How to use BetterTouchTool to show Mail.app unread count in touch bar I have a MacBook Pro with a touch bar and have never used BetterTouchTool. I know it has touch bar functionality, like adding a button to open an app. Is it possible to show either of the following?

The Mail.app icon (with unread email count)
Just the number of unread emails

If so, how can it be accomplished?

BetterTouchTool has a "widget" option for the touch bar, and one of the options is to display the output of an AppleScript program. You could write a script that gets the number of unread emails (another question has some code for doing that here)


3 Terabyte hard drives in Mac Pro Mid 2010? I got the Mid 2010 Single CPU Mac Pro and want to add a 3 TB hard drive, specifically the Western Digital Caviar Green WD30EZRX.

Does anyone know if that drive will work? Not looking to boot from it, just need a large data drive and got all 4 bays in use already.

Mac is running OS X Lion and windows 7 64-Bit, so GPT partition scheme is no problem.


Is my new Time Machine backup okay if my MacBook went to sleep during encryption? I started a new Time Machine backup last night and enabled the third-party app Amphetamine to keep my machine awake for 9 hours. When I returned in the morning, it appeared that my MacBook went to sleep after those 9 hours, but Time Machine still read "Encrypting...".

Is my Time Machine okay, or do I need to wipe it and start again?

After this, I ejected the Time Machine drive and plugged the it back into my Macbook when I got to work. It backed up a new 500 MB of files and went back to encrypting. This makes me think that perhaps Time Machine dealt with the MacBook going to sleep fine, but I want to make sure.

Your Time Machine backup is OK!

The encryption process is completely resumable, and it does so automatically.


Is it true that all cameras of all generations of iPhone can have photo + video geotagging? I am a little bit confused about the geotagging feature in iPhone, so I will list all these lines & tell me if any of them is wrong.

iPhone 2G has a Rear Camera that can take photo only with photo geotagging.
iPhone 3G has a Rear Camera that can take photo only with photo geotagging.
iPhone 3Gs has a Rear Camera that can take photo with photo geotagging + record video with video geotagging
iPhone 4 has an iSight rear camera that can take photo with photo geotagging + record video with video geotagging, and has FaceTime front camera can take photo with photo geotagging + record video with video geotagging
iPhone 4s is the same as iPhone 4 (i.e. it has 2 cameras & each camera can take photo with photo geotagging & record video with video geotagging.
iPhone 5 is the same as iPhone 4
iPhone 5c is the same as iPhone 4
iPhone 5s is the same as iPhone 4

Are any statements from 1 to 8 wrong?

Your statements are all true.

Though the geotagging on the first iPhone wasn't really precise since there was no built-in GPS : it used the GSM triangulation to localize the phone (source).


LVDS (LCD data) cable replacement The video on my mid-2009 13" Macbook Pro freezes and becomes noisy sometimes, depending on the position of the lid, pressure, etc.

I opened it, and could reproduce the behavior by poking at the LVDS (LCD data) cable.

Is replacing the cable something the Genius Bar can do quickly, or am I better off doing it myself? The cable costs $20 online. I watched the YouTube videos showing how to remove the LCD -- I think I could do it.

It's not a very difficult think to do, I used to work at the Genius bar and I can confirm that it takes roughly about 20 mins for me to do, but there's always a queue of repairs to be done so it's very unlikely they will get it done there and then for you, unless you get a nice Genius.
If I were you and if the computer is out of warranty, then I'd say to do it yourself.


How can I turn off the gamed service or more generally, any service? Yeah, bought a Macbook Retina, come from a Linux background where this stuff is usually a question of removing via the package manager.

Anyhow, I don't play games on this, it's purely for business/development. But I keep seeing this gamed process that came down with the Mavericks update trying to phone home.

Apart from software update, I don't really want any process phoning home, especially when I paid 2G for the damned thing.

Anyhow, anyone know how I can disable/uninstall/kill this process for good?

Specifically for the gamed service, the following command in one of the posts about a similar topic on the Apple Support Communities worked for me, without any need to modify plists or rename files:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.gamed disabled -bool true

Changing "true" back to "false" will re-enable it, although I've not tried it.


Can't "approve this phone" after iOS 10 My husband owns one iPhone - no other device.  He upgraded to iOS 10 and now it's asking him to "approve the phone" on another device. Logging in on iCloud.com does not work. Please advise so he can continue setting up his phone without resetting all of his data!

Dear tubedogg & Gabriel,

As Gabriel pointed out, this problem is NOT related to iCloud Keychain, but actually to Two-Factor Authentication. Unfortunately, this problem has not been solved even by iOS 10.0.2 released on Sep. 23rd yet. If you automatically turned on the authentication during your update to iOS 10x, here is the solution.

STEP 1: When you update the iOS, skip "approve the phone" by pushing the button of Cancel. You can retry it later.

STEP 2: Complete the iOS update by following the instruction.

STEP 3: Make sure that your Two-Factor Authentication is ON at this moment by either of the following options:
 Option A) Read a notification email from Apple.
 Option B) On your iPhone, go to [Settings] --> [iCloud] --> tap your profile of Apple ID --> Password & Security --> Two-Factor Authentication

STEP 4: Turn OFF the Two-Factor Authentication. During this process, you will be required to reset your Apple ID (iTunes & iCloud) password. But no worries, no date will be deleted. If you received the notification email about the Authentication, you will find a link of "turning off the Authentication" in the email.

STEP 5: After completing the Authentication OFF, retry "approve the phone" by going to
[Settings] --> the red flag. Without doing anything, your iPhone will be automatically and immediately approved. All set.

You can get the Two-Factor Authentication back ON anytime later if you wish.

Hope this helps.


My "Date and Time" time is a minute off of the official time I'm using Mavericks,10.9.5.

The time on the menu bar exactly matches the time in the official Date and Time area… It is that time in the official area that is incorrect.

First the time was about 30-40 seconds fast, and then I had to restart the computer several times because of an unrelated issue, and now I'm nearly a minute SLOW. Using a comment that I found in another thread, I found the terminal (for the first time ever!), entered this:

sudo ntpdate -u time.apple.com

And the result was this:

31 May 15:29:14 ntpdate[2476]: step time server 17.253.26.253 offset 50.650629 sec

What is the next step in trying to fix this issue... preferably in words of one syllable?

The use of ntpdate is considered deprecated. Most would recommend using ntpd instead, which is what the underlying system uses.

First, check in the "Date & Time" System Preferences pane that you have "Set date and time automatically" checked and have selected a time server. then try sudo ntpd -g in the terminal.

If this doesn't work then I would suspect a firewall issue on your network. You don't say if this is happening at work or home or regardless of location.


How to use Aquamacs on a non US keyboard? I occasionaly use Aquamacs on my Macbook Pro. I have also bought an Apple keyboard with a US english layout, because it is not practical to program on a Mac with a french (or more generally probably any non english) layout. These characters { } | \ ~ [ ] are not even on the keyboard, and you have to use various combinations of meta keys to get them.

Of course it doesn't work well when you need: M-\ , because typing backslash already requires meta keys.

So, how do you use Emacs on a non english keyboard, if that is even possible ?

I could switch the built-in keyboard layout to english, but that's not really comfortable to use it for a long time. I do it when I have no other choices, for example when at some point I need a lot of braces, but that's just temporary.

In Aquamacs check the Options->Option,Commands,Meta keys menu. It allows you to switch the key bindings of the various meta keys. I have the same issue with the Swiss German keyboard and using M-; to toggle Meta/Alt behavior helps a lot.


Accidentally used dd on my main OSX drive I've made a bit of a balls up...

When attempting to create a bootable Ubuntu usb drive I accidentally ran dd on my main system drive :(

sudo dd if=/path/to/image.img of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=1m

I realised what I'd done pretty quickly but everything seemed fine so I re-ran the command on the correct drive /dev/disk2 and thought "phew not sure how I got away with that"... Then things started going wrong... I could continue using the applications I had open but opening anything new / accessing the hdd caused that thing to lock.

Sadly I haven't been using time machine, lesson learnt!

I spoke to AppleCare who said I need to reformat the machine but I'm really hoping there's some way to restore whatever 1m I destroyed (I'm assuming something to do with the partition information). Wishful thinking?

Also, AppleCare told me to restart, which means I can only user repair mode utils.

Help!

Sorry to hear of your situation. The first megabyte will have included the drive's partition and critical structural information.

If you can, dd all the remaining content to another drive as a back-up of sorts. Then I suspect your best choice is a professional repair service or a tool like DiskWarrior:

  DiskWarrior

  Everything just disappeared after your Mac went haywire. All your work documents. The music you most enjoy. The movie of your kid's first steps. It's your life and it's gone. Don't panic! DiskWarrior will recover your documents, photos, music and any other files when disaster strikes and you lose access to your files.

Recovering a Mac Drive on OS X

@DavidAnderson mentions in the comments below that recovery may be possible. This assumes your drive was GUID partitioned. The Cloudy Aide-Mémoire article, Recovering a non-readable disk on Mac OS X goes into more detail:

  Connect your external disk
  Start terminal and use the 3 commands in bold below:

  diskutil list
  sudo gpt recover /dev/disk1
  diskutil eject /dev/disk1

  If the last command was successful, disconnect and reconnect your disk, which >should now be OK

  An alternative to the second command (gpt) would be diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk1

  Note than the manpage for gpt does not cover the recover option whereas the manpage for diskutil does cover the repairDisk option.

Good luck – and be sure to back-up in the future!


El Capitan can´t see or remove partition but it shows up in Terminal EDIT: managed to reformat the partition to JHFS+, after accidentaly creating another partition i merged the new and the old one i dint want, then it let me merge all of them together.

I created a partition to originally use for linux. I gave it 30 GB and installed Linux no problem. Now I am in need for space in El Capitan and I can not remove the partition to give me more space. I managed to reformat it to HFS+ and it is not a corestorage(?) unit.

Here are screenshots of Disk Utility and the output of diskutil list:

It is because the Linux file system is something that OS X cannot natively read.  The easiest thing to do is to is load up a live Linux CD and change the partition to something OS X can read like ExFAT, or MSDOS.  Once that change has been made, OS X should be able to see it; allowing you to manipulate the partition.

The other option is to load up FUSE for OS X which will allow you to read/write ext2, ext3, and ext4 file systems.  I am not a fan of loading up applications for one time use, but I wanted to let you know about it.


