Trying to install Homebrew, but I get this "fatal: cannot create directory at 'Library/ENV/pkgconfig/10.10': Permission denied" I am having issues with Brew. It was working fine, but now it's a little wonky.

Tried re-installing, but I get this error:"fatal: cannot create directory at 'Library/ENV/pkgconfig/10.10': Permission denied"

Anyone know how to fix this?

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
-e:70: warning: Insecure world writable dir /usr/local in PATH, mode 040777
==> This script will install:
/usr/local/bin/brew
/usr/local/Library/...
/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1
Press RETURN to continue or any other key to abort
==> /usr/bin/sudo /bin/chmod g+rwx /Library/Caches/Homebrew
Password:
==> Downloading and installing Homebrew...
remote: Counting objects: 207213, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (55712/55712), done.
remote: Total 207213 (delta 150324), reused 207201 (delta 150315)
Receiving objects: 100% (207213/207213), 43.70 MiB | 3.08 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (150324/150324), done.
From https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew
* [new branch]      master     -> origin/master
fatal: cannot create directory at 'Library/ENV/pkgconfig/10.10': Permission denied
Failed during: git reset --hard origin/master

I would suggest go and visit 'Library/ENV/pkgconfig/10.10', if it's there, try to look at its permission, if it differs, try to delete it and re-run the installation.

It happen to me once also but it's coming from sass/grunt. Permission denied just to find out that special file was created by other user (because I copied it from somewhere) and it have overriding problems, thats why it return permission denied.

Well, that's my case, hope this little stuff might help you. Who knows :P


Siri Window is not in native resolution when connecting external monitor to MBP When using Siri on my 2017 MBP running macOS High Sierra, I noticed that the text in the window is not sharp..

The text and image are not sharp and it feels as if low-resolution images/text have been upscaled for Retina size.

On trying to find if this was an issue with my display, I disconnected my external monitor and it seems that connecting a Non-Retina external display is causing this.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the same screen grab once with the display connected and once without.

No Monitor Connected

Monitor Connected

The Siri window is being opened on the laptop display and not the external monitor. My display resolution is unchanged between the 2 scenarios.

I do not have access to a High Dpi external monitor to check if the issue is present in that scenario as well.

Is this a bug? How can I try to fix this?

Maybe your should try updating the macOS Mojave. If you don't want to for now,

Did you try resetting the NVRAM and SMC? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
Try using Onyx to clean application and system caches and reboot.

Let me know if that works.


Why do subtitles not work when streaming via AirPlay to Apple TV? Whenever I use AirPlay to watch streamed content (streaming from the web (via an app or Safari), that is, not from a downloaded movie) from my iPad to my Apple TV, subtitles are never carried over. Why is this? Is there some obscure setting to enable subtitle support in AirPlay/Apple TV?

try Beamer app, it makes subtitle configuration much easier. I never managed to get subtitles on my iTunes -> TV via airplay. Beamer made it easy. Well worth the $15


Triggering an alarm on MBP while the lid is closed I would like to use an alarm clock application on my MacBook Pro. The thing is, that I need to close the lid on the MBP while sleeping. Now I know this is a common issue, but after moderate amount of Googling I haven't found any reasonable solution. Some solutions are already old, do not work on 10.6.7 or the current line of MBP.

This application almost works. It has everything alarm clock should have. It can wakes the computer from sleep as well. It has some problems with closed lid though. The alarm fires of, but after like 3 seconds it auto snoozes. After snooze cool down expires the same thing happens again. If the lid is open and MBP is sleeping the application works just fine.

Can anyone recommend any other application?

ps. Now I know, that running MBP closed is not recommended due to possible overheating, but all need it the alarm clock, so after 10-20 seconds I will manually turn it off, so it shouldn't be an issue.

I used to use InsomniaX, but it has stopped working with the recent updates, and the developer's site says he's stop development. However, I found a similar app that works called InsomniaT. It's not quite as useful as InsomniaX, but it gets the job done.


Will I able to share my internet connection using my MBP's airport if I am connected to the internet through an external USB Wireless adapter? I know that I can share my internet connection with other devices using my MacBook Pro's Airport as long as I'm using ethernet (wired) for my connection to the internet. But if I'm using the airport for the internet connection itself, that option to share it goes away.  I'm considering getting a high-powered Hawking USB wireless adapter to use at my cabin in order to be able to get a wireless signal from my uncle next door (with permission, of course) since a built-in wireless card isn't quite powerful enough to pick it up.

Will I able to then share my internet connection with other wireless devices using my MacBook's Airport similarly to sharing a wired internet connection, considering that I'm not using the airport for the connection itself, but am using the USB adapter?

Yes - Macs have internet sharing where you can use one device to get internet and share it from another.

Most people in a cabin situation set up an AirPort to let all the devices talk and then you would share from the USB to the physical ethernet port. The router would get to the internet from the ethernet and everyone can join the WiFi and share whether or not the USB modem is dialed.

You would set the service order to have the USB modem be the highest connection in the network pane.

What you ask is also possible - just share from USB to WiFi and the Mac will create a wireless network the other devices can join.


Restored from iOS 7 BETA to iOS 6.1.3 and can't activate phone Okay so first off, I have an iPhone 4 CDMA (Verizon), but haven't had cell service on it for two years. Not that that matters but thought I'd throw it in there, that it only works with wifi.

