Some macOS apps are not launching in full-screen mode I am using macOS Catalina and I noticed that a few apps in my system are not launching in full-screen mode. Every time I start those apps, I have to manually make them go full-screen.
The apps that currently display this behavior are VLC and, zoom.us.
I have followed the similar discussion in: https://osxdaily.com/2018/05/15/make-apps-open-full-screen-mac-automatically/, and unchecked the box corresponding to "Close windows when quitting an app". While it is working for most of the apps but failed for few including above two.
Is there any proper way to force the apps in question to launch full-screen every time?

VLC has its own fullscreen structure; which means you can have the playlist windowed or fullscreen as you wish, then the movie fullscreened, either by re-using the same Space, or by invoking the Mac's native fullscreen structure, as you desire.
Prefs cover all eventualities/combinations…

VLC also has no capability to follow the Mac's "Close windows when quitting an app" pref. It always opens just the playlist window & never saves/reloads previous files automatically.
[Almost] all prefs changes in VLC require you to relaunch the app to take effect.
Zoom, I've never used.


What window is playing audio? I've got a number of windows open, including several browser windows.  One of them is playing an annoying advertising video.

How can I easily locate which window is playing audio?

Ability to see per-application sound output: Check out https://superuser.com/questions/150304/per-application-volume-settings-possible-on-mac-os-x-snow-leopard

Within Chrome, you can use the Mutetab extension to see what tabs/windows are playing audio.


How do I view an SSL certificate on my iPad from Safari? I'm trying to view the SSL certificate for a web site on my iPad.

For example, how can I view the SSL certificate for this site?

https://encrypted.google.com/

Using Safari on the desktop, I can click on the small lock icon in the address bar to view the certificate details.

How do I do this on the iPad?

There is also a free app TLS Inspector. Works fine too. See https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tls-inspector/id1100539810?mt=8


How to i update an iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.5 offline i was able to update my iPhone 4S and iPad via the option on the settings menu however i iPhone 4 which i use as my music player doesn't have that option, my computer with itunes doesn't connect to the internet so i can't download it via itunes

i am wondering if there is an offline installer i can download that itune can detect to use, that way i can download it on a separate computer then transfer it to my main computer

There exists direct download links for the restore images that you can download from one computer and use for the restore on your own computer, however you will still need an internet connection for the final part of the installation (iTunes needs to verify with Apple servers).

Once you have the .ipsw file on your computer, hold down ⌘ Command (or control if on a PC) while clicking 'Update' in iTunes, and select the .ipsw file for your iPhone.


Outlook for Mac CardDAV and CalDAV I'm looking for sync plugins for current Outlook for Mac to make it talk to CardDAV and CalDAV servers. So far I only found plugins for Windows. Any hints?

Unlike Outlook for Windows, neither Outlook:Mac 2011 nor Outlook:Mac 2016 support plug-ins.  The closest thing that Outlook:Mac supports is AppleScript, which won't get you to the CardDAV or CalDAV support that you desire.

For my personal usage, I use a combination of Apple Mail (IMAP), BusyCal (CalDAV, which covers both calendar and tasks), and Apple Contacts (CardDAV) in place of Outlook.  I'm not really happy with this combination.  I haven't found a better solution.


How can I do "su -c 'cmd' user" from Linux in macOS? On Linux I execute:

su -c "ls -l /etc | mail -s filelist myname@gmail.com" - username

How does this work in macOS?

su - <username> -c "ls -l /etc | mail -s filelist myname@gmail.com"


iMac can't unzip password protected PC zipped file I sent a .zip file to a friend with an iMac but he can't open it. It was created using PKZip on a Windows 7 PC, and it's Password protected. He's pretty technically inept so is there anything he needs to do to be able to access this file please?

macOS has built-in support for password protected Zip files, but if he encounters problems have him get The Unarchiver. It also does other kinds of file types.


SSD in a MacBook Pro (mid 2012, 13"), Finder symbol with question mark I am having trouble upgrading my MacBook Pro (mid 2012, 13") with a SSD.

3 weeks ago, I installed the Samsung Evo 840 (500 GB) into my MacBook Pro. It worked fine for 3 weeks, then two days ago, my MacBook freezes. I restart it, and a Finder symbol with a question mark appears. I open Disk Utility in several ways (connected my old HDD through USB, or used cmd + R), it shows the SSD but I can neither repair nor verify it. When I start the MacBook Pro, it tells me that it cannot read the internal SSD (or something similar).

Then, I installed the MX100 Crucial SSD (500 GB). It works fine from USB, but once I install it inside my MacBook Pro, I again get the Finder symbol with a question mark. Same for the Samsung: it works via USB, but once its inside, I cannot boot from it.

I installed the HDD back into the MacBook Pro, and it works fine.

I didn't find anything similar to my problem on the web, so I'm asking here. What could be the problem?

I'm guessing the problem is the cable that connects your hard drive to the logic board.  You can order a new one from eBay, Amazon, or other Apple suppliers, or set up a Genius Bar appointment to have them diagnose and see if it is the issue.
A family member and I both had similar issues with our MacBooks.


How to remove song from itunes I would like to prune the song list from the ones
that don't align with the current value set of mine.
How can I ditch the songs from the ios8 device from 10.11 desktop?

No remove button in sight. Dragging to trash does not work either.
Trying to remove the item highlighted.

The trick with iTunes is that you don't directly manage files on the device, you manage them on your desktop, and choose what is synced.

Normally, iTunes syncs your entire library, only avoiding this when your device is full, or when you manually choose what to sync.

Your question is a tad ambiguous, so I'm going to give two answers.

If you want to remove a song from iTunes outright, deleting it from your computer and your synced devices, you must remove it from the "upper" Music selection, not the one listed under "On your device". The "on your device" list is read only.
If you want to keep songs on your computer but only sync certain ones, open the summary view on your iPod, select the "Sync" menu, and hit the "Selected playlists..." option. You can then create a playlist of the songs you wish to sync, and only sync that list.

Further detail from Apple


csrutil: command not found I am using a Mid 2012 MacBook and recently upgraded it to OS X 10.11 El Capitan. I was having trouble with it's new SIP feature and wanted to disable it.

I tried to boot into OS X Internet Recovery using Cmd+R, which started Internet Recovery. When I tried csrutil disable in Terminal, it returned -bash: csrutil: command not found.
Then I tried booting into Recovery HD and tried the same command in the recovery mode there to get the same error.

My question is how can I access csrutil command to disable SIP? Am I missing something?

Update
I am putting the recovery terminal commands I have tried in the following screenshot. Kindly zoom it to see clearly

The netboot image loaded by booting to Internet Recovery Mode apparently doesn't contain the executable csrutil.

The OS X Base System loaded while booting to Recovery Mode should contain it though. By pressing cmdR a 2-step procedure is initiated: First the Mac is booted to Recovery HD and then after expanding BaseSystem.dmg to "OS X Base System" (which is the name of the mounted BaseSystem.dmg). If you see an animated globe after pressing cmdR your Mac probably doesn't have a Recovery HD.

Check the system version (or product version) of the Recovery HD/Base System:

To check the system version (1 in the screenshot below), boot to your main volume and enter the following in Terminal:

diskutil list #to get the disk identifier of your Recovery HD; usually it's disk0s3 with a size of ~650 MB
diskutil mount disk0s3
cat /Volumes/Recovery\ HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/SystemVersion.plist | grep -A 2 ProductVersion

Additionally you may mount BaseSystem.dmg and check the system version (2 in the screenshot below) there also:

open /Volumes/Recovery\ HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg
cat /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist | grep -A 2 ProductVersion

Download and reinstall the latest OS X El Capitan full installer if the system version of the base system is 10.10.x or lower.


How Do I Transfer A Project File Created Using iMovie 7 To A Hard Drive? I've made a movie project in iMovie 7, but it's taken 3GB of space on my hard drive and I am lacking space right now, so I need to move it out onto a external hard drive.

How can I do this?

I’m not sure I understand you… you created a Movie Project in iMovie 7 (which if I’m not mistaken is the iLife ’08 version) and now you want to move it to an external drive?

You don’t mention your Mac OS X’s version but that shouldn’t really make much of a difference.

Ok should the above be correct, you have to locate your project in your hard drive. It will be probably located in your Movies folder. Assuming you have connected your external drive and the drive is ready to use (i.e. Partitioned and Formatted) for OS X, you simply have to open two Finder Windows (use CMD + N to open a new finder window).

After you have the two Finder windows, navigate one to where you see the project in your /Movies folder. and in the other Finder, go to your external drive.

Click in the iMovie project and Drag it to the other finder window (don’t release the mouse/trackpad button). When you reach your external drive, release it.

It will be copied, not moved. When the copy is over, simply drag the old one to the Trash. :)

I’m sorry if this sounds too simple (or too complicated), the thing is that the nature of your question could be as simple as “how do I copy a file in OS X” or as complicated as “I got a new hard drive and I want to use it”. Both things are not complex, but the instructions for each are completely different. :)


Is iphone 5 apps scale down on ipad mini retina display? Can i test my iphone 5 apps on ipad mini retina with 4 inch screen?
I heard that iphone 5 apps scale down to 3.5 inch screen in ipad mini retina.
is it true?

They're not scaled down. They're displayed in their original resolution, which is obviously less than the iPad Mini Retina resolution.


Disabling MBP display with external monitor connected in Clamshell Mode - Works with DP->DVI, but not DP->DP I have an issue discussed previously on Ask Different but have not found a solution in my use case.

I have macOS High Sierra installed on a MBP 6,2 (i.e. a vintage 15" i5, mid-2010, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256MB VRAM).

With a new external monitor (Viewsonic VP3268-4K) set at 2560x1440 and connected with mini-DisplayPort to my MBP, the external monitor loses it's video signal when I try to deactivate the internal LCD display by clamshell-ing it (I use a refrigerator magnet to make the MBP believe the lid is closed).

However, this works fine when another external display (1920x1200) is connected via mini-DP --> DVI cable.

-- What Works --

Deactivating the unused MBP internal display worked fine with my older external monitor (1920x1200) connected to the MBP via mini-DP --> DVI adapter cable.  When clamshell-ed the internal LCD display goes dark and also disappears from the System Preferences --> Displays --> Arrangements tab page.  My mouse cursor remains only within the external display.  Everything works as expected.