2019 Update: Where does Chrome store cookies on Mac? Apparently the location noted in: Where are Google Chrome cookies stored on a Mac? is outdated.

This tree no longer exists: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Cookies

After some searching, I located them here:

~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1/Cookies

and, to view the contents concisely, DB Browser for SQL Lite still works. Just load the cookies file into it.


I cannot call with Siri on whatsapp After I update my iPhone 7 Plus with iOS 14 (14.0.1) my siri is not calling with whatsApp. I don't know what is the reason. I tried to make Shortcut but I cannot see action for call with whatsApp or also cannot see read messages with whatsApp.
It was working very well before I update iOS. Siri works very well with everything other than whatsApp. I contact whatsApp support and send them diagnostic log file, they reply me it is issue with Phone.
Kindly help me to resolve it, it is driving me nuts.

Have you re-enabled Siri for WhatsApp? Go to settings and check under siri & search. Scroll down to whatsapp and check the box to allow "use with Ask Siri".


How to double "iPhone is Disabled" timer? So, someone showed me a secret with the iPhone that if you enter a certain pin on the lockscreen, the iPhone will be disabled for double the amount of time. I've been searching on Google trying to find this, but I can't find anything about this. I'm kinda skeptical and I would like to know if this even exists, and maybe any other secret pin combinations that can be entered that affect the disabling of the iPhone in some way.

Honestly, I do not promote theft or anything of that nature, I would actually like to try these things on my old iPhone for fun.

There are no secret passcode combinations to do that with original firmware from Apple. You can only find a way to tweak it after jailbreak your iPhone.


How do I view which devices are connected to my AirPort Extreme using AirPort Utility v6.0? I recently upgraded to AirPort Utility v6.0, and I can't find where to check what devices are currently connected to my AirPort Extreme. I know that this was possible using older versions of AirPort Utility, and hopefully that feature wasn't removed.

How can I find what devices are connected to my Airport Extreme?

Just click on the AE icon and it will display a list of connected wireless clients.


High Sierra restored from ISO to USB drive stops at the stop sign I've restored macOS High Sierra ISO file (downloaded from Torrent) to pendrive (16GB SanDisk's Cruzer Dial) using Disk Utility, however when booting from it (by pressing Alt and selecting the drive), it stops on the screen which shows the white stop sign on the gray background.

So I've booted with verbose mode enabled (by holding pressing CMD-V at the start), but the messages aren't clear on what it's failing.

Few messages from scrambled screen are:

  IOUSBHostDevice::message: kUSBHostMessageRemoteWake
  IOUSBHostDevice::forcePowerGated: kPowerStateSuspended completed with 0x00000000 after 15ms

Note: The above black screen is showing booting still in progress.

I don't know how to read these scrambled screens. I've tested on both MacBook Air and Pro and the same thing is happening. The High Sierra was booting before, but not anymore. Restoring the image couple of times (even different High Sierra images) didn't help. It tries to boots to some point, but it stops at the stop sign. The pendrive is brand new and Disk Utility (First Aid) doesn't report any issues with it.

What does the above screens means? How I should correct, proceed or debug this further?

For those trying to create bootable USB from a downloaded ISO file

In my case it was an incorrect way of burning ISO file into USB pen drive/stick using Disk Utility's restore from a downloaded standalone ISO image file. The USb pen wasn't bootable until it was created from files contained inside the ISO using the above command.

STEPS:

Mount downloaded ISO file by double clicking on it (will mount under /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra)
Run a slightly modified above command and amend source and destination paths if necessary (I used DiskUtility to erase my USB with name set to Untitled and Mac OS Extended (Jurnaled) file type as it failed on APFS file type):

$ sudo /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

More info on different releases: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372


i forgot my password and it is now blocked how do I erase and restore if my iphone5c is offline? I was half asleep when I changed the password into a 4-digit code, until my son tried all passwords ever used and found it disabled after several tries. I can't use itunes to connect to the phone as it asks me to respond using my phone that is now blocked! I went to icloud -- find my phone -- and chose erase iphone, but the device is offline. It does not connect to our wifi and cellular data.

What to do? Can apple support remotely wipe or erase my phone? I can supply all necessary info and documents to prove the phone is mine and not lost. Please, please help....

In case if you got the documents that proves the legitimacy of your purchase, you can go to the closest Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Find them here:
https://locate.apple.com
(Service / iPhone)

It will take time to unlock your iPhone, but it's possible.


Installing RAM in a 27 inch late 2013 iMac I would like to increase the RAM in my iMac (it currently holds the standard 2 x 4GB cards with 2 empty slots). I have found some 16 GB cards for a good price and would like to increase the RAM to support my graphics programs. I know that it can only support 32GB (as per apple website).

Do you have to use all 4 slots if you increase the RAM?
Will it still work if I remove the 2 x 4GB cards and replace with 2 x 16GB cards?
Can I add just one 16GB card and leave one slot empty?

Thank you

No, you do not have to use all 4 slots in your iMac.

However, I haven't personally seen a 16GB RAM chip used in your model iMac and I've seen a lot of iMacs in my time, so others here may have to comment on whether they've actually tried it. Typically, to get to the maximum 32GB RAM, users have 4 x 8GB RAM chips installed (one in each slot).

The configuration I've personally seen the most is 24GB RAM installed, made up of the two 4GB chips originally installed by Apple and an additional two 8GB chips installed by the end user in the two remaining slots. 24GB RAM is nothing to sneeze at.

Please note:

The RAM your iMac needs must meet the following specs: 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
Apple provides  full instructions on how to install RAM in an iMac


Proxy is configured (correctly, I guess). Appstore and Safari work fine. But network traffic on Terminal does not work Set HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SOCKS, Streaming, Gopher to 10.11.0.1 and port 8080,
with no username and password. And it works for Safari and App Store. And set the same entries to Firefox and it also works with no issue.

How do I set the proxy for particular networks so that it works fine on every app?

How do I set the proxy for particular networks so that it works fine on every apps?

You have configured several proxies in System Preferences, and that's the right way to do it (that's why the App Store app and Safari work fine). Unfortunately, Terminal is an exception and needs its own proxy settings.

Why is that? Terminal is merely a container that runs a shell. A shell a program that, simply put, displays a prompt and waits patiently for you to execute commands like ls and rm.

Shells predate macOS and have their own rules for configuring proxies. Shells know nothing about proxy settings in System Preferences, and they need to be configured separately.

macOS's default shell is Bash (you can find out which shell you are running by executing echo $0 at the prompt) so I'll explain how to set the proxy in Bash.

The simple solution

Launch Terminal and type this command to change directory to our home directory:

cd ~

Type these commands to open .bash_profile with TextEdit:

touch .bash_profile
open -a TextEdit .bash_profile

Set the proxy environment variables by typing the following text in TextEdit and replace <your http proxy>,  <your https proxy> and <your ftp proxy> with your proxy server (if TextEdit already contains text, add the text below at the end of the file):

export HTTP_PROXY="<your http proxy>"
export http_proxy=$HTTP_PROXY
export HTTPS_PROXY="<your https proxy>"
export http_proxy=$HTTP_PROXY
export FTP_PROXY="<your ftp proxy>"
export ftp_proxy=$FTP_PROXY

If you have configured in System Preferences a list of hosts and domains that should be contacted directly bypassing the proxy, add them like this:

export NO_PROXY="<comma-separated list of hosts>"
export no_proxy=$NO_PROXY

For example:

export HTTP_PROXY="http://10.11.0.1:8080"
export http_proxy=$HTTP_PROXY
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://10.11.0.1:8080"
export http_proxy=$HTTP_PROXY
export FTP_PROXY="http://10.11.0.1:8080"
export ftp_proxy=$FTP_PROXY
export NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1"
export no_proxy=$NO_PROXY

Save the file with ⌘S and close TextEdit.
Close Terminal and reopen it. Now the proxy settings should work correctly.

A more elaborate solution

The method above has a drawback: you need to keep two configurations, the one in System Preferences and the one in .bash_profile.

Luckily, as explained on Derek Morgan's blog, you can have Bash import the System Preferences proxy settings using the scutil command. Simply follow the steps detailed in the previous section, but in step 3 set the http/https/ftp proxy environment variables as follows:

export HTTP_PROXY=$(scutil --proxy | awk '\
/HTTPEnable/ { enabled = $3; } \
/HTTPProxy/ { server = $3; } \
/HTTPPort/ { port = $3; } \
END { if (enabled == "1") { print "http://" server ":" port; } }')
export http_proxy=$HTTP_PROXY

export HTTPS_PROXY=$(scutil --proxy | awk '\
/HTTPSEnable/ { enabled = $3; } \
/HTTPSProxy/ { server = $3; } \
/HTTPPort/ { port = $3; } \
END { if (enabled == "1") { print "http://" server ":" port; } }')
export https_proxy=$HTTP_PROXY

export FTP_PROXY=$(scutil --proxy | awk '\
/FTPEnable/ { enabled = $3; } \
/FTPProxy/ { server = $3; } \
/FTPPort/ { port = $3; } \
END { if (enabled == "1") { print "http://" server ":" port; } }')
export ftp_proxy=$FTP_PROXY

In the definitions above, I set http:// as the scheme for all proxy servers, you might need to modify them to socks5:// for SOCKS or https:// for HTTPS as necessary.


Open in Low Resolution checkbox on Retina MacBook Pro checked and disabled On a Retina MacBook Pro some Java applications (such as IDEA 11.1.3 that is supposed to support it) won't run in HiDPI mode. When I got to "Get Info" on the app, I can see that the "Open in Low Resolution" checkbox is checked and disabled. Is there a way to change this? I have Java 1.6.0_37 installed.

It doesn't sound like the application actually supports HiDPI mode.  Here's a tutorial for modifying Microsoft Word's application package so it will support HiDPI Mode: http://imgur.com/a/0P5KY.  Perhaps it would work for this application as well.

Summary of the link:

Make a backup copy of the application
Open the application folder, then right click the app and choose "Show Package Contents"
Edit Contents/info.plist
Toward the bottom of the file, just before </dict>, add the following lines:

<key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>
<string>True</string>

Move the app package out of the applications folder.  Then move it back in.
The application may now allow a hacked, possibly glitchy retina mode.


