How accurate is the GPS chip in the iPhone 4? I was just wondering what the published accuracy of the GPS chip in the iPhone 4 was...?

I also understand that increased accuracy can be had if the hardware has WAAS capabilities. It is this true? Does the chip the iPhone 4 have WAAS capabilities? How accurate are chips with WAAS?

No WASS or any differential signaling is built into the iPhone. Apple doesn't publish performance data for GPS or the chipsets/algorithms in use.

It's just standard GPS precision (which tries to be precise to 1m on the earth's surface but never is for a variety of reasons) In practice, iOS is usually accurate within 5 meters when the dot shows no circle on the map app (called good or low Dilution of Precision). If Selective Availability (SA) is ever turned on again, all bets are off as the government can intentionally introduce errors of 70 or more meters if desired.

The assisted part of the iPhone GPS makes it faster to get a fix based on assumptions that can be made by trilateration based on cached cell tower and wifi hotspot locations. This doesn't make GPS any more precise or accurate since it's the best signal for iOS location data when it's present.


How do I solve performance issues with OmniGraffle on my MBP I am running OmniGraffle v5.3.6 (latest) on my 13" MBP (late 2011; Lion; 2,7Ghz; 4GB). I would NOT expect performance issues on this machine. For some reason it has significant delays when OmniGraffle is running. It would stop for 2-10 seconds, then show the spinner for some seconds and then run normal again.

Q: Any ideas what to do (except for stopping to use OmniGraffle)?

There could be quite a few explanations for your delays, and I might start by checking the Activity Monitor and the Console. In the Activity Monitor, are any applications or processes taking up an inordinate percentage of CPU time or RAM? In the Console, are there any errors being reported? These are just basic troubleshooting strategies, and maybe you've already exhausted them.

You may find that you don't have enough RAM to run the program optimally. I have a 4GB machine and have had similar slow-downs with Aperture. The solution which worked for me was to run the program in 32-bit mode. You can do this by selecting the program (in your case Omnigraffle) in the Finder, choosing File > Get Info, and then ticking the checkbox marked "Open in 32-bit mode."

Bear in mind that 32-bit mode will (I believe) limit the program to address a maximum of 4GB of RAM. That isn't a problem for you now, but might limit performance if you added more RAM to your system in the future.


How can an iPod touch play mp3 transferred as files on storage instead of Apple sync using iTunes? I am currently looking for ways to transfer files from my Linux machine to my version 6.1 iPod Touch. Following this guide, I have been able to use the ifuse package to treat my iPod Touch like a USB stick and put the mp3s that I want on it. However, after dismounting the iPod, I can't find anything on it that acknowledges the existence of the new files. So, I have the following questions:
I don’t know which (if any) folders of my iPod Touch process files or make them available to any music player app.
Note: The iPod Touch is on version 6.1 (10B141) of its OS and is a 5th Gen (A1421) model. It may be assumed that it has been reset to factory settings and has never seen iTunes or an Apple account, and never will.
Are there apps or folders to which a native app will play these mp3 once they are copied via USB to a Linux machine?

The native app for music playing on the iPod touch assumes music files are stored in a database that indexes their local storage in a sandboxed manner. Since it was designed to only receive songs by syncing with itunes software directly from Mac or Windows supported OS, it’s not clear there is a general folder that gets indexed or processed for playing like some other apps that expect to be thrown a folder of files to play.
For Linux, you should use an alternative software "rhythmbox" to accomplish this import to the database of playable files.
If you use ifuse, it will only transfer the songs like an usb drive for storage only and not for playing. This mirrors the storage function of the original iPods where you could dump files, but they’re not indexed or processed for apps to use. The files app for iOS came after your version of iOS so this function to store and play arbitrary files came later than iOS 6 and isn’t available to you. Perhaps others know a player app that might be able to play these or jailbreak your device to add this function.


Share screen on Mac/iPhone without having Apple TV I am gonna to have a telephone with my customer to present our first milestone of one app we are building for customer (I am a PO). I have to call him by telephone and I want to share my iphone screen via Mac in realtime. I googled and there is AirPlay with Apply TV. But I don't have Apple TV.

Is there any alternative way I can do that? Thanks in advance

You can connect the iPhone to Mac via USB and then open QuickTime. There's New Movie Recording -> Select iPhone as a video source. Then You can simply share Your Mac screen with the customer.


Adding a dictionary in different language and enabling spellchecking for that language too? I always install the system with English and have no idea how to add a Spanish dictionary and spellchecking on my mac, how can it be done?

You set the language for spellcheck in system preferences > keyboard > text > spelling, and at the app level in Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar.

Some non-Apple apps, like MS Office, have their own internal settings for this function.

You set your preferred reference dictionaries in Applications > Dictionary > Preferences.


How do I delete podcast episodes "Synced from iTunes" in iOS 13? I recently updated to Mac OS Catalina, so I no longer have iTunes. I've already tried deleting the Podcast App and re-installing, but there are still podcast episodes "Synced from iTunes."

Here's the workaround I found - on your iPhone, launch Podcasts, select a program/show, go into Synced from iTunes and tap the plus button on each episode and then tap the download button.

Once the download completes for all the episodes, Synced from iTunes will disappear.

This workaround was based on an Apple Communities post I saw.

I also have a post about this on my website if you are interested.


How to install OS X El Capitan onto Mac through a USB when no previous OS is installed I'm using early 2011 i5 MacBook Pro. I upgraded to Sierra but the speakers and USB  are not working and the system is very slow. Then I restarted my Mac with (cmd+alt/opt+R) to Recovery Mode. I cleaned my hard drive now I tried to reinstall Sierra but in the logs I saw it is downloading from the Internet. I stopped the installation and restarted my Mac. After the Apple logo it shows nothing but the .

Then I boot my USB drive to El Capitan but it is installing Sierra from the Internet... it takes days to download with my internet speed.

If you have an El Capitan USB installer, the fix is very simple. Make sure the laptop is off. Plug the computer in, then hold the "Option" key while the computer starts up. Keep holding it until you see an image of a drive on the center of the screen. Hit the "Enter" key to boot from the flash drive. Then the computer will walk you through the steps to install El Capitan.

Let me know if these directions did not work for you or if you need more explanation of these directions.


In MacOS, how can I bypass a VPN for a specific site using its hostname? I'm setting up an IKEv2 VPN in macOS 10.12.3. It's working, but I'd like to configure specific websites to bypass the VPN.

I'm aware of a method using the route command to add a static route, but that only works for a specific IP address. If the site I'm connecting to changes its IP (which is a distinct possibility) then its traffic will start going through the VPN again.

How can I bypass the VPN using the site's hostname? e.g. any request to www.somewebsite.com will not use the VPN, regardless of what IP address www.somewebsite.com resolves to?

The most simple way to create a static and persistent route to a host is creating a script addroute.sh (root:wheel 755) in /usr/local/bin. Replace the host name and the gateway though.

#!/bin/bash

sleep 10
route -n add -host $(dig +short example.com) 192.168.0.1

and load the script with a launch daemon usr.addroute.plist (root:wheel 644) in /Library/LaunchDaemon/:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>usr.addroute</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
            <array>
                <string>/bin/sh</string>
                <string>-c</string>
                <string>/usr/local/bin/addroute.sh</string>
            </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/usr.addroute.err</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/usr.addroute.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Load it with: sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemon/usr.addroute.plist.

If everything works remove the Standard* keys/strings in the plist and the related files in /tmp.

The sleep 10 line is a sledgehammer approach - a route can only be added after a certain point in time: network has to be up for the specific interface - and may be replaced with something more elegant outlined in this answer here.

Depending on the VPN's or your default environment's DNS capabilities you may also have to add a route for a DNS server (e.g. Google's 8.8.8.8) and modify the dig command to dig @8.8.8.8 +short example.com.

If you reboot your host rarely and the remote hosts' IPs change often, use the following script (which can be improved probably):

#!/bin/bash

sleep 10

Hostname=hostname
GateWay=gateway_IP
IPHost=$(dig +short $Hostname)
RouteExist=$(netstat -nr -f inet | grep $IPHost | wc -l)
NewRoute=$(netstat -nr -f inet | grep $IPHost | awk '{print $1}')
OldHost=$(cat /usr/local/bin/addroute)

if [ $RouteExist -eq 0 ]
then
    route -n add -host $IPHost $GateWay
    RouteExist=1
    NewRoute=$(netstat -nr -f inet | grep $IPHost | awk '{print $1}')
    echo $NewRoute > /usr/local/bin/addroute
fi

if [ $IPHost != $OldHost ]

then
    route -n delete -host $OldHost $GateWay
    NewRoute=$(netstat -nr -f inet | grep $IPHost | awk '{print $1}')
    echo $NewRoute > /usr/local/bin/addroute
fi

and plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>usr.addroute</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/addroute.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/usr.addroute.err</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/usr.addroute.out</string>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>60</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

An additional proxy file is needed:

sudo touch /usr/local/bin/addroute

Please adjust the StartInterval (in seconds) in your plist as required and enter a proper host name and gateway IP in the shell script.

The first if routine adds a route to a remote host after booting your host and - later - a new route if the remote host's IP changes. The second if routine removes an outdated route.


Mac Pro 1,1 OSX 10.6.8 corrupted display On startup, I see a corrupted video stream as above. Recently replaced stock video board because I wasn't getting any video output. Any ideas on what might be wrong and how I can fix it?

It seems that you're seeing two problems simultaneously: video corruption and a software error returned by your antivirus application. This suggests that the system has possible hardware issues. I would boot the system to the Apple Hardware Test and run diagnostics to see whether there is a hardware failure. Video corruption is often traceable to a bad GPU and/or bad RAM. Since you replaced the video card, the bad GPU is unlikely.

If AHT returns errors, you may wish to take the system into a Genius Bar or authorized Apple repair centre for further evaluation. If not, you may have a transient issue. You can try swapping around/removing RAM to determine if one or more of your SO-DIMMs have gone bad.


ntpd and incoming connections on OS X client? I recently received a dialog box on my MacBook Air (10.9.2 Client) asking "Do you want the application “ntpd” to accept incoming network connections?". I have OS X's firewall enabled.

