Why is bash echoing instead of running Apple Script I have a function in my .bash_profile that should allow me to add startup items. The only issue is this echo's a string instead of running the Apple Script.

This is my function

function addtologin(){
    if [ $3 = "hidden" ]; then
        osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make new login item at end with properties {path:"${1}/${2}.app", name:"${2}", hidden:true}'
    else
        osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make new login item at end with properties {path:"$1/$2.app", name:"$2", hidden:false}'
    fi
}

When I run addtologin /Users/iProgram/Applications Spotify hidden it outputs login item ${2}.

Why is this? Why doesn't it adding Spotify to the Login items?

If it helps, here is my full .bash_profile incase it is causing an issue (don't think it is)

.bash_profile

source .colors
export PS1=${BOLD}${CYAN}\\W\ \\A$\ ${DEFAULTCOLOR}
export SUDO_PS1=\\W\ \\A#\
export PATH=$PATH:/Users/iProgram/bin
export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim

function ipaddress(){
    ifconfig en0 | awk '/inet / {print $2}'
}

function macaddress(){
    ifconfig en0 | awk '/ether/ {print toupper($2)}'
}

function wifi-off(){
    networksetup -setairportpower en0 off
}

function wifi-on(){
    networksetup -setairportpower en0 on
}

function wifi-connect(){
    networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 $1 $2
}

function nano(){
    vim $@
}

function home(){
    cd ~
}

function addtologin(){
    if [ $3 = "hidden" ]; then
        osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make new login item at end with properties {path:"${1}/${2}.app", name:"${2}", hidden:true}'
    else
        osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make new login item at end with properties {path:"${1}/${2}.app", name:"${2}", hidden:false}'
    fi
}

.colors

export BLACK='\033[0;30m'
export RED='\033[0;31m'
export GREEN='\033[0;32m'
export BROWN='\033[0;33m'
export BLUE='\033[0;34m'
export PURPLE='\033[0;35m'
export CYAN='\033[0;36m'
export LIGHTGREY='\033[0;37m'

export DARKGREY='\033[1;30m'
export LIGHTRED='\033[1;31m'
export LIGHTGREEN='\033[1;32m'
export YELLOW='\033[1;33m'
export LIGHTBLUE='\033[1;34m'
export LIGHTPURPLE='\033[1;35m'
export LIGHTCYAN='\033[1;36m'
export WHITE='\033[1;37m'

export DEFAULTCOLOR='\033[0m'
export BOLD='\033[1m'

If it helps, I got the osascript from here

The problem are the single quotes in osascript -e '...'. Single quotes prevent variable expansion. This means that ${2} remains ${2} instead of being replaced with Spotify for example.

Try this:

function addtologin(){
    if [ $3 = "hidden" ]; then
        osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to make new login item with properties {path:\"${1}/${2}.app\", name:\"${2}\", hidden:true}"
    else
        osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to make new login item with properties {path:\"${1}/${2}.app\", name:\"${2}\", hidden:false}"
    fi
}

Here we use double quotes which allow for expansion. To not confuse them with the inner quotes we need to escape those with \.

Now running the command with Spotify will output login item Spotify. This is just the result from the AppleScript, a login item was created. To suppress this you can add >/dev/null to the command: osascript -e "tell ..." >/dev/null.


error with email account setting up iCloud on MacBook when in initially began the iCloud setup on MacBook i put in wrong email address. I don't think i put in a password. Now i keep getting box that says it can't access iCloud . I have a proper username and password for apple id , iTunes etc which I want to use. How do i get rid of this wrong iCloud username?

Try signing out of iCloud.

Open System Preferences
Choose the iCloud panel
Click Sign Out


Not enough color using GIF brewery? so i'm starting making gifs and i'm really disappointed in the quality of the gif cause the colors are limited

it looks like this when it comes out

when it should be like this

but i don't have the reduce colors option turned on

so how do i keep the original quality?

Regardless of what software you use, the GIF format is limited to a palette of 256 colors.  Therefore it is unsuitable for photographs.  In other words, the only solution is to use a different format, such as JPEG.  (Or H.264 if you need motion).

Reference: http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/standards/image/gif/index_en.htm


SSD in external usb 3.0 case not recognized Mac mini 2009
Intel SSD 330 60 Gb
IcyBox IB-AC603a USB 3.0

I can't see the SSD in Desktop nor in Disk Utility. I don't know what to do as it is said to be USB 2.0 friendly in case's documentation.

USB 2.0 doesn't provide enough power for the SSD in an enclosure unless you have a case that has a plug where you may add more power (and that's going to be hard to find because USB 3.0 2.5" enclosures normally do not require such extra power and, therefore, will not have the 5v power port).

Or try a powered USB hub between the case and the Mac. That may work.


File management for iOS What are some better solutions (apps or any ways) to manage files (folders and subfolders with PDFs, docs, video, audio etc.) on iOS device (iPhone or iPad) that can sync with OS X?

Currently I'm using "USB Disk Pro" but I have to manually create the folders in iTunes and drag and drop each files manually. (Image if there are 10 folders with 50 files in each folders to be transfer from OS X to iPad.)

I think Dropbox would be a good solution.

The Dropbox app will automatically create a folder on your OS X. Put files that you want to access on your iOS devices into the folder.
Install the iOS app on your iOS devices. You will be able to access all the files that's stored in the OS X folder easily.

Note that there's a space limit for the Dropbox service.


Yosemite Time Machine Backup Failed Due to Full Disk I've run Yosemite for some time now, this issue is recent. My assumption has always been that Time Machine autonomously overwrites old backups once your time capsule is full.

So my question is :

How do I resume normal Time Machine backups without having to manually erase old backups. I know I can delete files from Time Capsule

Running:
10.10.2

Time Capsule :

461 GB of 2TB available...backup error is

  The backup disk needs 536.69 GB for the backup but only 460.78 GB are available. Select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files.

This somewhat of a long shot, but it sounds a little like you may have changed something on your disk. "Invisible" actions like changing file permissions or HFS+ compressing files will cause TimeMachine (TM) to assume that the files have changed and need to be backed up. Another scenario would be that the UUID of your hard disk changed. This article lists some further possibilities. So to answer your questions:

the warning is there because you would loose all previous backups and you would be left with only this one backup.
Time Machine thinks that all files have changed. My hypothesis is that you did some action changing attributes of all files or your disk's UUID.
you could try to inherit the files

I suggest you try the following:

Compare your disk's UUID with the one used in your Time Machine:

diskutil list and
look for a hidden file called com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID on your TM disk (not too sure about the file name, because I use sparsebundles)

Full Reset of Time Machine: Read this article for details. Basically you will have to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Reconnect your backup. Read this article thoroughly. You will have to use either of these commands:

sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/myTM/Backups.backupdb/myMac or
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a / /Volumes/myTM/Backups.backupdb/myMac/myDisk

Note that you might loose your entire backup. Please make a copy of your Time Machine backup.


Does daisy chaining FireWire 800 and 400 cause all devices to use 400 speeds? I recently purchased a Drobo, and in looking over some online documentation, I encountered this support article which states:

  If a FireWire 400 device is also connected, it will pull down the overall performance to match FireWire 400 (FW400) instead of FireWire 800 speeds.

I realize that if I attached a FireWire 800 device to a 400 device, and then that 400 device to my computer that obviously I'd only see 400 speeds from the 800 device, but this KB article seems to imply that connecting a 400 device to the other FW port on my Drobo, and having my Drobo connected via 800 to my Mac, will cause the Drobo to communicate at 400 speeds.

Is this true? Is this a limitation of the FireWire protocol, a practical limitation common to many implementations of FireWire, or a limitation specific to the Drobo itself?

FireWire is a point to point protocol and the controllers are generally fully functional and can use the full capacity  between two adjoining controller chips over a FireWire cable. So in practice just don't put a FireWire 400 speed cable between devices that are capable of FireWire 800 and the computer. Place your first FireWire 400 cable and device at the end of the chain of FireWire 800 capable devices.

Basically a FireWire 400 cable has six conductors - two for power and four for data. FireWire 800 cable has eight (or double) the data conductors and the same two power lanes.

Think of an analogy with the interstate highway system. Here you have a computer connected via fire wire 800 to the Drobo and fire wire 400 to something else. This is the same as three highway exits with four lanes of traffic between the middle and the last exit and eight lanes of traffic between the first in the middle exit. Assuming there's no delay getting on and off the highway exits (which is true for FireWire but not in reality), it shouldn't matter that traffic between the first two exits will be slowed down just because later on the highway merges down to four lanes.

Of course when you have simultaneous traffic some going all the way to the end of the chain at the 400 speed that will impact the bandwidth available for traffic between the two 800 speed ports.

The FireWire protocol is fast for exactly this reason whereas the USB chain always slows down for the entire "bus". From an engineering standpoint it's simpler and cheaper to just slow down the entire transport to avoid having to deal with the network topology and differing link speeds due to cabling conditions down the chain.


How are edited photos stored in new Apple photos app? In Aperture I understood the process to be that changes made in post processing where stored as "instructions" (not sure of real term) to be applied to the original and in that way saved space for storage over iPhoto where it appeared to me that a duplicate copy of the photo was made.

I'd like to understand what the new Photo does. I would bet the same as iPhoto?

For Photos.app, don't consider the edits necessarily edits. While looking through the file architecture one day, I found that what they're doing is storing the original and simply adding layers of "edits" which are much more like layers of removable filters.

