Wrong indentation and spacing for manual pages in terminal I am wondering why the manual pages in the Terminal app look like shite on my Mac running macOS Sierra 10.12.5?

If I run the command man grep for instance I get a crappy layout of text in the terminal window (black terminal). But if I right-click grep and choose open man page then I get the properly formatted version (yellow terminal) of the manual.

How can I resolve this?

Right-clicking a command and choosing open man page in the Terminal window uses the "Man Page" profile in the new Terminal window. In your current white-on-black profile you've set bolded text to black instead of white or another color. Therefore the bold text isn't visible on the black background.

Choosing yellow instead of black as color for bolded text in the Man Page theme would result in a similar crappy display of the grep man page:


Xcode file disabled/deleted My computers hard drive is full, and while I edited a .h file in xcode it said it can't be autosaved (obviously), but then the file name in the navigation area turned red and I wasn't able to get into the file. This happened to two files, and one of them went available again after deleting some files but one isn't even though I have cleared space. I can't seem to find it in the project directory neither. What has happened, is my file deleted?

If in the Xcode the filename turns red, that means that Xcode is missing reference to the file, which can mean that the file is either deleted or renamed.


Family sharing and non-organizer's previous purchases So, my wife has been using her iPad for a while, I have been using it for a while. Now, we added both of us to a family account (with me being organizer). And, while I purchased an app which my wife had already purchased (before we set up the sharing), my assumption was that I wouldn't pay for it. But to my surprise, my card got charged. Is this the expected behavior?

It sounds like you went into the App Store > Searched for the App > Installed. Rather, with Family Sharing, you would want to navigate to the App Store > Tap your icon in the upper right corner > Purchased > from here you should see each member of the Family. Tap into one of them to view their purchases & ultimately download free of charge. When it is being downloaded free of charge you will see the iCloud icon with an arrow pointing down.

Hope that helps!


Can I play audio from computer through VOIP connection? I'm using join.me for online presentations. If I have a video I'd like to share, I can't send the sound to join.me. I was thinking perhaps some Soundflower set up might enable this function. Any ideas about that, or other ways to send audio to a VOIP-type connection online?

I am open to other thoughts, but did find this:

http://support.citrixonline.com/en_US/Meeting/knowledge_articles/000187248?title=Attendees+Unable+to+Hear+Audio+When+Playing+a+Video+(Mac+Presenter)


Mid-2012 MBP -- put a 16GB SODIMM in one slot? I have both a 9,1 and a 9,2 Mid-2012 13" MacBook Pros which have both failed. Having finally gotten both computers back from my daughter, the only thing that I can find wrong with either one is that it appears that one of the two memory slots has failed in each computer. (Mr Google has led me to places that have the story that Apple put a little too much torque on the screws holding the ports to the motherboard. And also the news that the only way to fix this is to replace the motherboard.

I bought a refurbished  9,1 last summer which came with a single 8GB SODIMM in one slot rather than the advertised 2x2GB. I sent it back when I realized that it had a failed RAM slot. So apparently this is not an uncommon failure.)

These machines were long-ago upgraded to 16gb by replacing the original memory with a kit of 2 8GB SODIMMs, and so taking one out leaves me at 8GB, which is a sad place to be. When I go to Amazon and look at the product for 2gb, 4gb & 8gb Crucial chips, there is also an option for a single 16gb chip or a 2x16GB 32GB kit that's on the same form factor.

So now I'm wondering if I can get one of those 16GB chips for each computer, put it in the working slot, and have 16GB. According to this Macrumors thread, the answer is "no"

  The important point is that while Ivy Bridge does support 32 GB, it only supports 8 GB per module. You'd need four slots for 32 GB to work, and the MacBook Pro (like every other laptop pretty much) only has two.

But I can't figure out if this is really true -- this post here gives me some hope  although it shows a screen shot of Crucial saying "no".

Does anyone know anyone who has tried this and know one way or another?

From Intel's website: 7th Gen (U/Y) and 8th Gen (U Quad-Core) Intel® Processor Families Datasheet for the i7 mobile processor.

Unlike the desktop counterpart that has support for 8 channels it (mobile chip) only has 2 channels with a maximum of 2 DIMMs per channel

Further in the datasheet, Intel specifically notes the maximumm amount of memory that can be addressed:

16GB is your max.


What to Remove before selling Macbook? My macbook (feb 2008 white) sold on ebay, but I haven't shipped it yet.  I'm concerned about my privacy.  I can't wipe the hd clean because I sold the computer with valuable software on it.  What files should I remove so that the person who receives the computer can't log into my accounts?  And what other things should I do to ensure my privacy is safe?

The simple solution

Create a new admin account, then use it to delete your personal account(s).

When you delete a user, you have the option of performing a "secure erase" on their home directory:

Assuming you haven't stored any personal files outside of your home directory, this will do the trick.

The paranoid solution

If you want to be really thorough, the only way to ensure that none of your personal data remains is to securely wipe the drive. You can do this from Disk Utility by clicking "Security Options" on the "Erase" tab:

After that, reinstall your applications. None of your personal data will remain.


How to disable tap to drag? On a MacBook air, the trackpad is super hard to use because whenever I try to move the cursor, it selects everything or drags something to somewhere random. This is the fault of some tap to drag feature. Whenever I touch the trackpad and move my finger, it thinks I am trying to click and drag. I disabled tap to click and everything, but this feature still vexes me. This feature is a pain in the butt so how can I disable it?

If this is a newer MacBook Air (with a Force Touch trackpad), changing the pressure required to "Click" should help fix this. I experienced similar issues on my MacBook Pro.

Go into System Preferences, click the Trackpad icon, and select the "Point & Click" tab. On the left you should see a "Click" slider with "Light", "Medium", and "Firm" options. If you shift it over one setting, you might find that's enough to fix the issue.

Alternatively, disabling Force Click and haptic feedback (unchecking the checkbox at the bottom), may also stop peculiar behavior from happening. That's ultimately what I ended up doing and it made a world of difference in my case.


Safari adds links on any page I had strange issue with Safari on Macbook today.  It add on any pages I had visited links to other sites.  It looks like an advertising.

For example, if I had the page with next text:

".... answers for you Apple question ..."

Safari changed page so "Apple" was hyperlink to other site with an advertising of Apple production.  I can see it on any page and with different words.

I have not install any Safari extensions last time and the only thing that looks suspicious is the new Apple update which I have installed today.

I have restarted Safari and now all looks fine, but I just want to know what it had been and what I can do now to find the reason this strange behavior and to dispose future risk to security.

I think what Rob is getting at and what I think might be happening is that you have some malware (virus, etc) on your Mac (yes they do exist) that could be adding things to web pages.

It could be as simple as a browser extension or plug-in with some hijacking code in it, or something more system wide.

you could try resetting Safari (from the Safari menu select Reset Safari), turning off extensions (Safari menu -> preferences -> extensions. then turn them all off) or going into private browsing mode (Safari menu -> private Browsing).

Optionally you could try another browser, Chrome or Firefox would be my choices. If they do the same thing then it may be system-wide and time for a virus checker or a visit with your favorite Mac repair shop (Apple store or local reseller) to determine what is going on.

Also some routers and some ISPs inject ads and other stuff into web pages. Try it on a different WiFi (Starbucks, etc...) and see if the issue goes away


System font display issues since upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion Since I upgraded my system from 10.6 Snow Leopard to 10.7 Lion, I have errors in the display of system fonts, and in the spacing of characters in documents.

An image of my old system under 10.6 Snow Leopard was restored from a Time Machine backup onto a new system running 10.7. I get unusual results:

Like this in the Spotlight window

And this in my battery display

This in my Safari bookmarks

not to mention errors opening documents - this is a .docx doc with Times New Roman, as seen in Pages '09

which looks like the following in TextEdit

Question

What should I be doing to remedy this, given that Lion comes on no Physical Media?

Should I re-install something from disc? Online?

Thanks!

First, you said you are on 10.7. Have you run the updaters to update your system to 10.7.3, with all of Apple's updates and patches?

Most likely you are dealing with duplicate fonts that are incompatible--old ones from your old system and newer versions of the fonts with the same names that came with 10.7.

Here are some things you can try:

Run the Font Book application, selected all the fonts, and run "Look for Enabled Duplicates" and disable the duplicates. Then select all fonts, run "Validate Fonts", and remove any that are reported as corrupt.

Use a utility like Cocktail to delete all your font caches, repair your disk permissions, and reboot. (There are several other programs that provide you with a way to delete your font caches, and there is also a method to do this via Terminal and the command line).

Download the free TinkerTool and see what it reports about your system font settings. See if you can use TinkerTool to reset the font settings to their system defaults.

If none of the above work, or if you learn from Font Book that the basic fonts that you need are corrupt, then you should re-install 10.7.3 on your existing system (this will not hurt your data) and run Software Update and apply all patches. But first you need to delete any duplicate fonts or corrupt fonts.

I believe you can download the Lion 10.7.3 installer from the Mac App Store onto your existing installation and run the re-installation procedure from there.


How to autoprocess screenshots with an optimizer such as ImageOptim and then place immediately back in pasteboard (clipboard) for paste? I'm not entirely clear on how the screenshot + pasteboard handling on macOS works.  For example, as a user I perceive that when I press <shift-control-cmd-4> I can select a region of my screen and capture this screenshot into the pasteboard.  I then can simply <cmd-v> (paste) this into many applications.  Fore example, if I paste this into most chat applications (Messages, MatterMost, Discord, etc.) it shows up as a PNG file that is then uploaded to the hosting service.

Is there a way method to capture a pasteboard image and then send this to an optimizer (something like ImageOptim that generally get's between 15-25% additional lossless compression out of most screenshots) that can then put this back into the pasteboard for pasting it on into an app for additional seamless lossless compression?

I don't want to take the time now to actually do it, so I'll just point you in the directions I would take. If better answers become available, we can just delete this one :-)

There are two region capturing methods native to the Mac, one saves the file (Desktop by default, but can be anywhere) and one just puts it in your clipboard (some temp file somewhere most likely). You can change the shortcuts, file type and more... some through Preferences, some (file type) through command line in Terminal.