How can I run a script on a Mac before Airport starts? I wrote a small shell script to spoof my wireless interface mac address. I'd like to run this script on my mac (snow leopard) before the airport utility starts and attempts to connect to an access point. Where would I put this script or what appropriate startup file is referenced where I can have it call my spoofing script?

Here's my little bash script:

$ cat spoof_apple_mac_wifi_mac.sh
#!/bin/bash

#bring en1 down
sudo ifconfig en1 down;
#generate random mac address
MAC=`/usr/bin/openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'`;
#change mac address with ifconfig
sudo ifconfig en1 ether $MAC;
#bring en1 up
sudo ifconfig en1 up;

how about run a script on shutdown to turn the airport off. Then when you start up the system again airport will be off and just turn the airport on at the end of the script?

/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower en1 off


Is it possible to daisy-chain a 2019 MacBook Pro with Dell U2417H monitors? I'm wondering if it's possible to daisy-chain my two Dell U2417H monitors with my MacBook Pro (2019 - 16 inch), which has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports.

I've seen a few "no" answers relating to older Macs, have Apple decided/announced support for daisy-chaining since.

If not, can anyone recommend an alternative way to connect two monitors + peripherals with minimal cables into the Mac?

Unfortunately, Apple (macOS) doesn't support this.

(IMO) it's a weird situation because the hardware supports it and you can actually accomplish it in Windows via Bootcamp.  For whatever reason, (I suspect "user experience" because it can get tricky to set up correctly) Apple chose to not implement it.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/259308/119271
Dual 4k displays on a Macbook Pro 15" Late 2013

  If not, can anyone recommend an alternative way to connect two monitors + peripherals with minimal cables into the Mac?

The best way is to use a dock

See this post for a solution to connect multiple monitors and multiple peripherals:   Easiest way to connect two non-thunderbolt monitors to my MacBook Pro 2017 and charge it at the same time?

You would have to use 2 Thunderbolt cables, but if you get a charging dock over one port you could drive a monitor, charge your device and support your peripherals while another TB port drives the second monitor.  This would limit the number of cables to just 2 - which isn't so bad considering if this was 2013, you'd have three - the MagSafe adapter cable to deal with.


How to make a "you have a new memory" movie with my own choice of photos and videos? The iPhone has a facility whereby, when it feels like it (typically after a trip abroad), it tells me "you have a new memory" and gives me a short movie with photos and video clips of its choosing. This can be customised to some extent by adding and removing photos.

Is there a way to select a bunch of photos and video clips and then invoke that movie-making engine on it?

Plus points if I can add photos not taken on the iPhone (e.g. on my DSLR). Extra plus points if I don't have to stick any of the photos involved in iCloud. Extra plus points if I can do the job on my mac rather than on the iPhone.

First, create an album from the photos you wish to include in your memory, or find an appropriate collection you wish to create a memory from, such as a moment.

On iOS, tap the collection header to show as a memory, then , then choose Add to Memories.

On Mac, open the album or click on the header to a moment, then choose Show as Memory, and finally Add to Memories.

You can include any photos from across your library taken with any camera and including video clips. You're not required to use iCloud Photos for this functionality since all functionality of this nature is powered by on-device processing.


How do I send a file by Bluetooth from Android smartphone to an iMac running OS X Lion? I am unsuccessfully sending a file from my smartphone Huawei Ideos X5 with Android 2.3.5 to my iMac. I paired the devices successfully. Android phone receives successfully anything from iMac, but iMac cannot receive anything. I disabled my firewall and disabled the stealth mode too but still problem persists.

How can you make iMac able to receive a file by Bluetooth from Android smartphone?

Provided you have done what Vlad said (enable the Bluetooth sharing) and paired the devices (which you seem to have done), I have absolutely no problem to send files via bluetooth using my Nexus-S. I have ICS 4.03 now, but I had 2.3.x (where X is 3, 4, 5 and 6 if I'm not mistaken).

Once you have the devices Paired, if the Mac is in range and with BT enabled, the phone can send files because the Mac should be on the phone's list of paired devices. I recall that in 2.3.x sometimes it won't work, but retrying to turning on/off BT was usually enough. I don't use it a lot, but I just tried (after months of probably never touching bluetooth on either device) and I got this:

Here's my preference pane:

and Finally, this is my Phone's paired list (two are intentionally blurred), but you can see my Macbook Air:

Hope you can double-check your settings.

For reference:

I have Firewall ON
I have Firewall Stealth ON.

Here's my Firewall Screen (app list blurred by me):


Why is this dialog being displayed when I start firefox? I'm a beginner Mac OS user.

When I open Firefox I receive the dialog below, why doesn't Firefox just start? What is the point of the below dialog?

This isn't a dialog, this is the result of mounting (opening) the Firefox.dmg (think of it as an archive or drive image). For mac users it's obvious - you should drag the FF icon to the Applications folder shortcut (the blue folder). This will copy the Firefox application in the /Applications/ folder. Then just unmount (eject) the Firefox.dmg archive and start Firefox from Applications (like you start the rest of your applications).


Can I Erase Macintosh HD partition? The main question: I have two partitions in my HD (the original "Macintosh HD" and a new one "macOS"). If in "macOS" I have the OSX running – and actually booted in it –, can I erase the "Macintosh HD" partition or will there be problems?

The situation: I need it because suddenly my "Macintosh HD" stopped booting, every time I turned my mac on, it stopped in the first loading screen. I used the Recovery Mode and tried to restore the partition, but no success on it. I then reinstalled OSX in a new partition ("macOS"), so that I could launch my OS successfully. In this new partition, everything is ok. The problem is: right now, I have a 400GB partition not working.

I am not sure if the original Macintosh partition carries some important stuff for the launch system or if it can be erased (since I have another running partition).

Apple recommends an erase install when you need to start fresh. If you have all data backed up, this happens when you boot to Recovery HD or internet Recovery:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Step 3 covers the erase install to get the latest software possible:

Hold Option-Command-R at start
Release the keys when you see the Apple logo or a spinning globe
Choose to erase: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904#erase

You'll be in the erase since Disk Utility can't fix things. You will lose any partition data, EFI customizations, recovery HD when you erase and the installer will put things right again and drop the OS and an installer log that you can review in case there are still hardware or other errors.


How to disallow iPhone from joining specific WiFi network without turning off keychain sync and thus still allow to join it on Mac? I want to keep syncing WiFi passwords through keychain, but I want to keep my iPhone off specific WiFi network, which I must use on my work Mac. How do I do this?

If you have admin control of the wifi network (or can contact who does), you could have your iPhone's MAC address blocked from the network with MAC Address filtering...

However this may (or may not, totally theoretical) impact your iPhone's battery life if the phone starts repeatedly trying to join the network when in range. Like I said, it might not, I'm not sure what it's behaviour would be if the network told it to sod off when joining :)

Depending on the network setup, when you tap the little (i) next to the network name, you can  turn off a option called "Auto-Join". So the keychain retains the network details, but does not join the network unless you tap on it. I think this is a setting enabled by RADIUS enabled networks or networks added to the device by a Profile though, I've never figured out why some networks show it and some do not.


How can my Windows 10 connect to 'Personal Hotspot' of my iPhone automatically My Personal Hotspot (henceforth PH) remains on, with the same password (see underneath).

After clicking the Wireless icon on my notification area/system tray, I see 'iPhone' on my WiFi list and connect successfully.

Suppose that my iPhone remains on, but I shut down/hibernate/sleep my laptop. After I turn on my laptop again, why does 'iPhone' never appear on my laptop's WiFi list automatically? I have waited 10, 30, 60 mins, and repeated this process 5 times.

Then  I enter Settings > PH, change nothing, and see no changes. 3 mins. later, iPhone appears on my laptop's WiFi list.

The problem is with the iOS Personal Hotspot feature. By design, the network is discoverable only when the Hotspot screen is open. This means that your PC can't find the network when waking up/rebooting. Unfortunately there seems to be no workaround, I was looking for the same thing for my old car stereo, and I ultimately ended up getting a dedicated personal hotspot for it.

The only workaround is to open the Personal Hotspot screen every time you restart/wake up the PC.


Mail app no longer automatically creates clickable hyperlinks when pasting a URL. How do I fix it? Since recently the MacOS Mail app no longer automatically converts a URL (that I paste) into a clickable hyperlink.
How do I fix this?

Working on MacOS Mojave 10.14.1 in Mail 12.1

Acutally they just changed the default setting... In Mac Mail Just go to the menu "edit->subsistutions->smart links" and click on it if it's unchecked to active the feaure.

After that you can paste or type links and it will do the add link operation automatically.


How can I use the screen of a broken MacBook? I have a 17” unibody MacBook Pro that is broken (the GPU and motherboard are gone). Is it possible to use its screen as an external display?
I suppose it would need some kind of specific connection to feed power to the screen as well as the video.

Imagine building yourself a monitor, and the only part you have is the screen display itself. No input port, controller circuitry, nor power supply.
There are not going to be easy steps that you can follow unless you can determine the OEM of the panel and dig up a kit and guide to provide a display assembly that drives that LCD panel.

Use MacBook Pro LCD Screen as a standalone monitor
Can my Macbook Pro's display receive inputs from other sources?


How do I Find a string in a file and place a string above it? I would like to find the String __MARKER__ in someFile.txt and place a String above it (e.g. Hello World!).

How would I do that using sed?

sed -i -e 's/__MARKER__/Hello world\n__MARKER__/' someFile.txt

However, after running the above snippet, the contents of someFile.txt is below:

Hello worldn__MARKER__

Contents of someFile.txt before manipulation:

__MARKER__

Contents of someFile.txt after manipulation:

Hello World!
__MARKER__

s/…/…/ is a substitution, replacing the first … with the second …. You can use a new line in your string to insert text above or below a line break.

sed -i -e 's/__MARKER__/Hello world\
__MARKER__/' someFile.txt

Escape the new line with a backslash, else you'll get "unescaped newline inside substitute pattern". To type a new line in Terminal, use ⌥↩.

You can use & as shorthand for the match, so you don't need to retype it in the replacement.

sed -i -e 's/__MARKER__/Hello world\
&/' someFile.txt


How to restore a removed /bin/sh file? I have followed a guide online which requested me to run this command:

sudo cp /opt/local/bin/node /bin/sh

It was a guide for fixing LESS. Instead of fixing it, it only made it worse. I have lost the file.