Now, my understanding is that ntpd on OS X Client is only for setting local machine time from a remote NTP server. It should not be acting as a time server for anyone else, so accepting (presumably new, not established) incoming connections should not be necessary.

I was wondering if my machine was being hit by a rogue machine on the network attempting (or a victim of) the NTP server packet amplification attacks that have been going on recently?

I cannot say for certain, however, from reading this notice from NTP.ORG about a DRDos attack, I suspect someone is attempting to use your (and my) machine's NTP server for bad business.  I'm clicking the "Deny" button for accepting network connections and will go through these configuration instructions later.

Here's the opening paragraph of the notice:

  NTP users are strongly urged to take immediate action to ensure that
  their NTP daemon is not susceptible to use in a reflected
  denial-of-service (DRDoS) attack. Please see the NTP Security Notice
  for vulnerability and mitigation details, and the Network Time
  Foundation Blog for more information. (January 2014)


How can I rename the servers names found in Screen Sharing "Open Recent...." menu? I connect to a handful of macs via Screen Sharing. After connecting for the first time, the name and port are remembered by the app and are displayed at the "Open Recent..." menu.
While this is helpful, the displayed names are out of my control and sometimes make no sense to me or they are basically the same.
I would like to rename them to something that has a meaning to me. How can I do this?

While it seems to be impossible to change Screen Sharing, you could simply create link files and put them in a folder.
The easiest way I could find on how to do this is to type the link in a text file (vnc://user@ip:port), select said text and drag it to the desktop. It will create a file that when clicked will open Screen Sharing.
Thanks to Steve Chambers for the idea.


Can’t backup to iTunes So we have an old 6 running 12.4.1 we want to get a backup for so we can restore to a new phone. I’ve tried on a couple machines but I can’t get a clean backup. I get a nondescript “iTunes is unable to backup your phone” error.

What are my options here?  We really just need pics and iMessage restored. Can something like imaging do that?  But the new phone will have 13 on it - can something like imaging work across versions?

You need to make sure that iTunes is up to date. If using a Mac, then your Mac needs to be updated in order for iTunes to update.

Once its updated then you should be able to backup.

Keep in mind, iCloud can also be used to backup your iPhone as well.


Terminal script for compare and delete unused Library folder and files I am cleaning up my Library from junk on an MacBook Air (MacOS 10.8.4). Over time I have downloaded, installed and deleted Applications (they are no longer in my Applications folder).

However, lots of them (some I no longer have clue what they are) are still in my Library in different places.

The ones I can find and recognize I can delete manually (like Wondershare)...but!

Question: Is there a safe and clean way using Terminal or other application, to compare my Applications folder for installed applications to the Library and delete unused folders and files.

In other words: If the application is NOT in my Applications folder, then it should not be in the Library.

Other options:

Sort ~/Library/Preferences or ~/Library/Containers by modification date
Enable calculating all sizes and sort folders by size in Finder
for f in ~/Library/Containers/*; do osascript -e "app id \"${f##*/}\"" &> /dev/null || echo $f; done
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support; for d in *; do find "$d" -exec stat -f "%m $d" {} + | sort -n | tail -n1; done | sort -n
cd ~/Library/Preferences; find . -name \*.LSSharedFileList.plist -mtime +30 -delete; ls -rt *.plist | grep -v apple | sed 's/^/rm /'


AppleScript App to start a Slideshow in Finder I want to write an AppleScript App that starts a full screen slideshow with all pictures in the currently active folder in Finder (on Big Sur/Apple M1).
Manually, in Finder I would have to open a folder, press command ⌘+ A to select all pictures (or files) inside, then press option ⌥+ spacebar to start the slideshow.
I want to write a Script-App, that does all that for me (and which I then can put in Finder's toolbar). I am a newbie to this all, so please explain it for the dummy I am!

I figured it out and wrote a simple script, that does this: 1) opens the selected folder in Finder 2) selects all files in that folder 3) starts slideshow. Can be saved as an App and then put in the toolbar of Finder. Works on Big Sur/M1, however you have to allow Script Editor and this App 'Accessibility' and 'Automation' in System Preferences/Security&Privacy.
Any improvements are highly welcome! Especially I couldn't figure out how to make the Script close the selected/opened Folder again and go one level up again. Key code for that would be "key code 126 using {command down}" (for COMMAND+ARROW UP); however, don't know how to integrate that into the script so that it actually works.
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Finder"
            key code 31 using {command down}
        end tell
    end tell

    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Finder"
            key code 0 using {command down}
        end tell
    end tell

    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Finder"
            key code 49 using {option down}
        end tell
    end tell
end tell


2012 MacBook Pro OS X El Capitan wont boot into windows 8.1 after a HD partition change I had windows 8.1 installed with bootcamp and it was running fine but I ran out of space on the partition I originally created. I had read online that I could free up space from OSX by creating a new partition on the HD and re-claiming it on the windows side. I partitioned about 60 gb from my HD with disk utility and now I can't even boot to Windows. This is what my disk utility shows.

You can see that bootcamp shows up here and says it is mounted. It also shows up when selecting the startup disk.

However, I believe it showed as a drive previously instead of a folder. When I try to boot Windows from this menu my MacBook restarts and goes to a screen saying there is no bootable drive. After trying many things I thought I would just erase the bootcamp partition and start over but when I start the bootcamp assistant it says "The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."

Any ideas of how I can recover my Windows partition or even just get rid of it and do a fresh windows install would be greatly appreciated!

Try this:

sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0
p
setpid 4
07
flag 4
p
write
y

This is assuming that your Boot Camp partition is still active, just not bootable. Reboot, and hold the option key as usual, and see if the bootable partition is available. This will likely fix your issue.

Just in case it doesn't, this article outlines some steps you can try.


Is it preferable to use the same SSID name when creating multiple WiFi zones? I have an Airport Extreme and Airport Express connected via an ethernet cable to different parts of my home. Is it preferable to used the same SSID name? Will my devices automatically connect to the stronger signal?

I have a similar setup: same SSID and same password. My devices (laptop, iPhone, iPad) connect automatically. Roaming from one zone to the other is failing from time to time but generally I have no problems.


Changing iPad Air 2 passcode with only having Touch ID I just recently purchased an iPad Air 2 and when setting it up, I successfully created the fingerprint ID but cannot remember my actual passcode.  I can still access the iPad using Touch ID but is there a way I can change the passcode without knowing it?

Yes and no. There's no easy way to just change your passcode.

There is a way to reset your passcode, but it involves erasing your iPad. You may need to know your Apple ID password.

Apple has steps here.

Those instructions basically involve going to iCloud.com or iTunes to erase your device. You then would be able to restore from a backup if need to.

I'm not sure if having Touch ID helps in any way. If you don't have a backup you can, possibly, use iTunes to make a backup first, unless it's brand new and you don't need to worry about restoring anything anyway.

Possibly you can just do erase all contents and settings in Settings > General > Reset and enter your Apple ID passcode too, but I'm not sure.

Whatever you do, avoid rebooting the iPad, because then TouchID will no longer work and you'll be forced to use the iCloud or iTunes erase and restore.


What to do when iPad is stolen Recently my apartment was burglarized and my employer's iPad that I was borrowing was stolen from my apartment. I'm located in the US. My employer didn't setup Find My iPad. I used the iPad a few times to view web sites in Safari on my network and connect it to my computer to update it to iOS 6. I've reported the burglary to the police. I have the iPad's serial number and the device backup in iTunes. Instead of waiting around, is there anything I can do to find the stolen iPad?

The first thing you should do is report it, having the serial number by hand (you can find it on the original box). While the procedure of handling stolen goods might be different in other countries, it's not unlikely police bumps into a batch of stolen goods and will try to get these back to the rightful owners.

As for tracking, if you had a Gmail account set up, you could check Gmail's connection logs (available from the bottom of the web interface), to see the IP addresses connecting. The same goes for other "cloud" services which allow to see a log of clients, like Dropbox.

Whether the IP address will lead you to the thief is questionable, but it could give you a broad localisation and you can always pass this information to the police.

If you had an iPad with cellular support, it is technically possible to be tracked by IMEI number, but depending on legislation/others, your carrier might not fulfil these requests without the necessary warrants.

Apart from tracking though, the next thing you should consider is safeguarding your data as much as possible. If your iPad was not password-protected, you should change all passwords of any online accounts configured, but please note this might prevent you from seeing access log as described earlier.


Keep WiFi alive when on battery and lid closed? We're using a VPN to access certain parts of internal infrastructure from the office; the VPN uses 2FA, so saving credentials and bringing it up with the network when the machine wakes up is not an option.

People take their Macbooks to meetings, and when they do they

lose power (battery mode)
close the lid

That combination causes the Mac to shut down WiFi, which subsequently frequently tears down the VPN connection (it survives when there's no TLS handshake while the interface is down).  Is there a way to stop the Mac from going to sleep (turn off WiFi) when the lid gets closed?

Edit (adding script per request in comments):

#!/bin/bash
export PID=$(pgrep Tunnelblick)
CAFPID=""
while true
do
        if $(pgrep -q Tunnelblick && ifconfig | grep -q 172.30 && [[ $( pmset -g ac | wc -l ) -le 1 ]] && [[ $(ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep -c "caffeinate -t 300 -w $PID") -eq 0 ]]) ; then
                echo "need coffee"
                caffeinate -t 300 -w $PID >/dev/null 2>&1 &
        CAFPID=$(echo $!)
        else
                CAFPID=""
        fi
        if [[ $( pmset -g ac | wc -l ) -gt 1 ]] && [[ -z $CAFPID ]] ; then
                echo "no coffee"
                kill -TERM
                $CAFPID >/dev/null 2>&1
        fi
        sleep 60
done

You could try this, no need to install extra sofyware

Open Terminal and use

$ caffeinate -s

or

$ caffeinate -w PID

When used with the -w argument, sleep will be inhibited as long as the process ID PID is active. Once the the process exits, the assertion is released, and the configured sleep behavior will resume when appropriate.