Now that that's out of the way, about a month ago I downloaded iOS 7 Beta 5 without a dev account (I know, but I couldn't help it). I had the same problem that I've seen other question here on, where people couldn't restore to iOS 6.1.3 in order to get the public release of iOS 7. So, I went to ipswdownloader and downloaded iOS 6.1.3 (CDMA), backed up my iPhone, and then restored it with the 6.1.3 software/firmware. My iPhone then restarted, and took me through the process of setting up a new iPhone. But, unlike anything I've seen before, it's asking to activate it as if it is brand new and under devices in iTunes, my iPhone's name is not there, it just says 'iPhone'. I figured I could just set it up and then restore backup but when I try to activate it through iTunes (because it can't find a server if I try from the phone) I get this error message:

    We could not complete your iTunes store request.

    The network connection was lost.

    There was an error in the iTunes store. Please try again later.

I thought maybe because everyone in the world (literally) is downloading iOS 7 and maybe apple's servers were overflowing but I can connect to the iTunes store from iTunes, just not with my phone. The other thing is, even though I cancelled service on this phone almost 2 years ago, it still said Verizon as my service provider, now it says 'No Service'.

Obviously my phone completely reset. Please tell me there is something I can do to activate it and get all my apps, photos, etc back on it

The activation servers were overwhelmed presumably by the volume of activity on launch day. Now activation fails for a different reason - Apple is no longer signing iOS 6 software during the restore process.

Where can I find information about past versions of iOS and code-signing windows?

Once you get your OS activated either through iTunes or over the air, you will be able to load your backup as you had planned.

Apple would surely make it easier on a segment of its customer base if the service status page were kept updated thusly….


Merging or combining two iOS backups In May of 2015 my iPad Mini died because it got wet. I purchased a new iPad Mini 3 and reinstalled the apps I wanted on it ( and mourned the loss of my old Mini).
Now that it's July and my new mini has its own backup I've discovered that I still have the backup to the old Mini (I know, I was pretty dumb that I didn't realize this sooner.)

Is there anyway to restore the old backup to the new iPad without losing the new backup? In other words, can I combine them?

Yes, I just did mine only with iPhone.

Back up new iPad Mini
then restore backup of old iPad
after backup complete
restore backup of new iPad Mini. Viola!


What's the difference between hostname's show and the hostname on the command line? I use hostname for checking:

aircrafts-MacBook-Pro:~ ldl$ hostname
aircrafts-MacBook-Pro.local

there shows aircrafts-MacBook-Pro.local.

I want to know the difference between aircrafts-MacBook-Pro:~ ldl$'s aircrafts-MacBook-Pro and aircrafts-MacBook-Pro.local.

The hostname given by the "hostname" command is the fully qualified hostname (i.e. the full hostname including domains, etc.).

The one displayed in the prompt is shown because your /etc/bashrc file contains the following prompt definition for bash (your shell):

PS1='\h:\W \u\$ '

The first part of the prompt specification "\h" means that the hostname should be displayed in the prompt - but only the hostname up to the first . (dot).

That's why you see two different things.


Xcode 7.1.1 opens up as Xcode 7.0.1 I updated my Xcode to 7.1.1 (it said so in the Mac App Store).

When I click on "Open", Xcode 7.0.1 showed up instead of Xcode 7.1.1.

Do I need OSX El Capitan to run Xcode 7.1.1 ?

In the past, I had Xcode 7.1 Beta 2 installed, I wonder if that caused some files to be corrupted.

Seems like someone else had a similar problem here: Updated XCode to 7.0.1 via the app store but it still shows itself at 6.4 in the app and missing the new features

The answer there recommended deleting all copies of Xcode and reinstall from scratch.

I'll download OS X El Capitan to see if it fixes it before I decide to nuke Xcode to oblivion on my computer and redownload it all again

Update 1:

Updated my laptop to Mac OS X El Capitan but didn't fix it either. Xcode still start up as Xcode 7.0.1 =/

I guess it's time to nuke Xcode.

If you are tired downloading Xcode from the App Store or searching for old Xcode.apps somewhere hidden on your volumes, go to Developer Apple Downloads, enter a valid Apple ID and password and download Xcode 7.1.1.dmg (direct link) and any other tool you need to code or debug.

Remove any Xcode.app in your /Applications folder, open the dmg and copy Xcode to your /Applications folder.


Do fans stop spinning when MacBook Pro's are in sleep mode? I have a MacBook Pro Mid-2009 running Yosemite 10.10.3, and I installed Macs Fan Control which is similar to smcFanControl. Basically, whenever I put my Mac to sleep the fans stop spinning (I have them set at 6200rpm) and the Mac is asleep but less than a minute into sleep mode the fans start spinning again (I can tell since they start at 6200rpm) but the screen is still off. Is my Mac really going to sleep or does the fact that the fans are spinning mean that it's not asleep. By the way I have wake for network access turned off.

Fan function is regulated by temperature sensors.

As long the temperature is to high the fan keeps working regardless if you are in sleep mode or not. Since you turned off the heat source that action is usually very short.

Somewhat like you car fan, that continues to spin even if you turn off the engine if the temperature is to high.


Prevent app from App Store update I have two versions of Xcode, one is the latest Xcode 5 and the old 4.6.3.
The second one is just a copy of the first one, just before the App Store update.
But after the update, App Store keeps telling me to upgrade Xcode again.

Is there any option to turn off this feature for a separate app or folder?
I really want to use the new Maverick auto update feature, but it will update my old Xcode and i really need that iOS5 Simulator....