For example, swith the file format with defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg...

To process a region snap and get it back into clipboard:

You can do this with Alfred. You may need to save the file instead of just using the clipboard. (AUtomatically Save it to disc, process with compression of your choice (there's even imageoptim Alfred workflow) and put it back into your clipboard with some notification that it's done.)
You could start with these Workflows probably and modify them...

https://github.com/ginfuru/alfred-screen-capture
https://github.com/ramiroaraujo/alfred-screencapture-enhancer-workflow
https://github.com/ramiroaraujo/alfred-image-optim-workflow

You can do the same thing with Keyboard Maestro if that's more of your jam.
You may be able to do it with Automator, but I'm not sure about that.


Help! Fireworks CS5 hangs after Lion upgrade Upgrading my iMac to Lion resulted in Adobe Fireworks CS5 hanging on launch. My home iMac experienced exactly the same issue after the upgrade to Lion (both iMacs are less than 12 months old). Home iMac issue fixed by repairing the disk with Disk Utility. I tried the same fix with my work iMac, but it didn't work. Any ideas anyone? This is very frustrating as Fireworks is badly missed a laggy Windows version in Parallels is a poor substitute. Help badly needed!

This may be totally irrelevant, but it fixed a similar problem for me:

Turns out that a flashfirebug file kills the ability of Fireworks CS5, CS5.1 on Macs running Lion to start up:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3929927#3929927

Flashfirebug (a Firefox extension that I'd forgotten I even had) also creates potential issues with Flashbuilder 4.x, and I've heard that it creates crashes on startup with Adobe Extension Manager and Adobe Updater.  In any case, the link I found above is more useful than my guesses.


QuickTime .mov file requires quicktime 7? I have these old .mov files in my computer. When I try to open them, quicktime message pops up and says I need QuickTime version 7 top open them. (I currently have the latest version 10.something). Funny enough, the popup gives the option to install version 7, and then fails because version 7 is not available for download.

Why do I need version 7?
Any way to convert these files to newer version?

Ps: These .mov files are not standard movies, where you just press play. It's actually a 360 files, used to create "3d" environments. I am not sure how these files were made, and if it's something created with quicktime. But I would like to be able to use these files again. Any ideas?

Quicktime is a pain to work with on websites, I would be probably resorting to some other JS player, or some other 360 web viewer.

The name for these types of files is QuickTime VR. With this name you can search for applications to help open and convert the format.

FreePV is an open source project for Linux and Windows that claims to view QuickTime VR files:

  FreePV - Opensource panorama viewer

  FreePV is a viewer for QuickTime (QTVR), SPiV, cylindrical, cubic and cylindrical panoramas. The package provides a standalone panorama viewer and a Firefox/Mozilla plugin.


Quick way to create a symlink? Dragging a folder in Finder while pressing Command + Option (⌘ +  ⌥) creates an alias. But is there a quick and similar way to create a symlink this way?

macOS does not have a native drag and drop method to create a symlink in the same manner as creating an alias in Finder. By default, symlinks are created by using ln from the command line in Terminal.

In Terminal:

$ ln
usage: ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file [target_file]
       ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file ... target_dir
       link source_file target_file
$

For additional details, use: man ln

For a homegrown solution using Automator and AppleScript, the following is a bare-bones example of an Automator Service (QuickAction in macOS Mojave) that when assigned a keyboard shortcut, e.g. ⌘S in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, will create a symlink of the selected items in Finder at the selected destination folder that is brought up by pressing e.g. ⌘S:

This Service (QuickAction) will be available on the Services menu in Finder or from right-click Context menu, and or the assigned keyboard shortcut once an item or items are selected in Finder.

Bare-bones example AppleScript code:

on run {input, parameters}

    if input is equal to {} then return

    activate

    set posixPath to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt ¬
        "Select destination folder for Symlink..." default location ¬
        (path to desktop folder) with invisibles)

    repeat with thisItem in input
        set thisItem to POSIX path of (thisItem as alias)
        try
            do shell script "ln -s " & quoted form of thisItem & ¬
                space & quoted form of posixPath
        end try
    end repeat

end run

The example AppleScript code assumes you have write privileges at the selected destination folder, other then the selected items source folder, and as coded only creates the symlink if it doesn't already exist. Changes can be made to the code to accommodate other options.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and, other then a single try statement, does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.


How to mount a .sparsebundle after External Hard drive mounts I have an external hard drive, with which there is a .sparsebundle that I use for TimeMachine backups. I want to automatically mount this .sparsebundle after the external Drive mounts. I've tried making an AppleScript app to launch on startup, however, it doesn't work. Here is what I have so far.

tell application "Finder"
try
    (mount volume) / Volumes / External
on error
    return
end try

if exists disk "External" then
    do shell script "hdiutil attach /Volumes/External/TimeMachine/TimeMachineTest.sparsebundle"
else
    display dialog "Unable to mount TimeMachine"
end if
end tell

edit:

I made an AppleScript application that mounts the .sparsebundle, but only when its launched. I want this to run whenever the external drive is mounted.

 set mountedVolumes to do shell script "ls /Volumes/"
   if (mountedVolumes contains "External") is true then
     do shell script "hdiutil attach /Volumes/External/TimeMachine/TimeMachineTest.sparsebundle"
 end if

So, I found out a way to do what I wanted via, automator and shell scripts.

I made an Automator Folder Action. set the folder to /Volumes by pressing CMD+SHIFT+G and typing "/Volumes" and adding a Run AppleScript action.

    on run {input, parameters}

set mountedVolumes to do shell script "ls /Volumes/"
if (mountedVolumes contains "External") is true then
    do shell script "hdiutil attach /Volumes/External/TimeMachine/TimeMachineTest.sparsebundle"
end if

return input

That way, when there is an update to the volumes folder, it runs the AppleScript, which mounts the .sparsebundle.

edit:

Found a more simple way.

Create the Folder Action for /Volumes, then add Run Shell Script action.

  hdiutil mount /Volumes/External/TimeMachine/TimeMachineTest.sparsebundle


How setup Mail.app IMAP to migrate Mail Server We changed recently our Hosting provider.
How can we remove the old IMAP account in Apple Mail without loosing any Mails and have them uploaded to the new server including all IMAP folders?

Thanks,
Aldo

You can

copy the whole content of the old IMAP account into a local archive
enable/configure the new IMAP account
copy the local copy into the new IMAP account

You can probably also do this directly (old IMAP to new IMAP) but I run into IMAP implementations in the past which weren't too stable during batch copying. So keeping a local copy (at least for a short time) is recommended.

If a local copy is not possible due to mailbox size, you can alternatively try to copy old IMAP to new iMAP folder by folder. Be sure to verify each step at least visually.


Hard / Factory reset iPad 3 without device password and iTunes I have an iPad 3 which is disabled and not connected to the Internet. It says that I should connect iTunes but then I have to accept the connection. When I press "Next", it says that I have to answer the pop-up on my iPad, which is locked. Also, I've forgotten my security questions. Is there any way to Factory / Hard reset my iPad and then reset my questions?

I tried Power + Home but it won't work

Yes, you can reset the iPad by booting into recovering mode.

Turn off your iPad
Connect your iPad to your computer while holding the Home button. Keep holding the Home button until you see the recovery-mode screen
iTunes will show a display an alert message saying it's detected an iPad in recovery mode.
When you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Restore. Keep in mind a factory reset will erase ALL DATA!!
Set up as new iPad


How to always use integrated graphic card in Macbook Pro I use the Automatic Graphics Switching option as noted in this Apple support document. However sometimes it will still switch to the discrete graphic card. Is there a way to disable this?

One option might be to use Cody Krieger's gfxCardStatus app and to select the integrated GPU from it. Doing that, Mac OS should only use the integrated GPU until you either switch it back to automatic or explicitly tell it to use the discrete GPU. Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to do this without gfxCardStatus, but there is probably a way, seeing as the app does it. Still, it seems to work pretty well.


Folder of 24 gigs has only 12 gigs nested. How to account for mysterious bloat? I have a ~/Library/Developer used by Xcode.app in El Capitan. The Finder > Get Info reports a size of 24 gigs. But the two nested folders each report only 6 gigs each. So ( 2 * 6 ) = 12, and ( 24 - 12 ) = 12. Where is the other 12 mysterious gigs?

I am showing invisible files/folders. So I believe I have not overlooked any other content. I did recently delete much content from there, and emptied the Trash.

How can I track down this huge discrepancy?

Using the du, the “display disk usage statistics” tool, where -d is depth (Display an entry for all files and directories depth directories deep) and -h is "Human-readable" output (Use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte and Petabyte).

Outer folder:

cd ~/Library; du -d 1 -h;

…
 11G    ./Developer
…

Inner folders:

cd ~/Library/Developer; du -d 1 -h;

706M    ./CoreSimulator
4.4G    ./Shared
5.9G    ./Xcode
 11G    .

cd ~/Library; du -d 1 -h;

But the Get Info reports twice that, 24.x gigs.

tl;dr

Use du tool to see the truth.
Or, maybe wait a couple of hours.

Details

While shooting a screenshot of the Finder > Get Info showing 24 gigs and the results of the du command-line tool showing only 11 gigs, the Get Info panel changed with an automatic update. This was after a reboot and after 1-2 hours of repeatedly showing 24 gigs.

So the Finder must be caching information about the folders long after deleting gigs of data in a large numbers of files.

As suggested by tubedogg, use the du command-line tool to see accurate readings of your folder sizes.


Getting [iMac.domain_not_set.invalid ~] in Terminal When I open up my terminal I now get:

[iMac.domain_not_set.invalid ~ 501]$

In my .bash_profile it says:

export PS1='[\H \W \!]\$ '

Any idea what is going on?

Your hostname is not set correctly. This could be because of the information you set in Sharing in System Preferences, or because the DHCP server gave your system an incorrect hostname to use.