The new (2560x1440) external display connected via mini-DP works with no issues as long as the MBP internal display is also active.  I can turn down the internal display's backlighting to remove the visual distraction, but this still leaves it's video framebuffer active: it is listed in System Preferences... and the mouse pointer is not restricted to the external monitor video space and can go off into the internal display area.

-- Fixes Tried so Far --

Lots of reading online, here (lots of good info) and other sites led me to try editing boot NVRAM parameters to force the internal display to be inactive, terminal commands suggested in other postings were tried (see below), different DP adapters, changing the new external monitor's settings: force DP v1.1. but nothing tried had the desired effect: to clamshell the internal display while using the external monitor (2560x1440) via DP. Unfortunately I cannot use DVI with the new external monitor because single channel DVI only supports (1920x1200) and I do not have a dual channel DVI cable or Apple cable adapter.

The terminal commands I've tried (after disabling SIP) are:

sudo nvram boot-args="niog=1"

sudo nvram -d boot-args

sudo nvram boot-args="iog=0x0"

sudo nvram boot-args=niog=1

I've also tried resetting the external monitor settings by removing the Folder ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/

Can anyone offer any other suggestions?

As a start I think we need to establish if you can get your display to work correctly while your MacBook Pro is in closed-clamshell mode. To do this, follow these steps:

Connect a USB keyboard and mouse to your MBP (or pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with your MBP)
Connect your MBP to an AC power source
Connect your Viewsonic display to your MBP
After your MBP desktop appears on your Viewsonic display, close your MBP's lid
If your display goes to sleep, press a key or click your mouse to wake it up

NOTE: If your Viewsonic display doesn't wake up, then disconnect the display and shut down your MBP. Now connect your display while your MBP is off and then switch the MBP on. After logging in close the lid. Remember to keep the external keyboard and mouse connected


What is this menubar icon with NW-SE double-headed arrow? What is this menubar icon? I don't remember seeing it before, and it doesn't seem to offer any explanation of what it is.

The inverted triangle (▼) in the upper left doesn't do anything when clicked. Typing in the [Search] box only changes [All Programs ▶] to [◀ Back].

Apparently it's VMware Fusion Start Menu.


Lock Screen using terminal? Osascript is preventing keystrokes I want to lock my Mac's screen remotely.  I don't want to sleep my Mac.  Only the screen.  I don't want to require a password every time I put my monitor to sleep (system prefs/require password).  And I definitely don't want to suspend the current user (CGSession -suspend) because my Mac also serves as a media control center.

I tried using an applescript to create an app I could launch remotely, but this command in the applescript fails:

 tell application "System Events"
      key code 12 using {command down, control down}
 end tell

When I launch the applescript over terminal, I get an error telling me that osascript is not allowed to send keystrokes.

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish:  I have a Philips Hue dimmer remote near my home's front door.  I've reprogrammed the buttons to do various things (lights on, restart playing whatever I was listening to on iTunes last, etc).  It's great, except, I want the OFF button to turn off my lights, stop iTunes, etc, and lock my Mac's monitor.  Everything works but that last step.

I can sleep my Mac's monitor using

do shell script "pmset displaysleepnow"

I've settled with that for now, but that sleeps the monitor.  I want to lock the monitor.

I know I could go into system prefs and require a password after sleep, but I don't want to use a password every time I sleep my monitor.  That would drive me crazy.  I also know I could do something like this:

do shell script "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend"

But that suspends the current user's session, which prevents my remote from controlling my Mac.  I just want to lock my monitor (command control Q) without using a hotkey, so I'll be able to trigger it remotely.

How can I lock my Mac's screen remotely?

I found an answer.

The Lock Screen app on Github does exactly what I wanted to do.  So, by downloading it and adding this to my script, I can lock my monitor remotely:

run application "Lock Screen"

Edit: It seems the application runs the following script:

activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "SystemUIServer" to keystroke "q" using {command down, control down}
end tell

Adding that to my applescript still gives me an osascript error, but triggering the Lock Screen app using applescript works perfectly for my needs.

This makes me happy!

I have a remote at my door that I programmed to turn my lights on when I click the ON button, and when I click OFF, it turns my lights off, makes sure various smart devices are off, and it locks my Mac's monitor.

If I'm headed out the door, OFF makes sure everything is off and the Mac's monitor is locked.

Love it!


How can I complement a suggested address in Maps? I want to find an address in Maps, let's say it's Baker Street, 221b, London. So I begin to type "baker street" into the search field in Maps. Soon, after 3-4 typed characters, "Baker Street, London, England" appears among suggestions.

If I tap on the suggestion, Maps will set a red location marker somewhere on the street. Now, I don't want the street, I want a particular house number on it.

How can I change the Maps suggestion to add a house number? Currently I type the whole street name and then type the house number at the end, and this is not very convenient, especially if the street name is long.

PS. Since there may be misunderstanding - the question is not specifically about UK or England. Baker Street is just an example. It could be Bakkerstraat 22 in Anwerpen as well (not a museum or any point of interest, just a normal house where people live).

This answer has evolved slightly since comments changed the OP's intent. It now generally covers Apple Maps & how it stores & searches locations. Sherlock Holmes is less relevant, but it's still a valid start point for the rest.
This is also pertinent to macOS as well as iOS, they both share the same structure.

House numbers come first in the UK.

Sherlock's Address is 221B Baker Street. As it's such an iconic [if actually completely fictitious] address, simply typing 221b will find it.

Again, because it's a well-known landmark, Maps does have a specific Point of Interest for it.
Note that the house with the number 221B painted on the glass above the door & the Sherlock Holmes blue plaque is actually 239 Baker Street, it's all just bluff for the tourists ;)

Generally for the UK, Maps will use the Postcode for the location not the actual number/street, so in this instance NW1 6XE is actually as accurate as it can resolve. [This can be extremely irritating if the Postcode area is large, such as in the countryside, but generally is close enough in a city.]

In short - learn the postcode & search that.

Let's take a much broader example.

I live on Church Street.
Can you imagine just how many Church Streets there are in the UK? - there are 2 within a mile of here so even locally that's a difficult distinction.
If I start typing an address on Church Street [not mine, it knows where I live, of course] but any other number along the road, then it's not even going to hone it to less than a screenful of alternatives until I start the postcode section, which will rapidly hone it to town, then district & finally the correct location.
Amusingly [well, vaguely amusingly] my barber shop has the same address as I do; distinguishable only by the postcode.

I can't really add any generalisation for outside the UK, as that's the only system I know - but you can test it for your own local 'postcode' structure, see below.
A Postcode in the UK is a "potential set of numbers in a given distance on a road [or roads - this changes depending on the population density]." Those numbers fall inside that postcode whether or not they even exist, in case the buildings change over the years. Important & large organisations can have their own 'personal' Postcode - famously, BBC Radio 1 is W1N 4DJ although W1N is actually a valid postcode for where the office is - they couldn't have picked R4D 101 etc, it had to come from the pre-determined pool.

The postcode is the only real stored reference for an Apple Map POI & especially once saved as a contact or favourite [other maps do it differently, but Apple Maps does it this way, even if you enter data in actual international mapping designations initially.] This is the limit of its resolution once saved. As a simple Dropped Pin it retains accuracy, but as soon as it's saved it loses that & drops back to 'postcode' as its finest granularity.

You can test this storage method & whether it also applies to your own country's 'postal code' system by the simple but tedious expedient of saving a location which is inside a geographically large single postcode, saving it as a Contact or Favourite then recalling it - it moves to the centre of the postcode, wherever you had set the POI initially.

This is actually what I have always considered a major failing in Apple Maps & I've reported it many times, from both a user & beta tester perspective.


How do I completely uninstall Setapp and it's helpers manually? The Setapp.app helper missed my first attempt to Trash the app (maybe an earlier version?). So I need to clean out it's various helpers and plugins manually.

Here's what I've found so far:

/Applications/Setapp.app
/Applications/Setapp/ <- if you have installed anything

~/Library/Application Support/Setapp/...
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.setapp.*
~/Library/Containers/com.setapp.*
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.setapp.*
~/Library/QuickLook/SetappQL.qlgenerator

If I delete all the above will that completely remove Setapp? If not, what else do I need to do?

The correct way to uninstall it is :

If you did not undo it in this way, you must use the "Remove Setapp" tool that is delivered to you in the support.


Free RSS reader client for Mac with new post notification? Is there any free RSS reader client for Mac that can give me a notification if there are new posts to read?

If I understand your question correctly, NetNewsWire does this.

It's free, but ad-supported; you can pay extra to remove the ads.


Full screen ad on iPhone in place of lock screen I own an iPhone 3GS and use it as personal hotspot for my MacBook Pro via USB.

The iPhone is running iOS 5.1.1, and the MacBook is running a Mountain Lion preview.   However the question is not about Mountain Lion, nor is specific to Mountain Lion, so please bear with me.

The iPhone was in the locked mode and connected to the MacBook via USB when I pressed the lock button. However, instead of the usual lock screen and slide button, the iPhone showed a fullscreen ad:

(Ironically, it advertises a game called “Worms: Reloaded”.)

I was somewhat terrified by this so I didn't tap the image at all, and instead held the poweroff button. On choosing “Cancel” on poweroff confirmation screen, I was able to get back to my lock screen.

I don't know what would happen if I tapped the image, neither do I know if this was just an image or an executable. It's kind of funny that the ad says to push OK (YES) button, but there is no such button on the screen. I decided I don't trust this interface because of strange arrow positioning in the top left button so I didn't tap Cancel.

My phone is not jailbroken.

By the way, there has been a similar question without a screenshot but I'm not sure it is exactly the same thing.

My only guess now is that I have MMS enabled, and maybe there is a kind of MMS messages
that show up on the screen without being saved (like flash SMS), and maybe my carrier decided to spam me. I'm also downloading a malware scan software for OS X.

I get these messages when I connect to the China Unicom network. I think the "Cancel/Accept" dialog is hardcoded into iOS for the purpose of accepting the carrier's terms of use. These messages come from the sim card, and I think only the carrier can send them. It's sleazy for the carrier to use this functionality for advertising.