Is there any way to recover/refetch this file, or could someone upload their sh file for me?

Run this command to copy /bin/sh from the BaseSystem.dmg on the Recovery HD:

diskutil mount Recovery\ HD &&
    hdiutil mount /Volumes/Recovery\ HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg &&
    sudo cp -p /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/bin/sh /bin/sh

Also see How can I get back a system file after deleting it from my Mac?


MS Remote Desktop Issuessss While using Wi-Fi at work I'm able to use the remote desktop just fine to access the computers at work. When on any other network I'm unable to connect remotely.  By the way the computer that I am connecting to remotely uses windows XP that hasn't been updated since at least 2008...any answers.

The answer is going to be more complex than you want, and someone else is going to recommend a service or web application that hides the complexity from you. The reason you are unable to reach your work computers from another network is because when on your internal network you have network access to the internal network. As long as you can reach the Internet from inside the internal network, you have a gateway to other networks. When outside your internal network, you'd need to know the external address of that gateway, and that gateway would need to be configured to port forward any ports your remote desktop client needs to serve your work desktop remotely to you. Your question is really simplistic and any answer that provides you a solution is going to need more information from you, such as do you have an IT department? Have you asked for remote access to your work terminal? That's kind of their job, so I'd make them do it.


Consistent 'Quit Unexpectedly' with iFunBox This is really bugging me at the moment. I'm trying to find a way to SSH into my iPhone via USB without no Wi-Fi for my journey to college since it's an hour bus ride and in that time I'll code and reverse-engineer iOS Apps and what not. For the record, my iPhone is only jailbroken for those reasons.

However, I keep getting the same error over and over again. Here's the error details:

http://pastebin.com/4JcfD82M

My iTunes is fully updated (as required) and my OS X Version is 10.7.5

Any suggestions for me or an alternative to SSH into my iPhone over USB with no Wi-Fi or a solution to this problem?

Thank you.

This looks like a bug in iFunBox's code, based on the error report. You'll likely either have to wait for a fix (or if you know x86 assembly, do it by hand! I'm not serious though), or see if their support can help. I very much doubt this can be fixed without intervention on their part, in some way.


Pages 08 doesn't draw border around paragraphs correctly? If I'm using Pages '08 and trying to draw a border around a paragraph that is inside a text box, I go to the More tab of the Text Inspector and select a solid line and full rectangle under Border and Rules.

The border that results, however is a top-and-bottom border, and not a full rectangle:

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known bug? If the latter, is there a workaround so I can enclose a paragraph of text in a text box with a surrounding border?

OK, this is a bit kludgy, but it seems to be working (but I'd love to see a better answer!):

Instead of applying a border to a paragraph, make each paragraph its own text box and apply a border to the entire text box using the Graphic Inspector and setting Stroke to Line.


Prevent keyboard viewer from displaying Whenever I plug my MacBook into my external keyboard at work, the keyboard viewer window automatically opens up.

How do I prevent the keyboard viewer from automatically showing?

If possible, I'd like to keep the input sources menu bar item visible (the little American flag on the menu bar).

EDIT: i'm on mountain lion, i've got the viewer un-checked, and i'm still getting the viewer:

This problem hasn’t bothered me for some time, but I remember it used to occur (though I couldn’t pinpoint the exact circumstances). I have tried two different things:

After invoking the Keyboard Viewer, don’t close it by clicking the red close window button, but by clicking Hide Keyboard Viewer on the Input Menu in the menu bar.
If that doesn’t help, try deleting the Keyboard Viewer preference file: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.KeyboardViewer.plist.


Spotlight search result incomplete Since I changed the directory structures of my Mac, Spotlight has not successfully produced search results for my files or folders.

I have tried

Killing SystemUIServer
Rebuilding the Spotlight Index manually using sudo mdutil -E /
Changing Desktop Resolution

Clear caches and preferences using downloaded application

Rebooting Mac

All suggested in this to no effect. 4th item was recommended against on Apple Support Community. And of course, I tried what was suggested by seaturtle.. reindexing Macintosh HD.

Using terminal with the right keywords, the files/folders come up, but I would like to fix permanently.

Has anyone got other idea? Kindly let me know.

I currently use Macbook Pro of 2012, OS: High Sierra 10.13.2

Can you wait for Spotlight to reindex your machine?

If so, try this:

Go to the Spotlight section of System Preferences.
Go to the Privacy section and add your boot disk (mine is Macintosh HD).
Remove it again.
Go to Spotlight. Notice the "Indexing..." indicator. You can continue to use Spotlight and the rest of your machine while it indexes, but until it finishes it may not find everything.

Can't wait (or don't want to use Spotlight)?

Try this Terminal command to search by name. Any 's should be replaced with '\'', because otherwise they would end the quoted string.

find ~ -iname '*whatever*'

Searching by file contents is trickier, and will only work for plain text files. Try this:

grep -iRIl 'whatever' ~

What does this all mean?

~ – your  home folder
-iname – tells find to do a case-insensitive search by filename
'xyz' – single quotes prevent characters like Space, ( or ), etc. from being interpreted by the shell
*whatever* – the *s mean "any number of characters can go here". Otherwise, find would only search for files named exactly "whatever".
-iRIl:

-i – case-insensitive
-R – recursive (search subfolders too)
-I – ignore files that aren't plain text
-l – list files, but don't display matching lines


Portrait Lock orientation mode problem When I turn my iphone 5 sideways it has no problem going into landscape mode but when I try to lock it, it goes back to portrait mode

Portrait Lock is just that, it locks the screen in portrait.

There is no global Landscape Lock, it can only be done in-app.


Anyone know when iOS 4.3 is due to come out? Anyone know when iOS 4.3 is due to come out?

I'm hoping to buy an iphone and use the wifi 'tethering' feature that apparently is part of ios 4.3 to replace our home internet connection, and am wondering when this is coming out?

Thanks all

It will be released when Apple feels like it's ready. It's anyones guess at this point. Apple almost never gives out release dates for it's products.

Like IntuitionGQ said, you can always Jailbreak it


What are the differences between terminal types supported by iTerm2? I am looking for a brief comparison of the terminal types supported by iTerm2, mainly to see what setup to pick in order to minimize problems.

Mainly, I am connecting with Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) servers, using tmux a lot (scripted to be started by default on ssh).

Also I do use Midnight Commander most of the time and I do still encounter lots of problems related to ESCaping.

Here is the complete list:

vt100
xterm
xterm-new
xterm-256color
ansi
rxvt
linux

My current one is xterm-256color, but when I ssh remotely I observe that it becomes TERM=screen, probably because tmux usage.

Now, what should I use to avoid having problems with mc running in tmux, i want to be able to use mouse, simple escapes, and stop seeing weird characters appearing on screen (related to escapes, like OBOB)

Short bet, go for xterm-256color

The setting in iTerm2 affects two things:
1. How the TERM environment variable is initially set. Your login scripts are changing this if it gets set to screen (or you're using screen or tmux, which always set it to screen)
2. The "ansi" terminal automatically scrolls when the cursor is on the bottom right of the screen. You probably don't want this.

As for how the TERM var is interpreted by apps, that's complicated. Most people want xterm-256color unless they're sshing to a host that doesn't support it. In order of capability and support, I'd order them:
xterm-256color
xterm-new
xterm
vt100

I probably wouldn't use the others unless I had a really good reason to (they're carried over from the original iTerm code and may or may not work well).

Anyway, figure out why your TERM var is getting changed to screen and that's probably the cause of your trouble.


sync master apple lossless itunes library to slave AAC itunes library I prefer to listen to my music on my laptop in Apple Lossless at home. On the go however AAC is fine, and a must, as I don't have enough space on my SSD.

Itunes has the feature to automatically convert AL to ACC when syncing with an ipod. Could this be replicated to work with another mac too? I would then have my master library (with AL) aliased to an external drive I hook up when at home, but when on the go it would fall back to my slave library (AAC) on my local SSD.

This probably can be achieved by just using iTunes Match, don't know if you're willing to subscribe to this. The master library with AL is getting matched, giving you access to the AAC versions from the cloud. From then on, everything you do to a file in your AL library is getting automatically synced to the iCloud AAC version.

When you're on the go just switch to the local SSD library. Start with an empty library, activate iTunes Match and all your music get's visible without being physically on the device. You could then download all the AAC versions from iTunes or just those you want to have on the device. All changes between your master and this slave library should get synced, you just have to manually download music on your SSD when you add something new to your master library.


What are the bad points of the iPod Touch? I'm thinking of buying an iPod Touch. But first I'd like to know what its bad points are so I can decide better if it's suitable for me and if I can find better alternatives.

The reason why I'm considering the iPod Touch is because I want a device that is not a phone, I can listen to music and podcasts while walking, and it has a browser (wireless connection is fine) on which I can quickly check news and tweets. Perhaps I should add that this would be my first Apple product.

So I'd like to learn from your experience. What don't you like about an iPod Touch?

Look at it this way. If you want to play games and use apps, browse the internet, all that jazz, you want the touch. If you want to carry every song you own and maybe some videos, get an iPod classic. If you are a jogger who only needs a few songs at a time, get a shuffle or nano.

Also, someone said it was slippery. This is correct. Get a case if you have a touch. I dropped my 2nd generation and shattered the screen when it hit at the corner. I have a 4th generation now and got a case for it just in case. The classic isn't as slippery, but it's always nice to have a case for any device you're going to be whipping around with you all the time.


How to Unlock iOS 12 with passcode, without disabling touch ID Is there a way I can force a prompt for passcode unlock without disabling touch ID?

I have some gloves with capacitative tips on the index fingers. I can use them relatively well to navigate the phone once the phone has UI elements up on the screen but I'm having a lot of trouble bringing up the passcode prompt. The gloves don't seem to trip the touch ID sensor to appear as an unknown fingerprint.

iPhone 6s / iOS 12.4

I use the following technique to present the passcode screen, without disabling the Touch ID:

Press the Home button slowly (once, or if needed, twice, i.e. not fast enough to trigger the Apple Pay screen) with a fingernail or the tip of any of your finger or thumb vertically, such that the Touch ID sensor doesn't register any fingerprint.
This should present the passcode screen without disabling the Touch ID.


