Google Calendar sync not working in Mountain Lion Last week my OS X Calendar stopped syncing to Google Calendar. Past events are still there, but new events aren't pushed to Google anymore.

I already tried deleting Calendar's/iCals Cache and Settings, removing the Google Calendar entirely and adding it back again. No success so far.

Does anybody know about a way to debug CalDAV syncing on OS X? Is there a issue with Google's servers?

Any help is appreciated.

I started encountering a similar problem with my Google for Business account last week. Mail.app was okay but Calendar refused to sync, returning the error message that "Your calendar URL is not a location that supports this request." every time Calendar tried to sync.

The solution was delete the account completely from System Preferences -> Mail, Contacts & Calendars. Generate a new one-time password for the account (I use two-factor authentication on all my Google accounts). And the re-add the account in that System Preferences pane.

All is well now after doing this.


How to make Alfred switch to currently open Chrome instead of opening a new window? This used to be the normal behavior for me:

I have a Chrome window A open
The focus is in another program window B
I bring up Alfred and type Chrome
Chrome is the first result, selected by default
I hit Enter and...
The focus goes to the already-opened Chrome window A

That's the same as doing Command-Tab if there are only two windows open, each of a different applications. This is how I'd like it to behave.

Now I don't know what I did wrong to make this change (or if it was me at all), but this is what happens now:

I have a Chrome window A open
The focus is in another program window B
I bring up Alfred and type Chrome
Chrome is the first result, selected by default
I hit Enter (nothing different so far) and...
A new Chrome window C gets opened behind program window B
Focus remains on program window B

This doesn't happen with Firefox, for example, where the expected behavior continues working.

I had this same exact issue, and checked for a MacOS update and didn't have one. It turned to be fixed with a Chrome update.


How much mA does an iPad need to be charged? I want to buy an iPad charger for in my car. I have one now for my iPhone, but he won't charge my iPad. I know batteries use mAH to denote capacity, so are chargers rated by mAH or some other measure?

What kind of specifications do I need to charge my iPad in my car at a normal speed (equal when connecting to the power network).

The original Apple charger has an output limited to 2.1 A at 5.1 V.

I occasionally charge my iPad 2 Wifi with the old charger of my passed Palm Pre. It provides an amperage of 1 A at standard 5 V USB voltage.

I don't know if you can go even lower than 1 A, but the standard USB amperage of .5 A is not enough to charge it. It shouldn't be a problem to get a car charger that is capable of handling 1 A, more is better.
Make sure you buy one, that is capable of charging an iPhone as Apple devices tend to observe the USB standards and try to communicate with the charger. Some dumb China elcheapo chargers may not have USB logic inside and your iDevices could refuse to charge.


Launchd starts event 40 seconds later? I've created a .plist file, which should act as system daemon (global with root user). This .plist file listens to the settings directory for changes like changing network settings. When this happens it should start a Bash script.

However, it works but not as expected. When I open a VPN connection it takes about 40 seconds until the Bash script will be executed. I would like it to be executed right after I open the VPN connection.

How to remove the delay before the launch?

Here is the code of .plist file:

   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>lucafuhl.vpnhelper</string>
            <key>Program</key>
            <string>/Users/vpnhelper.sh</string>
        <key>WatchPaths</key>
            <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>
    </dict>
    </plist>

Two things:

Try placing your

<string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>

inside an

<array>
</array>

Additionally you may be able to watch to see when the change actually happens with the below command.

sudo fs_usage -f filesys | grep /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration


Restore system from DMG (original source disk bigger than destination) I'm running Lion and trying to restore a Snow Leopard system archived in a DMG file.

The restore destination is an external Firewire disk (160GB) and the original system was installed in a 250GB disk. The compressed DMG has 90GB, and uncompressed it takes 120GB.

Disk utility tells me that there's not enough space to restore. In the post Copying Time Machine backup, there are mentions to Carbon Copy Cloner and rsync command. Would any of these help me? Or is there some Disk Utility option I'm missing?

I managed to restore the system using Carbon Copy Cloner.

It did as it should: The image fits in the destination disk? If yes, restore.


Can I connect a firewire device and an HDMI display to 2015 Macbook Air with a single Thunderbolt 2 port? I have a Korg ZERO4 mixer which has a two firewire ports (not sure if 400 or 800).

I've been using this mixer via a firewire --> thunderbolt adaptor. Now I'm looking to add a monitor connected via HDMI to this setup.

Can I daisy-chain a monitor via the mixer by using a second firewire --> thunderbolt adapter combined with a thunderbolt --> HDMI adapter?

How would I go about figuring out the maximum supported resolution in this setup?

You can't daisy-chain the mixer from Firewire up to display since they aren't compatible standards. You can use both devices with a single Thunderbolt 2 port, but you'll need to get a dock. OWC sells one with HDMI and Firewire, so you can plug your monitor and mixer into the dock and then one TB2 cable into your Macbook Air. There are other TB2 docks with a second TB2 port instead of Firewire, so you can use them with your existing Apple Firewire adapter.

The first commenter is incorrect on several parts. You don't need to even consider anything with Thunderbolt 3 because you don't have TB3.


Does Mail have to be open for Notification Center to work in Mountain Lion? I upgraded to Mountain Lion and thought the Notification Center would be quite handy, however I've had a look around the web and it seems to me that emails only appear in notification center while the Mail app is open, or after it has been opened. Is this true, and is there no way around it? Surely the notification center must be able to check for new emails on its own, otherwise would the mail feature not be near enough useless?

The notifications that you receive for Mail within Notification Center are local notifications, not push notifications from some Apple server.  As such, the program has to be running in order for the action that will trigger a notification to be able to do so.

Notification Center cannot check for new mails by itself, it has no in-built capabilities for polling/checking etc in order to create notifications, it merely receives them and displays them.

It is possible that in due course some email app will be made available that supports push notifications, but at present none do, including Apple's own.  The fact that you get such notifications on iOS is more a feature that the mail client is always running in order to check for new mail, and create the local notifications accordingly.  Leaving mail open all the time on your Mac isn't really an issue, it's hardly resource intensive, and if upon receiving a mail alert you wish to act upon it, then opening the alert will only open mail for you anyway.

The best way to summarise it is that NC just listens for alerts that other applications create, and displays them according to your preferences.  It takes no part in the creation of alerts.


Default Browser .plist location I have a custom built browser, lets say its similar to a firefox port such as Ice Weasel. I am wondering where I register this so that it will appear in the System Preferences > General > Default Browser menu.

I can view the current defaults on the command line from:

defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist

However, this only seems to give me what is actually set as my defaults and not as what CAN be set as my defaults. It's the latter portion that I am interested in. What do I need to do in order to register my custom browser so that it can be set as the default?

I'm guessing there is a .plist file somewhere for that?

You don't add yourself to this plist—OS X manages this itself. For example, download a new browser and copy it to the Applications folder. Without opening it once, OS X will add it to the list in System Preferences.

This is achieved with the following in the Info.plist in the app:

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
        <string>http URL</string>
        <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
        <array>
            <string>http</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
        <string>Secure http URL</string>
        <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
        <array>
            <string>https</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</array>


How to stop Safari on macOS from using https when I want http, when it's not in the HSTS listing When I try to visit certain sites and force http (for good reasons that do not need to be discussed here), Safari (macOS) forces the URL to use https - and since the site currently has no https support, I can't visit the site.
There are many answers that suggest that this is related to HSTS but this does not apply in my case:
The site in question is not listed in Safari's Privacy under WebSite Data nor does it appear in the HSTS.plist file. So, there is some other cause that forces Safari to use https, and I suspect it's from the fact that Safari has previously seen me visiting the site with https and now assumes I always want to do that.
Note that when I load the URL with wget, then I get the http version just fine. That should prove that it's Safari's behavior, not the web site's.
So, beside the HSTS settings what other settings might there be that force https in Safari on macOS?

I believe I have figured it out:
The site is an .app domain, e.g. domain.app. And those sites are by definition https-only. See here.
So, it's still HSTS related, but not on an individual site but for the entire ".app" TLD. And for that reason I could not find the specific domain name listed in HSTS, not would deleting the HSTS.plist help.
Well, not sure if I should keep this question up. Maybe it helps others that run into this.
Background: It was my own site. I moved it, along with others, to a new server, and need to verify that they work with plain http. So I tested every site in http, and all but this one worked. So I assumed something wrong with the browsers.
And not only Safari but also Firefox and Chrome want to do https only.
Strangely, though, using other way to request the http site, such as the low level command wget, do not enforce the https requirement (they don't know about it, obviously), hence it misguided me into thinking the problem was a latent browser setting that I could fix.


CTRL+4 and CTRL+5 not working in OSX Recently, I've noticed that my MacBook Pro 5,1 (mid 2009) running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 doesn't respond when I press CTRL+3 or CTRL+4.

When, for instance, I'm in an application that has no bindings for the CTRL-keys and I press CTRL+2, I will hear the OS X alert sound, because the application receives a key combination it doesn't understand. This is the case for all CTRL+n combinations, except 3 and 4.

No matter where I try it — even in places where pressing the aforementioned key combination would have an actual effect — nothing happens.

But it doesn't just seem to ignore the keypresses; it numbs the keyboard. If I, for instance, hold CTRL and press 5 and 6, I will hear two alerts. One for each unknown key combination. If I then do the same, but with the numbers 4 and 5 (which usually are responsive), there's no sound. In fact, no matter what key I press when CTRL is being held down after having pressed 3 or 4, nothing happens.

At first I figured I probably added some shortcut to the key combinations by accident, but I can't find it anywhere. In System Preferences → Keyboard,  I've restored everything to default, but that didn't seem to change anything.

I've tried with both the onboard keyboard, a wireless Apple bluetooth keyboard and a cabled USB Apple keyboard.

