "heavy" websties.
Mac shows up very often the little colored disc (instead of the pointer of the mouse) signifying it is loading stuff.
Mac struggles to open the Finder and when it is open it needs some time to load the applications folder.

Upgrading to 8GB will give your more memory-intensive applications a bit more headroom and allow them to avoid unnecessary swap-file usage. Upgrading to an SSD will give a more substantial speed boost overall - apart from dramatically improved OS and application startup times, any applications writing to and reading from a swap-file will also see considerable speed improvements. Your Mac only supports SATA II but the speed improvement will still make the investment worthwhile.


How to open an encrypted dmg file in Windows? I made encrypted disk image on my MacBook.
Now I want to open it on my PC (Windows 10).

How can I open (mount) an encrypted dmg image file in Windows 10?

According to the website HFSExplorer can open and read encrypted dmg images.

  HFSExplorer is an application that can read Mac-formatted hard disks and disk images.
  It can read the file systems HFS (Mac OS Standard), HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) and HFSX (Mac OS Extended with case sensitive file names).

  HFSExplorer allows you to browse your Mac volumes with a graphical file system browser, extract files (copy to hard disk), view detailed information about the volume and create disk images from the volume.
  HFSExplorer can also read most .dmg / .sparsebundle disk images created on a Mac, including zlib / bzip2 compressed images and AES-128 / AES-256 encrypted images. It supports the partition schemes Master Boot Record, GUID Partition Table and Apple Partition Map natively.

Download link.


Are Mac OS images (eg. "OS X El Capitan.app") digitally signed? Safe to install from torrent? So, I've upgraded OSX to Sierra, but I need to downgrade (long story), and OSX won't let me because I didn't create a Time Machine backup before upgrading.

So I have downloaded the Install OS X El Capitan.app image using BitTorrent.

I assume Apple are wise enough to digitally sign their OS images, such that this is safe. But I would like to know for certain before proceeding.

The original macOS installer apps are not distributed as images (i.e. dmg files). So you won't find a digitally signed macOS Installer.dmg, dmg signing is possible though: How to add codesigning to dmg file in mac.

However, you can check the codesigning of the macOS/OS X Installer.app and the sha sum of the InstallESD.dmg (which contains the files which will be installed to your disk later):

codesign -dv --verbose=4 /Volumes/InstallMavericks/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

and

shasum /Volumes/InstallMavericks/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Compare the shasum result with the following list: Apple Installer Checksums. If the checksum is different the dmg is tampered.

The name of the mounted Mavericks.dmg (i.e. InstallMavericks) is just an example - so use the proper path to the macOS/OS X Installer.app.


Lion - automatic file versioning - details Can anybody explain some details about how is implemented the automatic file versioning in the Lion?

It is transparent for any file? (for example, for files created in the Terminal.app with shell command like ls >file.txt and ls -l > file.txt mean than the file.txt got versioning?, or
every application should call some versioning API at the save?

The only information has released to non-Mac Developer Program members is the following.

  If you have a document-based application, Lion offers an efficient, built-in auto save feature that stores changes to the working document instead of creating additional copies on a disk. Versions automatically records a history of changes made to your documents and lets your app display a Time Machine like interface so users can browse through previous versions. ADC

There is more information available for Mac Developer Program subscribers. The information, however, is currently restricted by a non-disclosure agreement . The information will most likely be made available for everyone once the final version of Lion is released. This is how Apple have done it in the past.

Personally I am a bit disappointed that Apple chose to go with ‘something else’ instead of the native handling of this offered by the ZFS file system. (As rumored as far back as Leopard.)


How can I hide the Biography and Similar Artists panel in iTunes? For one of the artists on my iTunes music library, I've purchased music from iTunes Store. With iTunes 12, there's now a Biography panel and Similar Artists panel on the right that I can't get rid of - so far I've disabled "Show Apple Music" in the General preferences, and I've also disabled "Apple Music Connect" in the Parental preferences. Unfortunately it's still showing. Is there any way to not have that panel show?

I have yet to update my iTunes (and now I'm starting to think I should avoid it all together!) I was, however, able to search an Apple discussion board and found this to be the closest fix (hopefully) to what you are asking for:

Go to Edit>Preferences>Parental>Check the Apple Music Connect>Restart iTunes.

Apparently this user has a PC but they said they assume it will be easy to do on a Mac as well.
Here's the link to the discussion board I referenced. Hope this helps!


Safari crashes after Yosemite Upgrade My sister upgraded her 2011 MacBook Pro 15" to Yosemite from Mavericks.  As far as I have been able to glean the upgrade went without a hitch, but now her computer is mostly unusable.  It is very slow, to navigate about the finder, slow to open programs, and largely unhappy.  She has over 100GB of free disk space and has 4 GB of RAM.  Any ideas about what went sideways?

