AirPort Extreme and multiple HDD's Hey Guys i think i am not alone who set up his APE for home sharing.

So what have i done… I have a Airport extreme (latest version - 5.gen) and 3x powered 2TB HDD's. All are connected over an usb hub (active) which is plugged into the only available USB port. The HDD's contains Backups, iTunes Movies and music. So every time i am at home i am connected and let itunes and my apple tv do the rest.

Here is my question: Sometimes it seems very slow. Is it possible to boost its performance. Maybe a highend usb hub or something else? Its pretty annoying when the whole APE crashed and i have to restart?

Any best practices?? How did you solved the problem?

Yes, it can be very slow this way, at least compared to other methods. You have a few throttle points: the USB connection, the USB and the wireless connection to your computer & Apple TV. If you stream a movie from your iTunes Library to Apple TV while Time Machine is backing up, you are effectively routing two data streams through the USB hub, and three data streams through your wireless router.

Your best bet is to get some of the hard drives off of the AirPort Extreme's USB drive. The exact solution can vary greatly based on your exact network and computer setup. A solution could involve moving some external hard drives to plug directly into your Mac or replacing some of the drives with a NAS that can be plugged in via Gigabit Ethernet.

If you can post more specifics in your question, I can update this answer to be more specific as well. How many Macs do you have? What types? Which Macs access which drives for which purposes? Etc.


How does Siri translate all that on my phone? How does it work? I heard it sends all your data off to the internet to be translated. But it seems like it's integrated into my phone.

Does it run on the phone or on the internet?

Siri makes use of NLP(Natural Language Processing) - NLP computing takes significant resources and while the iPhone may be powerful enough to process them, it's likely to drain the battery.

For this reason, Siri application records your commands on your phone & sends it off the servers for processing. The results are returned back to the phone & does the commands.

So to answer, yes, it's part-phone, part-Internet service & it does send data to Apple's servers.


Create an automation for WhatsApp's chat app? I have the following code which uses the user's clipboard to WhatsApp's online API.
on run {input, parameters}
    set text1 to the clipboard
    do shell script "open https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=" & text1
    return input
end run

Now I want to check if the number matches the international code to use in WhatsApp's API correctly.
For example, if I copied a number 021 123456, I want to replace the first few digits with +994021 123456. What happened here is replace the first 0 with +994.
However if the number already starts with +994 then there is no need to amend it.
How do I create a code to do this?

Ok, I've figured it out myself. Putting it out here if anyone needed it in the future.
 on run {input, parameters}
        set text1 to the clipboard
        if first character of text1 is "0" then
            set text2 to 1 - text1 as integer
            do shell script "open https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=" & "994" & 1 - text2
            return
        end if
        do shell script "open https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=" & text1
        return input
 end run


Is there a safe temperature definition for the Macbook Pro Retina? I'm using a grid-computing software to donate my CPU time, so every core is always 100 Celsius degrees (212F), all day.

Is there a reference, from Apple or other source, indicating a safe temperature for this notebook?

According to the intel, spec-sheet, Page 20, the maximum allowed temperature of all the new i3,i5,i7 cpus is 105 Celsius degrees so you are approaching the limit. However all cpus are designed in a way that they will send a signal to the motherboard in case the cpu is overheating to either shut-down the pc completely or dramatically reduce the performance (by lowering the clock-speed).

Studying Anandtech's review of the latest MacBook Retina it's clearly visible that the Macbook pro retina automatically reduces the performance in case of really high temperature over a longer period of time. According to them while running various benchmarks in Half-Life 2 the performance of the retina model dropped by about 5% compared to the old model which dropped by about 20%).

I think you don't need to worry to much about the temperature. If the cpu is reaching its thermal limit it will automatically try to do something about it. You may even think about investing in a cooling pad as the enclosure of the mac is made out of aluminium, it acts a a massive heat-sink and theoretically you could lower the temperature by  using a cool-pad for laptops and fit it underneath.


Wifi/Bluetooth/Ethernet all mixed up in Sys Prefs Today took my iMac out of sleep (9,1) and it was not loading anything over the internet.  So I looked into it, and noticed my wifi indicator has gone missing from my menu bar.

So I looked further into it, and as per the following screenshot my wireless is showing with the ethernet icon, my ethernet does not exist, my bluetooth is showing the wifi logo and appears to be connecting over PAN to one of my Airport Extreme access points - I am totally confused.  I have rebooted, turned wifi on and off, and it's staying the same.  Currently doing a software update to see what happens, and internet is working again as I am currently connected with this exact setup as per the screenshots:

It looks like it's just a naming mixup, like a bodged plist or something for the network connection names, I have turned bluetooth off and it stays connected.  Anyone got a clue what is going on?

According to some other users, you can delete the icons and OS X will re-assign them automatically.

Very strange behavior thought!


Swapfile and sleepimage file creation? I recently installed an SDD into my MacPro, and was paying attention to the storage used, both to be comfortable the SSD size was going to be enough, and also that the TM backup hard drive wouldn't fill too fast. This morning I noticed the /private/var/vm folder had swapfiles totaling 64GB. My question would be how to reduce this and to understand why it happens. The SSD size is only 128GB, and was running 60GB or so. This runaway issue was about to create a 'no room' problem, although I suppose that would have forced a reboot anyway.

I read What are the “sleepimage” and “swapfile” documents? and it warned not to delete these files. I searched some more, and found that a reboot wiped it all out. After the boot, there’s one swapfile of 67MB, versus the 64 files each a full GB.

I never saw this before. I understand a reboot is the answer, but is there anything to do to prevent it occurring? I’d at least like to understand what process or app set this in motion.

I am running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard

Probably one (or more) process on your system was running wild.

Use your Mac as usual. From time to time check the folder /var/vm and if you run across a lot of swap files open Terminal.app and enter:

ps xa | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -n 1 sudo vmmap | grep -A3 'Summary' > /Users/YourUserName/Desktop/vmmap_summary.txt

Depending on the number of running processes this will take about 30-60 seconds. Your account has to be able to run sudo (=usually an admin account).

This creates a text file called vmmap_summary.txt on your desktop which contains some memory and swap information of all running processes sorted by PID. Some will fail because their process id is already gone.

Example (truncated to the first four PIDs):

==== Summary for process 1
ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=51.8M resident=12.9M(25%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=38.9M(75%)
Writable regions: Total=92.9M written=808K(1%) resident=2112K(2%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=90.8M(98%)

==== Summary for process 21
ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=77.0M resident=30.9M(40%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=46.1M(60%)
Writable regions: Total=88.5M written=1116K(1%) resident=5144K(6%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=83.4M(94%)

==== Summary for process 22
ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=150.1M resident=60.1M(40%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=90.0M(60%)
Writable regions: Total=93.2M written=1460K(2%) resident=5440K(6%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=87.8M(94%)

==== Summary for process 23
ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=77.2M resident=31.3M(41%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=45.9M(59%)
Writable regions: Total=96.9M written=1412K(1%) resident=2036K(2%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=94.9M(98%)

Check for any bad behaving process (swapped_out>>>0k).

To get the process name of a misbehaving PID and some more information enter:

ps aux | awk '$2 == PID  { print $0 }'

Example output for a process with the ID 21 — ps aux | awk '$2 == 21  { print $0 }' — would be:

root              21   0,0  0,0  2507740   6552   ??  Ss   10:03am   0:01.48 /usr/libexec/kextd

Now hunt down what may be wrong with the app or daemon.


Mac Pro (2013- black can) and non mac monitor? I am looking to buy a Mac Pro here in the next month but I'd like to use a Samsung 4k monitor. It has 2, HDMI ports and 1 Displayport. I understand the Mac Pro has thunderbolt2 ports, which, correct me if I'm wrong are the same type of port. Can I take advantage of the 4k capabilities of the samsung using a display port to thundebolt2 connection? thx

Given no detail on the Samsung display, it seems like you should be able to. Thunderbolt ports can handle Displayport connections. The tech specs for the machine claim 3x5k, so a single 4k should be fine. You'll need a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.

Read about Single Stream (SST) and Multi Stream (MST) displays here: Using 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac


How does Finder decide if a file should be hidden? There are quite a few files/direcotries under /. But Finder only shows 'System', 'Library', 'Users' and 'Applications'.

I create a directory called /mnt, and Finder shows it. Why? What is the difference between /mnt and other directories like /bin or /usr that makes it shown in Finder? Or how can I make /mnt hidden and make /bin shown?

I found the answer! It is controlled by the hidden flag. Open Terminal,

$ /bin/ls -Ol

will show you which files are flagged with hidden.

To make /mnt hidden, simply

$ sudo chflags hidden /mnt

To change back

$ sudo chflags nohidden /mnt

Cheers!


How can I PXE boot MacOSX 10.11 in virtual box I'm looking for a way to PXE boot macOS running in VirtualBox so that I can capture an image for fog server. When I restart the OS I can get into the boot options but there are no options to boot from LAN.

I've also changed the order in which to boot from in VirtualBox:

When booting the VM, immediately press F12 to enter the VirtualBox boot menu (i.e. not the boot manager in your screenshot). Remember to click with the mouse inside the VM window to ensure that it has focus before pressing F12. You must be quick when doing this as you only have a short window of time for pressing F12.

From the boot menu you can press "L" to boot from LAN.


Connecting a hardrive to an ipad for iMovie Want to use my ipad for light movie editing computer. The 32 gigs is not cutting it. Is their a way to connect a hardrive to the ipad to use in imovie? I have in the past used icloud to store the bulk of the videos to edit on the ipad. This worked but i had to pay a few dollars a month, download the video files i wanted to splice and i could not work off line.

You can not use an external hard drive in combination with iMovie on any iPad.

If you are looking to expand your storage space you can look into a Seagate Wireless Plus hard drive, but you will have to store the video files locally in order to edit them with iMovie.


How to run Apple Hardware Test with broken keyboard? mid-2011 13" MBA running Yosemite

Coffee spill has left keyboard of mid-2011 13" MBA non-functioning. Even power button doesn't work, I boot by shorting the two solder points on logic board. I've tried to run the AHT with both the broken 'D' and a USB kb 'D'. Neither seems to be registered, as it just boots normally.

