Firefox keeps opening on wrong screen I use a 4K monitor as my main monitor, with my laptop off to one side.  Nearly every app I open opens correctly on the 4K monitor.
But Firefox always opens on the laptop monitor, even when its windows were on my 4K monitor when closed.  Also, when I make a new window in Firefox, it opens on the laptop monitor (even when all existing Firefox windows are in the 4K monitor).  Needless to say, this is very annoying.
How can I configure Firefox (or my Mac OS) to correctly open new windows on the 4K monitor like all other apps do?
This is on Mac OS 10.11.6 and Firefox 78.1.0esr.

It seems that the key setting to resolve this is "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application."
With that box CHECKED, new windows open where I expect them to.
Closing Firefox with two windows open both on my 4K display and then reopening Firefox, now reopens one window on the built-in display and one window on the 4K display, which is weird.  I may post further updates if I figure out why or figure out how to resolve that.  But having NEW windows open on my 4K display (as they now do) reduces the annoyance factor by a LOT.


Auto Adjust Brightness Secondary External Non-Apple Monitor I have recently purchased a Dell S2340l monitor to extend my MBPr late 2013 screen. So far I can say it's a great monitor, colors are great, but still in the test phase...

Whatsoever, I really love that the MBP auto-adjusts the screen brightness depending on the light in the room. Therefore, my question: is there any possibility that this feature can be extend to the secondary monitor as well?

I don't know about auto adjustment but the way around is you can creat a sort cut or using this app you can change it if there no hard button or program available for you monitor. Use this app. You can adjust brightness and also set shortcut for it

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/brightness-slider/id456624497?mt=12

Enjoy!


How do I get Apple TV 3rd Gen to connect to new Wi-Fi settings with no remote and a TV too far away for ethernet cable connection? After a lightning strike I needed a new modem. Now I want to connect my existing Apple TV to my new Wi-Fi network.

My Apple remote is not paired as I always used an iPhone and iPad as my remote. The TV is too far away for an ethernet cable to reach the Apple TV box while HDMI is connected. I have a MacBook Air but it's never been connected to the Apple TV. Any help would be appreciated.

Apple TV 3rd generation remotes actually use Infrared (IR) technology, so you should be able to just use the Apple Remote. The only reasons your remote may not work with the Apple TV are:

A dead battery
you have previously linked the remote to another device (e.g. a Mac)

So, if your Apple Remote is not working with your Apple TV you can replace the battery and/or link it to your Apple TV.

To replace the battery refer to How to replace the battery in your Apple Remote. Once you've replaced the battery, if it doesn't work with your Apple TV, then try the next step.
To link the remote to your Apple TV you can just press and hold the Menu and Right buttons simultaneously for five seconds.

As an aside, you may also find that using the same SSID name and password for your new Wi-Fi network (as you did for your old one) means that your Apple TV will be able to connect to it.


How to prevent table moving to the next page in Pages? I'm using OS X Yosemite and in Pages table jumps to the next page (and leaving text on the first page) when it gets too big, how can I stop it?

A table in Pages inherits its page break settings from the line on which it is located. (You can imagine the table is a huge character on a line).

To change the behavior of that line place the cursor at the end of the line above the table and press arrow right, moving the cursor to the table row. (Sometimes you'll see a blinking cursor along the left side of the table).

Now, choose Text formatting and click "More" and set up your paginations and breaks to your liking.

This way you can change the behavior of each table to break across lines or not as you see fit, and you don't have to change the behavior of all other text to do it...


Does the iPad 2 location services work without WiFi? I'm going on holiday and downloaded some offline maps app, I was just wondering if the location services (GPS?) work without any data i.e Wifi for 3G on the iPad 2?

Location services are based on GPS, you don't need Internet connection.

Note that wifi-only iPads don't have GPS.


Can I restore an iPhone backup and keep the original version of apps (and not download the latest available one from the AppStore)? I have an iPhone backup created while it was running iOS 10, and want to restore it onto a new iPhone which is running iOS 12. I'd like to keep the original versions of the iOS apps instead of upgrading them to the latest available from the App Store.

Is is possible?

This used to be possible up to iTunes 12.6
Individual .ipa files for each app were stored on the user's local computer & could be restored to a new device [assuming they were capable of running on it].

Since 12.7, iTunes no longer keeps copies of .ipa files & after a new device install, apps are downloaded direct from the App Store - these will always be latest versions.

Apple did keep a special corporate version of iTunes available - currently 12.6.5 - via this link; Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes but it requires you already have the .ipa files on your computer, or can pull them from the old device. I haven't tried this as a working method in a long time so can't quite recall the precise steps needed.

It also will not run under Mojave, so is quite a limited resource.


Time machine backups on external HDD over WiFi I like to do backups via Time Machine since my TimeCapsule vaporized after 3 years of service. It's only the power supply which is broken but Apple can't fix it they tell me in an Apple Store. A little ridicolous, but anyway...

I like to use a normal USB HDD to do my backups now and I like to plug that into my router so I can do it via WiFi. Problem: My router (and a short research of mine says it is not only my router) is not able to deal with Mac OS Extended format. He only recognizes FAT and NTSF. Time Machine however always asks to reformat the HDD to Mac OS Extended. I read an article about how to deal with that but it is kinda out of date and didn't work under Mountain Lion. So my question:

Is there a way of getting Time Machine using a FAT formatted HDD to make backups on?

Time Capsule (networked Time Machine) relies on the share being AFP.  If you can get your router to share the file via AFP everything should work.  My guess is that that will take quite a bit of work though.  You might start with DD-WRT.


Can I download applications/programs that are Mac specific on my Windows PC ? Can I download applications/programs, dmg image files etc that are Mac specific on my Windows PC when and where necessary, and then transfer them to my Apple Computer, with no loss of function ?

In short, yes. Most application downloads are packaged either as a .dmg (Disk iMaGe) file, or as a package, ending in either .pkg or .mpkg. A .dmg is a regular file on Mac, Win, Linux, etc., so all you have to do is follow your usual transfer method and you can easily move it from PC to Mac.

On the other hand, .(m)pkg "files" are actually directories (just like the .app files in the Applications directory) so you need to take care to copy the entire directory from one device to the next. You can then install it like usual. However, many .(m)pkg packages are actually downloaded as .dmg files, so you shouldn't have any issues at all. Good luck!


Dropped computer. Will not boot. Unable to find driver for this platform \“ACPI\” MACOSX version I dropped my computer two days ago. At first it would not boot up at all, not even showing the grey circle with the line in it or anything at all. I did internet recovery and did some cleaning up of the hard drive but it was saying I had problems with the partition boot. It was giving me some screen saying "Unable to find driver for this platform" after booting though. I went back into internet recovery, erased the drive, and re-installed os x. It was giving me the same error at first, but then I started it in safe mode and it worked. I restarted it normally and it worked.

Did dropping it break my hard drive or some other part in my computer? It seems to be working fine now, but I can't trust it. Is there any software that I can use to run some hard ware diagnostics?

EDIT: Macbook Pro 13' 2012 version. I had Mac OS X Mavericks, but currently it is back at OS X Lion. My computer will occasionally hang with the beach ball for no reason.

You should probably run 2 tests.

The Disk Utility Test (does not require restart).

Disk Utility.app is located in your Utility folder, use it to check the hard disk.

and the Apple Hardware Test. (does require restart)


What is the difference between Apple Remote Desktop / Remote Management / Remote Login / Remote Events and Screen sharing? I am trying to get my head around the difference between the Apple products above.

To me, Apple VNC (or rather generic VNC clients) perform the same basic function as Remote Desktop implementations (Apple, Microsoft, Citrix, etc), and various Screen Sharing apps.

Also, it seems that Apple Remote Desktop can push scripts down to clients, and change some settings, much the same way as Apple Remote Management, and Remote Events seem to infer they do, by name.

Moreover, Remote Login is something (unless you wanted a shell) that you would do as part of a Remote Desktop / Screen sharing / VNC operation, no?

You are correct, VNC is a simpler version of Remote Desktop (note: Remote Desktop uses the VNC protocol in addition to adding a lot more features)

Remote Desktop offers more management features; ability to black out host computers screen, push updates, file transfers etc (think TeamViewer but by Apple).
http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/

VNC doesnt have any of these options, its just a simple way to access a remote screen.

Remote Login allows you to SSH to a remote computer (command line - you dont see the remote desktop)

eg You may want to run a command on a remote computer, you could connect using VNC and open terminal or instead you could remote login via SSH and run the command without actually interacting with the screen of the remote computer

Updated to include @Wheat Williams notes below


Terminal has been unstable since last upgrade (OSX 10.12.2) I have had repeated Terminal.app crashes while working with the command line, whether on the local computer or shelled into a Linux VPS.

Is this a known issue? Are there alternative CLI terminal applications that will behave like terminal, only at least being more stable?

Thanks,

To answer your other question: "Is this a known issue?", I have been having problems with Terminal.app crashing too, and this post seems to suggest that the issue is known to Apple.


How can I locate an iMessage from 1-2 months ago? Possible? I am trying to find/locate iMessages from a certain day back at the beginning of October. Is this possible? Scrolling back on the history on my iMac in Messages goes back to 10/19/15 but no further. On iPhone it is more recent than that.

If it was archived on your Mac, you can find it by date.
Navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Messages/Archive/
Open the relevant dated folder & any conversations for that day will be listed by the contact names.

Double-clicking will open it in Messages.


How to quickly stitch a ton of albums back together into compilations? I trusted Google Music Manager to download my music collection onto a new computer, importing the lot into iTunes. Only after I wiped my old computer did I realize that my music was now screwed up: Most any album featuring multiple artists was now split up into many albums. So Mr. Robot OST is about twenty different "albums", and it's become a pain to try to play a whole album in iTunes. How can I fix my songs?