To fix this, change your hostname in Sharing, or in case of a DHCP issue, check the DHCP server configuration.


Can I change the default camera app on my iPhone? In the latest iOS update (5.1) Apple added the camera to the lock screen, so now I don't need to unlock the phone to take a picture.

Is it possible to change which app is used for this?

I realise that there are potentially privacy concerns around this which the default app nicely resolves by only showing those photos taken in the current session in the camera roll, but regardless, is this possible?


How can I share all document revisions with another Mac? Mac OS ‘Lion’ introduced a version control system with a fancy user interface called Versions. I’m slowly getting used to working with it and find it quite powerful.

I have found out how to share the master (head/current) version (revision), and one specific version with another Mac. But how do I share the whole version three including all revisions with another Mac?

Using, for example, TextEdit.

One person sharing two or more Macs, all running Lion

Method A: physical share of a disk

For your file to be versioned, save first to removable media with a file system that supports permanent version storage. Save all versions of the file to that volume.

Eject/unmount the volume. Use the volume with other Macs running Lion.

Examples:

a USB flash drive using MS-DOS (FAT) lacks support
a USB flash drive using JHFS+ does support permanent version storage.

Method B: electronic file share of a disk image

In a directory that is shared using Apple Filing Protocol (or any other appropriate distributed file system), create a disk image, maybe a sparse bundle. Choose a format — a file system — that supports permanent version storage.

Open the image.

For your file to be versioned, save first to the volume that is imaged. Save all versions of the file to that volume.

Eject/unmount the volume.

At another Mac running Lion:

connect to the file server
open the image.

Hints

The Secrets preference pane can help you to enable advanced image options in Disk Utility.

An image of a volume may be not reliably backed up whilst the volume is attached/mounted. For reliability, unmount/eject the volume before backing up.

Multiple users

Either method A or B will work, but both require negotiation between humans :-)

Method C

For each version that you wish to share, use the Duplicate command then save a separate file.

The downside of this traditional approach is separation. Users of other Macs (not necessarily running Lion) might take a Cover Flow view of the files, but that's not as neat as a versions browser view of a single file.

AFP, Apple versions and security/privacy

You might wonder why saving to an Apple-oriented file service, for example a service using Apple Filing Protocol, does not save Apple versions on the server. Think: privacy, security.

Example

Someone in Government saves a file that describes the true state of the economy, a state that is terrible. The person changes the file to present a different truth, a truth that will keep the lions at bay, saves his or her changes.

When ready to share, the author puts the one file on an AFP server.

Other users of the server open the file in any application that supports Apple versions. They see only one version, the most recent.

We (other users) might wish to see all versions of a file — including versions that were not intended for sharing — but for Mac OS X 10.7 (Build 11A511) the sanest default is:

share nothing other than the most recent version.


Add pictures to Photos.app Until now I have all my photos in a folder 'Images' on my Mac. To organize them better I want to start using the photos.app. When I open the app there are no fotos, so I guess I have to import them first. A few questions:

Can't I tell Fotos.app just where to look for photos and use that folder?
If I use the Import functions, will I then have duplicates of all photos? Where will the photos be stored after importing them and can I delete them from the original folder?
Weh I try to import all my photos my Mac tells me that I don't have enough space (it's a lot of pictures), so how can I import the pictures without duplicating them?

Tanks

By default Photos copies everything into its own library on import. You can disable this in Preferences->General

Pictures which are not kept within the library itself won't be available in iCloud though (which may or may not be a problem for you).

If you want to use iCloud (e.g. for sharing of pictures between iPhone and Mac) you can keep the option selected and import the pictures into the library in batches. You could then also decide to keep the originals in the iCloud library only, and just have Photos automatically download hires pictures on demand. Settings for this are in the iCloud tab of Photos' preferences.


IKEv2 VPN not working after updating to MacOS Catalina - User authentication failed with username authentication settings I had a IKEv2 VPN connection configured with MacOS Mojave that worked perfectly.

After updating to Catalina I can't connect to the VPN with the message User authentication failed.

Any idea how to fix or troubleshoot this problem?

The only logs I've found are in /var/system/wifi.log:

Wed Oct  9 23:47:06.462 <airportd[300]> _processIPv4Changes: ARP/NDP offloads disabled, not programming the offload

I had the same problem and I fixed with changing "Authentication Settings" from "Certificate" to "None".
After this change, you will see 2 new options appeared just below, "Shared Secret" and "Certificate". Select "Certificate" option and reselect the certificate that is already used for the VPN connection before.
Then click Connect button, confirm applying changes and viola!


What are the utilities included in the Mavericks recovery partition? What is Mavericks Recovery Partition good for? I have Maverick also installed on an external Hard drive, in case something goes wrong with my main system I can use this external hard. Do I still need the recovery partition? (I also have my old Snow Leopard installation disk).

Background:
I have a macbook pro, with Snow Leopard on it. I want to update to Mavericks. Before updating my main system, I put an old hard disk in my mac (same configuration as the main one, with Snow Leopard osx), and updated to Maverick to test the waters!

It went almost well, just it did not create recovery partition since I had 3 partitions on my hard (OSX, bootcamp and a fat32 partition for data).

now, for having the recovery partition, I need to format my hard, and do a fresh install of Snow Leopard, and bootcamp windows, and update to Maverick. Does it worth it?  Or, I forget about the Recovery Partition, and update my current configuration to Mavericks, and in case of any emergency I use the Maverick installed on an Hard drive?

Thanks

The recovery partition for OS X 10.7 and above includes the following utility applications:

Firmware Password Utility
Network Utility
Disk Utility
Terminal

In addition, the recovery partition allows you to use a version of Safari to better help you research and diagnose problems, restore from a Time Machine backup, and install OS X.


Two laptops authorized to play my iTunes library; what can each laptop see? There are two computers authorized to play my iTunes library; one is my main laptop and I sync my iPhone and iPad to this. The second laptop is an old one which I gave to a friend when I upgraded. I have no objections to her playing from my library. However, I am concerned now that she has bought her first iPhone.

When she syncs her device, what data (contacts, mail, texts etc.) will she be able to see of mine and vice versa?

Also if I download Apps will she automatically see them and vice versa?

You've actually posed two questions.

For the iTunes library, I'm assuming you've gone to the menu and Authorized This Machine to access your content. This authorizes the computer to access your paid content, meaning movies, tv shows, and songs downloaded through iTuens or via iTunes Match (if you enabled that on this machine too).

For contacts from your phone, did you enable iCloud on your old computer? If so you could have possibly enabled cloud syncing of contacts, mail, and calendar events. If you did this, then your friend will be getting whatever information you enabled. Thus to answer your other question, in this case she will automatically get your information.

Keep in mind that the Home Sharing feature, iTunes Match, and iTunes authorization End User Agreement License covers your household; thus, by allowing your friend to access your content you're technically violating the terms of service agreement.

If you want to to maintain your privacy, on your old machine go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign out. This will take care of your privacy concerns of contacts. In iTunes, go to Store > De Authorize This Computer, then Store > Sign Out


Why apps are installed to my iPad and not to my iPhone? Whenever I press "Get" to download an app in iTunes (either on iOS or Windows OS), apps are installed in my iPad and never to my iPhone.

However, after "Get" becomes "Downloaded" and I go to App Store on my iPhone, I see a down-arrow in a middle of a cloud. When I press it, then the app is installed in the phone.

How to fix this ?

Settings > iTunes & App Store
Enable Automatic downloads for Apps

Also make sure that 'Automatically install new apps' is enabled in iTunes
window in picture artificially shrunk to save space


"Laptop Notebook Memory for Apple Mac Mini"? Does this sound right? I am shopping for memory for a MacBook Pro (mid-2009) and I found this. Supposedly, it is "Laptop Notebook Memory for Apple Mac Mini". Can such memory be used in a Mac Mini? Can it be used in the MBP I mentioned?

Despite this answer from a reviewer on the product that you mentioned:

  My 2011 Macbook Pro came with 4GB of memory. I usually run several
  (~10) apps simultaneously and need more memory. Even with fewer apps,
  I noticed that Safari's Web Process always increases in size and
  eventually leaves no free memory available. I looked at the choices
  for 2x4GB of PC3-10600 and Komputerbay's price was enticing. I
  installed them over two weeks ago and have not had a problem.

I would not trust buying this for a MBP. For a Mac Mini, that may be fine. But, it is always a good idea to stick with memory designed for your specific Apple computer.

Why don't you get this? It is from the same seller (Kcomputerbay) and it is around the same price. It also is for the MBP.


AppleScript - GUI Scripting and setting checkbox, radio button and field values I'm working on an GUI scripting AppleScript that will, for the open FileMaker Pro Advanced document, go to the File menu and select the File Options dialog box, then set some checkbox/radio button and field values.

The dialog box looks like this:

I would like my script to do the following:

tick the "Log in using:" checkbox if it is not already selected
select the "Account Name and Password" radio button if it is not already selected
Enter a value into the "Account:" field
Enter a value into the "Password:" field
Click the OK button

I've got it opening the dialog box but I'm not able to get past setting the checkbox - this is my first time with GUI scripting. I'm using OS X Yosemite 10.10.3.

Here's my script:

-- check that GUI Scripting is available

GUIScripting_status()

-- bring FileMaker Pro Advanced to the front

tell application "FileMaker Pro Advanced"
    activate
end tell

setfmFileOptions()

on click_button(app_name, button_name)
    try
        tell application app_name
            activate
        end tell
        tell application "System Events"
            tell process app_name
                click button button_name of front window
            end tell
        end tell
        return true
    on error error_message
    end try
end click_button

on do_menu(app_name, menu_name, menu_item)
    try
        -- bring the target application to the front
        tell application app_name
            activate
        end tell
        tell application "System Events"
            tell process app_name
                tell menu bar 1
                    tell menu bar item menu_name
                        tell menu menu_name
                            click menu item menu_item
                        end tell
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
        return true
    on error error_message
        return false
    end try
end do_menu

on setfmFileOptions()

    -- choose the Developer Utilities menu item from the Tools menu of FileMaker Pro Advanced

    do_menu("FileMaker Pro Advanced", "File", "File Options...")