The original stays 100% in tact until you export it to a separate file where Photos will process those layers into an image.

The only way you would lose originals and be stuck with the edited versions is if you specifically, in this order:

exported your edited version
deleted the photo from Photos.app
deleted your Photos.app Trash
put the exported version back (technically for the first time) into Photos.app.


Minimum required specs of a Mac for iOS App development I'm planing to develop an app with React Native for Android and iOS. I need to buy a Mac to run Xcode for iOS app development.

I do not have a high budget, which is why I would prefer to buy a (used) Mac with the minimum required specifications that is able to run the latest version of Xcode and iPhone simulator. The app I want to develop is mostly running in the background, so there will be no heavy graphics or computations.

I know this has been asked before, but it's been a few years since then, that's why I ask again.

I'm happy about any comments about RAM, Processor, manufacturing year or anything else.

Edit (November 2019):
Just wanted to give future visitors an update: I spent a few hours to test macinacloud, however since it felt pretty slow and a bit overcomplicated,  in the end I decided to get a used Mac Mini from late 2014 with 8 GB RAM. In general I am very happy with it, everything works fine (not super fast, but not too slow either). Sometimes I am hitting the limits (for example when running an iOS simulator and having too many other programs running at the same time), however I am always able to just close the ones I am not using right now and get everything to run fluently again.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I hope this can help some other iOS-developement-beginners :)

Xcode 10 is available in the Mac App Store and includes SDKs for iOS 12, watchOS 5, macOS 10.14, and tvOS 12. Xcode 10 supports on-device debugging for iOS 8 and later, tvOS 9 and later, and watchOS 2 and later. Xcode 10 requires a Mac running macOS 10.13.6 or later.

Any 64-bit Mac with 8 GB of RAM and at least 200GB of disk space should do, if you don't care much about your time (compiles can be slow).

If I were scraping rock bottom, I would head over to https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac and wait for an 8 GB Mac Mini to show up. Check every morning around 8 AM PDT and again at 5 PM PDT. Be patient...which will prepare you for compiles that take 10 minutes each turn, but it'll work.

You'll still need a keyboard, mouse and monitor obviously, but you can get those at Best Buy refurbished. Also, consider Craigslist.org and any other site where you can buy used Macs.


MacBook speakers off, red light coming from the headphone jack This morning, I was using my Late 2008 MacBook when I found that audio wasn't working. The volume icon in the menu bar was grayed out and System Preferences said that my output was set to Digital Audio instead of Internal Speakers like it normally is (and Digital Audio is my only option).

More surprisingly, the headphone jack has a glowing red light (I had no idea it could do that!).

Why is this happening? Can I do anything to fix it?

Old question but since I had 5 minutes ago the same problem, I'll post my solution:

The audio output is as Graham Min describes a double output, working for headphone jack or Toslink adaptor.
In my case the problem appeared as I disconnected my headphones: OSX didn't switch to integrated output but stayed on digital (optical) output

This page describes an elegant non invasive solution and in my case the solution was as simple as connecting the headphones again, and diconnecting them gently.

Here the steps

Plug your headphones back in.
Play a bit of sound through them (e.g., a song), then stop the sound.
Make sure Preferences is quit.
Launch Preferences and open the Sound pane.
While the Sound pane is open and set to Headphones, pull out the headphone plug from the jack.
It will reset itself to "Internal Speakers" and you are good to go.


Two Laptops Sitting on top of Eachother Yesterday, my dad's older Macbook Pro was on the fritz (graphics issues), so he switched to using his newer one.  He set the newer one on top of the old one, and it resisted to boot up, even when we could see the status light on it, and we heard the  drive spinning.  For giggles, I told him to lift the new one off the old one, and whazam, the login screen appeared.  Is this a coincidence, or is there deeper magic at play?

It sounds like their magnetic latches are interfering with each other. See Apple's support note: Mac notebooks: Magnets in devices may cause computer to sleep unexpectedly


Add item to Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility I am trying to give a flash application access to accessibility features.  The plug in lives in Macintosh HD > Library > Internet Plug-ins.  I cannot drag and drop this into the Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility.  Adding firefox app doesnt seem to work even though the plug in seems like it should be a child process.  In activity monitor when the particular flash app is running the process name is "Firefox Plugin Process (Shockwave Flash)".

How do I enable this?  How can I add items in the Accessibility menu without having to drag and drop?

Using OS X Mavericks 10.9.

Try dropping /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container.app to the preference pane instead.

When I tried opening a page that uses Flash in Firefox, ps -ef|grep -i flash contained a line like 501 28715 28710   0  4:44AM ??         0:01.01 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin -greomni /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/omni.ja -appomni /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/browser/omni.ja -appdir /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/browser 28710 gecko-crash-server-pipe.28710 org.mozilla.machname.157869410 plugin.

If others search for how to add applications to the list with a script, see http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/111903.


Open PDF in browser or Preview instead of downloading I have certain sites I have to print generated PDF documents. They are not just PDF links but buttons to generate the PDF with selected content. They used to open up in browser or preview but now Safari just starts a download and I don't need all of these files on my drive. Firefox gives me the option to preview or download on the same site.

It is the web site that instructs the browser to download the PDF instead of viewing it:

Web sites usually controls this using the "Content-Disposition: attachment" header which is sent by the web server to the browser.

The web site probably changed from not sending this header to now sending the header, and so Safari will start a download instead of viewing the document.

In this case, I would suggest sending a feature request to the web site owner to let you have both a view and a download button for these PDFs.

Web sites also have the option of controlling this directly from HTML, although it is not as commonly used as the HTTP header. They do this by including am "download" attribute on the link itself (the "a" tag).

If that is the case, you could open the Developer Tools in Safari to manually edit the link and remove the download attribute before clicking. It is going to be quite tedious though.


Fine Adjustment in Playback on Itunes How do I do fine adjustment on the progress of video playback in iTunes?
For example, on the iPad, if you slide you finger down while holding onto the dot on the playback progress bar, you will go into fine adjustment mode and you track the progress second by second.

Btw, I'm on OS x

Thanks

Maybe that's helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnhFxY40C_w


Switch to Intel Iris Pro on MacBook Pro under Windows After a successful installation of Windows (Windows Server 2012 R2) on a MacBook Pro (Late 2013, 15") I've noticed that only the Nvidia graphics card is recognized in the device manager. So I've tried to install setup.exe from the folder IntelHDGraphics64 which I found on the installation disk created with BootCamp, but I got this error:

"This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software."

Same error message was thrown when I tried to install the latest drivers from Intel directly.
I even tried to install the drivers manually, but this didn't work either.

Now I would like to know whether it is even possible to get the Intel Iris Pro graphics card running on a MacBook under Windows and then switch between them to increase battery life when I don't need high graphics peformance.

I am using the Mavericks version of BootCamp assistant and have the retina model.

I know this is not the answer you want to hear, but unfortunately there is no way to disable the discrete GPU and use the integrated graphics, when using Bootcamp.

This has been discussed (to death) on support forums and on the web generally.

I have thought myself in the past, that it would be useful to be able to turn off the discrete GPU just to improve battery life on the laptop. But Apple have not provided a driver capable of switching off the discrete GPU, so there is no way of doing it.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news - who knows, maybe they will provide that functionality in the future?


What voltage readings should I get from my 60 watt Magsafe? What voltage readings should I get from my 60 watt Magsafe if I check the pins with a multimeter? My readings are all below 1 volt (I checked all combinations of pins), but I don't know if this is correct since there is no load. Also what pins should I check? My computer is a MacBook Pro 2011 early model.

A good description can be found at Teardown and exploration of Apple's Magsafe connector

Below is taken verbatim from the above link.

The charger startup process

When the Magsafe connector is plugged into a Mac, a lot more happens than you might expect. I believe the following steps take place:

The charger provides a very low current (about 100 µA) 6 volt signal
on the power pins (3 volts for Magsafe 2).
When the Magsafe connector is plugged into the Mac, the Mac applies
a resistive load (e.g. 39.41KΩ), pulling the power input low to
about 1.7 volts.
The charger detects the power input has been pulled low, but not too
low. (A short or a significant load will not enable the charger.)
After exactly one second, the charger switches to full voltage
(14.85 to 20 volts depending on model and wattage). There's a 16-bit
microprocessor inside the charger to control this and other charger
functions.
The Mac detects the full voltage on the power input and reads the
charger ID using the 1-Wire protocol.

If the Mac is happy with the charger ID, it switches the power input to the internal power conversion circuit and starts using the input power. The Mac switches on the appropriate LED on the connector using the 1-Wire protocol.

This process explains why there is a delay of a second after you connect the charger before the light turns on and the computer indicates the battery is charging. It also explains why if you measure the charger output with a voltmeter, you don't find much voltage.


Photos.app Edit-mode UI broken after upgrading to High Sierra Since upgrading to macos High Sierra, my Photos.app's editing functions have been troublesome. Features such as Retouch simply do not work, and I'm unable to access advanced options, such as the Shadows slider commonly found under the "Light" adjustment.

OSXDaily put out a troubleshooting guide for HS apps today which included a "Create a new account to test app" suggestion, which I did.  On the new test account, Photos.app's Edit features work as they're supposed to; Having not seen it work properly before, I did not know what to expect, nor what was missing prior.

On my original login, Photos.app's Edit screen doesn't show the pull-down arrows that should be to the left of Options.  Without that pull-down, most features are impossible to access.  I've tried re-sizing the window's internal and external dimensions, changing screen resolutions, and changing the scroll-bar behaviour.