I think this is a bug in Mac OS X and has something to do with the way the keyboard shortcuts for Spaces are processed. Try this:

Make sure Spaces is turned on in the System Preferences with the standard 4 spaces layout, and standard key combination for switching to a space.
Open a folder in the Finder.
Press and hold CTRL, and press any of the number keys. If you press 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0 first you will get a beep. Same if you press one of those keys again (still holding CTRL). If you then press 1, 2, 3 or 4, you will switch to that space number; or just stay in that space if you were already in it. If you then press any of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0 again, it won't beep anymore.

If you simply turn off Spaces, the above won't happen and whatever order you press the keys in, they will continue to beep. If you change the number of spaces to only two, then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0 will give you a beep until you've pressed either 1 or 2. I don't know of an application in which those keys have a non-Spaces functionality and would do something useful other than beep, so I haven't been able to try what happens in such an application. In any case, I don't think you need to worry there's something wrong with your keyboard or the way you've configured the keyboard bindings; it seems to be a bug in Mac OS X.

Edit: Try the above in a new folder in which you've created folders named "1", "2" and so on. I find the Finder's behavior in this case somewhat strange: if you press CTRL-8, it will beep yet also switch the selection to the folder named "8". But again, pressing 5 through 9 will neither beep, nor change the selected folder once you've pressed any of 1 through 4.


Where are the alert tone audio files located in OS X? In what directory on OS X are the sound files located for the alert tones in Messages and in FaceTime? I'm not talking about the alert sounds in System Preferences; I mean the ones that are also on iOS—like Aurora, Bamboo, Chord, etc.—in the list in this screenshot:

Alerts are located at
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ToneLibrary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/AlertTones/
Ringtones in
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ToneLibrary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Ringtones/

If you're looking to add your own - you can't.... or rather you can but they will be ignored.

I've found the best method to add my own is to replace one of the existing sounds with one of my own, renamed to match.
See https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/169907/85275

For completeness...
System alerts - Sosumi etc - are in /System/Library/Sounds/
User sounds are in ~/Library/Sounds/


Why is a non-cellular iPad model announced as new network interface when connecting to a Mac through USB? Whenever I connect my iPad (non-cellular / wifi-only version, so no sim card and no mobile data connection) to my Mac over USB, I get a dialogue box stating that a new network connection iPad-USB has been found and asking whether I want to configure it. I realize that it in principle is for using the iOS device as mobile hotspot, but with this iPad model it's not even possible to use it as a hotspot. Why does macOS bring up the dialogue nevertheless?

I would like to prevent this dialogue box from appearing each time I connect the iPad to the Mac. I had the same issue with the iPhone, where I resolved it by activating the mobile hotspot in the system preferences on the iPhone (mobile data section), configuring the network connection iPhone-USB on the Mac, and then deactiving this network connection. With the iPad, this strategy does not work: I can not activate mobile hotspot on this iPad (there's no mobile data section in the system preferences), and I don't even see the iPad-USB interface as an option when trying to add a new network connection in the Mac's network preferences. Yet the dialogue box that appears on connecting is stating just that.

In case it matters, the system details are: iPad Pro 2015 (12.9'') with iOS 11.2.5, MacBook Pro 2017 with macOS 10.13.5.

You are probably referring to this message:

From today's point of view, your Mac's behavior is a bug. Maybe the iPad advertises its Bluetooth to be a network adapter? Like WiFi or cable network adapters, Bluetooth chips have a MAC address. Here, MAC doesn't refer to Apple's computer brand, but to a universally unique identifier. See for example the https://macaddresschanger.com/bluetooth-mac-lookup

iOS does support the Bluetooth personal area network to route data packages to other devices, potentially connecting to their internet:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/multipeerconnectivity

Theoretically, the iPad could connect to the Internet via a Bluetooth-based personal area network. Currently however, the iPad's Personal Hotspot feature until iOS 12 only supports sharing cellular data. I am not aware of any plans that might change that.

Maybe your Mac is ready for the day a future iPadOS or iOS version extends the Hotspot feature to Bluetooth?

You can try to log into macOS using an admin account. Maybe the Network Preferences sidebar allows you to delete the iPad. If yes, then you shouldn't see the message anymore when connecting it via USB.


How do I kill a daemon and not have it open up again if I can't find it in the LaunchAgents or LaunchDaemons? So I think I downloaded a program from Avatron called Airconnect. I'm not sure, but their website was purple when I looked it up. Anyway, now everytime I check my activity monitor, com.avatron.airconnect.daemon is taking at least 25% of my CPU. What have I done.

I tried looking up a solution online, and I realized it opens with launchd (I checked through activity monitor), so my research directed me towards System/Library/LaunchAgents, System/Library/LaunchDaemons, or Library/LaunchAgents. I tried looking through all of the folders, and I can't find the airconnect daemon. Please help me. I thought I was smarter than to get viruses. I am so disappointed in myself now.

The launch daemon of Avatron Airconnect is installed to /Library/LaunchDaemons. If you want to stop and remove it enter in Terminal:

Check if it is loaded:

sudo launchctl list | grep avatron

Unload it:

sudo launchctl stop /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avatron.airconnect.daemon.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avatron.airconnect.daemon.plist

To remove it:

sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avatron.airconnect.daemon.plist

After installing Avatron Airconnect you can uninstall the app from the Airconnect menulet! This should also remove the launch daemon.


Block prompts when sites detect I'm using iOS On many forum web sites, if you go to the site on an iPhone/iPod/iPad it prompts to install an app for the site.  But 90% of the time when I visit a forum site, it's because I'm following a search result; I never ever want to install the app. Is there some setting in iOS that disables this kind of prompt?

These sites are using JavaScript to detect Mobile Safari's user agent and displaying an alert.

You can disable JavaScript in Safari's settings but it's probably not worth the lost functionality.


Using OS X Mountain Lion Server and a Leopard Client I have a Mountain Lion Server I just got to play with (learn server).  I understand I can use it for Open Directory services.  I believe I can migrate users off their laptops onto the server, and sync'ing (I forget the name, but it makes the user account available on whatever mac they use that is connected to the domain).

1) Do I migrate the users off laptops and on to the server using migration assistant?

2) Can my sons laptop play too?  He uses a G4 iBook running Leopard.

1) Yes, I was able to use Migration Assistant to move accounts off of laptops and on to the server.

2) In using Migration assistant the profile on my sons laptop was "upgraded" to a 10.8 (Intel) version.  This profile was incompatible with Leopard.  So no, my sons laptop was not able to use this system.


Deleted Photos to reclaim iCloud space but none reclaimed I have deleted photos in order to reclaim iCloud storage, followed by emptying both the Recently Deleted album and the macOS Trash. I also restarted my computer.

Yet my available storage hasn’t increased. What else should I do?

Do you have any other devices using the same library?

I did similar thing last night, deleted some things from my Mac from the library (large video files, around 800mb), and then went to iPhone to check the free storage on iCloud, it wasn't changed.  And my 'Recently deleted files' was empty as well.

Then I opened the Photos app on iPhone, and I could notice the 'pop', the thumbnails moved, so it seems the iPhone synced that those videos are deleted, and after that when I checked the iCloud storage, free storage was increase.

So, try to open Photos on other devices to let them sync.


Why did Apple Decide not to install Command Line Tools as default? Why did Apple Decide not to install Command Line Tools which now have to be installed through xcode?

To answer your question, not many (relative term here) OS X users will install or have any need for command line tools because it is part of a larger group of tools to download. A large majority of regular, everyday OS X users won't be using these programs. However, you do not have to install Xcode to install command line tools anymore.
Sign in to Apple's Developer Downloads Page and then search for Command Line Tools.
Download and install the latest as a .dmg.

Related Question: How to download the Command Line Tools for Xcode without the Downloads for Developers webpage?
Alternative Way
As referenced from a Stack OverFlow post, here is an unofficial link to the March 2012 Command Line Tools for Xcode.


No USB connected, receiving error message "USB devices disabled: Unplug the device using too much power" Recently I have been getting the error message "USB devices disabled: Unplug the device using too much power almost constantly. There has been nothing plugged in for some time, and if something is using too much power, I'm not sure what it might be.

Different problems that have suddenly appeared, but may be related - occasionally won't charge with the MagLite charger; occasionally runs slowly; audio stopped working just today - the little speaker symbol up top is greyed out and it won't recognize headphones or the laptop's own speaker.

It's a 2014 MacBook Air running El Capitan - I recently updated from Yosemite, which did not solve any of the issues but also didn't make new ones appear. I have also tried restarting the computer, resetting the SMC, and scanning for any viruses using Avast Security, which found no issues. Nothing has helped.

Anybody else having similar issues? Thank you for any help you can provide!

This could be a hardware problem.

You have more things connected to USB than you are aware of.  Looking at the "System Profiler" under the "USB" section, we see a number of things:

FaceTime Camera
Bluetooth
Trackpad*
Keyboard*

* Not shown because I am on an iMac

There could be an issue with any/all of these devices or there may be an issue with one of the power rails (the circuit that delivers power to these devices).

First thing to do is run Apple Hardware Test (AHT).  Hold the D key while booting from a powered off state with the AC adapter connected.  Next, try running things in Safe Mode (hold Shift while booting).  If the problem persists, the issue is definitely hardware.


Terminal returns not found for most commands Mac OSX I'm really new to Mac OSX and UNIX based systems. I wanted to run a few Windows games on my Mac Mini so I started installing Wine and MacPorts.
I think the installs are correct, but when I type sudo port install wine I see a not found error in my terminal. I tried other basic commands like say and clear and all of them return the same not found error.
My research shows that my PATH might be incorrectly set, but it lacks steps I can implement.
Specifically, I ran this command: echo $PATH and it returned:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin

I'm a complete newbie to mac and have no idea where .bash_profile or any of those files are. My skills let me install Xcode and the Command Line tools for Xcode and I sense I need to level up on path management.
At this point I need help managing my dot files and changing my path to fix these specific errors on Mountain Lion.
What are my next steps?

$PATH should contain these folders: /usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin.

Try editing ~/.bash_profile, ~/.profile, or ~/.bash_login (with for example /usr/bin/open ~/.bash_profile -a TextEdit) and commenting out any lines that modify the path.