    -- click the "Log in using" checkbox:

    if (exists checkbox "Log in using:" of window 1) is true then
 click checkbox "Log in using:" of window 1
 end if

end setfmFileOptions

on GUIScripting_status()
    -- check to see if assistive devices is enabled
    tell application "System Events"
        set UI_enabled to UI elements enabled
    end tell
    if UI_enabled is false then
        tell application "System Preferences"
            activate
            set current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
            display dialog "This script utilizes the built-in Graphic User Interface Scripting architecture of Mac OS x which is currently disabled." & return & return & "You can activate GUI Scripting by selecting the checkbox \"Enable access for assistive devices\" in the Universal Access preference pane." with icon 1 buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1
        end tell
    end if
end GUIScripting_status

It won't compile and returns this error the line "      if (exists checkbox "Log in using:" of window 1) is true then":

try this little syntax change:

on setfmFileOptions(app_name)

    -- choose the Developer Utilities menu item from the Tools menu of FileMaker Pro Advanced

    do_menu(app_name, "File", "File Options...")

    -- click the "Log in using" checkbox:
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process app_name
            repeat until (exists checkbox "Log in using:" of tab group 1 of window 1)
                delay 1
            end repeat
            click checkbox "Log in using:" of tab group 1 of window 1
        end tell
    end tell
end setfmFileOptions

You can't use window 1 without telling what process window 1 is in. You'll have to specify app_name as a parameter now.

So, like this:

setfmFileOptions("FileMaker Pro Advanced")


How to remove a large number of unused keywords from Apple Photos app? My Photo library has evolved over many years, starting out as an iPhoto library, then being merged with an Aperture library, then becoming a Photos library.  Over the course of the last 20 or so years I've accumulated thousands of keywords that have zero photos associated with them.

The Photos app itself does not support a 'Delete unused keywords' feature, and I have looked at using AppleScript to do this, but, despite being quite an experienced programmer, I could not work out how to do this (AppleScript drives me nuts quite honestly).

I'm hoping someone has already written such a script, or if not a script then some other utility that will do this for me.

Below is a script I wrote and tested over quite a few days.  Whilst Apple's Photos.app is scriptable, you've already observed that it lacks the necessary methods to delete unused keywords.  If you are familiar with AppleScript and the notion of UI scripting, this appears to be the only option available.

Note: For UI scripting to work, you need to provide the necessary accessibility privileges to Script Editor.

My personal view towards UI scripting is generally a negative one, but I have taken extra care to try and mitigate the typical temperamental nature and fragility of UI scripts, and done a few tests on my system to observe a reasonably smooth operation.

However, the one specific feature I couldn't (wasn't willing to) check during testing is how the script performs when there are thousands of keywords, and/or an extremely large Photos library.  I myself have a Photos library consisting of fewer than 100 photos, and none of them had been tagged with keywords, so I created a sample of 20, of which I randomly assigned about half of them.

In theory, the only affect library volume or keyword count should have on script operation is the length of time it takes to execute.  But, with AppleScript, there may be timeout issues that prematurely abort the script; and with UI scripting, the probability of it throwing an error tends to increase with running time.

Specific notes regarding these uncertainties on performance are expanded upon below the script.  If you run into any issues, please report back and I shall consider how to implement a fix.  There ought to be no adverse effects should the script not perform ideally (i.e. you won't lose any photos).  Suboptimal performance ought to only result in an incomplete purge of keywords.

#!/usr/bin/osascript
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# pnam: PHOTOS#DELETE UNUSED KEYWORDS
# nmxt: .applescript
# pDSC: A UI scripting-dependent script to remove keywords from Photos.app that
#       have not been assigned to any photos

# plst: -

# rslt: «list» : On successful completion, the script reacquires an updated
#                list of disused keywords and returns the result (hopefully
#                an empty list)
#       «err » : Script failure throws an error.  Running the script again
#                with Photos.app already open may yield a different result.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# sown: CK
# ascd: 2019-01-07
# asmo: 2019-01-07
# vers: 1.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
use sys : application "System Events"
use Photos : application "Photos"

property process : a reference to application process "Photos"

property _M : a reference to every media item
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# IMPLEMENTATION:
activate Photos
open the keywordManager

set everyKeyword to the list of allKeywords()
set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()
set disusedKeywords to difference(everyKeyword, activeKeywords)

tell the keywordManager
    tell its keywordEditor
        open it
        select disusedKeywords
        delete
        close
    end tell
end tell

set everyKeyword to the list of allKeywords()
set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()

close the keywordManager

set disusedKeywords to difference(everyKeyword, activeKeywords)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# HANDLERS & SCRIPT OBJECTS:
script keywordManager
    property window : a reference to window "Keywords" of my process
    property scroll area : a reference to scroll area 2 of my window
    property button : a reference to button "Edit Keywords" of my window
    property menu item : a reference to ¬
        (menu item "Keyword Manager" of ¬
            menu 1 of ¬
            menu bar item "Window" of ¬
            menu bar 1 of my process)

    script keywordEditor
        property title : "Manage My Keywords"
        property window : a reference to window title of my process
        property scroll area : a reference to scroll area 1 ¬
            of my window
        property table : a reference to table 1 of my scroll area
        property group : a reference to group 1 of my window
        property button : a reference to (first button of my group ¬
            whose accessibility description = "remove")
        property menu item : a reference to ¬
            (menu item "Select All" of ¬
                menu 1 of ¬
                menu bar item "Edit" of ¬
                menu bar 1 of my process)
        to open
            if my window exists then return
            tell the keywordManager to if not ¬
                (its window exists) then ¬
                open it

            click the keywordManager's button
            with timeout of 10 seconds
                repeat until the my window exists
                    delay 0.5
                end repeat
            end timeout
            perform action "AXRaise" of my window
        end open

        to close
            if not (my window exists) then return
            click button "OK" of my window
        end close

        to select |keywords| as list
            local |keywords|

            set focused of my table to true

            click my menu item

            script deselect
                property list : |keywords|
                on fn(x)
                    if the value of x's text field 1 ¬
                        is not in my list then
                        set x's selected to false
                        return true
                    end if
                    false
                end fn
            end script

            filterItems from rows of my table ¬
                given handler:deselect
        end select

        to delete
            if not (my button exists) then return 0
            click my button
        end delete
    end script

    on menuItem()
        tell my menu item to if exists then return it
        false
    end menuItem

    to open
        if my window exists then return false
        tell the keywordEditor to if ¬
            (its window exists) then ¬
            return close it

        click my menuItem()

        # tell sys to keystroke "k" using command down

        with timeout of 10 seconds
            repeat until my window exists
                delay 0.5
                set my process's frontmost to true
            end repeat
        end timeout
        perform action "AXRaise" of my window
    end open

    to close
        if not (my window exists) then return
        click (value of attribute "AXCloseButton" of my window)
    end close
end script

on allKeywords()
    script |keywords|
        property list : accessibility description of ¬
            every checkbox of the keywordManager's scroll area ¬
            whose role description = "keyword checkbox"
    end script
end allKeywords

on currentKeywords()
    script
        property keep : keywords of _M
        property list : strings in unique_(flatten_(keep))
    end script
end currentKeywords

on __(function)
    if the function's class = script ¬
        then return the function

    script
        property fn : function
    end script
end __

to filterItems from L as list into R as list : missing value ¬
    given handler:function
    local L, R

    if R = missing value then set R to {}

    script
        property list : L
        property result : R
    end script

    tell the result to repeat with x in its list
        if __(function)'s fn(x, its list, its result) ¬
            then set end of its result to x's contents
    end repeat

    R
end filterItems

to foldItems from L at |ξ| : 0 given handler:function
    local L, |ξ|, function

    script
        property list : L
    end script

    tell the result to repeat with i from 1 to length of its list
        set x to item i in its list
        tell __(function)'s fn(x, |ξ|, i, L) to ¬
            if it = missing value then
                exit repeat
            else
                set |ξ| to it
            end if
    end repeat

    |ξ|
end foldItems

on difference(A as list, B as list)
    local A, B

    script
        on notMember(M)
            script
                on fn(x)
                    x is not in M
                end fn
            end script
        end notMember
    end script

    filterItems from A given handler:result's notMember(B)
end difference

on union(A as list, B as list)
    local A, B

    script
        on insert(x, L)
            set end of L to x
            L
        end insert
    end script

    foldItems from A at B given handler:result's insert
end union

to flatten:L
    foldItems from L at {} given handler:union
end flatten:

on unique:L
    local L

    script
        on notMember(x, i, L)
            x is not in L
        end notMember
    end script

    filterItems from L given handler:result's notMember
end unique:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------❮END❯

Uncertainties on Threats to Performance

Regarding the volume of photos in your library, the line I am most mindful about is this one:

property _M : a reference to every media item

the effect of which will come into play at the points in the script where the property is dereferenced, i.e.

set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()

The function of this line is to retrieve a list of all keywords currently assigned to at least one photo.  In order to do this, every single photo in your library needs to be enumerated (retrieved), and its keywords property evaluated.  This happens virtually immediately at the start of the script; and again after purging keywords to determine if the purge was complete.  It's a time-consuming process, and therefore a potential timeout threat for the script.

One ought to be able to extend the default timeout value like so:
    with timeout of 600 seconds
        set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()
    end timeout

or it may be necessary to slightly alter the syntax in retrieving the photos so that the script directly targets the Photos app at the point of enumeration, instead of by way of property references; and then to enclose the Photos command within a timeout block.  But, for now, I've left it to see if the script will run on your system using the default timeout, which might not be a constraint if the enumeration takes place synchronously (and I don't know whether or not it does).
Regarding UI scripting potential roadblocks: the Photos AppleScript dictionary doesn't provide a way to retrieve all keywords that exist in the app.  The way the script works around this is to open up the Keyword Manager and read off the name of every keyword label that it detects under the section "Keywords".  What I don't know is whether every UI element containing a keyword label is loaded when the Keyword Manager window gets created; or whether they get loaded piecewise when a user scrolls through the list.  The latter situation would be irksome, as it would result in an incomplete list of keywords and then an incomplete purge.