I read some blurbs online about manually fixing an album, by checking the compilation box for each individual song. But I have a fair amount of songs to fix, so that would take a long time to do by hand! Can someone recommend an iTunes plugin or AppleScript or bash file to fix my music?

Assuming it's safe to enable the part-of-a-compilation bit on every song, even those that aren't actually part of a compilation, then I wonder if I could just loop over each .mp3 file and run some CLI app to fix the bits?

I've had to fix some music before manually to get them sorted into full albums. You CAN select multiple files at once and change them in one click; if I recall correctly iTunes may prompt you to confirm that you really want to mass-edit files it thinks should not be treated as a single album.

Be careful you don't overwrite anything except the field you intend to change, as you can easily accidentally rename or assign the same artist for all of them at once. To be safe, it might be best to group-select items from the same compilation only.


iphone 6 notifications disabling "show on lock screen" is still showing up in lock screen How can i disable completely the calendar notifications from appearing in the lock screen on iphone 6 version 9.2? I've already unchecked "show in lock screen" w/in notification settings but they still show up when screen is locked.

It sounds like you may have disabled notifications from displaying on the lock screen for some Calendar notifications, but not all. Go to Settings->Notifications->Calendar. From here, you can choose which calendar notifications are displayed on the Lock Screen (upcoming events, invitations, invitee responses, shared calendar changes, events found in Mail). If you don't want any Calendar notifications on the lock screen, then you should turn the setting off in each of these submenus.


How can I send saved library videos through Snapchat? For pictures I can see the share option to send it through snapchat, but I can't seem to find it for videos.

I want to be able to record a video using the phones default camera app and then send it to a friend on Snapchat. Since the video is likely to be longer than 10 seconds if it would send multiple videos of 10 seconds each that would be ideal.

How can I do this?

Snapchat now has the desired capability of sending videos from the camera roll in 10 second chunks.

Head to Memories by clicking the circle (now “cards” in 2018) on the bottom center of the screen (or swiping up) on the camera screen and then go to camera roll section on top and long press the video you want and press the blue arrow to share it.


Running a command whenever Mac boots up with launchctl/plist I need to run nohup nice synergys -f --config ~/bin/conf/synergy.conf & command whenever the computer boots up.

As is written in this post, I came up with the following plist code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd >
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>synergy</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>nohup nice /usr/bin/synergys -f --config /Users/USER/bin/conf/synergy.conf &</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

And, ran this command.

launchctl load ./synergy.plist

However, I got this error message.

launchctl: no plist was returned for: ./synergy.plist
launchctl: no plist was returned for: ./synergy.plist
nothing found to load

What's wrong with my plist? Or is my launchctrl command wrong in options?

The immediate problem is that your .plist file isn't correctly formatted -- the contents of <string>...</string> should be encoded with HTML entities, i.e. & needs to be encoded as &amp; (note: you can check the format of .plist files with plutil -lint filename.plist).  But there are some other changes that need to be made...

Starting programs with launchd is rather different than starting them from a shell.  The biggest difference is that from the shell, you want the program to go into the background and run independently of the shell, so you wrap it in nohup ... &.  With launchd, it's actually best for the program to stay in the "foreground" so launchd can keep an eye on it.

Also, the elements of ProgramArguments won't get parsed by a shell, so listing the command and its arguments with spaces between them doesn't work -- make each argument a separate element of the array.

Here's my stab at a synergy .plist.  I haven't tested this, so it may need a little tweaking to work properly (see notes below):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd >
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>local.synergy</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/synergys</string>
        <string>-f</string>
        <string>--config</string>
        <string>/Users/USER/bin/conf/synergy.conf</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Nice</key>
    <integer>10</integer>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

The last two keys above deal with how launchd should react if/when the synergys program exits.  By default, it kills any surviving subprocesses and launches a new instance; these two keys supress both parts, which may or may not be what you want.  Also, one thing this doesn't do that your version with nohup does is redirect stdin and stdout to nohup.out (in case the terminal goes away); instead IIRC launchd logs things that get sent to them.  If synergys is in the habbit of sending output, you might want to add something like this to the .plist:

    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/dev/null</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/dev/null</string>

Also, as mankoff said, you should put this in ~/Library/LaunchAgents so it'll be autoloaded every time you log in.  Oh, and you should probably add a local. prefix to the filename (as I did with the label) to conform to the reverse-DNS naming convention.


Open PDF in full screen from the command line I've written a simple-minded "take a break" reminder which just opens a PDF notice. This works fine, but I wish I could open the PDF file in full screen mode from the command line. Does anyone know how to do that? Perhaps some osascript magic?

#!/bin/sh
B=$HOME/Documents/break.pdf
D=3000
while true
do
        sleep $D
        open $B
done

I've found a way. Does anyone know a simpler way?
tell application "Preview"
        activate
end tell

tell application "System Events"
        key down {command}
        key down {shift}
        keystroke "f"
        key up {shift}
        key up {command}
end tell

I wish I could do simply "osascript -e 'application "Preview" to fullscreen'.


Troubleshooting is a process of elimination and often requires patience, so keep that in mind as I'm going to offer you quite a few troubleshooting steps below.

The first thing I would do is to test whether this behaviour is replicated in Safe Mode.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your MacBook Pro into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. is the issue still present when using Chrom and/or Photoshop)
Now exit Safe Mode by restarting your MacBook Pro as normal
Once logged in again, test to see whether the behaviour continues

Now, depending on the above testing, we can narrow down how to proceed:

If the problem is still present during Safe Mode and afterwards, proceed to 1. Run Apple Diagnostics (see below).
If the problem is not present during Safe Mode then it's time to investigate login items, fonts, and kernel extensions. If that's the case, proceed to 2. Investigating login items, fonts, and kernel extensions (see below).

1. Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

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

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

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

If you get an error let me know the results. If you get no error, skip to 3. Some suggestions re Google Chrome, Photoshop and macOS Sierra.

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

2. Investigating login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Let's start with Login Items:

Startup normally
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Select the Login Items tab
Take a note of your Login Items
Now remove all of them by highlighting them and clicking on the - button below
Restart your computer

Now your Mac will boot up without those login items loading. Test this and see if the problem persists:

If the problem goes away you know one (or more) of the Login items were causing the problem. You can then add them back in one by one until you've identified the culprit. Problem solved.
If the problem does persist, it's either a problem with fonts you've installed yourself or with a 3rd party kernel extension. A little more info below:

Fonts:- You can remove any of the fonts you've installed yourself to see if this makes a difference.

Kernel Extensions:- You can open Terminal (found within your Utilites folder) and enter the following command:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

The above command will list 3rd party kernel extensions (you may need to stretch the Terminal window so it's easier to read). Look for anything you don't remember installing, or something that belongs to software you've removed, or just anything that looks out of place. Remember though, this is a list of 3rd party kernel extensions and therefore any of them could be causing the problem.

3. Some suggestions re Google Chrome, Photoshop and macOS Sierra

I would try the following suggestions to see if they have any impact on what's going on.

Google Chrome

I would strongly consider not using Chrome for a few days as a test. However, if you need to, there’s actually a setting in Google Chrome that may help you:

Go to Chrome > Preferences
Scroll down to the bottom
Click on Show advanced settings…
Scroll down to the System heading
Uncheck the Use hardware acceleration when available option

Adobe Photoshop

Likewise, you may be able to tinker with Photoshop’s settings as well. Depending on the version you use, if you go to Photoshop’s Preferences and look under the Performance category, there should be a section for GPU Settings. By going into its Advanced Settings you may be able to try different options for the mode of use. It will probably default to Normal, but you could change it to Basic and see whether Photoshop plays more nicely with your MBP. Under GPU settings you could also switch off OpenGL Drawing altogether, but that may limit some functionality.

macOS Sierra

There are a couple of things you can do within Sierra:

You’re probably already aware of this one – but for your MBP you should have an additional setting under System Preferences > Energy Saver for Automatic graphics switching. Playing with this and the other Graphics option (for better battery life) may be useful.
Now this one is not so obvious:

Go to System Preferences
Click on Accessibility
Select Display (in the left-hand column)
Tick the Reduce transparency box (on the right-hand side)
Exit System Preferences

After making these changes, use your Mac long enough to see what difference, if any, they make. This is basically a troubleshooting step to help narrow down the possible cause of your problem, so let me know how you go.


How to approve "Unapproved caller" whilst installing the software? I'm trying to install FUSE for OS X, but it fails with the message:

Unapproved caller.
SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple
software.

How do I approve the caller or get rid of that error? What this error actually mean?

It seems it's some kind of temporary glitch, as it usually helps to restart the machine.

Other suggestions:

Reboot into Safe Mode, then Verify and repair drive

Reboot and hold the CMD+R keys
Select Disk Utility
Click on the image under my drive
Verify and repair drive

You may try to remove the cache files/folders located in /var/folders directory (not recommended) or move them into Trash.

Normally cache files should be cleared every few days by Launch Daemon (/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.bsd.dirhelper.plist).

If the files can't be removed, reboot into Single Mode, run fsck, mount the root partition and run rm -vR -- /var/folders/*. Which is:

Start on single user mode: Hit the CMD+S keys at start-up
At the line, type (after root): fsck -fy and hit the Enter key.
Mount the root drive by: mount -uw /
Remove the cache files by: rm -Rf /var/folders/* (make sure you won't do any typo!).
Reboot by typing: reboot.


How to get fn + left key working on macOS after changing to zsh from bash? In case it is not clear fn + left key is simply the HOME button. It takes you to beginning of line. This seems to still work when editing a file (in vim) say so I think zsh does something with the bindings. fn + left now results in an "error" sound.