If that works, you can add a line like export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH to ~/.bash_profile.


Can I install Parallels alongside Boot Camp? I have a 24" iMac and have used Boot Camp to install Vista on a 100GB partition of the hard drive. Can I install Parallels Desktop as well so it will be easier to switch between Mac and Windows?

I have 4GB of RAM. Is that enough to run Parallels?

Yes, you can install Parallels on your Mac in addition to Boot Camp. Keep in mind that this takes a fair amount of hard drive space, so be sure you've got the space to spare.

As for your memory situation: I run Parallels on a MacBook with 4GB or RAM. It works okay, but it's rather slow. Most things will run acceptably, but performance will be better using Boot Camp.

I should also point out that this setup will be a bit of a hassle. Since the two Windows systems will be independent of each other, any changes you make on one will not copy over to the other system. That means that it could take a fair bit of work to keep both systems synchronized and up to date.


Migration Assistant fail I just completed my first ever Time Machine migration… or I thought I had.
I just got a new 1TB SSD & PCIe mount to lift my speeds up to full SATA III on an old Mac Pro normally limited to SATA II speeds.
I decided now would be time to clean up a bit so I'd do a fresh, clean install then migrate, rather than my usual trick of simply cloning it with Carbon Copy Cloner.
All appeared to go well. Install went smoothly, I was presented with the Migration tool & asked it to migrate from my Time Machine drive [also internal, last updated only 30 minutes prior]. I selected everything - about 500GB, half full drives, old & new.
It busied itself with the copying for a good while, then presented a very long list of esoteric things it couldn't copy - no explanation was given. The list was far too long to give more than a cursory glance to.  I thought I could probably get away with missing a few bits, so long as the main stuff had transferred, so I stepped on to the next part of setup, signing into iCloud etc [there was no other choice but to accept the list of fails, it was OK or nothing.]
On finally arriving at the desktop I quickly realised that absolutely nothing had been migrated at all. No Apps, no docs, no music, pictures… zero.
So, I'm currently making a new CCC clone.
Anyone have any idea what may have gone wrong, so much so that absolutely nothing happened after a good half hour of 'being busy'?
Mac Pro 5,1 Mojave 10.14.6 [both old & new installs] 2 x 1TB SSD, 4 other HDs inc one for Time Machine.
Further updates
I've now tried this perhaps 7 times using different strategies. The slimmest version was a brand new Time Machine with a single manual backup, restoring just one account to a wiped SSD. No other drives connected. Both drives on the regular SATA bus, no PCIe card. SIP disabled.
No Joy.
Single file restoration is fine now, though was really broken before I disabled SIP. All apps showed as 'grey with a no-chance sign'.
Migration just will not work, neither will a direct Restore from Time Machine to a blank drive.

Here are a few notes which might help you. They wouldn't fit all in a comment, so I took the liberty to write half an answer.
Design

Anyone have any idea what may have gone wrong, so much so that
absolutely nothing happened after a good half hour of 'being busy'?

I've had a similar experience almost 10 years ago. From your description, it doesn't seem that Time Machine has changed much since:

Time Machine uses incremental backups in order to save disk space. Files are described by how they have changed over time. In order to restore a file at a given timestamp, diffs are applied on top of each other, starting at the original state of the file.
Time Machine uses hard links for folders, which are not supported by other macOS programs or by Linux.
Time Machine doesn't seem to check the integrity of the backups until they are needed. If any diff, any file or folder gets corrupted, Time Machine does not seem to notice.
During a migration or a recovery, the whole process stops after the first error. One corrupted file seems to be enough to cancel the recovery.
If the recovery process fails, no file gets copied at all, not even the files which have been processed before the first error.

All the above points, together, make for a brittle design. If anything goes wrong, your backup becomes useless, and cannot be read, as is, by any other standard software.
"There's no step 3" doesn't help much when step 1 & 2 fail miserably.
Solution?
Your data, or at least a part of it, is probably still readable somewhere on your Time Machine drive.
I wrote a script in order to get my data back, but cannot find this script anymore. I remember it used ruby, cp -avX, ditto and chmod in order to parse the data and restore as much as possible.
There are more recent solutions, though. It seems that they use Linux and either bash or python. More info here. One of the scripts, copy_from_time_machine.py seems promising.
Good luck!


iMac keyboard stops working Possible Duplicate:
  Wireless Keyboard disconnects

The wireless Apple keyboard that came with my iMac has a tendency to suddenly disconnect from my iMac without no sensible reason (its not the battery). The only solution I have found this far is restarting the iMac, which automatically reconnects the keyboard. I have tried reconnecting the keyboard through the bluetooth configuration, which gives no ohther result than making the toolbar freeze.

Any solutions?

Do you have another Mac you can connect the keyboard to? If you can isolate whether or not this issue occurs only with your iMac or only with your iMacs keyboard, you can figure out where things are going wrong. Let us know if you're able to test the keyboard on another Mac or test the Mac with a different keyboard.

If you don't have access to either of those things, I'd recommend taking a trip to your local Apple Store and having them test it out. They'll have extra Macs and keyboard and a Bluetooth diagnostic to run as well.


Can HD from 2011 mini work as is in 2012 mini? My 2011 dual core i7 mini developed a logic board issue. I've acquired a quad core i7 2012 mini as replacement. The 2011 has a new 1TB SSD running Sierra OS. I plan to move the SSD to the newer mini.

Will the 2012 mini run with the 2011's SSD as is? My suspicion is no, I likely need to reinstall Sierra so the OS knows about the new hardware interface, but then I don't know how macOS works at that level. (I'm sticking with Sierra for app compatibility.)
If I need to reinstall OS Sierra on my SSD in the newer mini, can I simply install the OS "on top" of the current drive leaving data and files intact? Will that tune the OS to the new hardware and leave my user files alone? Or will it erase all but the OS (see Bonus Question)?
Or, do I need to erase the SSD and install the OS "fresh" for it to recognize there is a new hardware configuration to match? Then I'd migrate data and files from recent backup.

Bonus Question:

I have both a bootable Sierra installation thumb drive and "install macOS Sierra" app in Applications. Do those invoke different installation modes? If so, how do they differ.

Thanks for your help.

Your 2012 Mac mini should be able to boot and run off the SSD from the 2011.  Technically speaking, this is basically what Target Disk Mode is - using a different drive to boot your Mac.

There's no "tuning" of the OS nor are there any different "installation modes."


OS X Yosemite Xcode update stuck on 'Waiting' I recently downloaded Yosemite, and I'm trying to update my Xcode. I hit 'Update' in the App Store, and but it's been stuck at 'Waiting' for the past 30 minutes.

What can I do to fix this?

Yeah, a lot of people have been facing this issue. First, cancel your update. (In the AppStore update window hold Option to show the Cancel button.)
Now, you can do two things:

Download and install the Xcode DMG from here (if you have an Apple Developer Account)

Or try clearing your cache, and restart the download from the app store. You can use third-party apps or enter this command in your terminal:
rm -rf "$(getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR)/com.apple.appstore"


Can't run Apple Hardware Test as Mac crashes My Macbook: Apple MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.0 13" (White/07).

Main problem: Mac goes black screen and shuts down when I try and load the Apple HW Test by holding down D as the computer turns on. It goes to a black screen with a flashing underscore like it's about to do something but then just shuts down. I am using the DVD as per apple's instructions.

Why I wanna do this: I'm trying to put some new life into my old mac and want to know if it's worth my while and where I should be spending money. The mac makes funny noises when it boots (listen here) and when it's running (listen here). I imagine there could be a problem with the HD, maybe the fans, (definitely the battery, is has 0% capacity), but yes want to know before I start spending money.

Desired solution: How to get Apple HW test to work, or suggestions for a better alternative.

Hardware defects

It is likely that some of the hardware that is needed for the hardware test to run, is defect. My personal experience is that this will most likely be one of your 2 RAM DIMMS. You can safely eject 1 and try the test again (and the same goes for the other).

If you run your hardware test from CD/DVD, you can also do this for your HD, and other components.


iPad: disable animations Is there any way (perhaps involving jailbreaking) to disable all (or at least some) of the transition animations on iPad?

Examples: Homescreen fly-together animation, sliding animations in apps


How to turn off retina resolution in iMac 5k? I've started using many charts softwares recently. I open 5 charts at a time and my iMac 5k gets laggy whenever I do that. I checked with iStat Menus and it looks like my video card's ram is almost maxed out. Since my non-retina mac os computers work just fine with more than 5+ charts, I assume Retina resolution is taking too much memory.

How do I turn off retina mode and just use 2560x1440?

I've tried pressing "option" key in Display preference, but it looks like it's still using retina mode.

The retina display causes any somewhat graphic intensive apps to be laggy. It's a major design flaw. You can fix this by right clicking on any app and clicking "get info". Then click on "open in low resolution".

You'll be surprised to see how fast apps run now. It will look not as clear, however. The retina sucks. My 2011 macbook ran everything better because it didn't have a retina display.


Search through terminal history with up and down keys in OS X Lion After I upgraded to OS X I am not able to use my ~/.inputrc bindings to search through the shell command history:

# these allow you to start typing a command and
# use the up/down arrow to auto complete from
# commands in your history
"\e[B": history-search-forward
"\e[A": history-search-backward

Any idea what I have to change or do? Are there any default keys for that I could use?

The up/down history scrolling in Terminal only works in bash, not sh. Try typing bash in Terminal, and see whether the arrow keys work. If this is the case, you can go to preferences and set your default login shell to /bin/bash.


Can Macbook be serviced by Apple Care with FileVault enabled? A few years back I had to send a Powerbook to Apple for hardware repairs (the optical disc stopped working and had to be replaced.)

I had FileVault enabled, and the tech at the time told me I'd have to disable that encryption in order for them to implement the repairs. So for privacy I just re-formatted the entire OS (having a backup, of course) before handing it off.

Is it still the case that Apple requires FileVault(2) to be turned off before they will repair a Macbook?