One obvious solution would be to run the script multiple times to perform multiple purges until the are no remaining purgeable items.
When considering the worst-case scenario, analysing the script appears to have one of three possible outcomes (regardless of how the script terminates, be it through completion of its run or by throwing an error):

Either the script does nothing (nil result);
OR an incomplete purge occurs (partial success);
OR a complete purge occurs (success).

There does not seem to be a way for the script to fail in a way that negatively impacts the Photos library, so the worst-case scenario appears to be the nil result.  However, if we assume I can be wrong, you may want to put a margin on error on the potential worse-case scenario.

This margin is up to you and your judgment, which is tough to make when you perhaps don't know what types of things I'm typically wrong about.  If it helps, I would say label it impossible for the script to delete any of your photos, because it does not perform any filesystem operations.  If impossible is not good enough, then the clear precaution to take is to backup your entire Photos library beforehand.  Depending on the size of your library, this may range from simple to pain-staking for the sake of a near zero-chance event.

What the script does do (obviously) is read and edit lists of keywords.  So, while it ought not to be possible, it wouldn't be foolish to consider that all of your keywords for all of your photos might just disappear.  Should you want to cover yourself for this unlikely event, then I provide this "scriptlet" that you can run beforehand in order to back up your keywords:

property path : "~/Desktop/Photos.Keywords.Backup.plist"

backupKeywordsToFile at path
--! CAUTION: Uncommenting the line below
--! WILL OVERWRITE ALL KEYWORDS FOR ALL PHOTOS
-- restoreKeywordsFromFile at path
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# HANDLERS & SCRIPT OBJECTS:
use framework "Foundation"

property this : a reference to current application
property _0 : a reference to missing value
property _1 : a reference to reference

property NSDictionary : a reference to NSDictionary of this
property NSString : a reference to NSString of this
property NSURL : a reference to NSURL of this

to backupKeywordsToFile at fp as text
    local fp

    set fURL to NSURL's fileURLWithPath:((NSString's ¬
        stringWithString:fp)'s ¬
        stringByStandardizingPath())

    script
        use application "Photos"
        property _M : a reference to media items
        property properties : [keywords, id] of _M
        property keys : item 1 of my properties
        property refs : item 2 of my properties
    end script

    tell the result
        repeat with i from 1 to length of its keys
            if (item i of its keys) = missing value ¬
                then set item i of its keys to {}
        end repeat

        tell (NSDictionary's dictionaryWithObjects:(its keys) ¬
            forKeys:(its refs)) to set [success, E] ¬
            to its writeToURL:fURL |error|:_1
    end tell

    if E ≠ missing value then return E's localizedDescription() as text

    success
end backupKeywordsToFile

to restoreKeywordsFromFile at fp as text
    local fp

    set fURL to NSURL's fileURLWithPath:((NSString's ¬
        stringWithString:fp)'s ¬
        stringByStandardizingPath())

    script
        property result : NSDictionary's ¬
            dictionaryWithContentsOfURL:fURL ¬
                |error|:_1
        property mediakeys : item 1 of my result
        property E : item 2 of my result
        property keys : null
        property refs : null
    end script

    tell the result
        if its E ≠ missing value then return its E's ¬
            localizedDescription() as text

        set its keys to its mediakeys's allObjects() as list
        set its refs to its mediakeys's allKeys() as list

        repeat with i from 1 to length of its refs
            set x to item i of its refs
            set keys to item i of its keys

            tell application "Photos" to set ¬
                keywords of media item id x ¬
                to keys
        end repeat
    end tell
end restoreKeywordsFromFile

In backing up your keywords, the script will have to enumerate the entire Photos library.  Therefore, regardless of whether or not you need the backup, running this script first will give you an indication of how slowly/quickly your library can be read.


how to earn being an apple developer So I am learning apple development but I want to know that how am I going to earn once I'm done learning? If its the apps only then I don't have any guarantee that they'll be downloaded and stuff right? so I don't thin that'd be so fruitful. Would it? I'd be really helpful if anyone could help me with this.

Are you thinking of being a freelancer / indie developer? Or working for somebody else?  Without that in mind the answer varies from 'it could cost you money' to 'whatever the going rate is'.

Reasoning: if you intend to publish your own apps on the App Store then you will need a developer certificate from Apple, which has a cost to it. For the money however you get access to some excellent tools for developing and publishing apps in a high market place.

Now what you can earn very much depends on your strategy. For example if you sell your app for $0.99 then after apple takes their cut you will need to have a lot of downloads to make a living from it.  That being said a couple of downloads at that price will cover your expenses.

If you offer your apps for download for free then you will need another way to generate money. You could include adverts (not a good idea to my mind) or structure your app to include in app purchases. And then we are back to how many people want the extra functions/content.

There are a myriad of choices so I'd suggest "going to Bing and googling for it"

Good luck. From experience I'd have to say it's a well worth the effort experience.


Possible to hide or de-prioritize an application from spotlight? Is it possible to hide an application from Spotlight?

I have an annoyance of sorts. This will probably seem trivial to others, but it happens to me enough that I find it rather frustrating. I have Quicken and of course, Quicktime is bundled with macOS. If I bring up spotlight and start typing quic it is showing quicken. But if I proceed to put in the "k" before hitting enter, spotlight switches from Quicken to Quicktime and that's what ends up getting opened. Often there is just enough of a delay that I see Quicken while pressing enter.

Since I do not use Quicktime at all (vlc person), I would just force uninstall it, but it seems like there should be a way to hide applications from spotlight or give some applications priority over others.

Spotlight learns from your actions. The more you choose QuickTime for a certain input, the more that result will appear as the Top Hit for that search phrase. Try typing your phrase which shows QuickTime first, then choose Quicken. Keep doing this and it will learn that you want Quicken instead. This might take a few tries depending on how many times you incorrectly taught it first.

Alternatively, you can prevent something from appearing in Spotlight by adding it to the Privacy list. Open System Preferences → Spotlight, choose the Privacy tab, then drag QuickTime Player.app from Applications into this list.


How do I completely get rid of a potentially compromising picture? I received a potentially compromising picture in a WhatsApp chat on my iPhone, I want to get rid of it entirely in everything Apple.

I've deleted it from the chat (within minutes), but where else could it end up being stored? Photostream? Camera Roll? Somewhere in my Macbook? Would it be backed up to the iCloud automatically? Please tell me all the places I need to check to be sure. Sorry for the newbie questions.

I received a potentially compromising picture in a WhatsApp chat

So someone else sent it to you.

If you delete the image from within the application, emptied the trash, checked your photo stream / iPhoto folders, deleted the contents of Library/Caches on any computers linked to the same service account, and checked Time Machine in the same locations it is highly unlikely that it still exists on your computer.

But someone else still has the original.

As many public figures have discovered, it's more-or-less impossible to permanently delete an image once someone else has it.


How can I send a multi part mime email from my mac How can I send a multi part mime email from my mac for the purposes of sending a html email together with a plain text version. The emails I send will be going out to a single recipient each time.

Mail.app sends a multipart mime email with hrml and plain text alternatives if you select Format->make Rich text


Is this Apple charger cable genuine? I recently bought online a charging cable for my iPhone. In the description of the item, the seller wrote "Apple Brand", which is what I was trying to purchase.

However, there are a couple of things that make me think this cable might not be made by Apple:

No Apple logo on the product

Cardboard holder

Oddly printed guide books

Disclaimer on the cable printed at approx. 4 inches from the USB port, seems to read "Designed by Apple in Califomia Assembled in China Fov 5222F2KA HW"

Detail of the USB

Detail of the Lightning

For me, the difference is trivial. But in order to properly give the seller a rating, I'd love to know if they sold me what they pretended to sell or not.

If Apple cables have a certified chip inside, it should be easy to know?

Edit: In editing this question after getting a lot of comments, I retook better pictures of the cable and ruled out possibilities of bad kerning on "Califomia". I genuinely couldn't see well the first time and thought other Apple cables could have gotten badly kerned as well. (Disclaimer: I worked for Apple in the past and live in "Califomia" lol).

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that imho, anything claiming to be designed in "Califomia" is not a genuine Apple product :3

Apple's official article -- Identify counterfeit or uncertified Lightning connector accessories -- may help you confirm my suspicions.

For those not liking hidden links the full address of the Apple article above is https://support.apple.com/ht204566


How can I deactivate an jailbroken iOS? Sometimes the activation option from the PwnageTool does bring your GSM in an unusable state if you have and iPhone that is locked to other network than AT&T.

All I remember is that it was a tool that I installed using Cydia that was able to deactivate the phone.

You should disable activation (it's hacktivation) when jailbreaking if your phone is unlocked (or locked to your carrier).

In PwnageTool you should choose Expert and deselect the Activate the phone checkbox.


Want to download songs to my iPhone; don't want to plug it into the computer I have an up-to-date (iOS wise) iPhone 4. I downloaded two songs on my computer and now I want to get them on my phone, but my version of iTunes is outdated, and my computers slow, also I'd rather just get it through iCloud on my phone. The songs are not showing up on my phone. Is there any way to possibly 'refresh' iCloud so the songs will show up without plugging in my phone?

You need to turn on Automatic Downloads in Settings > iTunes & App Store > Automatic Downloads > Music/Apps/Books/Updates in order to get the phone to download anything you buy on the Mac/PC automatically.  You may need to be on a WiFi network, or select the Use Mobile Data option if you are using cell network to download.

In addition, you can also just hop into the iTunes Store on the iPhone, search for the items and then download them manually (you won't be charged again, the Buy option will be replaced with an icon of a cloud with a down arrow), or check your Purchased tab (may be under the More section depending how you have it configured) to list your purchases and have the ability to just show stuff Not on This iPhone.