UPD: Yes i had iOS 5.0 and 5.1 simulator on Mountain Lion, but not or Mavericks...

I no longer got notification form updates, maybe because i set the two older Xcode to locked... maybe not.


Second screen mirror one desktop While I am using multiple desktops on my Mac, I would like to mirror one of these desktops on a second monitor.

This monitor would keep mirroring this desktop while I could switch between all of my desktops with my main monitor.

Any ideas on how to make this happen?

I am using an iPad as a second monitor if that might be important.

Welcome to Ask Different!

I am assuming you are using an app such as Duet Display or Air Display for this purpose. It sounds like you are attempting to extend your desktop, rather than mirror a desktop. You will need to go to System Preferences -> Display -> Arrangement. From there, you can shoes to extend the Desktop.

Following these steps, you will be able to have one or more windows open on your iPad screen, and several desktops on your Mac screen as well.


How to use time machine to recover a deleted pdf in iBooks? I just accidentally deleted a pdf in iBooks on my MacBook, and I'm trying to use time machine to recover it. I learnt from the following question that I can only get access to the folder storing all my iBook files using terminal:

Where are my iBooks stored in macOS Sierra?

However, it seems that I couldn't use terminal when using Time Machine to restore old files. Is there any way to get around this?

I'm running macOS High Sierra.

You should be able to restore the PDF from the backup using the command-line technique I posted in How can I restore iBooks stored in iCloud from a Time Machine backup?

Find the most appropriate backup:

$ tmutil listbackups
[...]
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/macbook/2017-12-11-123506
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/macbook/2017-12-12-212807
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/macbook/2017-12-13-224355

Check if your missing PDF is available:

$ ls '/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/macbook/2017-12-12-212807/Macintosh HD/Users/USERNAME/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/file.pdf'
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/macbook/2017-12-12-212807/Macintosh HD/Users/USERNAME/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/file.pdf

This assumes you know the name of the file, but if not you can omit the file.pdf and you'll get the full listing for the directory.

Restore the file to your Desktop:

$ tmutil restore '/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/macbook/2017-12-12-212807/Macintosh HD/Users/USERNAME/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/file.pdf' /Users/USERNAME/Desktop/
Total copied: 7.89 MB (8270868 bytes)
Items copied: 1

Then you can add the PDF to iBooks again as normal.


What SSD models and brands can I get for my Late 2012 MBP (MacBookPro9.1) that Yosemite supports? I've read that only the OWC one supports this but then again some people claim it's bogus.

So I was wondering what SSD brand and models I can get to upgrade my Late 2012 MBP that when I upgrade to Yosemite, it won't break as apparently if you have any non-Apple SSD, Yosemite will crash and display gray area due to kext signing.

I rather not get OWC one because even though everyone seems to swear by them, they don't have much review scores on sites like Amazon and rather go to more popular ones like Samsung 840 EVO, not only they are cheaper. But not sure if Samsung 840 EVO can work with kext signing.

Thanks.

I personally can't tell you about SSD compatibility for MBP, but I went through the same process when I did a HD upgrade on my 2009 MBP. I found numerous reviews on sites like newegg, amazon, bestbuy and so on and many people said they used the drive to upgrade their MBP's. I ended up buying a HD from newegg that said it was for a MBP and it ended up not working for me. I then looked at OWC's HDs and bought an identical one on newegg with the same results.

The one that I ordered from newegg was the following: WD Scorpio 750GB

The problems that I was having with the new HD's was that their connection would be intermittent. It would work for about a minute then everything would freeze for about 2 min then repeat. The HD itself was not failing because I tried it in an external enclosure attached to my mac and it work perfectly fine. The OS was not the problem and would install every time, but would take around 2 hours to install (normal install time was 30 min).

I ended up ordering a new one from OWC and worked perfectly in my MBP. One thing I noticed about OWC's HD was that there was a different firmware loaded on them specifically designed for apple products.

The specific HD from OWC is: HGST 750GB (OWC)

Hope this helps.


Can I copy SD cards using an iPod touch? I'd like to backup photos taken on my dSLR camera on SD cards. Can I use a USB adapter to copy an SD card into the iPod's local memory, then attach a different SD card and copy the files to that?

Probably not, as the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit is officially not supported on iPhone or iPod touch; and that would just give you the physical connection of your SD card to the iPod touch.

To have direct access to the file-system of your SD-card you need a jailbreak.
There is a slight chance you may get the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit working on a jailbroken iPod touch:

Check out iConnectionKit and this YouTube video.

  Camera Connection Kit on iPhone / iPod Touch (upcoming JB tweak)

  PROJECT STATUS = ALPHA

  Top 5 contributors will be granted early beta access on 2nd of April 2012.

  SUPPORTED DEVICES - iOS 5.0.1

  iPod Touch 4G - [Tested & Working] - Watch the demonstration videos.
  iPod Touch 3G - [Possible] Contribute any amount to help us afford the device and enable the Camera Connection Kit
  iPhone 3GS - [Possible] Contribute any amount to help us afford the device and enable the Camera Connection Kit
  iPhone 4S - [Possible] Contribute any amount to help us afford the device and enable the Camera Connection Kit
  iPhone 4 - [Possible] Contribute any amount to help us afford the device and enable the Camera Connection Kit

  JB required.