Are there any other workarounds for running AHT?

Thanks in advance.

You can try to run the AHT from a USB drive.

see the above link to find/download the AHT for your model.

  1) Download the AHT for your computer (see downloads below for
  specific models).

  1b) My copy had me convert the downloaded .dmg from some “old” type
  using Disk Utility. (Just open the .dmg in Disk Utility and “Convert”
  to a new target, then mount the target.)

  2) Mount and completely wipe a USB stick.

  3) From the AHT image, copy /System to the root folder of your USB
  stick:

  cd /Volumes/USB_STICK/ && cp -r ~/AHT_ARCHIVE/System .

  4) Now, from the USB drive, copy the
  /System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics/diags.efi to the root
  directory:

  cd /Volumes/USB_STICK/ && cp
  ./System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics/diags.efi .

  5) Shutdown all applications.

  6) “bless” the USB drive in mount-mode, with the EFI file, and
  immediately reboot:

  cd /Volumes/USB_STICK/ && sudo bless --mount /Volumes/USB_STICK
  --setBoot --file diags.efi && sudo reboot

  7) You should now be booting into AHT -- don’t hold down any keys.

  8) Run the tests, and yank the USB key after AHT reboots you.


weird ZSH issue (resolving environment variable) using ZSH mac latest. In .zshrc I have:
export ZSH="~/.oh-my-zsh"

that directory exists:
cd ~/.oh-my-zsh
me@Imac-Retina-2 .oh-my-zsh % ls
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md  README.md           lib/                oh-my-zsh.sh-SAVED  themes/
CONTRIBUTING.md     cache/              log/                plugins/            tools/
LICENSE.txt         custom/             oh-my-zsh.sh        templates/

but trying to resolve $ZSH fails:
cd ~
ls $ZSH
ls: ~/.oh-my-zsh: No such file or directory
cd $ZSH
cd: no such file or directory: ~/.oh-my-zsh

it's not related to the particular $ZSH variable. For example, I can define export PDQ="~/Downloads" and cd $PDQ fails (no such file or directory), but cd ~/Downloads works just fine.
I have NO CLUE...anyone? ♂
This seems to be only related to the filesystem, other environment vars work and resolve just fine in apps, etc...

As explained in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56951712/why-is-zsh-not-able-to-read-tilde-from-a-path-in-a-script zsh doesn't expand ~ within double quotes. So you can do one of
export ZSH=~"/.oh-my-zsh"
export ZSH="$HOME/.oh-my-zsh"

(where the second option also works if there are space characters in your home path), or set
set -o magicequalsubst

to have zsh expand ~ in such cases.


Changing default email reader does not take effect I am trying to use Kiwi for Gmail as my default email reader (for example, when wanting to share a link via email, I want Kiwi to open up, rather than the Mail application by Apple).

In the Kiwi preferences, it says to use the application Mail to change the default email client:

So, in Mail > Preferences, I have set Kiwi as the default email reader:

However, the problem is that, after closing Mail, Kiwi is not the default client., despite I changed it before. In fact, if I reopen Mail, Mail is still set as default email reader. It seems like changing the default email reader doesn't take effect, when closing Mail.

Can anyone help me to fix the issue?

I had this problem too, when trying to set Airmail.app as my default email client.  I found a solution (after many failed attempts) here:

http://docs.airmailapp.com/airmail-for-mac/setting-airmail-as-the-default-email-client-airmail-for-macos

All credit goes to the author of that article, and the instructions should apply for any email client, not just Airmail.

The key is to reset Apple's LaunchServices database before opening Mail.app.  Here are the instructions from the above-linked site (slightly modified):

Open Terminal (Cmd+Space Bar and enter Terminal)
Copy & paste this command:

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

Press Return to submit the above command and wait for it to finish (might take a few moments)
Open Mail.app and set your default email reader

This worked for me.  I noticed though that, when right-clicking a file in Finder and choosing "Open With", the menu was very slow to be populated with a list of apps (note that the LaunchServices database also controls this list).  So I restarted my computer and everything was fine.


Format values in text cell I have a chart with two percentage columns (min, max), and a third which is supposed to show the min-max range in absolute values. I use the formula =A2*60&" - "&B2*60 in cell C2. The expected result is (for an absolute max of 60):

Min      | Max     | Range
33.3%    | 50.0%   | 20 - 30

Here's what I get:

Min      | Max     | Range
33.3%    | 50.0%   | 2000.0% - 3000.0%

The percentage columns are formatted to display a percentage value with one decimal, and this format is somewhat applied to the text.

If I change the formula to =A2*$C$1&" - "&B2*$C$1, I get:

Min      | Max     | 60
33.3%    | 50.0%   | 20.000 - 30.000

For every format on C1 I get 3 decimals in the expression, except if I set the format to only one decimal in C1, I really get one decimal in the expression.

Question: How do I choose how the numbers are displayed in C2?

Using extra cells (which can be hidden) appears to be the only way I have found to control the Automatic formatting that Numbers applies.

In separate cells for each desired number, do the calculation.
A2*60 then in another cell, B2*60

In your Range column, concatenate the results.  So if the cells containing 20 and 30 are in E2 and F2 then Range would have this formula:

E2 & " - " & F2

or:

concatenate(E2," - ",F2)

Then if desired, hide E and F columns.


Change highlight colour in Sublime Text 2 How can I change the default highlight colour in Sublime Text 2? I know I have to find a highlight key in one of the theme files but I don't know where these theme files are kept. Are they in the library somewhere?

Found the theme files in this directory:

~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages/Color Scheme - Default/(name_of_theme)

You can see which theme you are using by going to (from within Sublime Text 2)

Sublime Text 2 menu>Preferences>Colour Scheme

and see which one is ticked.

Open the theme file and find the key that says:

<key>selection</key>

not one of the highlight keys.

Go to a site that shows hex colour codes (like this one http://html-color-codes.com/) and find the code for the colour you want. Then sub your new colour code into the line below the selection key in the theme file, replacing the old hex colour code.

Save the modified theme file and it should work straight away.


Does iTunes Home Sharing transfer in-app purchases? My wife recently got an iPhone and, being that I'm an iPhone user already, I set up iTunes Home Sharing (under my Apple ID) so that I could share some of my purchased apps with her.

While paid apps transferred to her phone without a problem, in-app purchases that I had made under my account didn't transfer over.

Is this the correct behavior? Our phones are set up under different Apple IDs, but I was still able to transfer purchased (paid upfront) apps to her – which is completely allowed under the Terms of Use – so I assumed the same would apply to in-app purchases as well.

Firstly, you must bear in mind that each In-App Purchase is uniquely associated with an Apple ID and that there are different In-App Purchase types:

Consumable - You need to purchase these items every time you want them, and you can't download them again for free.
Non-Consumable - You purchase these items one time, and you can transfer them to multiple devices authorized with the same iTunes Store account.
Non-renewing Subscriptions - You can purchase these items again after the subscription period ends.
Auto-Renewable Subscriptions - You can purchase these items with different renewal periods.

There are, therefore, differences in the way the availability of the product is handled.

As stated on Apple's iTunes Store: About In-App Purchases:

  You can't sync or transfer non-renewing subscriptions and consumable In-App Purchase to another iOS device or Mac. You can transfer non-consumable In-App Purchases and auto-renewable subscriptions to another iOS device or Mac authorized with your iTunes Store account. For example, if you transfer a game from an iPhone to an iPod touch, only the game levels will sync, and the extra ammo and experience points won't transfer.


Is it possible to configure what is shown in control center I like the new control center in iOS7.

I would like to know if there is possible to set up what should be available in it?
One thing is which toggle settings to show at the top row, like turn on/off mobile data (not flight mode, as I want to be able to call and receive calls).
Another thing is to specify which apps to be accessible at the bottom row.

For the moment : nope, it's not configurable.


Mavericks unusually high RAM usage I thought Mavericks was suppose to utilize RAM memory better, thus run smoother.

Running ML on Mac mini 2012, with 16GB RAM...always running smoothly even with over a dozen apps running.

Now, after installing Mavericks, my Mac is SLOW, eating up RAM like crazy! Looking over usage, of the 16GB of installed memory...on average it uses 10-14 GB RAM when barely running a few apps!!!

There is this kernel_task that is always running with over 1GB of RAM and most apps are not taking that much RAM, so what is using up all my RAM?! File cache? It shows very high in that new description, with about 1/3 of my total RAM

Who said that this memory use is bad in any way? At the very least, the OS will be using the memory so that it can spin down your hard drive at the first opportunity. Hard drive access is energetically expensive. RAM is already powered up, so letting it sit idle is truly wasteful.

The question is a yet another post in the style of "oh no my ram is all used up, bad [insert your bogeyman here]". Let's get it out of the way: RAM should be always fully utilized. You paid for it, you're paying to keep it powered up, it's really counterproductive for all this money to go to waste.

If your computer feels slow right after updating, it's true that the indexing service may be to blame. Let it stay on overnight, make sure you get a full Time Machine backup done, and see what transpires next. Don't get hung up over RAM consumption - without some rather technical understanding of what those numbers mean, you can't make any use of them. They are red herring. It's a curiously recurring pattern.


zsh comment character Many bash scripts invoke the #character to indicate a comment.  Catalina migrated to zsh.  The command:
# Comments should elicit no response

returns

zsh: command not found: #

I find useful command examples on the web: it is helpful  to annotate commands with said #weblink so that it is captured in the history.
I did find this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11873793/4953146

Is there a reason for the # not to be recognized as the comment character in zsh?
How can the terminal be configured to recognize the character as a comment?

Question 1 sets the context for deciding on a method to address question 2.  It would nice to be able to configure the character once and all future instances of zsh would follow.  If there is / was a good reason why the feature was disabled, I would like to understand any reasons.
Understanding the 'why' is important to determine the 'how'.  There seems to be many ways to restore # commenting in zsh.  One durable solution is to add to the configuration file: sudo vi /etc/zshrc:
setopt interactivecomments

Other methods (not durable) include invoking ksh or sh.
Many thanks to user3439894 & Allan for supporting / advancing the question.