I blew away the ~/Library/Preferences/Photos.plist files, to no avail. I'm not sure what other configuration files could be interfering with the Photos.app editing UI.

I'm not sure how to proceed without clobbering my current login account.

Earlier today, I discovered that if I clicked where the pull-down arrow was supposed to be, the application behaved as expected, and the additional options dropped down.

Some kind of bug, I thought.

It turns out, I had "Increase Contrast" turned on in Accessibility system preferences.  When I toggle this on, the triangle there, but only +2% lighter than the surrounding pixels:  #202020 on an #1C1C1C background, a +2% difference, as reported by Digital Color Meter.app.  When I uncheck that option, the triangles appear, as #3C3C3C  on an #1C1C1C background, a +9% difference.


Automatically delete photo from Photo Stream when deleted in iPhoto or Aperture After importing photos I quickly delete all the duplicate photos & bad ones. However they all still make their way to my Photo Stream and stay there even after I've pruned the bad photos.

Is there a way to automatically delete a photo in Photo Stream once it's been deleted in the Aperture or iPhoto library?

Deleting the picture from My Photo Stream instead of the imported versions in your computer should do the trick. To do so just:

Open the My Photo Stream view in either iPhoto or Aperture.
Select the pictures to delete.
Press the Delete key and click Delete.


Is it safe to `rm` folders from the .Trashes folder on an external drive? I trashed some folders from an external drive using the finder. They are now in that drives .Trashes folder. When I right click them in the trash (aka Finder) and select "Delete Immediately..." it takes forever, so I was thinking to use the terminal command rm -rf on them to get rid of them. Is that going to cause problems?

I actually do this a lot, especially if there is a huge number of files and folders in the trash. Works like a charm, and in case you empty all trash folders Finder will even update the icon to show an empty trash bin again afterwards.


Fan Direction MacBook I bought a cooler for the bottom of my MacBook because I use it on my bed.  The Instructions say to flip it so it doesn't work against the computer.  I don't want to open it up because it's loaned to me from my school.

All I would like to know is if the fans are pulling air in or pushing air out?

Apple MacBook Mid 2010

The MacBook released in 2010 has intake and output on the back of the computer. There are no vents on the bottom.


How are the apps on iPhone organized when deleted? I am looking to find out how the apps are organized when you look under the App Store go to purchased and not this phone. Are they organized from
Recently deleted or is there another random
way that is done?

The list is organised on first download date. The earliest downloaded apps are on the bottom of the list. The most recently downloaded apps are on the top of the list.


Upgrade from 10.4.11 to 10.9 on a Mac Pro I have an old Mac Pro with the following serial number G87391T6UPZ. Can I upgrade this computer to 10.9 or 10.10?

I can't seem to find an official website that tells me 'yes' or 'no'. It runs on a 2.66 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.  There was a website that mentioned early 2008 and up can upgrade. But not sure when this was made...

Edit:

It says it is MacPro 1,1

There is only one available 2.66 GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro, which actually is powered by two 2.66 GHz dual core Intel Xeon 5150 processors: MacPro1,1

The maximum OS is Mac OS X 10.7.5, if the RAM was upgraded to at least 2 GB.


maps.app on iOS "follow me" mode without a destination set In stand-alone automotive GPS systems if you just have it on but have not programmed in a specific destination it will show your moving on an active scrolling street map of the road you are on and any roads that are currently within the default zoom area.

So you get a display that shows your car stationary in the middle of the screen with the map moving around you. I found this extremely helpful when I am in locations that I am not real familiar with or just exploring to get the lay of the land. It's also good for finding shortcuts that you were not previously aware of.

If I open Apple maps (or Waze or Google maps...) tap on the locator (Apple maps arrow at top right) to display my current location the map does not follow me. I eventually drive off the displayed map and would have to tap the arrow to re-center the map. Needless to say operating a phone while you are driving is both Not Really Safe and unlawful in many parts of the US.

Is that something that Apple Maps does and I have not discovered how to activate it? Anybody know what that feature is called?

Make sure you have background app refresh turned on for Maps.

Go to Settings -> Maps and in the Allow Maps to Access section, turn on Background App Refresh and Cellular Data.

Also, be sure you allow Maps to use your location by tapping Location and selecting While Using the App.

This is what I have done and the app follows me when I move.  I'm not sure if this is the root answer to your issue but it's how I have it setup and it works for me.


Multiple iTunes libraries - podcasts merged after 11.1 upgrade? I use two iTunes libraries (Windows7x64, shift-key on iTunes launch) to manage content for several different devices (iPhone 4S, iPod Nano, iPad2), and have been doing this for a couple of years.

After the upgrade to iTunes 11.1 I went to sync my iPod (on library 2) and found that all the podcast subscriptions from library 1 had been added.  I double-checked that I was in the right library and then removed them.

When I went back to library 1 to sync my iPhone I found that the podcasts I had unsubscribed and deleted in library 2 were gone from library 1 as well.

So it appears it's no longer possible to have two completely separate iTunes libraries any more?

Anybody know how to force the two libraries to be completely separate?

I found the new option that controls this.

Preferences/Store/Sync Podcast Subscriptions and Settings

Or maybe this option already existed but its setting was changed as a result of the upgrade.  Disabling this restores previous behavior.

There are also threads at Apple Support, such as this one about problems with podcasts after the 11.1 upgrade.


Logging in to main user turns off the mac I am not a mac user, and honestly, I have no idea how to use one (besides the terminal). So, a friend asked if I could help them out with fixing their computer. She says the last thing she was on, was on some website with "free movies", and she mustt've been clicking something. We can get into recovery mode and we can go on the guest user, but not on the main user. Whenever you log in to the main user, it just shuts down.

Since I have a fair knowledge of Ubuntu, I thought I could just back up her files through a live USB (not store them on the live USB, but on an external hard drive) and reinstall OS X. I booted into the live USB, and there was no mounted hard drive, which was odd. I checked it, and figured it was encrypted, so I went on and installed libfvde on the live usb to see if I could hack the encrypted system open (had tried all kinds of other things before this), but I just could not do it.

So, what I want to do now is find out what is wrong, figure out if it can be fixed, and if not, back up the files and reinstall the OS. Thing is I don't know how to do it. Anything you guys can help with?

The best thing you can do is creating a new admin user and inspecting the assaulted main user/the system.

Boot to Recovery Mode (hold cmdR while booting).

Unlock and mount the main encrypted volume either with Disk Utility or Terminal:

#list all CoreStorage items
diskutil cs list
#unlock the locked Logical Volume (replace lvUUID by the UUID found above. Usually it's the last one listed and looks similar to this one: 21019876-ABA9-5678-1234-123453789012!)
diskutil cs unlockVolume lvUUID

Get the name of the main volume (usually it's the last one of the many):

df

The name of the encrypted main volume is also visible if you enter diskutil cs list again. Example:

    ...
    +-> Logical Volume 21019876-ABA9-5678-1234-123453789012
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk16
        Status:                Online
        Size (Total):          1106191572992 B (1.1 TB)
        Conversion Progress:   -none-
        Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
        LV Name:               Macintosh HD
  --->  Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
        Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Change the working directory (here I assume the main volume name is "Macintosh HD"):

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db

List all files:

ls -laO

Remove the file .AppleSetupDone

rm .AppleSetupDone

Check if the file was deleted:

ls -laO

Reboot the Mac. After rebooting you will be asked to unlock the encrypted volume. Enter the password even if it is the one for the only configured user.

After booting has finished you will be asked to set-up your Mac. After configuring locales create a new admin user. Log-in as new admin user.

Now you may either back up the data of the infected main user. Or you can inspect LogIn items, launch agents of the user or system wide launch agents/daemons.

You may also install an anti-malware solution like Anti-Malware for Mac and check for an infection.

Report back if you can't find a culprit.


How can I get the load average (and only the load average) on Mac OS X? On all linux boxes /proc/loadavg contains the raw load for 1, 5, and 15 minutes. Nothing extra. On OS X machines this file does not exist.

Is there a file or a terminal command which will give me the 1, 5 and 15 minute load averages under OS X, similar to /proc/loadavg on Linux? I know top and w display the load averages but they have a lot more information too. I want just the load averages.

You can also use this sysctl:

sysctl -n vm.loadavg


When running 10.7.5 and using Google Chrome I cannot change the name of new folders created using bookmark manager Both my wife and I run 10.7.5 on MacBook Pros. On my wife's machine (2012 MB Pro) she cannot rename a bookmark folder she creates in Google Chrome. All her new bookmark folders are called new folder. This has been happening for awhile. I run 10.7.5 on a 2008 MB Pro and don't have this problem. I suppose deleting Chrome and re-installing is the best solution?

I would highly advice against re-installing chrome.

What I've found is that this feature is hidden and not very intuitive, but it's there. All you have to do, believe it or not, is:

Open Bookmark manager (Ctrl+Shift+O)
Click on the name of the folder(right above your google icon)
Rename to your liking

For the official instructions.

That's it. You can't hit F2 when a folder is selected, which is a mystery to me. Renaming can also be done in a more painful manner through the bookmarks bar:

Open Bookmarks Bar (Crtl+Shift+B)
Right click on the folder
Choose rename

These are the only two ways about it to my knowledge.


How to view Contacts via new Messages? With iChat, i used to be able to view my contacts and know, for example, who is online.

Using Messageshow can i get a list of those google contacts, currently online?