Does Apple accept .app jars on the Mac App Store? I know that I can bundle a .jar into a .app using Automator and AppleScripts.

However, can this .app be submitted to the App Store?  And if it can be submitted to the App Store, will Apple accept an application of this type?  Are there any examples of apps on the App Store that are .jar converted to a .app?

The question was asking about the Mac App Store, not the iOS App Store. Yes, Apple does accept Java applications into the Mac App Store if packaged correctly. Here are a couple links with more info:

Packaging for Distribution on a Mac

Getting Your Java 8 App in the Mac App Store


Photos can't be deleted from iPhone There are some photos on my iPhone 6 plus that I want to get rid of but I can't. When I click the photo the trash-can disappears. When I click edit a note pops up saying these photos are not editable.

How can I delete them?

If the photos were put by syncing with iTunes you can't delete them using iPhone.

To delete photos and/or albums that were copied to your iPhone by syncing with your computer are deleted by doing another sync.

Start iTunes on the computer and connect your phone.
Select your phone in iTunes and select the Photos tab.
Then DESELECT the items you no long want on the Phone.
Then click on Apply or sync.

The photos or albums will be removed from your iPhone but they will remain on your computer.


Launching .NET Core executable when Custom URL is opened I have a .NET Core app that needs to be opened from a custom URL. It would be passed something like myapp:<base64 params> and this would need to open the app.

Currently, I have a setup somewhat like this (I'm mostly a Windows developer and haven't really touched Mac at all, Linux I'm more familiar with but still not comfortable working in):

URL launches .app which contains AppleScript
AppleScript launches
a shell script which forks the dotnet MyApp.dll $1 command into a
new process
MyApp.dll launches with the parameter supplied

The issue with this seems to be the AppleScript launcher, as when launching the shell script manually with params the app opens and functions normally. But when launching the URL from a browser (Chrome) the icon appears and quickly disappears in the dock, and the program does not execute. I have no idea how to debug something like this since I've never properly worked with a Mac and I don't know if there's an event viewer or something of the like (usually checking the event viewer would be my step 1 on Windows).

The scripts I'm using:

AppleScript (which then gets made into a .app using the built-in exporter):

on open location this_URL
    do shell script "/Library/MyApp/Launcher " & this_URL
end open location

I edited the Info.plist for the generated .app to add the Custom URL handler:

...
<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
        <string>com.myapp.urlhandler</string>
        <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
        <array>
            <string>myapp</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</array>
...

The shell script (without sh extension) that is used to launch the dll:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
( ( ( dotnet /Library/MyApp/AppFiles/MyApp.dll $1 ) & ) & )

Side Note: The shell script forks once more than should be necessary, but without the extra fork it breaks .NET for some reason. Also adding the & after the $1 seems to cause issues with .NET's argument handling.

I have checked that all the files are in the right places, and when cutting out the AppleScript it runs normally, but I'm not sure how to debug the AppleScript issues. I did have it working before where the AppleScript would directly launch the dll, but that caused a console window which would kill the app when closed, and trying to fork in there didn't seem to work.

Is there a better way of doing this or a workaround that I can use to launch the app from a custom URL without the shell and/or AppleScript bits?

UPDATE: Solved as per my answer below. SE won't let me accept it until 2 days time.

So as it would turn out, Apple doesn't like you having multiple copies of an app as backups.

Usually when I'm doing this kind of executable/package work, I keep backups, such as BAK1_Package.exe, BAK2_Package.exe, etc.

It seems that if you have more than one .app that's registered to a URL handler anywhere on your system then Mac uses one of those, and not specifically the one that's in the Applications folder. So when I tried to launch the URL, instead of launching the most recent .app that was placed inside the Applications folder, it was launching the first one that was in the _BACKUP folder on my desktop.

For anyone else who runs into a similar issue like this: make sure you only have one .app registered to that URL handler.


Does iOS log emergency (911/999/112) calls? Obviously this isn't something I can test and confirm myself, and I'm unable to find any confirmation either way elsewhere. My question is simple:

After making an emergency call on an iOS device, is the call logged within the phone history?

(I realise emergency calls are nearly always fully logged elsewhere, but I'm only interested at the device level)

Mine does.

(Pardon the image quality... I had to take a picture of one smartphone's call log with another, very old smartphone.)


Can't Interact with Second External Monitor I have connected two external monitors to my MacBook Pro through USB-C to an Anker docking station.  The displays appear to be arranged correctly in the settings (screenshot below)
In the image, Monitor 1 is my Macbook Pro.  Monitors 2 and 3 are external through the docking station.
The problem is, for some reason monitors 2 and 3 are 'mirrored' in the sense that their displays are identical.  However, I can drag my mouse from 2 to 3 as though they were extended.  I cannot actually interact with monitor 3 using the mouse however.
Any pointers to fix this bizarre behavior would be appreciated!  Thanks for looking

You could try using the program I wrote, displayplacer, which was developed to deal with the wonkiness of macOS screen layouts. For your particular situation, you'll want to run displayplcer list to output your current monitor setup. Then, edit that profile so that it isn't mirroring. Mirrored monitors are after the + sign in the id section. It'll take a bit of fiddling. Once you get it working though, you can assign that displayplacer command to a hotkey. Then, whenever this happens again (usually every time you plug in), type the hotkey to set your monitors to the correct layout.


Can I prevent a whatsapp text from being sent, if it hasn't yet been delivered? I sent a text, it went to the servers but it hasnt delivered to the person yet.
So I did that method I read about to block him until he comes online, then the text wont deliver to him.

Will this work?
Is there another way?

If it hasn't yet got through you can... though you'd have to be quick

If your message is still showing a clock icon in the bottom-right corner, and you realize that you did not want to send that message - you’re in luck! You should immediately turn off Internet connection on your mobile phone. This will block the channel and the message will remain in your mobile. Then delete the message from WhatsApp before connecting to the Internet again.

However, as soon as the message leaves your mobile and reaches WhatsApp server, the clock icon will change into single tick sign. And once the clock icon is gone, there is no way to hold your message back. It will reach the recipient as and when their mobile device connects to the Internet.

Edit Found this reference - https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/38129/can-i-stop-a-whatsapp-message-from-being-delivered which confirms that, & also that blocking the user does not work.


How do I add the phonetic contact fields to a contact on iOS 5 when using an iPhone 4? Recently I have seen some interesting tips for increasing the accuracy of Siri by entering phonetic details for contacts with names that is has trouble understanding or saying correctly.

This involves editing a contact, adding a new field, then selecting either phonetic first name or phonetic last name. E.g. Shuvawwn instead of Siobhan.

While I do not have Siri as I run an iPhone 4 not 4S, I have still seen these tips pre-dating iOS 5 to help with voice control as was before Siri came along.

The problem is that I do not appear to have these fields available on my iPhone at all.

How can I get them to show?  Is there some language or accessibility setting or other required to get them to appear?

I can confirm after testing that these fields are not available on the iPhone 4 in iOS5, although they are available on the iPhone 4S.

However, if you have your contacts synced with Address Book on the Mac, you can add the field to the contact card via the Add Field menu item under Contact, and the field is then sent to your iPhone on the next sync. I am not able to confirm if you can do this via the iCloud web interface directly.


Would it be possible to turn the field test into an app? When you dial 3001#12345# on an iPhone, it brings you to field test, which gives you cellular info and stuff like that. If I got the source code for this, would it be possible for me to turn it into an app using Xcode that I could just open from my home screen. It would be much easier than dialing that every time.

FieldTest.app:

Field Test is already an app: /Applications/FieldTest.app!

The app icon is just hidden on the home screen, and the Phone app launches this app.

If your iPhone is jailbroken, you can edit the application Info.plist to show the icon on the home screen. In /Applications/FieldTest.app/Info.plist, edit SBAppTabs array to remove ‘hidden’, then run uicache as mobile.


why can I login MacBook with different usernames of the same user I have only one user on my MacBookPro.
When I check the Users & Groups panel, I can see the username of this only user is "xxxyyy", then I also check the home directory of this only user in Terminal and it shows "/Users/xxx".
As a result, I can login my MacBook with the name "xxxyyy" or the name "xxx" as well.
It puzzles me a lot, Could anybody please give an explanation to this ~

When I entered my user name, it has, as standard, the long name and a short name based on the long name - that you can edit to be different if you want.

You can check in the system preferences : users and groups...


Are Apple boot camp drivers excellent on Windows 7? First off, I realize some may not prefer Windows, but I like Windows, and I like Apple's hardware so let's set aside any preferences on OS and focus on how well I can expect Boot Camp to run for me.

I'm considering purchasing a macbook for my upcoming graduation. I'm stuck between the 13" air and the 13" pro with retina. Either way, I'm planning on getting the 256GB model with 8GB of RAM. I also plan on dual booting with Windows 7. I can't find a reference that comments on how well Apple's Windows drivers work to make the multi touch trackpad work as well in Windows as it does on OS X.

Will I be sacrificing trackpad input capabilities by choosing Mac hardware over another PC vendor (either due to hardware limitations or driver issues)?

In my experience, if found that Windows runs great on my MBP 15''.
Drivers installation is very easy using Bootcamp.

Actually, a study has shown that MBP was the best performing laptop for running Windows operating system.

I would recommend to use a mouse on Windows. I am not very comfortable with the touchpad but it's more a personal thing, so you should give it a try and decide for yourself.

If you choose to buy a MBP retina and you connect to Internet using the Ethernet Thunderbolt adapter, be sure to connect it at boot time like described in this other post.


Importing WordPress Codex as a dictionary into the Dictionary app I'm an avid WordPress developer, and I'm constantly referring to the Wordpress Codex to look up various functions. I recently got a new 2013 MBP, and I just found the glorious "three finger tap to look up" function. Now, I've read that it's possible to change the dictionary that's used by adding or removing dictionaries from Dictionary.app, but I'm interested in doing something different.

Has anybody found a way to import WordPress Codex into the Dictionary app? Essentially, I want to be able to highlight a WordPress function, three finger tap, and be presented with the Codex article (or at least an abridged version with usage and params).

Apple shows you how to create and add Custom Dictionaries to it's Dictionary Applications in the Dictionary Services Programming Guide

It includes examples and a guide on the dictionary XHTML markup.