This is due to how Bash/Zsh is configured to handle comment characters in interactive and non-interactive shells.
Normally, comment characters are not recognized in interactive shells by default, so this behavior is normal.
From the Bash Reference Manual, Chapter 3.1.3 - Comments:

In a non-interactive shell, or an interactive shell in which the interactive_comments option to the shopt builtin is enabled , a word beginning with ‘#’ causes that word and all remaining characters on that line to be ignored. An interactive shell without the interactive_comments option enabled does not allow comments. The interactive_comments option is on by default in interactive shells.

The difference between interactive and non-interactive shells is that in the former, input and output is via the user's terminal whereas in the latter commands are asynchronous (no interaction).  Though you are in an interactive shell, when you start a script, a non-interactive subshell is created.

Interactive Shells (Chapter 6.3)
Command Execution Environment (Chapter 3.7.3)

Though I've referenced Bash in this answer, Zsh is the same.  Chapter 6.7 - Comments reads almost the same:

In non-interactive shells, or in interactive shells with the INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option set, a word beginning with the third character of the histchars parameter (‘#’ by default) causes that word and all the following characters up to a newline to be ignored.

If there is / was a good reason why the feature was disabled, I would like to understand any reasons.

I hesitate to use the word "disabled" as it's merely an environment variable that sets up the execution environment; it's simply "not set" by default.  There's no documentation as to the reasoning why Apple (ultimately) chose to set it.
I can confirm that in other operating systems I've tested (FreeBSD and Debian), I installed Zsh (v5.8) and in both, the behavior described is the same as it is here - it's not set.  This points to a decision by the Zsh folks that this was their preferred behavior of the execution environment.  As we can't speculate as to why Apple did something, it's even more difficult to speculate why Zsh did/didn't do something and why Apple didn't modify it.  Though it's probably a safe bet that Apple just went with the defaults.


Is there a way to record 'on board' audio on iPad? Related to this question: What cable do I need to go iPad audio out to macbook air mic in? which is asking about cables to record iPad audio on another device.

This question is: is there a way to record audio generated on the iPad on the iPad itself? For example, are there any audio recording apps that can record in the background while audio is being created in another app?

It's a bit hard to search for as there are a lot of apps that allow you to record audio via the external mic, but I'm specifically looking to record audio generated from the iPad itself (such as from a synthesizer or drum machine app).

In general, no.  On a stock iOS device, the OS security sandbox prevents any app from recording, or otherwise accessing in any way, the audio generated by any other app, unless that other app explicitly exports its audio (via AudioBus or Inter-App Audio).  Some (but not all) synthesizer and drum machines (etc.) apps document support for such.


Can Find My Mac be disabled on a stolen MacBook without a password? My friend had his MacBook stolen from his house but he didn't have a password on his MacBook so if the thief logged out of his iCloud can it still be tracked since he already put a lock on it?

If he deletes the iCloud account while the MacBook isn't connected to Wi-Fi can he still track it if the MacBook connects to Wi-Fi?

No, not without the original password
No, but you can sign into your icloud account from a different device and track the computer


Securely allow SSH from Parallels to Host MacOS w/o risking Network threats? I want to enable SSH on OSX from only my Parallels VM.  My fear is that by opening SSH I'm putting my host OS at risk for remote exploitation.

  How can I configure MacOS to only allow connections from the local Parallels' Windows machine?

Perhaps I can establish a dedicated VNet for the two machines, but I'm not sure how to restrict MacOS to listen only that subnet / IP address.

You can edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set the parameter "ListenAddresss" to only the IP-address your host Mac has on the dedicated VNet you have create between the host and the virtual machine (host-only networking).

Remember to remove:

  ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
  ListenAddress ::

and replace it with just:

  ListenAddress 176.16.236.111

(where 176.16.236.111 should be replaced with whatever your IP-address is on that private network)


How do I send Control Alt Delete from a Mac to a remote Windows PC I am trying to log into my PC at work from my Mac. It requires Control + Alt + Delete key combination to login.

How do I do it from my Mac?

Depends on how you're controlling the remote PC. On most remote control software, you select "Ctrl-Alt-Del" from the menu to send the command to the remote PC.

The option key on the mac keyboard is also labeled alt and there is usually a delete key, too on larger / external keyboards.


How should I uninstall a static ffmpeg binary? I've downloaded ffmpeg static binary. If I wanted to 'uninstall' it from my computer, is deleting the static binary enough ?

My understanding is that static binary contains all of the required libraries/code within itself and therefore it does not need to 'install' itself per se… Am I correct in saying that ?

So I never compiled it, never used homebrew, just downloaded the file, extracted it to downloads folder and used it to convert videos.

Yes, since you didn't install either via script, a package manager or an .pkg you can simply delete the file and you're done.


How to change the default Mail account in Mountain Lion? I have 2 mail accounts configured. When composing a new message, it will default to the account for the currently selected mailbox, which is fine. However, when no particular mailbox is selected (when viewing the combined Inbox for example), it will default to the first listed mail account.

How can I change the default mail account when no particular mailbox is active? IIRC, you used to be able to drag them into order, but this no longer seems to work.

I am aware that you can specify a default mail account for all new messages, but I'd like to preserve the behavior where it will default to the account of the currently active mailbox, if one is active.

Instead of trying to drag the account(s) into the desired order in Preferences, drag the account's mailbox to the desired order from the mailbox list in the sidebar of Mail.app main window. Open the inbox and drag the desired sub-inbox to the top. The position in the other places like the trash and drafts boxes will follow.

Then quit Mail.app and open it again to make the changes take effect.

Whichever account's mailbox is at the top of the list will be the default mailbox.

If an account mailbox is at the top, but the account is not the default, drag it down and then back up to the top. This will reset the order and establish the top one as the default.


Can CS5 run on OS X 10.7.5? I've been avoiding updating my OS because I didn't want to lose the use of older applications. I just bought a new Airport Extreme which requires OS X 10.7.5 or later. I'm currently running OS X 10.6.8 and need to know if I upgrade will it run Creative Suite CS5?

I'm running CS5 on Yosemite right now, (Photoshop is running right now, in fact,) and have had CS5 run on OS Xs all the way back to Snow Leopard or earlier:


Modern MacOS Server Restrictions So I see I can purchase macOS Server in the Mac App Store for about £20. This is all well and good, but very different to the way things used to work.

By purchasing the server app on the app store, do I get all of the features of the old server OS, for example Mac OS X Server 10.5, or does it only add a few features?

Is this a set of server management tools, or does it convert my client OS into a full server OS?

Can I use it on multiple machines simultaneously. If not, can I install it more than once (if I do not use it on multiple installations simultaneously)?

Is it a one-time-payment for all updates to the server OS?

is it limited to a certain amount of installs before I have to purchase it again?

It’s a one-time payment, and it’s standard App Store licensing — you can use it on all Macs you own for personal use which also means if you use the same AppleID to download to 15 to 30 Macs, you might get an email from Apple or just be in violation of the Mac App Store terms.

Overall, the server app enables command line and guidance management of many server features already present in MacOS, since it’s Unix, and adds a bunch more custom code and server functionality from the app that packages scripts and binary tools as opposed to a new replacement OS.


Can I erase and reinstall MacOS and not lose my windows partition and my Dual boot option I want to downgrade from Mojave and don't have a TimeMachine backup from before.

So my best bet is to erase the current install and reinstall from scratch (with a bootable USB stick with the High Sierra install).

My only concern is my Windows partition:
* will it remain untouched
* will the reinstalled system be aware of that partition and still offer dual boot at ... boot time?

If Mojava is installed to a APfS volume, proceed as follows:

Boot to the USB High Sierra installer
Open the Disk Utility
Remove the APFS volume containing Mojava
Add a new APFS volume
Quit the Disk Utility
Install High Sierra to the new APFS volume.

If Mojava is installed to a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume, proceed as follows:

Boot to the USB High Sierra installer
Open the Disk Utility
Erase the  Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume containing Mojava
Quit the Disk Utility
Install High Sierra to the erased Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume.

In either case, Windows will not be erased. High Sierra should be able to automatically detect the Windows installation.


Pages File edited on iPhone and synced with iCloud on OS X EL Capitan, Getting dotted cloud icon I have a file that I uploaded from pages app on my iPhone IOS 9.2.1 and synced with iCloud , but on my mac I see this file with dotted cloud icon and not the latest changes to this file.

How can I make it sync ?

This link can be helpful for you to understand what's going on. Please refer also to the following pics, to see what's exactly your case.

In general, a dotted-lined iCloud icon means that it is waiting to be uploaded.

In order to force the sync, you can try to open the document that you are trying to upload, make whatever modification to the file (even just a point or a comma somewhere) and then save. In this way, you should make the file sync.


Monitor with MacBook Pro 2016 not waking up I have a late 2016 MacBook Pro with 4 USB-C ports and the LG UltraFine 4K Display that Apple is selling. So it is a USB-C to USB-C connection.

The monitor does not have an on/off button, argh. When I wake up the MBP, the LG display does not wake up. I have to go into Display settings of the Systems Preferences and detect new display every time. There is no info on troubleshooting in the documentation (the documentation on the monitor is not very detailed). Only that "The monitor will turn on automatically if the PC is operating normally."

Anyone have a similar situation or advice?

I had a similar issue.  I have two UltraFine 4K monitors connected to a 2016 MacBook Pro. When the Mac went to sleep both displays went to sleep, but only one would wake.

This has been resolved by the latest firmware.

Install LG Screen Manager. The LG site is still showing the old version.
It will push the most recent version, v2.06.
Upgrade your monitor to the latest firmware. (3.11, 3.4, 5226, 3.04, 0.2f)

For some unknown reason, LG appears to have removed the LG screen manager tool from their site. If you are looking for the latest firmware, it can be found via homebrew.

brew cask search lg
brew cask install homebrew/cask-drivers/lg-screen-manager


How do I move a window whose title bar is off-screen? I encountered a strange problem today. I downloaded FileZilla and on first launch the title bar was above my mouse pointer's reach. Making the window unmovable.