I had a little trouble with this as well. To view the familiar iChat style list of online "Buddies" (a.k.a Contacts) in the Messages app, you can go to "Window" in the menu bar and click on "Buddies."

The keyboard shortcut is ⌘+1.


How to suppress alert 'this app is not optimized for your Mac' I get this pop-up warning on one-off installers and such irrelevant situations. I understand it's to encourage a migration away from 32-bit apps; fine, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's getting on my nerves. Is there some way to put a stop to it altogether?

As mentioned (very briefly) in Apple's guide on how to Prepare your institution for iOS 12 or macOS Mojave, the CSUIDisable32BitWarnings property key can be used to disable the 32bit warning alert.

This can be done in either of the following two ways:

In the terminal

According to this page, the warnings can be disabled by entering the following command in the terminal:

defaults write -g CSUIDisable32BitWarnings -boolean TRUE

To re-enable the warnings:

defaults delete -g CSUIDisable32BitWarnings

To display the current setting:

defaults read -g CSUIDisable32BitWarnings

where 1 means the alerts are disabled, and 0 or a does not exist error message means the alerts are active.

Using a management profile

The same effect can be achieved by preparing a management profile that sets the property key, as proposed by Apple in the above mentioned article. This may be the preferred solution to disable the alerts on multiple Macs.

This article explains how. It also provides a link to a sample management profile. The profile can be installed by downloading and double-clicking it.

For the sake of completeness, this is the example from the above link:

<?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>PayloadContent</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>CSUIDisable32BitWarnings</key>
            <true/>
            <key>PayloadDescription</key>
            <string>Configures com.apple.coreservices.uiagent settings</string>
            <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
            <string>com.apple.coreservices.uiagent</string>
            <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
            <string>com.company.profile.57E80D89-1CA6-4386-8FDE-81DA0292CA3D.com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.FE123766-B72C-4620-9A21-CCABBEB48B2A</string>
            <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>PayloadType</key>
            <string>com.apple.coreservices.uiagent</string>
            <key>PayloadUUID</key>
            <string>FE123766-B72C-4620-9A21-CCABBEB48B2A</string>
            <key>PayloadVersion</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>PayloadDescription</key>
    <string>Disable 32-bit application warnings</string>
    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string>Disable 32-bit application warnings</string>
    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.company.profile.csuidisable32bitwarning.57E80D89-1CA6-4386-8FDE-81DA0292CA3D</string>
    <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
    <string>Company Name</string>
    <key>PayloadScope</key>
    <string>System</string>
    <key>PayloadType</key>
    <string>Configuration</string>
    <key>PayloadUUID</key>
    <string>57E80D89-1CA6-4386-8FDE-81DA0292CA3D</string>
    <key>PayloadVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Update #1

This blog article might be interesting in this context: Mojave’s Legacy Software is doubly wrong

Update #2

File ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.plist seems to maintain a list of alerts and last alert date for 32bit apps. If your alerts keep reappearing, it might help to delete it, but that is just an assumption.

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.plist


broke my python easy_install how to fix? Any idea how to fix:

-bash: /usr/bin/easy_install: No such file or directory

I kind of deleted it by accident before I realized that being behind a proxy was my issue not easy_install

easy_install is part of setuptools. There's a handy script to bootstrap it:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py -o - | python

You may need to put sudo before python if it throws a permissions error. There's a few more details here: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools#installation-instructions but that one-liner should do the trick in most cases.


Is there an Adobe Flash Player type of software for an iPad 2? I need to use my iPad 2 to look at product websites, and most of them require Adobe Flash Player to enable you to see the products. This is incompatible with iPad so is there an alternative, where can I get it, and how much does it cost?

There is no app in iOS or the App Store that will allow you to see Flash-only or Flash-heavy websites. Having said that, websites all around are slowly switching to using alternatives to Flash that are iPad-compatible, so you should run into this problem less and less as times goes by. Hope this helps.


Within Terminal, `date` command outputs a curious prefix where it should'n I am using a Mac Mini running Lion (10.7.5) and zsh 4.3.12 (i386-apple-darwin11.0.1) with oh-my-zsh installed. In the Terminal.app I retrieve the UNIX timestamp using the following command

date +%s

It should print out a string of decimal digits - as the time of writing 1357294199, however it prints 27m1357294199. Notice the 27mprefix. It stays constant aka. does not change with time.

I already tried the following but to no avail

Closed and reopened the Terminal.app
Restarted my computer

Why does the date command print this extra prefix and how do I get rid of it?

Follow-ups (Note: For the sake of simplicity outputs will use a constant timestamp)

The command date '+%s' outputs 27m'1357294199
Command /bin/echo Hello World prints Hello World
type date gives date is /bin/date
/bin/date +%s prints 27m'1357294199

The issue was due to a bug in oh-my-zsh:

The bug was fixed several months ago: update oh-my-zsh and the issue should be solved.
If for any reason you cannot update there is fix on StackOverflow (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12321564/date-command-with-zsh) but it involves the editing of lib/termsupport.zsh: remove the 12th line (warning I do not have oh-my-zsh installed and cannot check if the line number is really the correct one).


Whats that percentage mean in iTunes Connect? I'm starting to publish apps and I'm curious about this green number in iTunes Connect:

I believe it indicates growth over three hundred something. Can someone explain what this is? Thanks!

This shows the change in units since the prior range of data. In the screenshot, 31 units is an increase of 343% over the previous data range.


Can the stand in a Mid-2011 21.5" iMac be removed? I have a mid-2011 21.5" iMac (EMC 2389) and I am trying to remove the stand. I'm trying to follow this guide but I can't seem to find the "latch" that he talks about. I heard that any iMac past 2011 doesn't have a removable stand; this is a 2011 model. Is the stand even removable (whether or not in this manner) and if so how would I go about doing it? Thanks!

iFixIt.com have some of the best step-by-step guides for repairs on just about any Apple device.

I found their guide for removing the stand of your iMac here:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2389+Stand+Replacement/113471

I see it as a little bonus that it's based on steps - that way you don't have to pause the video multiple times.

Good luck!


Can /Library/Audio/ be safely deleted? After looking at How to completely remove Garage Band from macOS?, I was able to found /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/ and /Library/Audio/Apple Loops Index/ using ls and deleted them using rm -rf.

But I also found other folders:

$ ls /Library/Audio/
Impulse Responses   MIDI Configurations MIDI Devices
MIDI Drivers        MIDI Patch Names    Plug-Ins        Sounds

My question is: can /Library/Audio/ and all its content be safely deleted?

When you say "safely", I'm assuming you mean whether it can be deleted if you are not using Garageband, Logic, or any other DAW or audio software on your Mac. The answer is essentially yes. Even if you do use this software, the folder can be 'safely' deleted, as in it won't cause ill effects in the system - but naturally some functionality of the above apps may be impaire. If you were to open/run the Apple apps above, they'd likely just recreate the folder as needed.

Deleting the folder will not affect your Mac's ability to play audio normally, such as alert sounds, music/audio on websites (YouTube and the like). It won't affect your Mac's stability or anything unexpected like that. While it appears to have a folder for 'Alerts', the actual alert sounds used by macOS are stored elsewhere.

This is one of the beautiful things about the logical, human-readable way that so much of macOS is laid out. You can go ahead and delete the folder without worry, but I might ask why you want to remove the folder? Personally, I would err on the side of caution and clear the contents of the folder, but leave the empty 'Audio' folder there, as a placeholder if nothing else.


Mac OS X 10.10.3 running out of disk space after sleep / Potential memory leak? I have a MacBook Pro Retina 13" (Late 2013) with 16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD running Mac OS X 10.10.3. There are 20 GB free space on the SSD according to the Finder.

Despite the relatively huge amount of available disk space I constantly get the "Your startup disk is almost full" alert after waking up the MacBook from sleep. I can then observe in the Finder that only approx. 100-300 MB are available in that very moment, but that within seconds space is freed again, though not the entire space (for example 6 GB become available). It requires a restart/reboot to make the entire 20 GB to reappear.

I'm a hardcore Safari user (a dozen windows open with 1 to 25 tabs in each) and also have ten thousands of mails in my 10 email accounts in Mail.app. I'm also aware that Mail.app retrieves mails while the MacBook is closed, yet I still can't believe that this is what eats up all the disk space. The interesting point is that it only gets dramatically low during/after sleep. When actively using the machine the free space decreases, but never to that degree that the said alert pops up.

I got the strange feeling that one of the various extensions might be the responsible resource hog. How can I nail down who or which app (or if Safari: exactly which browser tab) is responsible for this? Exactly how and where to look in Activity Monitor!?

Swap files? Uhm, yes... But which app and why during sleep!?

Just learned about the existence of a "Sleep image" which likely is to save the state in case the machine runs entirely out of power. Still I'm worried about a memory leak as there is dramatically less space available after a while of using the machine compared to the situation after any reboot.

The purpose of the sleepimage is to store the contents of RAM if your Macbook's battery is low and is about to turn off completely (what Apple call "hibernate"). As such it can be equal in size to the amount of RAM in your Mac. So on your Macbook with 16GB of RAM it could be 16GB in size, which would go a long way to explaining how your Mac with 20GB of free space could quickly fill up. You can check the size of the sleepimage by typing ls -lh /private/var/vm/sleepimage in the Terminal. You can also delete it at any time with sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage as your Mac will just recreate it as needed.

About your Safari use... "a dozen windows open with 1 to 25 tabs in each"...