Note also that Process ID's are available from Activity Monitor, or can be listed in the terminal by entering ps -Al


Old TM data to new installed macbook For more than a year my macbook air used a time-machine (local network, synology). After completely new fresh install of my macbook air, i reconnected time machine. In TM, data before the fresh install is not shown if i enter time-machine. Only the backup made after the new install is shown. How can i access the old data? On the TM itself it looks like old and new data is merged.

Kind regards
George

If I recall correctly, Time Machine will notice if there are existing backups on the disk you select and ask if you want to reuse the old backup data.

I haven't tried personally but looks like you can use the tmutil command to inherit a backup, too:

sudo tmutil inheritbackup /path/to/backups

See also:  http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html


Freeing Space in iOS I know this has been asked a zillion times and there are many search results all over the web.  However, I have never found any answer that actually fixes the problem.

So, to restate: I have an iPhone 5C (model 1532) with 8G (says 5 available).  I'm running IOS 9.2.1.  My storage says I have 0 bytes available, and I can't do anything that changes it.  I've tried a reset (power+home).  It says I have 180M in photos, however I did go delete a bunch and the number didn't change.  I don't have iTunes, it's not connected to a PC, I don't have music or videos on it.

How can I free up space?  How can I delete files (pictures, apps) and have the system acknowledge the change?  This is seriously frustrating that I can't manage the space usage on the device.

For anyone else in this situation, I'm posting my experience.  I did install iTunes and do a backup/restore, but that didn't fix it.  It did help me see that, in fact, there was a huge chuck of data marked as "other" - this is what most forum posts describe.  I began deleting apps to see if I could figure out which was responsible, but nothing reduced that wasted space.  Finally, I was forced to accept the unpleasant reality.  Yes, you have to wipe your phone. Since I had a backup, I went to Settings -> General -> Reset (at the bottom) -> Erase All Content and Settings.  After, I used iTunes to do a restore. This brought back pretty much everything the way I had it.  However, apps that I deleted I had to search and reinstall from the AppStore.  (Why don't they have a "my apps" list like Amazon does?)


Mavericks in Mac App Store shows install button without text and won't download I am trying to upgrade to OS X Mavericks from 10.7.5 but every time I click the install button in the Mac App Store, it looks like nothing is happening and now the button is all greyed out and I can't do anything.

You can enable the Debug menu by typing the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true

You can then clear the cookies using the Clear Cookies option in the Debug menu.

In addition, you can reset the application using the Reset Application option.

You can disable the Debug menu using the following:

defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool false


Why is OS X able to send out email without first configuring SMTP? When I try the command in terminal, an email is sent. I have checked there is no local SMTP is running, so what is the mechanism used by Apple behind the scene?

echo "Hello" | mail -s "Test" foo@bar.com

SMTP daemons or servers are there to receive mail, not send it.  In your example, mail is purely an email client, and it connects to whatever server is defined by the appropriate DNS MX record of bar.com, and has no requirement for a local server to be running in order to do so.

However, depending on your mail setup, you may require to log into an outgoing mailserver to authenticate, or if nothing else just to provide sender and return-to addresses etc.  Now, you can do all this at the command line by passing the appropriate parameters on the terminal, but as long as you have set up your Mail app, this config is already stored,  and by simply temporarily firing up the mail subsystem the terminal commands can grab that info and now have one or more mail smtp servers they can choose to send outgoing messages. It will then terminate the processes when complete.

You can test this all out at the command line and send the mail without having to use a mail client.  I'm not at a Mac, so these commands may need editing by someone who is, but you can do this:

nslookup
set type=mx
bar.com
exit

telnet MXServer 25 (where MXServer is one of the results returned above and 25 is the port number for SMTP servers)

Read This for more info on emailing via telnet - it's a great debugging tool


Airdrop between newer and older macs without clicking the "Search for an older Mac" button I have a new MacBook Pro running Yosemite 10.10.3 and an older Mac Mini running Lion 10.7.5.

Airdrop works in both directions, provided that if I am transferring from my MBP to my Mini, I click the "Search for an older Mac" button so that the MBP can see/find the Mini. After a few seconds of waiting, the older Mac Mini appears.

I am wondering: any way to make it (via the Terminal most likely) such that my MacBook Pro is always searching for an older Mac? Why do we have to click a button to find older Macs? This seems like something that should just work.

AirDrop was originally implemented using Bonjour/Bluetooth PAN (personal area network). Newer versions (starting with OS X Yosemite and iOS 7) support an improved version that's built on Bluetooth LE (iOS) and Wi-Fi (iOS, OS X), but also support the older implementation – you just have to tell it to look for those.

So, when you click "Search for an Older Mac", AirDrop actually switches from the newer Bluetooth LE/Wi-Fi implementation to the older Bonjour/Bluetooth PAN combo. Since they are two different protocols, they don't (can't?) show at the same time.

This iMore article, as well as WikiPedia, have additional info.

Edit: It may be possible to show old Macs alongside newer ones if you set the BrowseAllInterfaces system default to true. I haven't done this yet to confirm, but it may be the ticket.

Run this in Terminal:

# Enable AirDrop over Ethernet and on unsupported Macs running Lion
defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces -bool true

From mathiasbynens/dotfiles.

My understanding is that this will allow AirDrop to run over Ethernet, but, more importantly, over Wi-Fi on technically unsupported (i.e. older) devices.


Speech Commands with Eclipse I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.5 on my MacBook Pro and love the Voice Commands / Speakable Items feature.

I also have a lot of custom commands that I use by writing applescripts and putting them in either ~/Library/Speech/Speakable Items or ~/Library/Speech/Speakable Items/Application Speakable Items/myApplication. This has worked well for me so far.

However, this does not seem to work when I created a directory in Application Speakable Items called Eclipse for using speech commands with my eclipse IDE. I even tried using the Make this speakable command while using eclipse, but that doesn't seem to work either.

The only thing I can think of now is to put all of eclipse's commands into Speakable Items and call them from there, but that is not a very elegant solution.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what I can do?

In my experience, using Speakable Items for the rather, shall we say, complicated applications can get a bit tricky - but there's no reason it's not possible. Usually, if you use the "Make This Speakable" command whilst an application is in focus (i.e is your foreground app), a folder will be created for it in Application Speakable Items if it does not already exist.

As OS X is UNIX-based, my initial idea was to call the folder eclipse, as the executable that the system sees (not the .app bundle itself) is actually called eclipse as opposed to Eclipse.

However, should that not work, Apple's official advice is to simply drag the folder to your desktop and then attempt to use the "Make This Speakable" command whilst using (in this case) Eclipse so that the computer will (or at least should) create the folder for you - at which point you can simply drag all the AppleScripts you have made into the newly-created folder.

From a programming / behind-the-scenes point of view, though, the answer may well hinge on what version of Java you are using! Should you be using Apple's own Java implementation, you will likely run into more problems than using the latest Java 7 release.

Eclipse uses the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT), which wraps native controls (or more accurately, makes Java communicate with OS X like it would with, say, other *nix) so by those standards alone ought to already be accessible. I know that NetBeans is mostly, if not entirely accessible at least from a VoiceOver standpoint.

Browsing Eclipse's documentation and bug history reveals discussion of this back in 2007, and seems to suggest they were working on it in 2008, but there's no mention of having Eclipse controlled with AppleScript voice commands. It ought to be straightforward and simple, so if it seems like Eclipse and/or OS X is resisting every attempt to communicate with Java or the IDE itself via AppleScript(s), I'd be inclined to believe it's some quirk with Eclipse or its communication with the SpeechWorker and the rest of OS X.


Are the results of Apple Photos processing shared between my computers? I have a MacBook and and Mac mini with same Apple ID. My photo library size is 55,109 photos, 3,670 videos, 68 items.  photoanalysisd has been running for 7 days on my MacBook.  It doesn't appear to be running on the Mac mini.  On the Mac Mini, Photos.app is not running (and thus should not be pausing photoanalysisd).

Do both computers share the analysis results, or does each computer repeat the analysis?
If the information is shared, is there a way I can coerce photoanalysisd to only process on the Mac mini, to make processing faster using the two computers?

No. In general, all photo library generated metadata is not strictly shared from iCloud to iCloud on macOS Mojave 10.14 and iOS 12 but some of the overall categories / extracted data does sync. (So it’s pretty confusing / grey area at the moment)

Most of the AI training models to identify photos by subject, finding faces, making memories run locally on each device and only after you name a face, save or customize a memory or make an album does that higher level data sync.

You might need to erase the long running library and let it redownload or better, engage apple support for iCloud and give the engineers permission to look at the sync logs server side and submit some local diagnostics if the process can’t catch up.

I’ve don’t that in the past to get excellent support and a precise fix. Sometimes the algorithm gets stuck and you need an assist rather than just restarting the OS or downloading a clean copy from iCloud to one Mac (assuming that Mac isn’t your “source of truth” or master copy of photos for you).


"o" before recent phone number, what does it mean I just realized I got some recent contacts who have an "o" before their phone numbers when I'm adding a recipient after writting a text message, what does it mean?

I'm sure it's the letter "o" and not a zero because it appears when I search for "o" when adding a recipient. And it doesn't appear as capital letter before the number, it appears like "o961231234" and those contacts are not on my list, but they do appear as recent contacts.

Please, I'd really appreciate if somebody could answer this

The letter 'O' before a telephone number is for OFFICE.
'F' for FAX


is there a script to block outbound connection if vpn disconnects? My vpn service drops from time to time and It reconnects again automatically but my real ip is exposed from the time is disconnects and reconnects which usually takes a couple of minutes.

Some VPN providers have 'Internet kill switches' for their VPN that will cut your Internet connection in case of a disconnect so check yours.

There is a large number of 3d party applications that will disable the outbound traffic if VPN disconnect.

VPN watcher...and others.

I suggest you use one of those, since making a script would be like reinventing the wheel.

But if you have to here are the instructions how to.

Creating a kill switch for the OSX VPN client


Do adapters exist to install generic SSDs in MacBook Airs? I have a rescued mid-2013 11 inch MacBook Air working great off external USB 3 hard drive but missing its internal SSD.