Here is a screenshot of my situation.

Is there a way to fix this? I've tried reopening the application and rebooting.

Hold on option (or alt) while clicking the Window menu.  This should change Bring All to Front into Arrange in Front, which did the trick for me.

This worked for me on OSX 10.9.1


Set a Volume's permissions to group write for all files and folders To me this seems like it should be easy but I'm having a hard time finding a very good answer that seems definitive to me.
I have a I have a hard drive mounted that my wife and I share (internal drive).  My wife are I both in admin group and this drive's group ownership is also admin.
This volume's current permissions are: drwxrwx---.  My wife and I can both add and create files, however, these new files are not inheriting the parent volumes permissions.  If I create a new folder or file, the g+w bit is not being set.  It's read only.
I don't really want to change my umask from 022 to 002 because it's only this volume I want the g+w bit set.  I guess I can if that's the only solution.
I want to ensure that any file created, copied, or moved to this Volume (anywhere on the volume) has the correct permissions.  Is this possible?
Or do I need to fall back on umask and a cron job to reset permissions?
edit - first attempt with ACLs
Here is what I tried, as a test.  It didn't carry it forward to the next file I created though.  I don't think I fully understand how this is supposed to work ...
$ mkdir test-acl
$ chmod 770 test-acl
$ ls -le
total 0
drwxrwx---  2 damon  admin  68 Jan 13 09:50 test-acl
$ chmod +a "admin allow list,add_file,search,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit" test-acl
$ ls -le
total 0
drwxrwx---+ 2 damon  admin  68 Jan 13 09:50 test-acl
 0: group:admin allow list,add_file,search,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit
$ cd test-acl
test-acl$  touch test.txt
test-acl$  ls -le
total 0
-rw-r--r--+ 1 damon  admin  0 Jan 13 09:50 test.txt
 0: group:admin inherited allow read,write,execute,delete,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

You can fix this on a folder on the drive using an Access Control List (ACL) to set the right permissions.

Check the man page for chmod(1) and you will need to set 'file_inherit' and 'directory_inherit' on the parent folder and then set permissions on it to read and write the group but nothing for all users.

You may also need to turn on the use of ACLs for SMB sharing if you are sharing via SMB rather than AppleShare.


El-Cap Mail app intermittent IMAP connection issues The issues started occurring after upgrade to 10.11 but not sure if related or not.

I have 2 gmail accounts defined on my Mail app. Most of the time (around 70% or so) all is healthy.

But every few minutes, the alert signs show up next to both of the accounts. The connection doctor points the blame at IMAP

This lasts for a while, usually a few minutes. I immediately check my internet connection by pinging various public IPs - all is rock solid. After a while this goes away.

Any idea why this may happen and how I can troubleshoot? I'm tending to not suspect an account setup issue as all works well most of the time. BTW - both of the accounts were set up very basic - just selected Gmail as the account type and added user and password. Did not mock around with anything else more advanced.

Thank you.

This problem is reported so often that it is likely there are multiple causes.  But after many months of putting up with this exact issue, here is what worked for me:

Mail => Preferences => General => Check for new messages

The default setting is Automatically

Change this to Every 5 minutes

I imagine anything will work except "Automatically".  My guess is that the Automatic option leaves a connection open to the imap server, and this is what gets screwed up.  I have not tested but it also possible the problem occurs because I click the manual download button while Mac Mail is set to Automatic download.  All I know is that this has been a continuing annoyance for a long time and with this change, it works.


Minimise full screen Steam games in OS X Yosemite Previously, in OS X Mavericks it worked to minimise games, or navigate through open apps with cmd+tab even if the game was opened in full screen but now you can't do that anymore. Pressing cmd+tab doesn't have any effect. Also I can't find any way to minimise the game.

I don't really know whether this problem is only for steam games or any other game, as I don't have any non-steam game.

CMD+H seems to work too.

Strangly CMD+Mdoes not do anything.


I just upgraded to Mountain Lion. Now I can't share files with the Snow Leopard on my network Before the upgrade, I could pull files from the other laptop on to mine with apple file sharing. Now I can't see any machines in the network view. How can I pull files from the Snow Leopard laptop onto my Mountain Lion laptop?
Steps I've taken:

Files were put into the snow leopard's shared folder
On the mountain lion laptop, opened Finder and looked in Network. There are no computers listed.

Some troubleshooting steps to take:

Open the Sharing Preferences on the Snow Leopard Mac, and make sure that File Sharing is checked. Then click Options…* and make sure Share Files and Folders using AFP is checked.
On the Mountain Lion Mac, open Finder and click Go → Connect to Server… (or press ⌘K). In the server address box, enter afp:// followed by the IP address of the Snow Leopard Mac, then click Connect.

If you don't know the IP, you can find it by using Network Utility on the Snow Leopard Mac.

If that still doesn't work, open Terminal on the Mountain Lion Mac, and enter ping followed by a space and the IP of the Snow Leopard Mac.

If successful, you should see output like this:

64 bytes from 192.168.1.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.249 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.207 ms

In which case, there's something wrong with the file sharing set up.
If it's not successful, you'll likely get Request timeout errors, and it's a network issue.

Try those steps and post the results, and I'll update my answer with some more suggestions.


Volume Buttons not working Sound is working perfectly but if I press the volume buttons on my touch-bar it won't work. Even the slider on my screen also won't work.

Only the volume slider on the touch-bar will work.

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

NVRAM (nonvolatile random-access memory) is a small amount of memory that your Mac uses to store certain settings and access them quickly. PRAM (Parameter RAM) stores similar information, and the steps for resetting NVRAM and PRAM are the same.

Settings that can be stored in NVRAM include sound volume, display resolution, startup disk selection, time zone, and recent kernel panic information. The settings stored in NVRAM depend on your Mac and the devices that you're using with your Mac.

If you experience issues related to these settings or others, resetting NVRAM might help.

How to reset NVRAM:

Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command,P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.

More detail from the Offical Apple Support page


How can I resolve this error during a dmg copy operation I am trying to copy a 200GB dmg file between two disks (one firewire, one local) and see this error:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “mbp_18_06_2011.dmg” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)

How can I debug / fix?

You can try copying the data using Terminal

Type in sudo ditto ~/sourcefile ~/Destination

Replace "~/sourcefile" by dragging the file you want to copy into the terminal window which will autofill, and do the same with the "~/destination"

Alternatively: sudo ditto -V ~/sourcefile ~/Desktop
This will show you progress and any errors as the files are being copied


Apple Outlook Account Remote Wipe So I recently added an Outlook account to my iPhone for my college. I didn’t notice at the time, but I had to grant it access to remotely wipe my device. I’m not okay with this, and I can use a 3rd party app to see my email. Now, the tech services say they won’t use this ability, but I’m not okay with that level of control.
If I remove the account from my device, will I remove their ability to wipe my phone?

If you allowed a profile to be set on your device, you will need to also remove that profile.
Settings -> General -> Profiles
If you set up Outlook, then you can remove the account from Outlook, that should remove their ability to manage your device.


Is there "danger" in removing Macintosh HD from my Time Machine as a back up? I want to use Seagate Backup Plus Drive I'm a novice (obviously!), and my Seagate will not back up my computer because it says there is nothing to back-u since my Macintosh HD is in my "Exclude these items from backups" under "Options".  I'm having a little anxiety if I take it off the list -- that I will lose all that is on it.  Call me crazy.  I just need some confirmation since I do not put it on this list so I assume it should be there.

None of the items in the "Exclude these items from backups" will be backed up. Usually only the backup volume (i.e. the Seagate Backup Plus Drive) itself is in the list.

So including Macintosh HD in the above list is counterproductive if you want to backup Macintosh HD.


How do I make full use of a generic 6-button mouse? Somebody gave me a 6-mouse button. I want to make full use of the extra buttons as opposed to just using the basic 3 ones (left, on-scroller, and right buttons). First of all, I want to know where the buttons on the mouse are mapped to currently. I'm having trouble finding an app that will let me see what functionality they are mapped in. Next is how do I actually remap them?

I'm on Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

You can use a tool like USB Overdrive to map various functions to the buttons on your generic 6-button mouse.


iMac says that macOS High Sierra is installed but is still running Mavericks Recently I have downloaded and installed macOS High Sierra. Downloading went well, installing went well, no problems during that process. Only when my iMac started back up I saw nothing new. It looked like it didn't install anything at all. So when I checked which OS it was running it said 10.9.5 (Mavericks).
I thought it might have been an error and I tried to reinstall the new OS. However, when I wanted to download the installer again in the Mac App Store, it said that it the OS had already been installed.
And so began my search on the internet to find a solution. I came across a post on the Apple Support Forum. It said that I should look in my applications folder to see if I still have the installer. Fortunately this was the case. Only when I ran the installer it told me that it had failed to download the necessary information from the installer. In other words: it could not run the installer.
Maybe something interesting I found online;
I came across this reply from deontaifromroseville on the forum. Here's the most important part:

Listen... I have been at this computer all day and night. Starting at 10:30a on 1/16/2018. If you see the downloaded or installed on Sierra in the App Store WITH A GRAY TAB YOU CAN NOT CLICK. It is because you have DOWNLOADED AND INSTALLED.
OPEN APPLICATION. CLICK ON LAUNCH PAD. YOUR INSTALL SCREEN OF SIERRA WILL POP UP AFTER.

However, the solution he found did not work for me. But it's still interesting because I have successfully gone through the entire installation process. Maybe it is installed but there is something else at play?
So, I still have not been able to get the latest macOS. Does anyone know more about this problem? Has anyone else experienced this same issue? Is there a solution? All information is helpful.

CLICK ON LAUNCH PAD. Then you should see an application icon to install MacOS High Sierra. Use that to continue your unfinished OS upgrade.