The safari crashdump is too long to post here, so I have posted it on Dropbox:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9371124/safari_crash_dump.txt

The solution we came up with... the only one that worked, was to reinstall Yosemite.  It seemed at the time that something went sideways with the original upgrade.  Unfortunately I do not have all the details with me here.


How can I add/move icloud contacts to a group? I see that iCloud can create groups. It appears that other than All Contacts, I only have another group, contacts-other that was created when I imported my addresses (I think via Outlook, which I no longer use).

How can I assign contacts to a group?

On iCloud.com, open Contacts.  Then, click on the ribbon with the people icon until the groups appear.  Now, hit the plus icon at the bottom, and name the new group.  Click back on "All Contacts".  Now, simply drag each contact that you want to move into the group.  If you want to select more than one at a time, just hold down the Command key (control key on Windows) and click on each one, then drag them all into the group.


Wi-Fi connection timeouts on a specific MacBook Running OS X 10.10 Yosemite, and keep running into connection timeouts. Initially suspecting the home router or infrastructure issue, however all the other laptops in the house don't get any timeouts - so this must be something related to my own machine. I have no idea what that may be and how to diagnose and find the root cause. Perhaps it is a hardware issue with the Wi-Fi adapter?
All the computers are using DHCP.

Will appreciate any suggestions.

Info:

Pinging the gateway results in timeouts of sometimes minutes.

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2385 ttl=64 time=2.558 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2386 ttl=64 time=3.423 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2387
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2388
...
...

Pinging from another Mac at the same time shows no timeouts.

The issue was Discoveryd component in Yosemite which was causing the problem. Apple replaced the component with mDNSResponder in 10.10.4 which solved the issue. If you are running 10.10 to 10.10.3, you should upgrade immediately to 10.10.5 which is more stable with plenty of bug fixes.


How do I disable Safari's Show All Tabs gesture? Safari's Show All Tabs view is pretty useless, it only shows one tab at a time and is fairly easy to trigger with an accidental pinch gesture. How do I turn it off (as least for the pinch gesture)?

You can easily disable this by installing BetterTouchTool, and then for Safari adding a new Touchpad gesture for Pinch Out with no action.

Here's a screenshot:


How to restore macbook from icloud? I've bought new macbook after hdd crashing of previous one. Is there a way to restore data without repairing old drive? I know that backups of iOS devices are storing at iCloud. What about mac os? I need to restore files only. I dont remember was backupping setted up on previous machine. If setting it is necessary - how to do it?

iOS has the option of backing up to iCloud.

OS X can use iCloud Drive to maintain remote synchronised copies of some data. For everything else, you need to have been using Time Machine locally, or a paid online backup solution such as Backblaze for disaster recovery.

It is your responsibility to ensure these are active & up to date.

With no backup, then you need to be looking at data recovery solutions. Whether that is software such as Disk Drill or Data Rescue or a dedicated [& expensive] Data Recovery Service depends on the actual cause of the HD 'crash' & the value of the lost data.


iPhone 6+ Deleting Photos does not release memory I tried settings-safari-advanced-website data - delete. It released most of my memory but no all. I still have a couple of LOCAL DISK files that cannot be deleted and take up several GB

iOS 8 and newer has a feature called Recently Deleted in Photos.

Try opening photos then tapping on albums. Now tap recently deleted then press select in the top right corner and press delete all.

This should release all of the old photos. As regards to deleting all of the misc. data, you should be able to download an app on your computer like iFunbox or iExplorer to use (part) of the iOS filesystem.

With this being said, you should be able to open the Application Archives folder and delete all of the zip files found there.


The document "x" could not be saved. You don’t have permission I am getting the following error:

  The document could not be saved. You don't have permission

The error is not helpful at all because it does not point to where I don't have permission. To save the file, I need to Duplicate it each time, which is very painful. This time the error is from CleanWriterPro, but I have also received it from Numbers and TextEdit. Saving with TextMate works fine.

Permissions to the file are set up correctly according to Finder.

I think this must be some kind of problem with AutoSave permissions but despite googling with the error, I have not yet figured out what's wrong.

I found one possible culprit for this problem for me:

grant:Library joneskoo $ pwd
/Users/joneskoo/Library
grant:Library joneskoo $ ls -lad Autosave\ Information/
drwx------  2 root  staff  68 Sep 25  2010 Autosave Information/

Since Library is hidden in Lion, it needs to be made visible before the permissions can be fixed in Finder:

chflags nohidden ~/Library

After unhiding the Library, I opened the Get Information for Library, clicked the lock and selected "Apply to enclosing items" so that all files in Library made owned by me and no permissions for others.

However, CleanWriterPro is still not able to save the file in Documents, even though I repeated the step for Documents and Desktop. I could not reproduce the problem in Numbers now.

Repairing Disk permissions did not help.