UPDATE:

posting this link here as it seems where to go for this kind of general stuff: What are the practical differences between Bash and Zsh?

Changing from bash to zsh costs everyone a lot of time and money. Apple has decided to push this on everyone for various reasons. There should be good defaults for everything. Home keys should work, PS1 should be reasonable. Old .bashrc and .profile translations should be automatically generated. Not doing this is stealing from users. We are bailing them out for their "bad" decision to use bash or equivalents bash's decision to change license.

How to make everything "just work" like for bash?

I use iTerm 2 like a normal person. Not sure if that is related.

To get fn-left (Home) and fn-right (End) working, add these two lines to ~/.zshrc (for your user only), or /etc/zshrc (for everybody)
bindkey "^[[H" beginning-of-line
bindkey "^[[F" end-of-line


VirtualBox VMs won't launch post re-install, kernel extensions unable to be loaded I am trying to launch my pre-existing VMs that were created before an OS upgrade to Big Sur. Currently using VirtualBox v6.1.20. Online research pointed to using the uninstall tool, restarting, installing the software again and then checking System Preferences security section to allow access. This option is not presenting itself.
Subsequent research talked about attempting to load the kernel extensions manually to see if that will invoke the prompt in System Preferences. This is my current result:
sudo kextload -b org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -b org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv
Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=71 "Unable to resolve dependencies for com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt: 'com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt, required by "org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp, com.hp.print.hpio.Inkjet1.kext, com.getdropbox.dropbox.kext, com.highpoint-tech.kext.HighPointIOP, com.hp.print.hpio.Deskjet.kext, com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP, com.apple.nke.rvi, com.BlackBerry.driver.USBCDCNCM, com.hp.print.hpio.PhotosmartPro.kext, com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver, com.hp.print.hpio.inkjet8.kext, org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv, com.epson.print.kext.USBPrintClass, com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID, com.highpoint-tech.kext.HighPointRR, com.hp.hpio.hp_psa530_630_io_enabler, com.hp.print.hpio.Inkjet4.kext, org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt, com.hp.kext.hp-fax-io, com.hp.print.hpio.Officejet.kext, com.hp.print.hpio.Designjet.kext, org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB, com.orderedbytes.driver.CMUSBPointer, com.intel.kext.intelhaxm, com.rim.driver.BlackBerryVirtualPrivateNetwork" names a dependency on 'com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass', which was not found." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Unable to resolve dependencies for com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt: 'com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt, required by "org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp, com.hp.print.hpio.Inkjet1.kext, com.getdropbox.dropbox.kext, com.highpoint-tech.kext.HighPointIOP, com.hp.print.hpio.Deskjet.kext, com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP, com.apple.nke.rvi, com.BlackBerry.driver.USBCDCNCM, com.hp.print.hpio.PhotosmartPro.kext, com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver, com.hp.print.hpio.inkjet8.kext, org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv, com.epson.print.kext.USBPrintClass, com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID, com.highpoint-tech.kext.HighPointRR, com.hp.hpio.hp_psa530_630_io_enabler, com.hp.print.hpio.Inkjet4.kext, org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt, com.hp.kext.hp-fax-io, com.hp.print.hpio.Officejet.kext, com.hp.print.hpio.Designjet.kext, org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB, com.orderedbytes.driver.CMUSBPointer, com.intel.kext.intelhaxm, com.rim.driver.BlackBerryVirtualPrivateNetwork" names a dependency on 'com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass', which was not found.}

I am seeing lots of references to BlackBerry packages but those should have been removed a while ago. It is also suggesting that the com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass might be missing.
Any thoughts on why the VMs and the VirtualBox extensions aren't able to load?

Installing the VirtualBox 6.1.22 update was able to correct the issue. During the installation process I received the notice to accept the kernel extension security permission that was not appearing previously.


Can I automatically copy a directory after iTunes rips a CD? I'm after a simple way to back up the directory created by iTunes when it rips a music CD to add to its library.

Is there any way to have iTunes use AppleScript somehow to copy the directory across once it's finished ripping?

Update: For clarity I have multiple systems to play my music, I rip CDs using my Macbook so I can listen via iTunes when I'm not at home, but I also have Sonos installed which plays music from my NAS, so when I'm not at home the family can still listen to music.

I'd like to rip a CD, & copy it to the NAS automatically so it's available to Sonos (and via DNLA for the PS3 or other clients I might have in the future)

A variation on Keeping two iTunes libraries in sync is one method that uses the rsync unix tool to perform a directory by directory and file by file compare, so you wouldnt need to do much except create the script and run it periodically.

Add on to that the ability to run rsync as a daemon and this becomes a completely automated process.


LG UltraFine 5K with MacBook Pro 2017 issues Yesterday everything was working fine. I had my MacBook Pro (four USB-C ports & touch bar) connected to my LG UltraFine 5K monitor (official model name: LG 27MD5KA‑B). At the end of my day's work I turned everything off. In the morning I turned everything back on but nothing seemed to work.

I proceeded to disconnect the monitor from the MBP and there the latter turned on without problem. I tried hot-plugging back the monitor and the MBP's screen turned black. Event the touch bar was unresponsive. So I tried all sorts of combinations in order to solve the problem:

Turn off the MBP, and unplug everything from the mains, wait a moment and reconnect everything;
MBP PRAM reset;
MBP SMC reset;
Removed all connected peripherals (either directly to the MBP and/or to the monitor);
Tried all the USB-C ports of the MBP;
Tried with another touch bar MBP;

One thing that half works is when the LG UltraFine 5K is connected to the mains and I hook an MBP with the lid close. In this case the monitor lits up, although very dimly, I can see the Apple logo and then suddenly the logo is spread horizontally across the screen and lower quarter of the screen is garbled (everything very faint). If I open the lid, only the caps lock seems to work (hinting that the computer has not crashed). If I unhook the MPB it responds without problems after a few seconds. Reconnecting it and the MBP screen turns black and the computer becomes unresponsive (apart from caps lock). I can, however, access the computer through remote login (SSH) and managed to shut it down or restart it from there (sudo shutdown -h now or sudo shutdown -r now).

I even downloaded the LG Screen Manager, but the app seems totally useless in my case (event the copyright notice seems strange showing "Copyright 2016-2026 LG Electronics Inc.").

Any suggestions on what to do next (apart from bringing the apparatus for repair)?

System used:

MBP (13", 2017, 4 thunderbolt-3 ports, Intel Core i5 @ 3.1 GHz, 8GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB);
MBP (13", 2017, 4 thunderbolt-3 ports, Intel Core i7 @ 3.5 GHz, 16GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB);
Both MBP are installed with macOS Mojave Version 10.14.2
LG UltraFine 5K (aka 27MD5KA‑B);

It sounds weird but anothet thing to try is if you have the Macbook touching the LG5K display in any way it causes some sort of earthing issue.  As you know the Macbook aluminium case is a conductor and there are minute amounts of current generated on the shell by the Macbook Pro itself.  If these currents find their way to the LG5K display it causes erratic behaviour (display turns off for a second or two) or wavy lines.

Also pls be aware not all Type-C's are the same - a Type C1 (TH3 mode) passes a 5K display signal whereas a Type C2 (USB3.1) does not.


Is there a way to auto "put back" everything in Trash? My wife saw the folder 'all documents' in Finder and decided to move it all to the trash.

Now we have over 9,000 files in the trash and I haven't been able to find a way to put back everything with one click.

For some reason it will only let me 'put back' one file at a time.

Is there any way to automate this?

If "Put Back" is disabled for a multiple-item selection it means that (at least) one of the items selected doesn't have its original location information stored in the Trash directory's .DS_Store file.

Though it's less than ideal, try multi-selecting subsets of the files looking for groups that you can "Put Back" en masse before resorting to manual filing for the remaining files.


Is it possible to automate FTP in Terminal? I want to add an FTP command to my crontab to automatically download a file. How do I do this?

The easier way to do this is with wget. For example:

Ian-Cs-MacBook-Pro:ianc ian$ wget ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/welcome.msg
--2011-08-02 19:48:00--  ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/welcome.msg
           => `welcome.msg'
Resolving gnjilux.cc.fer.hr... 161.53.74.67
Connecting to gnjilux.cc.fer.hr|161.53.74.67|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done.    ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done.  ==> CWD not needed.
==> SIZE welcome.msg ... 1462
==> PASV ... done.    ==> RETR welcome.msg ... done.
Length: 1462 (1.4K) (unauthoritative)

100% [======================================================================================================================================================================================================================================>] 1,462       --.-K/s   in 0s

2011-08-02 19:48:03 (63.4 MB/s) - `welcome.msg' saved [1462]

wget supports options to supply a user name (--user=user) and password (--password=password) if anonymous FTP access isn't available. And a --quiet mode so it's cron-friendly and doesn't fill up your local inbox without messages for successful downloads.


Clicking Notification Center Button Makes Dock Hang I'm experiencing a very strange issue on my Mid 2012 Retina MacBook Pro with OS X 10.8.5.  All of the sudden I discovered that I was unable to command-tab between open applications, the dock would not unhide, I could not open notification center, and I could not three-finger-swipe between desktops.  I discovered that force quitting Dock from the Activity Monitor would remedy the problem, but if I click the Notification Center button, the problem returns until I force quit Dock again.  The Notification Center does not slide out when I press the button.

I don't click the Notification Center button often, and I know that this problem has started without me clicking the Notification Center button at least twice.  However, I did notice that it seemed like this started when I received a Mail notification this morning.

Does anyone know of a solution to this problem?

This appears to have been resolved by:

Forcing a shutdown (choosing shut down from the Apple menu would do nothing).
Resetting NVRAM / PRAM (hold command-alt-p-r during bootup, wait for three "bong" noises.
Upon startup, close all apps and reboot normally.