How delete an application that is bundled with macOS? Backstory:

I am running macOS Sierra and use TextEdit a lot. The problem is that I hate the Versions save schema that causes the universal Save As shortcut of CmdShiftS to instead create a copy of the document. I also hate how Auto-Save makes permanent changes to documents I don't want to modify when I'm tentatively modifying a work-in-progress. Since the introduction of these nuisance features in Lion I have always backed up and then replaced TextEdit.app with the legacy 1.6 version from Snow Leopard.

The problem:

Today when I tried to delete TextEdit.app from my Applications folder using this Terminal command

sudo rm -rf /Applications/TextEdit.app

I got this error

rm: TextEdit.app: Operation not permitted

I was surprised to find that I can't kill it, even with sudo.

How can I actually get rid of an application that is bundled with macOS?

What I've tried so far:

I followed the instructions in this article, but it didn't work. I also read this SE answer, which almost accomplishes the same solution by means of disabling Versions and Auto-Save, but then I don't get the benefit of legacy TextEdit's temporary backup saving feature. See the part in the answer stating "This effectively disables the old-style, pre-Lion autosaving completely".

So I think deleting the newer TextEdit v1.12 and replacing it with the legacy v1.6 is still the best option, however I can't get my system to delete it. Any help appreciated.

Apple's apps in /Applications and /Applications/Utilities as well as some other usually invisible system files and folders are protected by System Integrity Protection in El Capitan and later. You have to disable SIP temporarily to remove apps fallen into disgrace.

How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA “rootless” on OS X 10.11, El Capitan?
Reboot to your main system and remove the app with sudo rm -rf /Applications/TextEdit.app.
Enable SIP again by booting to Recovery Mode gain but entering csrutil enable in Terminal.app.

After a system update or upgrade TextEdit may reappear because it was updated.


File Open dialog freezing on macOS 10.12 I recently updated my macbook pro to macos 10.12. After I'm facing a lot of problems with file access.

Whenever I try to save or open a file, the "File Open" dialog comes after 30-60 seconds. Till then I'll not able to do anything on the application. But other apps work fine.
File->Open Recent is also taking the same amount of time. I've no option other than waiting for it load.
Whenever I try to drag and drop a file it is not easier. As mentioned even this takes same time.

I think the above problems are associated with a common issue in the OS. Please let me know if you have any solutions.

The issue seems to be associated with iCloud drive. Here are two steps to resolve.

I seem to have resolved the freezing dialog box problem by disabling iCloud Drive. I have been experiencing what seem to be exactly the same problems, even after two fresh Sierra installs.
If you don't want to disable iCloud drive, use Finder-> Preferences-> Sidebar- Disable iCloud drive to  remove the iCloud option on the Finder sidebar.


Remote control and screenviewing on OS X? So I have a company Macbook and a co-worker recently told me that it can be controlled or viewed any moment.

Not that I do something illegal on it, I value my privacy and this piqued my interest so I wanted to know if this is indeed possible and how.

What I figured so far:

Internet provider can easily see my outbound and inbound traffic so this is out of the question. As long as I'm in the office my traffic can be viewed.
There's a bunch of options in the Sharing setting in System Preferences that allows remote login, access and screen viewing.
There's an ESET Remote Administrator Agent running on my Mac.
My Firewall is currently disabled.

As far as I understand, if I disable all options in point 2, I should be fine, right? Do I need to be concerned about ESET RAA or the disabled Firewall?

This isn't exactly true. They can see the sites you visit but not what the content is if you're using HTTPS. This means that they can see you're checking your balance but not what your balance is.

This also applies to company network traffic providing they're not doing MITM which they can't do without inserting their own certificate on your computer. I suggest checking the certificates installed on your machine in Keychain Access to see if there's a certificate installed.
You can disable these to disable the relevant services from being accessed through the methods detailed in the information shown by clicking on each service. Disabling these won't prevent against third-party software installed on the machine providing similar functionality.
Any third-party software could provide functionality such as remote access. I'm unfamiliar with this specific software but it may be a good idea to research exactly what specific software installed on your machine can do.
You can re-enable the firewall, however be careful that this does not block any legitimate traffic that may be required by your work network.


I lost my app source files, but have the app on my iPad I've been working on an app for a while on a school computer, and had it nearly finished before the computers were wiped without my knowledge and with no warning.

I have the nearly finished app, however, published to my iPad under my own Developer App profile. Would there be any way for me to get the app from my iPad and unpack it somehow? I've looked the question up already and some have said that you can unpack it with some third party software, but it doesn't say what the software actually is.

I would really appreciate some help with this. I have a version of the app backed up, but it's much older and I would rather not redo things if I didn't have to.

Simple answer is no.

Swift (and objective C) is compiled into machine code and much of the naming is thrown away and optimisation will also alter the control structure.

Experienced reverse engineers can get some form of code back but it is not very readable or useful in most cases.

When you start any coding project the first thing you do is set up source code control so you can take snapshots of code.

Note that the " wiped without my knowledge and with no warning" should be expected on any computer. Hardware can fail let alone errors an people mistakenly or deliberately removing files.


Add a persistent message to iPhone main lock screen I am looking for ways to have a permanent custom message/note on the primary lock screen on iOS 10+

Have tried Lock Screen Note which does it via push notification, but problem is that as soon as I unlock the screen, the notification disappears and I have to re-activate the message in order to have it again.

Any other suggestions? I've seen it work with Norwegian app, that you have a constant message on the screen within a time span before your flight, and I would like to do the same for custom notes.

Note I cannot jailbreak my device

Turns out that the easiest way is to actually use the native Reminders.

