Apps disappearing from purchased section in App Store When you download an app, and it gets taken off the App Store, aren’t you still able to download it from the purchased section in the App Store? This usually works for most apps (Ex: I can still download Flappy Bird from my purchased section) but some apps that I got a while ago don’t appear in the purchased section anymore.

One example is when a screen recording app called Anyscreen was put on the App Store. I got it before it was taken off the App Store, and deleted it a few days later, but later I noticed that I could no longer find it in the purchased section? Is there a way to still get these apps?

You cannot re-download a purchased app from the App Store if either the developer or Apple has removed it from sale.

Once removed from the App Store, it also gets removed from your list of purchased apps.


Can I add or change the author of a PDF file in iBooks? I had several PDF files in iTunes that I had added authors to. Then I upgraded to Mavericks and launched iBooks. It moved my books and PDFs from iTunes, but many of my PDFs now show the author as "Unknown Author".

Is there a way to add an author to these files? I cannot "Get Info" on the file in iBooks like I used to be able to do in iTunes.

Note: This question was originally asked about OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Now that 10.10 Yosemite is available, there is a way to do this easily in iBooks.

To be clear, Bryan Luby's and ReF's answers are both correct. I wanted to elaborate on ReF's answer for those who may have never used Automator before. This will allow you to change the the data for items in bulk.

Changing the Author

Open Automator and in the left-most dialog box select "Finder &
Folders."
In the subtree dialog box just to the right, select "Get    Specified Finder Items" and drag this box to the top of the workflow    zone.
Inside the "Get Specified Finder Items" box select "Add..."    and choose the files you wish to modify.
In the left-most dialog    box select "PDFs"
In the subtle dialog box, select and drag "Set    PDF Metadata" into the workflow after "Get Specified Finder Items."
Inside the "Set PDF Metadata" box, check the Author and type in    the Desired name.
Click Run, the play button, in the top right    corner.
After this workflow completes you can add these files to    iBooks and the Author field will be correct.

If you have previously added them you will have to delete the ones where the Author didn't show up.

Changing the Title

Unfortunately, iBooks reads the title from the name of the file; rather than, the title contained in the metadata of the pdf itself. If you want to change this is Automator it is possible. The most comprehensive way is as follows:

As above, use the "Set PDF Metadata" option to update the
metadata title to the title of the book.
From the PDFs subtree select the "Rename PDF Documents" widget to the end of the workflow.

This method will only work one file at a time and rename the file for you while updating the metadata. This is a particularly slow way to accomplish this task. It would be faster just to edit the file name directly in finder, or, preferably, use command line arguments and regular expressions to rename the file removing the unwanted parts.


New HDD or SSD in MacBook with failed hard drive? I have a mid 2012 non-retina MacBook pro 13" and recently the hard drive failed and needs to be replaced. I sent it in to a local Apple authorized service provider and was given several options for replacement which include a 1TB HDD and a 525GB SSD. The price difference is about $150 and I was wondering if it was worth the upgrade to an SSD. Also, how difficult would it be to replace it myself if I chose to buy it separately considering I've never done anything trike this before?

Thanks,

Amanda

As far as "worth" that is very subjective. The choice given is between a fast SSD drive (but smaller) and a larger HD (but 2x the size). So, it really depends on whether you need more space, or more speed.
Factually, the SSD drive is much much faster and will make your computer seem a lot faster - startup, app opening, file opening, etc. Almost like a whole new computer.

Can you do it yourself? If you are not afraid of using some small screwdrivers, sure you can. It requires some really small jeweler screw drivers, a plastic "spudger" or small plastic tool to unlodge a connector or 2. Some of the connectors are really small, so you have to be very careful to not force them. But it's not anything normal humans can't do. Here's a link with some sbs instructions.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10378


Sshfs or its substitute in Apple products? I instructs my Apple friend to get Sshfs, i.e. to mount an outside target, to home -directory but he cannot find sshfs for Mac. Dose there exist some substitute or some Apple-compiled version for Sshfs? If it exists, how can my friend install it?

You can get sshfs with MacPorts. Just download macports and run

sudo port install sshfs

in a terminal window.


Apple Remote Desktop not working on Sierra I'm having a lot of troubles getting Apple Remote Desktop to work in Sierra.

Downloading the client (version 3.8.5) gives me the error:

Remote Desktop Client Update can't be installed on this disk. This update required Mac OS X 10.10.5 or later.

When I try to generate the installer on Sierra (a Mac Mini), I get the error:

An unexpected error occurred: the required components were not found.

The Application appears to be installed incorrectly.

I have the feeling that Apple Remote Desktop is on it's way out, but is there an alternative to use? Preferably one that doesn't have a monthly cost (per device)

Pascal a.k.a. xvi answered this question about ARD not working on OS X Sierra.
My macs with OS X Sierra have the symptom of ARD not working sometimes and other times ARD starts up just fine. Here is the fix that worked for me:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7733349

Apple Remote Desktop doesn't start after sierra update. We tried with same problems on different client (macbook pro, imac and mac pro)

The workaround I have found is this (requires to be administrator):

Launch Terminal, then type:

 sudo pkill -u -2 ARDAgent

and type your password as requested.
Then, Remote Desktop.app will launch (or, if launched and hung, its main window will appear).


Mac 10.11 (El Capitan) - Repeating system.log error: airportd[57]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22 After a clean install (wiped HD before USB install) of 10.11 (El Capitan), I noticed the following error in /var/log/system.log:

Oct 21 09:06:35 computer airportd[57]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
Oct 21 09:07:05 --- last message repeated 5 times ---

It seems to be constantly repeating. Any ideas on how to find the issue or source process?

Thanks

To answer your question, here's an introduction to what SecTaskLoadEntitlements really is/does:

An application (.app) in OS X is really a folder containing a number of files, including the actual program, resources (graphics, sounds, etc) as well as system files such as plist files.

One of these plist files contains a descriptions of the application's entitlements. An entitlement is either that the application "can do" a certain thing, or that it has permission to do a certain thing.

Examples on OS X would be for an app to have the permission to get read-only access to your Music folder, or that it is allowed to interact with Bluetooth devices, record from your microphone, etc.

Application on the OS X App Store are required to use entitlements in so that that they're required to be sandboxed, which is an entitlement in itself.

In order to make sure that entitlements cannot be changed or unrightfully gained, the entitlements are "signed". This means that the developer of the application uses a specific cryptographic key to "sign" the entitlements.

OS X checks the signature when loading in new applications, and only if it is signed correctly will it load the entitlements and apply them to the program.

Your error message means that the "airportd" program tried to load in the entitlements for an application, but it failed with error number 22. The number 22 means that an invalid argument (parameter) was given.

Airportd manages the wireless interfaces (WiFi) on your Mac.

So to sum up: The source process is "airportd", and the issue is an invalid argument given for loading entitlements.

However, this does not mean that you'll experience any user-facing errors. If you're not having any problems with the WiFi interfaces, then you can just ignore the log messages.


Ssh app on iPad runs bash script ServerAuditor is a free iPad app that allows ssh to a server. I am trying to copy my public key to a server to allow password less login. On a pc this is easy-
Generate the rsa key
open terminal and

a@A:~> cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'
b@B's password:

Enter the password and I'm good.

This app however has the following script where $1 is .ssh and $2 is authorized keys and $3 is the public key

if test ! -e $1;
then mkdir $1;
chmod 700 $1;
fi;
if test ! -e $1/$2;
then touch $1/$2;
chmod 600 $1/$2;
fi;
echo $3 >> $1/$2

I think I know what the bash script is doing but why does it change the permissions?

Because SSH credentials should never be group- or world-readable.  The fact that the server(s) you administer are incorrectly configured and do not enforce this is not a good thing.


Retrieve formatted manual page from command line I try to export  the manual page of grep to grep.txt

    $ man grep > ~/desktop/grep.txt

It displayed in garbled code:

            GREP(1)                   BSD General Commands Manual                  GREP(1)

            NNAAMMEE
                 ggrreepp, eeggrreepp, ffggrreepp, zzggrreepp, zzeeggrreepp, zzffggrreepp -- file pattern searcher

            SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
                 ggrreepp [--aabbccddDDEEFFGGHHhhIIiiJJLLllmmnnOOooppqqRRSSssUUVVvvwwxxZZ] [--AA _n_u_m] [--BB _n_u_m] [--CC[_n_u_m]]

How to get a formatted manual page from command line?

You can use the following example command to get formatted plain text output for a manual page:

man grep | col -bx > ~/Desktop/grep.txt

Produces, e.g.:

GREP(1)                   BSD General Commands Manual                  GREP(1)

NAME
     grep, egrep, fgrep, zgrep, zegrep, zfgrep -- file pattern searcher

SYNOPSIS
     grep [-abcdDEFGHhIiJLlmnOopqRSsUVvwxZ] [-A num] [-B num] [-C[num]]
          [-e pattern] [-f file] [--binary-files=value] [--color[=when]]
          [--colour[=when]] [--context[=num]] [--label] [--line-buffered]
          [--null] [pattern] [file ...]

To automate the use of e.g. man grep | col -bx > ~/Desktop/grep.txt command in Terminal, so you can just type e.g. mant grep, or other command, it can be wrapped in a bash function placed in your .bash_profile file.

I normally prefer to have my manual pages in PDF format however I've modified the manp bash function I use in my .bash_profile file to work for plain text as, mant.