Possibly related: I can't even rename files in Finder now under Documents without typing my password. Techrepublic: Introduction to OS X access control lists.

grant:~ joneskoo $ ls -led Documents/
drwxr-xr-x+ 44 joneskoo  staff  1496 Jan 17 06:55 Documents/
 0: group:everyone deny delete

I don't know what introduced that ACL, Finder? How can I remove it?

The question is: what are all the places I need to check to fix this problem?

I was able to fix the problem for CleanWriterPro by removing extended ACL from the affected directories (Documents, Desktop):

$ chmod -R -N Desktop Documents

For others with the same problem, I'd suggest checking the permissions of at least the following places:

~/Library/Autosave Information
~/Library/Containers – see Unsaved Files in OS X Lion
the folders containing the problematic files

Use the command

$ ls -le Documents

to show also the extended ACLs when looking at the problem. Finder will not show all ACL information.

There is a related discussion at Apple Discussion Forums, Lion Permissions Problem. It proposes the solution of removing all ACL from home directory and restoring the ACLs for some default folders. Please read the entire post from there; but the commands are:

chmod -R -N ~
chmod +a "everyone deny delete" ~/ ~/Desktop ~/Documents ~/Downloads ~/Library ~/Movies ~/Music ~/Pictures ~/Public

The ACL prevents the user from deleting or renaming the default folders.

An unintuitive but maybe safer(?) alternative is described at OS X Daily: Repair user permissions in Mac OS X Lion


Can it hurt to upgrade Windows 7 drivers? I was running into issues playing Starcraft 2 on Windows 7 (32 bits): once in a while, the game would unexpectedly quit with "Core: out of memory" as the error message. I went to the Blizzard support forum with this problem, and they told me that my video and sound drivers are outdated by a year or two.

Notwithstanding that I'm not sure how these drivers can impact the memory usage of the game, I don't know if upgrading is a good idea. I'm quite sure that it won't hurt the Mac OS side of my computer if I do (as the Blizzard rep suggested to double-check), but said drivers seem to come from Apple, and I'm not sure if my Mac would behave well if I upgraded them.

Has anyone tried to upgrade the sound and video drivers for Windows 7?

To answer your question - No, it won't hurt.  But it may not work.  As with any driver upgrade there is no guarantees.  But there is no harm in trying.  You can always revert back if it doesn't work.

If you find it doesn't work, hold F8 whilst booting into Windows to prompt you to boot into safe-mode.  When in safe mode you can revert your video driver.

Let us know how it works out.  I doubt you're the only person playing SC2 on Windows on a Mac ;)


Display Terminal message on login I want to display something like ### this is a test ### when a new Terminal window is open (and ideally, in a way that can be disabled easily). On Linux this was straightforward; you'd create a script in /etc/profile.d/ which would be responsible for echo-ing the message when a new Terminal session is opened.
I've been playing around with launchd to try to get this to work but to no avail. I've created an agent in /Library/LaunchAgents/org.test.greeting.plist with the following code (where the greeting.sh file is responsible for doing the echo) hoping to get some output when the user logs in.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.test.greeting</string>

    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/test/greeting.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
</dict>
</plist>

This hasn't worked, as the message is lost to the ether. However, I do know that the agent is running successfully. I know it is possible to redirect the output to a file using StandardErrorPath and StandardOutPath but those are not useful to me.
Does anyone know how to get this working with launchd, or maybe have another way of doing this?

I like the message of the day for this.  As tradition dictates...
me@Mac ~ % echo "Welcome to the University of East Westia" > /tmp/motd
me@Mac ~ % sudo mv /tmp/motd /etc

Note: /etc/motd is only displayed in a login shell, which is typical of Terminal.app on macOS.  If you typically run non-login shells, you should handle display of /etc/motd in your shell dot files.


Is it not possible to use Preview to highlight text or a portion of an image from a screenshot? macOS High Sierra I am trying with both a PDF and/or a PNG file, but this does not seem possible. Nothing I am trying works. Is it possible to take a screenshot natively in macOS, then highlight a portion of said screenshot? If so, how can this be done exactly?

To be clear, I want to just use native tools that are build-into macOS, so Preview in this case.

In a word, no.

While you can annotate anything in Preview.app it does not offer the option (that I have seen) to use translucent lines or shapes. You can change the color to anything your heart desires of both the line, shapes and shape fill but you can't make it transparent.

Not that this applies only to bitmaps like JPG & PNG where you are taking a picture of the screen or downloading a picture of text from somewhere. If you have a PDF that has actual text in it. EG a PDF that you can select and copy text in then, yes, you can highlight portions of the text:

Select the text just like in any word processing program
Go to Tools > Annotate > Highlight Text
Save the PDF

The difference being "a picture of text: no" or "actual text in a PDF: yes."

If you want to "annotate" a screen capture of text you will need to find a program that lets you overlay a transparent colored shape over another picture. I would bet there are a number of shareware/freeware programs (GIMP springs to mind) that would let you do this.