What extra hardware do I have to buy if Mac Mini is my first Apple product? I don't own any Apple product and am thinking of buying the upcoming Mac Mini. Now considering that this Mac Mini will be my first Apple product, what hardware I may have buy if I want to use Mac Mini for software development?
And please be specific if I need to buy that from Apple strictly.

For example, I have to buy a monitor, and as far as I know, I can buy any Monitor with DVI (as there is a HDMI to DVI cable provided) or HDMI port.

The only things you absolutely need that isn't already included are:

The monitor that you have already identified.
A keyboard; a Mac specific one would make sense, but any PC USB keyboard will do you just need to be careful to use the right settings as the layout will be subtly different
A pointing device of some sort.  If you are coming from PCs, you may hate Apple mice (I do), but again any PC mouse will work just fine.  Having said that, the Magic Trackpad is fantastic.  I use one on my iMac and do not use a mouse ever on a Mac any more.

Things you don't not need but are highly recommended would include:

A backup drive!  Backup your stuff!  Make it big (2x your internal drive at least) and make it fast (USB 3 or Thunderbolt if you have too much money)

Things which you might fancy but aren't really needed:

A headset/headphones of some sort (iPhones headphones with the 3 pin jack work fine)
An external DVD reader/writer (any brand, USB)
USB cup warmers (any brand)
Novelty stickers (any brand, except Microsoft Plays for sure! and Windows license keys)


Photos media library on external hard drive I moved my Photos media library to an external hard drive. Everything works fine except the ejection of the hard drive. Everytime I try to eject it my Mac says that it is in use:

$ sudo lsof +D "/Volumes/[Drive]
COMMAND   PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF   NODE NAME
mds        86 root   18r   DIR    1,9      544      2 /Volumes/[Drive]
mds        86 root   20r   DIR    1,9      544      2 /Volumes/[Drive]
mds        86 root   22r   DIR    1,9      544      2 /Volumes/[Drive]
photoanal 608 xxxx  txt    REG    1,9    32768 653409 /Volumes/[Drive]/Pictures/Fotos.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/MediaAnalysis/mediaanalysis.db-shm
photoanal 608 xxxx   27u   REG    1,9  8323072 653402 /Volumes/[Drive]/Pictures/Fotos.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/MediaAnalysis/mediaanalysis.db
photoanal 608 xxxx   28u   REG    1,9   214272 653408 /Volumes/[Drive]/Pictures/Fotos.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/MediaAnalysis/mediaanalysis.db-wal
photoanal 608 xxxx   29u   REG    1,9    32768 653409 /Volumes/[Drive]/Pictures/Fotos.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/MediaAnalysis/mediaanalysis.db-shm

I use iCloud to sync my photos with my iPhone. It is not important that the photos are on my Mac immediately. I also would be okay with starting Photos from time to time.

Is there a way to eject the hard drive without shutting down?

$ launchctl kill -TERM gui/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd

This command will stop the current instance of the photoanalysis daemon. Afterwards it is possible to eject the hard drive without any problems.


How can I know if my iPhone had been erased? My iPhone was lost 3 months ago and I have decided to erase my iPhone since then but until now I don't know if it erased or not. I'm still afraid that the thief may have access to my private stuff.

How can I know that my iPhone have been erased or can I track at least if it was already erase?

I tried to check my email and apple account and yet there is no mail.

When the device is erased, you should receive an email notification informing you that the device has successfully been erased. This is regardless of whether the device was online or offline when you clicked Erase, since the next time the device is online the device will be erased and an email will be sent.

  If your device is online, the remote erase begins. A confirmation email is sent to your Apple ID email address.
  If your device is offline, the remote erase begins the next time it’s online.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2701

You will be unable to track the device through Find My iPhone if you erase it.

  Note: If you erase your iPhone, you won't be able to use Find My iPhone to locate or protect it, but your Apple ID and password will be required to reactivate it.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/TI79


Using iPhone as a iPod I was recently given a used iPhone 3G as a gift, and I intend on using it as a iPod. I am told there are ways to do this, but I can not make sense of it. My phone is completely wiped with no sim card. I went to iTunes, but it won't let me activate it without a sim, which I don't have. Is there something I am missing here? Anything I can do to make its use basically an iPod?

You have to activate it once using a matching (netlock-wise) SIM. After activation you can remove the SIM again and use it in WiFi mode.


save mysql backup to afp network drive fails as cron job For some strange reason I am not able to save a generated mysql backup via mysqldump to an afp network drive as a cron job. If I call the shell script as root user (login via sudo su in terminal), it works just perfectly. So, the script is ok. It must have something to do with the cron job itself.

For doing so, I edited the root's crontab using crontab -e like so:

10 12 * * 1-5 sh /var/root/cronjobs/mysql_backup.workdaily.sh

This tells the crontab daemon to execute it every work day (monday to friday) at 12.10 PM.

With the same call from terminal it works (as described above).

This is the shell script that I am using for doing it:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
LOCALMOUNTPOINT="/Volumes/MyDrive"

# check if network drive is mounted
if mount | grep "on $LOCALMOUNTPOINT" > /dev/null; then
    echo "mounted"
else
    # not needed the below check, but much more safer in cron job execution:
    if ls -lha /Volumes | grep "$LOCALMOUNTPOINT" > /dev/null; then
        mount -t afp "afp://username:password@NETWORKDRIVE%28AFP%29._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Subfolder" /Volumes/MyDrive
    else
        mkdir /Volumes/MyDrive && mount -t afp "afp://username:password@NETWORKDRIVE%28AFP%29._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Subfolder" /Volumes/MyDrive
    fi
fi

mysqldump -u root -ppassword --all-databases | gzip -c > $(date "+/Volumes/MyDrive/Dumps/mysql/username/full__%FT%H_%M_%S.sql.gz")

The cron job creates a file on network drive with a file size of 20 Bytes. If I gunzip it, it is empty. Normally the database has about 12 MB. So, something is wrong here.

This script is executed via the cron job in lunch time, so no one uses the MacBook at this time (the screen is locked with a logged in user). Standby is fully disabled (only the screen standby is active after 10 minutes).

Does anyone know why this does not work? Any help or suggestions would be great.

Found the solution: The problem was, that the mysqldump command could not be find. I needed to add the absolute path to it /Applications/MySQLWorkbench.app/Contents/MacOS/mysqldump

Thanks to patrix and Allan for that tip.


Keyboard-only folder navigation with auto complete This is one feature of Windows 7 Start menu that I haven't been able to replace in OS X ML.
In Windows:

Press Windows key
Start typing, for example: H:\folder\phot
Use arrow keys to highlight the "search-complete": H:\folder\photos
Press Enter and voila, the folder is opened in Windows Explorer. Similarly for files.

I know that Alfred Powerpack can navigate by keyboard-only, but it is not as intuitive and fast (it doesn't have "search-complete", and it's cumbersome for mounted folders e.g. typing out \Volumes\H\folder\photos).

Finder offers the Go to Folder function (found in the Go menu, or by pressing ⇧⌘G), which allows you to type in a path, and has tab-completion (i.e. typing /us TAB r TAB doc TAB gets /Users/rob/Documents/).

It's not perfect, the main downfall is that it doesn't present multiple options, it just chooses the last alphabetical match (i.e. if you type do, in a folder with Documents and Downloads, it will auto-complete as Downloads), but it is a decent built-in functionality.


Download 1080p from iTunes store on Windows I am using iTunes 12.5.3.17 on Windows 10. iTunes Store pages show film/TV series Information sections which say "Downloading 720p". The title supports 1080p as well as 720p.

The text is a link to open the Store preferences tab. There is no setting to control quality on this tab. The Playback tab has preferred quality set to 1080p. The film downloads as 720p.

Multiple current pieces of documentation refer to this setting:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19623?locale=en_GB&viewlocale=en_US
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH20484?locale=en_GB

It is also mentioned that it is possible to download 1080p even if your current device does not support it (mine does, but compatibility problems should be ruled out by this statement).

Where has the setting gone? How can I download 1080p media?

This is dictated by a setting in your iTunes preferences:

Go to your iTunes Preferences
Select the Downloads icon
You will see a checkbox for Download full-size HD videos
If you tick the above checkbox, this means iTunes will download movies and TV shows in 1080p when they're available

Exit your preferences.


Deleted hard drive results in Windows recovery screen I have a late 2014 Mac Mini. I did go into recovery mode (Option + r) and did delete the hard drive.
Then I screwed up and restartet the Mac Mini instead of going back to the list from Option+r menu at the startup.

Current Issue:

Now if I start my Mac Mini, I get a Windows recovery screen which tells me add a bootable device.
I can read "Your PC needs to be repaired", a error code 0xc0000225 and enter to try again or press F8 for startup settings. I had bootcamp installed.

I tried:

That reset NVRAM with option+alt+r+p (Now startup sound is louder then before this reset)
Holding option+r to get into Mac recovery but not working
Holding t for hard drive menu but not showing

No command for startup worked. I get the windows recovery screen always. I don't need any recovery of my files. I just want to have a clean MacOS installation.

Do I need to install Windows with a bootable windows image or is there any other way to install MacOS again?

Mac Mini late 2014 -
MacOS 10.14 (no idea which sub number) was installed

I was able to access Internet Recovery with CmdOptR, and reinstall macOS from there.


Installing a C/C++ library with homebrew on M1 Macs In Linux, when a C/C++ library is installed through a package manager, the C/C++ compiler on the system is immediately able to find the installed library. I haven't used Intel Macs but this is definitely not the case in M1 Macs.
On M1 Macs, homebrew package manager installs software and libraries under /opt folder. It seems that clang that comes with XCode is not able to recognize this path so each time I compile my program against a particular library, I need to specify the library path using compiler's appropriate flag.
Is there a way to make clang compiler in M1 Macs recognize installed C/C++ library paths by default?

Add an environment variable as follows
export CPATH=/opt/homebrew/include
export LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/homebrew/lib

to the file corresponding to the shell, like ~/.bash_profile for bash.
Alternatively create CMake file with content like
link_directories("/opt/homebrew/lib")
include_directories("/opt/homebrew/include")

Or
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-L/opt/homebrew/lib " CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS   "-I/opt/homebrew/include " CACHE STRING "" FORCE )
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-I/opt/homebrew/include " CACHE STRING "" FORCE)

and create projects like cmake -C ../link_dir.cmake -B ../build -S .