Write a reminder
Set it to notify you 5 minutes from when you create it
Enjoy a permanent message on the lock screen until you mark it done

Create as many reminders/notes/messages as you want.


When should I try to get ACMT certified? A friend and I went to a local Apple Authorized Service Provider the other day to ask if he had any advice about getting a job, and he suggested studying and getting tested for ACMT (Apple Certified Mac Technician) certification. However, since winter WWDC is coming, he suggested not doing it until winter break or something so that I can learn what OS X 10.11 is like and won't get certified on an OS that's immediately going to go out of date, even though the certification is for life. My parents think I could manage it over the summer, so I'm conflicted. Would the ACMT exam still be about Yosemite by the end of the summer, and is there anything else I should know about that could influence my decision?

I'll adapt my general advice for people looking to start working or consulting.

Don't pay for certification or education until it makes business sense.

Business sense means you can incorporate that cost in a quote to one or more paying customers. I would treat any non-budgeted expenditure as something you need to run by your investors formally. If you are the investor in your company, then you owe yourself the same level of service as you would expend if you took money from relatives, friends or even an external investor.

The condition above is relaxed a little if you are undergoing formal education and have budgeted for that or taken on loans. Then you'll want to check in with your life coach / student advisor to again make the case for that expenditure of even more limited resources (typically students operate at very low cash burn rates) and time.

So, in your specific situation - the advice the ASP gave you is good, but in their favor. Of course they want to hire someone that already has invested all the time and money to become certified. Follow up with them and ask for a written job offer outlining the hours they would employ you and the rate they would pay for someone that shows up with a valid cert.

If they balk - you'll know that the advice was general and not specific. If they don't have an open position, you probably shouldn't pay for training as specific as ACMT. It's a great exam, extremely hard for someone who hasn't worked 6 months in a computer repair shop as an apprentice.

Ask first if you could be hired as an apprentice and lower rate and then have a clause for a raise if you can study and pass the exam once you are working. Either way - best of luck and let us know how things go over the summer in the comments or [chat] room.


How do I remove or disable AdobeIPCBroker? A new unstable resource-draining Adobe process that has recently appeared on my Mac is proving more difficult to hunt down and kill than the numerous other processes that Adobe creates. Generally following instructions here and elsewhere to disable the launching of these processes has worked, but I can't seem to figure out how to disable the latest: AdobeIPCBroker.

I've found instructions for Windows, but none for OS X.

How do I get rid of and permanently disable AdobeIPCBroker on OS X?

This is what I had to do:

Kill Core Sync.
Kill CCLibrary.
Kill CCXProcess.
Kill AdobeIPCBroker.

I don't know if they'll come back the next time I reboot, but in an attempt to prevent that I also disabled the "Launch Agents" in com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist and com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist.

(Who in Adobe thought it was a good idea to spend CPU and battery life constantly just to check for updates or things to 'sync'? That's like kids going around trick or treating all year just to be sure they don't miss Halloween. There are smarter ways to schedule things.)


Screen Time - Share Across Devices changes code I have a device running iOS 12.3.1.  I entered a Screen Time passcode, tested it and knew the code.  However, when I went back and selected "Share Across Devices", it reverted back to some other passcode that I don't know.  I know it wasn't a fluke because this happened across 2 different devices.

I've tried every previous passcode with no luck.  I know I can wipe the device with iTunes and start over but that presents difficulties in getting data back for saved games, etc.

Anyone else seen this behavior or know a way around it?

I can confirm this behavior. All of my devices (Mac OS and iPad OS) are getting an older screen time passcode, other than the one that I have configured on my iPhone for iOS 13.

I spent a good chunk of my day with an Apple support engineer on Friday. In a screen sharing session I showed him the behavior on my mac and iPad. I set my screen time passcode on my iPhone to "1234", and enabled "share across devices". Then, on my mac, I enabled "share across devices" and it got a different passcode than 1234. It is a bug and the only work-around for now is to reset the screen time passcode on each device and NOT enable "share across devices".

I sent them logs and have a follow up with them on Wednesday.

It is possible to reset the screen time code for Mac OS by signing out of iCloud in System Preferences, manually enabling screen time while NOT signed in to iCloud (this is important to prevent "share across devices" from getting auto-enabled), and then signing back in to iCloud. At this point, DO NOT CHECK "share across devices" in screen time settings as it will restore the old, unknown passcode.

For iOS 13, you can reset the screen time pass code by connecting your device to a Mac, making a local backup, and then clicking "Restore iPhone..." using said backup. Backups in iOS 13 do not contain the screen time passcode, and performing a "Restore iPhone..." operation completely wipes the device of all user settings and OS settings.

For iPad OS, I believe a similar approach will work but I have not tried it.


Is it possible to use airdrop on iphone4? I have ipad mini and iphone 4 and i want to transfer some music from ipad to iphone. Is it possible to use Airdrop?

No, you can't use Airdrop with an iPhone 4: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5887

While your iPad mini supports AirDrop, the your iPhone 4 does not - and as far as I'm aware, music can't be transferred via AirDrop.

That said, for $25/year, you can turn on iTunes Match, which will put a copy of your iTunes library in iCloud, allowing you to access your music anywhere. You can also transfer the music by using a Mac.