Will deleting my HD and reinstalling macOS delete apps? I'm selling my MacBook to a friend and obviously want to return it to its newborn state before I do so, following the steps outlined in the Apple support article, What to do before you sell or give away your Mac.

What I can't tell, however, is whether non-standard apps such as Excel for Mac will remain on the MacBook after the process is completed. It would be useful for her to have them.

Yes.

Formatting your hard disk and performing a fresh installation of macOS will delete all the apps (both Apple and 3rd party) which are installed on top of fresh install of macOS.

As per your requirements, you can take either one of the following two approaches:

Erase your hard drive and reinstall macOS
Create a brand new administrative user account and delete all the other accounts in the system.

However, irrespective of whichever two of the above approach you take, make sure to backup/move all your data from the MacBook (primarily from under your home directory), sign out of all the Apple services from your account (iCloud, iMessage, iTunes, Mac App Store), remove any saved Wi-Fi passwords and other sensitive items in the Keychain and unpair any paired Bluetooth device(s).

If you take the second approach from the list above, all the installed apps (other than the ones available in a fresh install of macOS) will continue to remain available on your Mac.

However, as mentioned by @nohillside, there may be licensing issues for commercial apps.

When following the second approach, you'll have to login once into the new account and delete all the accounts from Users & Groups in System Preferences.


Replace Apple RAID with larger disks I have a pair of 500 GB disks that are mirrored in a Mac.
I want to replace them with a pair of 4 TB disks.  Would the following process work?

Turn power off.
Remove one of the small pair.
Replace it with a 4 TB drive. RAID will appear degraded.
Using Disk Utility add the new drive to the RAID.
Allow it to rebuild.
Go have serious coffee.
Shut down computer.
Replace 2nd small drive.
Boot the computer, rebuild the raid.
At this point I think I should have a RAID with a 500 GB partition and 3.5 TB of free space.
Grow the file system to fill the disk.

Will this work?  Am I missing any details?

Uncertainties:

Can Disk Utility or diskutil expand a RAID file system that doesn't fill the disk?

RAID sets can't be resized wth Disk Utility.  Here's what works best, if you have a large number of files to move to the new array (e.g., a Time Machine archive, which can have millions of tiny, individual files.)

Note that you'll need a third drive to boot from, if your RAID array is also your boot drive.  A MacOS install DVD or USB stick will do, since they enable running Disk Utility.  You will also need at least one external dock or enclosure, for at least one of your old RAID drives.

Format the new drives as Journaled, case-sensitive, not encrypted.
Partition the drives, if desired.
Call up the RAID Assistant within Disk Utililty.  Create an new mirrored set with the new drives, or with size-matched partitions on the drives.  You can leave non-RAIDed partitions on each drive, and/or create multiple RAID sets from multiple matching partitions.  (This is very useful if you have virtual machines, or large movie files that are static and don't generate new versions over time.)

NB: Because a VM is "new" to Time Machine every time you use it,
   it will give rise to multiple 30-50GB archived versions that
   will very quickly eat into the available Time Machine storage
   space.  It's best to exclude VMs from backup in Time Machine's
   preferences, and back them up manually in their own separate
   partition.
   Another use for a separate partition is to hold a bootable clone
   of your startup HD (Carbon Copy Cloner is good for this.)  If the
   startup drive fails, the clone lets you reboot and carry on within
   minutes (and keep operating until your replacement drive arrives.)
Mount at least one of your old RAID drives in an external dock or enclosure.
Here's the key step: In the left pane of Disk Utility, select from "RAID Sets" your desired target RAID, then click the "Restore" button.  Select the source volume on the old RAID drive that you want copied to the new RAID set, and let the restore proceed.  It may take many hours, but that's far better than the many days that Finder would require.


My Time Capsule insists on being the DHCP server, but I already have one I have today joined the 21st century and started using FTTC, leaving aDSL behind as a fond memory. The modem that my telco provides presents a cat5 socket that my PPPoE capable router plugs into.

My router (currently) is an Apple Time Capsule. Not an obvious choice as a router/firewall, but I had it already and it does handle PPPoE at the cost of one cat5 socket.

The downside is that it insists on choosing it's own IP address (from one of 3) and being the DHCP server. I happen to have my own DHCP server and DNS server with a small DNS zone that I'd like to keep using, but the Time Capsule doesn't give me a means to achieving this that I can see.

Can anyone advise how I can configure the TC to use a static LAN-side IP address, and not to be the DHCP server, while at the same employing NAT to share the single IP address I get amongst my machines on my LAN.

Time Capsule can only handle PPPoE if it is also acting as the DHCP Server. You will need to get a different device, or allow the Time Capsule to be the actual DHCP Server, turning off that function on your provided modem: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5104


Window Management - Move Window My issue is that I left my Mac on with an external (as an extended) display.  When I came back the secondary display denies coming live.  There is an application there (Word) which I cannot reach it with a mouse to drag it to the primary Macbook pro display to continue work.  The application is live since I can see it in the Task manager (Command+Tab)  I wonder if there is something that I can do from the Terminal command line.
Please, no external apps suggestions, if possible!
Thanks.

