How do I make a bootable USB OS X installer on a Mac? Does anyone have a Terminal command-line recipe for making a new bootable USB flash drive for one of the new MacBook Air's?  Is there a way to dd copy the USB boot device that comes in the box and make the new copy bootable?  I'd like to make a new backup copy of the USB rescue device for my MBA, preferably on a much larger flash drive with room for a backup of some of my working directories.

Added:

And is it possible to make, not just a rescue drive, but a bootable USB drive that will boot a fully updated version of the OS (say 10.6.8 or later)?  If so how on a MacBook Air 11, and how big a USB stick will this require?

If Apple's supported method of using the createinstallmedia tool doesn't work, you can try other options below:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 - Create a bootable installer for OS X

With OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, or Mavericks, you can use a USB flash drive or other removable media as a startup disk from which to install OS X.

Really - try the above if you can, but as an alternative, here is a simple recipe for making a USB version of the OS X installer + associated tools. (Migration Assistant, Disk Utility, Network Utility, Terminal (that auto mounts your internal drive as needed), Firmware Utility and Password Reset Utility.

1) Use Disk Utility backup/restore to image whatever Snow Leopard DVD you prefer onto a HFS+ formatted GUID USB drive. I usually first create a IMG of the DVD, but it should work in one shot. Watch for restore errors - you may need the Disk Utility menu command Images -> Scan images for restore... before restoring an IMG to the USB drive.

2) bless the USB drive by selecting it in Startup Disk or using the command line. (Note - the manual page for bless may be moved, but the command still works on Mojave to bless an alternate boot. You can’t set this to be the default boot with System Integrity Protection but for this use, bless should still work.

It's not that hard to make a bootable image and far more secure to DIY. It also avoids the need of downloading commercial software from the internet. Happy media shifting all!

If you simply want a bootable thumb drive, just install OSX onto that volume - turning off all the extras you may not need. You can have your USB on one side and the USB install disk on the other to make your bootable drive ensuring all the Air drivers are on your USB bootable drive (which is often an issue when using another install's image - sometimes the drivers are not all there on older builds of the OS)

The best trick I have when you don't have enough space on USB to create the final updated version is to stage the bootable image by install first to a 25G partition on an external hard drive.

You can finish installing with lots of free space on the HS, run all the updates newer than your installer (10.6.8 for example), make an admin account, install the tools and apps you need. At the end of the process,  you then thin out the things you don't need. DaisyDisk or WhatSize will show you all the large files and libraries. You can safely get rid of a lot of iLife and the associated Application Support. WhatSize has many options to strip out unneeded files, localizations and PPC code. Once you have slimmed down the bootable image on the HD partition, use the trick below to get it on the USB drive. Leopard was a tight fit in 8G but Snow Leopard is lighter and doesn't need to diet as much.

Edit: Here are terminal commands for rolling your own installer like the (read-only) one that ships with current MacBook Air. I have a Snow Leopard DVD as /dev/disk5 and my USB is /dev/disk6. The man pages for diskutil and asr are helpful if you run into little gotchas or have different needs than a basic one partition drive.

$diskutil list
/dev/disk5
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *7.8 GB     disk5
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk5s1
   2:         Apple_Driver_ATAPI                         1.0 GB     disk5s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X Install DVD    6.7 GB     disk5s3
/dev/disk6
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                                                   *8.5 GB     disk6
$diskutil partitionDisk disk6 GPT HFS+ MacUSB 100%
Started partitioning on disk6
Unmounting disk
Creating partition map
Waiting for disks to reappear
Formatting disk6s2 as Mac OS Extended with name MacUSB
Finished partitioning on disk6
/dev/disk6
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.5 GB     disk6
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk6s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS MacUSB                  8.2 GB     disk6s2
$sudo asr restore --source /dev/disk5s3 --target /dev/disk6s2 --erase
    Validating target...done
    Validating source...done
    Erase contents of /dev/disk6s2 (/Volumes/MacUSB)? [ny]: y
    Validating sizes...done
    Restoring  ....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
    Verifying  ....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
    Remounting target volume...done
$sudo bless --mount /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD\ 1 --setBoot

Note: that the USB drive was renamed to be the same as the installer and the mount point in /Volumes has a space and a 1 tacked on the end.

Note: SIP ensures the —setBoot portion of the commands above will fail. Remove that portion and/or ignore any errors. You will need to select the USB another way than having bless perform a one step command. This is another reason to just use createinstallmedia from Apple to perform this.


iPhone 4 passcode lock disabled and no access to iTunes My phone is disabled and I have no access to iTunes. It is telling me to try again in 23,805,632 seconds but of course I can't wait 50 years!

You can quickly get going again by erasing the device and restoring from iTunes.

The backup doesn't need to be in iTunes, but if you don't have a backup, you may be starting over.

See http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1212 for an up to date explanation from Apple as well as more details on the process for your computer or OS of choice.


Standard Installation Locations for git repositories (e.g. jQuery) I've found a few different answers, and was curious if there is a standard between it being in a folder under $HOME or something like /var?

No standard but if a repo then it is only writeable by you so under $HOME

If it is on a server and no access except by http or git protocols then anywhere (and some setups might use var I would use /git)


App windows move spontaneously on display wake (2 monitors) - OS X 10.8.3 OS X 10.8.3
Mac Mini Late 2012, 2.6Ghz quad-core i7, set up with 2 displays, like this:

     Thunderbolt Port          HDMI Port
     /*****************|------|**********\_______________
    |                  | Mac  |          |               |
 ---------------       | Mini |          | DVI Display   |
 | DVI Display |       |------|          | (2nd monitor) |
 |   Primary   |                         |_______________|
 |_____________|

Problem: When I "display sleep" the system (by moving the mouse to a hot corner, to sleep just the displays, not the entire system) --

on display-wake, all windows are moved back to the primary window.

I.e. if I had, say, a Mail.app, a Finder, and Preview.app window open on 2nd display, then I put the display to sleep, wait 10 seconds, then wake the displays, all the windows are moved to the Primary display, even though the 2nd display's desktop background shows up normally & simultaneously w/ the Primary display.

It's as if the 2nd display had been physically disconnected & reconnected from the Mini each time.

Here's why I don't suspect any software or preference issue:

The system is booted off an external SSD running OS X 10.8.3. This exact same SSD was previously used to boot a 2011 Mac Book Pro (model ID 8,2), connected to the same 2 displays, and running in closed-lid mode, and this problem did not occur.

The only differences are in hardware:
a) Now using a late-2012 Mac Mini 6,2 instead of a MacBookPro8,2 as the CPU.
b) 2nd display now attached through an HDMI --> DVI converter dongle. Previously it was attached through a Newer-brand USB --> DVI adapter.

Another bit of info -- if I quickly sleep-wake the display, before the display has a chance to actually complete its "go to sleep / power off" mode changes, the problem does not occur. Only happens if I let >5 seconds go by, long enough for the external display to go to sleep.

I'm guessing the 2nd display is not an Apple display.

I believe what is happening is that the display is, in fact, going to sleep, but in such a way that the Mac thinks it has been powered off.

Replacing the  HDMI --> DVI converter with an Apple Thunderbolt --> DVI converter is your best bet at fixing this.


How to write a script that runs whenever a new file is added to a specific directory? I've never written a script for OS X, and I don't really know which scripting tool i'll use for this task.

Here's a pseudo code for the script I want to build :

whenever a new file X is added to the directory D do:
copy X
paste X to the directory B

I don't want someone to code this for me, I want to know what tool (language maybe) should I use to write this script, and how to make OS X runs it whenever the event occurs.

I don't know what to tag this. Please contribute.
Please redirect if this isn't the right forum for this question.

Very simple using Automator & Folder Actions.

Make a new Folder Action, then set the source to Folder A
select a Finder action from the left column,
drag 'Copy Finder Items' from the centre to the right
set the destination to Folder B.
Give it a name & save.

Every time anything is added to A it will automatically copy to B.


Adding newline to lists inside Notes app When I'm typing a list, I very often want additional newlines between some (or all) of the items to provide some clearer separation. In many apps that allow lists, you can type Alt+Enter or Command+Enter to add a newline without adding a new list item. However, this doesn't seem to work in Notes.

Is there something similar for the Notes app so that I can add newlines in the middle of a list without creating a new list item?

I'm assuming your question is about the Notes app on OSX.

When typing your list hold Cntl + Enter to add a newline.  After the newline, just hit Enter again to resume the numbering.  This will give you a blank line between numbers in the list.


Turn off macbook screen when connected to a monitor When connecting my 2017 15' macbook pro to a 4k external monitor it gets a little bit warmer (65° celsius, while it's only at 35 without the monitor) than I want it to be, even if it's just idling.
Since I don't ever use the macbook screen as a secondary screen when connected, I thought I might turn it off completely and hopefully cool the machine down a little bit. Is there any way of doing this? I figured out I could just set the brightness to 0 but will this prevent the machine from actually rendering images?

If the idea was to just hide doubled picture on laptop display, you can just lower brightness level to 0 using fn + F1


Sierra won't connect to more than one SMB server simultaneously Background

In our environment we have a login script that runs to connect users to the network shares. This worked flawlessly until some of the Macs were upgraded to macOS Sierra, when we were suddenly unable to connect to one of the SMB shares using the server's IP address.

There are three Windows servers that the Macs need to connect to on login - one with IP address 192.168.65.3, one with IP address 192.168.65.30, and the final one with IP address 192.168.65.25 (this one connects using Acronis Access Connect and AFP).

The first SMB share from 192.168.65.3 connects successfully with no issues, then when attempting to connect to the second SMB share - 192.168.65.30 - the Mac fails to connect. Finally the Macs completes the login script by connecting successfully to the AFP share - 192.168.65.25.

What I've Done

I have discovered that there is no issue when attempting to connect to the hostname of the second SMB server - server2. Using the connection string smb://server2/share_name works perfectly where smb://192.168.65.30/share_name doesn't work at all.

Next I attempted to capture the packets using Wireshark - I set the filter to ip.src == 192.168.65.30 or ip.dst == 192.168.65.30 but when I attempted to connect to the share there were no packets that were sent from/to that IP address.