What does login item "System Events" do? I have an item "System Events" under "Login Items" for the admin account on a MacBook that is running macOS High Sierra (upgraded from Sierra). Is this login item part of macOS and what does it do?

This is what you are looking for: Explanation.
I have comfortably removed it from my startup items without any issues arising whatsoever.


Moving folder to Trash in Finder is not synchronized with Terminal I tried to delete a folder which I access via terminal.app. Though the Finder moved the folder to the Trash, I was still able to see the contents and edit the file from terminal.

created a textfile

Moved the entire directory to the Trash via the Finder

I see files even after moving the folder to the Trash

I still managed to edit/append content to the file

The file is not available in Recent menu of Textedit after being moved to the Trash, but can be viewed in terminal with cat command. Even after moving to the Trash, the directory PWD doesn't update path (with trash/tmp path)

View the complete screencast (5.20 min / ~24mb)

Is there a way to synchronize the command line with Finder for this scenario?

In a nutshell, yes, this behaviour is expected. It's less than ideal but it's completely explainable and it's a biproduct of how files and directories are represented on the filesystem level.

It helps to understand how files and directories are represented on the underlying filesystem via inodes. And how moving a file on the same filesystem doesn't actually change the file blocks, it just shuffles the inode metadata around.

Lets step back a bit though and make sure we understand that: when you delete a file via Finder you're (for the most part) not actually deleting it. You're just moving it to a trash location that's on the same logical partition as the file. That the trash location is on the same partition is important. It lets the OS exploit the inodes to make the delete really, really fast.

Now lets talk about inodes. For regular files, inodes hold the metadata for the file along with some pointers to the data blocks on the filesystem that actually hold the data for the file. The metadata is stuff like the creation date, the last accessed date, the owner and group, the permissions settings, etc.

For directories the inode holds all that metadata plus it holds a pointer to a list of all the inodes that are "in" that directory. So if I "move" a file on a filesystem all I'm doing is taking a reference to that file's inode out of its current directory's inode file list and moving it to another directory's inode file list. The list changed, but the inode reference to the file didn't.

This metadata shuffle means that the physical location of the file blocks and the inode for the file itself don't actually change on disk. Any program currently accessing the file (assuming file locking isn't being used) can continue to access it even while I'm moving it because all the references it needs have remained the same. The inode for a file or directory doesn't change as long as it's kept on the same filesystem. And when programs access files and directories, most of that access is done via inode references.

Pretty neat.

But it can lead to some jarring behaviour if you're accessing a directory from multiple places and then you move the directory. And this is what you're experiencing.

In your case you have a Terminal prompt in a directory. When you changed in to that directory your shell read the inode metadata for that directory and updated some data structures and environment variables. One of those environment variables was the PWD variable.

Then you deleted the directory which placed that directory's inode under the .Trash directory's file list. The metadata for these two inodes was updated so the deleted directory now had a parent directory metadata attribute that points to .Trash and the .Trash inode metadata got a new entry in its list of children: the deleted folder's inode. But your Terminal app didn't know this happened. There's nothing that told it that it should reload its data structures. That's why pwd and $PWD continue to show the original path to the directory. You have to trigger an action in the shell that causes that inode metadata on the working directory to be re-read and the data structures and environment variables to be re-generated. It can be something as simple as called cd . to do a no-op change directory. Or you can move out and back in to the directory with absolute paths.

The reason the reason that cat in the Terminal works to show you a file in that directory is that the inode that cat uses to access that file didn't change just because its location on disk changed. So cat can still find it given you're using a relative reference to the file. If your file was originally located at /foo/bar/moo.txt and you tried to do cat /foo/bar/moo.txt after you deleted the bar directory via Finder you'd see that the cat call would fail with a file-not-found error. But cat moo.txt would continue to work because all the file system data structures that cat needs to use to find moo.txt in your working directory have technically not changed enough for cat at your Terminal prompt to lose track of them.

That's the long explanation. Hope I didn't lose you. :)


I don't have the apple ID on my iPod so I cannot delete iCloud? So I bought my iPod from someone, and their iCloud account is still on here, which means the pictures I take and everything, they can see. I just noticed this and I tried to delete it, but it asks me to put in a password to turn off "find my iphone" and I do not have that password because it is someone else's iCloud account.

Your device is most likely Activation Locked. In order to remove the previous owner's Apple ID, you should try to get in contact with them and arrange to have them remove their ID from the device.

Activation Lock is an anti-theft feature, so if you do a factory restore in iTunes, you will be prompted for the previous owners Apple ID password when the device activates during initial set up. At this point you won't be able to use the device anymore.

Here are some Apple knowledge base articles that explain Activation Lock in a little more detail:

iCloud: Activation Lock: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13695

iCloud: Find My iPhone Activation Lock in iOS 7: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818


Why does Apple not support Power Nap on some of the Macs that have Power Nap capability? Apple has already released the OS X Mountain Lion Technical Specifications which lists some Macs as excluded from certain features of Mountain Lion including:

Power Nap

When is a Mac excluded from a this feature? Is it a hardware limitation?

I ask because I learned that AirDrop for example is excluded from some Macs as they don't support the ad-hoc Wi-Fi networking which is required to use AirDrop over Wi-Fi.

I heard that Power Nap might require Intel‘s Smart Connect Technology and is therefore excluded from most Macs. However, this is unlikely to be true as the MacBook Air (Late 2010 Mid 2011 or newer) is already listed as supported - but Intel's Smart Connect was just about to be announced around 2011.

Some 2010 hardware, for which firmware was apparently seeded by Apple (example: MBA13SMCSeed_2010.smc within publicly available 2010MBA13.pkg), is currently unlisted under Power Nap in the specifications.

Only the MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer), MacBook Pro with Retina display were originally supported supported for Power Nap. The reason for this is An SMC update is required to gain all the functionality of Power Nap, and these are the only models Apple has chosen to actively write the firmware updates to support the feature. In other words, it's not that Apple runs some exclusion script to keep other models out; it takes an active update to the firmware to make a model run Power Nap, and they've chosen to do that for two particular lines of computers.

In a subsequent firmware update, Apple included Mid 2010 MacBook Air models in Power Nap.

As far as why they've made that decision, we enter the realm of speculation, but fortunately, we have some good information here.

The idea behind Power Nap is that when the computer appears to be asleep, from time to time, it actually wakes up and performs various tasks. This waking, however, is not noticeable to the user because the computer remains dark and silent. This means no audio or video is activated. It also means, of particular relevance to this question, the fan is also kept off.

This requires a storage device that can run without a fan and a processor that can run without a fan (sorry notoriously hot G5 — I doubt there would ever be a way to support you for this).

According to John Siracusa's epic Mountain Lion review, the Dark Wake mode that Power Nap invokes does not turn on the fans. Thus, only devices Apple knows are designed to be able to access their storage without risk of overheating (as a spinning hard drive might) will take advantage of Power Nap. Siracusa suggests that third party SSDs might have a different heat profile.

While SSDs could be installed in any computer, and Apple could perhaps write firmware updates for all their Macs so that Power Nap checks to see if the computer has a SSD drive and if so, runs Power Nap, they haven't chosen to do so. Instead, they've made Power Nap work only on those models of computer that they know will have a SSD drive.

The limitation might not be drive-based; it could be the processor that can't run silently. This seems slightly less likely to me, given the supported models, but it could explain why the 2010 MacBook Air is excluded. Power Nap monitors temperature, and if the system gets too hot to run without cooling, Power Nap disengages, but if the processor in earlier MBAs was triggering such an alert too often, that may be why Apple removed them from the list of models that support Power Nap.

tl;dr: likely it's hardware; specifically, heat.


iPhone storage shows 57+GB used... where is it? This screenshot shows that there is 57+GB used on my iPhone.

However looking through the list and adding up the values comes to a maximum of 10GB (and that's an overestimation).

So, where is the other 40+ GB?

I have been deleting apps recently to try and clear space but every couple days it tells me the iPhone is running low on storage.

I feel like this is some sort of bug or something because I really don't know where the rest of the space is?

If you can't find it from Storage Manager, I think it's some kinds of bugs or lags.

Have you tried to reset the settings? Sometimes, it might help.


How to have a cropped video on top of another video in imovie? In youtube I see our lot of cropped videos overlaid over screen captures movie. Is this possible in imovie?

osX
imovie 10.1.2

How to have a cropped video on top of another video in imovie?

This is known as Picture in Picture.

The following instructions are for versions of iMovie 10.1+

Open a project and add a movie to timeline
Select and drag a second clip above the main clip based on where in the video timeline you would like for it to show.
Select Picture in Picture from the Overlay drop down menu.
Drag the movie clip to where you want it placed on video preview screen and resize if needed.

That's it. Enjoy!

Note: You can use the same method for text and photos as well.


Stop blue dots from appearing next to updated apps? When apps get updated, little blue dots appear next to the app name in iOS 8.1 (and some earlier versions as well).  This is just a pet peeve, but those blue dots annoy me.  For example, if I update 10 apps, I have to open each of those ten apps to make the blue dots go away, which is a pain.

Is there any way to disable the blue dots so they don't appear for new/updated apps?

There currently is no way for you to disable this as of <=iOS8 and within the boundaries of factory OS. This is a visual aide for those people that have automatic updates enabled. You can look into jailbreaking your device if it is worth that much to you


Traveling to US - Do I need to step up / down for Macbook Pro (2016) I live in the U.K. and I have a Macbook Pro (2016) which I purchased in Dubai. The power adapter works fine in U.K. / Dubai / India.

I am traveling to USA next week.

Do I need to buy the adapter so that it can be used in the 2-pin USA wall sockets or do I also need to buy something in addition to that - say, a step up / step power adapter (My apologies, I am not sure of what it is called exactly... to transform the voltage as well?)

You only need the correct adapter for your power adapter as it will automatically handle the input voltage

Apple has a World Travel Adapter Kit that supplies adapters for different countries/regions.  What you will need is the the US/Japan adapter included in the kit that has "flat parallel blades with holes."


iPhone SE gets quite hot after replacing the protector casing I recently bought a new iPhone SE case, a silicone one in book style from B2CTelecom. The particular one I bought in case it matters is https://www.bol.com/nl/p/iphone-se-5s-5-standcase-hoesje-design-stars/9200000104229975/

I've found that while watching online videos like Youtube and Twitch, it gets quite hot after about half an hour to an hour. is this because of the new case acting too much as an insulator? Could this end up damaging my iPhone? The iPhone was bought new in 2016, and the battery max capacity right now is at 91% according to the settings app.