They use a custom SSD, which seem to be expensive even used and aftermarket.

Are any adaptors available to install a generic SSD?

I Googled and thought I found that they do now exist, but then I realized the ones I found were the opposite, for using the SSDs from various MacBooks in other laptops etc.

The air has no extra room for internal parts.

Unless the “generic SSD” is substantially smaller than the apple part, there would be no room for it. The adapter of choice would be an external adapter if you’re looking to cut costs.

External connection also simplifies things like whether the storage interface and firmware and controller are compatible.


Target Display Mode not working on MacBook Pro 13" 2020 I am using a 2011 iMac as an external monitor (and speakers) for my MacBook Pro (2014) on a daily basis.

Last week, I upgraded to the 2020 MBP 13". The new MBPs with USB-C are supposed to work with Target Display Mode, using the Thunderbolt 2 to USB-C adapter. I have it connected with an official Apple Thunderbolt 2 cable and Thunderbolt 2 to USB-C adapter. But when I press Command-F2, nothing happens, like they aren't connected.

I can already rule out the cable/adapter/USB-C port being defective, because I've used for transferring files from the old MacBook to the new one successfully. It also still works fine when I connect the Thunderbolt cable (directly) to my old MBP.

Any ideas what I can do to debug the problem?

Edit: I tried it out with a colleague's MBP 2017, same cable and adapter, and it worked flawlessly. So the problem seems to be limited to the new 2020 MBP. I am in direct contact with a very helpful (and seemingly persistent) 2nd line Apple Support employee about this now, so fingers crossed.

Same issue here!

New 2020 MBP, using an apple USB-C to thunderbolt adapter, apple thunderbolt cable, mid 2011 iMac.

Apple support just informed me that they don't have this feature in newer devices. What a shame!

I'm filling out a feedback form suggesting that they bring it back. Perhaps naively hopeful that they'll respond but worth a shot.


Why would you choose Alfred over Spotlight? Mac OS X is already loaded with Apple Spotlight, why use Alfred?
What does Alfred bring to the table that Spotlight doesn't?

One thing is speed. I believe Alfred is currently faster than Spotlight. And, this is specifically for Lion I believe, Alfred learns where Spotlight doesn't.

If I want to launch Adobe Photoshop and start to type 'Ph' Alfred will offer Photoshop as an option and move it to the top with the more I select it.

With Spotlight, Photo Booth with be the first choice, and it will not learn what I want with repeated use. I believe at one point it did, but lost the ability in Lion.


Looking for old C compiler Back in 1987 or 1988 we had a Mac network at college, these would have been either Mac Classic or Mac Plus machines. We used a C compiler on them - what C compilers were around at the time?

Could be Think C or Apple's Macintosh Programmers' Workshop Note links are to Wikipedia, which is probably OK for information for old computing.


Messages.app asks for iChat every time I open it Every time I open up Messages, it asks me to locate iChat. This is on a new machine that I migrated from an old one on Lion and then upgraded to Mt. Lion. I don't have iChat on this machine any more, as far as I can tell. How do I stop it from prompting me? (It seems to happen only after a restart.)

(I haven't upgraded to Mountain Lion myself, but my understanding is that Messages has subsumed iChat.) That looks like the AppleScript find-the-application-named-in-the-script dialog. Do you perhaps have something that somehow runs a script when you launch Messages? If so, find that script and edit it to refer to application "Messages" instead of application "iChat" if that works, or remove it entirely.


disk1s1 device is write locked I can not boot my iMac (20" Mid 2007) running OS X 10.7.5

When I am in Single User Mode I can use fsck and when trying ti sbin/mount -uw / it says device is write locked. I am really stuck.
I wanted to upgrade to El Capitan also I can not see any startup disk

Try this:

  Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the (Command-Option-R) keys until a globe appears.
  The Utility Menu will appear in from 5-20 minutes. Be patient.
  Select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
  When Disk Utility loads select the drive (usually, the out-dented entry) from the side list.
  Click on the Erase tab in Disk Utility's main window. A panel will drop down.
  Set the partition scheme to GUID.
  Set the Format type to APFS (SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
  Click on the Apply button, then click on the Done button when it activates.
  Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
  Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.

(Source)


Applescript variable not being passed I have a basic applescript to request a user's input, then pass the variable into a path for mounting a volume:

display dialog "What is the first letter of your last name?" default answer ""
set LastNameInitial to text returned of result

mount volume "smb://ServerName/files/myfiles/LastNameInitial"

However, when this is executed, it fails to mount the volume as it does not exist because it is trying to mount the literal path above and not using the variable. What am I doing wrong?

You need to just add the variable to the end of your predetermined path string, like this…

set LastNameInitial to ""
repeat while LastNameInitial is ""
    display dialog "What is the first letter of your last name?" default answer ""
    set LastNameInitial to text returned of result
    if LastNameInitial is not "" then
        mount volume "smb://ServerName/files/myfiles/" & LastNameInitial
    end if
end repeat

I added a safety net just in case they don't enter an initial, which will keep springing the same dialog until they do, or cancel


Can't get write permission on external hard drive when exporting from Lightroom A few days ago I bought a new 2018 MacBook Pro which is running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. I have been a Windows user till then.

After I edited my photos on the new Mac in Lightroom, I plugged in my external drive (WD My Passport) and I went on to export them. In Lightroom I got an error that said I can't export on that drive since it has only read privileges or something like that. So I went on to googling the issue and found out that I have to change the permission. I tried that but the next obstacle was that the Apply to enclosed items option is greyed out.

I googled that problem but i haven't found a solution so far. Is this problem happening because I have to reformat my external drive on something other that NTFS? Or is there a setting i missed? Or something completely different.

macOS doesn't natively contain the software (drive) to write onto a disk formatted with NTFS (but it can read NTFS formatted drives fine). That's what the error is implying that only read privileges are available.

A drive formatted with NTFS can be written to by installing NTFS driver software in macOS. For writing to external disks made by WD, you will need to install a proprietary NTFS driver for macOS provided by the disk manufacturer called Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac.

You can follow the instructions in this support article on WD website, How to Install the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac, to install the software and gain the ability to write files to the disk.


I Installed The Unarchiver from the App Store - where should it be? I'm a long-time The Unarchiver user. I noticed today that it can be installed and package-controlled by the App Store.

I'm a total App Store novice.

Normally The Unarchiver sits in /Applications/Utilities/. I didn't uninstall The Unarchiver before I installed it from the App Store.

Is there a way of determining that the version of The Unarchiver in /Applications/Utilities/ is the one from the App Store? Further, is there a way in the App Store to see all my software installed via the App Store at a glance?

App Store apps end up in /Applications.

I'd uninstall all copies of The Unarchiver using something like TrashMe and then reinstall via the App Store if it's the App Store release that you really want. The App Store's ability to upgrade non-App Store purchased software is hit and miss.


Does iTunes Backups Happen Automatically? Apple offers very little iCloud storage and I am finding it quite difficult to backup both my iPad and iPhone.

I have set up my iPhone and iPad to sync wirelessly to my MacBook. Now every time they're connected to the same wifi, both my iPad and iPhone show up in Finder under the Locations section. From there I can press the "Back Up Now" button to back the device up via iTunes.

Does this happen automatically, just like iCloud backups? And what conditions do I need to meet in order for this to happen automatically (i.e. the iPhone/iPad needs to be connected to power)?

You need to set up iTunes to allow you to do the backup over WiFi and you need to sync the two devices at least once. After that you should be able to do it, provided;

Both devices must be on the same WiFi network
iTunes must be open on the Mac
The iOS device must be charging


iTunes Download Previous Purchase Fails I'm running iTunes 10.6 on OS X Lion 10.7.3.

I've tried multiple times to download this one song, and it keeps failing.  All other songs I've previously purchased downloaded with no problem the first time.  Here is the error:

And here is the view of the status in my downloads list:

I've tried closing iTunes and re-opening but the same error happens when I try to download again.  Any suggestions?

Do you run any AntiVirus on your Mac?

Intego NetBarrier seems to be the culprit for a lot of people with the same issue.

There are similar reports of error -100000 on Windows as well and many of them were resolved by disabling Firewall and AntiVirus.


Which 2nd hard drive for my MBP 2011? I am looking at options for a 2nd hard drive (SSD is primary) for my 15" MBP 2011, i initially was going with a 750gb 5400rpm drive but i'm thinking about either of the following 7200rpm  drives.

1) Western Digital Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT

2) Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS

I will be running lots of Virtual Machines so i'm thinking the faster drive would be a better fit.

Are there any concerns with noise/vibration/battery drain with either of these faster drives ?

I have the Seagate in my 2010 15" MBP and I have had 0 problems with it.  It's dead silent and there is no vibration.  My battery life stayed pretty much the same after the upgrade, but since you are looking at dual hard drives (I'm assuming you removed your optical drive) I would expect to see a slight drop in your battery life.

I would stick with the 7200rpm drives over the 5400rpm myself.


How to rollback macOS Sierra Developer Beta back to El Capitan (without time machine) I can't reinstall El Capitan from AppStore because of this:

and CmdR only suggest to reinstall macOS Sierra.

macOS is not designed to be downgradable, and as such you cannot downgrade it through an installer like this. You will need to create a bootable install disk (Apple support), e.g. by running

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

to install on a drive called MyVolume. Running this will lose you all your content, so you will need to have a backup if you want to retain your files. Otherwise, wait Sierra out…


Outlook 2011 crashing on OS X Lion I have a user who isn't able to open Outlook 2011 on his iMac. As soon as he opens Outlook 2011 it crashes. All other Microsoft Office applications work fine.

He has a iMac 27-inch, Mid 2011 running OS X Lion 10.7.2.

This is the crash report that is created, if it's any help.

This same Mac was running OS X 10.6 and also had Outlook issues, but since upgrading to Lion it hasn't resolved any issues.

Any help is much appreciated.

The same happened to me. This is how I fixed it: go to /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/ and launch Microsoft Database Utility.app and rebuild the Main Identity.