Inserting several pictures into MS Word at once without using Media Browser In Microsoft Word 2011, we can either "insert picture from file" or "insert from photo (media) browser". For users who do not have pictures stored in iPhoto or Photobooth, we are forced to use "insert picture from file" method, which only allows for one picture to be added at a time.  How can I add more than one picture at a time?

There is a workaround, going through TextEdit:

Open TextEdit, and create a new file.
In TextEdit, add the images to the new file.
In TextEdit, select all of your images and copy them (cmd-A, cmd-C).
In Word, paste the images (cmd-V).

This will result in all of the images being pasted into Word, which you can then manipulate as you normally would.


My ex is a computer "expert". Is he using administrative privileges to remotely control/limit use of my computer? My Ex knows a lot about computers - I know nothing about the hardware and infrastructure...
I bought my own personal MacBookAir for my private use only. I'm not able to change some settings or be the "administrator". Here are system preferences snapshots under Security and Privacy. It seems to look like I'm on a network under "WINS" (?) and I can't change anything in "Proxies" or "802.1X"

I turned on FireVault (with a recovery key) and FireWall. I also set a login password, required immediately, and only allow apps from the Apple Store.
The other pics are my WiFi setting and Directory Utilities if it's helpful. I have Komros installed and Avast and use them every time I log-on.
Thank you!

If you are really worried, backup and then do a wipe and re-install. This will get rid of most unwanted things. Then manually restore important documents and files from backup. If you are not THAT worried, install a firewall/traffic monitor (LuLu, LittleSnitch, RadioSilence) and just monitor the network activities.

The reason you can't "Administrate" can just be that you were not added as an "Administrator" when the account was created. Check in System Preferences > Users & Groups to see if you are an administrator. You can add yourself (if you are not already) as a sudoer and make yourself an administrator though I'm don't feel comfortable explaining this process, use your search engine of choice.

You can list hidden users, check running processes and network traffic in search of something suspicious though it is not always trivial and if you are really that worried, wipe and re-install.


Booting an Intel Mac to Linux from a U3 USB drive Is it possible to boot an Intel Mac to Linux, or any non-OS X operating system, from the U3 partition of a USB drive?

I know that because OS X uses EFI rather than BIOS for the boot process, the only way to boot from USB is generally if you're booting an EFI-capable operating system -- meaning OS X. And (at least I think) I know that when a non-OS X operating system is booted, a Mac switches into BIOS emulation mode during the boot process, which actually disables USB support until the OS loads the appropriate drivers for the USB subsystem... which is why booting non-OS X operating systems is generally not possible from USB drives.

So this got me to thinking -- since you can boot any OS on a Mac from CDROM, and there are USB-based CDROM drives that one can boot from, what if a USB device emulated a CDROM? And that led me down the rabbit hole to the (now-extant) U3 spec from SanDisk, which did just that -- emulated a full CDROM on a partition of a USB drive.

So, is it possible to boot from this partition, and boot into a non-OS X operating system?

Here is description how to do this
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~osc22/tutorials/linux_on_macbook_air.html

  Booting linux from USB drive on a recent MacBook air (e.g. late 2010)
  - even with FileVault 2

  I've spent a while figuring out how to boot linux on my MacBook air
  3.2 (aka late 2010) from an USB stick, since I needed to image its disk before and after enabling full disk encryption (Lion's FileVault
  2).

  There are many tutorials out there but most of them either don't work,
  are not for the correct combination of hardware/software or miss some
  details. So here I give you the facts for booting a linux live image
  (I've used Ubuntu) with a MacBook Air that perhaps has Lion (although
  I am sure it works with Snow Leopard as well) and may be even with
  FileVault2 (full-disk encryption) enabled.

  If you don't have FileVault enabled, I recommend you install rEFIt
  from your Mac OS X using the dmg installer, and follow the steps at
  the END of this page. Now, for the details....

  If you can, use Ubuntu (yes, from a different PC) to create the USB
  drive with Ubuntu by means of "Startup Disk Creator" (See
  System/Administration). Once you have the USB drive, if you run mmls
  (a forensic utility from the sleuth kit), you should see actually
  several partitions including a Win 95 Fat32 (0x0C). This is actually
  the partition you need to dd, i.e. "dd if=/dev/disk2s02
  of=/dev/disk0s3" bs=1M count="size_of_that_partition_in_blocks"; where
  disk2s02 is the Win95 FAT32 partition in the USB drive and disk0s3 is
  a partition you have created on your Mac disk). Now (having installed
  rEFIt as I mentioned above), reboot your MacBook and use the partition
  utility of rEFIt (one of the items) to fix the MBR (is a hybrid
  MBR/GPT partition table). Simply answer yes to have the linux
  partition (the one where you've copied from the USB) correctly set up.
  Restart again the MacBook and use rEFIt to boot the linux install/live
  partition. Now, if you have FileVault enabled things are a bit more
  tricky. The reference post about how to do this is here. However,
  again there are some details that should be made clear.

  First of all, I highly recommend you do an image of your drive (either
  directly from MacOS by using the low-level disk, e.g. /dev/disk0 - not
  the one showing as /dev/disk1 unencrypted). There is a risk you won't
  be able to boot OS X anymore after you apply these steps. Next, follow
  the steps in the post I mentioned above. When it refers to "bless" the
  efi partition, look at the end of the post in the StopService() code
  and you should see what to do. gpt fdisk refers to the command "gdisk"
  in repair mode (r). Here you need to use the Hybrid MBR, by typing
  (h). I recommend you read this. When asked for partition code use "0C"
  (Windows95 FAT32 for your linux partition). I'm not sure if is a good
  idea to put the EFI partition (code 0xEE) at the beginning, or if you
  should create extra protective MBR partitions. I've put the EFI
  partition at the end and didn't create any extra protective MBR
  partitions and I was able to boot linux. However I wasn't able to boot
  the Mac OS X anymore. So that's why I recommend the prior image.
  Looking at the results and comparing with the partitions in a USB
  drive with rEFIt I suggest you actually create all the protective MBR
  partitions suggested by "gdisk". I've recently purchased a Macbook Air
  superdrive. You can easily boot linux using that and avoid all the
  trouble and possible problems with the steps above. So if you want the
  quick and safe way I suggest you spend about $66 and take the
  superdrive. It works also when FileVault 2 is enabled.


melted ice cream + iphone5s = my screen black & white bars Combination of melted ice cream ,iphone 5s & someone sleeping on top of it all for an entire night. Now the screen looks like a retro jail house jump suit all black and white bars. I could think of a thousand ways to jimi rig it and know that none of them are any correct way. Need a positive solution. Phone still works as that it rings all the time and still powers up takes charge and powers down. Any one know what exactly and how to fix this probmlem. Or what needs to be replaced and best place to get a fix it my self kit? Thanks

What parts do i need to purchase to just fix it my self?

The main issue is the screen. Take it to an Apple Store and have them replace your screen. You can also do that at any third-party shop.


Is there a keyboard shortcut to move a window from one monitor to another? Is there a free app that I can use to move a window from one monitor to the other monitor (assuming only two monitors) via the keyboard? I shouldn't have to use the mouse at all (e.g., for selecting the window or the monitor, or for dragging).

I know this can be done in Linux using compiz; I'm surprised there isn't a (free) option for OS X.

UPDATE: Spectacle is no longer maintaned.  The website forwards users to Rectangle, see Jack's answer or https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle/releases.

I just tried Spectacle, great app and it's free.
This is what it can do with the selected group of windows.

You need to activate accessibility support.
System Preferences > Accessibility > Enable access for assisted devices
As per comments: The accessibility option in Mavericks is now in
System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility


How can I stop by External Display from switching "Spaces" Somehow I enabled my mac to have these "spaces" and I always have a second "desktop" - I don't know how to get rid of it.

However, either when no apps are open or if there is a fullscreen app, I do not want my external thunderbolt monitor to switch to it's new "space". I only want to switch spaces on my laptop monitor. Is there a way to disable this? I can't even find out how to disable my second desktop, period.

I don't think exactly what you are asking for is possible, but this may be an acceptable solution: you can tell the application to show up in all spaces, and it will be as if your external display isn't switching spaces.

In order to do this, right click on the dock icon for your application, select "Options," and then "All Desktops"

Hope this helps!


Mac stops responding from time to time I started using Mac yesterday, since then it stopped responding a lot. Each time it happened I restarted the system but it happens again. I also got "he's dead, Jim" error many times on Chrome.

Is there anyway to get rid of this issue?

Installed memory(RAM) : 4.00 GB (3.87 GB usable)

According to this page, "He's dead, Jim" message appears

  if the operating system has terminated the tab’s process due to a lack of memory

So it seems to be a RAM problem.

If your Mac is still under warranty, take it to an Apple Store to get it look at.


How can I evaluate which SSD adapter is functional with 2013 MacBook Air parts? I need to connect my MacBook Air 11" mid 2013 SSD drive to another Macbook since I have to initialise it in the right format.

I'm searching for an adapter that has at one side the right connector for the SSD and on the other side a USB port.
The problem is that I don't know which one to choose since a normal SATA port would be too big.
Just to be clear the SSD I'm talking about is this one:

it's so tiny and I don't know if there's a USB adapter for this one so I can remove the internal storage and mount it to another computer over USB or faster interface. What adapters can read Apple OEM storage from the Air?

Apple uses a proprietary connector, which is usually described as a 12+16 pin PCIe connector. Or more simply "Mac SSD".

There are USB enclosures for these blades, though they tend to be very expensive - $70 to $100. Here's one:

https://www.amazon.com/QNINE-Enclosure-MacBook-External-Adapter/dp/B076KDPZMM/

However, note that this particular one claims not to work with Apple SSDs made by Toshiba or SanDisk.

You might be best off putting it back into a Mac and formatting it and installing MacOS using Internet Recovery. (Or even buying a secondhand Apple-Samsung SSD replacement on eBay.)

Everything you need to know about Apple's SSDs in all models of Macs can be found here:

https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-guide-to-specs-and-upgrades


In mail.app, get list of recipients for just one of the many email accounts. I use mail.app to interact with about a dozen different email accounts, which I use for different purposes.  I need to create a list of the senders (or recipients) of just on of those email accounts.  Contacts.app is completely useless as it is mostly full of obsolete contact from previous jobs and I've never figured out how to clean it out.  But since recipient auto-complete functions properly, mail.app must have access to senders/recipients directly and I just want to access that information for a specific single email account.