Alternatively, if you turn on Settings > Music > Show All Music it should show all your purchases inline in the Music App, and allow you to stream or download them at will directly from within the app, but note it will show all purchases, even that Miley Cyrus you are now embarrassed to own...


How do I bypass the battery using command keys on MacBook Pro 2017 How do I bypass the battery using command keys on MacBook Pro 2017 which has a non-removable battery to run only on power cable?

It's unclear why the command keys are specified as the mechanism to disable/bypass the battery - there are many features and functions on your Mac that aren't implemented with the command keys or any of the modifier keys for that matter.  For instance you can hold Caps Lock to switch languages or hold a letter to get it's dialects (i.e. press and hold U for ü as in Über)
That said, command keys or not, you cannot bypass the battery to only run on AC; period.  This core question has been asked already:

Force USB C MacBook to run off AC power
Is there a way to bypass charge a 2019 MacBook Pro?

It basically comes down to how the MacBook was engineered - since the battery is no longer removable, it must be managed by the system and in response to market demand, Apple has implemented further management with Battery Health Management.  Additionally, to get the full performance of your MacBook, it will utilize both power from the mains and the battery.


MacBook Pro external display How many external displays does a Macbook Pro 13-inch 2016 model support?

It used to be simple where each model has a “you get one display, you get two” but now with the 4k and 5k displays, one display can have more pixels than the 6 displays Mac Pro used to support.
Also, support is a vague term sometimes. Apple “supports” less displays than you can often connect since support means fast refresh, low likelihood of lags and slowdowns and glitches as opposed to “you’ll never get signal on this mess of adapters and cables and usb drivers and daisy chained devices”
That being said, here are the articles on multiple displays:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204154

These Thunderbolt-3 capable Mac computers support multiple Thunderbolt displays:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) and later supports up to four Thunderbolt displays using Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapters or daisy-chaining.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) and later and MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports) and later support up to two Thunderbolt displays using Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapters and daisy-chaining.

So you should expect two attached displays to run well unless there’s a 4/5k issue:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206587
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207448 (likely only one 5k for 13 inch MBP)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207447 (probably no issue with 2 4k)


MacBook on takes long to establish WiFi connection After upgrading  my MacBook Pro 13" Early 2015 to Mojave, it takes about 20-30 seconds to establish a working connection to my home wifi. It connects quickly, gets its IP address via DHCP, and I can successfully ping devices in my home network. Unfortunately it takes 20-30 seconds before I can ping any IP on the internet. DNS can not be the problem since I am pinging IP addresses.

I watched "netstat -nr" while the connection is being established and I can see that different routes are created. Just before I can ping outside IP addresses the following route is being added (192.168.111.0/24 is my home network):

192.168.111.255     ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  UHLWbI          0       18     en0      !

Does anyone have an idea how I can solve this?

I solved this by myself and I feel a bit silly too:
In pfSense I had a DNS override set for "captive.apple.com" to point to 0.0.0.0 because I didn't want my Apple devices to talk to Apple every time I connect to my home WiFi if not necessary. After deleting this override it works fine. Sorry for bothering you with this.


Non apple applications failing to launch I am having trouble running any third party applications that are not created with pure apple native UI. Example, Google Crome, Firefox and Microsoft Word.

When I try launch one of the applications in question they continually bounce up and down in the Dock without ever launching. I have checked all the file permissions and the preferences to allow apps that are not downloaded from the app store to run, they are all correct.

I have also tried rolling back using time machine to a much older install and reinstalling everything, the applications work for a short time before breaking again.

I have also tried reinstalling all the applications, in addition I reinstalled Java and any other runtime tools that may be causing the problem with no luck. I have also tried the basic tricks like restarting the OS.

It may also be worth noting that when this problem first started happening some of my preferences reverted back to default, example natural scrolling turned back on.

I have looked in the system.log and see the following error repeated over and over again every few seconds, not sure if it is related, could indicate some ownership issues.

Nov 17 09:19:41 azula com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (org.postfix.master[1434]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1

Nov 17 09:19:41 azula com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (org.postfix.master): Service only ran for 1 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 9 seconds.

and

Nov 17 09:33:49 azula.staff sharingd[238]: 09:33:49.984 : Starting Handoff advertising

Nov 17 09:33:51 azula.staff sharingd[238]: 09:33:51.984 : Stopping Handoff advertising

I also see this log message when launching Firefox, I don't see any messages when launching other problem applications

Nov 17 09:32:49 azula kernel[0]: firefox (map: 0xffffff8041e393c0) triggered DYLD shared region unnest for map: 0xffffff8041e393c0, region 0x7fff8d800000->0x7fff8da00000. While not abnormal for debuggers, this increases system memory footprint until the target exits.

I am running Yosemite 10.10 (14A389) on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)

While the three errors you showed are problems, none of them have to do with your current issue.  The first one is due to a permissions error on incoming mail.  See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3184945?tstart=0 to fix.  The second is just for handoff with iOS devices.  It is not something to worry about.  The third is an error on an old version of firefox.  An update should fix it.  It is described more in depth at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=804010

As for the problem itself, I would recommend going into Disk Utility and running a permissions repair.  It sounds a lot like the apps got quarantined even though you have it set to allow all applications.


How to reset iCloud status of a song when using apple music iTunes stopped uploading my own (i.e. not from the iTunes store) music after 5Gb out of 50GB.  The rest of the tracks have the iCloud status Waiting in the get info box in the File tab.

On my iPhone (iOS 8.4) the tracks appear in my Music grayed out, meaning they can not be played.

Is there some way to reset the iCloud status of these tracks so they can be uploaded?

Edit:
There no option in the right click menu to add it to the iCloud Library. Also if Click Remove download it greys out the track. If I try to play the track, it fails to redownload the track from the cloud, since it was never uploaded.

Using: OS X 10.10.4, iTunes 12.2, iOS 8.4

Try the menu item File > Library > Update iCloud Music Library.

I had quit iTunes after initially enabling iCloud Music Library in preferences when it was only partially done uploading.  To get it going again I used this menu item Update iCloud Music Library, the progress indicator in the upper right appeared and it continued uploading.  This was on OS X 10.10.4 and iTunes 12.2.0.145.


How can I get a screenshot of what's on my AppleTV? Preferably Wirelessly. Any apps for that?

Obviously I'm talking about the more recent iOS powered little black box AppleTV, not the original model.

After some quick Googling I found these steps:

Jailbreak
Install aTV Flash (black)
Install nitoTV
Install 'screencapture' (through nitoTV)
SSH in: ssh root@Apple-TV.local (or ssh root@ipaddress, e.g. ssh root@192.168.3.61)
At this point typing in screencapture SHOULD save Screenshot.png to root. If it does not you may need to change ownership on root via: chown mobile:staff ./

Obviously less than ideal, but possible.


Why is a secure erase 'not necessary' for SSD's? I'm about to trade in a 2010 MacBook Pro with an SSD. However, I'm unable to do a Secure Erase from the recovery disk (as I used to do with mechanical hard drives before selling or giving away a computer) since the "Security Options" button is grayed out.

Based on an article in Apple's knowledge base, the button is intentionally disabled for SSD's because:

  Note: With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not
  available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD
  drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from
  an SSD.

This sounds good to me, and this view was confirmed both at the Genius Bar and by calling Apple.

The problem is that almost every article I can find on this subject contradicts Apple's optimistic view about erasing an SSD. Because SSD's dynamically remap blocks on write and because they have large chunks of free space inaccessible to the OS, it's impossible to overwrite the entire drive.

The single explanation that could reconcile these two perspectives is that MacBook SSD's are "self-encrypting", i.e. they generate a random key and store it in the disk's metadata and encrypt all data stored to the drive with that key (additional explanation here). When I use Disk Utility's Erase button on an SSD, the Mac clears out that key, so even though the data hasn't been overwritten, it's all inaccessible ciphertext now that the key is gone, and is as good as zeroed-out.

The problem is that all I can find to back this view up is a post by a knowledgeable member of the Apple Support Forums. Does anyone know if this is really true? Could you point me to something verifying that Apple's SSD's do this?

Not so much that it's not necessary...
I'm a couple years late to the party, but it might be worth pointing out that Apple (who has now entirely remove "Secure Erase" options from the Disk Utility app) hasn't really removed the option because it "isn't necessary" — according to its El Capitan security release notes, they did it because they can't guarantee a secure erase:

Description: An issue existed in guaranteeing secure deletion of Trash files on some systems, such as those with flash storage. This issue was addressed by removing the “Secure Empty Trash” option.

Glenn Fleishman, gives a good overview of this in "How to replace El Capitan's missing Secure Empty Trash." The fact that, currently, the only DoD/NSA approved SSD sanitation procedure is smelting or shredding the drive into a fine powder somewhat echoes the challenge in being able to wipe a drive, for sure.
It is pretty difficult to recover data from an SSD...
As Trane Francks explained, recovering data from an SSD is, by default, pretty difficult. The data isn't necessarily encrypted, but it is distributed data over many locations in order to perform as few writes as possible to a single location (both for performance and for drive longevity). So once data is deleted, find the place a file used to reside in is like putting together a multi-million piece jigsaw puzzle (all before any garbage collecting the drive may decide to do). It is possible to recover files from an SSD, but this usually requires a lot of extra effort.
To make it hard for recovery tools...
Encrypting a SSD with any kind of suitably secure key, and then erasing that key, makes it virtually impossible to recover any data. This can be done, on a Mac, by enabling FileVault, booting into recovery mode, unlocking and then deleting the drive with Disk Utility.
If you're just looking to make sure stuff is securely erased without nuking existing data, you could try using the diskutil terminal command — the command line version of DiskUtility, wherein secure erase options have not been removed:
sudo diskutil secureErase freespace 0 "/Volumes/[Disk Name]"

This should attempt to write and delete a couple tempfiles which will fill up the entire hard drive. In doing so, every available space should be filled and then cleared.
Good information on all these options can be found in "How to Securely Erase a Mac SSD".
Also, you can always try to run some data recovery tools to see if there is data that is still immediately available.