For plain text manual pages:

function mant ()
{
    mpdir="$HOME/Documents/Manual Pages"
    [[ ! -d $mpdir ]] && mkdir -p "$mpdir"
    if [[ ! -z $1 ]]; then
        if [[ ! -f $mpdir/$1.txt ]]; then
            man "$1" | col -bx > "$mpdir/$1.txt"
            open -e "$mpdir/$1.txt"
        else
            open -e "$mpdir/$1.txt"
        fi
    else
        printf '  Error: Missing argument!...\n  Syntax: mant command_name\n  Example: mant man\n'
    fi
}

For PDF manual pages:

function manp ()
{
    mpdir="$HOME/Documents/Manual Pages"
    [[ ! -d $mpdir ]] && mkdir -p "$mpdir"
    if [[ ! -z $1 ]]; then
        if [[ ! -f $mpdir/$1.pdf ]]; then
            man -t "$1" | pstopdf -i -o "$mpdir/$1.pdf"
            open "$mpdir/$1.pdf"
        else
            open "$mpdir/$1.pdf"
        fi
    else
        printf '  Error: Missing argument!...\n  Syntax: manp command_name\n  Example: manp man\n'
    fi
}

To add either or both bash functions shown above to your .bash_profile file, in Terminal use the following command:

nano "$HOME/.bash_profile"

Then copy and paste the function(s) into the .bash_profile file, then save the file and exit nano pressing the following keys:

Control+X
Y
Enter

Close and reopen the Terminal app, not just the window, and you are ready to go.

For the default manual page in Terminal, e.g.:

man grep

For a plain text file manual page, e.g.:

mant grep

For a PDF file manual page, e.g.:

manp grep

With the bash functions, if a file for the given command doesn't already exist, it's created and then opened. If the file of the command already exists, it's just opened. This way you can easily access the manual page in the form you'd like while in Terminal.

If you want to place the files in a different location, then change the path portion of the following line of code as appropriate:

mpdir="$HOME/Documents/Manual Pages"

The rest of the code within is tokenized to use $mpdir for the location of the files.

As a side note, if you just want the complete manual page for a given command, in a Terminal window, which is easily fully scrollable, you can do the following...

Just type the command name by itself, then right-click on it and select: Open man Page

This is better then typing e.g. man grep and pressing enter, because it's fully scrollable and you do not need to navigate using key sequences as defined in the less command utility used as the pager by man.


Screen Blacks Out After Fans Run at Maximum I inherited an iMac and it has an issue. It boots up fine but within the first five minutes the fans start to slowly ramp up to full speed. After about five to ten minutes of the fans running at full speed the screen goes black and I lose control of the computer. I cannot see anything on the screen, not even the cursor moving. I am also not able to shut down the computer using keyboard shortcuts. I have to hold down the power button.

The computer actually is still working to some degree after the screen goes blank because I have had a video playing from a USB stick and I could still hear the audio after the screen blacked out. I once had a Youtube video playing via the WiFi and when the screen went black the sound stopped.

I took the computer apart thinking that maybe it was full of dust. There was very little dust and blowing it out did not make a difference.

I have done a SMC reset and and a NVRAM reset and neither made a difference.

I installed a temperature monitor and the following is the output in degrees F a little before the computer goes to a black screen:

AC/DC Supply: 96
Airport Card: 133
Ambient Air: 75
CPU Heatsink: 88
GPU Die: 262         <------I think that this is as high as the sensor reads.
GPU Heatsink: 262
GPU Proximity: 241
Hard Drive Body: 100
LCD Proximity 91
Misc: 100
Optical Drive: 99

When the computer is running properly all four diagnostic LEDs on the logic board are lit. When the display goes black LED number 4 turns off leaving the other 3 on. Based on the Mac diagnostic instructions, if the fourth LED is off the issue is with the LCD panel or there is no video signal being generated.

I suspect that the video card is not working properly due to the high temperatures. It looks like the heat from the die is making it to the heatsink so I think that the thermal paste on the GPU is okay.

The computer is an iMac model EMC2134
OS X 10.8.5
24" Core 2 Duo with ATI Radeon HD2600 256 MB video card

I also ran EtreCheck and it said that the self test passed. I can post the results if needed.

I would like to repair the computer even though it is old. I however do not want to bring it in to a repair shop. What do you think is the issue and what leads you to that conclusion?

Thank you,
jbr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXso8KFG78M

see post from tommyjames 337 half way down the page

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/126496/Graphic+card+overheating,+CPU+fan+in+full+speed,+then+black+screen

"Okay you guys! After months and months of trying, I have found the true solution to the overheating graphics card. I was right with my initial hypothesis. It was indeed the heat sink.

I was mislead for months because the heat sink I purchased initially to test my theory was also malfunctioning in the exact same way. But after isolating literally EVERY part in the iMac, buying a new logic board, and purchasing 5 new graphics cards (without heat sinks) to no avail, I finally decided it must actually be the heat sink, and it absolutely is."


Should I put macbook pro to sleep or it goes alone? Before I go sleep, I use to put macbook pro to sleep. I mean, press apple menu, and then Sleep option in the menu.

But I noticed that if I stop to interact with the mac for a moment it gets dark. Is it going to sleep?

Yes, this is the Mac doing what your preferences state in your Energy Preferences.

Usually on battery macs will powernap within 5 minutes, put hard disks to sleep, app nap, and check for updates for certain things, but you can change these preferences in the Energy Preferences to determine what to do on battery and charging.


Do i need to worry about a battery that appears to charge correctly but has a "Service Battery" warning? I have an early 2008 macbook that was running well until a week ago.  I noticed the battery was not charging anymore.  So I bought another battery for $20 on amazon.  I installed the new battery and turned on the laptop.  It was 69% charged on startup - so I waited until it fell to 0% and turned off on its own.  Then I plugged in the adapter to charge it, and although it is charging, I still see a sign that says "Service Battery".

Do I really need to worry about this "Service Battery" message even though it appears to be charging?

"Do I really need to worry about this" is hard to answer.

If you need to be able to use the MacBook for long periods of time when not plugged in, then yes, you probably do, because the battery that you have is probably not reliable.
If you mostly only use the MacBook when plugged into A/C power, then no, you probably don't need to worry about it at all. It will most likely work just fine for that purpose.

Do keep an eye out to make sure that the battery doesn't start to bulge or anything like that. If it does, immediately remove it from the MacBook.

As an aside: MacBook batteries generally cost somewhere between $80-130, so I would be highly skeptical of the quality of whatever battery you bought for $20 off Amazon. Where by "highly skeptical" I mean "I would not leave it plugged in and unattended when I was not at home." Which is probably me being overly protective, but as the saying goes, "Better safe than accidentally burning down the apartment complex and/or neighborhood."


Why won't my MacBook Pro connect to Wi-Fi networks that use a sign-in page (captive portal)? Some wi-fi networks require viewing and agreeing to terms before Internet access is allowed.  When my MBP connects to such a network, it attempts to redirect and isn't able to connect. I tried all browsers. However, it works when I boot up Windows on my Mac. Why does it do this? I don't think my /etc/hosts file is messed up. Could anyone give me some insight?

I am using Lion 10.7.2.

I had this problem connecting to the local public library system network. The problem seems to be a result of my having specified DNS servers ((i.e. OpenDNS, Google, etc.)) in my Network preferences. The solution was to create a network location called "No DNS" which doesn't have any DNS servers defined and use that network location when I need to log into these networks.


Pages Equation Editor - Inserting Equations - Blank Spaces? I am trying to place Mathematical equations in Pages and it appears it doesn't have this feature (why not apple? glare), however looking online I was advised to use Equation Editor which I seem to have installed.

Online people are reporting this works fine, but in my document when I copy and paste across I just end up with blank spaces. Does anyone know why?

Thanks for your time,

MBP - 10.6.7
Pages - '09 4.04

Well, I'm not sure if Equation Editor would work with Pages since it is a Microsoft product and comes with the Office. I might be mistaken but this would seems to be a case of apples and bananas.

On the other hand if you have LaTeX installed in your system and are familiar with it then you might try to use a small and free utility called LaTexit. You can check this explanation to get you started on using equations in Pages.

An Addition:
An alternative way to insert equations into Pages would be to use Grapher utility which is included in the standard OSX install. Check in your Applications > Utilities to find it. Not only this utility allows you to produce graphs but it also allows you to copy the equation in variety forms (PDF,TIFF, ... LaTeX equation) into your document. The program has quite good "Equation Palette" where you could in principle create your equations to be pasted somewhere else.


Safari 7.0.4 doesn't remember my login status. "Remember me" not working (OS X 10.9.3) The problem is that I must press "log in"/"sign in" button on most web-services again and again per day. All login/passwords are stored successfuly but the feature which is often called "remember me" doesn't works. What could be the reason for this bug?
In before: the cookies are enabled.

UPD> I must say that I have an iPhone and an iPad with enabled keychain sharing via iCloud but the problem I have on the mac never happens on my devices. Maybe it will helps.

I can't believe I've finally fixed the bug.

Follow these steps:

go to Disk utility
select your disk on the left list
press "Repair Disk Permissions" on the right view

here is the screenshot
http://monosnap.com/image/5aVsTd4te6SD6Tp1UuxjyIi3ov1xHs.png

Hope this helps somebody!


How can I delete a file marked as backup item? I'm trying to delete a file, but I get a message from Trash saying: "The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified."

What does that mean and how can I delete it?

The root of the cause

Time Machine backups are protected at kernel level -- on a verbose boot it's possible to spot in the first screenful of text a TMSafetyNet.kext extension being loaded.

  This ensures the integrity of your backups. Access control provisions
  are applied via a kernel extension located at
  /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext

Deleting in Time Machine

The officially sanctioned method for deleting items from a specific backup or all of them is to locate the item in the "in space" Time Machine view and selecting the appropriate delete option from the contextual menu or the Action button in the toolbar.

The ability to move backups to the Trash added in Lion is not only comparatively more buggy, but designed to operate on entire snapshots, i.e. the folders named with the time the backup was created which in turn contain a directory for each included volume.

Deleting from commandline (more flexible, more control)

  There exists a a helper program (commandline binary) at...

/System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/MacOS/bypass

  ...which allows you to supply a command and argument to completely
  bypass the access restrictions.