Apple Mail Using Excessive Memory Recently, whenever I attempt to compose a message in Apple Mail, my entire system slows to a screeching halt and I have to shut mail down before I can have access to any other application. What's strange is that opening messages in my inbox and reading them has no effect on my computer's performance. I managed to boot up Activity Monitor during the most recent episode and it told me that Mail was using over 40 GB of memory. I'm no computer expert, but I'm fairly certain this is not supposed to happen. I've attached a screenshot for reference.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem and been able to find a solution? Or does anyone have an idea what might be going on and have a recommendation on how to remedy the situation? If not, no worries, I can take my machine to the Apple Store, but hoping to avoid that journey if at all possible. Thanks in advance for your time and assistance!

try to change the download attachment setting to recent or none.
Mail -> preference -> account -> download attachment -> 'none'/'recent'


Convert from OpenOffice to Pages Does anybody has experience in how to best convert OpenOffice.org documents to pages documents.

Obviously, it can be read in a Text Editor.

The way I do it is I export the OpenOffice document to Microsoft Word DOC format, then use Pages to convert that into a Pages document. There may be some formatting loss, but I'm not aware of a way to convert directly from one format to the other.


Difference between filename and . filename in macOS terminal I'm newbie to MacOS. (I'm using mac OS high sierra 10.13.6)
I installed a software. They said to initialize the software by

. /path/setsas.sh

I give no thought to . and space, so I just ran

path/setsas.sh

It seemed to run, but after that I couldn't execute any command of the software.
I found that I should have ran the command as it were, and after that it was fine.
So what these . and space mean here, and any guess why I couldn't execute any command at first even though file seemed to run?
I know that . sometimes mean current folder, but it doesn't look like it in this case.

. /path/setsas.sh loads the variables and functions from the script into your current shell session.  It's the same as running source /path/setsas.sh.  Running path/setsas.sh on the other hand spawns a new process.  The variables and functions will not be accessible from your current shell.  That's why the commands weren't working for you.


After 10.9 upgrade, settings keep getting deleted Got an exceedingly odd one here.  I have installed 10.9 on four machines now and each time I have seen it wipe out the login.keychain and sometimes after that it also wiped out some preferences, but after a reboot and restore of some of them things seemed to settle down.  Fortunately I've been able to restore the backup on all except one.  I've hit an odd wall with one of the MacBook Airs in particular where the system not only wiped out the login.keychain but snowballed into wiping out all of the other preferences it appears to all apps.  This included the Dock and most application preferences.  Some things seemed to remain such as Desktop and Screensaver settings, so it was quite queer.

This particular problem machine went so far as to have the iPhoto and iTunes databases continually corrupted.  After turning on and off iCloud, many reboots and about 20 rebuilds of the iPhoto database, I've reached the end of my tolerance level.  The most reliable way to corrupt the iPhoto database and iTunes has been to connect a new iPad Air to it.  I finally got it switched over to sync via wireless and to not trigger iPhoto and iTunes automatically on connection and so that is calmed down, however the other settings such as Dock's and Finder's are being obliterated yet still on each reboot and seemingly at random times.

This is quite odd for me as I'm usually the guy that tells the Geniuses at the Apple store what is going on as I have 20 years of Unix, etc. experience, but this is just a baffling situation and I wanted to see if anyone else has seen anything quite like this.  I have not yet been able to find the same scenarios with quite a bit of searching and so I felt it was time to pop on over here.

FYI, I also did reset the keychain entirely multiple times as well as run repairs, which rebuilt it since it was being deleted too apparently.  Filesystem and permissions also were fine.

Any thoughts or anyone seen something similar?

So I found that after looking at the extended attributes that somehow this particularly problematic system had issues where there were a number of user immutable files.  After resetting the extended attributes things started to become a bit more sane.

For example, I found a handy command line option on the Apple forums:

find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 -o -acl \) 2> /dev/null | wc -l

(Drop off the final | wc -l to see actual files with issues.)

I then went through resetting things judiciously and selectively executing these where appropriate (also found on the Apple forum, but modified from original form):

sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR..
sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~
sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~
chmod -R -N ~ # Or specific paths

For example, I found that even after executing these and rerunning the find command sans the postfixed line count that there were still a number of corrupt permissions and had to selectively run chmod -R -N on those paths again.  Odd that it didn't take care of them the first time, but ultimately I ended up with a 0 count of permission afflicted files.

For good measure I took the advise of rebooting into the recovery partition and running Terminal -> resetpassword and subsequently reset the folder permissions for the homes, but I don't think that that was necessary as the permissions seemed to checkout prior to that for the folder and children.


Keep iPhone Screen On (when plugged in) Is there an app (normal, jailbreak) that will keep my iPhone (3GS, OS 4.x) screen on, indefinitely, when it is plugged in, regardless of what app is running in the foreground?

An unexplained downvote brought to my attention this old post, so I decided to update it.

I don't have an iPhone any longer, but my iPad screen simply stays on, whenever plugged in or not, if my setting to Auto Lock is set to Never. On iOS 7+ it is that simple.

Now, if you want to automatically change it back (which is a completely different question), once you plug it out, you'll need to jailbreak. But since it's complicated and I haven't tried, I'll just give one pointer that seems to do it: get Tasker (found on lifehacker).

I personally rather just manually switch it on and off, until apple decides to have some kind of NFC. It should be just around the corner, if not with NFC, then with iBeacon.

Old answer (jailbreak only, iOS 4 or less)

First, I just tried on my iphone and even calculator stays active after 1 minute, even if the screen dims out. So maybe your question is really just about keeping the screen on.

Anyway, I can think of two solutions: kirikae with backgrounder might do the trick as a side effect. If not, you can use SBSettings with Autolock toggle to do it manually and temporarily set the auto-lock to never. All of them you should find in Cydia.

edit: as none of the above actually worked, here's some update.

Some custom toggles on SBSettings seem to just not work indeed. It's probably due to getting outdated or conflicting with something else, two common problems we find on cydia apps. BigBoss is kind of similar to SBSettings and also have an Autolock toggle. You could use it along with some multitasking, leave it on the background and use it as needed. It hardly have any conflicting issue.

Unfortunately I can't find many more ideas to this.

Only thing I can assure you is that I just tried SBSettings's Autolock toggle on my iOS 3.1.3 and it works. It also says it's updated to 4, so most likely it's either problem with 4.1 or conflicting with something else you've got installed. And believe me, there are conflicts from the least expected things (look at the comments).


Easy way to install additional spell-check dictionaries for OS X? I am looking for an easy way to install spell-check dictionaries for languages that are not supported by default on OS X (one example Romanian).

By easy way, I mean a solution that does not require command line usage. While this is ok for me, for average OS X user this could be too complex.

Mac OS X is compatible with the aff/dic open format dictionaries.

All you need to do is to get one dictionary, and place it inside ~/Library/Spelling (you may have to create the directory).

Get the Romanian dictionary from OpenOffice (or search for another language)
Extract the file using The Unarchiver or rename the extension to .zip and extract it
Move the files with the .aff and .dic extensions (ro_RO.aff and ro_RO.dic for Romanian) to your ~/Library/Spelling folder.
Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text > Spelling  and choose the language of your choice
...boom! you have system-wide spell checking :)


Cannot fully disable message forwarding (as of iOS 11.3) Intention

I wish to disable message forwarding for all conversations in the Messages app that comes with iOS.

Problem

After updating to iOS 11.3, some message conversations are shared between two devices (an iPhone SE and an iPhone 7) on one Apple ID. None of these messages should be forwarded. In settings, message forwarding is disabled on both devices and “Send & Receive” address sets for each device are mutually exclusive (no address is enabled for both the SE and the 7).

The conversations which get forwarded seem random, with no relationship to how many people are in the conversation, which contacts are involved, who in the conversation (if anyone) is using SMS protocol, or to which phone the conversation is supposed to go; but either all messages in a given conversation are forwarded to the other phone, or none of them are.

None of the other devices on this Apple ID seem to be affected.

Attempted Solutions

First off, I read all of the official support pages for the Messages app that I could find, plus some discussions (this, this, this, this, and this on the Apple community forums, and this, this, this, and this on Ask Different). I also went through an ioshacker article and an imore article that looked sort of relevant. None of this taught me anything new, so I just started trying things.

For each phone, I have:

Permuted all of these actions:

toggled “Send & Receive” addresses and then returned these to the desired values (this approach worked for a similar problem in iOS 10)
toggled handoff on and back off again
toggled message forwarding on and back off again (this is the first time I’ve ever turned that setting on)
toggled “Calls on Other Devices” in “Phone” settings and all FaceTime addresses for good measure

Deleted conversations on whichever device wasn’t supposed to receive them.
Restarted the devices.
Reset settings.
Repeated steps 1–3.
Crossed my fingers and hoped really, really hard (I’m quite serious).

On the SE, I have also turned iMessage off and back on again, and logged out of the Apple ID and back in.

Other Notes

I don’t have enough running message conversations to do any sound statistics on them.
I don’t want to disable iMessage as a long-term solution because (and this might sound stupid) I find the green bubbles stressful.
I’ve gotten myself locked out of another Apple ID account trying to fix a similar issue with app syncing, so the “use a different Apple ID for each phone” solution is a last resort, but I am aware that it exists.

The solution appears to be “wait a few months and let Apple deal with it.” This is underwhelming and probably unhelpful to anyone else who stumbles on this question, but it doesn’t seem like that’s a whole lot of people.


How can I make a script that opens terminal and runs my executable? My students and I are using gcc to compile programs which ask a series of questions then display a result.  Right now if we are running a program called "main" for example, we have to open a terminal window then type:
./Programs/main

We would like to be able to distribute these to other students who don't know how to use the terminal, so that they can just double-click on a file.