Apple says the VP9 codec no longer works on Catalina. I want this codec for my older OS. Where can I find it? Apple has a page listing "Media formats affected by the transition to 64-bit technology":

In macOS versions up to and including macOS Mojave, third-party software has extended the QuickTime 7 framework to support many incompatible media formats. In macOS Catalina, the QuickTime 7 framework will no longer be available, so incompatible formats won't be supported in Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor.

Here are examples of media formats affected by this transition:

The second item on the list of affected formats reads:

AV1 / VP9

I am on an older version of macOS, and I would very much like to have native support for VP9 in QuickTime! Unfortunately, I am not aware of any QuickTime components that add compatibility with VP9. Perian, which is listed seperately, only ever supported up to VP8.
Was there ever a VP9 QuickTime Component, and if not, what is Apple's page referring to? I am looking for the name of the specific software being referenced.

Welp, I'm still not sure whether there ever was a VP9 component, but there is now because I made one. I managed to update FFusion (the core component of Perian) to work with a newer version of libavcodec.
https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/FFusion
At long last, I can watch 4K Youtube videos in QuickTime Player 10.2.


How to install iOS 5.1 Simulator if I’m not an iOS Developer Program member? iOS 6 is finally out, and so is Xcode 4.5 that comes with the iOS 6 SDK.

Unfortunately, after upgrading to Xcode 4.5, all the previously installed SDK versions have been removed and are to be re-downloaded manually. Same goes for the CLI tools.

But the strange thing happened when I went to Preferences › Downloads › Components and hit “Install” next to iOS 5.1 Simulator. I was prompted for my Apple ID and password at me, so I typed the credentials and confirmed. It turned out I was unauthorized to download it, because I hadn’t enrolled in the iOS Developer Program. (Installing Command Line Tools went just fine, though.)

It was a serious matter to me, because I’m a front-end engineer and test my work in different browsers, including the second-latest major version of Mobile Safari.

How can this be fixed?

See Xcode 4.5 and iOS 5.1 Simulator for the solution to this problem:

  I headed over to the downloads page for Apple Developers to get the previous version of Xcode (which is 4.4.1). Downloaded the .dmg and mounted it. Right-clicked the Xcode.app to “Show Package Contents.”

  I quickly found what I was looking for in Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs and copied iPhoneSimulator5.1.sdk to the same location in my /Applications/Xcode.app.

The full blog post has some more info.


Can I use my unlimited Verizon data plan on my iPhone 5s and connect to my 2015 Cadillac Escalade Wi-Fi and AirPlay to my media center? I have a 2015 Cadillac Escalade with the AT&T Wi-Fi 4G LTE system built in.
If I buy a data package streaming video only last about 20 minutes.
I have unlimited data on my iPhone 5s and want to know if I can connect to the Wi-Fi router inside the truck and AirPlay to the Apple TV I have hooked up to the entertainment system and use the data package on my phone or even my hotspot on my other iPhone to stream from my cellular connection but display to my Apple TV.

I have a jailbroken 5S dedicated to the truck; an Apple TV and XMBC box installed  that is connected to the media center. I also have two iPhone 5Ss which both have unlimited data and one with a hotspot package.

Thanks in advance for your help.

You should confirm with Verizon, but the plans I've seen never have 'hotspot' capability on an unlimited plan.


Can I open the menu with keyboard? With PC, alt-something opens the something in the main menu.
Does Mac have similar function? For example, is there a way to open View menu as if I click it?

Try CtrlF2 - that should highlight the Apple-symbol on the main menubar.

edit: The cursor keys and Enter then allow you to navigate, drill-down and ultimately select an item - just as you can on Windows.

also - can't claim credit for this, I learnt it here on the site! What are your favorite Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts?


Set launchd log level How can I set the log level of launchd in MacOS Yosemite?

I've tried launchctl log level debug but it doesn't work.

Since Apple publishes the source code for launchd, you might have better luck just attaching a debugger to the process to inspect or set breakpoints.

That and changing the log level might also be overkill. You can inspect the loaded jobs quite easily and disable them / change them to call debugging scripts or even set another job to dump status or log messages when another process starts or stops.

I'd be interested in more specifics of what you are doing - this seems like a great example of an XY problem. You're asking about the solution you see as the best way forward and not about what the actual problem / issue is.


Is it possible to get contacts from stolen iPhone 3GS? I had an iPhone 3GS that was stolen (I don't remember the iOS version). Is there a way I can get my contacts that were on the phone?

You have a few options.

Restore from backup to another iPhone. If you do not have access to another iPhone, but have a backup file through iTunes locally on your computer, there are applications that can process those backup files. You may have success in browsing through them.
If you were using iCloud, then your contacts may have been syncing there. Login at http://www.icloud.com/ to see if they are there. Perhaps you had contacts syncing with another account, like one you used for email? Check there.


When I use Command + L I get a zsh terminal in Chrome. How can I focus on address bar in Chrome Some how my Cmd L shortcut is assigned to another thing. How can I make it default so that it will focus on address bar in Chrome?

Ok, I found that my iTerm > Preference > Hotkey was on.

After turning it off, it works now.


How can I type "\" (backslash) via remote desktop with a Norwegian, Danish or Swedish keyboard? I am running Remote Desktop to connect from my MacBook Air with Yosemite to a Windows computer running Windows 8.1.

Both my Mac and the Windows computer is configured with Norwegian keyboard layout.
It seems "\" backslash is impossible to input in this keyboard configuration. I would guess it's the same for Danish and Swedish keyboards.

Is there a way to easily input this character in RDP for Mac using this keyboard layout?

(I would be willing to map some key combination if that's possible, but I don't want to switch to some other keyboard layout, since I need to input Norwegian characters now and then)

The problem was actually a bug in Remote Desktop for OS X, and has been fixed in 8.0.15, which was released a few days ago. Now the keyboard works completely as expected with both my Mac and the Windows computer configured with Norwegian keyboard layout.


iMac 2019 fans rather loud (and at 2850rpm) when only 30% CPU - is this normal? Situation:
new iMac
model retina 21.5-inch 2019, 3.2GhZ 6-core intel Core i7

I can not hear fans at all during normal non-cpu intensive operation (web browsing, etc.). They are at 1200 rpm. This is good.

However, when I load the CPU to an average of only 34% (by spinning up 4 yes commands, as described here), the fans already become rather loud and stabilise at 2850 rpm.

I consider 34% not very loaded. While the sound type of the fan doesn't sound abnormal (no ticking, or so) the sound level does sound unexpectedly high to me.  Loud being: an other person in the otherwise quiet living room asking 'what's going on?' when he hears it the first time, or almost approaching the sound level of a (generic brand) laptop with full fan speed, almost similar to a (soft) hair dryer.

Question: Is this as expected for these iMacs?

Note:

I already performed the reset-SMC-procedure as suggested at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202179
To be honest, it is the sort of sound level I sort of perhaps could expect when CPU would operate at 100% for some time, but not for anything lower than 75%.
I do have 20+ years experience with several non-Apple laptop brands, 1st gen macbook, and a mid-2008 iMac. By which I mean: computers and the related noise levels are not new to me.
reporting from macOS Activity Monitor seems to be consistent with what the menu bar app (iStat Menus) shows. See second screenshot. (cfr comment)

Without hearing the actual “noise” it’s pretty subjective as to what the actual level is.

However, I did notice that you’re running at least 4 instances of yes that you’ve probably detached from the user so what you’re seeing in that 3rd party “analyzer” is incorrect.  Activity monitor will give you a better view.

That said, yes is designed to max out your CPU and, as stated, you have at least four instances running.  Your CPU fans are going to turn on especially when the CPU is running at 90 degrees (the thermal cut off is usually around 100 depending on the CPU) under load.

So, what you’re seeing is perfectly normal and resetting the SMC won’t “fix” it because nothing is broken.  Why?  The fans come on based on temperature not on load.  And, temperature is more than just CPU temperature.  There are several temp sensors, even ones that measure the ambient air that go into calculating when and at what speed the fans spin up.  So trying to evaluate a malfunction of the SMC or a problem with the fans based on one factor is incorrect methodology.

So, is this expected for Mac computers?

Yes.  It’s no secret Apple has poor cooling and uses undersized heat sinks/pipes, and even uses (IMO) sub-standard thermal paste between the conductive surfaces.  It’s a tradeoff between the super elegant and ultra thin design and efficient thermal performance.

Your Mac is running as expected.


How to you get the "Share with Google Drive" contextual menu option in Finder? Google Drive is installed but there is no option "View with Google Drive" or "Share with Google Drive" when I Control-click / Right-click on an item in the Finder like my coworkers have. How do you enable them?

You need to enable the Finder extension Google Drive.

Open the contextual menu for any file, and click on Share and then More.

That will bring you to the Extensions window.

Click on Finder and in the "Select extensions for customizing Finder" select Google Drive.

Now you should see the "View in Google Drive" and "Share with Google Drive" options when you Control-click / secondary click on files inside your Google Drive.


pfctl config to allow VPN host names instead of IP addresses in OpenVPN connection I would like to use VPN domain names instead of IP addresses to only allow some VPN servers on my Mac. I did everything here to set up pfctl to only allow some VPN servers to open access to some specific IP addresses however, I don't know how to add host names instead IP addresses to my allowed VPN list.

Because the IP addresses changes but host names not, is it possible to add host names instead IP addresses to pfctl?

You can simply add the host names instead of IPs to the tables. If DNS resolution isn't blocked they will be resolved.

I recommend to include the tables in /etc/pf.anchors/org.vpnonly.pf.rules

...
# Ports
allowed_vpn_ports = "{ 1:65535 }"

# Table with allowed IPs
table <allowed_vpn_ips> const { us1.vpnprovider.com, us2.vpnprovider.com, uk.vpnprovider.com }
table <allowed_dns_ips> const { 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 }

# Block all outgoing packets
block out all
...

Test this with sudo pfctl -vnf /etc/pf.conf.