In Lion you run:

sudo /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/MacOS/bypass rm -rfv /Volumes/[disk]/Backups.backupdb/[path]

In Mountain Lion bypass moved to the Helpers directory:

sudo /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Helpers/bypass rm -rfv /Volumes/[disk]/Backups.backupdb/[path]

In OS X 10.10.5 (from a comment by David Anderson), this is now at:

sudo /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/Helpers/bypass rm -rfv /Volumes/[disk]/Backups.backupdb/[path]

Credits:

[1] - Michael Rushanan on TMSafetyNet bypass
 [2] - A brief explanation of the Time Machine Safety Net by Joel Cowgill
 [3] - Similar question on SuperUser


iOS Reboot when open .exe file in iDownloader I recently opened my PC Graphic Driver file (.exe) using iDownloader to download that file.

When I tap the "agreed and Download" button on Nvidia's website to download, my iPad Air is automatically reboot.

Now I am afraid this kind of reboots may dammage my iPad Air .

Can reboot like these cause iPad Air CPU, memory or something damages ?

When you say that it automatically rebooted, are you referring to an actual reboot or simply the app crashing back to the home screen?

The latter shouldn't cause any problem to your device, however if data was being written in the app, that data could be corrupt. If the device performed a full reboot, and data was being written by the OS, that data could become corrupt, however it is extremely unlikely that this will cause any problems.

iOS, like OS X, can stand being terminated mostly, with circumstances to prevent corrupt files from breaking things. If something has been 'broken' by the termination of the OS, simply restore the device using iTunes. If something has been 'broken by the termination of the app, delete and re-download the app, removing any data from iCloud Documents & Data if necessary.


How do I use GCC on El Capitan? I installed gcc via homebrew with no errors.

brew install homebrew/versions/gcc49
brew unlink gcc49 && brew link gcc49

But when I try to run gcc, clang is used instead.

~$:gcc --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 7.0.0 (clang-700.1.76)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin15.0.0
Thread model: posix

Edit:

~$:type gcc
gcc is /usr/bin/gcc
~$:type /usr/bin/gcc
/usr/bin/gcc is /usr/bin/gcc
~$:echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin

Instead of invoking using gcc you need to call gcc-4.9. Alternately you could create an alias for gcc to point to gcc-4.9(although that is risky).


MacBook Air unable to write to external Harddisk I have a MacBook Air with mac OS Version 10.13.4 and I am not able to write to external disks formatted in format "Windows NT File System (NTFS)".

It is definitely not an issue with the drive as I am able to write to the drive on Windows and Linux systems following these guidelines:

Plug the drive into a free USB slot.

What are the corresponding instructions for a Mac? I am able to read from the external drive, but not to write. What are the precise, clear and direct instructions to be able to write to an external disk? (Disk, not sick)...

MacOS does not natively write to NTFS. Although it has write drivers installed, which can be activated via the command line following this set of instructions, this is complicated. Most users install a third-party driver such as OSX Fuse or Tuxera to write to NTFS. The only file systems that natively support read and write on MacOS, Windows, and Linux are ExFAT and FAT32.


How do I backup and external hard drive (iPhoto Library) to another external hard drive? My iPhoto Library is on an external hard drive.  I want to copy it to another hard drive as a back up.  It looks like Time Machine only backups the internal hard drive and selected externals.  I don't want to back up my internal.  I only want to backup my external.  What do i do?  What programs will do this?  If Time Machine does do this, please explain how.  I don't see that option.

Well first I would ask you: why in the world would you not want to back up your internal drive?

Second, you could easily set up Time Machine, but simply add the internal drive to the exclusions.


Could my spotlight search index have really been 2.5 GB on a 256 GB drive? I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012) with El Capitan 10.11.6 and a 256 GB SSHD. I was having fan/CPU usage issues with mds and using the lines in this answer turned it off and deleted the index.

sudo mdutil -a -i off

sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100/*

It's quiet now, and cool as a cucumber. But I was surprised to see 2.5 GB of hard drive space freed up at the moment I deleted the index.

My 256 GB drive is fairly full, so that's about 1%. Does that sound right? About 1% of the size of my stuff is used for indexing? Just curious.

I have quite a mix of file types, years of photos, lots of text and pdf's for research, youtube downloads, python's numpy and other text and non-text data files... does it all somehow get indexed?

Is there some magic way to stop it from opening file types I'm not interested in indexing?

This is the "before" situation. All is quiet now that indexing is turned off.

All that you write sounds perfectly normal to me.

    does it all somehow get indexed?

Yes it does.

    Is there some magic way to stop it from opening file types I'm not interested in indexing?

Well, not directly. But you can exclude folders, by either adding .noindex to the folder name, or by going into System Preferences → Spotlight → Privacy. You may want to move all the files you don’t want indexed into such a location.

Also see How can I make spotlight ignore certain file types and directories? As far as I know there’s no way to tell Spotlight NOT to index certain file types.


Deleting a file from inside Lion’s Preview.app In Snow Leopard it was possible to delete (i.e. move to Trash) a file directly from inside Preview.app using the cmd + backspace combination. (The same combination which is used in Finder.)
This was especially useful for files which had been downloaded to ~/Downloads and were opened automatically. One could have a quick look and then immediately delete them afterwards.

The combination also worked for TextEdit as well as some other programs. Now with Lion this does not seem to work anymore. Is there a fix or a new combination for it?

At present there is not a solution for this. It seems that this feature was removed from Lion. The reason for this we will never be sure.

For now you will need to manually delete using the mouse and trash can.


Mac OS X Lion installation stuck on "Loading Installation Information" The issue:

Original Mac Book Air, model A1237
Has probably not been used or charged in a long time
Has probably ran 10.7 Lion

Doing the following:

Use Command+R to enter recovery mode
Use Disk Utility to erase hard drive
Connect to wifi network
Select Reinstall Mac OS X
Hit Continue twice

It now shows "Loading Installation Information", for a long time, possibly forever.

The clock may have been reset. Setting the clock may resolve this problem.

Enter recovery mode.
Select Utilites in the menu bar.
Open the Terminal.
Type: date {month}{day}{hour}{minute}{year}, e.g. date 0804221520 for August 4 2020, 22:15.
Try running the installation again. It should now proceed in less than a minute.

If this does not help, showing the "Istaller logs" may provide hints why it takes too long.


Finding video drivers for macOS I'm curious as to a problem I have. So, I bought a 2009 Mac Pro recently (with only coins, it was pretty epic) and did a little trickery to get macOS Mojave onto it. However, the video card preinstalled is the original and pretty weak video card. I was hoping to put at least something better into it, but every card I try, it doesn't display anything. I've been informed that (unlike Linux, it seems) I need to get drivers -- macOS is not plug-and-play with video cards. However, I can't seem to find driver downloads (macOS versions) for any of the various cards I've tried -- if I find anything, it's Windows only). I was wondering if Apple has a different way to install video drivers, or perhaps there's a website somewhere where video driver packages run free through the tall grass.

I've tried several cards, including the NVS 300 (which I was just trying to see if it was at least a bit better), as well as a red FoxConn card (which I can't even find Windows drivers for).

Any insight would be appreciated.

You cannot just use any graphics card with a Mac, unfortunately. You will need to have both driver support as well as a specific Mac firmware on the graphics card itself.

It is possible to buy non-Mac graphics cards and flash the needed firmware onto the card. It only works with specific models though. Apart from that you'll need to buy the "Mac-version" of the graphics card to get the right firmware. The selection is very limited compared to what you're used to on Linux.

In regards to drivers - if you choose an AMD-based graphics card, the driver is almost always included with macOS. If you choose an Nvidia-based graphics card, you can download the driver from their web page.

You can also find a good driver listing for Nvidia cards here:

http://www.macvidcards.com/drivers.html

The same web site also offer Mac graphics card for sale, as well as listing which ones are compatible with each model of Mac Pro.

The official Apple list of supported graphics card for your Mac Pro is available here:

https://support.apple.com/hr-hr/HT201805

Note that there are options out there that aren't officially recognized by Apple, but work well anyways.


Using airprint for SMB printer I am trying to print using a HP LaserJet Enterprise M609 connected with spoolss (i.e. smb).  I can connect and authenticate with other printers that way, and they all print using the 'generic postscript driver', but this printer does not work with this driver, for reasons unknown.  Apple lists it as one of the printers that would be able to use AirPrint, but this is not an option I can select.  Any idea how to tell the printer to use AirPrint?

The steps I need to follow are the same as these, and work for other printers.

If you are a student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, you'll have to log in using your credentials so they can log your prints/charge you for your prints, which is currently incompatible with AirPrint. AirPrint can be disabled by your system administrator on a printer-by-printer basis.

You may have better luck directly contacting your school's help desk.


How to downgrade iOS from 9.3.1 to 7.1 (default version)? I wanna check how my application works for iOS 7.1.
I have got an iPad mini 2. I know it has iOS factory 7.1 . But now it has 9.3.2 (the lates).
Is it possible to reset iPad until the default iOS? How to do it?

You can't install older versions of iOS (see Can I install any iOS version I wish by picking and choosing which firmware to restore? for details), but you can run the simulator in Xcode with older versions.

From within an iPad project, go to Product -- Destination -- Download Simulators...
Pick the version you want

It doesn't go further back than iOS 8.1 though.


iOS 11 split screen doesn’t work on iPad mini? I’m running iOS 11 on an old iPad mini. When I open slide over, it works fine. But when I try dragging down or up on the tab, split screen doesn’t work.

Am I doing it wrong? Or is it just not compatible with iPad minis? I think it would be a useful feature and I’m bummed that it’s not working.

Slide over:

When I drag down:

When I drag up:

EDIT: it is model A1474 on iOS 11.1.

A1474 is a first-generation iPad Air, not an iPad mini.

The first generation iPads do not support Split View.

  You can use Split View with iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation), iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 4.

Use two apps at the same time with Split View - Use Multitasking on your iPad

Slide Over is supported on the first generation iPad Air, but not first generation iPad mini, once again reinforcing that you have an iPad Air and not an iPad mini.

  You can use Slide Over with iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation), iPad Air and later, or iPad mini 2 and later.

Open a second app with Slide Over - Use Multitasking on your iPad


Video not playing in Firefox on Mac When I open this link Erlang which has a video, the video won't play. I am a beginner to Mac and recently reinstalled my macOS. I dont know why this video won't play on my Mac, but the same video plays in Firefox on another Linux based machine.