Your description is a bit difficult to understand, but if you got an application window outside of the screen area and you need it moved without dragging, then this should work:

Open the native Script Editor application.
Open a new blank document and paste in the following code:

tell application "Microsoft Word" to set bounds of window 1 to {0, 22, 600, 622}

Click the play button to run the code.

This should move the Word document window to the top left of your screen and resize the window to 600x600px (note that this will only move 1 window).


How to add Outlook to "Share" popup menu in finder Unfortunately I have an old habit to have the "send by email" when right click on a file in the Share option pop up window.

I would prefer to use the Outlook so I can email the selected file.

Right now it comes up with Twitter, Facebook, Messages, AirDrop and even with Flicker (that I do not have).

Is that option available on my MBA osx 10.8.3 ?

I found a temporary work around.

In Automator services, I added a new service!

And it works for me just fine, till someone comes up with a better solution.

See my screen capture for specific details how to (should be easy to follow since it is my  first time I used Automator) and I am a Dummy.

Important is to select your email service of your choice (gmail in my case) to send messages and attachments.

That will tell the OS X Mail client to use that service to send emails.

Save your Automator service file (give it a easy name you want to appear in the Finders right click popup window). Something like "Send file by email".

Now when I right click on a file in Finder it shows that service at the bottom of the popup window. Now just follow the instruction and see it work.


Why use ps -ef check the process every time the pid will change? I use the ps -ef to check the process, but every time the pid will change, you see the below, 1726-> 1728->...

aircraftdeMacBook-Pro:etc ldl$ ps -ef | grep safira
  501  1726   527   0 10:14上午 ttys000    0:00.00 grep safira
aircraftdeMacBook-Pro:etc ldl$ ps -ef | grep safira
  501  1728   527   0 10:14上午 ttys000    0:00.00 grep safira
aircraftdeMacBook-Pro:etc ldl$ ps -ef | grep safira
  501  2298   527   0 11:18上午 ttys000    0:00.00 grep safira
aircraftdeMacBook-Pro:etc ldl$ ps -ef | grep safira
  501  2301   527   0 11:18上午 ttys000    0:00.00 grep safira

Every time you run this in Terminal two new processes for ps and grep are created, run to do their job and then terminated successfully. So each invocation gets new PIDs.

To properly exclude the process grep search_string from grep'ing for search_string in the ps result use:

ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep search_string

or

ps -ef | grep [s]earch_string

e.g. ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep safira or ps -ef | grep [s]afira


iPhoto to Photos issue I just took my computer into the Mac store and had it upgraded to El Capitan. I had iPhoto on my old version, I believe it was Lion. Before I took my computer in, I backed my computer up to a Seagate external drive.

When I got my computer back, I realized that iPhoto is no longer being used by Mac. So, based on advice that I read on this site, I re-downloaded iPhoto onto my computer; however, it will not let me import pictures from the hard drive. There is a grey "X" through the iPhoto icon and when I click on it it tells me that "You can’t open the application “iPhoto” because it is in a Time Machine backup." I have 7 years of pictures on there, and I am afraid I may have lost them for good.

Any ideas on how I get my pictures off my hard drive and back onto my computer? I don't care if they are in Photo or iPhotos, I just want them back.

Neither iPhoto nor Photos stores any photos—they are applications which access the photos stored within iPhoto libraries and Photos libraries respectively. The library is what stores the photos, which is what you should be transferring from your backup.

The library is stored by default in your Photos folder within your home folder, and stores all of your photos (providing you are not using referenced masters). Photos (the application) is part of OS X and you should not be restoring it from a backup.


Virus from adult websites? I go to my safari and it says I have viruses from adult websites, I'm guilty of that yes. But it then shows its checking my android in one tab and another says my iPhone has a virus. Is this true? Or is it a s scam!?

Clearly a SCAM.

Safari has nothing to do with that, that is a website with the info and it was opened by the adult website.

Viruses usually do not announce themselves to you.

Try opening new tab and search for Google. No virus there!

Just delete the website in question, you do not have a virus.


How to get + metacharacter for sed in Terminal? It looks like sed that comes with Mac OS 1.7.4 is the original one, without the + metacharacter. Can I get the + metacharacter functionality?

OS X's implementation of sed uses the "basic" regular expression format by default, which doesn't support +.  From man re_format:

Obsolete (``basic'') regular expressions differ in several respects.  `|'
is an ordinary character and there is no equivalent for its functional-
ity.  `+' and `?' are ordinary characters, and their functionality can be
expressed using bounds (`{1,}' or `{0,1}' respectively).  Also note that
`x+' in modern REs is equivalent to `xx*'.  The delimiters for bounds are
`\{' and `\}', with `{' and `}' by themselves ordinary characters.  The
parentheses for nested subexpressions are `\(' and `\)', with `(' and `)'
by themselves ordinary characters. [...]