Why does High Sierra complain about IDLE? I've installed an updated version of python 2.7, which comes with the IDLE development environment.

High Sierra is giving me warnings that it needs to be updated (which I took to mean that it's 32-bit, but it's not.)

I can't remember the exact warning, but it's the 'this app is not optimized for MacOS, consult the developer' thing.

That specific error message means that the app (or a library, or launcher or component of some sort) is a 32 bit app and not a 64 bit app. Something in the Python installation is triggering that message even if python itself is 64bit.

And in an upcoming release of macOS 32bit apps will no longer work. Check python.org for FAQs/Discussions/Support/etc. for when it will be compiled as a 64bit app.


Is it possible to change/add the icon of an app without submitting a new binary? I had created a build with a friend's Mac, which I no longer have access to. Now, the last hurdle I have to overcome before my app is released is to create a unique app icon, but I'm not sure if you can do this without a Mac to create a new binary. Is it possible to do this from App Store Connect alone?

No, you cannot do this without resubmitting the app.
However, you do not actually need to rebuild the app using Xcode, as you otherwise indicate. If you look at the application bundle, you find the icons are usually stored in Contents/Resources/.icns. You can edit that file to change the icon. There's no need to rebuild the actual app executable.
If you're working with a signed app, you'll need to run the codesign program to resign the app.


How will the free update to Mountain Lion work? I am planning to buy a MBP 13" in the coming days. Although as soon as I buy it I will remove its HD and replace it with Crucial M4 256 SSD. Will that stop me from getting free update to ML?

If so, backing up the HD on TM and then restoring from that on SSD would solve the problem ?

I suspect it will be serial number based, or model number based.  As the new models will no doubt all have serial numbers and indeed model identifiers (iMac 9,1 for example) that will allow them to clearly identify which machines are applicable, and allow the upgrade as appropriate.

In previous "up-to-date" schemes it has been this way, and not reliant in any way on what is installed on your drive.

If you are transferring to a different boot volume, I would recommend using an image file rather than Time Machine.  You can pick up a USB enclosure for your SSD, image the existing drive onto it, and then simply swap them over - this is how I have done things in similar scenarios.


Why does `hostname` return "dserodio" and not "dserodio.local"? When I run hostname it returns dserodio instead of dserodio.local, which causes problems with Python servers.

I can run sudo hostname dserodio.local but I have to set it again after rebooting.

How can I make it the hostname dserodio.local definitively?

I think you need this:
    sudo scutil –-set HostName dserodio.local

The command that you are running is temporary.
Source
http://osxdaily.com/2010/09/06/change-your-mac-hostname-via-terminal/


Is there a single place I can see all the app reviews I've written in the iOS App Store? Short of individually tapping on "Write a Review" for all the apps I've ever purchased, is there any place (on the web, in iTunes, or in a third-party app) I can view all the reviews that I've written for apps on the iOS App Store?

If that is not possible, can I obtain a list of the apps for which I've written reviews?

Yes, in the App Store tap on your face in the top right corner, then tap on your account (has your name and email on it), then tap "Ratings and Reviews"


My MacBook Pro makes three beeps during updating I would like to find out what caused my problem. A few days ago, I decided to upgrade my MacBook Pro to High Sierra, and somewhere in the beginning of the process, the computer suddenly shut down and then made three short beeps. And the interesting thing is, when I turned the machine off forcely and turned it on again, the installation continued like nothing happened. Now the same thing happened when I was installing the update that requiered the reboot. I would just like to know what could happen, and how I could prevent it in the future.

Three successive tones, then a five-second pause (repeating): RAM doesn't pass a data integrity check. If you recently replaced or upgraded your computer's RAM, check to see if it was installed properly.

Three long tones, three short tones, three long tones: EFI ROM corruption is detected, and your Mac is in EFI ROM recovery mode. Newer computers automatically recover from a corrupted ROM; when this occurs, a progress bar appears on the screen during ROM recovery mode. Don't disturb your Mac while the ROM recovery takes place. When recovery is complete, your Mac restarts.

From Apple Support.


Have OS X auto-search for WiFi My school has installed PowerCloud, which does not officially support OS X. It works sometimes, sometimes it doesn't. I've tried to narrow it down but it's impossible. I was wondering if there is a way to write an Automater/AppleScript script to connect to 1 network, and then see if it gets the ! in the WiFi symbol, and then try the next one, and then cycle. Is there a way to do this?

I would do it through a bash script instead since the Unix foundation of OSX provides all that you need and you don't have to play with the GUI which is not easy.

The two most important things are

Testing connectivity.
Force reconnection to an AP.

For the first a simple ping should be sufficient and for the second you can use the following command.

networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 "BLAH" "mypassword"

So the script would look like this...

#!/bin/sh

whotest[0]='test' || (echo 'Failure: arrays not supported in this version of bash.' && exit 2)

# Assuming all APs use the same pass code
myAPpass="mypassword"

# List of APs
myAPlist=(
'NetFasteR WLAN 3'
'WiFi HRC7dE'
'BLAH'
)

myAPcount=0
while [ "x${myAPlist[myAPcount]}" != "x" ]
do
   myAPcount=$(( $myAPcount + 1 ))
done
echo "There are $myAPcount APs available."

# IP address to target
myIntIP="192.168.0.1"

# Which AP in the list to attempt next
myAPnum=0

# We'll loop forever
while true ; do

   # Monitor connection; Loop until ping fails
   while true ; do
      # Test connection. If non zero status it failed.
      ping -c 1 -t 1 $myIntIP >/dev/null 2>&1 || break

      echo "Successfull heart beat at `date`\t\r\c"

      # Wait # secs before testing again.
      sleep 2
   done

   echo " "
   echo "Failed to contact internal IP. Reconnecting..."

   # Try to connect to an AP in the list
   while true; do
      # Get next AP in the list
      if [ $myAPnum -eq $myAPcount ] ; then
     myAPnum=0
      else
     myAPnum=$(( $myAPnum + 1 ))
      fi
      myNewAP=${myAPlist[myAPnum]}

      echo "Trying AP '$myNewAP' : \c"

      # Connect to new network
      networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 "$myNewAP" "$myAPpass" >/dev/null 2>&1
      if [ "x$?" = "x0" ] ; then
     echo "Success!"

     # Wait for DHCP etc...
     sleep 2

     break
      else
     echo "Failed :("
      fi
   done
done

You will likely have to tweak it a bit to get the right delays and so forth but for me it works quite well.

If the APs don't share passwords then you will need to add a second array with them.

If you are worried about passwords being safe, you could set it up to run as root and change the permissions so that only root can read it.

EDIT: The script is pretty dumb. It can take a while to find an AP that is working if the list is long. You can reduce delays by making it smarter. For example, you could check using the airport tool for a list of available APs and then pick one to connect to.


How to launch Gnumeric after installing using Homebrew I've installed Gnumeric using Homebrew. I first manually installed XQuartz (as required) and then ran brew install gnumeric. Everything seems to have installed fine.

Now how do I launch it?

When I run /usr/local/bin/gnumeric I see:

Cannot open display:
Run '/usr/local/bin/gnumeric --help' to see a full list of available command line options.

This is the result of /usr/local/bin/gnumeric --help:

Usage:
    /usr/local/bin/gnumeric [OPTION...] [FILE ...]

Help Options:
    -h, --help                                Show help options
    --help-all                                Show all help options
    --help-libspreadsheet                     Show Gnumeric Options
    --help-gtk                                Show GTK+ Options

Application Options:
    -g, --geometry=WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF     Specify the size and location of the initial window
    --no-splash                               Don't show splash screen
    --no-warnings                             Don't display warning dialogs when importing
    --display=DISPLAY                         X display to use

If you install XQuartz from Homebrew Cask with:

brew cask install xquartz

and gnumeric from Homebrew with:

brew install gnumeric

You can then just type:

gnumeric

on the command line and the gnumeric window will open.


Is there anyway to add the Mic icon to the Swype keyboard? I really like the 3rd party Swype keyboard, but it is missing the Mic button.  Is there a gesture or something to engage the Siri Microphone?

No, this is currently not possible due to restrictions with 3rd-party keyboards in iOS.

From Apple site:

  Custom keyboards, like all app extensions in iOS 8.0, have no access to the device microphone, so dictation input is not possible.


Batch print with printer preset in MacOS I have 50+ documents to print with the exact same printer settings and I'm trying to batch print them using the existing printer preset. What I've done so far:

open all documents in one preview windows on El Capitan -> doesn't work, prints all documents as one document instead of separate ones (e.g. if the documents have an odd number of pages, the next documents is printed on the back of the last page)
Try a python script to create a pdf made of all my needed documents in the right format, so that I could print it and separate the documents manually -> unsucessfull as my python skills are not that great + needs to be done again everytime the situation happens again.
change the cups settings and hit cmd+P in the finder -> doesn't work as I can't get the right margin settings in CUPS + the solution is not a long term one as one would need to tinker with CUPS every time a new batch job with different settings has to be done, eventually loosing the overview of what has changed.

In short, I would need the preview printing dialog batch applying to a bunch of documents or an applescript/automator etc. that can use existing printer preset (those must be stored somewhere in the system, I don't know where) and apply it to selected documents. Any idea?
System: 10.14 but I can use 10.11 if needed.

There are a couple of things you can do:

Printer Presets
Under the Presets menu, see if the Reset Presets Menu to “Default Settings” is checked. If this is checked, uncheck it and the last preset you used remain in place when you finish printing the document.

Create a "New" Printer
Create a new printer that prints to the same device, but set all the printer defaults (printer presets) the way you like them.  When you print, print to that printer instead.  You can even temporarily set that printer as the "default printer."  Just remember to set it back when you're done.


Add keyboard shortcut to print custom characters I would like to map the Alt (Option) + (a/u/o/s) to ä,ü,ö,ß

Is there a native way, or a software for it?

There's the default long press functionality, where you long press a letter (~2sec) and it gives you a tooltip with alternatives that are... I guess similar to that letter. You can then press the associated numbers to replace the original letter.