I have tried to create a .command or .sh file that does this, but they will do "exit;" before the program can get input.  I also tried to use Automator, but this also exits before the program can get input.

When you double-click a .command file, Terminal.app will open, and execute /path/to/file.command ; exit; which means it will execute the content of the file.command script, and THEN exit.

If your Terminal is exiting before your executable can receive input, that seems to indicate that either your .command is not calling your executable correctly, or your executable somehow doesn't wait to receive input before exiting.

To be able to help you further, you'd need to provide an example .c/.cpp file to compile, and the content of your .command file.

I myself tried with a .command file that contains only:

$HOME/Downloads/go.sh

And I was able to ask for input in go.sh (using read -p) before the Terminal exited.


How do I unlock portrait mode in iPhone? My screen has a lock with an almost full bordering circle around it ending with an arrow. This is located in the top right of my screen. Just inside the battery %. How do I turn this lock off so I can use landscape mode?

This is the lock rotation icon. You will notice that when you turn your iPhone (say, in Safari) it will stay in portrait.

To disable it:

On iOS 7+ :

Open the Control Centre by sliding your finger from the bottom of the screen to the top
Tap the button a the top right (here circled in red)

iOS 6

Double tap on home button
Then slide the multitask bar to the left (where the Sound controls are)
And on the left you'll find the button to unlock this.


Is it possible to schedule running Mail.app rules? I have a number of rules in Mail.app (these ones work!) to move e-mails which are X days old to trash.

I'd like to run these rules at a specified time, eg: midnight. In this case, the particular rules will move e-mails which are older than 1 day to trash.

I use Mail Act-On and Mail Tags, but cannot find any functions there.

Is it possible with Mail.app natively? If not, is it possible with some plugin? Ideally open-source.

Here is how I would approach this - note it is quite technical and is recommended only to people who know what they are doing.

1) Write an Apple Script to send the keystroke to apply your defined rules in Mail.app

2) Schedule a crontab to run that script at predetermined times

To start you off here is a sample script that I have written:

tell application "System Events"
tell application "Mail" to activate
keystroke "l" using {command down, option down}
end tell

Then to schedule your job (e.g. midnight) by adding a crontab entry - change the username to the user you are running Mail.app as - leave osascript as it is

* 0 * * * username osascript 'path to your script.scpt'

Alternatively use a GUI to schedule the above such as cronnix http://code.google.com/p/cronnix/


Grapher: Edit or enter data points directly in the graph with the mouse? Rookie Grapher User. I'm creating 2D piecewise linear curves using Grapher. So far I've only discovered how to enter or edit datapoints via the "Edit Points..." button at the top of the graph. Editing the points using the keyboard is tedious, is it possible to move points in the point set using the mouse, via drag-and-drop? (I'm getting the idea the answer is "no").

I don't think you can do that but you can put your points in a file and then input the file. I find it much easier to input data using an editor that the boxes on Grapher. Give you file a name that ends in .txt and then you can go to import and after clicking on that the frame that appears has an import button. When clicking on import it opens a Finder window for you to select the file you want.


Is there a keyboard short cut to edit a cell in Numbers? Back when I used Excel you could easily do all the navigation and editing on a spreadsheet with the keyboard. I could navigate around with the arrow keys and hit F2 to edit a cell and start typing.

In Numbers '09 I can navigate easily using the arrows then start typing to overwrite the contents of a cell. But I can't figure out how to navigate to a cell and then edit its contents without clicking on the cell with the mouse[1].

Is there an easy way to do this without the mouse?

1 -  Okay, so I did figure out one way (⌘+C, space, backspace, ⌘+V) but it's such a hack that the mouse starts looking better.

(⌥OptionEnter↩).

Or just return if you've unchecked Return key moves to next cell in the inspector:


Loss of audio on MacBook Retina 15" 2013 I have a laptop that's two weeks old. I plugged in my headphones for the first time today, and I had no audio, so I unplugged them and I still had no audio.

I have done the following:

Restart
Sleep
Shutdown
Plugged in headphones multiple times and turned
Checked for foreign objects
Reset PRAM and SMC
Restored from recovery console
Erased disc and restored new OSX from recovery console
Checked audio settings to make sure internal speaker, mute and volume and all ok.
Checked for light emitting from headphone jack
Checked that the micro switches in the jack are no depressed.

I am looking for more suggestions. I use the laptop for work everyday, so I can't afford to give it to Apple to fix at the moment.

It was a faulty logic board. Had it replaced under warranty and issue resolved.


How can I keep apps on my iPad after I removed all apps in iTunes? I have an iPod Touch and an iPad and use one iTunes account to manage them. Recently there is little space in my MacBook and it turns out there are too many apps that I already removed from my iDevices but still stay in iTunes. I took it for granted that I can remove all of them in iTunes and those still on my iDevices will be copied back to iTunes when I sync it next time.

Unfortunately this does not look correct. I've just synced my iPod Touch and now all apps on it are gone! I tried to restore it from a previous backup but seems the apps were not restored.

I dare not connect my iPad to iTunes again. How can I make sure the same wipe will not happen? Is there a way to tell iTunes that removing apps in it does not mean I want to remove them on my devices?

I finally find the answer. Before syncing, select the File menu and choose "Transfer Purchases from ...". After this all apps on the iPad is copied into iTunes' app folder and you can safely sync now.


Command line developer tools missing after OSX update I have noticed that every time I do Mac OSX update the Command line developer tools is getting lost. I had to install it again after each OSX update. Is there a way to prevent this? Or Is there a way to automatically install it during OSX update?

They have fixed this on OSX El Capitan 10.11.4. I have just upgraded OSX and command line developer tools exists. I hope it will be fine on future updates too.


How do I delete a voice memo from my itunes? I did not check off the option to sync my voice memos, yet I still see my voice memos on my itunes. It does not give me an option to delete it from itunes. however I have already deleted it from my phone. How can I get rid of it?

Highlight all of the memos, and then press either the delete button on your keyboard or (as mentioned below) Command+Delete.


Can't set automatic downloads on iPod Touch 4g (Required for Find my iPod functionality) Settings > Store

The automatic download options for Music and Apps are OFF, and whenever I try to set them ON the switch returns to OFF immediately.

This is supposed to be the last step to set up the Find My iPod app.

The check boxes for these automatic downloads are already checked in iTunes on my Windows 7 machine. iCloud is set on it too. I don't know what to do. I'm signed up in icloud from my iPod and laptop.

I don't think you need to turn on automatic updates to activate Find My iPod. Anywho, I suggest you simply log out from your iTunes account and log back in.

Do this by going to Settings > Store and tapping Sign Out. Then Sign back in again.


Neither dock or bar appears on external monitor when I move an app to it How can I fix it? This just started recently.  I have a MacBook Pro 15 2018 16 GB ram 512 GB HD. The external monitor is a Dell 24 inch with a 3820 x 2160 resolution.

I use it primarily for Azure development.
If I position Safari against the top the monitor, the bar does not appear. It stays on main screen.

I have a secondary monitor hooked up to my iMac, take a look at "System Preferences > Displays", does it match the screenshot I have attached?

You can move the blue rectangles (screens) by clicking and dragging to the desired position, the same applies to the "bar" at the top of the screen

Hope this helps


Can I keep apple appstore revenue with apple for longer time? I would like to know weather I can keep my appstore revenue with apple and withdraw whenever I like..?

Yes, you will not lose the revenue from not withdrawing it. It will stay against your account as long as your account remains active.


Can't open my mac after installing windows using bootcamp My macbook pro isn't working well after I installed windows 8.1 using bootcamp. It displays the blue screen, and get an error. Now there is only Windows option in startup, and it says that your PC need to repair.

I can't open either Windows, or Mac, and the big thing is there's no mac option on startup.

Boot to recovery mode and then choose the Mac startup disk might be the fastest way to determine if the Mac is still bootable.

Apple documents this and the other ways to switch back and forth at:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417

If you've meticulously done all the steps, you might ask a second follow on question with more details about what the situation is.


How can I delete a partition (coreStorage logical volume?) from the Terminal? I finally understood why Disk Utility will not change the partitions on my HDD, even though I added the most recent one myself (maybe significant: to test Yosemite DP) with it. Now I see it says it won't change either partition, because it has encrypted data and CoreStorage objects. It tells me vaguely to use diskutil from the command line for this, but this makes me a bit uncomfortable. I found a very similar question here,  with a great but incomplete answer about how to resolve this. How can one drop the smaller partition, then?

Note that I don't even see my pain partition from diskutil corestorage list (output below), which is worrisome.

Also note (also in the older question) that the name of the disk is unstable, sometimes Disk Utility lists my original, old name for the disk (Toshiba…), sometimes the name of the new, smaller partition. Note that I made these partitions from within Mavericks, not Yosemite. Why would Yosemite mess with this?

My relevant Terminal output:

d2m66h2j:~ laszlosandor$ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            289.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:          Apple_CoreStorage                         29.3 GB    disk0s4
   5:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s5
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS OS X Test              *28.8 GB    disk1

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group B6308EC8-297D-44BD-9212-6BD867F6331B
    =========================================================
    Name:         OS X Test
    Status:       Online
    Size:         29349998592 B (29.3 GB)
    Free Space:   204955648 B (205.0 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 3325F333-C8E3-46EE-9357-5E0C21A600D1
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s4
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     29349998592 B (29.3 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family E8CB0EB7-A2B7-48AA-AA13-5DE30867901B
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 2F7B1893-07E8-4194-840B-F2552042E055
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          28809494528 B (28.8 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               OS X Test
            Volume Name:           OS X Test
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

I highly recommend completely backing up the machine before attempting this, either using TM with no exclusions set, or better yet, cloning the whole drive using a program like Carbon Copy Cloner.