So, what can you do?  Well, one possibility is to tell sed to use the modern format with the -E switch.  This may, however, force you to rewrite other parts of your RE to conform (for example, swapping \( ... \) with ( ... )).  Another option is to use one of the suggested alternate forms above.  Here are examples using the various approaches to match "A" followed by one or more "B" or "C", followed by "D":

sed -E 's/A[BC]+D/[match]/'
sed 's/A[BC]\{1,\}D/[match]/'
sed 's/A[BC][BC]*D/[match]/'


How to connect MacPro 2013 Thunderbolt 2 to USB C I see several posts about USB-C and TB-3 to TB-2 but are they reversible? As I cannot find a TB-2 to USB-3 device I thought maybe I could connect my MacPro (Late 2013) to a USB-C hub which has USB-3 ports. My primary purpose is to access storage devices not displays.

How can one go from TB-2 to USB-C or USB-3?

You need a thunderbolt dock to convert the embedded USB signal when carried over thunderbolt 2.

They are not reversible either in a meaningful way.

Once TB2 is present you can use the TB3 to TB2 adapter bidirectionally.

Why not use the USB A ports to connect USB C?


lost my iPhone 4s and its offline I lost my iPhone 4s the other day and I went on find my phone but it said it was offline, so I clicked lost mode but have been checking every day, what does it mean by offline? is it cos the phone is off or that it doesn't have internet or broken? if someone has stolen the phone surely they cant use it? as I put it in lost mode or if they did could I at least track it? or is there a way they can get round this? I'm so confused and lost without my phone :(

Offline means that either:

Your iPhone is turned off
You have no WiFi
You have no cellular data connection

If you have iOS7 and iCloud enabled, there is no way they can restore your iPhone. This is because you have to enter your Apple Id when you try to disable iCloud.


Does restoring an iPhone to factory settings before a restore from a backup produce a different result than just restoring from a backup? Does restoring an iPhone to factory settings before a restore from a backup produce a different result than just restoring from a backup?

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup

No.

Theres not much more to say. The end result will be the same: the device will be restored from a backup.


Toggling wi-fi on and off I need an applescript that will toggle wi-fi off and on at set intervals, say every 10 or 15 minutes. I'm using a 2012 MacBookPro running 10.9.5.

DISCLAMER: I can't check this (that it actually works) at the moment, but I will later.

This script to turn on/off wifi is taken from here:

try
    set makiaeawirelessstatus to do shell script "networksetup -getairportpower en1"
on error
    display dialog "The script did not work as intended, please check the networksetup command (in terminal) works on your system. It has been tested on mac os 10.7 (Build 11A459e). Other versions of mac os may not have this command available. Please open the applescript in applescript editor for more details." buttons {"kthxbai"}
end try

if makiaeawirelessstatus is "Wi-Fi Power (en1): On" then
    do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en1 off"
else if makiaeawirelessstatus is "Wi-Fi Power (en1): Off" then
    do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en1 on"
else
    display dialog "The script did not work as intended, please check your wireless connection is specified correctly. The default in this script is en1 (please open the applescript in applescript editor for more details)" buttons {"kthxbai"}
end if

You'd need to edit it to make it accept arguments (I would, but it'd turn out something like javascript)

Then, if you want the script to run reaccuringly, use something like LaunchAgent or cron. I prefer LaunchAgent, because it's more forgiving.


How do I virtually disconnect an external monitor? I have a iMac that is connected to an external monitor to extend my screen. Into that same monitor I have a separate Windows box that I need to run sometimes. The Windows box goes in through VGA and the iMac through HDMI. The problem I'm running into is that when I want to use the monitor for Windows, there is no simple way to get my iMac back to just that monitor. If I leave it extended, some apps are open in the other 'monitor' and I can't access them without work arounds. If I turn on mirroring, the resolution on the iMac drops significantly, even if I tell it to keep the iMac screen size. I can't turn the other monitor off as that defeats the point. I have to unplug the HDMI to get it to perform correctly. Is there any way (command line, an app, preferences, etc) to toggle between using the display and not on my Mac?

There is no way to "virtually" disconnect a display on a Mac, like you can on Windows. The Mac needs to disconnect physically. The easiest way to do this is by purchasing an inexpensive KVM Switch, to physically switch between the Mac & PC.


Shift-Option- is adding accented characters On El Capitan (10.11.4) I somehow got into a state where using the key combination shift+option+key outputs accented or special characters.  For example

shift+option+k : 
shift+option+j : Ô

I have those key combos mapped to some useful commands in my text editor (RubyMine/IntelliJ), but instead of those commands working, I now just get the special character input.  I assume it must be a built in OS X option (I've tried various keyboards) but I can't find any way to disable it.   Any ideas?