Starting from March 2019, is it necessary to build all existing apps using iOS 12 SDK and Xcode 10 for it to work on iOS 12 devices? This is what the apple developer website says.

  Starting March 2019, all new apps and app updates for iPhone, including universal apps, will need to be built with the iOS 12 SDK and support iPhone XS Max. All new apps and app updates for Apple Watch will need to be built with the watchOS 5 SDK and support Apple Watch Series 4

Does it mean that even the apps already available on Apple App Store needs to be resubmitted with iOS 12 SDK build for it to work on iOS 12 devices starting march 2019?

And what about enterprise apps that are distributed as .ipa files? Will this also need to be rebuilt with iOS 12 SDK for it to work on iOS 12 devices?

The key words in this announcement are "new apps and app updates".

Apps which are already available on the App Store do not need to be rebuilt with the new SDK. Apps which were built with earlier SDKs will remain available on the App Store, and will still be usable on devices. However, after March 2019, the developers of those apps will need to rebuild their apps with the iOS 12 SDK to release any further updates.


Mac AppStore badge does not reset after installing update I am experiencing a strange problem: after I installed a bunch of updates, the Mac AppStore badge was not reset. When I go to "Updates", I get the message "no updates available".
I tried to

delete the AppStore cookie
rebuild the Spotlight index (found a recommendation to do so somewhere)
logged out and in the AppStore
delete some of the updated Apps and re-installed them

without any effect. Today, I got an update for another application; the update count was incremented and was not reset again.

Any ideas?

Rather than rebooting, you can just type killall Dock from your terminal application. It will reset the dock and clear the badges.


Command in $PATH not found I've created a symlink using:

sudo ln -s ~/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert /usr/local/bin

I can see the command ebook-convert in /usr/local/bin.

Then I've added /usr/local/bin in my $PATH. I can see it when doing echo $PATH.

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

But I still can't use ebook-convert from terminal and I get the error:

-bash: ebook-convert: command not found

What am I missing?

To analyze problems like that it helps to

check whether the target of the symlink exists (ls -l ~/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert)
check whether the target is executable
verify whether the shell sees the file in question (type ebook-convert)

Doing so made me realize that Calibre was installed in /Applications instead of ~/Applications.


How to enable search when using Emoji keyboard on iPhone? I would like to search for Emojis using text when using an Emoji keyboard on iPhone. I have seen some people using this (also, I guess WhatsApp keyboard supports it?), and was wondering how to enable this, does anyone have a clue?

You can't use search when looking for emoji in the stock iOS keyboard.

iOS uses predictive text to determine what emoji to offer you based on the words you're typing.  While this isn't what you're asking for, you can see this iPhoneLife article for more info.

To search by emoji, you need to install and use a 3rd-party keyboard.  Many developers offer keyboards that incorporate emoji search.  I use SwiftKey (not associated with the software or developer) for typing on all my iOS devices.

Apple has indicated that the upcoming iOS 13 will offer:

  Word and emoji suggestions

  If you need to correct a word, simply ask and you’ll be presented with a list of suggested replacements.


How to crop-rotate video How can I crop rotate a video, so that it crops and rotates at the same time. I know that there is an option for this in Photos.app, but it only works for photos. Is there some other application that can be used to do this?

Here is a gif of what I am trying to accomplish:

[EDIT]

In case the above isn't clear, what I want to be able to do is:

zoom and rotate the video, but only rotate it slightly (e.g. 10-15°) rather than 90° at a time, and
also crop it so that the overall video is still square

FFmpeg

Using FFmpeg from the .dmg image:

Download from https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/, download the .dmg file
then use terminal to edit your files, with this command.

cd to the folder with the files.(type cd <space> then drag the folder to terminal)

for example cd /Volumes/MacDATA/Users/he/Movies press enter
- drag the ffmpeg(icon in black), and add the code behind.

`/Volumes/FFmpeg\ 87390-gd491d6a/ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex rotate=5*PI/180:ow='iw*0.85':oh='ih*0.85' output.mp4`

Using the FFmpeg from brew

Use brew and run brew install ffmpeg.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex rotate=5*PI/180:ow='iw*0.85':oh='ih*0.85' output.mp4`

change the input.mp4 and output.mp4 your filename, change the 5 to your 'degree' for example rotate=10*PI/180 and reduce the scale (0.85 thing) to maybe 0.75 for 10 degree.


Family Sharing apps in iOS I've set up the new Family Sharing in iOS. How do I go about sharing a specific app from one Iphone to another?
Do I need to use iTunes on the desktop?
Does it depend upon whether the developer has approved sharing?
The app I wish to share is this one:

Theory Test and Hazard Perception Pro by Deep River Development Ltd
https://appsto.re/gb/rYTHJ.i

Once you've set up Family Sharing, everyone can access each others' apps, music, movies, TV shows and books.

To download content from another family member, sign into your iTunes account and visit the "Purchased" pages in the iTunes store, iBook store or App Store. Simply choose the family member whose content you want, and go ahead and download.


No sidebar in finder when viewing DFS shares When viewing a DFS share in OS X 10.7 or on a system that has been upgraded from 10.7 to 10.8 the sidebar is missing in finder.

However if a system has had a fresh install of OS X 10.8 the sidebar is visible in finder.

Is there a way to get the sidebar back in 10.7 or a system that has gone from 10.7 to 10.8?

What type of volume you're viewing doesn't have an impact on the Finder's display settings. You can toggle the sidebar in any Finder window by going to View → Show/Hide Sidebar or pressing ⌥⌘S.

The reason you're seeing it on one machine and not the other is that it likely got toggled at some point for that folder and the setting stuck. Finder does store view settings per folder, although it can be a bit inconsistent in doing so.


macOS Catalina - problems detecting external monitors I am using MacBook Pro 15-inch, 2018 with Catalina 10.15.4.

I am trying to connect 2 external monitors (Samsung S24C450) via USB-C -> DVI converter. Both monitors are then connected via DVI interface.

From both monitors only one is detected (one of two randomly) or none of them works. Disconnecting usb-c converter from laptop, DVI cable from converter or DVI cable from the screen - doesn't help. Disconnecting screens from power source, does not help either, nor restarting laptop.

This seems to work completely randomly. How do I force Mac to re-detect screens and use both of them, not only one?

How exactly are you connecting your monitors to your MacBook Pro, and what else do you have connected to it?

The MacBookPro's with 4 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C connectors actually have  2 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C buses, each connected to 2 ports, one pair on the left side of the computer and one pair on the right side. The specs that say the Mac can support 2 or 4 monitors do not mention this, but the fact is the Mac can only support half that number on each side. 2 * 0.5 = 1 so the spec is not lying, but sometimes you have to pay attention to which side of the Mac things are plugged into.

Still, the Mac should support 2 DVI-resolution DisplayPort over USB-C monitors per bus, which makes me wonder exactly how you are connecting the monitors.

Try connecting one monitor on the right side of the computer and the other monitor on the left. Alternately, try connecting them both on the same side of the computer, connected directly to the computer and nothing else connected to that side.


Delayed image on second monitor, MacBook Pro 13 inch i5 I have a 2011 MacBook Pro conected to a LG Flatron L19WS monitor through a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter and the image is delayed from the MacBook Pro to the actual monitor. How can I fix this?

The problem is because analogue (VGA) connection is used and the "auto" positioning does not detect the image bounds correctly. Check your monitor controls (menu) and move the image left/right and up/down (usually labeled HPOS/VPOS). Here are my recommendations:

Use the native resolution (1440 x 900) and 60 Hz refresh rate.
If still not centered, use the monitor's controls to position the image.
If this does not work - try lowering the resolution or changing the refresh rate and again centering the image.


App Store says Apple ID is disabled when updating apps I cannot update my apps, and I get a message saying that my Apple ID is disabled. However, I can still access my account and I have updated the settings and everything. But still I cannot update my apps, and the same message keeps popping up. How can I retrieve my Apple ID?

Asking anyone but Apple why your account is disabled is generally fruitless.

Why not start with the troubleshooting guide:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204106

In the end, you'll want to contact Apple support if it's not you that's locking your account. If someone else is compromising or has compromised your account - you may have to patiently and over time prove to Apple you're the owner and regain control of it.


Get part of result of command line in OS X I would like to use the following command line to get the current Wi-Fi channel.

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -I

I would like to use exactly this command, because it's possible that I'm using more parts of the result.
So I'm needing an AppleScript that returns me only the current Wi-Fi channel of the command.

I'm thankful for any help.
:)

I would recommend using the "grep" and "awk" commands from bash.  You can use them to parse the data given in bash.  Here is example using the details you described above.

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -I | grep "channel" | awk '{print $2}'

Do yourself a favor and sym link the binary to /usr/local/bin so you can just type airport (or script it)

airport -I | grep "channel" | awk '{print $2}'


Control + W shortcut not working in Finder and Terminal I set CtrlW as a shortcut for all applications in the System Preferences => Keyboard => Shortcuts.

They are working in many apps (like Safari), but not in Terminal and in Finder.

Is CtrlW a system shortcut?

I shouldn't have conflicts with other shortcuts with the same combination of keys, the yellow warning triangle is not shown.

ControlW is an assigned shortcut in Bash. Notice, I said, Bash and not "Terminal" - basically it's present across all systems from Linux, BSD, macOS and Unix.

ControlW is "delete word."  It's similar to the  ⌫ Delete (aka Backspace) except it deletes an entire word.

For more info on keyboard shortcuts see:  https://ss64.com/bash/syntax-keyboard.html


How to transfer entire iMessage conversations to computer? I am getting a new iPhone come next month. I want to save all of my nostalgic conversations for the future.  Is there a way to transfer an entire chat log to the computer in plain text?  Or will I have to painstakingly take screenshot after screenshot as I scroll up in the text history?

Your iMessages are already on your Mac, assuming you've got an iCloud account.

Go to ~/Library/Messages/Archive.