Here is a 2 step process to do that.

Part I

First create a Smart Folder in Mail.

There you will sort all emails specific to a selected account.

You can skip the above part and sort by account then select the messages from a single account.

Part II

Now use (Copy) one of those Apple Scripts (Thank you Matthieu Riegler) in to your AppleScript Editor.app

tell application "Mail"
    set theSenderList to {}
    set theMessages to the selected messages of message viewer 0
    repeat with aMessage in theMessages
        set end of theSenderList to (extract address from sender of aMessage)
    end repeat
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to " "
    set the clipboard to (theSenderList as string)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
    beep
end tell

Now back to the Mail Smart folder, and select as many emails as you want there (or all).

Back to Apple script, click run and it will extract the addresses of the selected emails to your clipboard. Once done....

Open new Notes or other empty text document and click Paste to get the addressees collected.


IPhone 4 - IPod classic connectors I have an iPod classic 80 GB since 2007.
I bougth a cable that allows me to stream the music from my iPod to my Pioneer car radio.

Now I would like to use the same cable for my iPhone 4, however it doesn't work.
It seems that apple changed some pins in the connector. Is that possibile?

Do you know a solution for having my iPhone 4 working as well my iPod? Maybe a simple connector adapter?

Thanks!

Hmm, not sure, and don't quote me on this, but I don't believe the pin configuration has changed for the dock connector. Are you getting the yellow warning sign and the 'this accessory is not compatible' message on your iPhone? I found that a lot of accessories I had used with my iPod Nano and 3GS don't work with my friends 4's and 4s'.

Is the accessory one of those FM transmitters, or a direct cable link to the stereo? If it is the latter, and the radio has an 'Aux in,' you can connect up a jack to jack cable from the headphone port to your stereo. If it is the former, you may have to buy a new unit, as newer Apple devices are just not compatible with some accessories unfortunately! Griffin make a good one I believe.

Hope this helps!


Brand new Apple Mac-Mini cannot connect to ANY WiFi Network -- "Connection Timeout" I'm at my wits end here with a new Mac Mini. I bought a brand new mac mini, took it home, and did nothing but create a user account. When I try to connect to my network (Comcast Xfinity), I continuously get a "connection timeout" error before it even authenticates my password. The same thing always pops up when I try to connect to ANY network around me, even using my phone as a wireless hotspot. However, another MacBook Pro, iPhone 6, Lumia 920 (Windows Phone), and Surface Pro 3 in this apartment are able to connect without ANY issues whatsoever, so it is definitely isolated to my mac mini.

I took it into the apple store today, and they decided that it would be easiest to just give me a new mac mini. I tested it out at the store, and it was able to connect to both an open and a WPA2 encrypted network. Brought it home, and NOTHING. Connection timeout!

Here are some things I have tried:

Creating a new location inside network preferences with other options removed.
Removing password on network and making it open.
Restarting Mac Mini and router.
Changing channels on my router with random ones from 1 to 11.
Changing ipV6 to Link-only (someone recommended this).

I cannot find any more suggestions on google, and apple's phone support is fairly unreliable. I am so frustrated with this...I am normally a windows person, and was really expecting a magical out of the box experience, not this. ANY help would be greatly appreciated. I will post whatever logs I can to help out!

Here are my machine specs:

OS: OS X Yosemite Version 10.0.1

Hardware: Mac mini (Late 2014)
   -2.6GHz Intel Core i5
   -8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
   -Intel Iris 1536 MB graphics

Thank you so much guys!

It's a combination of the Mac mini and the xfinity router. I've had this problem with multiple Apple devices over the years, but only when using the xfinity router. Do yourself a favor, buy a really good router and just use a cable modem. I guarantee this will fix the problem.


How to make auto-complete work for AWS on ZSH? I installed awscli from brew.

The amazon instructions refer to a shell script, aws_zsh_completer.sh that doesn't appear to be included.   I do have an /usr/local/bin/aws_completer.

How do I make the autocompleter for aws work on zsh in iTerm2 on macos Catalina?

OK - completions need a bit of help to get going - brew includes the definitions, but you have to prime the completions mechanism if you haven't enabled one yet.

brew install zsh-completions
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Press y when asked to ignore insecure directories

Then to test things out run the initialization:

autoload bashcompinit && bashcompinit
source /usr/local/bin/aws_zsh_completer.sh

I know - it says bash and you use zsh - you can type aws followed by a space and gla and tab and it should pause a bit and complete to the glacier command instead of file completion:

aws gla

Once that's set, you have to set up your .zshrc and likely fix the insecure compinit error by removing write permissions on some directories.


MacBook Pro display looks washed out in Windows (Boot Camp) I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro and the display looks great under OS X, but is really washed out in Windows 7. I have installed all the drivers supplied by Apple and ran all the updates, but that didn't change anything. I think it's related to the color calibration, since Windows reports it's using "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" which was created in 1998. Yeah.

I tried importing the one from OS X for my display, but that just turned everything a dull brown. I also tried Windows 7's own display calibration wizard, but that just ended up looking horrible. What can I do to get decent looking text and pictures in Windows on this thing?

Well, whenever I have a customer with this concern – and they are rare – I normally set the gamma profile to 2.2-ish, then grab the .icc profile for Windows, install it, no more problems. Basically not much different from your attempts...but sadly the only recommendation I could provide.


Enforce authentification (passcode, Touch ID, Face ID) for viewing saved passwords on iOS I have surprisingly realized that I can view all my (Safari) saved passwords on my iPhone under iOS 14.4 without having to type my passcode (again). This is problematic as for a regular user, it would be easy for somebody to steal all their saved passwords by just borrowing their phone to "make a call".
On macOS, if I want to view the saved passwords in Safari preferences, I have to type again my Mac password. Same for Chrome.
Is there a way to enforce this on iOS?
Thank you in advance for your answers!

In iOS 14, you can access saved passwords in Settings > Password.
If the iPhone has a Passcode and/or Touch ID enabled, access to passwords will require authentication, and Settings > Touch ID & Passcode will display "Require Passcode" as "immediately."


Is it possible to center align text in the Speech Bubble annotation in Preview.app? I can create Speech Bubble-style annotations in preview - and easily change the color and font styles, but the text is always left-aligned. Is is possible to center it?

There doesn't appear to be a way to do that (other then manually centering it yourself with the space bar).


Finder does not show files in folders When I open Finder all folders seem to be empty. Checking with the console shows that all files are there. This is also true if I try to open a file from within an application using the File menu.

If I paste the full path of the file into the text field of the file dialog, the file gets opened.

If I jump to a subfolder with Cmd-Shift-G that works fine. But again the folder is empty.

Any ideas what's missing?

After all this turned out to be a side effect from com.apple.IconServicesAgent going wild and eating up lots of CPU.

Running mkdir ${TMPDIR}/com.apple.IconServices in Terminal solved the problem immediately.


Screen Sharing on iPhone Is it possible on the iPhone to share the screen live? In other words I would have an app on the iPhone that would allow a person to see my screen live while they watched via a secure URL.

I have seen some apps that allow for screen sharing of files from the iPhone but not the actual screen.

If it is not possible to share the screen live is it possible to record a video of the screen?

Notes: I am not looking for ways to control another iPhone just show the screen live, I am not on a jailbroken iPhone, and I am running iOS 6. Also I am curious to the same for the iPad.

For recording the screen as a video, this site seems to sum up the ways nicely:

http://www.apptamin.com/blog/capture-iphone-ipad-screen-video/

Hope it helps.


Audio problems with videos converted for viewing on iOS using VLC VideoLan VLC Media Player. I recently tried to watch a .avi movie over 1GB, and the video was perfect, but I could only hear audio from the background. Movies below 1GB play just fine. So is there a limit of how big the movies can be? I have an iPod touch 3rd generation running iOS 5.0

Turn off the auto timzone detect and set your time zone to a city in Canada (that's in the same time zone as you). There are legal issues with one of the codecs in the USA. VLC checks for location by timezone setting to allow an easy workaround.


Setting up Apple TV without a TV How can I make my Apple TV 1st gen join a WiFi network without having a TV connected?  Is there an OSX utility for set up in the same way there is with Airport Express?

No. You need to connect the AppleTV to a video output of some sort, otherwise there's no way to specify the SSID (the WiFi network identifier) and the password (if any). After you've done that once, you can unplug it from the video output.


iPhone 6s running iOS 10 claims watchOS 2.2.1 is up to date when I attempt to update my Apple Watch Today, iOS 10 and watchOS 3 launched, however when I try to update my Apple Watch, I get "watchOS 2.2.1 Your software is up to date."

Obviously, it's not. According to this article, watchOS 3 is for sure out. The paired iPhone is an American (just to rule out possibility of any regional differences) iPhone 6s running iOS 10.0.1. I've tried opening and closing the app, restarting my iPhone, clearing RAM (by holding the power button down until the Slide To Power Off appears, then holding down the home button)---nothing. This iPhone was in the Beta Seed Program, but I just deleted that profile and restarted the iPhone just in case. Still doesn't work. Also, my internet connection is good enough (LTE at 5 mbps), so that shouldn't prevent it from at least searching for the update. I'm out of ideas here. Is there something I can do to resolve this now?

I forgot that I had installed the beta profile on my watch as well as my phone.  As soon as I removed the beta profile from within the watch app and rebooted both phone and watch I was able to update to watchOS 3.


How to print from Google Docs in Safari? For some reason when I press CMD + P or go to File>Print in Google Doc's instead of printing, the document is downloaded as a PDF. I then have to navigate to my downloads folder, open the PDF, and print it through Preview.

This only occurs in Safari. If I press CMD + P or File>Print in Chrome, the Chrome print dialog box comes up immediately and I am able to print directly from Chrome.