Run ffmpeg to remove exif on several files at once Is there a way of removing exif for several files at once?

ffmpeg -i in.mov -map_metadata -1 -c:v copy -c:a copy out.mov worked great for me as I wanted to remove date-stamped details from an MTS video file, but I have to do it from a list of videos and wanted to know if there was a script I could use to avoid processing each file (specify outputs "manually") one by one and get outputs like "video 1.MTS, video 2.MTS,..." and so on.

I ended up going with for f in /path/*.MTS; do
  ffmpeg -i "$f" -map_metadata -1 -c:v copy -c:a copy "$f copy.MTS"
done
and came up with files like "video 1.MTS copy.MTS" which work just fine and with no timestamp.

There might be a more logical way to do it but as I'm no expert when it comes to shell script I'm gonna stick with this one in case I need it again.

Thanks to Graham Miln for helping, cheers everyone !


Help me manage my bookmarks? I find myself bookmarking webpages on my MacBook often, with the intent of reading them later. The problem is that my bookmarks end up in the bookmarks bar and then are lost as new ones are bookmarked.

I'm looking for a tool to help me organize my bookmarks so that I can write a note along with the bookmark, and perhaps store a screenshot of the page, or even the text offline.

What are my options for a MacBook running Snow Leopard?

I think you should check out instapaper which is free.  It helps you do what you want to do without dealing with bookmarks.  Here' is the description from their web site:

"Save long web pages to read later, when you have time, on your computer, iPhone, iPad, or Kindle."

I use it so I can save something on my phone and read it later from another device.


How can I temporarily disable my MBP's keyboard? I sometimes bring my external keyboard with me on the go and use it with my MBP. I would like to lay it over the macbook's current keyboard without having to worry about it pressing other keys.

Is there a way to temporarily enable/disable the onboard keyboard?

You can use KeyboardCleanTool to lock/unlock the keyboard using the mouse.


Windows: Why does Bonjour's mdnsNSP.dll inject itself into every process? In Windows, why does Bonjour's mdnsNSP.dll inject itself into every process?

Sounds like you are curious about security and privacy. If so, your question should be "Why does my operating system allow third-party software to become aware of and affect every process?" or, "If I care about security and privacy, why am I using Windows?"

Bonjour is Apple's implementation of zero configuration networking. A very long time ago, and very shrewdly, Microsoft began making its OS and most of its processes, and the file system as well, network aware. Most notably, the file manager Windows Explorer was made network aware, which was also basically the same application as the native web browser, Internet Explorer,  and this change in the behavior of the operating system led to antitrust cases regarding which web browsers shipped with Windows. By now, I imagine, everything running in Windows is probably network aware, and are identified and advertised as 'Services' to the Windows kernel and the network. If so, it makes sense that Bonjour would make itself available to every processes to enable zero configuration networking.


"Hey Siri" also works for other persons than me Why does the "Hey Siri" command on the iPhone 6S also works for other persons? I thought it is recognizing only my voice, but today I found out that is not true!

Is there something I can do against this?

As 9to5Mac says in the article iOS 9 includes ‘Hey Siri’ voice training to help Siri better recognize your voice…

This makes the addition of voice training particularly relevant. In previous OS versions, Hey Siri would just work if you toggled a switch in Settings. With the GM, the OS now prompts you to go through a few training exercises before the feature will be enabled. Some readers have claimed that this feature is like Voice ID, so that Hey Siri function will only respond when the true owner of the phone speaks to it. Whilst this would be a nice feature, we cannot reproduce this and believe it is only meant to improve general detection accuracy.
It is true that the iOS screens describing the feature are ambiguous. It says “this helps Siri recognise your voice” which could be interpreted as meaning your voice only. However, the statement is vague enough such that it could also mean overall improvements to Siri voice detection on the device, not specifically the current user.

So it's not necessary trained to recognize your voice, rather, it improves voice detection. There's no real fix for this as far I can tell, voice technology just hasn't come that far yet.


Not able to write a file with root I am trying to write to a vim file, fortran.vim. I gave myself access to root following these guidelines. I also saw this SO post, but the answers did not help.

sh-3.2# ls -l fortran.vim
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  4043 Sep  9  2010 fortran.vim
sh-3.2# whoami
root

root seems to have read/write access to the file, and I am indeed logged in as root. Any idea what the problem is here?

Update after comments:

:w! doesn't work
I am in directory /usr/share/vim/vim73/ftplugin/
Running ls -dl returns: drwxr-xr-x  178 root  wheel  6052 May  1  2014 .

Files in /usr are protected by SIP, see What is the "rootless" feature in El Capitan, really? for details. vim should be able to read config files from user-writable directories as well, man vim has the details.


My iCloud storage was not updated to 50GB So far I had iCloud Storage 20GB. But since Apple changed their storage, I should have 50GB, but there is still 20. Why?

If you purchased a monthly plan before September 16, 2015, your
  account was upgraded automatically. If you're currently on an annual
  plan, you'll continue to renew annually at that rate. If you select a
  new monthly plan, your annual plan won't be available to you.

Source : https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201238


iPad Not connecting to MacBook Air via USB I have a 6th generation iPad, and a Macbook Air late 2015. Up until today, I've had minor issues connecting it via USB (such as the charge cutting in and out), but nothing I haven't been able to get by. Today, my iPad is not connecting at all.
So when I plug in my iPad to my Mac via USB, nothing happens. It is not charging nor is it connected. I cannot mirror it via iMovie or zoom.
I have tried the following:
Many different USB wires (They all connect my phone no problem, but not my iPad)
Cleaning the charging port with a toothpick.
Restarting both devices.
Also do note: if I plug my iPad into the wall, it charges immediately. I don't need my iPad to charge, I just need it to be connected so I can mirror it. This is extremely important for my job. Does anyone have any advice?
Thanks!