So I removed the filter and tried to connect again - I could see that there were packets being sent to the network address 192.168.65.255 to resolve the IP address 192.168.65.30 to a hostname using the NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS) instead of treating it as an IP address. When it failed to resolve the IP to another IP, the process of connecting failed.

TLDR

Sierra thinks an IP address is actually a hostname during SMB connection and is attempting to resolve it to an IP address, which is obviously unsuccessful. It doesn't treat all IP addresses this way as another IP on the same subnet connects successfully.

This occurs on all Macs that are upgraded to Sierra.

So...

Why is macOS treating this IP address as a hostname? Is there a way I can force it to treat it as a normal IP address?

Update

I've noticed that after a while (maybe 10 minutes?) of the machines being on and logged in, it will actually connect successfully to the IP address that has been causing issues.

Update 2

So - I have noticed that I am able to connect to the second IP address - 192.168.65.30 - if I am currently not connected to the first IP address - 192.168.65.3 - and vice-versa.

On the second connection it attempts to connect to the share name on the first server that was connected to. For example, if I connect to smb://192.168.65.3/share_1 first then attempt to connect to smb://192.168.65.30/share_2, the packets say that it actually attempts to connect to smb://192.168.65.3/share_2, which doesn't exist, and hence the connection fails to be established.

In fact, I've found that any second SMB connection attempt fails! This is reproducible by upgrading to Sierra and then just attempting to connect to two different SMB shares.

Update 3

The name resolution was a red herring - I now know this issue to be related to opening a connection to a second SMB server. Sierra will attempt to use the same IP address it used for the first connection, and the share name specified in the second connection. A workaround would be to use the hostname, however there are issues associated with this for us when connecting from outside the office using VPN.

This may be a reverse lookup - an attempt to resolve host name by IP. Please check the opcode... Mac may need this to display host name rather than its IP. Not sure about Sierra, but Win clients, as well as some other clients (like NQ, for example) do this. If server does not answer Mac may postpone or even fail the connect.


How do I remove the restriction passcode on my iPad? My younger brother, while playing with my iPad, switched on the restriction passcode for in-app purchase and when asking him he had forgotten the password. I asked some of my friends, they told me that there is no other way than restore. Upon hearing them I was really sad to know that I have to lose all my work.

I will be pleased if anyone could tell me some other way get the passcode than to restoring it. If any thing can be done after jail breaking it, it will not be a problem for me, I'll do it.

If restoring is only the method please tell me about restoring it and what I will lose after restoring my iPad as I do not have any backup.

The restrictions password can be reset by adding a PIN to the Springboard preferences file in iOS 6.  Easier said than done!

The instructions below worked for my iPad - and no jailbreak required.

They are, with a few minor changes, from Apple Support Community starting from about the 8th page:

Download iBackupBot
Connect iPhone/iPod/iPad via USB
Backup device to iTunes
Close iTunes (leave your device plugged in to your computer)
Open iBackupBot - this will open all device backups that it can find
Select your backup from the left column
Sort right hand pane by Path and locate "Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist" (there may be two files named this; try them both) and double-click to open
Extracted it (and only it) to the desktop.  Do this by Checkmark the file, then select the Extract Icon (or File - Export menu), then select the checkbox that says only that file and the other checkbox that says something about Info about the file.  Two files will appear on your desktop - one ending in plist and the other ending in .info.
Edit com.apple.springboard.plist with you favourite plist editor (e.g. Xcode)
Look for and change the string for "SBParentalControlsFailedAttempts" to 0
Add in

<key>SBParentalControlsPIN</key>
<string>1234</string>

after

<dict>
    <key>countryCode</key>
    <string>us</string>
</dict>

Save your changes, and return to iBackupBot
Import the modified plist.  It is now in the backup!
Exit iBackupBot
Open iTunes and use Restore Backup to your device
After restore is done and phone restarts the password should be 1234.

Amazing!  But use at your own risk.

And, just to repeat, I got all this from an Apple Support Community
discussion.  Nothing is original.


iPhone vibrates on every Viber text message received Even when my viber application is open on a specific discussion, it continues to vibrate on every received message part of the current discussion.

How can I turn off this very annoying feature for Viber discussions ?

or, if not possible,

How can I turn off the whole Viber notifications vibration ?

I currently use an iPhone 5

It looks like the feedback has been acted upon, and it is now possible to turn off vibrations and sounds while you are using the app already. A very welcome change indeed! (Not sure which version it was implemented in) You can do it by going to "More" tab on Viber, and opening Settings -> Notifications, and turn off "In-App vibrations". See the official Viber documentation here. Excerpt:

  In-App Vibrate

  When this option is enabled, you will receive a vibration for every incoming notification.


Getting the First Cell NOT Containing Certain Text in Numbers I have a table in Numbers, and I'm trying to get the value of the first cell that contains the character …. In order to do so, I wanted to use MATCH(), but had no luck after I realized it could only traverse 2 dimensions. Instead, I've set up a table on another sheet that looks like so:

The numbers at the far left are the row numbers of the rows in the table with the actual data. Row Contains Cell is exactly what it sounds like: whether or not that row contains the desired cell. To figure that out, I used MATCH() per row.

What I need to figure out now is how to find which row is not the wrong row. It would be easy to look for a cell that says not, but I need to find a cell with a variable value that is not equal to not. I want to find the row name (or value of the cell to the left, in column A) for that cell (in this case, 2) and the value of the cell itself in column B.

What would be the formula for Correct Row and Correct Column, given what I'm looking for?

I know people have already done this for Excel, but I can't figure it out for Numbers.

I'm open to solutions that require Applescript.

As it turns out, I've figured it out. It did require Applescript. What I did was loop through the rows and selected the values in the row where "not" was not present in column B. Here's the Applescript I used via Automator:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Numbers"
        tell table "Calculator 1" of sheet 2 of document of front window
            set aRange to "A2:A22"
            set bRange to "B2:B22"
            set aRows to the rows of range aRange
            set bRows to the rows of range bRange

            set correctRow to -1
            set correctCol to -1

            repeat with i from 1 to count of bRows
                set aCell to "A" & (i + 1)
                set bCell to "B" & (i + 1)

                if value of (cell bCell) is not "not" then
                    set correctRow to value of (cell aCell)
                    set correctCol to value of (cell bCell)
                end if
            end repeat

            set the value of (cell "C2") to correctRow
            set the value of (cell "C4") to correctCol
        end tell

        display dialog "Updated!"
    end tell

    return input
end run

Keep in mind that the cells I used are specific to my spreadsheet, but generally this method could be applied for any 2D MATCH() function.

Create a table has the name of the each row in each row of the header column, and use the desired MATCH() function per row in this way (see the picture of the table in my question).
Use this Applescript to loop through the MATCH() functions and find the correct row and column. Change "C2" to whichever cell will be your Correct Row and "C4" to whichever cell will be your Correct Column.
Use the INDEX() function to get the value of the cell and put it into another cell, using the coordinates the Applescript calculated for you.


Spotify always starts and I’d like it not to on my Mac My computer just ran out of batteries, so I plugged it in and started it up. Spotify began to open, but I did not want it to be open so I used right click-force quit. The application stayed open, but did not open any windows and said it was Not Responding.

I attempted to force quit it again multiple ways, and to uninstall the application but nothing has worked.

Where is a Spotify uninstall document or tool so I can remove it?

Have you tried disabling it from the startup login? If not try this.

Click on the Apple menu > System Preferences > System > Uses & Groups.
Click on Login Items.
The list of apps which are automatically launched when you login, will be displayed in this section.
Uncheck the items you don't really need.


how do I merge the tabs of two open Preview windows if I have more than two open? This is doable in Safari, but I don't know how to do it for Preview.

Maybe I misunderstand your question, but here's what I think you're asking:

With two (or more) open windows in Preview (macOS 10.15.x & probably other recent versions):

In the menu bar, while one of the Preview windows is in focus:

click the menu bar item labeled Window
select the Merge All Windows item from the drop-down menu
all open Preview windows are merged into one window, and each (former) window is now a tab in the single Preview window

You can also drag tabs between windows in Finder. With two open Finder windows, and both windows set to View -> Show Tab bar, just drag a tab in one window into the tab bar area in the other window.

AFAICT, it works the same my browser windows do.

This may all seem a bit confusing. If so, here's a video that may explain it more clearly.


An endless supply of 1's for securely overwriting and erasing a disk I vaguely remember hearing about disk wiping, and that you have to flood the disk with zeros, flood it with ones, flood it with random data, and repeat this quite a few times. This is just a general question, as I am not going to have to wipe spy files or other top secret information off a disk. I figured I could use

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskname

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/diskname

But then, I realized that there wasn't (as far as I know) a file for infinite ones. Two questions... Is there either an alternative or a solution, and would the ones be necessary?

The file for endless ones is located in /usr/bin/yes 1 - you can often use the backtick character ` to execute that program in place, but you could also set up a named pipe if you really wanted a place to get ones.

Rather than use dd - you might have much better luck with a tool designed specifically for the task.

https://github.com/rentzsch/stressdrive - source code to verify 100% overwrite
diskutil zeroDisk disk3
diskutil secureErase 4 disk3

The level for secureErase can be 0-4 according to the man page and your taste for the number and types of overwrites.


Are dustproof screen protectors for real? With search engines, I can find supposedly dustproof screen protectors for sale?
e.g.:
http://www.amazon.ca/Clear-Scratch-Resistant-Screen-Protectors/dp/B003JBRSXY
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPhone-Protector-Washable-Resistant/dp/B00A2A0D7S

Do these screen protectors actually repel dust? Do they actually end up less dusty than other screens/screen protectors?

The point of these protectors is not to keep dust off the screen protector but the device. They are Scratch/Dust resistant. With all protector, they will get scratch, your device will not. That is what they are say, not that it will help your screen, but your device.