How do I solve this problem?

That is a flash video. You need to install flash for firefox.  https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/


Deleting Photos from iPhone and iPad Please excuse my language as I am not technically minded.

I have a new iPhone 4s with Version: 9.3.1(13E238)as well as a new Mac and iPad.  When I hit on photos icon the heading is "Moments" therefore I am not sure if this is a camera roll or what.
I wish to delete all photos on my iPhone and iPad to free up space but have them remain on my iMac.  I connected the phone to the Mac to upload my latest photos/videos.  However when I hit the bin icon I receive the msg: This photo will be deleted from iCloud Photo Library on all your devices.

Other possible relevant info: I have iCloud Drive 'On' on my phone and iCloud Photo Library 'On' on phone.  On my iMac I am signed in to iCloud Drive on my iMac which is running OS X El Capitan V10.11.4.

You can achieve this in two ways:

Deactivating the "iCloud Photo Library", which links the photo libraries in every iOS / OS X device you own and have configured under the same Apple ID and automatically syncs every picture taken, added or removed to all the devices on the system. With the setting inactive, you can work in the "classic" way, by downloading the images of each device to your main library and then emptying your iOS devices. You won't get the alert because the libraries will no longer be synced.
Keeping the iCloud Photo Library on and activating the "Optimize [device] storage" setting under Settings > iCloud > iCloud Photo Library which will keep a full resolution copy of your image on iCloud and on the devices that don't have this setting on –your Mac, probably– and leave a lower resolution copy on your phone or any device with the setting activated. A higher resolution copy will be downloaded on demand if you open the picture later on.

Check the explanation Apple gives on the matter here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

It's important to note that this will change the experience when browsing pictures on the Photo app a little bit, as each time you look at a picture in full screen it will begin downloading a bigger copy which will have a little delay; expect an increased use of your bandwidth and depending on your settings, of your data plan. Also, depending on the size of your Photo Library, you may fill the 5GB free plan and be asked to pay a monthly fee for an increase in your iCloud capacity.


Does PhotoStream sync to my Mac when iPhoto is not open? The only application I have on my Mac that works with PhotoStream is iPhoto. I'm wondering if my Mac grabs the images from PhotoStream constantly or if it only downloads them when I launch an application that uses PhotoStream (such as iPhoto).

Yes! A process called PhotoStreamAgent runs at login, and idles in the background, downloading new photos when they're uploaded to your Photo Stream.

There exist both /Applications/Aperture.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/PhotoStreamAgent.app and /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/PhotoStreamAgent.app, indicating that this background-downloading behavior works no matter which application you use to manage your photo library.

(And as Asmus points out, photos are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets)


My Macbook Air 2010 11in overheats when I close the lid and run an external monitor I often run my Macbook Air 2010 11 inch with an external monitor and keyboard, and I close the lid so that I'm using only the external monitor. But then the fan starts running on high in a few seconds, as if the laptop is not getting enough ventilation. Is this normal?

I would think that the Air would be designed in a way to allow it to be ventilated adequately in this kind of use case.

Just because the fan starts running faster does not mean that the machine is overheated.

If you really want to, you can open the Air's lid after the external monitor is connected. The Air's screen will stay off but the machine should stay cooler and not have to run the fans at a high speed.

Apple even has a knowledge base article for "clamshell mode".


What is the max number of hard links in OS X (10.11)? I have a file that I keep linking to.  It's up to 45 links now. Does anyone know how I can find out what the maximum number of hard links is in OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)?

It seems the theoretical limit is about 1 billion hard links on an HFS+ volume.

  Indirect node files have a special identifying number called a link reference. The link reference is unique among indirect node files on a given volume. The link reference is not related to catalog node IDs. When a new indirect node file is created, it is assigned a new link reference randomly chosen from the range 100 to 1073741923.

The limit for links to a single file is 4294967295, the maximum number of a UInt32, which is about four times larger than the volume limit, which you'll exhaust first.

  linkCount
    For indirect node files, this field contains the number of hard links that point at this indirect node file.

As a practical matter, this design is quite strange, and suffers from performance issues. The more hard links you have on a volume, the slower it will be to create a new one, as the system must first find an unused link reference number, then insert it into the metadata directory. Then that metadata directory must be searched to dereference a hard link.

You may begin seeing performance problems with only a few thousand links; your great-grandchildren won't live long enough to create a billion if you start today. In practice you'll notice this most often when managing Time Machine backups, which use hard links extensively.


How can I switch Dock configurations when an external display is connected? I have a MacBook Pro that I use in two different 'modes', mobile and desktop.

Mobile is for when I'm using just the MBP with the integrated trackpad, keyboard, and display.
Desktop is for when I'm using it with external displays and an external keyboard and mouse, usually in clamshell mode.

A couple of facts have led me to look for a way to configure a different Dock to appear in each mode:

The resolution of the external displays is higher than that of the internal display, so I have more room for extra apps/folders/spacers in the Dock.
I generally use a different set of main apps in each mode.

So, is there a way to configure two different Docks in OS X and switch between them either automatically based on the presence of an external display or manually?

DockSpaces is nice and convenient, but annoyingly unscriptable. So, I wrote two little shell scripts, one to change to my desktop Dock and one to change to my mobile Dock.

The desktop script is triggered on arrival in my Home context in ControlPlane, and the mobile script is triggered by departure from it.
The desktop context is defined based on the presence of my external displays:

Here's how the scripts work:

I save a copy of both Docks in my Documents folder (the Dock configuration is stored in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist).

When I switch from one to the other, I replace the appropriate file in my Documents folder with the current file in my Preferences so that changes I've made to the Dock are saved. Then I copy the alternate Dock from my Documents to my Preferences. Finally, the Dock process is restarted so that the changes take effect.

The Scripts:

To Desktop:

#!/bin/bash

cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Documents/Docks/mobile.plist
cp ~/Documents/Docks/desktop.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
killall Dock

To Mobile:

#!/bin/bash

cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Documents/Docks/desktop.plist
cp ~/Documents/Docks/mobile.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
killall Dock


Upgrading my 3GS to iOS 5.1.1, I lost all my apps After backing up my iPhone 3GS and then updating to the new iOS 5.1.1, I lost all my apps and saved notes/data. How can I get all the apps back?

When I first updated to iOS5 I lost all of my apps too.  Interestingly, it had the spinning sync icon at the top of the phone for a few hours after as it manually downloaded all of the apps.  They suddenly appeared one after another.  Perhaps it's doing this.

Try downloading an app that you had and see if it still has the settings/saves it had.  If so, I'd expect this is the case.


How can I exclude the display of specific pictures and videos in the Finder? I have some pictures and videos on my Mac (OS X Lion, OS X Snow Leopard) I'd rather have NOT show in Finder>Images. For example, if I'm in a meeting with clients and want to show some document, I have to fire up Finder and open said document, and when I click towards that, those pictures/movies show up and embarrass me. Think hmmm, strategic company workflows ahemf.
Is it possible to tell Finder to NEVER show these?

I am unsure if you are asking how to exclude folders from showing up in your finder spotlight search, or if what you are after is to hide specific folders from being shown in a finder window.

If you are after excluding folders from a spotlight search, you can do this in the privacy tab from system preferences / spotlight :

If you are after having the ability to show or hide files and folders from being viewed while you are in a finder window, then you can create an automator service to do just that :

hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100719001040829

NOTE : the tip above only toggles all files that have the hidden flag set, so if you need to quickly mark a folder or a file as "hidden", then you need to set this bit attribute for that file or folder.

An easy way to do this is via a free utility software download that does just this here (used to be shareware, but now free ) : gotoes.org/ShowHiddenFilesMacOSX/

NOTE 2 :

If you are happy using the terminal command line, you can just type the following on the terminal :

chflags hidden (drag your file or folder onto the terminal window here)

or

chflags nohidden (drag your file or folder here)

Hope this helps.


iMessages app is missing after update of OSX to Mountain Lion I have updated my Mac Mini to Mountain Lion.

I had iMessages beta installed on OSX Lion but after upgrading it's disappeared and now I don't have any iMessages.

I checked various sources for it with no luck. I also tried to reinstall the beta, but wasn't able to do that, either.

The chat tool which supports iMessage in Mountain Lion is called Messages.  Try searching for "Messages" in Spotlight, and loading the application.


Finder does not show content of some folders I'm running Lion on Macbook2,1 and after I've upgraded from Leopard, I've noticed that some folders including Pictures are shown empty in Finder. Size of folder says otherwise and in Terminal I can see all my files and folders.

Any Idea what's going on?

Terminal:

Iffat:Pictures mac$ cd Photo\ Booth\ Archive/
Iffat:Photo Booth Archive mac$ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   94 mac  staff  3196 Nov 22 15:26 Archive up to 91.08.13
drwxr-xr-x    3 mac  staff   102 Nov 22 15:26 Family
drwxr-xr-x   31 mac  staff  1054 Nov  2  2011 First Soheil Setup
drwxr-xr-x   11 mac  staff   374 Nov  2  2011 Mita
drwxr-xr-x    3 mac  staff   102 Nov 22 15:26 Tidy

In Finder's Get Info, there isn't much to tell, everything is normal, except for Kind: Folder which is missing.

Size: 338683879 bytes (339.3 MB on disk) for 278 items

Can't say I've ever seen that sort of behaviour before, I'm not really sure what might have caused it, but I've got two things to test.

First off, it's possible that the folders got hidden for some reason. Try running

chflags -R nohidden ~/Pictures/Photo\ Booth\ Archive/*

If that doesn't work, see if you can access the folders directly in the Finder by focusing the Finder, pressing ⌘ cmd + ⇧ shift + G and entering the full path of one of the folders into the "Go to the folder:" dialog. If Finder can get there, then there's likely some setting hiding them from view; if not, then there's some reason Finder can't properly access the actual directories on disk.