Open up Diagnostic tests, by clicking About MY Mac, and run the test. This will also test which USB ports on the Mac are working. If your iPad charges then the power is working on the USB port, but the data transfer is probably not.
The iPad itself could also has a fault, and to test this, use a different device and see if that shows up on the device. Also try reseting the iPad to factory default (backup first) or just rebooting could work as well. If not of those work, try using a different USB port, or try using a different computer.


osx lion finder problem Ever since i upgraded to lion, finder has been having problems for me. At first I thought my Quicksilver was broken when I tried to summon my downloads folder and it didnt appear.

I then went to desktop and clicked on a random folder and it also didn't appear. I then proceeded trying to open any folder with quicksilver and spotlight to no avail. I tried About Finder and still didnt see anything.

Fearing the worst, I restarted and tried to open up a folder again. Still nothing. What I did then was to hope and pray then force quit finder(force relaunch) and all the finder windows i tried to open now suddenly appeared.

This happens intermittently but usually after I shut down and open my mac again. Does this happen to any of you and do any of you know of the fix for this problem?

While writing this question, I had a slight hunch that it MIGHT be worth mentioning that my Finder is tied to Desktop 3 in spaces before(it doesn't have any problems with that though)

Maybe your issues are tied to Quicksilver instead of Lion? It does not appear that Quicksilver officially supports Lion yet (http://qsapp.com/download.php) you might try the following things to ensure that Quicksilver has the greatest opportunity for success:

Make sure you are running the latest version of Quicksilver (at time of writing that's ß60 for Snow Leopard).
Quit Quicksilver, Remove ~/Library/Caches/Quicksilver/, Restart Quicksilver
Check the FAQ for information on crashes: http://qsapp.com/wiki/FAQ#Quicksilver_crashes

If none of those work you could try uninstalling it and see if that fixes your issues. If it turns out that Quicksilver is the issue you might checkout http://alfredapp.com/ — I have no relation to the company but I have replaced Quicksilver on my machine with Alfred and would never go back.


How to check the progress of files moved from one place to another in terminal? I am new to terminal. I started moving 30 gigs of data, from my desktop to my portable harddisk with the command mv location1 location2.

The problem is, I cannot see, how much data has been transferred.

How to see the progress in a bar format or in percentage format?

I found this https://github.com/atdt/advcpmv it adds the -g option to cp and mv which will display a progress bar.

Here's how I got it to work on El Captain:

Requirements:

Xcode
wget (you can install wget with brew or MacPorts)

Then:

wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-8.21.tar.xz
tar xvJf coreutils-8.21.tar.xz
cd coreutils-8.21/
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/atdt/advcpmv/master/advcpmv-0.5-8.21.patch
patch -p1 -i advcpmv-0.5-8.21.patch
./configure
make

At this point you will have cp and mv binaries in src/ give them a try and if you don't have problem with them you can move them to /usr/local/bin.

You may also rename the two binaries to cpgres and mvgres (or other unique names) so that you can use the standard cp/mv commands also.


How can I unmerge people in Photos? I wanted to make a mixed video of all the people in my pictures but accidentally merged them all as one.

What can I do to un-merge them as seperate people again?

Tap on the existing (mixed) person. Tap Select at the upper-right, then tap on each photo that is not the person whose name is at the top of the screen. Tap on the Share icon at the lower-left, then tap "Not this person" on the bottom row of options. You may need to scroll to see it.

This will remove them from the current person. Where they go from there is a separate issue. I haven't found a way to manually tag a photo as being a particular person, but it's likely they should reappear in the Add People section. You may need to do further work to get all photos of a particular person back together at that point (i.e. merging and using "not this person" as needed).


MacBook: Force hibernation, even on AC power (not battery power) I've found a number of hints to force a MacBook (or other) into Hibernation mode (ie. write RAM to Disk, and completely power off - so system is back in it's pre-sleep state upon next boot), but they all appear to only work when the MacBook is slept while on Battery Power.

Is there a way to force a MacBook Pro to hibernate, even when on AC power (magsafe)?

The reason is: due to a hardware problem, I had to remove the battery from my MacBook (it's got a "Permanent Battery Failure" which was slowing down the whole system presumably due to hardware communication issues, until I removed it - waiting for a replacement).  So once the MagSafe AC adapter is unplugged, the system goes down hard - zero power.  It loses system time every time I remove the AC power & reboot.

So, while I wait for a new battery to arrive, I would like to make the laptop at least hibernate before I unplug it.  So far, trying things like sudo pmset hibernatemode 25 standby 1 standbydelay 0 haven't made this work yet.  If I close the laptop or do pmset sleepnow, wait even a few hours and then unplug the AC & then reboot, the system is always starting afresh (no previous state to be restored, and loses system time).

Is this because there is no low-power battery backup (the cause for losing system time), or because the system never went into hibernation?  Ie., would a system in hibernate mode, that then lose the system time due to absoluytely zero power, also lose it's hibertaion state?  (This doesn't make sense to me, as I'd expect the system to restore from the hard drive.)

FYI, a hibernate file was indeed written, eg.:

>>> ls -fal /var/vm/
-rw------T   1 root  wheel  1073741824 Jul 31 18:31 sleepimage

Perhaps losing system time causes the hibernate file to be skipped?