How can I use tmutil to figure out which files just got deleted? I'm on Lion and until ten minutes ago I didn't know that the nifty new tmutil existed. But now I'm a little uncertain with all its options and sub-commands which to use to try and figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

A program ran amuck and started deleting files from ~. It made only a little progress before I stopped it, but doubtless I lost some files. I just can't tell out of a drive with hundreds of thousands of files, which ones went away. I know there were some configuration files (for example .bash_profile) because those were right there in that folder, but doubtless it went off in some depth first rampage so no telling what got deleted and from where.

I can't just do a restore of /Users/John (the Mac OS prevents it), I can't restore all the files inside of /Users/John using the GUI (the Finder ignores all the .something files and folders, some of which I know were deleted), so my current hope is to figure out from the command line exactly which files got the axe and somehow restore only those from my Time Machine backup.

In other words... help.

Run

tmutil listbackups

to get the list of snapshots available. Pick the one before the problem occured and run

tmutil compare YOUR-SNAPSHOT-HERE | cut -c33- | grep /Users/YOUR-USERNAME

to get a list of differences between then and now. If you leave out the cut part you may also get some indication concerning the actual difference (but it's more difficult to use the result afterwards).


How to Increase LaunchBar Width? Is there a way of increasing the width of the LaunchBar bar? Especially when I enter something that results in a web page, this width is insufficient for showing the full title, not even talking about what I entered.

Yes.

Move your mouse curser to the left/right edge of the launch bar. Then you can increase the width.
Use ctrl+⇧+←/→ to change the width in pre-defined increments.


What sets my Java Virtual Machine? I'm not understanding how my Java environment is getting set up.  If I have multiple versions of Java installed how does the correct version get selected when I start a Java dependent application?

I have both Apple's original 1.6 version of Java and Sun's more recent 1.8 installed.

If I type java -version I get

java version "1.8.0_05"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_05-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.5-b02, mixed mode)`

ls -l /usr/bin/java produces lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    74 Jun 16   2014 /usr/bin/java -> /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java where Current is pointed at Apple's 1.6 Java install.

In your current terminal session you can select the JVM using
/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8 see java_home --help for more options.

For GUI applications you should set JAVA_HOME as an environment variable.  Setting Environment variables in Mac OS is explained in Environment variables in Mac OS X on StackOverflow. Be aware that ~/.launchd.conf is deprecated: man launchd.conon Yosemite

  ...launchd.conf is no longer respected by the system. ...


Where are stored C "object" and "executable" files in Xcode? Platform:
OS X: Yosemite 10.10.4; Xcode: v6.4 (6E35b); MacbookPro 15" Retina (mid-2015).

Fact:
As C compiler and linker (upon standard) create .o and executable file(s)

Questions:

Where (please provide path, or tell where I can configure by myself one) are those files stored by Xcode?
Is this executable portable such that it can be run on Linux and Windows?
Does Xcode gives same results (for obj and executable) as if I perform compilation manually in MacOS terminal?
Is it possible in Xcode separately compile and separately link? If yes - please describe how?
What compiler (type and version) exactly Xcode uses to compile?
In general, regarding C and Java languages especially, how common is it for programmers who do not develop only for OS X or iOS to use Xcode?

The files are stored in the project directory; in Xcode, find the file you'd like to see where is, right-click it, and choose "Show in Finder".
Nope. You'll have to recompile for other platforms, and possibly change code to be more portable. (That last, of course, depends on what libraries you use.)
Probably. Xcode may set some compiler flags you wouldn't in the terminal. Look in your project settings for these.
I would expect so, but I do not know how.
Clang from the LLVM project. Apple used to use gcc.

This is from my Yosemite (10.10.4) Mac with Xcode 6.4:

$ clang --version
Apple LLVM version 6.1.0 (clang-602.0.53) (based on LLVM 3.6.0svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin14.4.0
Thread model: posix

Amusingly, gcc also is actually clang:

$ gcc --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.10.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 6.1.0 (clang-602.0.53) (based on LLVM 3.6.0svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin14.4.0
Thread model: posix

If you want to develop native Mac or iOS apps, you pretty much have to use Xcode. Java apps are not native, and you cannot write Java code in Xcode. (One used to be able to write Java in Xcode back before OS X 10.4, before the Cocoa-Java bridge was deprecated.)


Dollar sign in mdfind shell command I'm a newbie in shell scripting. What's the difference between these two commands? What's the use of the dollar sign?

mdfind $'kMDItemFSName="*iValet\'s*"c'

mdfind 'kMDItemFSName="*iValet\'s*"c'

A dollar sign before a single-quoted string is just another type of string, but it allows C-like escape characters, like \n and \'.

It was used in the command you mentioned because it contains an escape for the single quote—normal single quoted strings do not allow any escapes at all, including escapes of the '. Backslashes are interpreted literally. So by using $'…' it avoided escaping the double quotes, and allowed the string to have a ' in it.

There is some more information on this type of string quoting here on the Bash Hackers Wiki.


How to improve into vim of MacOS Mojave the speed of vertical scroll with bottom/up keys? I transfer the original post from StackOverflow (Original post) to here since this is about Apple specificity.

I have a new macbook with Mojave and vim already installed.

Unfortunately, even for small source files, the cursor is very fast when I browse the current part of file where I am located but it becomes very slow when I am over this current page (the same thing occurs if I am over or lower this part) with down/up keys.

I don't talk about "mouse scrolling speed" but scrolling with down/up keys.

I saw and tried to apply different suggested solutions on web but none of these work for me (disable cursorline, using an empty ~/.vimrc , etc ...).

Maybe threre is a conflict with some options in my ~/.vimrc.
Here below my ~/.vimrc:

set encoding=utf-8
scriptencoding utf-8
set ic
command Il :%s/^/\=line('.'). ' '
set hlsearch
set shiftwidth=2        " number of spaces to use for auto indent
set autoindent          " copy indent from current line when starting a new line
set nu
syntax on               " syntax highlighting
set backspace=indent,eol,start " delete with backspace
"TOhtml
let html_use_css=1
let html_number_lines=1
let html_no_pre=0
highlight DiffAdd    cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
highlight DiffDelete cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
highlight DiffChange cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
highlight DiffText   cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=88 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red

I have changed into System Preferences the delay between 2 repeated keys to a small value :

So, into the default Terminal of Mojave macbook, I can move quickly with left/right keys on the command line.

Is there a relation between this small delay I have set and this slow scroll vertically with donw/up keys into vim ?

Another bug which must be known is that some commented code parts (for example when editing Python code with vim) appears as not commented when scrolling with down/up keys and also the contrary occurs : anyone has already got this strange behavior ? this problem doesn't happen when I browse file with CTRL+F or CTRL+B shortcuts.

Any help is welcome, Regards

UPDATE 1 :

Finally, I get to increase speed with the following link :

https://rehmann.co/blog/better-key-rates-osx/

I  decided to  switch  to iterm2.  So, as partial conclusion, the solution was to set fatest options in System Preferences and put into ~/.bashrc :

#disable special characters when holding keys
defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

# normal minimum is 15 (225 ms)
defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -float 10.0
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -float 10.0

# normal minimum is 2 (30 ms)
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -float 1.0
defaults write -g KeyRepeat -float 1.0
############# Enable spees ######################

It might be even too fast. That's why I wonder if there is a way to apply this big speed only for selected keys,  i.e in my case, I would like to have this behavior for only down/up and left/right keys and NOT for the others keys (letters or special characters) ?

Is it possible to get this behavior ?

UPDATE 2 : Ok, I have finally found the trick : in iterm2 terminal, there is a GPU rendering option on below image :

If you have no power on, GPU rendering was by default disable like, so uncheck the first box to be able to benefit from GPU rendering when computer is on battery :

That's all !

How to improve into vim of MacOS Mojave the speed of vertical scroll with bottom/up keys?

You didn't tell which Vim's variant you use, whereas there's no such thing as "standard Vim" in MacOS. In fact lots of things aren't described either, including Terminal's window geometry (the more text is shown at once, the more CPU cycles it'd be needed to scroll it), Terminal's active profile (some of them are slimmer and others have somewhat complex graphics thanks to additional effects — "Silver Aerogel" is one example).

I use homebrew's version of Vim and can tell that its scrolling is quite fast (at least there's no slowness) both in Terminal and in iTerm2.

Hence, a few suggestions that logically follows:

Try changing either Vim or terminal (or both).
Try using GUI version (gvim) and compare its scrolling performance.

You can give a try to Activity Monitor's CPU monitoring (with shortest update interval possible) to see if it shows any major CPU consuming processes during scrolling in Vim.


Should I use the same Apple ID for iCloud and iTunes? Should I use the same Apple ID for iCloud and the iTunes store?

My immediate assumption was "sure, of course, keep it simple", but today I read the following recommendation:

  One potential problem that users of Apple’s iCloud and other services can easily fall into is the overuse of a single account across the services used on their devices—for example, using the same Apple ID for both iCloud and the iTunes store. The iTunes store links your credit card data to your Apple ID for music and application purchases, as well as in-app purchases. It stores your contact information and address as well. So it’s a potential source of even bigger headaches if it’s exposed along with your iCloud account.

... with the obvious implication that you should not use the same Apple ID for both iCloud and the iTunes store.  So, what is the best practice?  What are the tradeoffs?

Related: Are there disadvantages to using different Apple IDs for iCloud and Store purchases?; Is it a bad idea to have a shared Apple ID for purchases that also is used for iCloud?; How many Apple IDs should one household have?.  However, those questions do not address security concerns.

In any of the common scenarios in which you store your Store credentials on devices under the control of others, it makes good security sense to have those be different from the ones you use for iCloud.

For example, it is common to share music among family members by using an Apple ID for purchases on all of the family's machines. If that Apple ID were the same as the one you used for iCloud, then (unless you can be sure that all family members have secured their machines) anyone who got his hands on one of those machines could potentially gain access to your e-mail, calendar, and documents (and, in typical configurations, could even log on to your machine if he had access to it).