Unmount the Logical Volume:

sudo diskutil unmount force /dev/disk1

Remove the Logical Volume Group and all of its contents:

sudo diskutil cs deleteLVG B6308EC8-297D-44BD-9212-6BD867F6331B

From diskutil's man page:

  delete | deleteLVG lvgUUID | lvgName
           Delete a CoreStorage logical volume group. All logical volume families with their
           logical volumes are removed, the logical volume group is destroyed, and the now-
           orphaned physical volumes are erased and partition-typed as Journaled HFS+.

Merge the now orphaned partition disk0s4 into startup volume disk0s2 (note: disk0s3, one recovery partition, will be erased and merged as well). disk0s5, the other recovery partition, shouldn't be affected:

sudo diskutil mergePartitions HFS+ "Apple_HFS Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk0s4

Again, from the man pages:

 Merge two or more partitions on a disk.  All data on merged partitions other than the first
                will be lost.  Data on the first partition will be lost as well if the force argument is
                given.

                If force is not given, and the first partition has a resizable file system (e.g. JHFS+), the
                file system will be preserved and grown in a data-preserving manner; your format and name
                parameters are ignored in this case.

Verify the boot Volume structure.

diskUtil VerifyVolume /

Verify the partition map:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0

Boot into Recovery Mode, or Internet Recovery if needed -- if any errors appear:

You should be left with:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            319.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3


3rd party drive or standard in a new MBP? so I'm looking to buy a new 17'' Macbook Pro, but I'm having a hard time deciding if I should buy it with a solid state included, or buy my own and stick it in. I've heard that the Toshiba drives they put in (for $1100) aren't as good as some other drives you could buy for closer to $800. Is there any truth to this?  Any recommendations/links would be much appreciated. Thanks!

For something like this, I would always buy my own and put it in for two reasons:

cost
you get an extra drive to play with

You will find better deals on SSDs if you purchase your own. However, there is one reason you would want to go with the Apple-supplied drive:

TRIM support

That's about it. I guess, if you know and value what TRIM support is, you only have one choice. If you are fine putting in your own drive and don't value TRIM support, then you have other options.


OS X: is there any (area selection) screenshot tool that can upload to Imgur? On Windows, I was spoilt by the fantastic Greenshot, a superb (and free) screenshot tool that had among its many features, uploading to Imgur.com.

I currently use CloudApp but I've reached my 'limit' for uploads and I don't feel like paying for their Pro service when there's myriad of free (and better) image hosting services like Imgur etc.

So are there any screenshot apps which can plug into Imgur?

I've done a bit of searching in the past for the same thing and didn't really find anything. Although this doesn't upload directly to Imgur, it's not very time consuming.

Step One: Take a screenshot of an area with the keyboard shortcut Command (⌘)-Shift-4

End result should be something like this.

Step Two: Just upload it to Imgur. http://imgur.com

List of other keyboard screenshot shortcuts.


Saving an Apple Mail message with attachments as an .eml or .msg Is it possible to save a message from an IMAP server as an .eml or .msg like I can in Gmail or Thunderbird? Currently when saving emails using File > Save Raw Message Source the option to save attachments is greyed out and only available when saving as a rich or plain text file.

Edit: I'll also add that, for whatever reason, the messages I'm looking to save are not viewable when connecting to this server from Outlook or Thunderbird. The folder appears blank on those systems and I can only view these messages in Apple Mail.

Yes, it is possible to save a message in EML format (called Raw Message Source by Mal.app) with attachments.

In fact, that's the default behavior when saving a message as an EML file by selecting File>Raw Message Source, or when dragging and dropping a message from Mail.app to the Finder. (Tested on macOS High Sierra.)

As you say, the option to save attachments is grayed out, but the attachment is included anyway (that seems to be a GUI glitch). After you save the message, you can double click it and attachments will be available. The only requirement is that the attachment has been downloaded.

Note that if you preview the EML file with Quick Look, the attachment may be shown with a question mark picture:

but the attachment is still there.

If you are interesed in the internals of the EML file, the attachment is included in base64 format, a binary-to-text encoding that looks like this (if you open the EML file with a text editor):

--Apple-Mail=_3512B54A-1A55-4008-A3CA-1DBA66D2D37C
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain;
    charset=us-ascii

Test message.

--Apple-Mail=_3512B54A-1A55-4008-A3CA-1DBA66D2D37C
Content-Disposition: attachment;
    filename=book-hudson.epub
Content-Type: application/epub+zip;
    x-unix-mode=0644;
    name="book-hudson.epub"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

UEsDBBQAAAAAANuKeT9vYassFAAAABQAAAAIAAAAbWltZXR5cGVhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9lcHViK3pp
cFBLAwQUAAAACADaink/ZEg+NrQAAAAMAQAAFgAAAE1FVEEtSU5GL2NvbnRhaW5lci54bWxVjsEK
wjAQRO/9irBXqdGbhLaC4FnBL1jTrQbT3dBsRf/e6EH0ODDz3jTbxxjNnaYchFtYL1dgiL30gS8t
zDrUGzBZkXuMwtQCC2y7qvHCioFpMmXPuVQndoI5ZMc4UnbqnSTiXvw8Eqv71Nx3Bv/OrjKmmUR0
CJHyO/1kM8wx1gn12sJhvzue7BtToEtJA5iR+oC1PlN5hynF4FEL2AqdUy4zf8MLLYof7EdjfzyN


Create Lion DVD from Lion USB flash drive Is it possible to convert a lion Dvd from a Lion flash drive? Last year when Lion came out I created a lion install usb. I need to create a dvd to send to someone off site and did not want to give my trusty usb drive away. Is it possible to burn this to disc? I did a little googling there doesnt seem to be an easy way other than redownloading from Apple.

You should be able to accomplish this by doing the following:

Open Disk Utility
Plug in your Lion Installer USB flash drive, wait for the volume to mount
Insert a blank DVD
Click on the Lion Installer volume
Click the Burn button:

This should burn the volume to the DVD. If it doesn't, you may have another problem at hand.


What are the benefits of distributing applications via DMG? I have noticed that many developers chose to distribute their apps inside DMGs, versus zips or other archive formats. DMGs take more time to make, and need to be verified and mounted whereas archives can be unarchived and ready to go. Also, you have to unmount a disk image before deleting it.

What are the benefits of distributing applications via DMG?

DMG is a disk image file format.

In the 'old days' software was distributed on physical media (eg. CD-ROMs) which were read-only and ensured the software remained as intended by the software developer. Today, because of broadband internet, software is more easily downloaded, but software developers still need to ensure their software remains as they intended. Otherwise corruption (intended or otherwise) could occur during the file transfer.

Because DMG files are disk images they help reduce the risk of corruption by offering a way to package data in a fairly secure manner. These files behave like a physical disk. In so doing, the operating system interprets them in the same way as if you had just inserted a CD-ROM into the computer. That's why you need to eject them as you would a CD-ROM or external drive. The difference is that the DMG file itself remains on your computer, unlike a CD-ROM that is removed when ejected.

In addition to behaving like a physical disk, DMG files offer the benefits of verifying the integrity of their contents when they're opened. Not only does this offer the ability to compress any data contained within them, but  also provides read-only options so they can serve only one purpose - the purpose of distributing software.

So, in a nutshell, DMG is a disk image format while ZIP is an archive format. They may seem to both do the same thing, but in reality they don't.


Can you send a message across the network? There used to be the ability, perhaps before OS X, to send messages accross the local network, which displayed a popup on the receivers machine with the message. Is this still possible? Or is there another way to send a message to another member of the network?

If this isn't possible, could a text file be sent, with a message, to a recipients Public folder?

Preferably with the terminal.

(I realise there are lots of aps which do messaging, but I was curious if this was possible without installing software or setting up iChat etc)

According to this metafilter post you can send a message using Applescript (pre-installed on every Mac) and Growl (old version is freely available).
The relevant part is quoted hereunder.

tell application "GrowlHelperApp" of machine "eppc://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
register as application "myapp" all notifications {"message"} default notifications {"message"}
notify with name "message" title "title"   description "description" application name "myapp"
end tell

Here xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx should be substituted by the IP address of the sender.


Mac App Store: View global reviews and ratings The Mac App Store app shows only the reviews and ratings from my home country on the App Store. For instance, Logic Pro X only has 9 ratings, and GarageBand only has 21 ratings.

I am pretty sure that these two apps get way more reviews and ratings. How can I see the overall global reviews and ratings?

It's not possible to view the overall global reviews and ratings for apps on the App Store. And this is by design.

From the App Store - Ratings, Reviews, and Responses webpage:

  Individual ratings inform your app’s summary rating, which is displayed on your product page and in search results. This summary rating is specific to each territory on the App Store and you can reset it when you release a new version of your app.

App Store only shows the ratings and reviews for your set home country (i.e. country your Apple ID is linked to).

And, not only are the ratings and reviews displayed only for the country currently set for your App Store, they can also be reset with the release of a new update for an app. That could possibly explain the lower count of ratings and reviews displayed on the App Store.

The same is true for all the various digital stores that Apple runs (Apple Books Store, iTunes Store etc.).

However, the developer/publisher of app/content can see the ratings and reviews for all the various countries they offer the content.


What is more predominant, PyObjC or PlistBuddy? I'm writing a script that will update an Xcode project's Info.plist. This script will be distributed to clients. In order to do this, I'd like to know what tools are more appropriate if I need to assume information about someone's system.

What I can assume:

They are on a Mac that can build iOS apps for iOS 6+

I find myself at a fork in the road, I can write the script that calls a PyObc methods in order to update the plist file. Or I can use PlistBuddy to do the same thing. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice to which would be a safer assumption?