Have you heard the famous joke about the guy who goes to his Doctor and says "My arm really hurts when I do this" and his Doctor says "Well, don't do that."?

There is another slightly less famous joke about a guy who goes to his Apple Genius and says "My Mac really hurts when I open over a hundred tabs in Safari." and his Apple Genius says "Well don't open over a hundred tabs in Safari."

I might have made that last one up, but it sounds like good advice. You might want to get into the habit of closing tabs and using a bookmarking service like Pinboard or Instapaper.

If you have 16GB of RAM and the most commonly used applications on your Macbook are Safari and Mail, your Mac shouldn't be using a significant amount of swap files. Unless of course you have 100+ tabs open in Safari. You can check the amount and size of swapfiles on your Macbook with ls -lh /private/var/vm/ in a Terminal window. Note that they are in the same place as the sleepimage, but you can't delete them. If you reboot your Macbook it should clear them up itself.

Something else to try is running Etrecheck on your Macbook. It will identify a lot of the third-party extensions/plugins on your Mac, including Internet plugins. I'd start with removing the ones you no longer need or don't recognise.


What do these numbers and symbols mean in my Documents folder in Finder? My Documents are uploaded automatically to iCloud, I recently put a bunch of photos into a subdirectory under ~/Documents/Old Photos and noticed Finder is syncing that directory to iCloud.  However the numbers are a little confusing.

See in the middle of the window there's an up-arrow with 159.28 GB next to it.  What exactly is this?  I thought it was the amount of data left to upload, however it is going up and down rather than just down.  Maybe MacOS is just doing a bad job calculating the remaining data...
Any insight would be helpful

I think I've figured it out.  So when I click the pie shown by the arrow below

this pops up another window showing the progress of my uploads

So I guess the figures do represent the data remaining for that directory, maybe MacOS just made up the numbers at the beginning
¯\_(ツ)_/¯


IPad Air won't play any videos now My iPad now won't play any videos from any site. Netflix, Safari, the YouTube app, YouTube within Safari, iMovie, and Pinnacle Studio Pro all cannot play videos after the update.

My software is up to date with the latest update, I just checked it today.

I've cleared my network settings, cookies, history, rebooted the iPad and tried five different networks.

I don't know what else to try. It's been like this for four weeks now.

Any suggestions would be great!

First make a backup using iTunes or iCloud. As Apple Support suggest their first solution would be do a Network settings reset. I think that what you said you have done already . If you have already done that, they said to reset all settings. That would probably solve your problem. If that ain't help either just do a Erase all content and settings reset. If neither of them work properly, you have to take that into Apple support center.  Before do any of these reset, I highly recommend to backup device.


My iPhone 4s will not make or accept calls I have done a factory reset on my iPhone 4s and it will no longer make calls or receive them. It goes straight to voicemail when called, and when I dial out it just beeps twice and disconnects.

This would have nothing to do with the phones settings, have you tried calling your contract provider? If that doesn't fix the problem i recommend taking it to the apple store where they can do a diagnoses of the problem.


How to get list of folders in sidebar? How to get the list of folders in the sidebar using AppleScript?

It is okay to get the list of all items too since I will be able to search for them

You can't.  Finder's Sidebar is a location for shortcuts to be easily accessible by the user.

From Apple's Human Interface Design Guidelines:

  the sidebar in a Finder window includes a list of frequently accessed locations and tag-based search shortcuts. The user can select one to access its contents or results in the main portion of the window.

Additionally, having a folder list is not practical in this element. Anything more than 2 levels of hierarchy (which is highly plausible in a folder listing) is discouraged.  In this instance, Apple states that a column view be used.

  In general, refrain from exposing more than two levels of hierarchy within a sidebar. In some cases, a second sidebar may be warranted
  when a data hierarchy is deeper than two levels. If your app requires
  the navigation of deeply nested objects, consider implementing a
  column view.

Bottom line; Apple discourages 3rd party developers from doing this, meaning Apple's Finder is definitely not going to show files like this.

You can put a shortcut to a folder, but you won't get a list of folders.


Safari 11.1 Search Engine Preference Reverts to Google Safari 11.1 running under macOS Sierra 10.12.6., on a mid-2013 MacBook Air. The software is all up to date.

I'd like Safari to use DuckDuckGo as its default search engine. However, when I choose DDG in the dropdown at Safari > Preferences > Search, the dropdown immediately and spontaneously reverts to Google, without further input from me. All other Safari functionality works correctly. Interestingly, I have exactly the same software running on a mid-2010 MacBook Pro, and that Safari allows search engine selection.

I have only two extensions (wipr and Omnikey) installed; removing them did not affect this behavior. Quitting Safari and the OS had no effect. Restarting in Safe Mode had no effect. Trashing the com.apple.safari.plist (from ~/Library/Preferences/) had no effect. Replacing the .plist with the plist from the correctly-operating MBP had no effect.

Any ideas how to remedy this?

I found a solution in this Apple Discussion thread.

It turns out that there are two places to select the search engine. Setting the search engine from Safari's URL bar overrides whatever's set in Safari > Preferences > Search. My Safari had Google set from the URL bar, and whatever I set in Safari Preferences was immediately reverted to Google.

To reset the default search engine in Safari's URL bar, click on the magnifying glass icon, which appears at the left side of the URL bar when no page is displayed. A dropdown appears. Then select which engine you'd choose. Luckily, I was content with DDG, one of the only four choices presented.


View a windows format DVD on Mac I have a DVD from my holiday a few years back in which I would like to place into my mac and view, and extract the video for my library. This is my only option. I was wondering if anyone knew how to view a DVD on a mac that has been formatted as a windows DVD? Whenever I insert it, I receive a message claiming that it's an empty disk, but I know it isn't. If anyone could help me that would be fantastic!

There's no such thing as a "Windows formatted" DVD. DVD and CD-ROMs have their own format which is supported by Windows, Mac, Linux and all sorts of appliances, media players, etc.

I will recommend testing:

1) Can the Mac play other DVDs than the problematic one?

2) Does the problematic DVD play on another PC?

If test 1 is negative, try to resolve the problem with the DVD drive on the Mac - for example cleaning the lens, etc. Maybe consider buying an external USB DVD-drive.

If test 2 is negative, try cleaning the DVD disc itself and check it for scratches, etc. It might not be possible to fully recover all the data from it.

If both tests are positive you might have a DVD that is in the process of being filled up with data - i.e. it is not finalized yet. You would then need to finalize the disc - most easily done using the original software you used for burning data to the disc.


How can I fix a Macbook pro MGXA2 draining battery on shutdown? I have a macbook pro 15" late 2014, I've got a problem: battery draining when shutdown (not sleep).

2018-11-17 12:47:31 +0700 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Normal Sleep [CDNVA] due to UserActivity Assertion: Using AC (Charge:100%)
=> I used MBP with A/C 100%

2018-11-19 10:08:17 +0700 Sleep Entering Sleep state due to 'Clamshell Sleep': Using AC (Charge:55%) 266 secs
=> 2 days after, battery drain from 100% to 55% (45% 2days => ~ 22% per day)

My battery heath is 92% GOOD (check by battery heath app) ,
I even tried to reset the System Management Controller (SMC),disable iCloud Drive sync, disable tcpkeepalive but got nothing changed.
Does anyone have this issue too? and is it normal with MBP 2014 MGXA2. This problem is very bad for my job.
I'm so boring and sorry about my bad English.
sudo pmset -g assertion:

Assertion status system-wide:
   BackgroundTask                 0
   ApplePushServiceTask           0
   UserIsActive                   1
   PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep    0
   PreventSystemSleep             0
   ExternalMedia                  0
   PreventUserIdleSystemSleep     0
   NetworkClientActive            0
Listed by owning process:
   pid 102(hidd): [0x0000001100098059] 00:00:00 UserIsActive named: "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294968143.3"
    Timeout will fire in 120 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease
   pid 71(mds): [0x00000005000b8002] 00:00:57 BackgroundTask named: "com.apple.metadata.mds.power"
No kernel assertions.
Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

What might solve this?

There are multiple ways to investigate...

One is using the terminal command Pmset -g assertions

that would display the reasons for Mac staying awake (consuming battery)

Another one is showing you a Month worth of reasons for Mac been awake

log show --style syslog | fgrep "Wake reason"


Identifying where a package came from I just tried to upgrade nmap with my package manager but got knocked back because it's supposedly not installed. Even though it is:

brew upgrade nmap
Updating Homebrew...
==> Auto-updated Homebrew!
Updated 1 tap (homebrew/core).
No changes to formulae.
Error: nmap not installed

nmap --version
Nmap version 6.40-2 ( http://nmap.org )
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0
Compiled with: liblua-5.2.2 openssl-0.9.7l nmap-libpcre-7.6 nmap-libpcap-1.2.1 nmap-libdnet-1.12 ipv6
Compiled without:
Available nsock engines: kqueue poll select

brew info nmap
nmap: stable 7.60 (bottled), HEAD
Port scanning utility for large networks
https://nmap.org/
Conflicts with:
  ndiff (because both install ndiff binaries)
Not installed
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/nmap.rb
==> Dependencies
Required: openssl ✔
Optional: pygtk ✘
==> Options
--with-pygtk
    Build Zenmap GUI
--HEAD
    Install HEAD version

Is it possible to find how a package, utility, or application came to be present, and/or installed on a macOS host? I recall being able to do something like this in the past, on a Linux (Debian) host, and figured there might be some kind of system or utility in place for macOS.