How can I make allow users with older versions of iOS to download an older version of my app I've updated my app and due to some of the functions I'm releasing it has to be for iOS 10 and up.  I understand that there is a way for users that have not upgraded to iOS 10 to be able to get the older version of my app but I haven't been able to figure out how to enable that in the app store.  I just tested on a device and currently if you have iOS 9 it will tell you that you can't get the app because it is only supported on iOS 10.  No option to download the previous version.

According to the redit article below Apple enabled the behavior I want.  I just don't know how to turn it on for my app.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1mjw36/people_with_old_ios_devices_you_can_now_install/

The feature has been around for a number of years. It's enabled for every app by default and an opt-out for developers per app version. You can remove an older app version from download through iTunes Connect → My Apps → app → App Store → Pricing & Availability → Last-Compatible Version Settings → Available Versions.
The key information as to why you are seeing the feature not working is mentioned in this page:

Some of your customers may not have a device that's compatible with your latest app version. To allow them to continue using your app, we make the last-compatible version of your app available to them.
If one or more of your app versions have significant usability or legal issues, such as infringement, deselect it below. This isn't recommended for any other reason. Any version you deselect won't be available for redownload from iTunes in the Cloud. You can't deselect your current App Store version.

iTunes Connect Last-Compatible Version Settings, emphasis mine
Downloading a previous version of an app requires the app be downloaded from iTunes in the Cloud, i.e. the app must be in the user's purchase history. This means it does not apply to new downloads, but rather re-downloads.
For a user to download an app which requires a later version of iOS, they must first either:

purchase/get the app on a compatible device
purchase/get the app in iTunes

This adds the app to the user's purchase history and is now eligible for last-compatible version download through the feature popup as you mention.
sample:


What GPU functions or capabilities are behind AirPlay mirroring? The product page for AirPlay states that advanced hardware acceleration is used to make mirroring to an Apple TV possible. The footnote shows that only Mid 2011 Macs and newer can use this function. The graphics capabilities of many recent Macs are very capable, so has anyone figured out what exactly is being done or required of the hardware to do this sort of network mirroring? (Might the GPU be handling the encryption for the OS or some other very new feature of a graphics system?)

There's some misinformation going on at the moment on what exactly is needed for Macs to support AirPlay Mirroring. The cultofmac article correctly states direct access to the GPU for H264 encoding but this is supported on Macs older than the one's listed to support AirPlay Mirroring. So this isn't the main requirement.

The really important feature to make AirPlay Mirroring work is Intel's QuickSync baked into Sandy Bridge CPUs. And only the newer devices listed by Apple have that. So the main requirement for AirPlay Mirroring is a specific CPU feature, not GPU.


Time Machine files cannot be erased I put Mavericks on my iMac and Time Machine quit updating.  I just want to erase all the TM files on the external HD, but cannot.  Looks like reformating is the only answer. Any solutions? Using SuperDuper! now.

Deleting Time Machine backups can take a very long time, since they can contain hundreds of thousands of files. Moving the files to the trash can take a long time, emptying the trash can take a long time, and using command line "rm" commands can take a long time. By long time I mean tens of hours.

Usually the fasted way to remove such numbers of files is to use Disk Utility to erase and/or reformat and/or repartition the drive. Copy anything you don't want lost off of the drive, reformat it, and start the TM process again.


Extract wordlist from system dictionaries? Is it possible to extract plain text wordlists from the system dictionaries in Yosemite?

Indeed it's possible to extract dictionaries:

Someone else already investigated the issue and published the result in his blog.

The quintessence:

Copy the code below and paste it in a *.c document named dedict.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include "zlib.h"

#define CHUNK 16384

/*
 40 Length of the zlib stream
 4c 0020
 54 0275 number of blocks

 60 808c pointer to the next block
 64 8088 length of the first block
 68 047a4a length of the unpacked block
 6c start of the zlib stream

 80fc second block

 13cd134
 13cd174
*/

int unpack(unsigned char *in, int len)
{
  int ret,outed=0;
  unsigned have;
  z_stream strm;
  unsigned char out[CHUNK];

  strm.zalloc = Z_NULL;
  strm.zfree = Z_NULL;
  strm.opaque = Z_NULL;
  strm.avail_in = 0;
  strm.next_in = Z_NULL;
  ret = inflateInit(&strm);
  if (ret != Z_OK)
    return ret;
  strm.avail_in = len;
  strm.next_in = in;
  do {
    strm.avail_out = CHUNK;
    strm.next_out = out;
    ret = inflate(&strm, Z_NO_FLUSH);
    assert(ret != Z_STREAM_ERROR);  /* state not clobbered */
    switch (ret) {
      case Z_NEED_DICT:
        ret = Z_DATA_ERROR;     /* and fall through */
      case Z_DATA_ERROR:
      case Z_MEM_ERROR:
        (void)inflateEnd(&strm);
        return ret;
    }
//    printf("%lx %x\n",strm.next_in-in,strm.avail_in);
    have = CHUNK - strm.avail_out /* - (outed?0:4)*/;

    int off = 0;
    /*
    while (have - off > 3 && out[off] != '<' && out[1+off] != 'd' && out[2+off] != ':') {
      ++off;
    }*/

    if (have - off <= 3) {
      fprintf(stderr, "could not find entry\n");
    }

    if (fwrite(out + off/*+(outed?0:4)*/, have - off, 1, stdout) != 1 || ferror(stdout)) {
      (void)inflateEnd(&strm);
      return Z_ERRNO;
    }
    //exit(0);

    outed+=have;
  } while (strm.avail_out == 0);
  printf("%06x\n",outed);
  (void)inflateEnd(&strm);
  return ret == Z_STREAM_END ? Z_OK : Z_DATA_ERROR;
}

char filename[256];

int main(int argc,char **argv) {
  FILE *fin; int limit,blen=0,p,l,bcnt=0; unsigned char *buf=NULL;
  assert(argc >= 2);
  sprintf(filename,"/Library/Dictionaries/%s.dictionary/Contents/Body.data",argv[1]);
  if((fin=fopen(filename,"rb"))) {
    fseek(fin,0x40,SEEK_SET);
    fread(&l,1,4,fin);
    limit=0x40+l;
    p=0x60;
    do {
      fseek(fin,p,SEEK_SET);
      fread(&l,1,4,fin);
//      if(0==l) break;
      if(blen<l) {
        if(buf!=NULL) free(buf);
        blen=l;
        buf=(unsigned char *)malloc(blen);
      }
      fread(buf,1,l,fin);
      //fprintf(stderr, "%x@%06x: %x>%06x\n",bcnt,p,l,((int *)buf)[1]);
      unpack(buf+8,l-8);
      p+=4+l;
      ++bcnt;
    } while(p<limit);
    free(buf);
    fclose(fin);
  }
  return 0;
}

and this code and paste it in a *.c document named strip.c:

// This program strips the first 4 characters from each line in the input
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  while(!ferror(stdin) && !feof(stdin)) {
    size_t len = 0;
    char *line = fgetln(stdin, &len);
    if (!line) break;

    if (len > 4)
      fwrite(line + 4, 1, len - 4, stdout);
  }

  return 0;
}

Then open Terminal and cd to the folder containing the two *.c files and execute (in the example one of the dicts in /Library/Dictionaries/ is used, you may use any other in the same folder and then have to replace the name "Oxford Dictionary of English" in line 3 below):

clang dedict.c -Wall -lz -o dedict
clang strip.c -Wall -o strip
./dedict "Oxford Dictionary of English" | ./strip > dict.xml
egrep -o 'd:title="(.+?)"' dict.xml | awk -F\" '{print $2}' > words

First four results visible in words (it's getting better later):

A
A
a
a

This should work at least in OS X 10.7 - 10.10.


Duplicate PDF pages without blowing up the file size I have a PDF document with one page, containing a large image and some text. I need to add some other PDF documents and duplicate the page with the image 60 times, resulting in a final 70-page document for a professional printer. I've used Preview to do this, but it resulted in a huge file size because the image was always copied.
Is there any way (app, command line) short of Adobe Acrobat (too pricey) to duplicate a pdf page while just referencing the image?

You can duplicate pages in preview by opening up the sidebar to display thumbnails (View->Thumbnails), click on the page you want to duplicate, and then hold down Option and drag the thumbnail to the new location.  That will create a duplicate of the page and leave it at the new location.  When you do it this way, it does NOT duplicate the internal images and assets, but will reference them on the new page.  I just confirmed with a one-page PDF which had a 400k scanned image: I turned it into a 6-page document which was still around 400k.

If you instead add the page you wish to duplicate with Edit->Insert->Page From File... it loads all the assets again and does not reference the ones you'd already loaded, causing the file size to balloon.  It would certainly be nice if it could recognize that the assets are the same, but alas.


How do I delete everything off my Mac? I have an old Mac that I want to sell. I have the 2 instalation disks but don't know what to do with them.

OS X version 10.5.8
Processor: 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Startup Disk: Macintosh HD

Non-paranoid - boot from installation CD, use Disk Utility to format the disk(s), perhaps using "secure erase" option (let it run overnight, it's tedious on a disk of any size) install fresh copy of the OS from the CDs, sell the computer.

Reasonably Paranoid - remove disks, sell computer without disks. Disassemble disks.  Be sure to save the very nice refrigerator magnets. Scratch, bend, hammer and otherwise destroy the nice mirrors in there (though simply opening them outside a clean room puts the data past most anyone but the NSA - this is the paranoid option, so overdoing works.)


How to know if the MacBook Pro is having dual core or Quad core? What do dual or quad core mean and how do I know which one I have in the Mac.

In the hardware info I see the processor name "6-Core Intel Core i7". But I expected Quad core means only 4?

What do dual or quad core mean

Dual meaning 2 and quad meaning 4. This indicates the number of physical cores present in the processor.

  how do I know which one I have in the Mac

Go to Apple Menu (top right corner on your Mac) → About This Mac and click on the System Report... button. In the window that is presented, click on the Hardware item at the top in the left column. On the right, you can see the processor type and the number of cores present in it.


Why does OS X now think I have two partitions on my external USB drive (plus random connection issue)? I have an external USB drive that I have plugged into a USB hub, which gets unplugged from my computer about once a day.  Most of the time I remember to unmount the drive before disconnecting so that I don't break anything.  Sometimes I forget and get the message about "usb drive disconnected unexpectedly" (or something similar).