Firstly, I think this would be better handled by calling Apple Support directly. I do not see mention of this in any of the repair terms and conditions documents on apple.com.

Secondly, regardless of whether Apple requires FileVault 2 to be disabled or not, I would recommend that you follow the same process you did before - backup all the data, reformat it and install OS X afresh before giving it for repair. This would protect your privacy and also reduce (or prevent) wasting time with support if/when they inform you that they would have to format the drive and install OS X because it's encrypted with File Vault 2.


Mac collected from customer support, some settings have been reset Yesterday I collected my Macbook Pro from an authorized Apple Service Center, where they replaced some hardware components (logic board and battery-trackpad-keyboard block).

The SSD drive has not been replaced (according to the invoice), and it was encrypted with File Vault (OS X 10.9.3).

And yet, some settings have been changed. The ones I am 100% certain about are:

Accessibility settings, ignore built-in trackpad when a mouse is present.
This was definitely checked, but it has been disabled.
other trackpad settings: tap to click. This was enabled and it's now disabled.

Is it because the trackpad has been replaced?
I also did enable filevault right before bringing my mac to the service center, and I didn't really have time to notice any change then. Can these changes depend on file vault?

Some settings in OS X are “per machine” which is mostly derermined by MAC address. Since you for a replacement logic board that address has changed so OS X is using defaults since the settings for the former logic board do not match the hardware it is currently running on.
This is normal and expected. Just set them again to your liking and you'll be fine.


Can .plist files be restored to the Preferences directory? Recently I have been having some issues with hooking an external monitor up to my Macbook (worked at first, now will detect but wont display anything). I found that the solution may be to delete com.apple.windowserver.plist in the Preferences directory and let OS X restore it for me on reboot. However, when looking through that directory I have found that the file doesn't even exist there anymore! Is there any way I can run a repair on my filesystem to restore that file or will I have to re-install OS X (FYI I'm running latest Snow Leopard)?

Files in the Preferences directory can be safely deleted.

Apps automatically create these files if they don't exist already and fill them with default values.
This is how apps can be installed simply by dragging the .app into the applications folder.

Next time that file is required, it will be created and populated with default values.

I just tested on my system: I deleted /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist. I logged out and back in, and that didn't restore the file. But, I tried rearranging my monitors in System Preferences-> Displays-> Arrangement, and the file was neatly recreated.

So, short answer: That file will be automatically recreated as soon as it's required. Don't sweat it.
The same applies to just about every, if not every, .plist preferences file.


How to regain warnings about permanent version storage? With Preview in Mountain Lion, I carelessly checked the box –

[√] Do not show this message again

– imagining that the preference was for just one volume.

Then realised that the warning (the sheet):

no longer appears for Preview, with other volumes that do not support permanent version storage
continues to appear for apps other than Preview, with the volume where I don't require the warning.

In other words, I imagined wrong. The preference may be app-specific, not volume-specific.

Please:

how do I regain the warnings in Preview?

Already I sped through ~/Library/Preferences sorted by modification date, and opened a few files including com.apple.finder.plist but at a glance:

I can't find any .plist with content that includes the string revision

If the preference is elsewhere in com.apple.finder.plist: where?

(I'd prefer to not abandon that file – it's 35 KB with 3,417 lines.)

Also I viewed the content of recently modified .plist files relating to Preview. Unless I'm missing something, nothing relating to revisions, versions or storage. com.apple.Preview.plist is not recently modified –

– and within those nine, the two that are recently modified seem to contain nothing relating to permanent version storage:

Any other ideas on how to correct my mistake? – Thanks

For apps that are not sandboxed

Example:

To regain warnings about permanent version storage for Apple Pages

Quit the app, then a one-line command in Terminal:

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Pages NSDocumentSuppressTempVersionStoreWarning -int 0

– in the Preferences area that's familiar to users of Snow Leopard and less.

For apps that are sandboxed

The operating system uses a different approach to containment of some preferences:

~/Library/Containers/<bundle_id>/Data/Library/Preferences

Example:

To regain warnings about permanent version storage for Apple Preview

Quit the app, then a one-line command in Terminal:

defaults write ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview NSDocumentSuppressTempVersionStoreWarning -int 0

Thoughts

I should have thought first of ~/Library/Containers when, in the question, I observed –

  com.apple.Preview.plist is not recently modified

– but I didn't realise what was going on until after I used fseventer to visualise writes for a different user of the OS.

References

App Sandbox Design Guide: Migrating an App to a Sandbox

A visual record of me finding the relevant key in the .plist for Pages

A visual record of me finding the relevant key in the .plist for Preview


Wi-Fi hardware not installed I've a late 2008 MBP. It's worked fine up until Monday when the wifi stopped working. It now says "Wi-Fi: No Hardware installed". I've tried looking for it in the system prefs and it's gone.

I've tried reinstalling Yosemite, I've tried resetting pram and smc. No joy. I've repaired disks and permissions.

My bluetooth works as I can stream music to the hifi. The built in camera works too as I can skype, other research has suggested that if these work, it's not a hardware fault.

I've ran a AHT, which came back as no errors. Would it still report error if the airport card/connection doesn't exist?

Has anyone any suggestions before I open her up and poke around?

Sounds like it might be a bad Airport card, if you have the tools, open it up and then disconnect and reconnect the antennas connecting to the card. If that doesn't work, remove the card, clean the contacts on the card and then reinstall it. If that doesn't work, you'll need to buy a new card, specific for your model of MacBook Air.


Select different credit card for work related App store purchase I'm using my personal laptop & iCloud account for my work as a software developer. My company would pay for a separate laptop but I choose to use my own for convenience. Also, saves me the trouble of not having to re-purchase some of the 100 or so apps and copy over settings, etc.

Going forward, is it possible to add a new credit card to my iCloud account (my work spending account card) and choose this card when I buy apps strictly related to my work and my personal card for all other purchases?

I'm trying to avoid having to create a new iCloud account just to keep the purchases separate. If that's the only way, would it make sense for me to add my own work account as a "family account" so that I can share purchases with my original account?

I just found this on Google searching for the same thing. I wanted to buy a $50 app that I'm using exclusively for work purposes (Things 3), and wanted to use my business card to feed it into Quickbooks and write it off.

Unfortunately, as of today, you're going to have to create a separate Apple ID associated with your business/business credit card. I'm a developer so I basically already had one set up to develop iOS apps with my business card.

Once you do that, on Mac OS, in the App Store app, just hit Store -> Sign Out, and then sign in with your business Apple ID - buy your app - and then switch back.

Apple should make this easier but I bet the number of people buying business related apps that they want to write off is like 1% given the number of people using it for personal purposes.

As far as like, sharing the apps between your accounts - that I'm not sure about. Once I bought this app, it just works, and lives on my Macbook. The family account sounds like a solid option to explore.

Hope that helps you!


How to connect to wifi from single-user mode? the en0 wireless interface doesnt seem to be available from the terminal. is it possible to connect to known and/or new wifi hotspots from the single-user mode console?

root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280

root# networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 <SSID> '<wifi password>'
Error obtaining SC session.
All Wi-Fi network services are disabled.

my specifications:

sh-3.2# system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType
Software:

    System Software Overview:

      System Version: OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
      Kernel Version: Darwin 12.5.0
      Boot Volume: lily
      Boot Mode: Normal
      Computer Name: lily’s MacBook Air
      User Name: System Administrator (root)
      Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
      Time since boot: 12:37

To my knowledge this is not possible as the necessary services/daemons that enable networking don‘t start in single user mode.


Boot MacMini (2014) from USB Here is the problem.

A long time ago, I set my Mac Mini to dual boot (using Bootcamp, but with some third-party repartitioning).

I proceeded to install rEFInd, and eventually, to triple-boot. To find the right combination of partitions was a bit tedious, but I got it to work (using a GPT with a protective MBR disk layout, and a number of partitions, for recovery, for each system - three for Windows, two for OSX, one for Ubuntu Linux).

All was well initially, I could boot to rEFInd, and then move around and boot around as well.

BUT. One fine day, shortly after, my computer stopped detecting the internal HDD at boot time.

I'd get the blinking grey folder. I got out of it by booting from a Linux Live CD, every time, then restarting my way to the rEFInd partition.

That's right: after the Linux Kernel initial load, the whole computer sees the internal HDD once again.

I have tried:

Setting the boot HD in MacOSX, from "System Preferences".
Repairing file systems using Disk Utility, and also, using Onyx.
Resetting the NVRam and whichever equivalent of the PRam, using the reserved key combinations at startup + actions involving
removing the power cable.
Completely reinstalling, repartitioning.
Reinstalling OSX over the network, not using any boot media.

To no avail.

I am now running two systems, Ubuntu and OSX El Capitan, but to this day - and hear me out, the whole hardware is running fine, has been running for over a year just fine - yet, to this day, whenever I shut my Mac down, I have to resort to the Live USB procedure to gain access to rEFInd.

I am looking for:

A way to boot into the supposedly programmable firmware? Tests I can
run there?
A cure?
A way to boot from a nice, special type of USB image (UEFI or otherwise) that pipes me back into my HDD without the whole Live CD shenanigans.

In advance thank you.

Try disabling System Integrity Projection.  From what I've seen rEFInd doesn't play as well with El Capitan as it has with older versions.

Follow the steps here: http://mattjanik.ca/blog/2015/10/01/refind-on-el-capitan/


How can I send “text messages” from iPhone to Android with an email (not cellular) as the address? Is there any way that would allow me to send a text message from my iPhone to someone who has an android phone. The person who has the android phone and doesn’t have a phone number but has an email address.
Is there a way for me to send a text message to the person’s android phone using their email in the same way that you’d use a phone number to send a text message?