This will show you your installed brew packages

brew list

There may be options in other package managers, but nmap can also be installed by downloading the disk image and installing manually.


Is it possible to customize the default order of Spotlight's results? One day when trying to open Xcode.app with Spotlight, I accidentally told it to open Xcode Server Builder.app. Now every time I type in Xcode into Spotlight, the first result it gives me is Xcode Server Builder instead of Xcode itself due to Spotlight guessing that it's more likely that I'll want the former. I have typing Command + Space Xcode return into muscle memory for launching Xcode so I really want to reverse this behavior.

Is there any way I can manually reset the order in which Spotlight returns matches so that it reverts back to its original default for searches?

I face the same problem. I overcame it by excluding Xcode Server Builder.app from Spotlight search results.

Locate Xcode Server Builder.app by navigating to /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications directory. Now, go to System Preferences → Spotlight → Privacy tab. Drag and drop Xcode Server Builder.app from the Finder window into the list under Privacy tab.

Now, the Xcode Server Builder.app will no longer appear in the Spotlight search results. This should take care of accidentally launching it instead of Xcode.app.

In case you still need to launch Xcode Server Builder.app on an infrequent basis, you can either drag and drop the app into Dock to create a shortcut, or press and hold Command + Option and drag the app icon to any convenient location to create a shortcut link to the app.


No passcode if at home? Is there a way to set up the iPhone so that when I'm away from home it requires a lock code, but when I'm at home I don't need a passcode?

Actually, the basic functionality does not provide this feature.

You can do this by Jaibreaking your device (getting write priviligies to system partition) and installing tweaks like :

AutoProtect
CleverPin


Locked Macbook and iMessages On the Find My iPhone app, I have locked my Macbook so no one else can get on it. I have the Messages app opened to receive my iMessages, but someone turned the Macbook on, it connected to wifi, and became locked.

Will I still receive my iMessages from when it was locked?

The Mac being locked shouldn't impact on the delivery of the iMessages. You should still receive all the iMessages regardless of when the Mac was locked.


Can there be two separate Time Machine Backups on the same external drive? I'm interested in buying an external hard drive. I'd like to know whether if it's possible (and simple if so) to have two separate Time Machine Backups from two different MacBooks at the same time?

You can use an external hard disk formatted with HFS+ as a Time Machine target for several Macs without problems. Time Machine itself will make sure that the data is not getting mixed up by using the name of each Mac as part of the path.


Several users simultaneously on a Mac mini We are a small team of developers and we would like to buy a Mac mini in order to develop for iOS.

We would like to know if it is possible for several users to log in remotely to the Mac mini (using VNC or something similar), each of us having his own desktop (not as VNC does by default).

Is this possible? If yes, which software does it require? (The client machines run on Windows.)

Not sure how it was 2 years ago when this question was asked but I confirmed that this work out of the box for me now.

Mid 2010 Mac Mini running OS X Mavericks 10.9
Client machine tested: Windows 7 Pro using TightVNC Viewer, iPad using iTeleport.

Both client devices were able to connect to Mac Mini via VNC and log in to different user accounts at the same time.

On every VNC session, it will show the mac login window which user can choose to access specific user accounts.

Though I would agree that it might be using up more resources when multiple users are connected at the same time, furthermore using for development.


Hardware virtualization is not supported on MacBookPro 2010 I have a MacBook Pro 2010 where I've installed Windows8 using Bootcamp. When I install Visual Studio 2012 with WindowsPhone8 SDK, it says me that my hardware does not support hardware virtualization, so that the emulator cannot be used.

Is that true? Do you know if there is a way to enable the virtualization?

Windows phone 8 requires SLAT to run with the emulator provided by hyper-v, so yes, we with "old" hardware are out. :(


Internet Sharing on Mountain Lion not working I am trying to share an ethernet connection on a MacBook over Wi-Fi. I enabled Internet Sharing in the Sharing prefpane,

When I try to connect using an iPad, the iPad can see the network but cannot join. No error message is displayed if the network is unsecured, and if the network is secured, the iPad displays the error message 'Unable to join the network, "[network name]"'.

I have tried:

Rebooting the MacBook
Turning the connection on and off
Resetting the network settings on the iPad
Changing the IP address of the Wi-Fi on the Mac from the "self-assigned" address 169.254.31.70 to 192.168.1.1
Deleting /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist (suggested in this AD question
Deleting, as suggested in this AD question:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

Doing, as suggested in this AD question,

$ sudo ifconfig en0 down
$ sudo ifconfig en0 up

What should I try next?

I fixed it! What wound up working for me was going to the Network prefpane, deleting the Ethernet and Wi-Fi interfaces, and re-creating them.


Does the iPhone SE have Sapphire glass? Does the iPhone SE use stronger glass on its screen than iPhone 5S? Does it have Sapphire glass similar to iPhone 6 & 6S.

Nope, just plain old Gorilla Glass.

Apple would have put it here, and it wasn't announced during the keynote.


Filtering a photo of a document to look like a proper scan So there are a couple of iOS apps that "scan" documents and automatically do some processing to make the image look like a quality scan from a real scanner.

When I'm trying this on the Mac with pictures from a DSLR manually with Photoshop the results are usually not as good as what these apps achieve.

Therefore I'm looking for either a Mac app or instructions for Photoshop on how to achieve this. Or maybe even an Automator script.

Just to be clear: I do not need OCR!

You can use ScanTailor.

  Scan Tailor is an interactive post-processing tool for scanned pages. It performs operations such as page splitting, deskewing, adding/removing borders, and others. You give it raw scans, and you get pages ready to be printed or assembled into a PDF or DJVU file.

The program is developed for Windows, GNU / Linux, and other Unix-like systems such as Mac OS X. See Installation . You might need to build it from source though.


Can I get push notifications for emails in my Gmail Priority Inbox only? Is it possible to get push notifications only for the emails in the Gmail Priority Inbox and not for the unimportant mail?

I would like to set up my iPhone 3GS iOS 4.2.1 so that I get notified (with sound, vibration, etc) only when I receive a mail that Google thinks is important to me.

After days of searching I have found the solution. https://www.ultimatenotifier.com/

You have to buy Ultimate Notifier from the AppStore. $2.99 at the moment.
Create a free account on their site or through the app.
Login to the web interface on your computer and under Add Notification select Add Gmail / Google Mail - NEW Priority Inbox
Complete the fields username and password with your Gmail username and password. (I know this is a BIG leap of faith.)
Save.
Log in to the app on your iPhone to receive push notifications


Windows 10 installation using Boot Camp crashes in iMac with 'system thread exception not handled (igdkmd64.sys)' I've installed Windows 10 Pro in my iMac using Boot Camp but when the computer is on for 3-5 minutes, it crashes and shows BSOD with the error 'SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (igdkmd64.sys)'.

I've searched online; everyone saying this is caused by the built-in Intel HD graphics card driver but my iMac has dedicated graphic card AMD Radeon HD 6500 and the driver is updated to current version.

I followed these steps to fix the issue but still no luck.

Disabled the Intel HD driver from device manager under display adapters
Renamed the igdkmd64.sys from C:/Windows/system32 directory (once I completely deleted)
Uninstalled Intel HD graphics software from Programs and Features.

…but each time when I restart the PC, a new igdkmd64.sys file exists in the system32 directory.

The problem is Windows Update always tries to install that corrupted Intel HD driver in the system32 directory.

I couldn't continue to do any work on Windows, because I don't know when it's going to crash.

This issue was not there when I was running Windows 8.1 for nearly a year and half, but when I installed Windows 10 its started to happen.

I would recommend downloading BlueScreenView or WhoCrashed to scan for minidump files and find out what caused this BSOD error. Based on the igdkmd64.sys, it's actually related to Intel Graphics driver.

carrona.org/drivers/search.php?id=igdkmd64.sys

But if you have tried uninstalling this driver and still getting this problem due to Windows forces itself to redownload and reinstall, then I would recommend you do it manually. That means go to:

downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx

find for the driver, download and reinstall manually.

Besides, in some other cases, corrupted system files are also the cause that creates this BSOD error.

Source: How To Fix System Thread Exception Not Handled Error


Where does Screensaver store images? I have only used iPhoto a couple of times by accident (preferring one of the many alternatives).  Each time, I carefully removed those images from iPhoto to the iPhoto trashcan and then emptied the iPhoto trash. Consequently, all the iPhoto sections appear empty:

But when I look at the screensaver, pictures show up when one of the iPhoto directories is selected (the directories can't be deleted in any way I know).

I'm assuming that the images were copied into a screensaver cache (or maybe a link was created). Where are these screen saver images stored?
BTW, I'm still running Snow Leopard on a beautiful 4gig iMac. Thanks!

After scrounging around in plist files (thank you find and grep!), I found the beginnings of an answer, but I'm still a little confused.

It seems that those pesky images have been lingering around (renamed, of course) in the following directory:
~/Pictures/

Deleted them, and now when selecting any of the iPhoto portions of Screensaver, I get the appropriate error message:

-Yeah, that's the ticket!

I hope others will have more details, so I'll wait a couple of days before accepting an answer.


Manually Copy music from Windows PC to iPhone I tried using the charging/USB data cable and Windows Explorer to copy music to an iPhone, however it doesn't do anything and there are no error messages.

I'd like to avoid using iTunes as it loves wasting time converting music files to Apple's proprietary format.