Is it possible to configure a work iPhone to have the company user and the personal user separated? I have a company's iphone, and I would like to use it for personal purposes, as well as a testing device.
The problem is that this is the only test device of the company, and since I'm allowed to use it with my personal phone number and data, the problem is that any day, somebody can request the phone to use it for test something (it's very improbable but posible)
For this reason, I would like to know if it's posible to "lock" my personal user/data and/or switch to another user (the company's user) in a safe way so I can share the phone without having to be worried about somebody else seeing my what's app push notifications, my personal camera roll, etc...

No, that is not possible with iPhones.

Your only option is to take an encrypted backup and deleting everything on the iPhone before giving it out to another user, and then restoring your backup when you get it back.


Outlook 2016 and Mac OS incompatibility - multiple episodes of loss of search functionality Over the last year, I have needed to reinstall my 2016 Outlook account on my Macbook air multiple times and sometimes needed to do a repair on the indexing (more than a dozen times). It is constantly losing the search function.

I have macOS Mojave 10.14.6, and always upgrade OS and Outlook software when prompted. The problem seems to happen when there has been an update of macOS or of Outlook, but also just out of the blue for no apparent reason. I have spent multiple hours each time to resolve this.

I last reinstalled my Outlook account a week ago, and already the indexing has been scrambled. It is not that no emails are found on a search, but just some of them and in no predictable way.

From reading other postings, I am at a complete loss to understand how and why this problem has remained unfixed for so long by two of the world's largest companies to the detriment of Apple users. Is this really a highly complex problem? How can this be finally and comprehensively addressed?

Outlook searching relies on spotlight indexing.  I would start with ensuring that Sys Prefs - Spotlight - Privacy is empty.  You can rebuild the index with the below steps.  As a sidebar perhaps this is part of the reason why it's randomly losing results: https://eclecticlight.co/2019/08/02/spotlight-search-can-skip-files/

Open Terminal and run:

sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo mdutil -i on /
sudo mdutil -E


App or Script to Move a Window Between Desktops With Only a Keyboard Shortcut? I need a way to move a window between desktops in Lion/Mountain Lion with a keyboard shortcut only (i.e. no mouse involvement). From this similar question, I'm aware that it can be done by holding down the title bar of a window and activating the Move to Left/Right Space shortcut, but that doesn't meet my requirements.

I don't much care how it's achieved, as long as it's relatively efficient and can be activated by a keyboard shortcut (if it's just a script, that's fine, I can assign a keyboard shortcut to it another way).

Thanks to Lauri Ranta finding some further related questions that I didn't, I came across SizeUp, which does what I'm looking for (and several other window management tasks). I was hoping to find a more lightweight solution (I already have one window manager running full time in the background), but this will do for now. It's also unclear how well it works in Mountain Lion. I've only tested under 10.7 so far, but I saw some reports that it had issues in 10.8, but nothing definitive.

If anyone comes up with a different/more lightweight (i.e. an app that just does this, or a script), I'll mark that as the accepted answer, but for the moment it's SizeUp.


Snow Leopard killing internet access on home network Something weird that I think I've narrowed down to OS X. Everytime I fire up my MB Pro it kills internet access for all devices (including OS X) for about 5 minutes. Ping and DNS works fine but actually pulling content times out usually.

Reason I've narrowed it down to my MBP is that it only happens when I open up my laptop to work. My home PC is Win7 and will be chugging along nicely until my laptop comes online then it dies.

Anyone else have this problem? Did some general 'net searches and found some similar issues with older versions of OS X but not with Snow Leopard.

My home network is cable via a Motorola modem to a Netgear router. MBP is connecting via WiFi to the network.

Hard to say without being able to look at your network settings in your Mac and in your house in general, but I imagine your MB is creating a network conflict with your internet Router and therefore the other machines (and itself) end up sending the packages to the wrong place.

The first thing that came to my mind was that your MB Pro is not using DHCP and it's using the same IP Address as your Netgear router or Motorola Modem.

Things to diagnose:

Before even turning on your MB Pro, in your Windows machine, check your network settings. Write down your IPAddress, Your Subnet Mask, your Router and DNS Servers if any. Also note if you have DHCP Enabled or you're manually setting your IP.
With the above settings safely saved (on a piece of paper) turn on your MB Pro and check your network settings for your "Airport" -wifi- network: Go to System Preferences, Network and you will see your Airport. Note the numbers and post them back so we can try to see if the problem is this easy or there's something else involved.


Application Switcher showing up on wrong monitor display I have an early 2015 MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra. I also have two Dell UltraSharp Infinity Edge monitors connected to it via two Thunderbolt Mini DisplayPort outputs.

In the System Preferences, I've arranged my two displays such that the menu bar is located in the monitor immediately in front of me.  The second monitor sits to my left.

The problem I'm having is that when I hit Command + Tab to activate the Application Switcher, the switcher always appears in the monitor on my left instead of the monitor in front of me.  I would think that the switcher would appear on the monitor whose display has the Menu bar.

Is there some way to configure my settings so that the switcher will always appear in the monitor in front of me, that is, the monitor that holds the Menu bar?

The application switcher appears on the display where the Menu Bar is placed (the primary display).

However, if you have enabled Automatically hide and show the Dock in System Preferences → Dock, the app switcher will appear on the display which has last shown the Dock.

You can change the display which has last shown the Dock by moving the cursor to that display, move the cursor to the edge which houses the Dock and make the Dock appear momentarily.

This is the simplest approach to change the display on which application switcher needs to be shown in a multi monitor setup.


Calendar entries do not display Recently all of the entries in my iphone (4s) calendar appeared to disappear, both on the phone and on the icloud.  However the entries are still there but are not visible. I verified that the entries are still there by installing a third-party calendar app and syncing with my iphone calendar.  The entries are visible in the third-party app but not the iphone.  What can I do to fix this so that my entries are visible in the iphone's calendar?

Thank you.

The calendars are probably hidden.

Open Calendar.
Tap the Calendars button on the toolbar.

Show the calendars by tapping them.


What is "BC 1.2 port"? This story about a new Thunderbolt 3 dock from Promise Technology shows one of the two USB 3.0 ports labeled “USB 3.0 BC1.2”.

Some searches show results for "BC 1.2 port" but I've not yet seen a definition or explanation.

Battery Charging spec
BC 1.2 is an abbreviation for (USB) Battery Charging (revision) 1.2. I'm no USB specs specialist so I can link some abstracts/files only:

USB Battery Charging (Wikipedia)
USB Battery Charging Revision 1.2 (PDF)
Overview of USB Battery Charging Revision 1.2 and the Important Role of Adapter Emulators
Overview of USB Battery Charging Revision 1.2 and the Important Role of Charger Detectors

Basically it's a USB 3.0 port with some extra features to detect devices that can make use of charge currents beyond the standard 900mA.


What does a "" wake reason mean from powerd? This morning, like every morning, I sat down at my laptop but this time the tabs that I normally leave open were closed and Photoshop was trying to quit.

This was totally unexpected so I tried to work out why this was happening. I went digging into the logs and then via the terminal I looked at the wake logs (see the last few below).

2019-05-24 03:38:54.643015+0100 0x6a068    Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleTopCaseHIDEventDriver) [HID] [ATC] AppleDeviceManagementHIDEventService::processWakeReason Wake reason: Host (0x01)
2019-05-24 03:39:47.402319+0100 0x74       Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleACPIPlatform) AppleACPIPlatformPower Wake reason: EC.DarkPME (Maintenance)
2019-05-24 03:39:47.402321+0100 0x74       Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleACPIPlatform) AppleACPIPlatformPower Wake reason: EC.DarkPME (Maintenance)
2019-05-24 04:42:14.169247+0100 0x28d      Default     0x0                  63     0    powerd: [powerd:sleepWake] Wake reason: "<private>"  identity: "<private>"
2019-05-24 04:42:15.634941+0100 0x6a5a3    Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleTopCaseHIDEventDriver) [HID] [ATC] AppleDeviceManagementHIDEventService::processWakeReason Wake reason: Host (0x01)
2019-05-24 04:43:08.958830+0100 0x74       Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleACPIPlatform) AppleACPIPlatformPower Wake reason: RTC (Alarm)
2019-05-24 04:43:08.958832+0100 0x74       Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleACPIPlatform) AppleACPIPlatformPower Wake reason: RTC (Alarm)
2019-05-24 06:43:07.636797+0100 0x6abb3    Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleTopCaseHIDEventDriver) [HID] [ATC] AppleDeviceManagementHIDEventService::processWakeReason Wake reason: Host (0x01)
2019-05-24 06:44:00.846753+0100 0x74       Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleACPIPlatform) AppleACPIPlatformPower Wake reason: RTC (Alarm)
2019-05-24 06:44:00.846755+0100 0x74       Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleACPIPlatform) AppleACPIPlatformPower Wake reason: RTC (Alarm)
2019-05-24 08:15:01.640125+0100 0x6b1ce    Default     0x0                  0      0    kernel: (AppleTopCaseHIDEventDriver) [HID] [ATC] AppleDeviceManagementHIDEventService::processWakeReason Wake reason: Host (0x01)

.

There is one that seems different to the others (the one that says Wake reason: "<private>").

I was hoping someone may be able to shed some light onto what this is and satisfy a curious mind?

Starting with macOS Sierra, Apple started a total rebuild of the Console app and the log system.

And, as time progressed, Apple's increased focused on privacy has resulted in some macOS log entries to be redacted  to hide information Apple deems as being sensitive.

So, for whatever reason, the appearance of <private> denotes information that has been redacted from the logs. Unfortunately, this sometimes renders parts of the logs worthless in terms of troubleshooting a problem.

Regardless, there are many reasons a Mac can wake up from sleep and it's unlikely that it waking up was related to the problem you had this morning.


iCloud backups from a very old iPhone are not seen during the restore My sister used to have an iPhone 4 that I used before (she replaced the battery); she's used it until 2013 or 2014 when the battery was not usable anymore. She's then used an Android phone for a few years and has just bought an iPhone SE. She wanted to restore it from iCloud but the phone shows "no backups available" once she logs in to her Apple ID account during the initial phone setup.