How can I get the print dialog to popup directly in Safari? Or if that can't be done is there a way to automatically identify that a document has been downloaded from Google Docs and print it? Maybe with an Apple Script?

I have not found a way to get the print dialog box to appear in Safari.  Instead I have created a script that will check when something is downloaded and see if it is from Google Docs. If it is then the document will be opened in Preview with the print dialog box. Basically giving you similar functionality you have in Chrome. You can then print it as you normally would.

Here's the script. Save it to /Library/Scripts/Folder Actions Scripts/:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    repeat with i in added_items
        set myPath to the POSIX path of i
        if myPath ends with ".pdf" then
            set myLocation to (do shell script "mdls -name kMDItemWhereFroms " & the quoted form of myPath)
            if myLocation contains ".google.com" then
                tell application "Preview"
                    activate
                    print i with print dialog
                end tell
            end if
        end if
    end repeat
end adding folder items to

The script will need to be added as a Folder Action. Follow instructions below:

Navigate to the Downloads folder
Right click on the Downloads folder and select Services>Folder Actions Setup

Select the script that saved and click Attach
Make sure Enable Folder Actions is checked in the upper left
Test a Google Doc


error -36 on a brand new samsung 850 ssd drive I after some advnature (as described here) I have successfully booted osx installation from a brand new SSD by Samsung (EVO 850).  I am running osx 10.11.6 (trim is not enabled). My Mac is mid 2009 macbook pro.

When installing, I have restored a Time Machine state. Now, whenever I try to access large files on the disk, they fail to be copied with an error message  -36: saying that source file "cannot be read or written". I am able to successfully copy files from the backup disk or from internet to the SSD, but once there, they cannon be copied further (they can be moved, but this is just bookkeeping operation, no data is read then). So it seems the problem occurs when the OS tries to actually read something besides FS entries.

The error persists both in Finder and Terminal.

The SSD is brand-new. It has uptime of 7 hrs, and 41 power cycles. It comes clean with "disk utility" - no problems detected, but I guess this tool does not perform disk read/write integrity test, just checks FS entries. Am I right?

So what options do I have here?

Judging from the symptoms, I would test the following:

Check macOS. For instance, boot from the Recovery partition or create a second partition with a virgin system and try to copy the files causing issues.
Check the SSD.

Check SMART info of the SSD.
Best remove the SSD and place it either in an external (USB) enclosure or into a different machine. Then test your drive from there. You can also boot from an external drive by pressing alt during boot.
Also try to get hold of a Windows PC or boot from Bootcamp and use the Samsung your SSD with the Samsung Magician. However, keep in mind your SATA cable may be the culprit (see next step).

Check SATA cable: The SATA cables of the unibody MacBook Pros are known to cause all kinds of issues. In case your SSD proves to be ok, consider replacing the cable.


Can I use my Apple ID to download apps I've purchased onto a friend's iOS device? Im buying an iphone for my friend, which knows nothing about technology, im planning to download apps for him.

Can i use my apple id store  and download what I already purchased with my iphone (so that I can download them for free for him)?

If you choose to do so, your friend will not be able to update apps without knowing your password. If you give your friend your password, they will then be able to shop for apps using your account.  The other problem is that your friend may not be able to sync with his/her computer without erasing the apps.

The last problem is Apple restricts each Apple ID to a fixed number of devices in a rolling window. At the moment, I believe you generally get frozen after 10 devices in a short time. I was setting up a deployment of 100 iPads using iCloud backups, and we hit a 90 day freeze for that account after 10 devices hit the App Store. We didn't care about updating apps - the end users were to delete these free apps once training was completed and part of the training was for them to make their own accounts and re-download the things we "staged" for initial training.


WiFi reception booster for MacBook air I live temporary in Spain.

I have MacBook Air with OSX 10.8.

I have access to public WiFi but signal is week, and I do not want to hang over the balcony all the time :), or crack my neighbors (strong) wifi (WPA protected).

Is there a booster for WiFi signal reception, like a repeater (inverted router) or something like it.
I was thinking of a device that would connect to a wifi and then boost the same signal so I can use it inside my apartment.

My budget is limited, so i appreciate a low cost maximum effect solutions.

Any advice ?

The easiest way is to use a wifi repeater.  Many routers can be put into repeater mode.  Put the repeater on your porch.

Initially you have to attach the router to your laptop with an ethernet cable to configure it.  Directions vary between manufacturers, but in a nutshell, you want it to listen on whatever channel is the available one, then rebroadcast that on an un0ccupied channel at least 3 channel numbers away.  So if the current access point was on channel 2, you would want it to rebroadcast on 5 or above.

Google wi-fi repeater.  Try amazon.  Should be under 50 bucks.

A second solution that will work better, but is less convenient, is to put a wifi router on the porch, and put it in bridge mode, then connect to it with an ethernet cable.  This will give you full speed (repeaters cut your speed in half) and is less likely to cause/be subject to interference from other wifi points.


Why doesn't Automator service appear in iTunes? I'm trying to write an Automator service for iTunes so that I can immediately open a file from iTunes in VLC, so I don't have to do (show in finder, launch with other application, vlc).

I go to Automator, create a Service, in the top right dropdowns, I choose: "Service receives selected audio files in any application", and the script itself is just "Open Finder Items" with VLC.

However, the service doesn't appear. Not in finder, not in iTunes.. I'm very confused. Any thoughts what's going on? I tried restarting computer, restarting iTunes, all to no avail.

Thanks!

To get it to work in iTunes, you can try setting it up like this:

Service receives selected: text in: iTunes

Actions:

"Get Selected iTunes Tracks" - Get selected: tracks

"Open Finder items" - Open with: VLC


Maverick's installation: Can i install Mavericks on a non-case-sensitive partition? I'm trying to install photoshop on my iMac but it looks like I can't install Mavericks if I have a case-sensitive partition. Is it a known bug? Can I do anything to fix it?

There is already a question on Super User on how to install Adobe CS products on case sensitives partitions :

you can copy over an existing install on a case-sensitive filesystem and rename all the folders so they match.
Or Follow this procedure which seems to work with CS5.5, CS6 & CC.

An for your title question : Yes Mavericks can be install on non-case-sensitive partition. It't the default situation used by Apple on new Macs.


Why does Google Chrome launch multiple instances of Google Chrome Helper? I have Chrome open (Yosemite 10.1) and there are 7 instances of Google Chrome Helper running. There is a single tab open in the browser. I have 3 extensions installed AND running (1Password, JSON Formatter, and Postman).

Chrome has been a big problem for a while. Different builds have been really solid or really leaky and "crashy". This build (40.0.2214.45 beta (64-bit)) seems pretty unstable. Of course, I see the (beta) tag now and am wondering how to get to a stable release. Maybe that's my issue?

Google Chrome Helper instances are used for various plugins you may have installed. Unless a plugin is glitchy or doesn't play nice with other plugins, there is generally no problem having some or many Chrome Helper processes running.

This Wired article explains a bit about Chrome Helper.


Why does a system upgrade take so long if there are files in '/usr/local'? My recent upgrade to Yosemite (from Mavericks) took about 6 hours, nearly all of which time was used in processing the contents of /usr/local (e.g. TeX, etc.).

What is the upgrade process doing with these files that takes so long? Could I accelerate future updates by simply backing up these files, clearing the directory, and copying them manually after the update, or is the update process doing something critical with them?

The problem is only accute if you have a lot of files in /usr/local -- a few hundred files is not a problem. It needs to be many thousands of files. The reason, according to this post, is:

  Part of the upgrade involves moving /usr/local out of the way. The process of moving those files back after the upgrade is done one file at a time and seems very slow.

He goes on to recommend removing anything from your Homebrew installs that isn't currently necessary with the brew remove; brew cleanup command pair. You can also move it aside, temporarily, naming it something like /usr/local.mine and then move it back after the update -- though this can make working with your Mac slightly problematic if you've, for example, switched your default shell for your account to be the Homebrew-supplied zsh or something like that.

Personally I opted to clean up my Homebrew installs. I also removed any Homebrew-installed daemons (MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis) completely and shut them down. They're easy enough to get back after the installation is complete. In the end I had only a handful of Homebrew packages installed still that were very essential to me and the installation time wasn't too bad -- about 2 hours on an old iMac.

Of course, you can also wipe everything and just start again. First save everything you have installed:

brew list | sed s/\s+/\\n/g | tee my-brew-packages.txt

And now remove them all with:

cat ~/my-brew-packages.txt | xargs brew remove --force
brew cleanup --force

And to re-install things after you've updated:

cat ~/my-brew-packages.txt | xargs brew install


Using Late 2013 MacBook Pro with LG Ultrafine 4K Monitor - USB-C to Thunderbolt 2? I bought a used LG Ultrafine 4K Monitor with USB-C to Thunderbolt, the ones Apple are selling, for a good deal. I assumed I could make it work with a simple USB-C to HDMI cord, but this didn't work out.

Is there any adapter that can use my Thunderbolt 2 port with the USB-C on the monitor?

I've seen this one that looks like it's for use with old monitors and new laptops, but will it work if I plug it into the back of the monitor and then connect the Thunderbolt 2 to my computer?

https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-Adapter-Backward-Compatible-DisplayPort/dp/B019FPJDQ2/

No. You need a USB-C connection to work that display.

You’ll spend hundreds of dollars to translate the video between formats since it basically is a small computer / device that takes power and re-encodes the signal.

Far cheaper and less hassle to resell your display (or trade / buy-sell used Macs) to get your gear on USB-C or not on USB-C.


Downgrade 10.7.2 to 10.7.1? Is it possible to downgrade from Mac OS X 10.7.2 to 10.7.1 without deleting all files?

I want to do this because of this: https://superuser.com/questions/349740/mac-os-x-lion-10-7-2-update-breaks-ssl

No - but you can make a back up, erase and only install 10.7.1 and migrate the user and apps back from the backup.

If you run into oddball crashes - you can chase them down if the solution isn't obvious. You can then always go to 10.7.2 or worst case erase and go back to 10.7.2 and re-do the migration a second time from the snapshot you have now.