In order to avoid accented characters you need to create and use a custom keylayout file.  I followed the steps outlined here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11876485/how-to-disable-typing-special-characters-when-pressing-option-key-in-mac-os-x/24100077#24100077


Why can't my MacBook Air run Software Update? One of the first things that I tried to do when I got my new MacBook Air out of the box was upgrade iTunes to 10.5 (through Software Update). It downloaded the files (four different updates in total), verified data, then started to write the files, at which point it stopped and said that it couldn’t complete the update.

Since then I’ve also downloaded the .dmg file for the iTunes upgrade and for the Lion 10.7.2 combo.  My .dmgs can't be verified though; I get an invalid checksum error. I’ve downloaded them a bunch of times too just in case they were corrupted.

Then thinking that because it’s a new machine, I can just refresh the OS and start again, I tried the cmd+r boot and tried to just reinstall and it said:

  Can’t install the additional components needed to install Mac OS X.

This is an ancient question (bumped by Community♦), but invalid checksum doesn't have anything to do with admin privileges, it is a bad download.

Since you tried multiple times you are either not getting the file despite the multiple tries, or the original file you are downloading is not complete.

I would look for another way to get the update.


Numbers spreadsheet can't be imported I have a spreadsheet I have been updating in IOS Numbers for several months and I sometimes update it with OSX Numbers

However when I did a recent update in OSX I get the error message Spreadsheet couldn't be imported. An error occurred when I tried to open in IOS. This as the first time I edited in OSX since the iPhone was upgraded to IOS7.

I have edited the spreadsheet down so that it is just a simple table - to make sure that my recent edits had not caused an incompatibility.

I have looked at the problem spreadsheet in iCloud and it seems OK.
I also got a backup via Time Machine on OSX of before I opened it in OSX and that is openable in IOS

The errors Occur with Numbers '09 2.3(554) on OSX 10.8.5 and Numbers on IOS 7.0.2

How can I find out what is causing the error (and then fix it)

I had the same problem.
A hard reset of my iPad (press and hold both the home button and the power button until the device turns off, then wait while it reboots) solved the issue.


Are there any current Macs capable of running NVIDIA based CUDA SDK? So I'm starting a new job, and seriously considering equipment purchases. I'd like to be able to have a Mac with NVIDIA GPU capable of developing CUDA-based code on it - it certainly wouldn't be running the code for performance, but it would be nice to be able to test the code to make sure it's even working.

But as I currently see it, there's no way to do that - the 15" Retina MBP has gone to an ATI-based graphics card, as has the 27" iMac and the Mac Pro, while everyone else is rocking integrated and/or Iris graphics cards.

Is there something about the line I'm missing?

You could opt for an upgraded 6 or 12 core Intel Xeon 5690 3.46 GHz processor Mac Pro 5.1 and install a NVIDIA GTX 680 4GB graphics card running CUDA.

That can be done relatively cheap compared to the trashcan Mac Pro price tag, and it would do the job beautifully.


How do I recover the Apple Developer Account Holder role? My organization’s account holder left the company. He used a private email address from his private domain when enrolling, so we don’t have how to take control of the email.

He is not denying transfer the account holder role to another employee, but he is taking a long time (more than a month now) to do that, which is weird.

Do we have another course of action?

The best course of action is to contact Apple directly and let them know the details of your situation. They should be able to transfer the account holder role, if they want. They would probably require a signed document from your CEO or similar.


Is there a way to immediately exit a hanging connection in Terminal? I often have SSH connections through Terminal that stop responding (like if I've left it overnight) but when I try to use the dead connection Terminal doesn't respond for several minutes until:

Write failed: Broken pipe

Is there a way I can tell bash to immediately disconnect (because I know the connection is dead) without closing/opening a new window?

You can type

~.

which ends the SSH connection. Normally it works immediately, but sometimes you may need to do it a few times.


MacBook Pro 2016 (Touch Bar) in “Critical Update” loop So my MacBook Pro has been experiencing some weird issues after an unprompted and unexpected shut down. When I turned it back on, it claimed there was a “critical software update” and asked to choose a WiFi network. So I did so and it installed and after two minutes it was done. However, the USB C ports on the left side had stopped working. I was using a satechi adapter and removed it to find that the charging cable only works on one of the two ports now. The right side ports will work with the adapter usually. I did a SMC reset and reinstalled High Sierra, so before I do a full wipe I want to see if anyone can give me an answer.

Weird enough I just had this, I unplugged all the USB-C devices and then did a power cycle and it booted fine. I think it's time to build a backup computer.


Adding a Google account in iMessage appears to be stuck I want to add a Google Hangouts / Talk account to iMessage. I am on OS X 10.12.3 (Sierra). After logging in to my Google account and after entering OTP, it brings me to a white screen that appears to be stuck. I already tried disabling OTP but it still gets stuck. I attached a screenshot.

Anybody seeing the same issue?