Videos I've come across on YouTube use what seems to be shady software.

I also turned on Bluetooth on a laptop and the iPhone and the laptop did not see the iPhone on the Windows Bluetooth program. So, how do I manually copy music from Windows to an iPhone?

I tried using the charging/USB data cable and Windows Explorer to copy music to an iPhone, however it doesn't do anything and there are no error messages.

This won't work. iPhone is not mounted as a storage device in Windows Explorer.

  I'd like to avoid using iTunes as it loves wasting time converting music files to Apple's proprietary format.

If you don't mind using an alternate music player on your iPhone, there's an approach you can take here.

You'll still need to use iTunes to copy your music to iPhone, however you'll have the liberty to retain the original music file format. You can install VLC for Mobile iOS app on your iPhone. This is the same app available for Windows desktop and support similar file formats as desktop version.

Once you have installed the app, connect your iPhone to your Windows PC, select your iPhone and click on File Sharing in the iTunes window sidebar. Now click to select VLC under Apps. Now drag all your music files under VLC Documents pane. This will effectively copy the files into VLC app on your iPhone. The copy progress will be shown in the iTunes toolbar.

Once copied, simply eject your iPhone. Now open VLC app on your iPhone. You'll be able to access your music files there, in the original format that you copied. You can playback the music like a normal music player and can even listen to it in the background.

  I also turned on Bluetooth on a laptop and the iPhone and the laptop did not see the iPhone on the Windows Bluetooth program. So, how do I manually copy music from Windows to an iPhone?

It is not possible to copy files from Windows PC to iPhone over Bluetooth. Bluetooth is primarily used on iPhone/iPad to connect to accessories and for limited form of file sharing between Apple devices using a technology called AirDrop.


Alfred toggles very slowly On a MacBook5,2 running OSX 10.5, with only 2GB RAM, Alfred toggles very slowly, like up to 5 seconds after the keystroke.
After I've just toggled it, it will toggle again much faster, but after a while it will be slow again.
What can I do to identify and fix the problem?

IIRC it does that even with the computer just started, so it's unlikely it's already swapping, but I'm open to suggestions.

I'd recommend turning off fade-in animation under Appearance where you'll see "Fade in Alfred window".

The only reasons Alfred would be slow are either RAM swapping and you're out of memory or, unlikely but possible, could be due to a network drive that is still being looked for after being disconnected.


I cannot reach my ATV3 anymore after update MBA (late 2010) to 10.9 Since I updated my MacBook Air to 10.9 I cannot reach my AppleTV3 anymore. I know my MBA (Late 2010) will not be supported for mirroring anymore because of the lack of sandy bridge, but before the update I was able to stream Music and Videos out of iTunes to my ATV3.

I checked, by using IP-Scanner to see that my ATV is screened in the same network (no subnet). I tried Airparrot and Beamer.app but they cannot find the ATV either. Is there a possibility to reach them anyway? I don't want to buy a new MBA just to stream my music to ATV!

Have you made sure that your Apple TV (ATV) has the latest firmware?

Do you have another Mac you can try to connect to the ATV?

If you have another Mac then you could also try running AirServer (they offer a 7 day free trial) on it and see if the Air can AirPlay to it.

You need a little more information about exactly what is going on before you can really find a solution.


How do I add Applications to Favorites in Finder' Sidebar? Applications has disappeared from the sidebar in Finder and I don't know how to get it back.

Finder menu > Preferences > Sidebar tab

Check the box next to Applications.


Bluetooth controls from Notification Center on iPad I find myself spending a lot of time moving through the menus to re-connect my iPad to my iPhone to tether the network.

It would be great to be able to perform this task (or at least speed it up) from the notification center.

Now that iOS 5.1.1 has been jailbroken I have SBSettings toggles working in the notification center on my iPad3 so I can toggle the bluetooth on and off from there, but I cannot get it to connect to my iPhone.

Even something as basic as a shortcut-icon to open up Bluetooth Settings would work. Activator has an action that does this that I can assign but curiously there doesn't seem to be a way to add such an action as an icon in notification center.

I just had a browse through the Cydia app and I found iTether w/OnDemand and it also has a SBSetting toggle to go with it.

Now it is $5, so I am not goign to buy and try, but seeing your question it seems to solve what you want to achieve:-)


Can I buy an unlocked iPhone in Japan? I'm going to Japan (Tokyo, being more specific) on April, and I'd like to buy an iPhone there. I made some research and found mixed information about whether is possible to buy an unlocked iPhone 7 256GB in an Apple Store in Tokyo.

This post for example, is from someone that bought an iPhone and it didn't work in US. But MadDane said in Aug 18, 2016:

  I have lived in Japan and have friends that came to visit while I was there that bought an iPhone 6s while there. This was at an Apple Store in Tokyo, but it was unlocked and works perfectly overseas. So you should definitely be able to get the same.

So, is it possible to buy an unlocked iPhone in Japan at an Apple Store to use it later with a GSM carrier in Brazil?

It is possible to buy a unlocked iPhone at any apple-store in japan, but there are the following issues:

LTE Freqency Band does not match (Japan 2,1 GHz / Brazil 2.6 GHz). That means, LTE will not work. You will need the model A1778 and in Japan you can only buy the model A1779: http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
You can not claim any warranty replacements outside of japan


Music app of iOS 12 on iOS 13 Is it possible to have the music app of iOS 12 on iOS 13, because the interface where the queue can be accessed only by pressing a button rather than scrolling/swiping down is very annoying.

Open to Jailbreaking the device for the same.

Apple uses code signing to lock all their apps to the latest OS version. If you were to jailbreak your phone it might be possible to replace the Music app from a previous version but it would likely cause instability.

A more reliable solution would be to roll back your phone to OS 12. But you’d be trading off the new features from OS 13.


Will the retina iPad Mini charge with non-certified cables? I just bought a retina iPad Mini. Tried 3 different cheap lightning cables, none will charge it. Tried with 12W and 5W USB chargers. It will only charge with the Apple cable that came with it. But these Chinese cables charge my iPhone 5 and old iPad Mini just fine. Did something change in the new iPad's lightning chip? I wonder if is is a widespread problem or just me.

See this question for more info. In short, you're taking your device's life in your hands when you don't use legit products. You have a multi-hundred-dollar device, do not cheap out on the thing that's directing nontrivial amounts of electricity into it!

Authorized products aren't that expensive and you can be sure that you won't have strange things happen.

Newer devices will straight up refuse to work without the authentication chip in the cable. Previous devices (and maybe iOS versions) would still charge, but display the error, or do so at a reduced rate.


two itunes libraries - one on external hard disk I have a macbook pro as my everyday machine, but since my music collection was getting big and my hard disk is small, I decided to utilize an external hard disk that I had and was not used for anything. On the external HDD I created a new iTunes Library and copied all my music there. Some small amount of it I left on my MBP so I could listen on the go. When I was home and I wanted to refresh the MBP's music, I'd connect the external HDD and if I downloaded any new music in my iTunes Library I'd copied them to the external HDD too.
This way the external HDD contains the most current contents of my music collection.
It was ok, until I recently decided to buy an iPhone.

I synced the iPhone to my MBP's iTunes Library and now trying to copy some new music from the external HDD iTunes Library I'm being told that in order to do that I have to delete everything that's on my iPhone.

Is there any different option?

iPhone can be synced to only one iTunes library at any given moment. If you want to add songs to the iPhone, you must add them to your MBP's iTunes library and then sync to the iPhone.


Does MBA early 2014 base model support 3440 x 1440 (WQHD ultrawide 21:9) external monitor? Can a MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014) 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB support external display over displayport input displaying a 3440 x 1440 resolution at 60Hz ?

P.S: Planning to purchase a WQHD monitor and run it above mentioned mac book air.

Yes, Flawlessly!!!! in the image there is a lie the  2560 x 1080 is not 34-inches is 25-inches and that one is connected trough display link usb-hdmi adapter from toshiba, the 3440 x 1440 is 34-inches but you need thunderbolt cable, the macbook air early 2014 can run them both! Super happy!!! to the toshiba adapter I can even plug another 1920 x 1080, so I wonder if through daisy chain it can run two 34 inch... well the answer is yes!!


How do I get my Mac to do nothing when I insert a cd? I recently got an older MacBook Pro that has an optical drive. Every time I insert a CD, iTunes will always respond in some way.

I have already tried changing the setting in iTunes > Preferences > General, but I don't see the option I want.

How do I get this Mac to absolutely do nothing when I insert a CD?

You can do this in your Mac's system preferences:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > CDs & DVDs
You'll see a menu for When you insert a music CD
Change that menu from "Open iTunes" to "Ignore".

Notes:

You may also want to check the options for Blank CD and Blank DVD as they also include built-in options to open iTunes.
The other menus also provide the ability to run a script, so if you got the MacBook from someone and you're using their old account, these may be worth checking as well in case they're launching iTunes or another application.


What happens with the appearance of the folder icons in dark mode of macOS Mojave Finder? In High Sierra I used some custom icons for my folders in the Finder; but with the new update to Mojave and the dark mode, the predefined icons also become darker. However the custom icons don't.

Inspecting an element you find a dark preview, but when you extract the icon this is the clear, the same as there was in High Sierra. E.g.:

Previously visualization of the developer predefined icon. It's dark:

But if you extract that icon, it's clear:

There are no dark icons in the system library, at least not in the same directory as always:

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources

Are they being actively obscured by the operative system without there being icons with that real appearance? In this case, any idea to apply this method to the custom icons without modifying it into a new coloration?