About the drive: it is a 1TB usb-powered Western Digital drive that I use for Time Machine and other misc. documents.  The drive is encrypted with FileVault2, which I think was done automatically when I told Time Machine to use it (my system drive uses FileVault2).

About the OS: OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2  (can't say issues started w/ any recent updates, but does seem to fall somewhere within install time periods of 10.8, 10.8.1 and 10.8.2 installs)

Recently, this drive has not been showing up every time I connect the USB hub.  Yesterday I noticed that the last Time Machine backup was a few days prior.  Last night I waited to plug it in until my computer was out of sleep, and this time I switched to a different port on the USB hub. The drive mounted without an issue.

Today, I went to unmount the drive (via right-click on desktop), and got a message: "My Passwort" is a partition on a disk that has 2 partitions. Do you want to eject "My Passport" only, or both partitions? ....

When I go to OS X Disk Utility, there is only one partition showing under the drive.

Q1: any ideas why the drive not showing up every time I connect over the last few months (sometimes it does, other times it didn't)?

Q2: why does the OS think there are two partitions?

Update 2: Ran diskutil list, got following result:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         127.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS disk0s2                *126.9 GB   disk1
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *32.0 GB    disk2
   1:                  Apple_HFS mini32gb                32.0 GB    disk2s1
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk3
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.8 GB   disk3s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk3s3
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                 Apple_HFSX My Passport            *999.5 GB   disk4

Update 3: As noted in my comment below, I think Mountain Lion may have installed a recovery partition on my external drive, perhaps as a secondary safety measure in case my primary drive completely dies.  If this is the case, it wasn't preferred by me, so I guess take-home lesson is if you want to avoid this, unplug your externals before upgrading.

Final Update: I was tired of this message showing up, so I removed the partition with the following command (repeated for the EFI and the boot partition on my external):

diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" Blank <DISK_NAME> # WARNING: CAREFUL WHICH VOLUME YOU ERASE!!

Q1: any ideas why the drive not showing up … (sometimes it does, other times it didn't)?

If the file system is dirty at time of connection of the disk, then the operating system will run fsck_hfs until (hopefully) repairs seem to succeed. During this period the volume will be not mounted, and the OS presents no alert.

(An alert appears only if, for example, repairs are unsuccessful.)

In your case, as CoreStorage is used to encrypt the logical volume that is used by Time Machine, there's also fsck_cs.

For your ~1 TB file system that includes backups written by Time Machine: if repairs are necessary, fsck_hfs may take an extraordinarily long time.

With Console you can browse

/var/log/fsck_hfs.log


iTunes keeps losing its library I'm running OSX Mavericks 10.9.2 and iTunes 11.1.5 on a 2012 Macbook Air. My iTunes library is, due to its size, stored on an external drive which is connected to my Time Capsule.

The problem is that every time I close iTunes (and sometimes even when I haven't closed it) the computer appears to forget where the library is stored. Sometimes it will revert to the default location on my SSD, but most of the time it just goes blank, with no file location stored at all.

It's easy enough to re-set iTunes so it can find its library again, but given the library's size it's rather time-consuming for the computer to scroll through everything and tag its file address. And I might end up having to do that every couple of hours while iTunes is running.

I've already ruled out the strength of my wifi connection as a possible cause. Has anyone else ever heard of this? If so, how did you resolve it?

Thanks in advance...  :-)

Mavericks has a new external-hard-disk power management system in place which would turn off the hard-disk (only concerns external drives) if it's not used for a certain amount of time.

I suspect this is what's causing the lag rather than iTunes forgetting the location of the library.


Clean install of Yosemite problem Hopefully someone can help me. I've tried so many options. I purchased a used MacBook Pro, late 2011 model. The person I purchased it from said he wiped the hard drive, but when I got home, it seems he did that, however his login was still there.

So I did a disk utility, wiped the hard drive which checked out fine, got to the reinstall Yosemite page, but there is no hard drive icon, only the install Yosemite page. When I click continue I get this error, "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

Images below are in order of error

!http://s30.postimg.org/nqvg41k1d/IMG_6344.jpg

!http://s29.postimg.org/mwvvef5af/IMG_6345.jpg

Just in case anybody else comes across this question, the steps to solve the system time/date issue mentioned above are as follows.

Click on Utilities –> Terminal
When the terminal window opens, type date and hit enter. What you will notice is that the date listed will be wrong.  That wrong date is what is causing the reinstall error.
To correct the wrong date –>  type date followed by MMDDHHMMYYYY  (Month – Date – Hour – Minute – Year)
Exit and begin a new install, the problem should now be solved.


Is the iPhone 6 more powerful than a 1980s era Cray supercomputer? A friend today mentioned in conversation:

  You know that iPhone 6 you're carrying in your pocket. It has more computing power than the Cray supercomputers of the 80s.

That sounded vaguely right, but I wasn't sure.

My question is: Is the iPhone 6 more powerful than a Cray supercomputer?

It would really depend on which end of the 1980s we choose. A Cray 2, circa 1985 would be a good midline choice.

CPU speed of the Cray-2 was about 250MHz, with what we would today call 4 cores. 256Megs of memory but at 64bits per address instead of 8, or as we would call it today 2 GB of RAM. In terms of raw power it has been compared to an iPad. that's if you use a CPU benchmark.

However, supercomputers are usually optimized for parallel tasks or rather staggering amounts of input-output. It really isn't practical to say "my phone could replace supercomputer X from year Y" as they aren't capable of performing the same tasks. If we jump back a couple more generations we can say that an iPhone could have run the entire Apollo program assuming we hooked it up to a signal booster (and hold it the right way).

The iPhone beats the Cray hands-down in power consumption: 200 kW, 480 V 3-phase power coming in resulting in over 2000 amps internal power. Pressurized liquid cooling with an external heat exchanger the size of a car.

Looks awesome sitting in your dedicated computing center though.


Will stored emails on mail app be lost if I restore from a IPSW I no longer have access to the mail server to which my email client was connected. I am considering upgrading from iOS 8 to iOS 9.0 using an IPSW (not thorough the normal update which will take me to iOS 9.1). My concern is regarding the already downloaded and cached mail from the Exchange server which is currently accessible. Will it still be accessible after the restore? (i.e. does the application and data backup also store the emails already downloaded or does it rely on downloading them again from the server?)

You can't update to 9.0, Apple is no longer signing 9.0.


Keyboard shortcut to partition screen I've recently started using a Macbook on a new job (macOS 10.15), coming from a Windows 10, and then more a Ubuntu background.

A feature that both Windows 10 and Ubuntu had was the ability to have an application use half of a given display, by pressing the special + ⬅ or ⮕. Windows 10 can also split a screen again into quarter by using special + ⬆ or ⬇

This feature is particular useful for using large monitors, where I might display my text editor and a browser side by side.

macOS does have split screen functionality as mentioned here, but there is no mention of keyboard shortcuts.

Is there an equivalent keyboard shortcut function for this on macOS?

Yes Apple allows split screen with a vertical slider or divider out of the box.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204948

There are many awesome window manager that automate many grid layout, are flexible and very friendly to key shortcuts. I like moom and divvy in particular.

Replacement for MercuryMover
Is there a way to exactly position a window?
More than two windows split view


How to view iCloud files without downloading I am doing a fresh install on macOS Sierra and I would like to use iCloud Drive on it.

I currently have files (some as large as 3GB) on iCloud Drive and I would not like them downloaded on my computer.

Is there a way for me to enable iCloud Drive without the files downloading automatically? I would like to be able to download them as and when I want. I would also like my files to be backed up automatically like it does by default.

iCloud Drive is not designed to do what you're looking for.  iCloud is a syncing solution and not a backup solution.  It's designed to provide you with access to all your files from all your devices, keeping them all in sync.  It doesn't allow selective file downloads (specifically for what you need).

The only option you have (apart from storing the largest files on a different cloud-enabled provider, like Dropbox), is turn on Optimize Mac Storage from System Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> Options.  You didn't mention the OS you have so I'm assuming it's Sierra.

See this Apple Support page for other ways of turning on optimized storage using iCloud Drive.  From that page:

  Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra can save space by storing your content in the cloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in the cloud automatically. Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.


This container can’t be split, because the resulting containers would be too small I understand this question has been asked before, but my situation is a bit different. I have done the usual, I've tried

diskutil cs list

then

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 370GiB

(from an original volume size of 402GiB). It gave me the error

Error: -69521: Your APFS Container resize request is below the APFS-system-imposed minimal container size (perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot usage by Time Machine),

which was interesting because I have never used Time Machine and I erased all 'snapshots', not that there were any, on my disk already using

tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999999.

Why is it that I keep getting this error? What am I missing? I want to use the free space from resizing on my Boot Camp partition to give it some breathing space, it's almost full. I'll be doing that using partition wizard later, but before I even think about doing that, I have to solve the problem here first.

I'm on Catalina build 19A582a for those wondering, on an Early 2015 MacBook Pro 13".

Check to see if you have more snapshots...

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

In my case, thinlocalsnapshots didn't do the job totally. I had additionally run

tmutil deletelocalsnapshots /

After which there were no more with listlocalsnapshots and I was able to resize the container.


Why does iPhone Safari not save login credentials for a certain Wi-Fi hotspot? My Academy's wi-fi requires me to log in via a web-browser portal page before I have access to the internet. Safari on my iPhone doesn't save my username and password for it. Is there a way to manually force it to save them?

check out this link http://www.ausbt.com.au/how-to-save-passwords-in-safari-on-the-ipad-iphone to setup autofill name and passwords for safari on IOS.

And it totally is a matter of safari not remembering username/password.

It's a little hidden, but it's there, and thanks for asking a good question. The other answerers here must never have logged into a captive portal before or something.


Could not create a Preboot Volume for APFS install So I have this issue when trying to reinstall macOS in the recovery, but when I tried to reinstall "Could not create a preboot volume for APFS install" comes up.