If you are referring to sending a text message like a SMS to someone else via an e-mail address, then the answer is usually no. Emails is usually not meant for this kind of use, but apparently at least in the US it may be possible. Check SteveChambers answer about that.
Your confusion most likely comes from Apples messages app, that allows you to send messages (similar to Telegram) to devices without a phone number. This, however, is restricted to Apple products like Macs and iPads.
The easiest and most obvious way for you to communicate would be via email. You have to have an email address configured in an email client (the preinstalled one on iOS is fine) and from there you can send an email to the recipient. However, the recipient needs a way of accessing their email, like an email client app or through a browser.


Big Sur bluetooth keyboard not found after changing batteries. Mac mini My keyboard battery's got to 5% so I changed to new ones. Keyboard was not discovered by mac so I restarted the machine. I now have the login asking for a password and the bluetooth setup assistant telling me the keyboard is not connected and to make it discoverable.
I have tested the keyboard on another mac mini ru ning high Sierra and it works fine.
I can't enter a password to get the big sur mac mini started - any suggestions on how to proceed ?

If your Bluetooth keyboard has a charging cable (Magic Keyboard 2), connect that between your Mac and the keyboard to pair them.
If not, turn off the keyboard holding the power button, then turn it back on and continue holding the power button after it turns on, until the green LED is flashing. This puts the keyboard into pairing mode and makes it discoverable for your Mac mini's Bluetooth setup assistant.


Voice in iOS switches language during text-to-speech Very often, as I'm listening to an article being read by an American English voice with swipe-down "Speak Screen" or selected-text "Speak Selection." A date or number would be spelled in Dutch by the Dutch voice, or a name in French by the French voice, which would often prompt that voice to take over and continue reading to me the English text with the same enthusiasm, even if the words make absolutely no sense: It's just English with a terrible French or Dutch accent.

I haven't found a way to turn this autonomous language switch off. I looked in Accessibility -> Speech and Accessibility -> VoiceOver to no avail. There hasn't been a single time in which said feature was useful, I don't read multi-languages text, or see why a date or a number should be spelled in Dutch. I don't speak or use either language.

Go to Settings -> General -> Language and region and make sure that English is at the top of the list:


Problem while updating to macOS High Sierra (Target is not convertible to AFPS) I started my update at night and woke up in the morning to this screen, stuck at the same place for hours now.

The error log is a long sequence of the same two lines.

isConvertableToAPFS: was called on a APFS disk.
Target is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Here is a screenshot.

So after browsing around the internet for a bit, I figured there are some solutions I could try.

Reboot into internet recovery. From here.
Disable encryption. Since in Disk Utility, my drive is shown as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) and not what you see in the error log.
And of course, retry.

But the problem is that I can't afford to lose the data I have downloaded till now, i.e., I can't download 5GB of data all over again.

All the options I see till now, involve closing the the installer. So I have two questions: Will I lose my data if I close the installer? If yes, is there any other to go about it, a fourth option?

My primary aim is not losing data, I plan on keeping the installer running till I don't find a solution.

The installer will still be in your Applications folder. Cancelling should also be fine as the installer automatically backs up your data.


Managing old iMessages keys Let's assume the following situation:

My device gets stolen and my keychain keys (including iMessage encryption and signing keys)
I reactivate my iMessage account and new iMessage keys are generated.

As far I know, iMessage client sends the every public key to apple, so when someone send me message my message will be encrypted with each public key ever associated with my account.

If someone sniff on my messages and because they have my old keys, can they read my messages?

Is there way to manage my iMessage keys associated with my iMessage account?

TL;DR

If you remote wipe the phone then the device will be erased including keys if it is online or if it is offline it will be erased when it comes online.
If it is offline but someone extracts the keys from it those keys are still useless as they are only able to decrypt messages specifically encrypted for that device and if you've remote wiped the phone then Apple won't tell other iMessage devices to encrypt messages to be sent to that device.
If you change your iCloud password then your device will no longer be able to use the iMessage service and will also render the keys useless.
If you remote wipe the phone but the phone is kept offline and the thief can access your phone (e.g. - break your passcode) then they can read old messages that were received before you did so.  In this case the iMessage keys don't come into play and normal passcode/TouchID security is what safeguards the messages already received by that device.
You cannot directly manage the iMessage keys for your iOS devices but you manage their access to iMessage by managing the device itself.  When you remove a device from your iCloud account you implicitly remove the iMessage keys and render them useless
Sniffing the connection between your stolen phone and Apple would not reveal your private iMessage keys because they are never sent over the connection and besides this it is difficult to sniff these connections since they are encrypted.  Only public iMessage keys are sent over the connection.

Long Answer

The detail of this is mostly covered by Apple's iOS Security Guide which describes the mechanism iMessage uses in detail, see excerpt below.

  iMessage

  Apple iMessage is a messaging service for iOS devices, Apple Watch, and Mac
  computers. iMessage supports text and attachments such as photos, contacts,
  and locations. Messages appear on all of a user’s registered devices so that a
  conversation can be continued from any of the user’s devices. iMessage makes
  extensive use of the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). Apple doesn’t log
  the contents of messages or attachments, which are protected by end-to-end
  encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can access them. Apple can’t
  decrypt the data.
  When a user turns on iMessage on a device, the device generates two pairs
  of keys for use with the service: an RSA 1280-bit key for encryption and an
  ECDSA 256-bit key on the NIST P-256 curve for signing. The private keys for
  both key pairs are saved in the device’s Keychain and the public keys are sent
  to Apple’s directory service (IDS), where they are associated with the user’s
  phone number or email address, along with the device’s APNs address.
  As users enable additional devices for use with iMessage, their encryption
  and signing public keys, APNs addresses, and associated phone numbers are
  added to the directory service. Users can also add more email addresses, which
  are verified by sending a confirmation link. Phone numbers are verified by the
  carrier network and SIM. With some networks, this requires using SMS (the
  user will be presented with a confirmation dialog if the SMS is not zero rated).
  Phone number verification may be required for several system services in
  addition to iMessage, such as FaceTime and iCloud. All of the user’s registered
  devices display an alert message when a new device, phone number, or email
  address is added.

  How iMessage sends and receives messages

  Users start a new iMessage conversation by entering an address or name. If
  they enter a phone number or email address, the device contacts the IDS to
  retrieve the public keys and APNs addresses for all of the devices associated
  with the addressee. If the user enters a name, the device first utilizes the user’s
  Contacts app to gather the phone numbers and email addresses associated
  with that name, then gets the public keys and APNs addresses from the IDS.
  The user’s outgoing message is individually encrypted for each of the receiver’s
  devices. The public RSA encryption keys of the receiving devices are retrieved
  from IDS. For each receiving device, the sending device generates a random
  88-bit value and uses it as an HMAC-SHA256 key to construct a 40-bit
  value derived from the sender and receiver public key and the plaintext. The
  concatenation of the 88-bit and 40-bit values makes a 128-bit key, which
  encrypts the message with it using AES in CTR mode. The 40-bit value is
  used by the receiver side to verify the integrity of the decrypted plaintext.
  This per-message AES key is encrypted using RSA-OAEP to the public key of
  the receiving device. The combination of the encrypted message text and the
  encrypted message key is then hashed with SHA-1, and the hash is signed
  with ECDSA using the sending device’s private signing key. The resulting
  messages, one for each receiving device, consist of the encrypted message
  text, the encrypted message key, and the sender’s digital signature. They are then dispatched to the APNs for delivery. Metadata, such as the timestamp
  and APNs routing information, isn’t encrypted. Communication with APNs is
  encrypted using a forward-secret TLS channel.
  APNs can only relay messages up to 4KB or 16KB in size, depending on iOS
  version. If the message text is too long, or if an attachment such as a photo is
  included, the attachment is encrypted using AES in CTR mode with a randomly
  generated 256-bit key and uploaded to iCloud. The AES key for the attachment,
  its URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), and a SHA-1 hash of its encrypted
  form are then sent to the recipient as the contents of an iMessage, with their
  confidentiality and integrity protected through normal iMessage encryption,
  as shown in the following diagram.

  On the receiving side, each device receives its copy of the message from APNs,
  and, if necessary, retrieves the attachment from iCloud. The incoming phone
  number or email address of the sender is matched to the receiver’s contacts so
  that a name can be displayed when possible.
  As with all push notifications, the message is deleted from APNs when it is
  delivered. Unlike other APNs notifications, however, iMessage messages are
  queued for delivery to offline devices. Messages are currently stored for up to
  30 days.

The basics of the section above is this:

Someone writes a message destined for you
Their device contacts apple and retrieves the public keys for all your current devices
Their device encrypts their message for each of your devices and sends it to Apple
Apple forwards each individually encrypted message to your corresponding devices and will cache undelivered messages for up to 30 days

If your lost/stolen phone is no longer associated with your iCloud account (because you removed it) then the sender's phone would not receive a public key from Apple with which to encrypt a message for that device so a copy of that message would not be sent to your lost/stolen device which renders the keys on that device useless, so even if someone managed to pull your iMessage keys from the device, as long as that device isn't registered to you anymore they'll never receive a message that can be decrypted with them.

If you haven't removed the device from iCloud then sniffing on the connection between your device and Apple's servers shouldn't be possible will be very difficult since it's done over a forward-secret TLS connection and the connection would fail if the device did not get a valid TLS certificate signed by the expected Certificate Authority which should make it difficult to perform a Man-In-The-Middle-Attack

If your phone was not deactivated with Find My iPhone and you did not change your iCloud password then the thief could just use your lost phone to read your messages as you would expect, however if you follow Apple's instructions for lost iPhones then the phone would either be inaccessible and/or not receive new messages, they have no way to extract your iMessage keys from your iPhone so they can't just put them on another device and if you put the phone in Lost Mode they can't even get into it to read your old messages without a passcode.
There is no way for you to directly manage your iMessage keys, they are managed under the covers by the devices registered to your iCloud account.  When you remove a device from iCloud Apple will no longer send that device's public keys out when an iMessage sender asks Apple to send you a message. The keys on the device no longer matter as no new messages would be encrypted with the public keys so no new messages can be decrypted with the private keys on the device.
It is then down to your device security (passcode/touch-ID and on-device encryption) to protect the contents of the phone i.e. your old messages.