Use iOS devices where the ambient temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F).

source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201678
Some of the reasons I can think of:

Not having proper ventilation around the phone. Even though this is a prominent thing for laptops, phones also need to dissipate heat.

Low cellular connectivity. Poor Wi-Fi won't heat up the iPhone much, but cellular is the main culprit if it's poor. (personal experience)

When you use graphics-intensive or augmented-reality apps or features.

Which you're doing.  Camera also falls under this(personal experience).

If device overheats, some features will underperform, like flash or camera, dimming of display and other graphic intensive tasks. It might even get locked if temperature goes beyond a threshold.


How can I create or recreate a Lion recovery partition? For whatever reason, one of our macs didn't make a recovery partition when it upgraded to Lion.

Is it possible to add a recovery partition after the fact?

To be clear - on a normal mac, the recovery partition is hidden in both the Startup Disk system preference and the Disk Utility. You can only see it from the command line with a direct command, diskutil list or enabling the debug menu in Disk Utility. It also shows up if you boot with the option key held or if you successfully boot to recovery with Command-R a.k.a. ⌘+R during boot.

Warning - this question and answer ONLY APPLY to 10.7.x Lion - using the Lion installer to recreate recovery on newer OS can and will cause problems due to drivers not being present for newer OS and hardware.

First, open a Terminal.

Status before:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
  #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
  1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
  2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            127.8 GB   disk0s2

Get Lion Recovery Update v1.0 (431.91 MB)

Mount RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg

$ hdiutil attach ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg

Extract data from RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg

$ pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion\ Recovery\ HD\ Update/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg ~/Desktop/RHD

Mount RecoveryHDMeta.dmg (in the RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg package)

$ hdiutil attach ~/Desktop/RHD/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/RecoveryHDMeta.dmg

Run tool that will finally resize current partition and create recovery

$ ~/Desktop/RHD/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/Scripts/Tools/dmtest ensureRecoveryPartition / /Volumes/Recovery\ HD\ Update/BaseSystem.dmg 0 0 /Volumes/Recovery\ HD\ Update/BaseSystem.chunklist
Creating recovery partition: finished

Status after:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
  #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
  1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
  2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            127.2 GB   disk0s2
  3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3


Treat fullscreen as desktop spaces in the matter of navigation As the title says, I'd like to treat an app fullscreen as a desktop in the matter of navigation in Yosemite 10.10.

I’am working with 2 monitors + 3 apps in fullscreen mode and do a lot with the keyboard. My problem is that I often want to change the focus between the monitors or between two fullscreen apps of one monitor. My question is, is there a shortcode for changing the focus between different spaces?

I know that you can change the focus between each app/space by

walking through apps with  cmd + tab
cmd + arrows to switch to neighboring spaces
ctrl + number to change to a specific desktop (not fullscreen spaces)

What I want is a ctrl + number shortcode not only for additional desktops, but for fullscreen apps, too. Precisely a space addressing shortcode and not only a desktop addressing shortcode.

If there isn’t a solution for that, just changing the focus from one monitor to the other would be enough. At moment I always have to move the mouse to the other screen or use cmd+tab which is annoying when you have a few apps open.

Did you consider using Keyboard Maestro?

Here you can see how I deal with something this. I use it to move cursor and windows between screens, but is really easy to modify per your requests.


How to I keep my Magic Trackpad safe in transit? My magic trackpad keeps getting knocked around in my bag and I feel like protecting it more. What are some good options for a case/sleeve for it?

After a quick google, I found a few:

WaterField
Amazon I realize the manufacturer isn't amazon


 Watch's America’s Veterans badge doesn't work Today is the America’s Veterans Day and, in the Activity App of my iPhone, there's the relative  Watch's badge.

I just did my one hour running (recorded by Runtastic and the Activity app on the  Watch) so I generously reached the 11 minutes target to get the badge but, despite this, I didn't received the badge. Am I the only one?

P.S.: I'm not American so, to display the badge on app, I changed the zone on my  Watch to USA. I did it for every US only badge and it always worked, so it shouldn't be the problem...

Thanks to this discussion https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/7c9g3b/did_you_get_yours/?st=j9vre0ac&sh=5dd7c06a I solved.

Just reboot the iPhone, then the Watch and you'll get the badge!


Make my iCloud @me.com email my primary Apple ID Before iCloud began operation I used a gmail email for my Apple ID. With the advent of iCloud I have begun using my iCloud email for everything. The one thing that frustrates me is that Apple does not allow me to change my Apple ID to be my @me.com address.

The Apple ID page suggests making my @me.com address my ID, but every time I click it, it is not allowed. If I try to force it to change I get the message: "You cannot create an Apple ID using a MobileMe account. If this is your email address, it is also your Apple ID." This is obviously a remnant of MobileMe. Is there any way to fix this?

Have you added the @me address to your existing apple Id?

You should then be able to verify the address and set as primary address

Once it's added, you should jut be able to use it as your Apple id login

Edit: it seems the My Apple Id page has changed recently, you can no longer set an email address as a primary email address and as your AppleID.

Apple Knowledge Base article from October 2011 shows hows to do this but this ability is not present in the current live My Apple ID page.

It is still the case however that @me.com email addresses are valid aliases for your AppleId and you can log in to any service with one instead of your primary.


Is there an application for sharing wi-fi passwords? There are a lot of public wi-fi networks (diners, restaurants, cafes, universities). They are password protected. The password rarely (if ever) changes (only mcdonalds prints a temp password on the receipt).

I'm so very tired of asking for the password. I need to find a waiter. Sometimes they tell you a password that is not correct. Means I have to ask again.

Is there an application that shares wi-fi passwords between different people?

For example, someone goes to Joe's Cafe, gets the wi-fi password from the waitress, and in the background (ideally) an application puts the password on a server. Then another guy/gal enters the cafe and automatically has the password from the same server and connects, to the wi-fi without having to talk to the waitress.

Thanks,

I've searched in the iOS AppStore. I didn't find such an application. I also looked in Cydia, but no such application exists. Android's Market also said no.

Here are my thoughts on why such an application does not exist:

Sharing someone else's wifi password is an issue. He/she gave it to you so you can have internet. He/she hasn't agreed that you share it with the world. In the case of internet cafes, they have passwords so that only clients can use their wi-fi.
I spoke with an company that develops iOS applications. They said no public API exists that allows the application to get saved wi-fi passwords or to make the phone connect to a new wi-fi network.
Such an application most probably will not be accepted in the iOS AppStore (I have been told from the same company)
There are issues with implementation. How without an internet would one get the password that is needed for a concrete wi-fi network? Preload all passwords in the application? Use 3g to get that specific password?

Even though I think such an application would make people's lives a bit easier, I think there are too many problems for it to be implemented.


Lock Mac without turning off the screen I have observed that the screen on my MacBook Pro turns off a few seconds after I activate lock screen.

Is there any way to keep the screen of my MacBook Pro on for an unlimited duration of time after I lock the screen? Or at least an hour as a workaround.

KeepingYouAwake is a free and open source app that can be used for this purpose.

The intended purpose of this app is to prevent your Mac from going into sleep. You can activate this app from 5/15/30 minutes to 1/2/5 hours to indefinite duration.

Having KeepingYouAwake activated will prevent screen from turning off when lock screen mode is activated.

KeepingYouAwake can be easily installed using Homebrew by running the following command:

brew cask install keepingyouawake


How to retrieve current wattage info on OS X? Is there a way to retrieve the current watt usage info on OS X Snow Leopard? I'm using mid-2010 iMac, so I'm not looking for just battery-related apps.
Does OS X even monitor power usage? Do I need to use an external reader between the power cord and the outlet?
I'm most interested in command-line/applescript based solutions for more convenient logging & stats, but I'm open for alternatives.

Both (@bmike's & @michaelmichael's) answers are undoubtedly correct. The meta–question in here was that is there any sensors/readers already on the PSU, that would work kind of like the way "kill-a-watt" works. I sense the answer for that is "no".
I know, it probably is just a wet dream, but a watt meter on board would be ideal for the computer to shout: "Look how eco-friendly I am; using just these watts!"

Ah!
@Kerri Shotts' suggested iStat Menus 3 do get the wattage readings from some sensor, along with volt and amp stats. So the meters are there, but how I could access them programmatically?

Bounty! Will be given for solid command-line sensor reading solution or for recommending exceptionally good 3rd party software (like one with statistical and historical data tools at minimum).
Just to inform: the aforementioned iStat Menus 3 lists the following power related sensors:

Voltage Sensors (Volts)

AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC Shunt
CPU
CPU 1.8V S0
CPU CTT
Graphics Module
Memory

Current Sensors (Amps)

AC/DC
CPU
CPU VTT
Graphics Module

Power Sensors (Watts)

AC/DC
CPU
Graphics Module

It does state "sensors", but they might be calculated as @msanford commented. How can I get my hands on that data programmatically?

system_profiler SPPowerDataType seems to provide the most relevant information. On laptops it reports voltage and amperage which can give you the power consumption (mVolts × mAmperes × 10^-6 = Watts). It also reports Wattage, but that's actually a piece of metadata reported by Apple's power adapter, third-party power adapters can show blanks here. Since desktops do not have rechargeable batteries, there's no way to calculate power consumption by measuring charging and discharging of battery.

But wait, there's still hope! Apple publishes a lot of source code, and googling for Wattage or Power+mV hints that certain kernel extensions can be queried about power consumption. Unfortunately, I cannot come up with a working script right now, but it seems possible.


iPhone 6s - Calendars and contacts - birthday information I have an iPhone 6s.  I want to put birthdays in my contacts however I don't want them to show up in my calendar.  I've tried everything to stop it but nothing short of taking the birthdays out of my contacts works!

Edit: Confirmed it works

Did you try:

- Open the Calendar app
- Click on 'Calendars' at the bottom
- uncheck all birthday calendars

The birthday calendar should be under Others at the bottom


IPv6 dns resolution on macOS High Sierra My ISP provides me only with an IPv4 address.