I came across this solution which requires you to completely wipe your drive but I don't want to do that since that would mean my BootCamp installation would also have to be gone.

Is there a way to fix this issue without completely wiping my disk?

If somebody face the same issue please consider to visit this link.  https://www.belightsoft.com/products/resources/apfs-bootable-clone-with-command-line

I faced this issue when i converted HPS+ to APFS manually via DiskUtil. My MacBook was completely dead.

Bless utility is looking for APFS Preboot volume and because it is missing it fails to configure APFS container.

What i've done is:

Boot to Recovery
go to Terminal
check partitions/disk numbers with diskutil list (preboot volume was missing for my APFS container )
create Preboot volume manually with diskutil apfs addVolume disk"Disk Number here" apfs Preboot -role B
and then bless the APFS container again with bless --folder /Volumes/MACINTOSH HD/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --verbose
bless again via Startup Disk ( just to be sure)
reboot


How do you extend the time required to trigger hot corner actions? I like the concept of hot corner actions but the trigger time for hot corner actions is too quick for me to make good use of them. I keep tripping my corner actions accidentally while reaching for objects in that general vicinity of the corner.

Is it possible to extend the trigger time for hot corner actions? So I have to hover in the corner for at least a second or two before the hot corner action triggers?

I do not know how do delay the triggering, but you can add modifier keys to the hot corners in order to avoid accidental activation:

Hold down ⌘,⌥,⇧ or ctrl while selecting an option from the list.


Why is Audacity 2.3.X not recording audio input on macOS Catalina, plus workaround Audacity has stated that they do not support macOS Catalina, 10.15.X. Given the permissions and app sandboxing schemes have changed for the latest version of macOS, simply starting Audacity will not prompt users for granting the permissions it needs to use the built-in audio device or other audio input devices. So even though you can start recording, the software will never receive any input. You'll notice this looking at the waveform visualization during your recording.

There is a work-around for this, and I wanted to share it here as yet another avenue to seeking this information.

1) Go to Applications > Utilities

2) Launch Terminal.app

3) in the Terminal dialog type the following command following command:
open /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity

This will open Audacity and then Terminal will actually ask for the correct permissions.

this assume that Audacity is stored in your Applications folder. If it is somewhere else, you will need to change the path in the above command:
open /*location of audacity*/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity

Since microphone access permissions granted in Mojave do not pass through to Catalina. Once you have granted this access in Catalina you should not be asked for it again when relaunching Audacity with this workaround method.


Looking for an app to create icon size art Can I ask a for a recommendation for an app.  I am looking for a user friendly app that I can use to make, resize, and save in jpeg and png format, icon size art.  Being new to Apple I have no idea.  Free would be good too.  Many thanks.

Just get GIMP! It's LGPLv3+ und GPLv3+ licensed.

GIMP is a multi-platform photo manipulation tool. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. The GIMP is suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.
GIMP has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.
GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.


What is this globe icon with blue down arrow in my menu bar? At far left of my top bar you can see a globe-like network sort of icon with what I interpret as a blue download arrow.
This icon appeared recently for the first time for unknown reasons. Clicking it, right-clicking it, double-clicking it, etc all produce no effect. It's not interactable.
What is this and how can I learn more about it and/or remove it if appropriate?

I clicked on the icon with Accessibility Inspector and a Libreoffice download window popped up. It might be related to that, if you have Libreoffice installed.


OSX spaces - how to switch space on another monitor I cannot for the life of me figure this out. I have two monitors. If I'm focused on the left monitor, I cannot use a shortcut to switch spaces on the right monitor. Or (as often happens) I click my right monitor to focus it instead of alt tabbing, and then I cannot switch the left monitor space with my keyboard without clicking on that screen.

Is there not a way to control the space of another monitor with your keyboard?

Yes, if you know applescript.

For example, to switch to Space 1 on the Secondary Display. Note:

1) Primary/Secondary Display is defined by where the Menu Bar is (i.e. System Preference -> Display -> Arrangement), not by cursor focus.

2) This script switches to Space 1, whether it's a Desktop or fullscreen app. If you want to switch only to Desktop 1, it can be done, but not with this script as it is.

3) If you don't mind flashing, remove delay 0.5 line.

4) The script cannot do without the animation/transition.

5) Enable Accessibility and all the standard applescript spiel.

6) Modify button number to switch to a different Space on that Display. Modify list number to switch a different Display.

7) Switching to a non-existent Space, e.g. Space 100, would leave the UI at mission control. Nothing bad is going in bad to your computer. It just stays there, and user will have to manually drop back to current Space.

8) No relative switching, i.e. move left or right a space. Just absolute switching.

9) Cursor focus doesn't switch display after running this script. That's a plus.

10) No simultaneously switching Spaces on both displays.

tell application "System Events"

    do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
    delay 0.5
    tell process "Dock" to tell group 1 to tell list 2 to tell button 1 to click

end tell


Cannot connect to SAMBA shares drive after update to Catalina I have a raspberry pi 4b running raspbian buster lite, connected to this I have a 1TB HDD, on Mojave I was able to connect to the network folder and access the files on it, however with the new Catalina update I get this when I try to access it (I can still see it) "The operation can’t be completed because the original item for “RASPBERRY FOLDER” can’t be found."
Is there any way to fix this or connect to the folder/files a different way?

Turn off packet signing for SMB 2 and SMB 3 connections as described in
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205926:

Edit /etc/nsmb.conf (create it if necessary)
Add

[default]
signing_required=no

Save file
Reconnect SMB shares (or reboot your Mac)


What is different between itms vs itms-apps when opening url from device I've an app in appstore and when it has an update the link was given in the format itms://itunes.com/apps/[AppName] Now I've recently uploaded a new version of my app and from the older app when I click the update link it takes us to store but doesnt give option to update. It gives a button saying open, I have to then take the store option again for download then it comes with the update option. So, I changed the link format to itms-apps://itunes.com/apps/[AppName]/[AppId] and this time when I clicked on the link it opened up correctly giving me option to update. Was this a new update in the format? What was the difference between opening link between these two formats?

Using itms-apps: will leads you to App Store directly.

Using itms: will leads you to App Store page in iTunes Store. You'll see "App Store" as navigation title and a button links you to App Store on the upper right corner.

I used to use itms: in my app. But I found that app status on iTunes Store was sometimes not up-to-date as App Store was. I haven't confirmed what caused this but now I use items-apps: instead.


How can I turn ~/Documents into a symlink? I keep my Documents in an encrypted directory in Dropbox (~/Dropbox/encrypted), which I then mount at ~/clear when I log in.  On my other Macs, I have change ~/Documents to a symlink that points at ~/clear, but trying to do the same on a new Mountain Lion machine doesn't work:

Pertinax:~$ pwd
/Users/drew
Pertinax:~$ ls
Desktop         Dropbox         Music           README.markdown tmp
Documents       Library         Pictures        bin
Downloads       Movies          Public          clear
Pertinax:~$ ln -sf clear/Documents .
ln: ./Documents: Permission denied
Pertinax:~$ ls -l@hd Documents
drwx------+ 3 drew  staff   102B Apr  5 15:02 Documents
Pertinax:~$ xattr -l Documents

It doesn't appear to have odd permissions or extended attributes, so I'm stumped.  I don't recall what I had done previously to make this work on my Lion and prior machines, or if I did anything special at all.

All of the default subfolders of your home have an ACL set to "everyone deny delete" (ACLs can be viewed with ls -le and stripped with chmod -N)

ACLs still don't affect a command run as the superuser.


Launch App on connected Device without Apple Developer Program In the WWDC 2015 Keynote, Apple said that with the arrival of XCode 7 and Swift 2 it will no longer be necessary to pay the Apple Developer Program suscription to run our own iOS apps on our own connected devices.

What do I need to make use of this new feature?

You will need:

a Mac running Xcode 7 (which is currently in beta and not finished yet)
an iOS device running iOS 9 (which is also in beta and not released yet) or iOS 8
an Apple ID to sign into both Xcode and the iOS device - this will generate the provisioning profiles needed for your code to run on your devices.

To get prepared for this, download the beta version of Xcode and follow one of the iOS session videos that show how to run one of the Apple-provided sample projects. You will then build and run that to your connected device as a target.

Eventually, the latest Xcode from the Mac App Store will have these features for anyone to use released versions of the tools on released iOS versions.


How to troubleshoot 2013 Mac Pro without working display? (Recent MacBooks + iPads available if helpful; Catalina/Big Sur) Briefly: Is there any way to test a Mac Pro (2013, cylinder model, Big Sur) without a working display — either without a display, or using a recent USB-C MacBook (particularly MBP 2019, MBP 2020, and MBA 2019, Catalina/Big Sur) or iPad (Pro, 2017 and 2020) as a display, either wirelessly or over USB?
Long version: I’m trying to troubleshoot a Mac Pro + HDMI/DisplayPort display setup, which has been working fine for several years, and stopped working last night.  Both Mac Pro and display individually seem to power on as normal, but the display just gives a “no signal detected” message.  (Precisely: when the Mac Pro’s power-on button is pressed, its front lights come on, its fan whirs up, and connected external drives also power up as usual.  Similarly, when the external display is powered on, it shows its manufacturer startup screen, as usual, but thereafter just a “no signal detected” message.)
We have several USB-C MacBooks in the house, but no suitable adaptor from HDMI or DisplayPort to USB-C, so we can’t test the monitor with them for now.  So I would like to check that the Mac Pro itself, to see if the problem is on its side.
Is there any way to test/troubleshoot the Mac Pro, either with no display, or using one of the MacBooks or iPads as a display or terminal?  The MacBooks are all recent models (≥2019), and on either Catalina (10.15) or Big Sur (10.16).  The Mac Pro is from c.2016 (i.e. the 2013-onward cylinder model), and running Big Sur.  They are all normally on the same wi-fi network, and one of the iPads is set up with the same Apple ID as the Mac Pro.  We also have USB cables that could go between the Mac Pro and any of these devices.  The Mac Pro is fully backed up on external hard drives.
I have found earlier related questions suggesting Target Display Mode for this, but that seems to have been discontinued since High Sierra (10.13).