Map Fn + Esc key to Esc key I am using a PC keybroad on a Mac, the funniest thing is on this KB, to use the Esc key, I need to press Fn + Esc

So, are there any tool I can remap the keys such that I can use the Esc without the Fn key?

Fn is a function of the keyboard that modifies the key-codes being sent by the keyboard itself. Fn itself does not transmit any key-codes to the computer.

One option would be to try mapping the actual key (that is turned into Esc when Fn is pressed) to be the Esc key. I don't know of anything built into OS X that will do this across the board, however, you could try something like https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/

To be honest, good keyboards are so cheap these days you should probably just buy yourself a nice new keyboard that has a layout which suites your needs better.


Recover Notes from El Capitan in High Sierra My El Capitan machine unexpectedly died, and I salvaged the disk drive from it to put into an external enclosure attached to my new Mac, which runs High Sierra.  (I never used Sierra at all, since my old Mac couldn't support it.)

Now, how do I get the Notes from my El Capitan system into the High Sierra notes system?

(As I said, even though the old Mac threw-a-piston, I still have its drive, and therefore, all that notes-data.  But how do I get to it?)

Move old Notes (from your external drive) to iCloud

Drag and Drop

Allow it to sync (wait 5-10 minutes)

You should now see a duplicate Notes folders names (on your Mac (but not with exactly same content)

Those are the 2 Notes databases on iCloud

Now Select all Notes you want to keep and drag them over to new notes


Need to know how to set up WiFi for FireHD 7 on hardwired iMAC desktop Got a Fire HD 7 for christmas present. My iMac desktop & printer is wired via ethernet into a Motorola SURFboard eXtreme Wireless Cable Modem & Gigabit Router (3 products in 1 device) My question is HOW do I set up Aiport(WiFi) on  my "stuff" so I can use the Kindle in other places in my apartment using wireless????and still be hardwired for desktop & printer??

If you have working internet over ethernet into your iMac then all you need to do is to switch on Internet Sharing from the System Settings app and presumably your Fire HD will be able to connect to that (I don't have a Fire HD so cannot explain that end of it).

Check out http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13855


How can I stop iOS updates from downloading automatically via Wi-Fi, on my iPhone 6s with iOS 9.0.2? This may be more of a question on what Ask Different community thinks of me than a technical question on iOS 9 updates.

Thanks to Alex Malcoci here, now I know how to stop the reminder about iOS update installation from popping up every day on my iPhone 6s with iOS 9.0.2. Also thanks to bmike on the same post, now I know that Apple doesn't provide users an option to turn off automatic download of iOS updates on devices with iOS upper than 9.x.x. I also learned from another post on Ask Different that I can, despite bmike's advice above, turn off automatic download of updates via mobile data.

So, the only problem left for me is the automatic download of iOS updates, which contain features and fixes that are most of times totally unnecessary and irrelevant for me, via Wi-Fi connection. As a sensible way to cut down my mobile data use, I leave my iPhone 6s connected to Wi-Fi at my house and disconnected from mobile data, whenever I'm home. I don't have problem with the storage space on my iPhone even if updates are downloaded automatically via Wi-Fi, since I still have about 20GB left empty on my device.

But still, I want to stop automatic download of iOS updates via Wi-Fi connection, and be able to choose which update to download and install. This is absolutely a matter of like or dislike, and not something that's causing difficulty or annoyance on use of my phone. So far.

Am I a social outcast who wishes to take control of what's downloaded to my device by resisting Apple's forced download policy, and who also deserves to stop living with Apple devices, if I dislike so much the automatic download? Which is more crazy, me disliking or Apple forcing?

Apple isn't 'forcing' downloads on you, but instead is making it convenient and easy to stay up to date on Apple software. That may sound like a spin on the point of view, but Apple doesn't want you on the latest release so they can crow to the press about update percentages.

They do this for at least two reasons: 1) it reduces their support costs, as customers migrate off older code, and 2) it provides critical security updates and bug fixes that may put your device and data at risk.

Apple does drop support for older OS (if you have an original iPad, you know it is 'stuck' on iOS 5).

Automatic download of the updates does not mean that you are forced to take the update, it just means the update package has been downloaded to your device. Installation is still something you must approve, and kickoff. The phone will not update the OS without your input.

You won't suffer from new features or anything in the new updates until you apply them, so other than using some storage space, there is no downside to having it downloaded in the background.

Something to consider: Apple includes many security updates within its OS updates, most of which are (sadly) not well documented in the update notice. skipping these updates may put your device, and data, at risk.


mail - pop account crashes mail when it checks I'm using osx mail with a pop account (need for my workflow).

Issue:

when mail opens and checks the a specific pop account mail crashes.  It's only this specific account. Other pop accounts work.

Troubleshooting: that didn't work

I have deleted and re-added the account. Which resolved the issue but after a few months the issue occurred again then i have to redownload all my messages again and sort through them to get back to where I was which is time consuming.
~/Library/Mail/V6/MailData removed "Envelope Index" to allow the reimport to occur again. issue still occurs
Talked to the mail provider and everything checks out fine with the account
have thunderbird configured but this issue doesn't occur on thunderbird (suspect osx mail client)

Question

It seems like

Ok the issue was that I sent an email using the pop account to itself and for some reason osx mail couldn't handle it and would keep crashing trying to download that email.   So I used my iPhone to access the mail through IMAP looked at the other emails from the last email that I received on my computer and process of elimination deleted those subsequent emails until i found the offending email.


bindfs, osfuse, sshfs & macOS Sierra I use bindfs with osxfuse and sshfs to mount specific folders (chroot) to allow sftp access for external users (macOS Sierra 10.12).

Binding a readOnly folder for the user "sftpusr" is done with

bindfs -r -u sftpusr /volume/folder /chroot/folder

The folder is correctly bound, I can login using sftp and listing the folder once only - then folders and files disappear, I need to mount and bind again.

There is no difference in using either homebrew to install osfuse, sshfs, bindfs or making my "own" binaries.

I had this feature running for years (Mavericks, Yosemite). Is this an incompatibility with macOS Sierra?

I had no luck getting bindfs and osfuse up and running with macOS Sierra. So I configured a virtual machine instead on top of CentOS 7, with everything running now.

https://bernhard.hensler.net/sftp-yosemite-server/


Why can I not type certain upper case accented letters using the option key with Turkish input? My macOS is configured with Turkish Q - Legacy input source.  To get accented letters, typically one would type Option + <key> to get the accented version of it, e.g., Option + C to type ç or Option + Shift + C to get Ç.
However, this Option + Shift combination for upper case letters DOES NOT work for some letters, even though the lower case version works just fine.  Also, I can press and hold Shift + <key> to get the accented letter mini menu to appear on top of the typed letter.  This, thought, is a major typing speed impediment.
What can I do to be able to type all the upper case accented Turkish letters on my keyboard?
Examples where upper case accented letters CAN be typed with Option + Shift:
Ç
Ğ
Ö
Ü
Examples where upper case accented letters CANNOT be typed with Option + Shift; no output is produced in the app/document:
İ
Ş
Examples where even Press+Hold+<key> does not bring up mini menu above letter:
İ
Now all of the above works for the lower case version of the same letters, i.e., hold Option and type s to get ş.

Thanks to tips from @TomGewecke, I was able to find the app/shortcut key combo that took over the letters I was trying to type.
Amethyst (a great window management tool) uses Option + Shift + I to "Display current layout" and Option + Shift + S to "Select Wide layout".

I don't have any use for those functions, so I removed the corresponding shortcuts.
For future reference, I am wondering if there is a way to ask macOS for "the list of currently assigned shortcut keys and what app has defined them".


US marketed iPad Pro warranty in India If I buy an iPad Pro in the US does it have a 1 year Apple warranty in India?

Apple products have International warranties but only in the countries where it has, it's own Stores. In India, there are no Apple-owned stores yet. They are Resellers authorized by Apple but they won't service your device because you won't possibly be taking it to Apple-owned stores. I hope this suffices your query.

https://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/ipad-english-a.html


Password reset issue using terminal method No user accounts are displayed in the window that pops up after I enter the 'resetpassword' command into the terminal.

Is there another way to reset my admin password or fix this issue?

A wire connecting the hard drive was loose.


What are some good data recovery programs to try on an SD card? My friend imported a bunch of videos from his GoPro into iPhoto and foolishly let iPhoto delete upon successful import. He claims that iPhoto then quit unexpectedly and all of the videos are gone.

My guess is the files are still in the library but not in the index. I will have a look later today when I go to help him out. However, in case the files are really gone I'll try to recover them from the SD card.

Any suggestions for doing that?

I successfully used TestDisk to get photos back from an SD card.


No audio going into GarageBand I just got a Blue Snowball iCE, plugged it in and my Mac recognized it fine. In System Preferences > Sound > Input, Blue Snowball shows up and is selected and I see the input level meter moving in response to sound. There are no other mics plugged in.

In Garage Band > Preferences > Audio/MIDI > Input Device set to Blue Snowball and then record and no sound is recorded and the level meter doesn't show any audio input. When I switch to Built In as the source I also get nothing.

I tried plugging the mic into each of the two USB ports with no change.

I also opened the Audio MIDI Setup App and tried turning the volume for the Blue Snowball all the way down and back up which I saw as a recommendation somewhere.

I downloaded Audacity (2.3.0) and it is able to record fine from either the Snowball or the internal mic.

GarageBand 10.3.1

macOS 10.14.1

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

The Blue mic works fine on a MBP 13" Late 2013 running the same version of macOS and GarageBand.

Some solutions found here:

Have you set the mic as the input in GarageBand? (make sure the mic is
plugged in, open GarageBand, click on the GarageBand menu, Chose
Preferences, Click on the Audio/MIDI from the preferences window tool
bar. There will be a pulldown menu called "Audio Input," click on that
menu, and select the Blue Yeti. )
If your still not getting any audio in from the Yeti, have you tried
setting the Yeti as the audio in in system preferences? if so, do you
get any activity Level Input bar while it's selected? if not, is input
volume set to 100%? (far right end of slide)
Have you tried resetting the cable on the mic side?