You can also read about some ideas on weaknesses in this security model at the links below:
https://blog.quarkslab.com/imessage-privacy.html
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2015/09/09/lets-talk-about-imessage-again/

UPDATED

I've added this section to address specific concerns of the OP on the iMessage key-thief sniffing their network.

You seem particularly concerned about the following scenario;
Your iPhone has been stolen (or hacked) and is now back in your possession but your iMessage keys have been stolen by a thief who is now going to sniff the network your phone is on so that they can read your messages.

Let's firstly say straight off the bat that what you are worried about is entirely possible, since anything is possible, and any system can be hacked with enough time and effort unless it is completely powered off (battery out and unplugged) and never connected to a network.  So with that out of the way, let's explore how likely this is.  In order for someone to obtain your iMessage keys and sniff your network to read your messages here's a list of what would need to happen.

your phone would need to be stolen and returned to you
the thief would need to have hacked your phone and extracted your iMessage private keys, defeating any device security that was in place such as TouchID, passcode or device encryption to do this and would then need to hack the OS or the hardware to extract the keys as there's no provided way to get at them
your would either need to not know your phone was stolen or you may know but choose not to remove it from your iCloud account (thereby requiring the keys be renewed)
the thief would then need to gain access to the same network as you, for example your home WiFi network.  This will be relatively easy if it's unencrypted which is not typical and it will be relatively difficult if encrypted and password protected or has a MAC address whitelist for example.  I can't comment on how secure your specific home WiFi is however.
the thief would then need to intercept (or "sniff") packets destined for your phone and determine if they are iMessage messages and decrypt those using the keys, but there's a further hurdle, the traffic between your device and Apple is encrypted using a forward-TLS connection.  So the thief would need to also crack that encryption to manage to read the message data, then use the keys they had extracted to decrypt the messages within after reassembling the messages over the TCP stream.

Frankly, all of the above is incredibly complex and unless you're Edward Snowden, or some other Enemy of the State I don't think anyone could be bothered that much to read your messages

:op


Selecting Default Playlist Columns in iTunes When you create a new playlist and select it in iTunes, it displays the following columns (renamed for clarity):

# Song Title iCloud Status Length Artist Album Genre Rating Plays

Is it possible to remove any of these defaults, or more generally pick a specific set of default columns to apply to new Playlists? I have no need for Genre, Rating, or Plays, and always immediately choose 'Auto Size All Columns' in a new playlist view after adding tracks.

New playlists use the current columns in the main music list. If you want to remove those columns, just remove them from the main browsing window (Music under LIBRARY). Then create a new playlist and you should see the new columns appear.


How do I recalculate in Excel for Mac? This is driving me a little bit crazy. In my old PC days I used to press either F5 or F9 (I can't remember) to have Excel recalculate.

What is the Mac equivalent?

PS: Perhaps this is not the place to ask. If so, please redirect me. :)

To recalc in Mac:

Command + =

You can try also changing Excel preferences:
Command  ,
Calculation
"Manually" radio button


Screen flickers, stops after brightness change Whenever I am using my 2006 Macbook for a while, the screen starts flickering, from one shade of brightness to another. When I change the brightness, it stops. It also occurs right after startup or when coming out of sleep mode. It is running the second to latest version of Snow Leopard, though the problem has been occurring ever since Tiger.

From my experience this could either point to a defective inverter board or a simple short-circuit on the cable that runs from the logic board to the display through the display hinge. I´d suggest visiting your nearest Apple Reseller / Apple Store or (if you´re technically experienced) trying the repair yourself (a new Inverter Board will set you back around 50$, but the do-it-yourself-repair is really not that easy).


MacBook Charging Wattage I have 2015 rMBP and its hooked to a thunderbolt display and uses it's power cord for charging. I noticed that the charging wattage is really low(~2W) compared to what I see when using the MagSafe 2 power adapter(~54W). The wattage actually fluctuates when using the thunderbolt cable. So just wanted to know if this is normal? Or is there anything I can do for this? Would I be damaging the battery this way. I really don't want to use the MagSafe adapter because of how the cables are setup now. Thanks in advance for your help!

What you are seeing is the "current draw" for charging the battery.  This will fluctuate and is perfectly normal.

You will see this fluctuate more so when the battery is full or nearly fully charged when it doesn't need much current to bring it back up to 100%.  When it reaches full charge, there's no need for full current draw.

The 2015 rMBP has either a 60W or 85W power adapter (13" or 15" respectively).  54W draw is well within the limit of either adapter which means (to use a Star Trek: TNG phrase) it's operating within normal parameters.  The 54W is just the draw at this particular time; charging the battery and powering the MBP.  Crank up some processes (like video editing) and your draw will go up.  Turn it off/put to sleep and ~100% of the power will go to charging the battery until it's full.

There's nothing to change nor is anything here harmful to your battery.


How do I type the Telugu character అ? I am trying to type the telugu character అ on mac, after switching to the Telugu - QWERTY keyboard that ships with mac.
I would think this would show up as an option when holding down the 'a' key, or holding down shift+'a', but only the character ఆ shows up as an option. Is there an easy way to type this character?

Just pressing optiona works for me as it produces అ (TELUGU LETTER A Unicode: U+0C05, UTF-8: E0 B0 85) not ఆ (TELUGU LETTER AA Unicode: U+0C06, UTF-8: E0 B0 86) on a MBP with US Keyboard , when set to Telugu - QWERTY for the keyboard layout.
Pressing w on the same keyboard produces అ also, when set to Telugu - QWERTY for the keyboard layout.


To make substitles for audio in OSX I have many recordings where I want English subtitles.
However, those subtitles do not exist.
So it would be great to have some application which could pick up some words and make a raw subtitle.

Is there any good software to make subtitles from recordings in OSX?

Video Lan Client can play just about every format of subtitle that's out there.


Fully unmount volume? I created a volume in disk utility, and called "projects.dmg".  I assigned a password to it, and stored it in my home directory.  All is good.   I can now mount this volume in terminal, using "cd /users/me; open projects.dmg".   The volume asks for a password and then mounts the volume on my desktop.  GOOD.
I can then use it, and all is well.  When I want to unmount it,  I issue the command "umount /Volumes/projects", and it disappears from the desktop.  Looks good too.
HERE is the issue...  When  I want to mount this volume in terminal again, using "cd /users/me; open projects.dmg".   The volume mounts on my desktop, WITHOUT asking for a password!
I want it to ask for the password again.   I assume my umount command isn't correct..  How do I get the volume to act like I put it in the trash, so it will ask for a password when I mount it again??? Help?

If you want it to ask for the password again, assuming it hasn't been stored in your Keychain, you need to eject the disk image, e.g.:
 diskutil eject projects

BTW, the disk image is mounted at /Volumes/ not the Desktop. (In Terminal, run the mount command.) It just gives access to it from the icon on the Desktop


In Mac, how to do `tail -f --pid` to terminate after process exit like Linux? tail command in current Linux has --pid option to terminate after certain process id, while tail under MAC OSX doesn't have the same option.
e.g. tail -f --pid=<process_pid> can terminate tail mode if process_pid terminated.
So how can we get the same result as Linux tail -f --pid?

There are perhaps several possible ways you can accomplish that.
First solution (easiest): How to replace Mac OS X utilities with GNU core utilities?
Follow the above and install gnu tail. You can then possibly have a function or alias of tail to gtail. like
alias tail=gtail
or even a Bash function:
tail(){
  command gtail "$@"
}

or just simply call gtail altogether instead of BSD tail
Second solution: The second way of doing that would be to make your own function, which you can add in your bash_profile or make a script, whatever suits you. In this script, all that we are doing is just to check if the PID exists or not. If it exists then we tail otherwise we exit with return code 1.
_tail(){
  # usage _tail -f <file> <pid>
  function _tail::trap() {
    trap - SIGTERM && kill -- -$$
  }
  local FILE="$1"
  local PID="$2"
  if ps -p "$PID" > /dev/null; then
    trap _tail::trap SIGINT
    command tail -f "${FILE}" &
    local pid=$!
    disown # Optional: if you want to supress the kill SIGINT message
    local run=true
    while ${run}; do
      if ! $(ps -p ${PID} > /dev/null); then
        kill -9 ${pid} > /dev/null 2>&1
        run=false
      fi
    done
  else
    return 1
  fi
}

Now, you can call this function like _tail <file-to-tail> <pid>, which will do exactly same thing as gtail -f <file-to-tail> --pid=<pid>
However, if you want, you can extend it further and make it same syntaxt as gnu tail by adding another function called tail and sourcing it in .bash_profile or in your path as executable.
tail(){
  # usage: tail -f <file> --pid=<pid>
  local fFlag="$1"
  local FILE="$2"
  local PIDARGS="$3"
  local PIDARG="$(echo ${PIDARGS} | cut -d '=' -f1)"
  local PID="$(echo ${PIDARGS} | cut -d '=' -f2)"
  if [[ "$fFlag" == "-f" ]] && [[ -f "${FILE}" ]] && \
    [[ "${PIDARG}" == "--pid" ]] && [[ $(ps -p "${PID}") ]]; then
    _tail "${FILE}" "${PID}"
  else
    command tail "$@"
  fi
}

[[ "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" == "$0" ]] && tail "$@"


How to disable syncing applications without uninstalling them? When I disable syncing apps with my iPad, iTunes uninstalls all apps. How can I make iTunes not mess with it and leave the apps on it, even if I disable synchronization?

I tried disconnecting immediately after applying, but this doesn't save the changes I made.

This also happens to my iPods and iPhones.

Alternatively you could select sync Apps but choose the applications you want in your iPad and uncheck the Automatically sync new apps. With this you will have only the applications that are selected.


iPhone 6S Plus - Macbook Pro USB Charging not reaching 2.1A I've seen various reports of iPhone 6 Plus get 2.1A charging from Macbook Pro.

http://blog.equinux.com/2014/09/iphone-6-and-6-plus-charging-secrets-revealed

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/09/iphone-6-iphone-6-plus-can-charged-faster-ipad-charging-adapter.html

http://9to5mac.com/2011/03/25/new-macbook-pros-get-serious-ipad-charging-juice-in-their-usb-ports/

However, I'm unable to replicated that on my own Macbook Pro Retina 15" 2015.