It's not generally good to go back, but sometimes you don't have the things that really matter or the side effects are manageable or you can re-set up those things by hand once you have discovered them.

Spotlight also makes it very easy to see what has been changed since you went to 10.7.2 and you could just revert to then and move those by hand.

Nothing about this is automatic, but it's certainly doable.


How can I create a gmail pop account in mac mail in Mac OS 10.6.6 I have enabled pop at gmail and successfully used it on other PCs.

On my mac (10.6.6) I go into Mail, I press the + to create a new account. There is no option to choose the Account Type anymore. Just the Name, email addr, and password. If I put in my gmail address, it just defaults to imap. I don't see a way to change it to pop anywhere.

I want to use pop as a way to backup my gmail to my mac.

How can I create a pop account for gmail?

Mail searches an online database to see how to connect to an account; it defaults to IMAP for GMail because that can work better than POP, but you can override it later.  Tell Mail.app not to take the account on line immediately, then edit the account to switch it from IMAP to POP.

(Personally, I'd switch GMail to IMAP instead.)


Transfering app after membership expired My membership expired. And I want to trasnfer my app to my new teams account.

It keeps saying I didn't accept master agreement. I saw this topic - What is the Master Agreement when trying to transfer an iOS app? - but I can't seem to find this.

I get lots of warnings that my membership has expired.

Is it required to have active membership in order to transfer? (this would majorly stink, because we did all the payments on the new account)

The super weird part is, I don't have in app purchases in this app. I have no idea why it's doing this to me.

Contact developer support from the new account and ask if hey can help. I’m guessing a one time transfer if you know exactly what you need and aren’t a pain in the Apple (pita) I could see them handling the transfer or re-activating the old account for a day to effect the transfer.

Seems like you could just scrape together the $100 as you didn’t plan ahead as the worst case scenario, but perhaps work with support if you want to keep your $100 and don’t mind waiting a bit to convince someone to help you out.

The risk is Apple can’t tell you’re who you say you are and then they have to deal with an improper transfer of someone else’s intellectual property and personal information. If they are open to liability in this request, you’ll likely never convince them to transfer and have to walk away from either the renewal fee or the abandoned apps.


Sign out of all devices iCloud I have someone cyber-stalking me who has somehow learned my iCloud password. I've changed it since, but they are still signed in to the "Find My iPhone" app and are able to make noises and alerts and possibly lock or erase my phone. How do I force a sign out of that app? On icloud.com, under the settings menu, I see the option "Sign out of all browsers currently signed in to iCloud.com", however I know from the notification email that they are accessing the phone via the iOS app. Thanks for any help

This should kick them out of all connections regardless of what they are using to connect.  Most (if not all)  iOS apps that need to use some sort of internet connection for functionality talk to a webserver using various methods of data exchange, but at the end of the day it's http/https and there is a session registered with the server. Delete that session and connection is cut.


How to check for "autopoweroff" option on a non-active profile? I would like to check the value of autopoweroff and autopoweroffdelay settings for the "Battery Power" profile while running "AC Power" profile (precisely regardless of what profile is currently active).

The pmset -g command returns only values for the current profile and -b option (apply the settings to battery) works only for setting the options not reading them (cannot be used with -g).

Is there any other way/command that would allow checking the values?

According to the manual pmset -g custom displays "custom settings for all power sources". It seems those "custom settings" are in fact all settings as displayed by pmset -g for current profile:

# pmset -g custom
Battery Power:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         0
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             0
 gpuswitch            2
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 displaysleep         2
 sleep                1
 acwake               0
 halfdim              1
 lessbright           1
 disksleep            10
AC Power:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         0
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             1
 gpuswitch            2
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 womp                 0
 displaysleep         10
 networkoversleep     0
 sleep                0
 acwake               0
 halfdim              1
 disksleep            10

Alternatively the values can be checked by directly reading from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

# cat /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>ActivePowerProfiles</key>
    <dict>
        <key>AC Power</key>
        <integer>-1</integer>
        <key>Battery Power</key>
        <integer>-1</integer>
    </dict>
    <key>Custom Profile</key>
    <dict>
        <key>AC Power</key>
        <dict>
            <key>AutoPowerOff Delay</key>
            <integer>14400</integer>
            <key>AutoPowerOff Enabled</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>DarkWakeBackgroundTasks</key>
            <true/>
            <key>Disk Sleep Timer</key>
            <integer>10</integer>
            <key>Display Sleep Timer</key>
            <integer>10</integer>
            <key>Display Sleep Uses Dim</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>GPUSwitch</key>
            <integer>2</integer>
            <key>Hibernate File</key>
            <string>/var/vm/sleepimage</string>
            <key>Hibernate Mode</key>
            <integer>3</integer>
            <key>PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>Standby Delay</key>
            <integer>10800</integer>
            <key>Standby Enabled</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>System Sleep Timer</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>TTYSPreventSleep</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>Wake On AC Change</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>Wake On Clamshell Open</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>Wake On LAN</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
        </dict>
        <key>Battery Power</key>
        <dict>
            <key>AutoPowerOff Delay</key>
            <integer>14400</integer>
            <key>AutoPowerOff Enabled</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>DarkWakeBackgroundTasks</key>
            <false/>
            <key>Disk Sleep Timer</key>
            <integer>10</integer>
            <key>Display Sleep Timer</key>
            <integer>2</integer>
            <key>Display Sleep Uses Dim</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>GPUSwitch</key>
            <integer>2</integer>
            <key>Hibernate File</key>
            <string>/var/vm/sleepimage</string>
            <key>Hibernate Mode</key>
            <integer>3</integer>
            <key>ReduceBrightness</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>Standby Delay</key>
            <integer>10800</integer>
            <key>Standby Enabled</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>System Sleep Timer</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>TTYSPreventSleep</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>Wake On AC Change</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>Wake On Clamshell Open</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>SystemPowerSettings</key>
    <dict>
        <key>DestroyFVKeyOnStandby</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>


How can I deinstall Drive Genius? I had installed a trial version of Drive Genius. Now I want to delete it.

I go to Applications list, it is not there. I search its name in SpotLight, it is not there either. But it keeps attaching its self to the menu bar at the top.

How can I deinstall Drive Genius?

From the Drive Genius 3 User Guide:

To completely remove Drive Genius 3 and its utilities from your hard disk, click on Uninstall from the Drive Genius 3 menu. A prompt will appear to confirm you want to uninstall the application and will require administrator authentication to complete the process:

Uninstall: Drive Genius 3 will remove only its support files from the operating system, but will leave the application and registration in its folders for future references.
Uninstall All: Drive Genius 3 will remove all its files, including the support files, registration files and move the application to the trash can.

In case you've already deleted parts of the installation, you may need to re-download/install the Demo version first (direct download link).


Does anybody use an external battery for iPhone? Do external batteries for iPhones work well?

I have an iPhone 4S

For example, is it true that I can charge up to 6 times my iphone with this product?

Yes - and most people I know fit into strongly preferring a rechargeable solution when they use the device regularly to extend power on the go.

Those that use the device occasionally or on long trips seem to gravitate to an inexpensive sled for AA batteries and carry a mix of expensive lithium cells and typical non-rechargeable cells.


Why can't I quit Finder with the shortcut (cmd+q) I usually quit my applications with the shortcut Command Q but it doesn't work for the Finder app. I can hide it with  Command  H but I can't quit it.

Any suggestion to solve this?

Finder isn’t like a regular application. It has to be running to manage certain things. I forget exactly what all the things are but I think it includes the desktop icons. Because of this Apple made it so you can’t use CMD + Q to quit the application.

To close a Finder Window

The shortcut to close a finder window(so like when you open a folder) is CMD + W

To relaunch Finder

If finder stops responding you can relaunch it by going into Force Quit and relaunching it. The force quit menu is accessed by clicking on the Apple in the top left and then clicking force quit, then you select finder and click relaunch.

Quit Finder by using terminal

If you do actually need to quit finder you can do so by running a terminal command.
Run the command:

killall Finder

Adding the Quit option to Finder

As it says at this answer,
Running the command defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES && killall Finder will give the Quit option and will allow the shortcut CMD+Q


Archiving mail from Mail.app In Microsoft Outlook I archive my mail by creating various archive files on the local disk. Can I do something similar to this with Mail.app? I would like to archive some of my iCloud email on my local machine.

If you want a folder that's accessible from within Mail, you can create a local mailbox (using "Mailbox" > "New Mailbox…") and then copy the messages you want from your iCloud mailbox across to it.

You can also use "Mailbox" > "Export Mailbox…" to export mail to a file on your hard disk - however you can't browse this from within Mail without importing it again (using "File" > "Import Mailboxes…").

I'm almost certain that Mail will be keeping iCloud messages on your hard disk in any case. OS X Mail keeps all its data in conventional (for Unix) mbox files. You can find them in:

/Users/<your username>/Library/Mail/V2

(Note however since OS X 10.7, the Library directory is hidden by default.)

Even if the account were to stop working, you should still be able to see all of the mail in it. It would only be removed if you were to delete the account.


Upgrading to OS X El Capitan while maintaining dual boot I've been running a MacBook Pro with OS X Yosemite and dual booting with Linux, and I would like to upgrade to OS X El Capitan. However, I'm afraid that upgrading would break the ability to dual boot.

How can I proceed safely with the upgrade?

In theory, it shouldn't matter, when you install OS X El Capitan, you can select the partition you want the operating system to install on, which surprisingly, you can even select a USB. If you are extremely concerned with interfering with another disk, then make a bootable USB. Follow the instructions from the Apple official website. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 There are many Youtube videos on how to do that too.

After you finish making the bootable USB. Shut your computer down. Plug the USB into one of the USB ports, start your computer while holding down the option key, and it will bring you a list of bootable disks. Select the "Install El Capitan" (or a name that is similar to this) disk, which should also appear as a USB icon instead of a hard disk icon, and it will lead you to the installation. Make sure you select the Macintosh HD hard disk as the disk you want to install OS X El Capitan on, and it shouldn't interfere with your Linux system. At least it didn't interfere with my Windows system.