If none of this works you might have to send it back as deffective.


Mavericks makes files synced to SMB share hidden I have a script running by a LaunchAgent to sync a directory with a remote share.

This script is fairly simple, I'll include it here just so nobody suspects the script.

#!/bin/bash
# Hjälpskript för att ta backup.
# Endast för Mac OS, kommandon som stat, date och nc har annat syntax
# på Linux.
# Av Stefan Midjich

# REDIGERA DEN HÄR SÖKVÄGEN
backupTarget='/Volumes/myuser'

# REDIGERA ENDAST HÄR UNDER OM DU VET VAD DU GÖR
destinationFormat="sync" # backar som standard till YYYY-MM kataloger, en för varje månad
rsyncPort=22 # som standard antar vi att rsync använder ssh på port 22
purge=0 # som standard rensas inget gammalt
purgeDate='-2m' # standard: idag minus 2 månader
hostPattern='^([^:]+):(\/?.*)' # matcha värdnamn och sökväg från backupTarget

# Avsluta direkt om mål-katalogen inte existerar
if [[ ! "$backupTarget" =~ $hostPattern && ! -d "$backupTarget" ]]; then
    echo "Backup target looks like directory that is not found" 1>&2
    exit 1;
elif [ -n "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}" ]; then
    # Här har vi hittat vad som ser ut att vara ett värdnamn i backupTarget.
    # Så vi ska kontrollera att värden går att kontakta.
    remoteHost=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
    if ! nc -z -w 5 "$remoteHost" $rsyncPort >/dev/null 2>&1; then
            echo "Can't connect to target host on port $rsyncPort" 1>&2
            exit 1
    fi
fi

# Ta backup av samtliga argument som är
# existerande kataloger.
for syncDir in $@; do
    if [ -d "$syncDir" ]; then
            # Lägg till --delete efter -a om rsync även ska radera i
            # destinationskatalogen. Annars sparas allt gammalt som raderas i
            # källkatalogen.
            rsync --exclude 'Microsoft *' -aS "$syncDir" "${backupTarget}/$destinationFormat/"
    fi
done

# Rensa allt som är äldre än purgeDate endast
# om purge är högre än 0.
if (($purge >= 1)); then
    purgeTime=$(date -v"$purgeDate" '+%s')
    for targetDir in "${backupTarget}/*"; do
            lastModified=$(stat -f '%m' "$targetDir")
            if (($lastModified < $purgeTime)); then rm -rf "$targetDir"; fi
    done
fi

And it launches from this LaunchAgent that is installed into ~/Library/LaunchAgents.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.myuser.syncDir</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
            <string>/Users/myuser/bin/syncDir.sh</string>
            <string>/Users/myuser/Documents</string>
    </array>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
            <string>/Users/myuser/Documents</string>
            <string>/Volumes</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

This system has been working for a while now but ever since the user upgraded to Mavericks they've been having problems with any file being synced having the hidden attribute set at sync.

So the file is visible in Finder when it is being edited, but once it has synced over to the share it receives the hidden-attribute on the share and can no longer be seen when browsing the share in Finder.

Only using the shell can it be seen, also ls -O shows it has the hidden-attribute.

Connecting to the same SMB2 share using a Windows PC I can see all the files, so this hidden attribute is only in Mavericks. I can also un-hide the files from a Windows PC, which is even more weird.

The files that are hidden on Mavericks are shown on the Windows client as having a slightly different color, until I unset the hidden flag on them and they return to normal on both Windows client and Mavericks.

Apparently the issue was with how the share was mounted, smb:// caused the hidden-problem while cifs:// in the path worked well.


Sound from an Apple TV plugged in an LG monitor I'm hoping to plug an Apple TV 4th generation into an LG IPS277L (http://www.lg.com/hk_en/monitor/lg-IPS277L) which is equipped with the following input/output connections:

D-Sub:            Yes
HDMI:         Yes (HDMI 1, HDMI2/MHL)
Headphone Out:    Yes
Others:           MHL(Mobile)

Can I plug in an Apple TV 4 with an HDMI cable, and then (in order to get the sound from the Apple TV) plug external speakers in the headphone out connection from the monitor?

The answer is both Yes and No depending on the model. Let me explain.

The model you have linked to at http://www.lg.com/hk_en/monitor/lg-IPS277L is the Hong Kong model and this has a headphone socket. However, if you were buying the model from another country (let's use Australia as an example) it may not have the headphone socket: http://www.lg.com/au/it-monitors/lg-IPS277L-ips-monitor

The model you have linked to is now discontinued, but you can still access the manual downloads etc from: http://www.lg.com/hk_en/support/support-product/lg-IPS277L

If you download the manual it seems to confirm the headphone socket exists, but does not make any real mention of this anywhere. However, the same manual is used for both the LG IPS277L and the LG IPS237L (they are identical, one is basically the 24" model, the other the 27" model).

Now, if you happen to read the review on this page about the LG IPS237L, it is clear that for this particular model you can do exactly what you want to do.

I suspect that as long as you have a Headphone port you will be right.


Show preview when switching windows with ⌘+Tab The ⌘+Tab key combination switches between active and background windows on my MacOS on MBP.

When hitting this combination, a small preview of the selected window appears. Another hit on the Tab key while ⌘ is pressed previews and selects the next window. Releasing the ⌘ switches to the currently selected window.

Recently, this preview does not appear, so I can't efficiently switch to other windows using a key combination.

Any idea how to restore that preview, please?

Solved by rebooting. The preview appears correctly now.


Import CA certificate into Chrome via command line Is it possible to import a custom Certificate Authority (.crt) using Terminal or over SSH on macOS 10.13 High Sierra?

In MacOS (High Sierra), is it possible to import a custom Certificate Authority (.crt) using Terminal or over SSH?

Yes, it is.

Add a certificate with Terminal

Chrome uses the System keychain certificate store. To add a CA certificate locally, launch Terminal and run this command (I've broken it down into several lines to make it more readable, but the command is fully functional):

sudo security add-trusted-cert \
-k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain \
-d /path/to/CAcertificate.crt

where:

sudo runs the command that follows with administrative privileges (type your login password when requested)

security is a utility to manipulate keychains

-k specifies which keychain to use (run security list-keychains to get a list of available keychains). Note that new root certificates should be added to the login keychain for the current user, or to the System keychain if they are to be shared by all users of this machine, because the System Roots keychain cannot be modified. In the example above, I use the System keychain.

-d adds the certificate to the admin cert store (so that the user doesn't have to authenticate via an authentication dialog)

/path/to/CAcertificate.crt is the path to your CA certificate. The command accepts ASCII (PEM) and binary (DER) certificates.

(See man security for more information.)

Add a certificate over SSH

To add a CA certificate over SSH, use this command:

ssh -t -t <username>@<remote computer> \
'sudo bash -c "security add-trusted-cert \
-k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain \
-d <(echo \"<your CA certificate in PEM format>\")"'

where:

<your CA certificate in PEM format> are the contents of /path/to/CAcertificate.crt in PEM format (see below for an example).

Note that in this case you will have to type the password of <username> twice: once for logging in over ssh and once to run sudo on the remote system.

Example

Before importing your CA certificate, Chrome will display a "NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID" error because the CA certificate is not trusted:

Let's say you store your CA certificate in /tmp/SelfSignedCertRootCA.crt with contents:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Import it locally to Chrome with this command:

sudo security add-trusted-cert \
-k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain \
-d /tmp/SelfSignedCertRootCA.crt

or over SSH (in the example below, to a remote system with IP address 172.16.96.141) with this command:

ssh -t -t jaume@172.16.96.141 \
'sudo bash -c "security add-trusted-cert \
-k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain \
-d <(echo \"-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----\")"'

Now reload the site. The error is gone:

and the certificate is listed in the System keychain:


Can not copy in Google Docs using Safari I've had this problem for a little while now (can't recall what would have triggered it). I'm using Safari 6.0.5 on 10.8.4 on an early 2011 15" MBP.

When I try to copy anything using the keyboard from google docs nothing happens - I also hear an audible error noise. I think it's Safari saying "HAHA - sucker". Anyhow, I can paste into GDocs with whatever is in the clipboard at the time. I also use PopClip, which gives you the option to copy text when something is selected - that works as normal. If I try to copy something from the edit menu, I get the "These actions are unavailable via the Edit menu, but you can still use:" error dialog.

Cleared cash, disabled plugins, restarted computer...etc...none of the typical troubleshooting stuff works.

Ideas?

I have recently switched from Chrome to Safari and now I'm having this problem when working in Google Docs.  I'm sorry to say I don't have a solution at this time.


SmoothDraw Alternative to Make Videos like Khan Academy I want to make educational videos like Khan Academy on my Mac. I am looking for a good app that works just like SmoothDraw -- which is what Khan Academy uses. I have found apps that let me draw on the screen using a tablet, however I have not found one that lets me scroll the "whiteboard" down in the way SmoothDraw does.

What app would you recommend as the equivalent of SmoothDraw for the Mac?

Try Krita. It works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It's designed more for painting, but it should work just fine for this.

I believe it works with tablets, although I'm not 100% sure. It doesn't have an infinite canvas (if you even need that), but you can always start with a canvas bigger than the screen and use it like a whiteboard. Middle-clicking-and-holding will scroll the canvas. (If you don't have a three-button mouse, hold Space and drag. Two-finger scrolling will not work.)

Plus, it's free and open source!

If you do need an infinite canvas, try Inkscape. Unlike Krita, it uses vectors, so you can zoom in and out without worrying about quality. I don't think it supports graphics tablets, though.

If you go this route, when you launch Inkscape it will ask you to install X11. Be aware that it won't work quite like other Mac apps—it's running in its own windowing system. One main difference is that Ctrl will work as an alternate Cmd key.