After setting up a connection to my university OpenVPN server, I get an IPv6 address.  With an example IPv6 address www6.fit.vutbr.cz

I can:

host www6.fit.vutbr.cz
ping6 www6.fit.vutbr.cz
traceroute6 www6.fit.vutbr.cz
open http://[2001:67c:1220:809::93e5:916] in a web browser (safari/firefox)

BUT, I cannot:

open www6.fit.vutbr.cz in a web browser

i.e. web browser does not resolve an ipv6 dns address.

If I add the following mapping to /etc/hosts

2001:67c:1220:809::93e5:916 www6.fit.vutbr.cz

the web browser finally works.

I think it has something to do with scutil --dns showing:

DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : lan
  nameserver[0] : 192.168.1.1
  nameserver[1] : 8.8.8.8
  nameserver[2] : 8.8.4.4
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

I believe, I should see Request AAAA records.
Why does host and traceroute6 and ping6 resolve the DNS, but the web browsers don't?  Any suggestions?
Thanks

This was a huge hassle to figure out, so I wrote up a little guide in hopes that others would find it helpful:

How to convince macOS to do IPv6 DNS lookups when your only IPv6 address is via a VPN or tunnel of some sort

The Problem

macOS's domain name resolver will only return IPv6 addresses (from AAAA records) when it thinks that you have a valid routable IPv6 address. For physical interfaces like Ethernet or Wi-Fi it's enough to set or be assigned an IPv6 address, but for tunnels (such as those using utun interfaces) there are some extra annoying steps that need to be taken to convince the system that yes, you indeed have an IPv6 address, and yes, you'd like to get IPv6 addresses back for DNS lookups.

I use wg-quick to establish a WireGuard tunnel between my laptop and a Linode virtual server. WireGuard uses a utun user-space tunnel device to make the connection. Here's how that device gets configured:

utun1: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1420
    inet 10.75.131.2 --> 10.75.131.2 netmask 0xffffff00
    inet6 fe80::a65e:60ff:fee1:b1bf%utun1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc
    inet6 2600:3c03::de:d002 prefixlen 116
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>

And here's a few relevant lines from my routing table:

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
0/1                utun1              USc             0        0   utun1
default            10.20.4.4          UGSc            0        0     en3
10.20.4/24         link#14            UCS             3        0     en3      !
10.75.131.2        10.75.131.2        UH              0        0   utun1
50.116.51.30       10.20.4.4          UGHS            7  2629464     en3
128.0/1            utun1              USc             5        0   utun1

Internet6:
Destination                             Gateway                         Flags         Netif Expire
::/1                                    utun1                           USc           utun1
2600:3c03::de:d000/116                  fe80::a65e:60ff:fee1:b1bf%utun1 Uc            utun1
8000::/1                                utun1                           USc           utun1

10.20.4/24 is my local ethernet network.
10.20.4.5 is my laptop's LAN IP address.
10.20.4.4 is my gateway's LAN IP address.
10.75.131.2 is the IPv4 address of my end of the WireGuard point-to-point tunnel.
2600:3c03::de:d002 is the IPv6 address of my end of the WireGuard point-to-point tunnel.
50.116.51.30 is the public address of my Linode server.

This should be enough to have IPv6 connectivity, right? Well, name resolution works when host talks directly to my name server:

sam@shiny ~> host ipv6.whatismyv6.com
ipv6.whatismyv6.com has IPv6 address 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128

Pinging by IPv6 address works:

sam@shiny ~> ping6 -c1 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128
PING6(56=40+8+8 bytes) 2600:3c03::de:d002 --> 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128
16 bytes from 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128, icmp_seq=0 hlim=55 time=80.991 ms

--- 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128 ping6 statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/std-dev = 80.991/80.991/80.991/0.000 ms

And HTTP connections by IPv6 address work:

sam@shiny ~> curl -s 'http://[2607:f0d0:3802:84::128]' -H 'Host: ipv6.whatismyv6.com' | html2text | head -3
                 This page shows your IPv6 and/or IPv4 address
                          You are connecting with an IPv6 Address of:
                                             2600:3c03::de:d002

However, HTTP connections by IPv6-only hostname don't work:

sam@shiny ~> curl 'http://ipv6.whatismyv6.com'
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: ipv6.whatismyv6.com

The result is the same in wget as well as in GUI apps like Firefox: connecting by a literal IPv6 address works fine, but connecting by a hostname that only has an AAAA record (and no A record) associated with it does not.

Interestingly, ping6 is able to do a DNS lookup and get an IPv6 address back:

sam@shiny ~ [6]> ping6 -c1 ipv6.whatismyv6.com
PING6(56=40+8+8 bytes) 2600:3c03::de:d002 --> 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128
16 bytes from 2607:f0d0:3802:84::128, icmp_seq=0 hlim=55 time=49.513 ms

--- ipv6.whatismyv6.com ping6 statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/std-dev = 49.513/49.513/49.513/0.000 ms

Why can ping6 do this when nothing else can? It turns out that when ping6 calls getaddrinfo it overwrites the default flags. One of the default flags is AI_ADDRCONFIG, which tells the resolver to only return addresses in address families that the system has an IP address for. (That is, don't return IPv6 addresses unless the system has a (not link-local) IPv6 address.) Most other programs add to the default flags rather than clobbering them, which I suppose is sensible.

If you run scutil --dns it will tell you how the resolver is set up. Here's the output on my system (minus a bunch of mdns stuff that doesn't matter):

DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.munkynet.org
  nameserver[0] : 10.20.4.4
  if_index : 14 (en3)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.munkynet.org
  nameserver[0] : 10.20.4.4
  if_index : 14 (en3)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

Note that under flags, it says Request A records but not Request AAAA records. So it's left to us to try to convince macOS's resolver that we do in fact have a valid IPv6 address, even though it's on a tunnel interface.

SystemConfiguration

The "right" way for this to happen is for whatever program sets up the tunnel to use the bizarre and largely undocumented SystemConfiguration API to register the network "service" and its IPv6 properties. The Viscosity app does this. Tunnelblick does not, the official OpenVPN Client does not, and wg-quick sure as hell doesn't.

The scutil Kludge

We can create the same SystemConfiguration "service" strucures manually using the scutil command:

First we create the IPv4 part of the service:

sam@shiny ~> sudo scutil
> d.init
> d.add Addresses * 10.75.131.2
> d.add DestAddresses * 10.75.131.2
> d.add InterfaceName utun1
> set State:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv4
> set Setup:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv4

And then we create the IPv6 part:

> d.init
> d.add Addresses * fe80::a65e:60ff:fee1:b1bf 2600:3c03::de:d002
> d.add DestAddresses * ::ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0:0 ::
> d.add Flags * 0 0
> d.add InterfaceName utun1
> d.add PrefixLength * 64 116
> set State:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv6
> set Setup:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv6
> quit

Once this is done, the output of scutil --dns (again modulo mdns stuff) changes:

DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.munkynet.org
  nameserver[0] : 10.20.4.4
  if_index : 14 (en3)
  flags    : Request A records, Request AAAA records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.munkynet.org
  nameserver[0] : 10.20.4.4
  if_index : 14 (en3)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

Now we see Request AAAA records in the flags! I'm not really sure what "scoped queries" are or why the DNS configuration for them didn't change, but things seem to work now so whatever:

sam@shiny ~> curl -s 'http://ipv6.whatismyv6.com' | html2text | head -3
                 This page shows your IPv6 and/or IPv4 address
                          You are connecting with an IPv6 Address of:
                                             2600:3c03::de:d002

When disconnecting from the tunnel, all you have to do is remove the SystemConfiguration keys you added:

sam@shiny ~> sudo scutil
> remove State:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv4
> remove Setup:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv4
> remove State:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv6
> remove Setup:/Network/Service/my_ipv6_tunnel_service/IPv6
> quit

A couple things to note:

The name my_ipv6_tunnel_service is totally arbitrary.
According to information I gleaned from the up/down scripts in the Mullvad .ovpn profile, you have to create both the Setup: and State: keys. I didn't verify this because I am lazy.
I have no clue where the IPv6 DestAddresses come from. I copied these from Viscosity because they seemed to work there. ::ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0:0 for the link-local address and :: for the public
I don't even really know what DestAddresses means or what it's used for.

A nice script

I wrote a python script that gleans addresses and prefix lengths from ifconfig output. It requires Python 3.6 or later so make sure you've got that in your path. It's called wg-updown and calls its SystemConfiguration service wg-updown-utun#, but it's not really WireGuard-specific. You could call it as a post-up/pre-down script for any old VPN tunnel or run it manually. Call it like this:

# After tunnel comes up
wg-updown up IFACE

# Before tunnel goes down
wg-updown down IFACE

replace IFACE with the name of the interface that your tunnel/VPN client is using, e.g. utun1. It will print the commands that it's sending to scutil so you can see what it's doing in detail.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import re
import subprocess
import sys

def service_name_for_interface(interface):
    return 'wg-updown-' + interface

v4pat = re.compile(r'^\s*inet\s+(\S+)\s+-->\s+(\S+)\s+netmask\s+\S+')
v6pat = re.compile(r'^\s*inet6\s+(\S+?)(?:%\S+)?\s+prefixlen\s+(\S+)')
def get_tunnel_info(interface):
    ipv4s = dict(Addresses=[], DestAddresses=[])
    ipv6s = dict(Addresses=[], DestAddresses=[], Flags=[], PrefixLength=[])
    ifconfig = subprocess.run(["ifconfig", interface], capture_output=True,
                              check=True, text=True)
    for line in ifconfig.stdout.splitlines():
        v6match = v6pat.match(line)
        if v6match:
            ipv6s['Addresses'].append(v6match[1])
            # This is cribbed from Viscosity and probably wrong.
            if v6match[1].startswith('fe80'):
                ipv6s['DestAddresses'].append('::ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0:0')
            else:
                ipv6s['DestAddresses'].append('::')
            ipv6s['Flags'].append('0')
            ipv6s['PrefixLength'].append(v6match[2])
            continue
        v4match = v4pat.match(line)
        if v4match:
            ipv4s['Addresses'].append(v4match[1])
            ipv4s['DestAddresses'].append(v4match[2])
            continue
    return (ipv4s, ipv6s)

def run_scutil(commands):
    print(commands)
    subprocess.run(['scutil'], input=commands, check=True, text=True)

def up(interface):
    service_name = service_name_for_interface(interface)
    (ipv4s, ipv6s) = get_tunnel_info(interface)
    run_scutil('\n'.join([
        f"d.init",
        f"d.add Addresses * {' '.join(ipv4s['Addresses'])}",
        f"d.add DestAddresses * {' '.join(ipv4s['DestAddresses'])}",
        f"d.add InterfaceName {interface}",
        f"set State:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv4",
        f"set Setup:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv4",
        f"d.init",
        f"d.add Addresses * {' '.join(ipv6s['Addresses'])}",
        f"d.add DestAddresses * {' '.join(ipv6s['DestAddresses'])}",
        f"d.add Flags * {' '.join(ipv6s['Flags'])}",
        f"d.add InterfaceName {interface}",
        f"d.add PrefixLength * {' '.join(ipv6s['PrefixLength'])}",
        f"set State:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv6",
        f"set Setup:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv6",
    ]))

def down(interface):
    service_name = service_name_for_interface(interface)
    run_scutil('\n'.join([
        f"remove State:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv4",
        f"remove Setup:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv4",
        f"remove State:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv6",
        f"remove Setup:/Network/Service/{service_name}/IPv6",
    ]))

def main():
    operation = sys.argv[1]
    interface = sys.argv[2]
    if operation == 'up':
        up(interface)
    elif operation == 'down':
        down(interface)
    else:
        raise NotImplementedError()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()


How to type foreign currency symbols on iOS? Is there a way to type special unicode characters, or more specifically foreign currency sumbols, on an iPhone or iPad?