Are they being actively obscured by the operative system without there being icons with that real appearance?

Folder icons are indeed displayed with a darker shade of blue and a darkened tab when using Dark Mode.

In this case, any idea to apply this method to the custom icons without modifying it into a new coloration?

I think you will have to modify your custom folder icons, but beware the darker look is not consistent: Folder icons are darkened when placed on the desktop and previewed with Quick Look, but when displayed in a Finder window, they maintain their bright appearance, as you can see in the following screenshots:
Folder on Desktop:

Same folder in Finder window, with a Quick Look preview to its right:

So you are out of luck if you want your custom folders to match the way Finder folders look like. I think this behavior is more of an omission than a deliberate design decision, and checking "Reduce Transparency" in System Preferences>Accessibility>Display doesn't change how folders are displayed, that is, this is not caused by Desktop Tinting (more on Desktop Tinting below).
About Desktop Tinting
There is a new Mojave feature called Desktop Tinting that only is activated when using Dark Mode. Desktop Tinting slightly modifies the color of windows to match your desktop picture.
If you want to disable Desktop Tinting, Graphite Mode will disable the color tinting altogether, according to, for example, Apple's Introducing Dark Mode WWDC 2018 Session and Ars Technica Mojave review.
You can find additional information about Desktop Tinting in the Introducing Dark Mode WWDC 2018 video (select the Transcript tab and search for "desktop tinting"):

[D]esktop tinting (...) causes the window's background colors to camouflage
themselves with the desktop picture.
We found that completely
desaturated gray colors have a tendency to have a color temperature
that was sometimes in conflict with what your desktop picture was, and
this effect was magnified when you have a translucent sidebar area,
for example, against a solid opaque area of your window, and so
desktop tinting helps mitigate that.
Once applied, the desktop tinting
gives the whole window a harmonious color scheme, which helps it to
blend in with the surrounding areas and really reduces that color
temperature disparity.

and the Ars Technica Mojave review:

One separate but related feature exclusive to Dark Mode is called
Desktop Tinting, which goes beyond the translucent sidebars and other
UI elements.
Each window samples an “average” color from whatever
piece of your desktop wallpaper it’s on top of and uses that color to
subtly tint every single window in the operating system. (...) Apple says that it’s meant to keep the bold Dark Mode windows from clashing with your chosen wallpaper.


Apps on iPhone lockscreen: how to remove them, i.e. Starbucks Hopefully a simple solution. I installed a recent Starbucks app, and noted it was tracking my location and popping up on the lock screen. I do not want that. At all. Even after setting not to show on lock screen, it shows. I finally just removed it, but wondered as to how to get it to stop? I even turned off location tracking and yet it continued.

I wonder if having the older version still on my phone might have caused this?

It may be because you added as a passbook pass. If it only shows up when you are near the store, that's the reason. Go to the Starbucks app, click Stores at the top, click the store you are at, and hit the X near the passbook option.

(You can also delete the pass directly in Passbook.)


Can not download el Capitan I have an older Mac computer.  Apple tells me it will run OS thru El Capitan.  It is currently running snow leopard 10.6.8.

When I open "http://iTunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835433?mt=12" I go to the Apple App Store and it says this is the El Capitan download.  There is a blue button on the left side of screen under the large X that says "Get".  If I click on this blue button, the button changes shade of blue as long as I hold the mouse button down, but nothing happens.  If I click on the down arrow on the right side of the blue button, I get two options, "copy link" and "tell a friend".

How do I download El Capitan?  I called Apple tech support (tier 2) and spend several hours downloading to 10.6.8, but Apple can not tell me why I can not download El Capitan from the App Store.  Any help appreciated!

If neither of the "direct" App Store links (1. El Capitan 2. El Capitan) as described in other answers like this one work, you can try to trick App Store - as elaborated here: Install OS X El Capitan on Mac Direct Download.

Here a local web server with all necessary files mimics the remote but stubborn Apple server.

Open a browser and download the following files:

OS X El Capitan .pfpkg file (direct link)
OS X El Capitan .pkg file (direct link)

Open Terminal.app and enter

sudo nano /etc/hosts

add the following line at the end of the file: 127.0.0.1  osxapps.itunes.apple.com
Hit ctrlO to write the file to disk and ctrlX to exit nano
Enter sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder to flush the DNS cache.
Enter cd Desktop to change your working directory to your desktop
Create a folder mkdir osxapps_local and cd to it: cd osxapps_local
Create to paths with:

sudo mkdir -p ./apple-assets-us-std-000001/Purple60/v4/45/df/86/45df865d-d24d-01d6-2b2c-c003317293ac/
sudo mkdir -p ./apple-assets-us-std-000001/Purple20/v4/dc/94/05/dc940501-f06f-2a91-555e-3dc272653af5/

move the downloaded files to the respective folders:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/signed.dcr.6112397842917719871.pfpkg ~/Desktop/osxapps_local/apple-assets-us-std-000001/Purple60/v4/45/df/86/45df865d-d24d-01d6-2b2c-c003317293a
sudo mv ~/Downloads/izt4803713449411067066.pkg  ~/Desktop/osxapps_local/apple-assets-us-std-000001/Purple20/v4/dc/94/05/dc940501-f06f-2a91-555e-3dc272653af5

Start a small web server:

sudo python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80

Now you can check if your small web server works by entering

http://osxapps.itunes.apple.com/apple-assets-us-std-000001/Purple20/v4/dc/94/05/dc940501-f06f-2a91-555e-3dc272653af5/izt4803713449411067066.pkg

in the address field of your browser. The file should be "downloaded" with a high download speed. Delete the downloaded file afterwards.
Launch App Store.app, go to the El Capitan page or your Purchased tab and download OS X El Capitan from there.
The OS X El Capitan Installer.app should be "downloaded", compiled in /Applications/ and launched. Quit the OS X Installer for now. Quit App Store.app.
Quit the http server by entering ctrlC in Terminal.app
Revert the changes of your hosts file:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

and remove the line 127.0.0.1  osxapps.itunes.apple.com.
Hit ctrlO to write the file to disk and ctrlX to exit nano
Quit Terminal.app
Open /Application/Install OS X El Capitan.app and install El Capitan


Not able to resolve my domain name on browser I am using docker for application and modified the hosts file and added domain name on local browser. I added in hosts:

    127.0.0.1 xyz.com

but when I am trying to open from browser getting the following error:

This page isn’t working

xyz.com is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

What I am doing wrong?
Same application running in different OS like windows and ubuntu but here I am facing issues.

If you are modifying /etc/hosts in the Docker container itself, then only processes within the Docker container are going to be able to resolve that domain locally.

Thus, if you are using a browser on your Mac to access a port exposed by Docker, it knows nothing about the DNS override and will try to hit the real site -- which likely explains the message you're getting.

You need to append to your Mac's /etc/hosts. (You'll need sudo, a text editor, and to ensure you left the file owner, group, and permissions unchanged when you're done.)


Can airport X Ray damage rMBP? I was wondering if the X Ray machines at the airport can damage laptops (specifically a rMBP..) or their components (SSD, Battery and so on....)?

If you're asking about the carry-on scanners the answer is no.

I'd be very surprised if the hold baggage scanners had any effect either.

In the past I've irradiated a variety of computers and devices with energies and doses in excess of what a regular airport carry-on baggage scanner offers.

This FDA item might offer some independent reassurance


Inconsistent access to Bonjour services on sleeping devices This may turn out to be two different questions/answers, but I suspect they're somewhat related. Let's see...

Among other things on my home network, I have a MacBook Pro (mid-2010) and a Macbook (late 2009), both running 10.9.5, and a 2nd gen AppleTV and a 3rd gen AppleTV, both fully updated.

When the Macbook is asleep, provided iTunes was running when it went to sleep, all my other devices can see its iTunes library, and wake up the Macbook to access it if they want to. But when the MacbookPro is asleep, nothing can see its iTunes library until I open the lid again.

When the AppleTV 2 is asleep, all my other devices can see it and select it as an AirPlay target. But when the AppleTV 3 is asleep, nothing can see it until I wake it up.

Obviously, I'd prefer it if all my devices could see the services on all my other devices, all the time—I understand this is what the Bonjour Sleep Proxy service is supposed to do. But I can't figure out why it's working for some devices, but not others.

Any clues?

EDIT: To answer the most common question I'd anticipate, yes, "Wake for network access" is checked in the Energy Saving prefs on both the laptops in question.

I eventually tracked this down to the behaviour of one of my Powerline adapters, specifically a TP-Link TL-WPA4220. For whatever reason, multicast traffic does not appear to correctly pass through the WiFi on this device, even with the latest firmware.

TP-Link have a related technical note on this, but it doesn't seem to apply to my particular device. In the meantime, I've just left the WiFi turned off on this adapter (still using it for two wired devices, including the 3rd gen Apple TV), and things seem to be working better again.


Is it bad to use MacBook pro with battery every day. Is it bad to use new MacBook Pro with battery every day? Or would it be better for the battery lifetime to use battery only one day a week?

The problem is that I don't think I can change battery if it gets bad...it's built into the MacBook I think.

There is no harm in running on battery most of the time.

To get the most out of your MacBook Pro's battery, follow the Notebook Battery advice from Apple: unplug and use your battery until empty about once a month, then charge back up to full.

If you need help following Apple's advice, use Battery Guardian; it is free and will remind you when to deplete your battery.