As of some time in 2017, gTalk is no longer available. Messages/iMessage/iChat used the gTalk service to send and receive hangouts messages. It seems Messages 11.0 (the one I'm using with 10.13.5 on late 2009 MacBook) no longer has support for any functionality whatsoever with Google services. gTalk (2005-2017) was the precursor to Hangouts though it seems Hangouts later had backward support for gTalk which is why IM clients using gTalk still worked up until some time last year.

I submitted a feature request to add support in a future version of messages. It seems all the API technology is already available and that Messages and other clients merely need to add support in future versions of the messaging clients. You can submit a feature request to reinstate some method of Google service chat IM here. I bet if enough people request the feature, we'll see client support for Google IM return in a future version of Messages. I really miss it because I hate having to visit hangouts.com or mail.google.com every time I want to interact on hangouts.

Most of the information in this post is obsolete as it seems Messages had a bug prior to gTalk being discontinued. However, it means nothing now since the API no longer exists.

Update August 2018:

I found a third-party Github project that works really well. Very nice interface. It seems that Apple is just too lazy to add support for the new API and, instead, have simply removed the ability to add other accounts in Messages. Anyway, you can find binary installers here for all operating systems (macOS, Windows, or Linux).


There is a delay between notification sound and notification banner for mail app in High Sierra. How can I fix this? Whenever I receive a notification from mail, I hear the notification sound but the banner shows up 3-5 seconds later. There is a delay between the notification sound and notification banner. This problem is only specific to mail app. How can I fix it? I have tried restarting and some other standard/quick fixes but nothing helped. This issue also came up after I updated to High Sierra. I would appreciate any help!

Had the same issue on a 2017 27" iMac.
Spoke to Apple support....(I have APPLE CARE)

They had me do 3 things:

Upgrade to the latest version of macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 (That alone did not fix it).
Reset the SMC (for my desktop machine, they had me shut down and unplug the machine for 15 seconds instead).
Reset the NVRAM.


Changing iOS app icon I want to change the app icon for a pre-installed iOS app. What are my options?

Is there a way I can download an .ipsw file, change the icon of the app in it, then change something to make iTunes think it is newer than the version currently on the device, so it can apply it as an update, so all my data on the device will not be removed? (Which would happen if I applied it by restoring with it.)

No.

It is not possible for a user to change app icon for any iOS app, let alone system apps.

iOS doesn't allow users to tinker with .ipsw files and have them installed. Making any change to the app bundle would alter its signature and there would be no way for the system to verify if the app came from the original developer.

This idea is one of the major foundation for iOS security.


Unable to launch photos library repair tool in macOS high sierra? I was trying to launch the photos library repair tool by holding down option-command while opening photos.
However this seems to be not working in macOS high sierra.
Instead of repair tool, the photos app is opened.

I was referring to the instructions in the below link, to launch the repair tool:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204967

Has any one launched the repair tool in macOS high sierra?
Please advise how to launch the repair tool.

I had same issue, this worked for me:

first open photo the library with only the option key held down
a popup appears asking you to select the photo library you want to work with, I found multiple libraries listed
I selected the photo library I wanted to fix
After it opens, close down photos and retry double clicking  photos icon holding down with the option & command keys held down.


Why file links appear in the folder sidebar and how can I prevent this from happening? My question is related to Remove link to something that is not a folder in the Finder sidebar, but my problem is fundamentally different.

I still have file links appearing in my folder sidebar. But I know how to remove those links, I just right-click and choose the option Remove from the sidebar.

I actually have no idea how files end up appearing in there: I don't drag them, I don't do anything special. Actually, if I drag them, I get a nice Forbidden icon. So I don't get how they should even appear.

So why do they appear there and how can I prevent this from happening?

I have Mountain Lion 10.8.2.

You might accidentally be pressing the shortcut commandT which means “Add to Sidebar” in the Finder but is used for many different things in many other applications. So if you think another application is frontmost where actually the Finder is you'd accidentally add the currently selected file to the sidebar. Happened to me a few times.


Double tap to zoom stopped working after upgrading to iOS 13 After upgrading to iOS 13, double tap to zoom in on an element (like a column of text) on web pages does not work any more. Not on iPhone, not on iPad. Simply nothing happens. (this is with Safari web browser)

Pinch zoom still works.

Is there some setting or similar to re-enable the tap zoom feature?

Actually, it kind of works when tapping on empty parts of web pages, but nothing happens when tapping on text (which is where I actually need it).

Apparently this problem appears only on some pages and not on others, so here is a list.

List of web pages that have this problem:

(feel free to expand it)

https://stackexchange.com/
https://stari.rtvslo.si/ *
https://slo-tech.com/forum/t39

* this page zooms on doubletap on iPad, but not on iPhone SE

List of web pages that do not have this problem:

https://daringfireball.net/

It appears that you now have to triple-tap to zoom in on things like paragraphs in Safari.