Since /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy ships with OS X and doesn't need any developer tools or third party installation, you should assume that tool is ubiquitous and develop against that if at all possible.

I actually prefer plutil to convert things to XML or JSON and then use a script to make whatever changes are necessary, but your options are not bad ones to use either.


Finder asks for password to move file to trash Recently, the Finder has asked me for a password whenever I move a file to the trash.  I get the message, "Finder wants to move 'filename' to the trash.  Enter your password to allow this".  I checked permissions on ~/.Trash, and it belongs to me/staff with drwx------ permissions, as expected.  This happens with any file I try to delete, and I have full permissions on the files I'm deleting.  When I enter the password, the file is moved to the trash (and not immediately deleted) as normal.
This is on Mojave 10.14.6, and it started happening after I installed security update 2021-003 (though I don't remember if it started happening immediately after that).
Note that I can move files to the trash from a command line.  mv blah.txt ~\.Trash works just fine (no sudo needed).  It's only when I drag a file to the trash that I have problems.

Ah, I found the answer elsewhere among many suggestions for fixing trash issues: just delete the .Trash folder.  I ran sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash and restarted.  The .Trash folder was recreated, and now it seems to work just fine.  Odd.  I'm glad it's fixed, but I wish I knew why the fix worked.


iphoto is locked on a NAS, what to do? Bought my father a 64GB Macbook Air as an upgrade to his old Macbook, and thought it was wise to move his ~60GB photo collection (heavens knows why it is so big, bigger than my own collection on Flickr!) to the time capsule.

Didn't realise iPhoto on Mountain Lion would need to upgrade it making it impossible for the old Macbook to access it.

After the long upgrade it seemed to worked. Then all of a sudden the "iPhoto library is locked". The user has write access to the "Data" Volume of the Time Capsule (series 1). There are many suggestions to run iPhoto holding down option+cmd to repair, but it doesn't work. It just goes to the "Caution" dialog and quits.

I am a Archlinux user, so I'm very comfortable on the command line.

i had a similar problem opening an iPhoto Library backedup by Time Machine prior to reformatting HD and reinstalling OSX Snow Leopard.

in some cases (like mine), no amount of permission repairing or resetting will solve the problem.  apparently, because i reinstalled OSX from scratch (reformatting disk first), the Time Machine backup belongs to a defunct user.  therefore, even though the username and password are the same, the file that i extract DIRECTLY from TM will be always read-only (i could go via terminal and try some chmod'ifications, but...).  therefore, the issue must be tackled with a different approach:

open iPhoto
open FILE menu tab
choose FIND BACKUPS (translated from Portuguese)
select your timeMachine backup and find the specific image/date you want
browse to the iPhoto library you want to import (there may be various - i had 2)
create a new folder in Documents (where permissions will not be an issue)
after iPhoto backup has been restored to this folder, go to FILE > IMPORT

voila.  worked for me, i hope that this helps the many others who run into the same problem after reformatting and reinstalling OSX leopard (regular or sLow, both seem to act up).


Repair or reinstall Mac partition I have a hard drive that is having problems on a Mac that doesn't use Time Machine or another complete backup system. I get this error when trying to repair the disk:

  Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

I have all the stuff I want backed up, but I'm curious if there is anyway to rebuild/repair it? I booted with a Ubuntu live CD and ran badblocks to check the disk with 0 errors, so hopefully that means the drive isn't going bad.

It seems I've repaired windows partitions before, so it seems weird that a Mac partition would be so fragile that there was no way to repair it.

If there is no way to just fix the partition,
can I just boot into the Maverick System Recovery and erase/reinstall, or do I have to boot from the original leopard DVD and then upgrade?

It all depends on what is going on with the drive and unfortunately there is really no good way to tell.

I have been using Diskwarrior for YEARS and it is still my go-to disk repair tool. Drive Genius is pretty good too. I have both but always start with Diskwarrior.

These tools MIGHT be able to repair the volume issues, but it might be quicker, easier and cheaper (?) to just bite the bullet and do what the disk utility says: reformat and reinstall.


Install WIndows 10 on USB-C flash drive I have a macbook pro 2016 model. I want to install a windows copy via bootcamp. I dont want to install windows on my internal HDD so i was thinking about buying a USB type c flash drive and install windows there. Is this possible and would there by any issues like transfer speeds ?

As far as I am aware Boot Camp asks that you create a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows on your Mac.

Though I don't have experience with a USB-C MacBook Pro, USB is USB, differing only in speed and the type of connector. MacOS should not care what kind of USB key you have.

You will have to download the Windows 10 ISO to your MacBook Pro so Boot Camp can use it to create the bootable media but other than that it should work fine.


Is it safe to delete the /Developer folder on Mac OS X 10.7.5 (Lion)? My computer originally had Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) installed on it but has since been upgraded to OS X 10.7 (Lion). I noticed that the /Developer folder is still on the hard drive even though none of its files appear to have been modified for nearly two years. Is it safe to delete /Developer or is there some reason to keep it around?

Chris Rea's answer includes a link to a guide to uninstall Xcode, which seems to suggest that the contents of /Developer are only used by versions of Xcode prior to 4.3. I have already installed Xcode 4.6 on my machine, so I should be able to remove /Developer and everything under it. That being said, the following statement in the aforementioned guide puzzled me a bit.

sudo /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=xcodedir

  This command is basically a shortcut to the previously mentioned “/Developer/Library/uninstall-developer-folder” script. If you want to ditch the /Developer directory, run this command rather than manually deleting it through the Finder.

Why should I run this script instead of simply deleting /Developer through the Finder?

This question is related, but I don't want to fully remove Xcode 4. I just want to remove all traces of Xcode that are not needed by the latest version.

Yes, it looks like it should be safe to remove /Developer if you have already installed version 4.3 or later of Xcode. The Xcode section of the Apple Developer Support Center actually tells you to do this (emphasis mine).

  I've installed the latest version of Xcode from the Mac App Store, but a previous version of Xcode (4.2.1 or earlier) keeps launching. What should I do?

  To run the latest version of Xcode, make sure you are launching Xcode.app from the Applications folder. Xcode 4.3 and later is packaged on the Mac App Store as a single application and installs in your Applications folder as Xcode.app.

  Previous versions of Xcode placed the tools and frameworks in the Developer folder. You can delete the older version of Xcode by dragging the Developer folder to the trash.

Furthermore, as pointed out by bispymusic, /Developer no longer exists with Xcode 4.3. Specifically (emphasis mine):

  The simplification afforded by repackaging Xcode 4.3 as a single app bundle eliminates the need for the /Developer directory containing prior versions of Xcode. As a result, the Install Xcode application and the uninstall-devtools command line script are also no longer needed.

  Note: The first time you run Xcode 4.3, you are prompted with a dialog to delete the Install Xcode application from the Applications directory if one is resident, and to remove any older installation of Xcode (Figure 4). These actions are optional, Xcode 4.3 can co-exist with older installations of Xcode on the same Mac. Some operations may require an administrator password to enable them if you switch from one version of Xcode to another.

  Figure 4  Option to remove older versions of Xcode

  If you choose not to delete these items on the first launch of Xcode 4.3, you can remove the /Developer folder and the Install Xcode application by dragging them to the Trash at any time.


How do I go back and forward in Chrome using a Magic Mouse in Lion? Before installing Lion, I could use the "double finger left/right swipe" gesture to go back and forward in the history in Google Chrome.

After installing Lion, I can't find any mouse gesture that implements this.

The new version of Safari uses a single finger swipe to go back and forward in history. Is there any way to emulate this in Chrome? Or, failing that, is there any other gesture for back/forward in Chrome?

IDK about the Magic Mouse but three finger swiping works on the Magic Trackpad
By default swiping between pages is set to two fingers in Lion. However chrome doesn't currently recognize two finger swiping but it does recognize three finger swiping.
To enable three finger back and forward swiping simply go to the Magic Trackpad preferences and set "Swipe between Pages" to "Swipe left or right with three fingers".
Update
Google has updated Chrome to work with a one finger swipe for the Magic Mouse and a two finger swipe for the Magic Trackpad in Lion.


Open URLs in New Chrome Window I decide to open a url in a new window with command:

$ open -na 'Google Chrome' 'https://www.etymonline.com/'

It opened a new window in blank.

You need to use the --args option, e.g.:

open -na 'Google Chrome' --args --new-window 'https://www.etymonline.com/'

From the manual page for the open command:

  --args
  All remaining arguments are passed to the opened application in the argv parameter to main().
           These arguments are not opened or interpreted by the open tool.

For more Google Chrome command line switches that could be added to the --args option of the open command, check out the following URL.

From: List of Chromium Command Line Switches

  There are lots of command lines which can be used with the Google Chrome browser. Some change behavior of features, others are for debugging or experimenting. This page lists the available switches including their conditions and descriptions.

Another approach would be to use AppleScript from the command line, e.g:

osascript -e 'tell application "Google Chrome" to set URL of active tab of (make new window) to "https://www.etymonline.com/"'

For ease of use, you could wrap this in a function and place it in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile file, e.g:

openurl ()
{
    if [ -n "$1" ]; then
        osascript -e "tell application \"Google Chrome\" to set URL of active tab of (make new window) to  \"$1\""
    else
        printf "\n  Missing URL...\n\n    Syntax: openurl 'URL'\n\n    Example: openurl 'http://www.google.com'\n\n"
    fi
}

Then in Terminal, simply use the following, e.g.:

openurl 'https://www.etymonline.com/'

If you execute openurl without an argument, you get the following output:

$ openurl

  Missing URL...