The iPhone 4 had newest iOS 7 installed, I'm not sure what version the SE has but it may even be 12. Does Apple delete old backups if no one logged into the account for a few years? Or maybe restoring from a backup to iOS 5 versions newer is not possible? Are there any other reasons it may not work?

I'd normally try backing up the iPhone 4 again but I think it doesn't survive long enough to back up right now, even when connected to external power.

I'd appreciate any help.

The answer to my question is located here: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12520?locale=en_US

  Important: If you don’t back up your iOS device to iCloud for 180 days or more, Apple reserves the right to delete your device’s iCloud backups.


Is it possible to airdrop a video/photo to another ios device while playing it using airplay? I have some photo on my Ipad and i am showing them to my friend, using airplay, can i airdrop that specific video /photo to her ios device without stopping airplay?

It depends on the app and how many copies of the document in question you have on the device. I can't think of an app that does both at the same time, but the plumbing is there as long as the app doing the AirDrop doesn't try to play the media before you send it.

I can easily enable airplay and use the music player app to play music. While the music is playing, I can airdrop pictures from the Photos app with both happening simultaneously. So nothing on iOS prevents both from being active in general.

In fact, I can run any other app I want while AirPlay is going on with one catch. Only one source of media can play at one time. Specifically, things that the control center can play or pause or change volume is "media"

If the foreground app attempts to play sounds or video, that playing will automatically pause the music app from playing in the background but not affect the AirPlay settings. Since iOS handles muting the background sounds or video when another app requests play permission in the foreground it will pause the any multitask operation that was previously playing media.


Get Size of Folder Containing Hardlinks (like Time Machine Backups) I'm using an rsync script to make incremental backups of a specific folder, in very much the same way Time Machine does. I'm very interested to know how large my backup destination folder is. However when I Get Info in the Finder, it tells me the size as if each hardlink is it's own unique file.

Is there a way I can calculate the actual disk space used by a folder, where hard-linked files aren't being counted again and again for each link?

The answer, partially assisted by the comment above, is to use du

Specifically,
du -hs /path/to/folder/i/want/to/get/size/of

This counts hardlinked files only once. This is the parent folder of my hard-linked backups. So Finder tells me ~322 MB but du tells me ~171 MB. I don't think the 1000 vs 1024 issue is taken into account, but it's certainly close enough for my needs!


Why doesn't my iPhone 5c support Night Shift? iOS 9.3 was released yesterday to the public and I have installed it on my iPhone 5c. What I'm wondering is, why is Night Shift not available for my phone? Is it the architecture of the processor, something to do with the screen, or perhaps something else?

From Apple site:

Night Shift is available on iPhone 5s or later, iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, iPad mini 2 or later, and iPod touch (6th generation).

So I think It's related to 64bit processor architecture.


On an iPhone, how to stop app from running in the background, as disabling "App Refresh" doesn't seem to do it? Does disabling "App Refresh" in the Settings on iPhone (with iOS 9.3.4) actually stop an app from running in the background?

Because I actually disabled "App Refresh" for all apps (globally). And then I started the app Nike Running, and then after it started, then I started Pokemon Go.

So Pokemon Go should be the foreground app, and Nike Running should be the background app.  However, when I stopped walking or continued to walk, the phone did vibrate with the Nike Running voice about the walk pausing and resuming. So it looks like Nike Running is running in the background despite the App Refresh being disabled?

Here's Apple's definition of Background App Refresh:

  Apps can continue to run for a short period of time and are then set to a suspended state so they are not actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. They will instantly launch when you return to them. Certain tasks or services can continue to run in the background. To lessen the effect on battery life, normal app background refreshing is scheduled for efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged into a power source, or being actively used. When Background App Refresh is on, apps that take advantage of this feature can refresh themselves in the background.

A key part of that definition is ...apps that take advantage of this feature....  Perhaps Nike coded their app to take advantage of some of those features while continuing to run in the background (to update your exercise location, stats, etc).

There's a good read for this on Background App Refresh in Layman's Terms and I would recommend you read it to get a better understanding on how the system is setup and how it's used by apps.


How to Access Shared Computer Through Terminal? I have Mavericks on my Mac and wish to set up Unison between it and an old PC (vaiolaptop) running Windows XP on my network. How so I specify the path to the remote machine?

It appears like so in finder and I can navigate through it in Finder just fine.

I first created a  mapped network drive of the folder I wanted access to following this guide. (YES, smb://<windows machine network name> worked to reference my windows machine without having to do any sort of configuration or installation on that machine.) Then merely specified path to the mounted drive under /Volumes/.


Default chart colors Keynote showroom I want to find out what are the default colors of a 3D bar chart in Showroom layout on keynote. When you add a new chart, you get this colors:

But I was unable to find them in the colors palette.

I had a look at the internals of a fresh Showroom layout Keynote file (it's a zipped folder actually). Inside, there is a index.apxl file which contains lots of data .. also color data. I wrote this short Ruby script to make a quick-and-dirty html file with all colors used in the Keynote document:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

puts "<!DOCTYPE html>"
file = IO.read("index.apxl") # slurp apxl file

# iterate through file and convert color info to 8-bit integer:
file.scan(/sfa:[rgb]=\"(\d\.?\d*)\"\s+sfa:[rgb]=\"(\d\.?\d*)\"\s+sfa:[rgb]=\"(\d\.?\d*)\"/) do |w|

  r = (w[0].to_f*255).to_i
  g = (w[1].to_f*255).to_i
  b = (w[2].to_f*255).to_i
  puts "
&nbsp;
"
end

puts "" # close html

After pruning duplicate lines, this is the visual result of the process.

These colors are used in the default Showroom layout. You can now select (one click) the individual same-colored areas of a bar graph (here: grey or red).

In the graphics inspector () you can change the colors according to your wishes. Pick the colors from above graphic with the color picker like this:


Why does the brightness still automatically adjust after turning it off (Mavericks) I turned off automatic brightness adjusting in the display preference pane (as explained here).  The brightness still adjusts automatically.  If I have the preference pane open I can even watch the slider moving to the right.  Is this a bug?  I would like to set the display to a lower brightness to save battery.

This is a Retina MBP from late 2013 with Mavericks.

Normally if the preference settings do not obey your wishes means your user profile needs repair.

Try using different user to test.

Try the safe mode to test.

Reset your user profile ACL's


This application requires iOS XX.x or later Ages ago, if I tried to install an app on an older version of iOS, it would alert you and allow you to install the last release of the app for the iOS you are on.

But when I tried again today at work to install Excel on a iOS 10 device I got, "This application requires iOS 11.x or later".

I know for a fact that Excel for iOS was available on iOS 10. Why is it not installing the older version applicable to iOS 10? Is there some quick and easy trick to make it do it? If not I'll have to tell management to get new iPad which they will not be happy about.

PS: I am familiar with the hacky way to force installation of older versions.

After doing a bit more googling and a suggestion here I found a work around.

It appears the AppStore will not offer you the older version of the application if you have not downloaded it in the past (ie own it already). So the solution is,

Log in to the appstore from an up to date device (borrow one if you must).
Download the app you need.
Go back to your older device and locate the app in the appstore.
The icon to download the app should now be a cloud with the down arrow.
Press the cloud button and it will advise you that it will download the older version.


Search ﬁ (one character) as fi (two characters) in mdfind In the pdf below, the two characters f and i is contracted into the one-character ligature ﬁ as in "significance". So that when I searched "Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance" (f and i are two characters) by mdfind, I did find this pdf. Is there a way to search such PDF files with mdfind by "... Significance" where "f" and "i" do not ligature?

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physrev.00015.2003

$ mdfind -onlyin . "(kMDItemTextContent=='Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance'c)" # two characters.
$ mdfind -onlyin . "(kMDItemTextContent=='Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Signiﬁcance'c)" # one character
/Users/xxx/Downloads/x/physrev.00015.2003.pdf

Note that the following should not be used as it searches in kMDItemTitle as well.

$ mdfind -onlyin . 'Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance' # two characters
/Users/xxx/Downloads/x/physrev.00015.2003.pdf

Although the fi characters are displayed as a single ligature glyph, they are understood within the PDF as distinct letters. (And within every other text app such as TextEdit, Pages, Safari, etc, which will also display ligatures and understand them as separate characters.)

I can search in Safari or Preview within the PDF for the letters fi, and get the ligature in the results:

I can also copy and paste the text, or export it from the PDF, and the text has separate characters for that ligature.

However, results using Spotlight do seem to be more variable. If I create a PDF from TextEdit with the word 'office' using ligature glyphs, that word is not be found in a Spotlight search. If I do the same from Affinity Publisher, the word is found.

I have other PDFs with ligature glyphs that Spotlight can search.

It is of course also possible to produce a PDF where the underlying chars are not preserved.

TL;DR: it seems that Spotlight is choosy about font encoding when indexing PDF text content. Text encoded with a Type 1 Roman encoding does not produce the correct result.

So your options are to write a shell script that offers up the ligated Unicode glyphs whenever the relevant combination of characters occur (fi, fl, ffi, ffl, ct, st), and search PDFs using both forms; or use a non-Spotlight method of querying the text in the PDF.


Howto record audio output on my Mac? How am I able to record the output on my Mac meanwhile I am listening it with earplug? i.e. listen something in browser in youtube and I want to record it as well?

Need two thing to be able to listen music and same time record it:

Download / Install Soundflower
Change Audio Midi Setup:

If you open OSX's 'Audio Midi Setup' program then from the Window menu choose 'show audio window', you can click the + button in the bottom left corner & create a multi-output device. Then you just check the boxes for both soundflower and the built in output and Bob's your uncle - you can hear it as well as record it.


How can I reset the 'get info' preview image of archive utility? When I zip or download a zipped file, Archive Utility doesn't display it's default zip icon anymore. Also when viewing Info and the large Previewer icon.
It now displays this version of a program I seem to have installed (don't know which).

How can I turn it back to Archive Utility's default blue zip icon when I compress or download a zipped file?
I've tried everything from changing the Get Info icon to going to Core Services (where nothing has changed in the icns files or Archive Utility)

Try changing the default app to something else from the list of potential apps

Then click Change All..

Reboot.
Ensure the icon is now the correct one for your new choice, then repeat the process to revert to Archive Utility.