It stays at 1A as below

Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA):  500
Extra Operating Current (mA):   500

Currently on Yosemite and plugged in.

Anyone having the same issue (or has been able to get the Macbook to power out 2.1A?)

I have the same 2015 15" MBP, just upgraded to OS 10.13.4, and with my iPhone 6S+ discharged to 13%, I got:

Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 500
Extra Operating Current (mA): 1600
Sleep Current (mA): 2100

BUT, I only get that in the right USB port. When I plug it into the left USB port at 13% charge, it Beeps once a second, so I removed it. Once the phone is charged to 20%, it will charge in either port. The phone is now charged to 98%, but the refreshed System Info still shows the same values.


I have two bootcamp partitions but not my original 500GB I have a mid 2014 MacBook Pro running Mojave. I recently tried to dual boot windows on my MacBook but in the process corrupted my original Macintosh HD  and am left with a 85GB bootcamp partition. I wanted to revert back to the original so I saved that 85GB with time machine on a external hard drive. I tried to erase the 85GB drive and then delete it from internet recovery and go back to my original 500GB. That didn't work and I was left with a blue screen saying enter to try again, f8 for something and another something but I can't remember what it was for. From there I reinstalled Mojave on the 85GB partition and went to disk utility on my MacBook. I tried to restore the 415GB partition and somehow screwed up and am left with 2 bootcamp partitions of 85GB and 415GB.

Here are pictures of the two in disk utility.

And here is a picture of when I type in diskutil list

And here is a picture of diskutil afps

Is there any way for me to get back to my original 500GB partition and restore back to the data that was on my 85GB partition.

Any help would be immensely appreciated.

You now have a broken disklayout with broken filesystems on it.  That is not a good thing at all.

I would suggest booting into rescue mode on the mac, erase the whole disk and (may not be necessary) set a single partition on it.  Then reinstall MacOS to that, restore your time machine backup, and then start a fresh time machine backup so you have that functional.  Then use boot camp again to reinstall a supported version of Windows next to MacOS.

Word of warning:  I tried using the native Windows tools to restore a Windows installation on my Mac a good while back.  It did not respect the partition layout but scratched the whole disk including my MacOS partition.  I only did that once.


How to change date format on menu bar without extra apps? This is how it looks right now

These are my "Language & Region" settings

There is clearly a bug involved. I don't want use an app to solve such ridiculously simple prolem. It should be reading this format from somewhere right?

I don't know whether you ever got the above method to work, but it never did the trick for me. However, I seem to have found a way that works without resorting to a 3rd party app. I was pulling my hair out about this because I wanted to have a '.' as the time separator, and even when using the defaults command like so:

defaults write com.apple.menuextra.clock "DateFormat" "EEE MMM d  H.mm"

It would successfully assign the value, but every time I killed the menu bar, it would inexplicably revert to the default format. I'm not sure how permanent this will be, but I did a quick loop in bash and after running it for a few seconds, I killed the menu bar from a separate shell, and then returned to the loop and killed it - voilà!

So, basically from shell 1:

while true;

    > do;
    > defaults write com.apple.menuextra.clock "DateFormat" "EEE MMM d  H.mm";
    > done;

...then in another shell:

killall -KILL SystemUIServer

And then return to the first shell and kill the loop. I haven't restarted yet, but so far the change has stuck. HTH!


What is default (factory pre-loaded) iOS for iPhone 3gs I was so happy with my iphone when I bought it. It was so fast... now, after dozen of upgrades i hate my iphone....

does anyone remember what was the original version of iOS when they bought their 3GS

The 3GS originally shipped with iOS 3.0, which was called iPhone OS 3.0 at the time.


How to stop a iCloud Drive file or folder download in OS X? I activated iCloud Drive on my MacBook with OS X, and some folders showed as not downloaded yet. So I clicked on the arrow next to the folder name to download the whole folder from the iCloud to my local MacBook.

I realized that my current internet connection (I am at my friends place currently) is too slow and therefore blocks all the traffic.

  How can I stop an active download from the iCloud Drive to my local
  Mac under OS X?

This plugin helped! - lets you select which folders to sync: https://github.com/Obbut/iCloud-Control. To download it, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8 and select the latest zip file. (Right now it's at https://github.com/Obbut/iCloud-Control/releases/download/1.1.0/iCloud.Control.app.zip.)

If it doesn't unzip automatically, unzip it and move it to your Application folder.

From the site:

Place the app in your Applications folder
Launch it by right/control clicking and choosing "Open" (to prevent gatekeeper from preventing the app to open) and follow the instructions on screen

Usage

The following options are provided through a toolbar item in the Finder.

Remove selected item locally: the selected item(s) will be removed
from your device, while remaining in iCloud.
Download selected item: download previously removed files from iCloud. On macOS Sierra, the cloud icon provides the same functionality.
Publish public link: places a link to the selected file in your clipboard.

Compatibility

iCloud Control should work on macOS 10.2 Sierra, and on OS X 10.11 El Capitan.


How to upgrade SSD from HDD for my mac book pro My mac book pro(13 inch mid 2012) has become very slow and I approached apple service centre they found out my HDD has become faulty and that's the reason , my laptop is very slow.

Unfortunately HDD is expensive than SSD and SSD is much faster.But apple won't do HDD to SSD replacement while they're ready to do HDD to HDD replacement.

I bought a brand new SSD for my macbook pro and I bought a screw driver set.

Can anyone suggest me things I should be aware of while doing the following things ?

While unpacking my laptop ( I read some static electricity will be there and can cause short circuit or do I have to drain my battery before unpacking or just switched off mac book pro is fine )
While replacing HDD with SSD( Do I have to buy any SATA cable or SATA to IDE converter or something )
While installing the new OS on the new SSD.( Not sure how to do this though).

Any help is appreciated

FYI:
I have backed up all my data in external Hard drive and I don't want to keep the HDD anymore. Just want to put in the new SSD in place of HDD and have the OS in it and use the mac. that's all.

You should look at the ifixit HDD replacement guide for this model. This will show you exactly the steps you need to take, including 'unplugging' the logic board from the battery.

You may want to buy a USB to SATA connector cable. This will let you connect the new SSD to the Mac, so that you can copy the contents from the hard drive to the SSD. You need to use cloning apps: either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to do this.

If you have a Time Machine backup, you may be able to restore this to the new drive by booting to Recovery (command R) and then restoring the backup.

Then swap the drives, and you can still use the HDD as a temporary external drive with the SATA cable.


Odd (potentially DNS) network problems on my Macbook Pro (VPN / Network Connect related) I was reluctant to ask a new question as there appears to be a million dns related questions on here and elsewhere already, but, I think mine might be a bit different.

An example, right now I am writing this on my Macbook Pro, connected via wifi to my Billion router and I cannot browse/ping/trace wikipedia.org. BUT, my iPhone, connected via wifi to the same router, can.

I have tried using the router provided DNS (Google) on my Macbook (ie, network settings gives my router IP for DNS server) and I have over ridden the DNS with Google DNS and OpenDNS but with zero help.

When I take my Macbook into the office, I connected via wifi to our Airport there and 50% of the time, will need to restart my Mac before it can browse.

This appears to be port 80 only! I have never had problems with other services, torrent, skype, app store (not sure what port that uses) - although, these could just be in the group of sites/services that I can access - note I am writing this on the problematic machine, so this site is fine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm desperate to fix this.

BTW - I did read this: I cannot connect to internet but my MacBook Pro detects the network and my HP computer works fine on the same network but note that I have no proxies selected.

Thanks!

EDIT - I just noticed while looking at other questions, that people did not have their router address as a DHCP-provided DNS server in their network prefs. So, I logged into my router and disabled 'use router as DNS server' and then added Google's primary and secondary servers to the router. My machine now shows the Google servers but the problem persists.

EDIT #2 - A client has a VPN that I connect to using Juniper Network Connect. Rebooting my machine fixes all network issues, but the second I open Network Connect, it kills it. BUT, if I sign out of Network Connect and close the VPN, the network is still broken, so whatever it changes, does not revert.

So, I fixed this issue by changing my internal network to use a different IP address range. From 192.168.* to 10.0.*.

I'm assuming there was a conflict somewhere.

Anyway, hopefully this info helps somebody else.


Music Sharing - Different iTunes Accounts I have a relative who will be visiting from out of state, and I would like to share my music. My music is purchases from iTunes and CD's that I've copied onto my iMac. I'm trying to figure out he can play my music when he returns home to his Apple TV, iPad set up. What options do I have to do this?

thanks...

You can share your music with your relative by either burning it on a CD for him, or copying the music from iTunes to an external drive.  All he has to do when he gets home is copy it to his computer and set it up so that Apple TV can stream from it.  I would not recommend syncing the music to his iPad, he will not be able to remove it from his iPad.

Music that ripped from your CD's should copy over just fine.  However, some iTunes music is linked to your Apple ID, so when he copies it to his computer, his computer must be authorized to use your apple id content.  You can authorize your iTunes account on his computer by going to store authorize this computer to use an Apple ID.


Face time in a middle east version of iPhone in India I am planning to buy an iPhone 12 pro for my brother who is in Dubai now. But after a few months, he will go back to India.
Middle East version of the iPhone doesn't have face time installed by default because it is not supported in UAE. But, If he takes his iPhone to India, can he install and use the face time in India? We buy only the unlocked version.
I checked with the iPhone customer care. They say, ”it is completely based on the carrier you are using”. If I ask my service provider they are asking me to check with iPhone support.
Any suggestions?

I would not expect FaceTime to work if you unlock a phone purchased in Middle East.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204042

FaceTime may be unavailable if your device originates from this country or region and becomes unlocked or is used in another country or region.