    Syntax: openurl 'URL'

    Example: openurl 'http://www.google.com'

$

Note: The URL is shown wrapped in single quotes and this to ensure no expansion takes place when the URL is passed to the function if it has any shell special characters in it. The single quotes can be omitted for basic/simple URLs.

This same approach can be applied to the open command as well. That said, the reason I'd choose to wrap the AppleScript in a function is at some point the open command used in this manner with Google Chrome may break. This is because when Google Chrome is already open, it's opening a second instance, which is then passed to the first instance and the second instance terminated. This behavior may become problematic as Goggle Chrome is updated, where the AppleScript in a function will not, as it's only talking to the first instance of Google Chrome.


Recursive set creation date of pictures and videos based on filename I have a folder structure of thousands of pictures and videos. They are all exported and therefore have the same creation date, time. I would like to set the creation date for all the files according to the names the have. All files follow the same naming convention and have the date and time in the file name.

Example:

Pictures (top folder)
-- Folder 1
---- 2010-05-03
------ 2010-05-03 at 11-58-32.jpg
------ 2010-05-03 at 11-59-32.jpg
------ 2010-05-03 at 12-58-32.jpg
---- 2010-07-04
------ 2010-07-04 at 11-58-32.jpg
------ 2010-07-04 at 12-01-32.mov
-- Folder 2
---- 2090-03-03
------ 2010-03-03 at 10-01-32.jpg
------ 2010-03-03 at 11-01-32.jpg

My current version of the code includes the touch command and I go recursive through the folder structure, but this seems to get stuck after the first time I reach the lowest folder path.

for dir in Pictures/*; do
    if [[ -d "$dir" ]]; then
    cd "$dir"
        for dir2 in *; do
            if [[ -d "$dir2" ]]; then
            cd "$dir2"
            for f in *; do
                t=$(echo $f | sed -E 's/([A-z]*-)|([A-z ,;])|(\..*)//g' | sed -E 's/(.*)(..)/\1.\2/')
                touch -t $t "$f"
                done
            cd -
            fi
        done
    cd -
    fi
done

I also have thought about the find command, but I am not sure how to then extract the date and time from the filename for the touch command.

I am not directly answering your question, but you may want to consider another approach. Most cameras record creation date within the file in Exif data.

There are many ways of accessing this, but there is a command line tool jhead http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/jhead/ This works on many platforms, and has the option to extract Exif times and perform modifications based on these.

I have an Automator Workflow (using jhead) to do this for selected items
(I would have pasted the workflow, but can't seem to do so.)


Getting an error when formatting a thumb drive Inside of Terminal.app, I'm trying to format a thumb drive and I'm getting the following "error":

  does not appear to be a whole disk

The line I typed in was the following:

sudo diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk1s2 GPT JHFS+ HighSierra R

What might I be typing in wrong? Why is it stating this?

You're asking it to partition a whole disk - it wipes existing volumes, and creates the ones you specify.

But, you're giving it /dev/disk1s2, which is itself a partition.

If you're trying to reformat the whole drive, you should be using /dev/disk1

Also, typically, people use eraseDisk to wipe and reformat it -

  diskutil eraseDisk Usage:  diskutil eraseDisk format name
  [APM[Format]|MBR[Format]|GPT[Format]]
          MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode (Re)-partition a whole disk (create a new partition map). This completely erases any existing
  data on the given whole disk; all volumes on this disk will be
  destroyed. Format is the specific file system name you want to erase
  it as (HFS+, etc.). Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file
  system naming restrictions), or can be specified as %noformat% to skip
  initialization (newfs). You cannot erase the boot disk. Ownership of
  the affected disk is required. Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+
  UntitledUFS disk3


See messages search matches in OS X High Sierra I do a search in the messages application on High Sierra and it lists the conversations that have matches. But it only shows one match on the screen even it says there are multiple matches. How can I scroll to the next match in the same conversation?

Found the answer, it's Command + G to go to the next result.


Late 2011 iMac wont boot after Mavericks install I am not very tech savvy so please answer in lamans terms.

I recently updated my iMac to Mavericks via App Store. Few days later I was using iTunes and system kept playing up. Following day I couldn't get past the boot screen.

I just get the Apple logo and a loading sign.

Tried safe mode, but loading bar just disappears about 1/4 way
through.
Tried recovery mode. Checked and reapired permission etc. Was saying
a bunch of file routes could not be recognised but said repaired
fine. Next try, same info displayed.
Tried reinstalling Mavericks but no luck. In fact on a couple of
occasions it wouldn't let me do that, just kept saying try again.
Then did internet recover and tried to revert back to Lion but
wouldn't allow it cos Mavericks is on system.

Now instead of Apple grey screen on load up I get the logo and some text comes up with a bunch of numbers and says something about "panic".

I do not have any of my OS on time machine as far as I am aware. Really would prefer not to erase my HD cos then it means losing a bunch of programmes. And dont yet have photos and that backed up onto Ext HD.

There are 3 more start ups you can try:

Press Option-Command-P-R until you hear startup sound a second time.
Press Command-V during startup. -Start up in Verbose mode.
Press Command-S during startup. -Start up in Single-User mode.

here is more detailed information what to do.

  Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line.
  Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the
  Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On
  desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt
  button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several
  seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the
  Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart
  with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.

  At the command-line prompt type:

`/sbin/fsck -fy`

  Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes,
  it'll display this message if no issue is found:

** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK

  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

  Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK
  (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal
  thing to do).

  When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.

Your computer should start up normally and allow you to log in.

or see the link for more information.


Global convert to uppercase and lowercase in macOS? In Mail.app and Text.app there's Edit > Transformations:

Make Upper Case
Make Lower Case
Capitalize

...but I see no keyboard shortcut options in:
System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts:: Services.

Is there a way to get this functionality available globally for all text entry? For example, web based forums like Stack Exchange.

Of note, the options are available in Safari.app's Edit > Transformations menu:

...but not in Chrome.app:

I could change my browser habits, but it would be nice to know if there is a way to add this functionality to all "Edit" menus.

You can do it in Safari, but Chrome ignores the standard Mac Toolbox, unfortunately.

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts

You can set key commands for All Applications, which will then work for all that have the requisite menu option.

This is my own setup, which shows keys already set for Capitalise & Lower Case
I use it a lot for such as Stack Exchange.


macOS Sierra 10.12: Configure firewall for a single port (3690) How can one configure the Firewall on macOS Sierra 10.12 to open up a single port (in this case port 3690)?

There's no obvious UI to do this.

If you are using Sierra's Application Firewall you can't restrict it to a single port.

To allow incoming traffic for a specific binary, open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall > Firewall Options and either hit the plus button and choose the binary or drop the binary from a Finder window.

In my example below I have chosen the X11 binary in /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app/Contents/MacOS/

You can the check additional apps added by executing:

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --listapps

After adding Xcode, anything starting with svn in /usr/bin/ and /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/ and starting /usr/bin/svnserve I was asked once to allow incoming traffic for svnserve (I don't know which of both svnserve executables) and it worked from remote. After removing everything and repeating the same steps it failed again.

The log file at /var/log stays empty and the other logs don't reveal anything related to blocked incoming connections.

I recommend to enable ssh and create a ssh:svn-tunnel. Link: Subversion through a tunnel

As an alternative install Murus - a GUI for pf. If you don't activate it with an email and a serial number it will run as the free Murus Lite.

Open the app and choose a strategy. E.g. Novice > Predefined Firewall Configuration Presets > Almost all services blocked. Then activate the selected Murus preset and start pf.

Hit the library button. In the services library panel hit the gear

and add a new custom service SVN:

In the groups library hit the gear and add new custom group

Hit the loupe, enter a group name, add an appropriate interface, hit the plus button and add an IP or network.

Drag the SVN service to the main windows (Managed inbound services) and configure it:

If you have additional services like SSH running, add them also. Start or restart pf if necessary. Now - protected by pf - you may dissable the application firewall.


Does Powerpoint 2003 work with Keynote I have created a presentation in Powerpoint 2003 and have opened it in Keynote, however, when I veiw the presentation on the iPad the colors in the graphs have changed as well as the font alignment.  Is there a way to fix this so that it looks the same in Powerpoint and Keynote?  Is there a different version of Powerpoint that would work better?

Unfortunately, Keynote and Powerpoint do not talk to each other all that well. A lot of formatting issues have been known to occur.

If you're wanting to view/edit/present the presentation on your iPad, I would suggest using Keynote on your Mac and Keynote on your iPad. If you're wanting to stay as compatible with a Windows environment as possible, I would suggest using QuickOffice HD on the iPad and Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.

Hope this helps.


Should I upgrade an old MacBook (2,1) to Mavericks? I have this old machine:

  Model Name:MacBook
  Model Identifier:MacBook2,1
  Processor Name:Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:2.16 GHz
  Number Of Processors:1
  Total Number Of Cores:2
  L2 Cache:4 MB
  Memory:3 GB
  Bus Speed:667 MHz

I've read that Mavericks is good for old machines ... but is this too old?
It's currently running 10.5.8.

Sorry ... according to http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/ it's not even possible!


I cannot see the body of my messages in Mail Apple Mail 10.3. I just downloaded Sierra 10.12.5 on my MacBook. I had to set up mail and it automatically started downloading a lot of email that I had already read.
I opened the screen all the way blocking the body of the message so that all I could see was the email senders so I could easily delete all of the unwanted emails.
So now my issue is for some reason I cannot move that curser back up to see the body of messages. It simply will not move.

This can sometimes be cured by removing mail accounts first and then adding all your mail accounts again. It won't affect your mail accounts in any way even if you remove it since the mail is on the server and mail will keep any messages downloaded permanently from the account.

You could make a backup if you are worried about losing mail.

Also - be sure a simple reboot doesn't unjam things.