You can also navigate the list with:

TAB and Shift + TAB
and
← and →
Pressing Enter will replace the original letter.
Pressing Esc will cancel

Example where I long pressed s

Example where I long pressed o:

I think it doesn't give me the ö, because that already exists in my keyboard layout as its own key.

You can adjust the delay for when the tooltip shows up here:

System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard (first tab) > Delay Until Repeat

When Delay Until Repeat is set to Short, the delay is maybe half a second, if I had to guess.


Bluetooth between iPad Mini and Mac Pro keeps dropping Mac Pro (early 2009) 4,1 -> 5,1
macOS 10.14.1 Mojave (using dosdude1.com/mojave)
iPad Mini 2
iOS 12.1

Hello, I am trying to connect my newly bought (but second hand) iPad to my Mac Pro using bluetooth so that I can take advantage of the Universal Clipboard facility. However, as soon as I pair the iPad and the Mac Pro, the connection drops after a second or so. It doesn't even allow me time to investigate the RSSI settings.

I know that the bluetooth on the Mac Pro is working because I am using a Magic Keyboard connected by bluetooth with no problems whatsoever.

Thoughts anyone?

There is no need to pair your iPad to your Mac. This feature is part of Handoff, which is part of the Continuity family of features.

In order for this to work, you need to turn the feature on, on all your devices:
from Apple:

Each device is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
Each device has Bluetooth turned on.
Each Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch has Wi-Fi turned on.
Each device has Handoff turned on:
Mac: Choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click General. Select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”
Each device has Handoff turned on:
Mac: Choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click General. Select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”
iPhone, iPad, iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff, then turn on Handoff.

Finally, you need to ensure your device supports the feature. For Universal Clipboard, your Mac should be: MacBook (Early 2015 or newer); MacBook Pro (2012 or newer); MacBook Air (2012 or newer;  Mac mini (2012 or newer); iMac (2012 or newer); iMac Pro; Mac Pro (Late 2013).

For iDevices: iPhone 5 or newer; iPad Pro; iPad (4th generation) or newer; iPad Air or newer; iPad mini 2 or newer; iPod touch (6th generation) or newer.

If you don't have one of these devices the features won't work.

For more see Apple support: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204689


Disable iPhone location prompts For my work, I have to use an application that needs "Always On" location on my iPhone (latest iOS 13), but every day (sometimes twice a day) I have the "X is tracking your location." prompt. I answer "Always on" every time, but every day they ask me again...

Is there a way to see these pop-ups less often, or to completely deactivate them ?

Unfortunately, there’s no “don’t ask me again” option. iOS 13 will keep asking you about the apps using your location in the background unless you tap “Change to Only While Using.” iOS won’t warn you about apps that can only access your location while you’re using them.


Using 2 Ethernet ports at once? I have a 2010 MacPro. For 11 years, I’ve never given the 2 Ethernet ports a second thought.
Now, I have a NAS and it has 4 ports. And both the Mac and NAS are plugged into a gigabit speed hub. Question - would Mac to NAS Xfer rates improve if I run a second cable directly between the two, and if so, looking for the steps to set it up.

If you run a cable directly between the two, and make sure that the NAS is accessed over that cable (for example by using an IP address specifically available over that link), you can make sure that the Mac and the NAS has the full gigabit speed available to them. If you have other devices accessing your NAS at the same time, this will somewhat improve the speed (given that the NAS does not have other bottlenecks).
It will however not give you combined speed of both interfaces.
If you want that, you want to go ahead and setup link aggregation. This way you can "bond" the two ethernet ports into a single virtual network port. The Mac will then have a higher capacity link to your switch. This can increase bandwidth capacity when you community with multiple different devices connected to that switch. If you also similarly connect the NAS using link aggregation with two or more interfaces, you can get the combined speed of both ethernet ports of the Mac when accessing the Mac.
NOTE: This requires your switch to support link aggregation (notably in the form of LACP). You need to set this up on your switch.
To set up link aggregation on your Mac, you do as follows:

Open System Preferences > Network

Click the cog-wheel below the list on the left, and select "Manage Virtual Interfaces"

Click the plus button and select "New Link Aggregate"

Select the two ethernet ports and click "Apply"


Did the 64GB iPhone SE ever ship with iOS 10 installed? I want to get an iPhone SE with iOS 9.  I think any new, never-used 64GB iPhone SE will have iOS 9 on it since I don't believe they ever shipped out with iOS 10 pre-installed, but I'm not certain.  Does anyone know if the 64GB models ever came with iOS 10 and if so, when that began?

According to EveryMac.com/EveryiPhone.com, the 64GB SE was sold (in the US because you didn't specify a different country) with iOS 9.3 preinstalled.

iOS 10 came out in September, 2016 and I believe all iPhones after that date came with 10 preinstalled, including the 64GB model.  I can shop the Best Buy near me and they've advertised a 64GB SE with iOS 10 preinstalled.  You'd need to ensure the one you're looking to purchase was distributed prior to September.

As a standard disclaimer, I would not recommend you stay with iOS 9.  Many security enhancements were issued, and continue to be issued, with the latest versions.  You leave yourself wide-open to being compromised with an older OS.


Disable notifications for a particular account on macOS mail app I have multiple internet accounts linked on macOS for calendar, mail, contacts etc. I wish to disable notifications for a particular account on the mail app. Is it possible to do so?

If you're not worried about the mails for that account, you can set up a rule:

When the mail is addressed to <this> account:

Mark it as read.
Flag it yellow.

Flagging it would help you read it later. Marking it read should suppress notifications.


OS X - build a bash function to send notifications via osascript / Applescript Hoping some one can point out what I am doing wrong. After looking through several threads, plus lots of experimentation, it feels like something simple is wrong. The threads I read include
How can I trigger a Notification Center notification from an AppleScript or shell script?
and
How to get a notification when my commands are done

This script is intended for minimally technical users to perform mounting and un-mounting shares. Right now it only supports SMB, but will handle NFS and other remote mounts later. We have the constraint that the user's system will be the base OS X installation, therefore we cannot install other tools or libraries.

The problem is popping a notification window when an event occurs, with text that includes a space in the argument passed to the function. If the argument is only alpha/numeric, it works fine.

As a starting point, I am using a piece of code from randomor on How to get a notification when my commands are done. The say command makes it much easier to tell when the script works, plus will make for nice voice prompts.

send_notify(){
cmd=$@
local $@ && say 'Completed!' && osascript -e "display notification \"Completed: $2\" with title \"$1\""
}

As long as there isn't whitespace in the argument string being passed from the calling function, both the say and the notification work. When there is white space in the argument string such as "BAR 3" or in a variable being passed, the send_notify() function throws an error.

When called without whitespace, send_notify() works

send_notify "FOO" "BAR2" <<< This works

This fails because of the whitespace

send_notify "FOO" "BAR 3"  <<< This fails

./sharemount.sh: line 138: local: `37': not a valid identifier

Interestingly, the say command also fails to execute.

Part of the problem is my lack of understanding what role “$@" plays in this command. If anyone has an explanation, it would be very welcome.

Below is one of several functions in the script tha call the send_notify() function.

Pre_Mount_Check() {
    Current_Share="$(df -t smbfs --output=source 2>/dev/null | sed '1d' | awk -F/ '{print tolower($NF)}')"
    Current_MountPoint="$(df -t smbfs --output=target 2>/dev/null | sed '1d')"
    logger -p Info "$DebugLog" "Sharemount:Pre_Mount_Check Checking to see if $Share_Path already exists"

    if [[ (-z "$Current_Share") && (-z "$Current_MountPoint") ]]; then
        logger -p Info "$DebugLog" "Sharemount:Pre_Mount_Check $Share_Path on $Mount_Point is not mounted, we will try to mount it"
        return 0

    elif [[ ( "$Current_Share" = "$Share_Name") && ( "$Current_MountPoint" = *"$Mount_Point"*) ]]; then
        logger -p Info "$DebugLog" "Sharemount:Pre_Mount_Check $Share_Path already mounted, nothing to do, exiting"
        echo "$Share_Path already mounted, nothing to do, exiting 1"
        exit 0

    elif
     [[ ( "$Current_Share" = "$Share_Name") ]]; then
        logger -p Warning "$DebugLog" "Sharemount:Pre_Mount_Check $Share_Path already mounted, on $Current_MountPoint, exiting"
        echo "$Share_Path already mounted, on $Current_MountPoint, exiting 2"
        send_notify "FOO" "BAR2" <<< This works
        exit 36

    elif [[ ( "$Current_MountPoint" = *"$Mount_Point"*) ]]; then
        logger -p Warning "$DebugLog" "Sharemount:Pre_Mount_Check $Share_Name is already mounted on $Mount_Point exiting"
        echo "$Share_Name is already mounted on $Mount_Point exiting 3"
        send_notify "FOO" "BAR 3"  <<< This fails
        exit 0

    fi
}

send_notify(){
cmd=$@
local $@ && say 'Completed!' && osascript -e "display notification \"Completed: $2\" with title \"$1\""
}

Displaying Notifications
Notification Center offers another opportunity for providing feedback during script execution. Use the Standard Additions scripting addition’s display notification command to show notifications, such as status updates as files are processed.

To show a notification, provide the display notification command with a string to display. Optionally, provide values for the with title, subtitle, and sound name parameters to provide additional information and an audible alert when the notification appears, as shown in Listing 24-1 and Listing 24-2.

APPLESCRIPT

Open in Script Editor

Listing 24-1AppleScript: Displaying a notification

display notification "All graphics have been converted." with title "My Graphic Processing Script" subtitle "Processing is complete." sound name "Frog"

JAVASCRIPT

Open in Script Editor

Listing 24-2JavaScript: Displaying a notification

var app = Application.currentApplication()

app.includeStandardAdditions = true

app.displayNotification("All graphics have been converted.", {
    withTitle: "My Graphic Processing Script",
    subtitle: "Processing is complete.",
    soundName: "Frog"
})

NOTE

After using a script to display a notification, the script or Script Editor (if the script is run from within Script Editor) is added to the list of notifying apps in System Preferences > Notifications. There, you can configure options, such as whether to display notifications as alerts or banners.