Selecting all files in Finder with column view /folder1/folder2/file1
                /file2
        /folder3
                /file3
        /folder4
                /file4
                /file5
                /file6

Given a folder structure such as this one. When I've got folder2 selected and press Cmd + A or Select All the expected behaviour is that all the files within folder2 will be selected, namely file1 and file2. This happens most of the time, but sometimes when folder2 is selected instead of selecting all the files and folders below folder2, all the files and folders of the same level are selected, namely folder2, folder3 and folder4.

Does anyone know what causes this? I run Finder with XtraFinder on Mac OS X 10.8.4.

It depends on the way the folder (or other folder-like item) is selected. If you select an item by clicking on it, command-A selects all items in the next column. If you select an item with the keyboard (or by for example revealing a folder in Finder from another application), command-A selects all items in the same column.

You can select all items in the current column by pressing the up or down arrow key and then command-A, or all items in the next column by pressing the right arrow key and then command-A.


Is there a limit to amount of bluetooth devices connected to a MacBook Pro? Problems arose today when I connected the 5th bluetooth device to my MacBook Pro.

1 new Apple keyboard
1 new Apple trackpad
1 old Apple keyboard
1 old Apple mouse (most recently connected)
1 Beats Wireless

After connecting the mouse, I suddenly started hearing skipping through the headset whenever I clicked keys on a keyboard or moved the mouse around. Reverting back to 4 bluetooth devices "fixed it". Interestingly, using the Trackpad did not have the same effect.

Any thoughts on how to fix this? Or is this simply a hardware limitation?

Due to pair programming I actually do need to have all devices connected (although I can use a cable for some if this is a wontfix).

Here's the info from Apple site:

Connect multiple Bluetooth devices to one computer
The official Bluetooth specifications say seven is the maximum number of Bluetooth devices that can be connected to your Mac at once.
However, three to four devices is a practical limit, depending on the types of devices used. Some devices require more Bluetooth data, so they're more demanding than other devices. Data-intensive devices might reduce the total number of devices that can be active at the same time.


Can I obtain the Source Code for an app from its .ipa file? Having an .ipa file, is there any way I can get its source code?

It was possible when iOS apps used to be .app

No - the IPA format does not make source code inclusion mandatory, so there’s no general way to do what you ask. As alluring as the idea is, just because something is possible on Android (What you’re talking about is not in the sense you want it), doesn’t mean it will be possible on iOS.

Now, if the developer decides to embed the source code into the IPA - you will be able to read it depending on the method of packaging it since the IPA contents are well documented by Apple on the developer site and many utilities exist to decode the application bundles.


Hide a file extension by editing the file name in High Sierra Before upgrading to High Sierra (i.e. when using Yosemite/El Capitan/Sierra) I constantly hid file extensions by hitting enter and manually removing the file extension from the file name. After upgrading to High Sierra, I noticed this no longer applies. Instead, I have to go to the file info via cmd+I and manually check Hide extension.
As for Finder preferences, Show all filename extensions is de-selected.

How can I restore the previous behavior, which is very comfortable to me?

As others have commented, you weren’t hiding the file extensions, you were deleting them from the file name itself.  This will impact how the file functions.  But, if you haven’t had a problem so far, great.  Just avoid doing it from now on.

As you’ve noticed, there is an option in the information pane to hide the extension.  Oddly, I can’t explain why you’ve only noticed this now.  It has been there in earlier versions for quite some time.

The only way I’m aware of to get rid of file extensions is to make sure the Finder Preferences option you mentioned is unchecked, then batch select all the files of concern to you and hit ⌘+Alt+I to bring up a single information pane summarising all the selected files.  The checkbox to hide extensions can be checked and it will be applied to all files in your selection.

With the global preference set not to show file extensions, my feeling is that new files created will, by default, not have their extension visible.


MacBook Air logs off automatically since Yosemite My MacBook Air mid-2012 model running OS X Yosemite logs off automatically without any prior warning when I am working on it.
This has been happening since the latest update, to Yosemite.

The logs from the moment of logout are here:

http://pastebin.com/embed_js.php?i=u3TaFSWH

To be more specific my Air has been connected to an external monitor both times and has been charging both times too!

Similar problems have been discussed on Apple Support Communities:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2742595?searchText=automatic%20log%20off

According to this Apple support article: Set your mac to log out when not in use - installing Yosemite turns on the "log off after 60 minutes of inactivity" feature.

To turn it back off, click on the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the "Security and Privacy" window and uncheck the option. You should be good to go!


Does WhatsApp work without a SIM card? In my Moto G5, I can still use WhatsApp after removing the SIM card, after I successfully validated my phone number.

Would this method work in an iPhone?

Yes, a Sim Card is not required to use Whatsapp. Whatsapp doesn't use your network provider to function as text messages do. Text messages require a Sim Card to recieve the message to your phone number.

  A SIM, or Subscriber Identity Module, card is a computer chip inside a cell phone which identifies your device to your service provider. SIM cards can contain up to 128 KB of memory to store things like contacts, phone numbers, text messages, data usage and billing information.

(Source)

Whereas, Whatsapp doesn't use your phone number to receive messages. It uses your phone number to make an account to which messages can be sent and received.

If you are setting up an account with the phone with no Sim, make sure you have your Sim in to receive the verification code.

  You can now use WhatsApp on devices without a SIM card. All you need is a SIM card and a phone number that is not registered on WhatApp to install the app. Once your WhatsApp account is activated, you can continue using it on other devices without the SIM card.

(Source)


iPhone7 (ios 11.1.2) failed to connect to Macbook pro (10.13.6) with error msg "Installation Failed" iPhone7 (ios 11.1.2) failed to connect to Macbook pro (MacOS 10.13.6) with error msg "Installation Failed"

Basically, I am having the error which is the same as https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8464414.

Anyone have any ideas how to fix it? Thanks a lot.

By following one suggestion from the discussion:

  I had the same problem when connecting iPad Pro (iOS 12.01) to a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.13.6). Changing the lightning cable did not help. Then I connected the lightning cable to the USB port on the HDMI port side of the notebook and everything worked just fine. I suspect that there is a problem with the USB port on the left hand side of the machine

So everything works after I use the right hand side USB port instead of the left hand side. I have no ideas why. My left hand side USB port is working fine with my USB external drive and all other USB devices I ever used with this macbook.

This is just weird to me.


Where is the Keychain lock icon located? By using Google and Co. and the built-in terminal command locate, I already found the following icons:

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/UnlockedIcon.icns
/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/LockedIcon.icns

But their resolution is not very high.

I am looking for the icon that is displayed every time one has to authenticate (f.ex. when unlocking the keychain):

I think it exists without the little keys. I cannot find it under /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/.

Do you know where this icon is hidden? Thanks a lot!

Related to this post: Where is the icon used in this dialogue box?

Apple doesn’t store all icons anymore for compound items and overlays the key icon over the lock icon in this case. The same with the finder icon over the lock.

Here are the two sources:

Lock Icon

The lock icon is located in

/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemAppearance.bundle/Contents/Resources/Assets.car

Install Theme Engine

Note: You may want to download the released version.
Open the file
Select Security
Drag the icon to the desktop to convert to a png

Keychain Icon

macOS just places the app icon in front of it.  In this case the KeyChain icon is in

/Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access.app/Contents/Resources/AppIcon.icns


the file osinstall.mpkg missing after updating this morning I ended up with the message on the screen that the osinstall.mpkg was missing, using Time Machine I managed to get everything back to normal without too much struggle, but what do I do now ? If I update is going to show the same mistake again ? How do I proceed ? Thanks

When you install from an "install application" on a primary-path disk, it guts the "install application" into an empty shell.

Copy the "install application" to an external drive.  When installed from there it does not end up gutted, or just use the external drive as a reusable copy.


How secure are files on an unencrypted hard disc? How secure are files, that I saved on an internal Macbook hard disc using OSX 10.11? I cannot check whether the hard drive is encrypted using FileVault as the machine crashed. I am thinking whether I need to invest 40$ to get it savely formatted by some professionals or just sell it.

If you are not the account owner and don't know the account password, will you be able to read files from my account if you put the hard drive in a new machine?

If the hard drive is not encrypted, then it's not at all secure!

Basically anybody can take the hard disk, put it into an external enclosure and connect it to another Mac to read all files on the disk.


Keyboard backlight is not working in Macbook Pro MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) with MAC OS Catalina 10.15. The keyboard backlight is not turning on. Is there a button in software or in hardware which I can use to turn-on the backlight manually

How to resolve this issue?

Try to adjust the keyboard brightness manually in Macbook Pro by customizing the Keyboard control strip to have the keys related to Keyboard brightness as mentioned below. (F5, F6, etc function keys did not work for me)

Apple logo -> System preferences -> Keyboard -> Customize Control Strip -> Drag and drop Keyboard brightness button to the touch bar as shown in the image below

Then use this to manually adjust the keyboard backlight brightness


Is there a remote desktop solution that will transfer sound output to the client? I'm looking for a secure and hopefully free remote desktop client that will allow me to interact with my Mac OS X 10.6 machine from a 10.5 machine that will also transfer sound to the client.

At a minimum, the software must support a tunnelable connection.

If there is a vetted iPad app out there that will do it, that would work, too!

Any suggestions? I found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software but it's a little heavy and doesn't readily indicate community acceptance/worthiness.

RogueAmoeba's AirFoil product may be helpful -- it allows you to send sound from any Mac or Windows machine (or any specific application on that machine) to one or more other Apple devices or Windows PCs on the same LAN.

The product has many features, e.g. a custom video player that ensures the sound your receive locally is in sync with any video you are viewing remotely.

Because AirFoil only streams audio, you can use it in conjunction with whatever remote desktop viewing solution works best for you.


iCloud storage reporting backups that do not exists I disabled iCloud backups on all my devices, but the storage report still claims I have 2gb of backups stored. I've gone into the iCloud preferences and double checked that no backups exists. How can I remove free up the used space?

I should mention that my iPhone reports only 174.4KB of Documents & Data in "Manage Storage".

If you have two iOS devices, I would compare the Settings - iCloud - Storage - Manage Storage screens to ensure both agree. One device can get stale or cached data. If you don't have two, restart your device to check that it's updated.