Did you have Back To My Mac or Screen Sharing (VNC), Remote Login (ssh), or File Sharing (AFP/SMB) enabled on the Mac Pro beforehand? If so, try to connect to it over the network from another device. That’s the only way I know of to use a second device for I/O.
Does the Caps Lock key light up when you press it? If so, this is a good indicator that the Mac is responding to events in either the OS or at least in firmware.
Can you try to log in to the Mac by “muscle memory” (i.e. use your keyboard to enter your credentials like you used to) and use the Volume Up / Down keys (possibly with the Shift key) to listen for the UI feedback sound. This also would show a good OS.
Try going into Boot Picker (hold Option during boot) to test video out from firmware, in case this is an OS-specific issue.

Unfortunately you’ll probably end up having to buy something in order to isolate the failure: Maybe it’s the display, maybe it’s the cable, or maybe it’s the Mac. (My money would be on the former two more likely flaking out than the latter.) Might be a good excuse to invest in a USB-C adapter for your newer devices.


can't add contacts keyboard is missing I have an iphone 4.  I went to add a contact and my keyboard will not pop up.  Thus I cannot add or search contacts by name.  How can I fix this?

First of all, reboot your phone and give a try once.

or

Try to add a contact from both dial pad and contacts. Hope one works among the two.


iPhone Hotspot: who is connected? Sometimes, when I start to use my iPhone as a hotspot, I see 2 connections. Since I am the only one supposed to be using it, and I’m only using wifi (not USB as well), I can’t work out why there is a second connection.

After a while, it often goes down to 1 connection. I wonder whether the second connection is someone else trying to use it.

The question is: how can I tell who is accessing the hotspot?

BTW, the initial problem was to resolve why I appear to be having more connections than I could account for, and that is indeed covered in another question. However, I would still like to know whether it’s possible to see who is actually connected.

Other devices (including iPads, iPods, Macs, and other iPhones) connected to the same iCloud account as your iPhone will, if in WiFi range, automatically connect to your iPhone's hotspot when it's turned on (according to this Apple Support page and my personal experience). That means if any of your other devices are lying around, they will automatically connect to your iPhone's hotspot using iCloud.

tl;dr: Other devices tied to the same iCloud account might automatically be joining your iPhone's hotspot network.


Increase timeout on MacBook Touch-ID log-in? I'd like to log in to my MacBook Pro using my fingerprint more. If I don't use it for a while I have to re-enter the password. Is this timeout configurable?

Running macOS High Sierra 10.13.1, on a MacBook Pro, 2016.

No configuration option exists to change the 48 hour requirement (that I’ve seen) but you should not be locked out sooner than that unless you are resting another finger on the sensor or a co-worker is pranking you.

Is there a way to force a password check on a Macbook using Touch ID

Assuming you aren’t getting 48 hours, I’d be curious the count / settings you could dump using bioutil and perhaps purging all the fingers and setting them up again.


Transfer contacts between iPhone 4 and old feature phone I recently upgraded to an iPhone 4 from an old Samsung SGH-G600 and want to transfer contacts. At the shop they offered to do it for me for £15 which I thought was ridiculous so I'm hoping there's a way to do this other than manual.

The iPhone is non-jailbroken and the old Samsung phone does have Bluetooth.

It's impossible to transfer files via bluetooth between iPhone and other smart phones.You will need to transfer the contacts from your old Samsung SGH-G600 into your computer first, and then sync it to your iPhone 4. I don't know what operating system your computer is running, but normally you can do as the following steps:

Open iTunes
Use USB cable to connect your Samsung to computer, copy the contacts to your iTunes library.
Then plug in your iPhone 4 to computer using the included USB cable, select the content you wanna sync in iTunes under Devices on the left-hand side.
Click Apply, in the lower-right corner of the screen, to sync.

You can find some useful information from apple's support:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386


Visually distinguish different lines (for long wrapped lines) in iTerm2 / Terminal I'm using an application that outputs very long lines. It's fine - it means things aren't cut off at 80 characters - but the default Terminal and iTerm2 config makes it hard to distinguish between:

the second line of a wrapped long line
the start of the next line

Eg:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit.
Proin sed velit nibh. Proin ornare nisi
at erat congue, vel dignissim tortor malesuada.

Is there any way I can configure the app to show things so that there's some space after each carriage return, eg:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit.

Proin sed velit nibh. Proin ornare nisi
at erat congue, vel dignissim tortor malesuada.

Thanks very much!

Here's a starting point.

In iTerm 2 go to Preferences > Profiles > (Your profile) > Advanced, then click Edit under Triggers.

Add a new Trigger using the + button at the bottom left, then set:

Regular Expression: .$
Action: Highlight Text…
Parameters: Red on White (or a colour combination you find appropriately funkadelic)

Close the Triggers pane.

You should now see a white "line" at the far right of the iTerm window. This is really iTerm changing the last character on the line to red text on a white background. This should help you spot lines that are wrapped versus new lines.

Example screen grab below (I use fish shell, btw)…


AppleScript checking if folder exists causes “AppleEvent handler failed” error -10000 AppleScript on macOS Mojave and can't work out why this script gives the expected "TRUE" on the first folder, but instead of "FALSE" on the second folder it aborts with the error message:

  [error "Finder got an error: AppleEvent handler failed." number -10000 from folder (file "Felix HD:Users:Billy:TESTING:FOLDER2"]

tell application "Finder"

    set targetFolder to POSIX file "/Users/Billy/TESTING/FOLDER1" -- Existing folder

    if exists folder targetFolder then
        say "TRUE"
    else
        say "FALSE"
    end if

    set targetFolder to POSIX file "/Users/Billy/TESTING/FOLDER2" -- Non-existing folder

    if exists folder targetFolder then
        say "TRUE"
    else
        say "FALSE"
    end if

end tell

I think I found the answer: removed the word 'folder' from the if statements and now it works!

If anyone could confirm this is the proper syntax that would be great.

tell application "Finder"

    set targetFolder to POSIX file "/Users/Billy/TESTING/FOLDER1" -- Existing folder

    if exists targetFolder then
        say "TRUE" -- result!!
    else
        say "FALSE"
    end if

    set targetFolder to POSIX file "/Users/Billy/TESTING/FOLDER2" -- Non-existing folder

    if exists targetFolder then
        say "TRUE"
    else
        say "FALSE" -- result!!
    end if

end tell


What happens when I share an iTunes Radio station I've created? I just shared one of my custom iTunes Radio stations to a friend via email. What happens when they access it in iTunes? Are they getting a read-only instance of my station, a read-write instance, or a one-time copy of my station at the time they first access it?

From the Apple website:

  With iTunes Radio, you can easily share stations via AirDrop, Mail, Messages, Twitter, and Facebook. The stations you share continue to change as you tweak the mix, so your friends can listen to music that adjusts with your evolving tastes. Show off your favorite stations, or tune in to your friends’ to hear what they’re into.

So, it appears to mean that they're getting a read-only instance of your station, that updates as you update it.


How to check system process battery usage information on iOS 8? With iOS 8, It was made possible to get relevant battery usage for applications on iOS. Is there any way to find the battery usage of the system processes on iOS 8?
I'm looking for Jailbreak tweaks or Diagnostic tools because there aren't any other options.

DetailedBatteryUsage Cydia tweak from the BigBoss repo shows the battery usage for system processes. It integrated right into the Battery Status tab inside settings and throws in a neat battery life cycle graph for the last seven days and also displays information about active usage/background usage.


Bootable Windows 7 USB won't boot I have used Boot Camp to create a bootable usb of Windows 7. But when I hold Option to select the drive all I get is my Mac OS and the restore drive or whatever it is.

Shouldn't Boot Camp create the USB to be bootable? Am I doing something wrong?

There is an alternative method to

create a bootable USB of Windows 7 and
boot from it

Assuming that you have the ISO handy (if you don't, there's Digital River links here), download Unetbootin.

Unetbootin allows you to create bootable USB drives from many Linux distributions and also ISO images. (note that Unetbootin requires admin privileges) The following image demonstrates how to manually select the ISO image. Click the "..." button to browse for your image.

To boot from your USB drive, I recommend rEFIt.  I use it myself to boot from an Ubuntu partition on my external hard drive that I use as a Time Machine on another partition.  It is useful for recognizing operating systems installed on your computer and devices connected to your computer (and their partitions).  I recommend simply burning rEFIt to a CD/DVD to boot to the Windows 7 install USB. Having had trouble trying to install it to the Mac itself (without the DVD), I usually boot to the rEFIt DVD, and continue to boot to my choice of operating system.

(boot to a rEFIt DVD by holding down the C key [or the option key, as you stated] after you hear the chime of the startup)

I know for a fact that Unetbootin works for creating bootable Windows  install USB's (I've run them before on PC's).  I will test booting from rEFIt and update this answer when I have.


Why is the coreaudiod daemon using 5% or more CPU? Every time I listen to music on iTunes or VLC, I notice that the process coreaudiod causes an unusually high CPU usage (5% or more).
Are you having the same issue? What's the reason for such a high CPU usage?

Recent OS X updates have not changed this observation. Restarting (or killing the process so it respawns) doesn't fix the problem. After a couple of seconds, CPU usage of coreaudiod goes above 5% again.

It's important to note that using line out makes the problem go away and coreaudiod's CPU usage goes down to 1%-2%.

The high CPU usage of coreaudiod is due to the ambient noise reduction software working (surprisingly, even when the built-in microphone is not in use).

Go to System Preferences > Sound > Input and uncheck the Use ambient noise reduction box.

Then, either reboot or run this one-liner to reload coreaudiod, and you should see coreaudiod CPU usage drop to 1% or less.


Is it possible to load non-default launchd plist files from the /etc configuration file? I created the /etc/launchd.conf file but at start the content is never read.

The content of launchd.conf is: load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/KillVuze.plist

(I run on OSX 10.7.2 )

If I load the plist by command line the "launchd list" show my plist as registered, but not after reboot even if I proper set the /etc/launchd.conf

Is this loading of non-default plist files (those stored outside the normal locations) best accomplished in this manner?