Clicking the Show button in an alert-style notification opens the app that displayed the notification. For a script app, the action of opening the app again triggers the run handler of the script, potentially causing the script to begin processing a second time. Keep this in mind, and add code to your script to handle this scenario, if appropriate.

From:  https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/MacAutomationScriptingGuide/DisplayNotifications.html


Automatic Login is greyed out I am trying to setup automatic login on my machine.

I have FileVault off.
I am not using a icloud account.

Still the automatic login is greyed out.

Make sure automatic login is not blocked from security settings.


Selling water damaged MacBook Air 2017: Is it safe to simply remove the SSD? I water damaged my Macbook Air 2017 and it will no longer turn on. I was thinking of selling the MBA for some money but wanted to make sure that my security is not compromised.

If I remove the SSD from the motherboard (and sell it without the SSD), am I safe to assume that none of my personal data is still on the laptop?

Yes, you can assume that none of your data is still on the MacBook Air. All personal data stored on the laptop itself is stored on the SSD, so removing this effectively removes the data from the laptop.

It is also possible that the SSD is still fully functioning, so if you made the mistake of not backing up your data, you may be able to still access it from the SSD, via adaptors, external enclosures or another MBA of the same generation.

You may also want to refer to Apple's advice on what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac.


Getting my MacBook Air (2011) into Windows faster Is there a way to reduce the time spent in EFI?

It seems more than 15 seconds that the Mac (Macbook air 2011) stays with the screen grey before beginning to boot (or resume from hibernate) to Windows.

Booting into MacOS is faster and getting to the grey apple symbol is very fast.

This video shows it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HITe9-VOrDI

I need to add that I currently run Windows 10, but did boot camp assistant with Win7 because no native support of boot camp for my hardware and no Win8 product key.

Within Win10 it shows me: BIOS Mode Legacy and SMBIOS Version 2.4

(please give me a hint if you think this subject is better placed on a Windows part of Stackexchange.)

I have a 20-inch mid 2007 iMac running OS X 10.10.5 and Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. Both were cleanly installed. This means before installing there was no previous version of ether operating system and the partitions were reformatted. Now, I would expect my boot times to be longer than yours. The strange thing is both operating systems take the same amount of time to boot. The time is about 64 seconds. Both operating systems are set to auto boot directly into my account.

If your Windows 10 is activated, then you can preform a clean install of Windows 10 using the latest Boot Camp drivers available for your Mac. Once connected to the internet, the new install will activate. You do not need a product key.

It is my understanding that Windows 10 skips certain steps during boot that previous operating system preformed. This allows for a faster boot time. You can still instruct Windows 10 to preform these skipped steps at the cost of speed. I don't know what happens when upgrading from Windows 7.

I first upgraded from Windows 8.1 which did allow me to active Windows 10, but I had enough problems with the upgrade that it was worth doing a clean install. I did not use the Boot Camp Assistant.

Windows is using a legacy BIOS boot. I doubt my computer would support an EFI boot of Windows. Although, I can boot Ubuntu (linux) using EFI without any problems.


How to force a new app to be placed on the main home screen section (iPad 6) Specs: 2018 Ipad 6, latest iOS

When installing a new app, the app is sent to a new section of the home screen.

I prefer to have all my apps on a single home screen.

How do I force the app to be installed by default on the only section of the home screen instead of creating a new one?

You cannot force that to happen.

However, you can move the app after installation. You do this by pressing and holding on the app icon on the home screen. After a few seconds, the icons will start "wiggling" - and you then press and hold to pick the icon up, and then move it to the place you want. If you hold the icon on the side of the screen, you will flip to the previous/next section of the home screen.


How to recover data from unreadable hard drive? I have an 80GB Fujitsu 2.5" hard drive that died about a day ago and had nothing backed up. Is it possible to retrieve data off of it somehow.

SSDs don't come in an 80GB size (that I've seen -- usually multiples of 32GB). It may be possible depending on why the drive dies. If its a mechanical failure, then you could take the drive to a specialty computer repair shop (try local before the big stores), and they should be able to help you with diagnosing the actual issue. Since the data is stored magnetically, (if the drive data is not corrupt) you can retrieve the data but you may have to remove the platters and put into a new HD unit with working mechanics... this might cost quite a bit of money -- you'd need a clean room to be safe.

Bottom-line, the data is retrievable (most likely) but the cost may prevent you from getting it back.


After waking-up, how do you know if your mac was hibernating (fully powered off like Windows PC) and not sleeping? Not sure if my Macbookpro Retina 2015 is waking up from sleep, safesleep or hibernation.

I have enabled hibernatemode 25 (via terminal command: sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25). pmset -g shows hibernatemode is indeed 25.

Is this mode the equivalent of the Windows 7 hibernate and or, the hibernate button on the 'Deepsleep' widget/mac app http://www.axoniclabs.com/DeepSleep/ or the other 'Deep Sleep' app's sleep button http://deepsleep.free.fr ?

When you wake a Mac from hibernation, RAM got written to disk and power removed from memory. Then, at wake, it gets read back into RAM.  This takes longer than normal, or standby sleep (depending on the delay set) and is visible at wake time by showing an Apple symbol and progress bar underneath (white time markers filling up).
Also running the following command in Terminal:

pmset -g log | grep -i "wake from"

will show the sleep states, e.g.

  Wake from Hibernate
  Wake from Normal Sleep
  Wake from Standby

The last time I saw the 'Deepsleep' widget in action, it did the same as hibernation, i.e. write to disk and remove power from memory.
PS.
As the man pages (man pmset) hint in the quote below, standby and autopoweroff should be set to the value "0", via the same pmset command you've used to set hibernatemode, to set your MacBook Pro to use hibernation instead of normal, or standby sleep (I would also disable any Energy Saver System Preferences to wake your Mac periodically):

  For example, on desktops that support standby a hibernation image
  will be written after the specified standbydelay time. To disable
  hibernation images completely, ensure hibernatemode standby and
  autopoweroff are all set to 0.

PPS.  But please also consider the following thread here on AskDifferent:
How to add hibernate mode to MacBook Pro


How can I get calendar events to consistently sync across all my devices? I just recently set up iCloud to sync calendars between my iPhone, iPad and Mac. Sometimes it works perfectly and sometimes one or the other of the 3 devices is missing a particular event.

What gives? Is there configuration details that I can check?

The Calendar app on your Mac by default will have two calendars listed as "On My Mac" ("Home" & "Work" are the calendar names). Be careful because any events added here will not sync to any other devices. I recommend deleting these calendars entirely. If you have many events on these calendars, you can drag & drop each event to the correct iCloud calendar. Or you can select each of the "On My Mac" calendars and go to File > Export > Export to save them to a file. Those exported files can then be imported back into the appropriate iCloud calendar.

By default all events on iPhone & iPad should sync to iCloud. Check that you don't have another calendar setup (possibly through Gmail, etc.). You can check this on your iOS device by opening Settings.app, and selecting Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Under each account, you will see a list of services that account is providing - for example, it might say just "Mail", or "Mail, Calendars, Notes". You can select the account and switch off extraneous calendars to prevent events from being created there. Also, scroll down on that page, and you can change the Default Calendar.

You can also login to iCloud.com and view the calendar as it exists on the actual iCloud servers. This should help you to deduce which devices are providing the most trouble.


Installing Windows on SSD in optical drive bay I removed my HDD from the main bay to install Windows 10 (through BootCamp) on my SSD (in the optical drive bay) and then I put back my HDD.

After that, I can't boot Windows anymore. Is there a way to fix it other than putting my SSD in the main drive bay?

Thanks folks!

yes, there is a way to do this (I've got 2 drives and have been running this config for several years:  Mac OS on main drive, and FAT/winblows on optical bay)..

you have to first do the setup of the windows drive with it in the main bay (for some reason it won't recognize in the optical for purposes of BootCamp)...

Then after you've installed, you can move it over, then you can option-boot from it..
An added advantage of this setup is thatif you've got VMWare (fusion) you can also boot it as a virtualized OS from within Mac...


Sorting out compile errors when using multiple different versions of Xcode I am on Yosemite and trying to compile a software package using g++. Compiling this particular package has previously worked on Mountain Lion under Xcode 4.6.3, but now I have Xcode 6.1.1, and the software won't compile. For this reason, I'd like to be able to switch between different versions of Xcode. I should say I am working exclusively with the command-line tools (CLT), make, g++ and the like. Now I installed an earlier version of Xcode, 4.6.3, so that the situation is the following:

/Applications/Xcode.app: current version of Xcode, 6.1.1
/Applications/Xcode4.6.3/Xcode.app: earlier version of Xcode, 4.6.3

I was planning on switching in between these two using sudo xcode-select -s PATH. As far as I can tell, this command works, and I can check the result using sudo xcode-select -p. Further, I have CLTs installed in /usr/bin, so that e.g., which g++ shows /usr/bin/g++. Still, if I switch to the older Xcode version, the package won't compile. Interestingly, find below the output of g++ -v for the two different versions of Xcode:

For Xcode 6.1.1:

g++ -v
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.56) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin14.1.0
Thread model: posix

For Xcode 4.6.3:

g++ -v
couldn't understand kern.osversion `14.1.0'
Using built-in specs.
Target: i686-apple-darwin11
Configured with: /private/var/tmp/llvmgcc42/llvmgcc42-2336.11~182/src/configure --disable-checking --enable-werror --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/llvm-gcc-4.2 --mandir=/share/man --enable-languages=c,objc,c++,obj-c++ --program-prefix=llvm- --program-transform-name=/^[cg][^.-]*$/s/$/-4.2/ --with-slibdir=/usr/lib --build=i686-apple-darwin11 --enable-llvm=/private/var/tmp/llvmgcc42/llvmgcc42-2336.11~182/dst-llvmCore/Developer/usr/local --program-prefix=i686-apple-darwin11- --host=x86_64-apple-darwin11 --target=i686-apple-darwin11 --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2336.11.00)

So my questions are:

What does the message couldn't understand kern.osversion 14.1.0 refer to? Is this something I should be worried about?