If so, you will then want to go to iCloud.com on a computer and verify the number there. The web app allows you to clean or observe the rest of the backups. They are deleted photo albums (potentially) as well as backups of calendar, contacts, files and bookmarks.

IF at that point, you still think there's something missing - you'll want to escalate to Apple Support to http://apple.com/support/icloud


Specificity of Data Usage on iPhone iPhone rounds cellular data usage reports to the nearest tenth of a Gigabyte (eg, 1.8GB) by default. Presumably the phone knows exactly how much data has been used and rounds the number for my convenience.

Is there some way to cajole (or even coerce) a more accurate cellular data usage estimate out of the phone?

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.1.2 and iOS 8.1

As it stands it shows the data with a (±) 50 Mb resolution.

You can see it as fine grained as per application data usage.

If you scroll down further (in Cellular Data usage), you will get an alphabetical list of all the apps have use cellular data.

If you scroll all the way down at the bottom, you will see a button called System Services. If you tap on that, it will show you how much cellular data you are using for things like Messaging Services, Push Notifications, Documents & Sync, iTunes Accounts, Siri, Voicemail, Software Updates, Find My iPhone, Diagnostics and Apple ID Services.


High Sierra: Can't connect to a xampp server running on another machine after upgrading macOS I have a Xampp web server running on another computer in the local network and my Mac can no longer access it after updating to High Sierra.

All other devices I have in the same Wi-Fi network connect to the web server using the server computer's IP address without any issues.

The only thing that changed, as far as I know, is that the Mac was updated to High Sierra.

Any guesses?

I am assuming you are using SSL with certificate that is SHA-1 signed, which was still allowed (with a warning) in macOS Sierra but in macOS High Sierra the connections will fail. I suggest you move to SHA-256 signed certificates for increased security and to avoid connection failures.

Source: Apple HT207459


How should I do my first Time Machine backups? I am new to Macs and was wondering how to create a restore partition (which I read about in one of the answers) in order to do my first backup.

Also, should the first backup be kept separate, in case you need to restore to the original condition of your system, and then do another backup which is then used to do hourly/daily backups/whenever backups upon? Thank you for your help.

It is generally recommended to use an external disk or a folder on a shared storage of a server for performing backups of your Mac. Time Machine, an app built into macOS is the recommended solution for creating and restoring backups.

For starters. I'd like to point you to the wonderful web-page setup by Apple for users new to Mac & macOS and learning about backing up:

How to back up your Mac

  should the first backup be kept separate, in case you need to restore to the original condition of your system, and then do another backup which is then used to do hourly/daily backups/whenever backups upon?

You should be fine with a Time Machine backup. However, do ensure that the disk with Time Machine backup is kept secure and backup remains available for restoring.


Which OS X Lion or ML more stable on Macbook Pro 2010 Mid 15" I had a old Macbook Pro 2010 mid 15" buy from 2nd market. And it still shipping yet on the way ...

Just know it still running the very very old 10.6.8 on it ..

Yes, I know it maybe or not have the GPU Kernel Panic problems. (I don't think all this model have this problems.)

I will try to install the latest OS X 10.10.2 on it first and testing ..

But .... if I am real the unlucky one, with the GPU KP.

And need downgrade back to old OS X.

This is I need buy Lion or ML from Mac App Store.

But ... which one more stable on this model Macbook Pro?

Your problem is more likely how you would get hold of Lion or Mountain Lion.

Unless you have previously 'bought' them from the Apple Store, they are no longer available. Apple removes old versions very soon after a new one is released.


Problem syncing book downloaded using iBooks Using iTunes I tried to sync my iPad with my PC after downloading an epub book using iBooks on my iPad.

However I get an error stating that my PC is not authorized to sync the book to my iPad and after getting this error message i noticed that the book that I downloaded is no longer available in my iBook library on the iPad, which is weird because the book was already on my iPad in the first place.

How do I resolve this issue?

I'm a relatively new user on the iPad so I apologise if this may seem like a silly question.

Authorize your Computer

I'm fairly certain that your issue is that your computer is not authorized with the Apple ID used to buy the iBook.  Therefore when you synced, the book was not transferred and then the iPad was synced. (Book basically deleted, sorry)

The fix is fairly simple, I believe you should be able to redownload your iBook for free, per Apple's new rules with previous purchases.  Then authorize your computer. From the Store menu in the iTunes menu bar, choose "Authorize This Computer".  Type in your account info, and then sync your computer/iPad.

Hope that works! :)


MacBook Pro 16" running hot I have a MacBook Pro 16 inch base model. I am a programmer, which means that it is running hot when I am working. When I am working it is between 70-80 degrees celsius, but when I open activity monitor only like 10-15% of the CPU is being used.

So my question is, how can so much of the CPU be idle but it is still run at 70-80 degrees celsius

Idle does not mean the CPU stops. The CPU can never actually stop. At best, the CPU can go into a continuous loop, but this still requires the use of electricity. This use of electricity produces heat.

Idle means the operating system is waiting for something to do. In this case, the CPU may be use less electricity, but the electricity usage does not go to zero. I would image the temperature is more a function of the fan speed, which I assume in a correctly working Mac is high enough to protect the hardware.


Non-native full screen in Terminal.app If you press Cmd+Enter on iTerm while having the preference "Use native fullscreen windows" turned off, it goes into fullscreen but not the standard MacOS-way.

Is there a way of doing the same in Terminal.app? I know I can use Ctrl+Cmd+F to enter a native full screen. And I know I can maximize the window manually to eventually consume all of the screen, but in this case the title is still visible.

No, there's no support for this in Terminal.app.


What kind of mouse has best performance to use with a Mac? I recently got a Mac upgrade to a new MacBook Air (10.14.6), which only has two new small USB-C connections. I therefore bought a USB-C to old USB adaptor to be able to connect my harddrives, USB sticks and the wireless mouse (working with a USB receiver).

But now it turns out that the mouse input is lagging a LOT compared to the old Mac (where I could use the USB receiver directly in a USB post). Also the mousepad itself works perfectly normal.

The lag is not only very disturbing when playing games (such as minecraft), but also with normal operations (finding and clicking on an app, dragging files etc). The lag is clearly a result of the USB C adaptor.

So how to avoid this problem best? Should I

buy a new wireless mouse with USB-C receiver
buy a bluetooth mouse
buy a wired USB-C mouse?

Which is the best option to maximally reduce any lag?

I think you have arrived at the wrong conclusion. A USB-C to USB-A adapter cannot introduce lag on your mouse. It’s only a mechanical adapter from one type of plug to another - there’s nothing changed in the actual electric signal.

I would look at:

1) ensuring your have the correct driver

2) ensure that there are no sources of noise near the wireless adapter (try disabling WiFi, Bluetooth etc on the Mac to see if it is disturbed by those)

3) that the actual wireless antenna for the mouse is placed near the mouse


Can't find backup files on Macintosh HD? When opening the OS X System information it says I have 67 GB backups:

But when I'm using Disk Inventory X to find large files on my Mac i can't find any backups files:

I don't know anything about any backups files stored locally. I have a backup to a Time Capsule.

Disk Inventory X says I only using 69 GB, but the System information says I have 140 GB.

Can I delete the backup files and how?

The backups are stored in a hidden volume called .MobileBackups. These are Time Machine's local snapshots. They are separate backups that save previous versions of files for cases where your Time Machine drive is not available. You shouldn't modify the contents of this volume directly, and therefore it is usually not visible in most cases.

You can disable local snapshots by running sudo tmutil disablelocal.

Re-enable with sudo tmutil enablelocal.


2011 MacBook Pro won't turn on Although the problem is quite common, after googling for several hours I didn't find an appropriate solution for my particular case.

I got a 2011 MacBook pro with the latest OS (El Capitan) and it has the following problems.

After several minutes of inactivity it hibernates and eventually I can't turn it back on. It only shows a black display and doesn't respond to any action. Thanks to the power button I can only turn it off.
Turning on the mac requires me 20 minutes of trial and error. I have to try almost 15 times to boot it. It gets stuck on a progress bar screen which doesn't go further than 50%. Sometimes the progress bar is gone and a white blank screen appears. I have tried to boot with safe mode and the same thing happens.

I am worried that this can be a hardware problem. If that's not the case how can I "cure" this strange behaviour.

It is likely the issue explained on this page on apple.com. If so, it is a problem with your GPU.

Symptom wise the "trial and error" in trying to start up your computer corresponds to my own experience, which I have also seen online. I personally also didn't see any actual graphics glitches before experiencing my first trouble startup up my computer. Only when my computer was already in a pretty bad state, did I see them.

I am quite sure I have this issue on my other computer, because using a third party program gfxCardStatus I was able to avoid crashes when I switched to "Integrated Only", which is the internal GPU. That avoids using the GPU that has the problem.
Note that you may have to act quickly to get reimbursed for a repair. The final date is Februari 27 for this issue.

More info

http://mbp2011.org/


How do I avoid compilation when running brew install My internet connection sometimes drops packets (its a 4G connection), so when I download stuff sometimes it fails.

So when doing "brew install" on something this occasionally happens:

==> Installing ffmpeg dependency: libogg
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/libogg-1.3.4.catalina.bottle.tar.gz
==> Downloading from https://akamai.bintray.com/0a/0a03b8a7307aeac70762fd4ee9837fff4ed523c34063a6aec52c5cf34c54695f?__gda__=exp=15884933

curl: (35) LibreSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL in connection to akamai.bintray.com:443
Error: Failed to download resource "libogg"
Download failed: https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/libogg-1.3.4.catalina.bottle.tar.gz
Warning: Bottle installation failed: building from source.
==> Downloading https://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ogg/libogg-1.3.4.tar.gz
...

That SSL error is caused by a dropped packet. What brew should do here is preferable just try downloading again. What it does is however try to compile from source. That of course delays stuff tremendously.
I would rather have brew just fail if this happens, so I can just rerun the command, and (probably) get the bottle the second time.

Is there a way to do this?

From man brew

HOMEBREW_NO_BOTTLE_SOURCE_FALLBACK
              If set, fail on the failure of installation from a bottle rather
              than falling back to building from source.

So run:

export HOMEBREW_NO_BOTTLE_SOURCE_FALLBACK=1

Then run the command again.