The footnote is very broadly worded. My presumption is that phones sold in the entire region have legal or contractual restrictions causing FaceTime to be bound to specific carriers and/or the device remain in specific geographical boundaries for FaceTime to operate or be blocked. It’s unlikely even if you export it closed box and do first activation in India that you would bypass UAE intended restrictions.  However, Apple did write this as a footnote, so I can’t say you’re out of luck across the board.
If you are uncertain when it’s time to spend your cash, be sure the return policy lets you test in India soon enough to return the device if you can’t be sure the features you need will work with the eventual carrier and eventual location. (Or be OK with whatever profit or loss you take reselling a “brand new phone” locally is acceptable risk)


Safe to Delete Mobile Applications I back up my iPhone 4 and iPad 2 to iCloud.
Is it necessary to keep my Mobile Applications Folder?
There are over 12GBs of space being used by this folder on my Macbook.
Could it be thrown out?

I would be careful. You may be backing up to iCloud, but syncing locally with iTunes. If you DO NOT sync your Apps with iTunes, you can throw it away.

Personally, I would keep it and maybe just delete some of the old apps you no longer use.


Will a buyer be able to recover my files if I format my mac HD and sell it? If I follow the standard procedure for logging out and formatting my Mac before selling it, as described in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065 - Will the buyer be able to recover my files with forensic software ? Who is liable if the buyer can recover personal files with sensitive information, given that I followed the instructions given by support ?

If the buyer is able to retrieve info with forensic tools - why do I almost have to be a computer scientist to understand how to sell my computer safely ?

Is a user friendly deep format too much to ask ?

The accepted procedure these days is that you already have FileVault enabled, right from the first time you use the Mac.

If you do, then the simple format & reinstall in Apple's instructions is totally adequate to prevent any recovery.

If you don't use FileVault, then there is no proven * method to make your data absolutely * irrecoverable.

Therefore, if you don't already use FileVault, enable it first across the entire drive. Wait until it finishes encrypting your data [may be days], then follow the simple format/install instructions.
This is not as quite * as secure as if the drive had always been encrypted, but as good as any "secure erase" procedure.
For practical purposes SSDs are safer * than HDs.

*words in italics would take 20 pages to fully explain.


What happened to the right/control + mouse click option to “Get Album Artwork” in iTunes 12.4? I’m on Mac OS X 10.11.5 (El Capitan) and just upgraded to iTunes 12.4 and if I right/control + mouse click on a track I no longer see “Get Album Artwork” in the list of options. I am 100% positive this used to be the case in earlier (12.3 and lower) versions of iTunes. What gives?

You can right click on the Album name/icon and get access to "Get Album Artwork".


How to use my phone number on my Macbook's Messages? iMessage is very confusing as my email and phone number keeps receiving different messages at random occasions rather than having all messages sent to both. This is very apparent in  group messages.

I would like to use my phone number, is this possible ?

Yes - it's entirely possible to have your Mac send and receive iMessage using your iPhone's message as the "caller ID" only.

Setting this up is normally a two step process.

First ensure that your phone with the number you wish all computers to use as your "caller ID" for the Mac has your Apple ID enabled for Messages. Until that device has activated the phone number to your Apple ID account, you can't go to step two.

Next, in the preferences on your Mac, look at the bottom of the pane for that Apple ID and choose to send a message from your Phone number rather than from the Apple ID mail address.

I prepared that picture for another answer and you might read there in case things are not working. I find it best to set each and every device to send from the same one string - whether it's a string of phone digits or a string of email address to avoid having people reply to your non-preferred account. In that case, you can either deal with two conversations or train them to send to your preferred address. It's a bit of tough love, but the most effective way is to only accept messages from your preferred string and then send read receipts. That way people realize some messages do not get delivered and self correct.

Apple has a nice article that covers how things are supposed to work as well as what to do when things don't.

iOS: About Messages
iOS: Troubleshooting Messages
iOS: Troubleshooting FaceTime and iMessage activation


Screen wave in Desktop while powering up, then in Chrome & iTunes (started with Finder not responding?) and flickering in Contacts I am on OS X El Capitan v 10.11.1, MacBook (13-in, Mid 2010)

I am not a power user so if I should ask this in another community would someone please let me know?

Current issue: kind of like "the wave" fans do in a football stadium, my screen has a wave rolling up the screen in Chrome (where tabs also flicker) and iTunes now. And not sure it's normal but sections of Contacts are flickering.

Possibly related question:  if I have to uninstall something potentially incompatible with El Capitan, how do I identify what that is?

History: Thank you for the answer from Steve Chambers under "My Finder is not responding and there are no documents on Desktop after downloading OS X Yosemite". I had that same issue. I clicked to Relaunch Finder after pulling up the dialog via holding command + option. Then I powered off and rebooted in Safe Mode.

The end of the answer to the above issue included the suggestion there might be something incompatible with Yosemite that would need to be uninstalled--is this the same for El Capitan, and if so how does one know what to uninstall?

Not sure how to describe it but while the desktop started to come back on, horizontal rows started to roll or scroll from bottom to top of the screen. Like a wave in a football stadium, only rolling south to north. This only happened while powering up.

The good news is my desktop files are back and Finder is available to me. And Safari works fine.

Screen wave happened in Chrome as well. I uninstalled and downloaded Chrome again but it didn't help. The top tabs are shuddering and the pixels in the right scroll bar and any website page are rolling up a bit similarly to how my desktop screen acted upon powering up. But I'm okay using Safari.

Are you sure this isn't a display issue? Plug in an external monitor. If you don't see the same "wave" and flickering on the external monitor, your built-in display may be flaking out. If you DO see the same weird display errors on the external monitor, then something else is wrong (perhaps an incompatibility, but something that is causing that much of a display mess is unlikely - possibly your video card is having issues).

If it is the internal display, sometimes very gently flexing the lid of your computer can temporarily fix this. Contact points between the display cable and the screen can become loose or break, causing weird display bugs like flickering or rolling lines. Wiggling the screen can put things back into contact - but this is not a permanent fix, you will eventually need to use an external display all the time or replace the laptop screen. (My old 2007 MBP started doing this a while ago - I was able to "wiggle" it into working again but do not trust that it will keep working much longer.)


Intel Mac Pro 1.1 stops responding after ~5 minutes If anyone could shed a little light on this, I'd be extremely grateful.
I have a 2006 mac pro 1.1 (intel cpu) that consistently stops responding after 4-5 minutes.

The mouse still moves but nothing else responds, this applies for both the hard disk and the installer disk. The diagnostic LEDs aren't indicating anything out of the ordinary and while it works, the audio and network functions correctly.

So far I have tried:

Booting off original drive
Reinstalling on original drive (snow leopard disk, clean install)
Installing on new ssd drive (purchased for this machine)
Running boot with D and Option/Alt + D held for diagnostic mode (ignores command for diagnostics but accepts f12 to eject and C to boot from disc)
Checking each pair of ram cards on their own.
Testing each ram riser/riser slot combination with ram that I know works (tested in another server)

Contacting Apple with this data, I was told that the Mac and Snow Leopard OS are too old for Apple stores to deal with and only an apple certified repair centre would take them.

If anyone has any idea what might be wrong and how I can better narrow down the cause of this, then I'm all ears and will update with whatever subsequent tests are suggested.

*For background: this machine will primaily be used for pulling cross platform libgdx code and compiling it for iOS.
I had a hackintosh VM set up for it originally but wanted to have my compiled apps be 100% T&C compliant.

Also, this has been cross posted in Super User here: superuser.com/questions/1049421/

I've been struggling with this machine each weekend for about 7 months now.*

Update:

After running Apple Hardware Test thanks to JMY1000's link and assistance, I'm now furnished with the error code: 4SNS/1/40000001:VMBS which a quick search narrows down to a sensor issue with:

The RAM/Risers (which I can reasonably discount from the above tests)
The Graphics Card (Tested with another card, same error code)
Logic Board (Looks like this is the problem unfortunately.)

Update 2:
Tested a different graphics card (same model) and the error code is the same. Looks like this is a logic board issue unfortunately.

Run Apple Hardware Test either from a bootable volume or from the install CD that came with your Mac (You're using a generic Snow Leopard disk, which doesn't have AHT on it, since AHT is machine-specific). This should narrow down whatever issue you're having. You should be able to work from there.


SSH timeout every time SSH stopped working suddenly. I am using macOS 10.13.4. I am getting timeout every time today but all was working yesterday. I have added my public key to GitHub. I get the following output upon running ssh:
$ssh -vvv -T git@github.com
OpenSSH_7.7p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2o  27 Mar 2018
debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/nurrony/.ssh/config
debug1: /Users/nurrony/.ssh/config line 30: Applying options for github.com
debug1: /Users/nurrony/.ssh/config line 47: Applying options for *
debug1: Reading configuration data /usr/local/etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug2: resolving "github.com" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.255.113] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.30.255.113 port 22: Operation timed out
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.255.112] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.30.255.112 port 22: Operation timed out
ssh: connect to host github.com port 22: Operation timed out

My ~/.ssh/config reads as follows:
Host github.com
  ControlMaster auto
  ControlPersist 120
  HostName github.com
  User git
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/nur-macbookpro
Host *
  # Always use SSH2.
  Protocol 2

  # Use a shared channel for all sessions to the same host,
  # instead of always opening a new one. This leads to much
  # quicker connection times.
  ControlMaster auto
  Controlpath /tmp/ssh-%r@%h:%p
  ControlPersist 1800

  # also this stuff
  Compression yes
  TCPKeepAlive yes
  ServerAliveInterval 20
  ServerAliveCountMax 10

I have tried every suggestion found by Web search but nothing is working. I can ssh fine when I connect my Mac with mobile hotspot.
How do I resolve this issue?

Have you tried the following:

Are your identities active? (running: ssh-add -l will tell you).
Since you're keeping your connections alive in the background for
Github (not sure why you'd want to do that) once you go idle, the
connection may lock you out.
Have you checked your firewall settings to make sure port 22 access is enabled on your end?