Why does it continue to show

--prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/llvm-gcc-4.2

in the output of g++ -v after selecting the older version, pointing to the new Xcode package, even though I changed the Xcode path using sudo xcode-select -s PATH?

What is your preferred way of having multiple versions of Xcode, each with their own set of CLTs, installed at the same time?

It'd be great if someone could clear things up.

You are on to the best way to manage things.

Have your build script call xcode-select to choose the compiler and headers you prefer each project to compile against. I've not had any issues having three versions of Xcode running thusly. (6, 7 and 7.1)


Share iPhone Tethering Through Airport Express? Is it possible to tether my iPhone in some way to my Airport Express (latest generation) so that my tethered connection is served to all my computers connected to my Airport Express?

I can easily connect each of my computers wirelessly to my iPhone, however, doing so means I loose that local network. If it can't be done with an Airport Express, can it be done any other way?

Thanks.

Probably it's not the best way but you can tether your connection to one computer, and the share the Internet connection through Ethernet other the network (Airport Express Ethernet input) from that computer.

If you have a Mac it's simple. Go to Settings, then Sharing and finally flag Internet sharing. You have to configure it for sharing the Internet connection from Wi-Fi to Ethernet.


Is it possible to use my public IP address to serve a website? (Catalina) I'm a bit new to the topic of servers, ip addresses (public and private), ports, networking, and how all of this stuff ties together.
Playing around, I managed to run apache on my mac and get an html page up and running on localhost. I typed my private IP address into another device and I was able to see this page.
If I understand correctly, a private IP address is an IP address that's specific to my "local network" which I assume is anything connected to my wifi.
Is it possible to make a webpage that is served from my mac and visible from devices not connected to my local network? I expect to be able to type my public ip address into a URL bar and see this page.
I am aware that there is an app from the App store related to this topic, but I feel this should be basic functionality that can be done from the Terminal (correct me if I'm wrong).
Thanks for the help!

Much will depend on your network set-up and is beyond the scope of a single answer.
Try with my Miln Beyond application to confirm your primary outgoing IP address, and if a NAT or UPnP device is on your network. This is to test if the devices are configurable and your network is truly publicly accessible.
Use Beyond's Beyond Network window to see your computer and network's assigned IP addresses:

Do you have another computer or device on a separate network, such as a mobile phone with a data (non-wifi) connection? Use this second device to test access to your server. Testing access using the same network can provide misleading results.
If this works, then you can achieve the same via the command line and Apache httpd.
Unverified Address
You commented:

Unverified potentially accessible address. Provided by local Network Address Translation (NAT) or Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device.

An "unverified" address is potentially accessible from the Internet. It is unverified only because Beyond has not actively checked it (that requires a membership).
The listing also suggests that your router supports NAT or UPnP to open external ports and allow incoming traffic.
Does your Internet router have a web interface? The router is a device often supplied by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). If so, look for NAT or UPnP settings; these may also be called Port Forwarding.
By default, your router should block incoming traffic from the Internet into your network. To offer a server to the wider Internet, your router needs to be told to accept specific incoming traffic and to pass it to the server inside your network.
For short lived servers and services, like video/voice calls, NAT and UPnP are used. This is what Beyond has managed to do on your network.


Plugging anything into Thunderbolt inc bare cables causes kernel task overload I have a 15" Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro (2.6GHz Intel Core i7, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM), and have been trying to solve my kernel task nightmare for years.

I've read every article and forum post on the Internet and tried it everything, including deleting kexts, resetting RAMs, cleaning dust out of fans, replacing the battery with a new one, applying new thermal paste to CPU, running apps that check for faulty thermal sensors, malware, and many other small recommended fixes. Nothing has ever worked and I've been on the brink of just giving up and getting a new computer that works consistently but I took a final stab at trying to diagnose myself.

Through careful monitoring and note taking, I've found that it only happens when anything is plugged into either of the two Thunderbolt ports. I personally have tried a few different external hard-rives on a firewire to Thunderbolt adapter and also a Thunderbolt recording sound card. What I've found is that I can create a positive kernel task overload by only plugging in the bare cables with no actual device on the other end, even connecting only the adapters by themselves creates an overload. My audio sound card is a straight Thunderbolt 1 cable connection (no adapters) and this also creates the overload.

This follows with countless people I've read who have the kernel task issue using Thunderbolt displays and Thunderbolt ethernet adapters. And it seems that everyone is addressing their particular devices when it seems to be the Thunderbolt ports as a whole, which I actually haven't seen addressed anywhere so I'm starting it here.

If anyone has been struggling with this issue, keep an eye on your Activity Monitor while alternating devices and cables into your Thunderbolt ports.   I'm not sure if its important to note that kernel task overloads are mostly, but not always, showing as the actual kernel_task process itself in Activity Monitor, sometimes any random program that I have open such as a Web browser or DJ program will hover to 500% usage until everything is disconnected from Thunderbolt instead.

I would love to find a real solution. I've never had any physical damage to my MacBook Pro, but would replacing the logic board or any other board fix this?

I've actually had the same issue forever with my mac. The same device as yours.

I took it in to get fixed just before my 3 year warranty expired and unfortunately I thought it was fixed, but it wasn't. (Very regrettable that I didn't notice it wasn't resolved till after the extra 90 day warranty had expired.)

I honestly think it's a defect in the device, but have no idea how to fix it. I've tried many solutions over the years and just found your post as I'm restarting my search.

It is so frustrating to not be able to use the second monitor I have sitting here.

Not a solution, but one thing that helps a little with the kernel overload is running an actual fan across the surface of your computer.

If you've come up with anything, please do share.


iOS podcast app that differentiates between and gives different functionality to long/short presses of the play/pause button on the headphones Overcast for iOS has a feature that allows you to either skip forward in the track/podcast or move forward in the playlist of tracks/podcasts depending on wether you just do two short clicks on the headphones play/pause button or one short and one long. For moving backwards in the podcast or in the playlist it's three short clicks or two short clicks and one long click, respectively.

I'm having trouble with the sync/download functionality of the app, so I'd like to switch, but I'd really like to download an app with the features described above. What other podcast clients for iOS, if any, have this feature?

Those are system wide commands, not exclusive to your app:

Fast forward
To speed up your track simply tap the Play/Pause button rapidly twice and hold the control down after the second tap -- the track will skip forward.
Rewind
Similarly, to rewind a song tap the Play/Pause button three times and hold the control down for the track to skip back.
Skip to next track
Bored of the song that's playing? Just tap the Play/Pause button twice to skip to the beginning of the next track.
Skip to previous track
You can also skip to a previous track -- all you need to do is tap the Play/Pause button three times.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2476507/apple-ios/ios--how-to-use-iphone--ipad-earphones-in-13-tips.html
Some of them even work on your Mac.
The Apple Podcasts app has the same functionality.


iPhone 4S iOS7 passcode problem I just recently updated my iPhone 4S to iOS7 and it was pretty much okay at first.

After I turned on the passcode for lockscreen I am now unable to unlock my iPhone. I was so sure I put the correct passcode for it because that is the only passcode I used in my iPhone for years. How can I unlock my iPhone?

When you set the passcode, you are required to enter it twice to ensure that you don't make a mistake - if they don't match, you are requested to try again.  If you are unable to use it to unlock your phone now then either you made the same typo twice when setting it, or you are not recalling accurately what you set it to.  Either way, you will need to restore the phone via iTunes to rectify it.


How to use ImageMagick to bulk crop empty space on png files? I just installed ImageMagick (new to Terminal) and can't figure out how to bulk crop a folder of pngs to remove all transparent space around the png (i.e. a square logo on a rectangle png with transparent area that can be cropped)

I am trying to take all the pngs and output them into a different folder called out.

What is the command?

To trim a single image:

convert /path/to/original.png -trim +repage /path/to/out/trimmed.png

To trim each png in a folder:

cd /path/to/folder
mkdir ../out
for f in ./*.png; do
  convert "$f" -trim +repage "../out/$f";
done


Downloading iOS music from iTunes onto iPad without being erased My dad bought me ed Sheeran new album on his iTunes so now we want to get it on my iPad. I have my own Apple ID account but I haven't bought any music.

How can I download the album my Dad bought to my iPad without deleting anything on it?

I think you can download it on your computer, then sync with iTunes your music by activating Manually manage music and videos on your device's options.

That will allow you to just drag and drop music to your device without deleting anything on it.

Source: Apple Support


Wait for 50 years to unlock Today I wanted to backup my old iPhone which I didn't use for a long time and never tried to unlock it for one year now. It was just laying around. Upon charging and starting it up, I saw this message:

"IPhone is deactivated. In 24.286.924 minutes you can try again"

Why this could possibly happen and what can I do about it?

Date/time was wrong on the iPhone. I bought a new sim, it connected to the internet (and then adjusted date/time automatically) and that did the trick.


What's that site that frames screenshots in iPhone/iPad/Mac stock photos? Late last year in 2012, someone had launched a site that let you upload screenshots (or any image really) and it would embed them into nice stock photos of a Apple phone, tablet or laptop/desktop. It was basically designed for someone making a product web site and wanted to feature shots of the app or web site running on those devices. There was even a shot of a person holding an iPhone in their hands.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the site though, and googling isn't helping me. A friend thinks it might have the words 'showoff' in it, but no luck either with that phrase.

Anyone remember?

It sounds like you’re describing PlaceIt.


Remove iCloud Photos from Mac only? I want to remove the photo library from my mac as it is taking up 25.4GB of space but I want to keep all of the photos on the iCloud so they are accessible from my other devices.

I saw in the settings that there is a Disable and Delete button but I am under the assumption that it will remove all the images from my iCloud too?

You can turn off iCloud Photo Library on your Mac by following the steps in this Apple support doc: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204570.  I always backup my photos first, just in case I make a mistake.  If this is an option for you then I recommend doing the backup before you make any changes.

On your Mac, go to System Preferences > iCloud > Options next to Photos
Deselect iCloud Photo Library

This will stop photos from syncing to your Mac.  As you've seen, do not select Disable and Delete from this same menu as it will delete your photos from every device.