Boot camp doesn’t recognize USB for LG Ultrafine 4k I have an LG Ultrafine 4k display and whenever I try to run Bootcamp it eventually says device not recognized and it won’t work. It’s a new monitor, so not sure what the issue is. I have 2017 Macbokk Pro

Make sure these things work

displaying
charging for laptop
USB expansion ports
brightness adjustment (in BootCamp control panel)
speaker

Then nothing more could be expected from this display. The error might due to no driver for the ambient light sensor (macOS doesn't utilize it either).


How to delete a locked app, Karabiner? I'm running High Sierra on my older iMac. I recently loaded the Karabiner-elements.app but when I tried to delete it, a message appeared that said it was locked and couldn't be deleted. So I opened Get Info for it and confirmed that the app was locked. I couldn't uncheck the locked box so I clicked on the  icon at the bottom. The box where I can uncheck the lock feature is still greyed out.

I also opened a terminal window and navigated to the /Applications folder. I determined that the Karabiner app was there and I typed sudo rm -r Karabiner-Elements.app but I got a message that said Operation not permitted.

How do I delete this app?

It should be done in the app itself.
In “Misc” tab, press the "Uninstall Karabiner-Elements" button.

You can also uninstall Karabiner-Elements from command line.
$ sudo '/Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements/uninstall_core.sh'

https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/docs/manual/operation/uninstall/

For any other app/file which are locked, try to unlock it by unchecking the "locked" box in "Get Info" first.
If the box is greyed out, run the following in Terminal:
cd "/Applications"
sudo chflags noschg "Karabiner-Elements.app"

Then delete it by right click >  "Move to Trash"
Read more about noschg at man chflags.


4K@60Hz MacBook Pro Late 2013 I recently got a 4K 60Hz monitor for my 13" MacBook Pro Late 2013. It supports both HDMI and DisplayPort, but since the included cable is a full-sized DisplayPort cable, I'm currently using HDMI. Back when the rMBP Late 2013 came out, an article wrote about how it could support 4K@60Hz, but only on Windows because of a driver issue. I was wondering if that issue has since been fixed, and if it is possible for me to run my monitor at 60Hz.

I also tried to run it at 1440p@60Hz, using both System Preferences and cscreen, but neither of them worked. If it is impossible for me to use 4K@60Hz but it is with 1440p@60Hz, could you please let me know how? I am willing to purchase a MiniDP to DP cable if necessary.

Thanks in advance!

I recently purchased a 4K monitor and found out that my 13" MacBook Pro Late 2013 does not support 4K@60Hz even with the Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter. It only supports 4K@30Hz.
According to Apple's support document, 4K@60Hz with a multi-stream transport (MST) display is only supported by 15" model of the same age:

These Mac computers support MST displays at 60Hz:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) and later MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) and later

Source: Using 4K displays, 5K displays, and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac


Why is macOS limited to 1064 or 2088 processes? In macOS, the system is limited to running no more than 1064 processes (or 2088 starting with Catalina) systemwide, and individual users are limited to 709 (or 1392 in Catalina). Why is there a limit? Why is it this size? Why not a round number like 2500 or a binary round number like 1024?
Update: The limit actually varies in size depending on the version of OS X/macOS and the amount of memory installed in the computer. 1064 was a common limit prior to Catalina and then 2088 became common, but these are not the only limit values a Mac might have.

As far as I can tell, the answer is part of the long history of computing.
macOS is based on Darwin, which is the core of Apple's operating system, and which itself is based on xnu, which is a hybrid of FreeBSD layered over Mach, which are based on... until you go back really far to, I don't know, Ada Lovelace? Believe it or not, that is an oversimplification of the macOS history, but it covers the points needed to understand what follows.
In the days when FreeBSD was being developed, memory was expensive, so there was strong incentive to use as little as possible, but not so expensive that you could not build a system shared by a University department. The idea was to have 1 computer that could be used by many people at once, and even if the memory was expensive, the users were only consuming was some memory and disk space, rather than a whole computer, so you wanted to be able to serve as many people as you could without compromising the whole system.
The kernel has a section of memory reserved to hold information for each process, and the size of that table was what limited the total number of processes the system could run at once, so you wanted to keep that table as small as possible, but at the same time big enough to run enough processes to serve all your users. Other kernel memory reservations, such as the number of buffers allocated to store network traffic temporarily, also needed to scale with the number of concurrent users, so FreeBSD introduced a tuning parameter called MAXUSERS, which was not a real limit on how many users the system would handle, but rather a tuning parameter that you set to indicate the maximum number of users you intended to handle at one time. It adjusted the balance between memory allocated to the kernel and memory available to the users.
Prior to graphical user interfaces, individual users on a Unix system typically ran very few processes. They ran a terminal shell, which maybe ran an editor, an email program, a compiler, and some other program, each of which was one process. The email program and compiler would run some other processes. At some point someone estimated that a user would likely need to run no more than 16 processes at once.
Someone (probably the same person) estimated that the system itself could be safely limited to about 20 processes.
This provided the basis for scaling the size of the process table based on the number of concurrent users the system would support:
#define NPROC (20 + 16 * MAXUSERS)

At the time Apple incorporated xnu into their system (and presumably at the time xnu forked from FreeBSD) MAXUSERS defaulted to 32. With 32 users, NPROC was 532. And so it was in OS X 10.0. 532 was the systemwide limit on the total number of processes. Individual users were limited to half that: 266.
And so it remained, until OS X 10.7 Lion, at which point Apple added a scale factor. (Actually, it had has a scale factor long before Lion for Server Performance Mode, but with Lion they extended it a bit to normal mode.) If your computer is running Lion or later and has 3 GiB or more of memory, then maxproc is doubled, and maxprocperuid, which is a fraction of maxproc, goes up even more. maxproc goes from 532 to 1064 and maxprocperuid goes from 266 (maxproc / 2) to 709 ((maxproc * 2) / 3).
And so you get your 2010's (10.7 Lion through 10.14 Mojave) limits of 709 processes per user and 1064 processes systemwide.
In 10.10 Yosemite, NPROC changed from (20 + 16 * MAXUSERS) to (20 + 16 * 32) presumably so they could get rid of MAXUSERS while keeping NPROC unchanged. In 10.15 Catlina, NPROC was raised for the first time, but oddly they kept the "20 +" and made it (20 + 32 * 32) So starting with Catalina maxproc is a multiple of 1044.
Why a multiple, you ask? Starting with 10.13 High Sierra, maxproc continues to scale up as you add more memory. It doubles if you have 3 GiB but less than 12 GiB of memory, and above that it multiplies by memory size divided by 4 GiB until you hit a limit a the scale factor of 16 when you have 64 GiB or more memory installed.
Now you know why maxproc is a multiple of 532 or 1044 rather than the more common 512 or 500.
If you want to increase your limits further, you have to switch to server mode. You can read more about how to do that and why at Fix “fork: resource temporarily unavailable” on OS X. You can read a lot of details about what server mode really gives you at What does serverperfmode=1 actually do on macOS?


ssh -X without/with using xquartz I would like to know if OSX supports ssh -X right out of the box?

Using the command launches XQuartz and interestingly both are NOT working:
e.g. displaying pdf files returning :

evince foo.pdf

** (evince:1341): WARNING **: Command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=58045ffa2d1f3dc82398e1eb00000008 --binary-syntax --close-stderr' exited with non-zero exit status 1: EOF in dbus-launch reading address from bus daemon\n
Failed to get bus connection: Command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=58045ffa2d1f3dc82398e1eb00000008 --binary-syntax --close-stderr' exited with non-zero exit status 1: EOF in dbus-launch reading address from bus daemon\n

The '-X' parameter to ssh instructs ssh to open an XWindow session, which is why xquartz is launched automatically.

You can ssh to a remote server without -X and interact with it on a command line, however, to forward the XWindow display needs XQuartz.

To debug the problem you are seeing you may want to:

Ensure there are no errors when you connect to the server (i.e. 'X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0')
Test other X window commands after you establish a valid connection (like xeyes or gvim)
Check the value of $DISPLAY.


Does iTunes compress images that I sync to my iPhone? When I sync a folder with iTunes to download into my iPhone, do the images get resized or compressed in anyway?  Specifically I am trying to sync large images such as 5000px x 5000px at 72dpi. If iTunes does do this is there another way to get them added to my phone without compression?

iTunes does indeed compress large images when syncing to the first-party Photos app on an iPhone or an iPad. It calls this process "image optimization" and it even gets its own progress bar when you sync your device.

Currently, the solution is to use some other third party image vieweing app. GoodReader, for example, can handle high resolution images, and there are many others.


Google Smart Lock constantly asking to turn on Bluetooth I have Google Smart Lock installed on my iPad running under iOS 12.
Every now and then (up to a dozen times a day) the following system dialog window shows on top of whatever is active (this is not a foreground app-induced message):

Turn On Bluetooth to Allow "Smart Lock" to Connect to Accessories

I do not want to have Bluetooth constantly enabled.

What is the reason and how can I prevent it from appearing?

Additional info:

All my Google accounts show:

Your account has been securely set up on this phone.

I have keys (YubiKey) configured for 2FA, which I use on PCs, but they are not Bluetooth enabled

I did not have that problem before iOS 12, but coincidentally I had an iPad replaced at the time of iOS 12 release and I configured credentials only after upgrading

I'm having the exact same problem and there are no references to it on the internet except this StackExchange post and a dupe post on another site.  I still don't understand why it's happening or what's causing it.  It doesn't appear to be tied use of any particular app, and sometimes pops up simply when I pick up my phone and unlock it.

I thought disabling Google Advanced Protection would make this go away.  However, even with it disabled and all hardware tokens removed entirely from my account, I still get the popup on my iPhone saying "Turn On Bluetooth to Allow "Smart Lock" to Connect to Accessories".  I uninstalled the Smart Lock app and I haven't seen it pop up since.

So - my workaround is basically not using Google Advanced Protection at all.

I may attempt to re-enable it and do more troubleshooting when I have time.  One thing I forgot to do was go into my iPhone bluetooth settings and "forget" any previous pairings.  Maybe that has something to do with the popup if it's looking for a past device.  Will post edits here if anything changes!