I mean symbols like ¥ (Yen), ฿ (Bitcoin or Thai Baht), ₩ (Korean Won) etc.

I'm just using a normal english iOS 9. How can I type those e.g. when writing an email or Telegram message or when submitting info on a website?

You get all the currency symbols except the Baht for free on the US keyboard.

Press and hold the $ symbol and you'll see all the alternates.

To get the Baht symbol - add the thai keyboard and the Baht symbol will be added to the US keyboard. You don't need to switch to that keyboard - just add it. Similarly, you can use this answer to make shortcuts if you please for often used symbols if changing a keyboard is too long for your needs.

How can I insert symbols on iPad or iPhone?


How to stop maps, photos, and ibooks from loading in dock on startup I checked system preferences (screenshot attached).  They are not listed there.

I checked the folders mentioned in this question, but they are not listed there:

# Nothing
grep -i -R photo /Library/Launch*/*
grep -i -R photo /Users/$(whoami)/Library/Launch*/*
sudo grep -i -R photo /Library/Preferences/*

When I right click on one of the icons in the dock, all I see is a "Remove from Dock" option.  I click this every time my computer starts up.

How do I stop these applications from putting themselves into the dock on startup?

I'm on OSX Yosemite 10.10.5 if it makes a difference.

This should solve your problem: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=12266

You have to edit the following file: /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/com.apple.dockfixup.plist

Right below <key>add-app</key>, you can remove all the <dict>...</dict> related to the apps you don't want to appear in the Dock on startup.

[EDIT]
It looks like this file cannot be edited anymore with El Capitan due to the System Integrity Protection (SIP). See this discussion about it.


Equalizing volume of different songs in itunes I have enabled the option to equalize volume but it doesn't seem to do anything. Neither does it work for itunes, nor for the songs on my ipod. Is there some option/setting I am overlooking?

I use an external tool (MP3gain) for this. It works fine without touching the mp3 coding. The linked one is windows only, but there is also a Mac version, if I remember correctly.


Why does VirtualBox crash macOS? I installed VirtualBox on my new Mac mini, running macOS Mojave, and it randomly crashes the computer (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't).

The last time it crashed such that both my monitors (that are plugged into the Mac mini through USB-C to HDMI adapters) were not working. I spent close to 2 hours trying to figure out what happened. I was sure it was something internal, and not the USB-C ports, because I was able to open recovery (by pressing and holding Command + R during boot) and see what's being displayed, but I wouldn't see anything when I'd normally turn on my computer.

After 2 hours of trying different things, I plugged one of my screens into HDMI (instead of USB-C) and saw the password screen, logged in, and the USB-C ports started working again.

Can someone explain what is going on here? I started to think that this was the computer trolling me. I never had these problems on either Windows or Linux.

This is commonly due to bugs in VirtualBox.

VirtualBox installs itself as a kernel extension directly into the lowest level of kernel software running on your Mac affecting stability of the system as a whole. This is why you need to enter an administrative user’s password in order to install VirtualBox.

To fix this, ensure that you have the latest software versions of VirtualBox, add-on packs and macOS installed. Double-check your virtual machine configuration for configuration errors (especially if you’re using PCIe pass-through or similar).

If this doesn’t solve your problem, I will advise using a different virtualization system such as VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop.


Is it possible to keep archive functionality when setting up GMail as Exchange account on iPhone? When you set up GMail on an iPhone normally, the delete icon in the mail app is replaced by an archive icon, as this is the most common action in GMail.

I changed my settings to configure GMail as an Exchange account, as I wanted to enable push email for this account.  But this has changed the archive icon to a delete icon.

Is it possible to maintain the archive icon while it's set up as a Gmail account?

I'm actually about to ask the opposite question, but the delete functionality in Exchange GMail archives the email and does not delete it.


Apps randomly crash when using keyboard shortcuts in popups For some weird reason, hitting Enter, Escape, or some other action keys crash the save dialog, open dialog, Command+F, and many others. This makes the entire app crash, and revert to an autosave which is likely very outdated (if at all).

This is after upgrading from El Capitan.

I can confirm clicking the Open, Save, Cancel etc buttons with the mouse work fine, but when I use the keyboard, the entire app crashes.

How do I fix this?

Edit: The following list will be updated with all solutions I have tried, and have failed:

El Capitan: every app crashes when browsing or saving file

Edit 2: I have confirmed this issue also applies to authentication dialogs and the like.

Edit 3: Somehow it got fixed. I don't know how or what caused it, but it just was. If anybody can educate me on this and tell me how this could have happened, please do.

Edit 4: The issue popped up again. I have no idea why.

It seems a faulty keyboard layout produced by Ukelele seems to be the culprit. Switching to the default keyboard layout fixed it for me. If someone can shed some light on how this works I would appreciate it.


Very slow SMB on MacOS with 10G network We have a 10 Gigabit network with a mix of Windows 10, Linux and MacOS (Sierra 10.12.6) machines.

The transfer speeds between the Windows or Linux machines are OK: between 500 and 800 MB/s for big files (10 to 100 GB).

But the Macs show a read speed of around 130 MB/s only.

Curiously, write speeds when writing from Mac to Windows or Linux, are much better. The slow speed is when transferring files between two Macs or when the Mac is reading from a Win/Linux share.

The problem is really specific to SMB on Mac.

All the machines have SMB signing disabled as per Apple's recommendation. With the default setting which enables signing, the speeds were even (a lot) worse: around 60-70 MB/s.
The disks used were all RAID 5 arrays with local speeds between 600 MB/s. and over 1 GB/s. (tested with dd and Blackmagic Speed Test)
The raw network speeds tested with iperf3 were between 5 and 10 Gigabits/s.
Using FTP instead of SMB showed speeds around 500 MB/s in both directions (using the Mac's default ftpd).

Other suggestions I came across, which of course made no difference:

Using IP addresses instead of hostnames.
Using cifs:// instead of smb://. (that acually forces SMB 1 instead of SMB 3, and made the speed much worse)

I would turn on smb3 signing, smb3 encryption and retest. We are seeing the best performance with the latest OS, newest protocols and full encryption. It’s not twice as fast, but it’s measurably faster for a couple of vendors across the board for us.

Next, get a wire shark dump and look at the SMB commands. Work with networking on MTU and jumbo packets as that can really vault large transfers and be worth the engineering work if you can’t speed up large reads.


Time Machine reporting thousands of errors: setattrlist failed for path '/.MobileBackups/Computer/ For some reason, I can not longer complete a backup to a remote Time Machine server. In the error log, I see thousands of error messages. Here's generally what they look like:

  2016-10-27 16:13:31.330679-0500  localhost mtmd[745]: (TimeMachine)
  [com.apple.TimeMachine.TMLogError] -[FileAttrs
  writeAttributesToItemAtPath:] setattrlist failed for path
  '/.MobileBackups/Computer/2016-10-27-161316/Volume/Library/Preferences'
  (errno 1)

The errors are slightly different only at the end (/.MobileBackups/Computer...)

Ultimately, the backup takes days before the connection to the server is reset for some reason and the backup fails to complete.

What are these errors and what do I need to do to fix this?

It may relate to this and/or help someone else figure out more about this but when I look at directories that are subject to the failure on my Mac, I see:

    sudo ls -al@ '/.MobileBackups/Computer/2016-11-05-233040/Volume/Library/'
    total 0
    d------r-x@ 4 root  wheel  136 Nov  5 23:33 .
        com.apple.backupdelta.MoveChecked     3
        com.apple.s stem.Security    68
    drwxr-xr-x@ 5 root  wheel  170 Nov  5 23:30 ..
        com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeFSEventStoreUUID     36
        com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeLastFSEventID    20
        com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID     36
    d------r-x  5 root  wheel  170 Nov  5 23:32 Application Support
    d------r-x@ 4 root  wheel  136 Nov  5 23:33 Preferences
        com.apple.backupdelta.MoveChecked     3

I imagine most of these file attributes are related to Time Machine's local backup process, but I also notice that one of the attributes is com.apple.s stem.Security .. note the blank character in the system path component.  Could that be confusing things?  For example, if that attribute was set with that typo and later cleared (or attempted to be) with it spelled correctly, you would see an error like this.

Just guessing ..


Change color of balloons and text in Message.app In previous versions of Message.app bundled with Mac OS X, we could change the font and color of the message balloons. In Yosemite I no longer can find such options.

Am I simply failing to find the options? Is such customizing no longer allowed? If not allowed, is there any easy hacking tricks to get the same effect?

In OSX Yosemite colors are blue (for iMessages) and green (for SMS). There is no longer the ability to change these; Macs now look like iOS devices.

Hard way: (backup first!)

For Yosemite modify CSS here:

/System/Library/Messages/PlugIns/Balloons.transcriptstyle/Contents/Resources/balloons-modern.css

For El Captain it's now located in:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SocialUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources

But one needs to either disable rootless mode or to use a union file system mount to map the file over without rootless.

Hope this will help.