To load a launchd job at start up, you need to store your job description plist file in one of two folders:

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Do not edit or store launchd job description files in the /System folder. This folder is reserved for exclusive use by Apple.

You do not need to edit any configuration files.


Finnish spell checker for Pages.app '09? Can anyone tell me where I can find a Finnish spell checker for OS X Pages '09 as it is not available through Apple?

You should be able to get one at

http://voikko.sourceforge.net/ports.html


Home Sharing, but without syncing purchases? At home we have two iTunes accounts. We do not wish to share our purchases as, for example, we have very different tastes in music.

We are looking to purchase an AppleTV that we can both use to stream our content from iTunes.

I've already read on another question that the standard way to handle this situation is to set up home sharing using one of our Apple IDs for all of the devices.

However, I've also read that setting up Home Sharing will cause any purchases on the other account to be added into the library of the home sharing account, and thus copied onto all linked devices. Is there a way to prevent this?

Home Sharing is done under a different Apple ID than the one the computer is authorized for. I have my computer registered under my ID (with automatic downloads on!), and Home Sharing set up under a family ID.

To do this correctly:

Make sure you are signed in to your ID under the Store menu.
Log in to the shared ID with the appropriate command under the Advanced menu.
Voilà!

Alternatively, you don't even need to use Home Sharing. You can play tracks without enabling it, as long as sharing is enabled under iTunes > Preferences > Sharing > Share my library on my local network. Enabling Home Sharing will let you copy files to the local library, whereas this option will not.


Are DropBox files viewed on iOS devices taking up space on them? When travelling I will need all of the "space" I can claim on my iPad. Am I correct in thinking "space" is not being taken up on the iPad by DB folders, unless I have made them favorites?

Yes.  The files are cloud based until you favorite them.
Straight from DropBox:

How much can I store on my phone or tablet?
The Dropbox iPhone app can save as many files as your iPhone or iPod
Touch can hold or Dropbox space allows. If you find yourself running
out of space on your iPhone, removing files from your Favorites list
will clear up space on your device. If you're running out of Dropbox
space, you can delete files from your Dropbox, or you might want to
consider upgrading to a bigger Dropbox.


Favoriting a song in iTunes scrolls to top and collapses album view So.. this issue has been killing me for a while. I imagine others are having this too, so I am going to post quite a bit of info here.

The issue is pretty basic. When I have an album open in iTunes I can double click a song to play it. All goes well, but when I click the heart next to the song (to remove or add a favorite) the album view will collapse and then I will be scrolled to the top of the albums view window.

This issue persists between operating systems, too. For example if I favorite a song in iTunes on a Windows machine, the same behavior occurs (although the album view isn't collapsed in Windows for some reason).

Here is the bug in action documented via GIF image:

I have a feeling this is specific to my user account, so here is some history that may be helpful.

I subscribed to iTunes match before Apple Music was here. I cancelled my iTunes match account before Apple Music came out.

I am now an Apple Music subscriber and I have a mix of Apple Music and purchased content. Favoriting a song from either source causes the issue.

I think I might know the answer to this one: Go to the 'Albums' dropdown in the toolbar (nearly top-right) and turn off 'Show Recently Added'.

What might be happening is that a two-year old bug around one of the elements in the Recently Added section is getting focus, which scrolls the entire view to the top. It drove me completely crazy until I finally found this


Disable DNS assignment with Airport Extreme IPv6 tunnel I've got an IPv6 tunnel from Hurricane Electric, configured into one of my Apple Airport Extremes (which is otherwise setup in bridge mode).

That's all fine, except that in the IPv6 Route Advertisement messages the Airport Extreme then insists on advertising itself as a DNS server for the local LAN.

I don't want this, as I've got perfectly good BIND instances on my network performing DNSSEC validation and the Airport's DNS server doesn't do this.

Is there any way to disable that functionality?

That's a sneaky one - I'm sure you looked into the Airport Utility configuration.
Tried to assign a static IPv6 to it? Fiddle with IPv6 DNS& share setting.

I don't know if there is a way to turn off the RA - since they are supposed to "maintain" network quality, and this is a connect&forget device so maybe that's a default and it's fixed. I dont know a way to send ipv6 nd ra suppress all to it :-)

If you assign a static IPv6 to a rr, it still uses the info from the RA's in the ICMPv6 (type 134) that comes along to get the default gateway and/or the mac+link local from the first hop. See what happens when you fill static IPv6 where possible.


iTunes Store says my card is invalid My iPad is telling me that my card is invalid and I've used it before. When I go to the payment method my security number is gone from the info. When I input the number it says my payment method isn't valid. I don't know what I need to do. My card works and I've used it before. Why can't I use it now?

You need to check your subscriptions or recent purchases for an outstanding charge made to your account.

Check your subscriptions on your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch- https://support.apple.com/en-ph/HT202039

Check all of your recent downloads by visiting:
http://reportaproblem.apple.com and signing in.

If both subscriptions and recent purchases arent showing a charge then you should contact AppleCare via 1-800-MY-APPLE and ask to speak to iTunes. You should expect a 15-25 minute wait since iTunes is always busy. If you can call in the morning between 8am-11am, not too many people call Apple that early.


Services on homescreen jailbroken iphone On my jailbroken iPhone 5 with ios 6.1.2 I sometimes see all kinds of services from applications filling up my homescreen. Most of the times this happens after installing an application. After a respring they will dissapear.

Example:

Tweaks I have installed are:

- %hooks law
- activator
- activedock
- auxo
- barrel
- blurriedncbackground
- ncsettings
- springtomize

Has anyone had this problem before and does someone know why this is happening?

This is a fairly common issue on jailbroken devices. It's a harmless bug where usually-hidden system apps suddenly show up, usually after installing a new app. I've seen reports of it happening on devices on iOS 6 with various combinations of tweaks installed, so I'm not sure whether any specific tweak is causing it, or whether it's related to the jailbreak itself. If you use Springtomize to hide Apple apps, you could try un-hiding those apps and seeing if the white icons come back (the hypothesis here is that maybe Springtomize's hidden apps feature is causing the problem for you).


Upload .EXE to Web for Mac I am a windows user, and I am a game developer. I have my .exe file, and I want my friend on Mac to be able to run the program. I know I can use Wine, but my question is, if I upload my .exe file to a website, can a Mac user go on the website and run the application?

The exe file will download like any other file. Then each Mac user needs to have a program to open that file for it to run. That's where they will need virtualization (VMware / VirtualBox / Parallels) or emulation (Wine).


Icons got smaller in iOS 14, how to return them to normal size? Throughout all history of iOS, the icons have had certain dimensions. Now, Apple for some reason decided to ruin this and made them smaller a little bit. They ruinded this, just as everything else, bit by bit. But, does anyone know how to return the icons to their original (pre - iOS 14)normal size, which has been throughout all older iOS-s?

To see this, open both of these images each in a new tab and click between them couple of times. You will see how the icons change size significantly.....I really would love to be able to go back to ios 13.....

I honestly don't see something blatantly different, but if you feel bad about it I suggest you tell Apple directly through this link
Besides that there is no other options in display to change the icon size it's either the "default" or "big".


Growl 1.3+: Location of (rollup) Log for use with GeekTool Where can I find Growl's log(s)? Would like to use with GeekTool to display it on the desktop.

Growl uses a CoreData database located in ~/Library/Application Support/Growl/

The database is a file called notifications.history

Edit: there does not as yet appear to be any way to communicate with the Growl Control Suite say via AppleScript, to read the database.  The functions there are limited. See the Growl AppleScript documentation here

You would have to communicate with the database directly, a database model is included within each build of Growl.


Optimize Mac Storage: Keep local copy AND iCloud backup of directory My active projects in a directory under ~/Documents/, which puts it in the path of iCloud's Optimized Storage. Often, I'll open a project folder to find files replaced with .icloud placeholder files.

Current workaround is either waiting for iCloud to re-download my project or resetting workspace changes via git.

Is there a way to force a persistent local copy, while still keeping a backup in iCloud?

I'm not trying to omit directories from Optimized Storage, I want the best of both worlds.

No, that is not possible.

You cannot always have a local copy with a backup in iCloud as well as having the same files be eligible for Optimized Storage.

Either the files are permanently stored locally, or they're eligible for Optimized Storage - i.e. only stored in the cloud.


Applescript javascript multiple line How can we add multiple line text in Chrome using document.getElementsByClassName?
I have no issue when it's one line but one I have more than one I have a missing value instead

  set myCaseNote to "MULTIPLE
    LINE
    TEXT
    HERE"

    tell application "Google Chrome"
        tell tab 3 of window 1 to set RemoveBtRestriction to execute javascript ¬
            " document.getElementsByClassName('text-entry')[1].value=" & quoted form of myCaseNote & ""
    end tell

  Result: missing value

set myCaseNote to "MULTIPLE\\nLINE\\nTEXT\\nHERE"

Splitting the string over several physical lines as you did causes a syntax error in the JavaScript.  Use a newline character instead.

I see you really love sticking on those empty strings at the end of your concatenations.  I now recognise this as your trademark.

I momentarily deleted this answer when it didn't work as expected.  Then I realised the newline character \n needs to be escaped twice, so it's written as \\n.

It's working now.


The say Command is not Working in High Sierra I recently upgraded my MacBook to High Sierra (from El Cap).  It appears I can no longer use the say command.  When I enter a simple command

$ say -v "Alex" "Test"
[...hangs...]

$ sudo say -v "Alex" "Test"
Password:
[...hangs...]

My laptop hangs.  Is this a known issue and are there known fixes?  If not, does anyone know what next steps I might take in diagnosing this problem?

Bug?

I could tell something was wrong because the Speech section of the Accessability pane in System Preferences was stuck loading voices and the voice sample play button also did not work. I killed some speech and audio-related processes with some luck.

I was also able to reproduce the hang by using the -o option of the terminal say command.

Workaround without reboot:

Try killing speechsynthesisd after finding it with

ps ax |grep speechsynthesisd

or just kill it this way:

kill `pgrep speechsynthesisd`