Can a self-signed certificate use an IP address for an entry in Subject Alternative Name? From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210176

TLS server certificates must present the DNS name of the server in the Subject Alternative Name extension of the certificate. DNS names in the CommonName of a certificate are no longer trusted.

According to these new requirements, should I be able to use an IP address in the SAN field?  I read an answer that stated or implied that it was possible, but I cannot make it work.  Obviously I realise that an IP isn't a DNS name, but... well I can hope.
I can workaround the limitation by setting up an mDNS (eg Bonjour) and use host.local style names (which does work) but this is not ideal for my situation.

Yes, according to the standard (RFC 5280 page 37) you can use an IP address in the SAN (SubjectAltName) field!
The standard defines a number of possibilities for specifying the SAN, including iPAddress, dNSName, and various others.
The most obvious option is to use iPAddress, where the IP address is stored as an octet string. You can also write the IP address in the dNSName field, which is a common string (IA5String to be precise).
In practice, you want to do both at the same time as software support varies. For example it seems that especially Microsoft software (like the Internet Explorer and Edge browsers) look at the dNSName and interprets IP addresses there, whereas browsers like Safari and Chrome look at the iPAddress field.


Cannot Partition Disk with Disk Utility I can't seem to partition my disk with Disk Utility or with the Terminal command (see screenshots).
Something also happened to my other partition running Mavericks, where it just turned into an "empty name" partition, but still runs fine.  Any help would be much appreciated

.

You could try booting into internet recovery (hold Command+Option+R during boot) once there open disk utility and try partitioning again.


Can still boot to Windows even though I deleted the partition I re-installed Mac OS and erased the recovery partition so Bootcamp would have a punt at installing Windows.

Still not managed to re-install Windows, and when I boot with -Alt- held down it still shows Windows as a disk. Why is it still there?

First of all the Recovery partition has nothing to do with BootCamp. BootCamp installs a small Windows boot partition that then points to the (separate) Windows partition where the rest of the installation is, if I recall correctly.

When you hold down the Option key at boot (it's only called "ALT" on Windows) the Mac only sees the small boot partition not the second one with the Windows installation on it.

I would be willing to bet that if you selected to boot from Windows from the boot menu you would get an error about *no bootable disk found" or some such.

In the case of BootCamp it is best to not do anything outside the BootCamp installer environment unless you have a bit of experience with it and know just how the partition map is set up. Apple likes to insulate users from the innards of the OS so you rarely see the whole story.

Just like you won't know how to remodel an 1890s Victorian by watching This Old House, watching what the BootCamp application seems to do won't tell you the whole story.


Is there any way to have a badge appear on the Terminal icon in the Dock when a command completes? I currently have an AppleScript app that opens Terminal windows and completes commands. I would like an app icon badge to appear on the Terminal icon in the Dock when a command completes. I need this because I often have to restart the commands when they stop. Is this possible? Essentially my AppleScript application takes a user-provided variable and plugs it into a Terminal command. Every time I use the application it opens a new Terminal window (intended). I would like to have a badge appear when a Terminal command completes.

As of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Terminal has exactly this feature.

If you emit a bell (BEL, Control-G) in a background tab or window, the Terminal application Dock icon will show a badge with the number of “unread” bells

and a bell icon is displayed in the tab of the terminal

(If there is only one tab in the window, choose View > Show Tab Bar to see the tab, which also displays other status information.)

This also applies to minimized windows.

When you bring the window to the front or select the background tab, the bell indicator is removed from the tab and the badge count goes down.


MacBook Pro can't output to Panasonic HDTV (P60GT30)? I have a new 15" MacBook Pro running Lion.  My client has a new 60" Panasonic (P60GT30) in their conference room.

They have a Windows laptop plugged in to the PC input, and it works fine.

However, when I try to connect like ...

MacBookProThunderboltPort -> Apple MiniDisplayPort-to-VGA dongle -> VGA cable -> TV's PC input

... the MacBook simply will not recognize the TV.

(Note: The TV actually has a little VGA-to-weirdPanasonicMiniConnector dongle that's needed to connect the TV; but Windows worked fine with it, why not the MacBook?)

Is there something I need to do for the MacBook to recognize and output to this TV?  Maybe a new driver or something?

You may require a TV that has a native HDMI input. VGA is becoming unsupported in many configurations, such as with the iPad 2, and all through the industry, not just with Apple products.


Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 doesn't see NTFS disk (OS X 10.11 El Capitan) I upgraded my Yosemite to El Capitan few days ago. Also recently Paragon sent me an e-mail with an offer of free upgrade from version 12 to 14. Since I bought ver. 12, I decided to install version 14. As an existing customer I was given a new serial number and I did the activation - everything went good.

Today I plugged my USB hard drive with NTFS partition as usual (the same disk I used before - nothing has changed). Now Paragon doesn't see it. OS X does. I can read but I cannot write. Am I missing something? Version 14 is fully activated.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: Link from Paragon makes no sense for me. The reason why I bought this software was to avoid triggering any additional commands. I just want to use my NTFS partition as before in Yosemite. I want to plug in my USB with NTFS and simply put something into it. No formatting (I have stuff on it), repairing etc... :/ Anyone can help? Now this software does nothing.

Make sure you have version 14.0.382, previous 14 versions had that problem.
I had this problem with the version I downloaded from the Paragon free upgrade link.
I solved that problem by downloading the 14.0.382 from their website. Strangely the new version didn't show up clicking the "check for update" button on Paragon NTFS preference pane.


When trying to upgrade osxfuse, I get "missing DEVELOPER_DIR path" message I recently installed Yosemite, and am now trying to upgrade all of my brew installs (brew update, then brew upgrade). After remembering to do xcode-select --install, I finally got all of my installs upgraded except for encfs and osxfuse (encfs depends on osxfuse). Now, when trying to upgrade, I get the following results (entirety included because it's not that big):

▶ brew upgrade
==> Upgrading 2 outdated packages, with result:
encfs 1.7.5_1, osxfuse 2.7.1
==> Upgrading encfs
==> Installing encfs dependency: osxfuse
==> Cloning https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse.git
Updating /Library/Caches/Homebrew/osxfuse--git
==> Checking out tag osxfuse-2.7.1
==> ./build.sh -t homebrew -f /usr/local/Cellar/osxfuse/2.7.1

OSXFUSEBuildTool()            : supported platforms: 10.9 10.10
OSXFUSEBuildTool()            : building OSXFUSE kernel extension and tools
xcrun: error: missing DEVELOPER_DIR path:
OSXFUSEBuildTool() failed: xcodebuild cannot build configuration Release.

READ THIS: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/wiki/troubleshooting

Naturally, I've been to the troubleshooting page, and was still not able to solve my problems (although it might've helped me solve problems with earlier formulae). The results of brew doctor are:

▶ brew doctor
Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry and just ignore them. Thanks!

Warning: Broken symlinks were found. Remove them with `brew prune`:
  /usr/local/lib/libosxfuse.la

Warning: Unbrewed dylibs were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae, and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected dylibs:
    /usr/local/lib/libyices.2.1.0.dylib

Warning: You have unlinked kegs in your Cellar
Leaving kegs unlinked can lead to build-trouble and cause brews that depend on
those kegs to fail to run properly once built. Run `brew link` on these:

    fuse4x
    gcc
    ghostscript
    ruby

Warning: Your Xcode (6.0.1) is outdated
Please update to Xcode 6.1.
Xcode can be updated from the App Store.

The results of brew --config are:

▶ brew --config
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 0.9.5
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew.git
HEAD: b7feb05f247b5cf934991d8035bf44ff6c4180ba
Last commit: 43 minutes ago
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /usr/local
HOMEBREW_CELLAR: /usr/local/Cellar
CPU: 8-core 64-bit ivybridge
OS X: 10.10-x86_64
Xcode: 6.0.1
CLT: 6.1.0.0.1.1413057044
couldn't understand kern.osversion `14.0.0'
GCC-4.2: build 5666
Clang: 6.0 build 600
X11: 2.7.7 => /opt/X11
System Ruby: 2.0.0-481
Perl: /usr/bin/perl
Python: /usr/local/bin/python => /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7
Ruby: /Users/benjaminhocking/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.3/bin/ruby

I tried manually setting DEVELOPER_DIR:

▶ export DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

That did not make any difference. Does anybody have any suggestions for how I can fix this?

Upgrading Xcode to 6.1 with the link provided by pczora in fact resolved this problem for me:
https://developer.apple.com/downloads/download.action?path=Developer_Tools/xcode_6.1/xcode_6.1.dmg


Can the mac's bluetooth name be changed without changing the computer/network name/hostname? I have some bluetooth headphones which read out the name of the devices it connects to. My corporate MacBook Pro has a specific hostname, so when I connect to the headphones I hear a really long, random alphanumeric string.

If I was able to change the Computer name in the Sharing preferences pane it will rename the Bluetooth name, but is there a way to rename the bluetooth name only, leaving the computer name and network hostname alone?

Had the same problem, this worked for me:

You can rename the LocalHostName separately from the Computer Name, which should give you the desired result, and shouldn't mess with any network settings.

Under System Preferences -> Sharing, click the Edit button to the lower right of the Computer Name field. Here you can enter a different local hostname, and leave the computer name set to whatever you want the Bluetooth name to be.

If you explicitly need to set a hostname, you can also do that from Terminal, by entering:

scutil --set HostName yourhostnamehere

Before you do that though, you might want to check the current values. You can use these commands for hostname, local hostname, and computer name respectively:

scutil --get HostName
scutil --get LocalHostName
scutil --get ComputerName

An explanation of each of the properties can be found here:

ComputerName is the so-called “user-friendly” computer name for a Mac, it’s what will show up on the Mac itself and what will be visible to others when connecting to it over a local network. This is also what’s visible under the Sharing preference panel.

HostName is the name assigned to the computer as visible from the command line, and it’s also used by local and remote networks when connecting through SSH and Remote Login.

LocalHostName is the name identifier used by Bonjour and visible through file sharing services like AirDrop