Thanks for suggestions.
System Specs: MacBook Pro 13-inch late 2011, OS 10.11.6, SSD drive as primary, HDD in-place of DVD drive.

I've used the DeepSleep app for years to put a Late 2012 Mac Mini into hibernation.  After "upgrading" from OS X 10.11.5 to 10.11.6 two weeks ago, DeepSleep stopped working.  It would only put the computer into normal sleep mode, not hibernation.  I spent a few days communicating with the author of DeepSleep and none of his suggestions fixed it, so I reverted the system to 10.11.5 using Time Machine restore and DeepSleep again works.  So your problem may simply be that you're running 10.11.6.

I have also tried sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25 on the command line, as well as sudo pmset -a standby 0 and sudo pmset -a standbydelay 0.  None of those have ever made my Mac Mini hibernate when the power button is pressed, even if left overnight, and even on earlier OS X versions.  However, those commands are supposed to work on laptops.  Since you say they don't, that's more evidence that Apple completely broke hibernation in 10.11.6.  However, someone here says they got pmset options to work only after resetting SMC and NVRAM so maybe give that a try.


How to switch to modal window in the background I don't know if this problem is specific to Quicksilver or a general problem with modal windows. I use QS to launch an applescript:

"run 'command' with administrator privileges"

But the modal window from QS to enter my password appears without focus. I can't I need to click on the window with the mouse in order to be able to activate it. I would guess that this is because QS has launched the applescript "in the background" as it were, and already returned focus to the previous app.

Is there a way to switch to this modal window using keyboard actions? It's something I need to do every morning and it's very annoying to have to switch over to it with the mouse every time. I can't command-tab to Quicksilver when the dialog is active.

You can focus SecurityAgent:

osascript -e 'do shell script "ls /var/root" with administrator privileges' &
open -a SecurityAgent

Displaying dialogs:

tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
    --activate
    display dialog "" default answer ""
end tell

⌃F6 (Move focus to the floating window) doesn't work with the password dialogs, and Witch doesn't include them either. You might use a script like this though:

tell application "System Events"
    repeat with p in {"SecurityAgent", "CoreServicesUIAgent", "loginwindow"}
        if exists process p then
            tell process p
                if windows is not {} then
                    set frontmost to true
                    exit repeat
                end if
            end tell
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

CoreServicesUIAgent displays Gatekeeper and quarantine dialogs. loginwindow displays many of the dialogs shown when logging out.


Connecting MacBook to external monitor and peripheral devices used by a PC? I have a MacBook Pro and a PC. I'm using both, but I'd love to be able to connect my MacBook Pro to my PC's keyboard, mouse and monitor.

Normally I have to go under the desk, take all the cables out then connect them to my Mac, and it's a pain to do.

I'm wondering if it's possible to make it easier somehow?

Depending on your PC specs you may use a VGA or HDMI USB KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch.
This will allow you to connect 2 or more computers to one screen, mouse and keyboard, and switch between them pressing a button.
The keyboard and mouse must be USB (wired or wireless) in this case, so they work on both computers.

There are plenty on Amazon and eBay.

On my experience, VGA KVMs have problems with screen resolution and offer a generally crappy viewing experience; I ordered an HDMI one and may update the answer based on its performance.


How to restore a Time Machine backup from a 2 HDD setup to a single HDD My current (being phased out) setup on my iMac is SSD contains OS, HDD contains my home folder.

/Volumes/iMacSSD/ is the OS
/Volumes/iMacSSD/Users/iMac or /Users/iMac is a symlink to /Volumes/iMacHDD/iMac
/Volumes/iMacHDD/ is my 2T HDD I want to put everything on. There is enough room!

On the time machine backup, that is how it is stored.  Both drives are backed up and all my data is there.

I want to remove the SSD from the iMac and just have the single large HDD.  When I restore from the TM backup the home folder is just a symlink to a folder that does not exist.  This is expected.

I have manually removed the symlink and replaced it with an actual folder, but trying to copy the backed up 'home' folder is not working out so well.

I want to just "move" the contents of /Volumes/iMacHDD/iMac to /Volumes/iMacSSD/User/iMac. This would make the backup like it came from a single drive.  So when I restore to a single drive everything would be there.

root privileges is not enough to modify the TM drive.  How would I go about converting the symlink iMac to a hard link? or is there a better option?

Any attemp to modify (via rm cp mv) results in a "this is not allowed/you can't do that" error. (I don't recall the exact wording)

EDIT: "error" messages
rm iMac = rm: iMac: Permission denied
sudo rm iMac = rm: iMac: Operation not permitted

After a lot of searching and messing around I found the answer.... thanks to this post

/System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/Helpers/bypass will allow you to make changes.

BUT....  I could not perform a mv so I resorted to using rsync right on the TM backup and ignored most of all my files.  This in turn allowed me to restore to a slimmed down backup.

After this I tried using Time Machine to copy the rest of my files back to my home folder, it kept failing.

In the end, enabling guest login and using rsync got me what I wanted.

If I had to do this again I would do it this way;

Do the restore as per normal, the login WILL FAIL! this is because
your home folder is a broken symlink.
Boot back into the recovery/install disc and use terminal to rm the symlink and mkdir your home folder of the same name. (you may need to chown this to your user) ** if you can also use rsync from this terminal, skip the Guest step and use rsync now.  I could not**
Do a regular boot, once logged in, turn on Guest login, logout and back in as Guest
Open terminal and su to your user.
Use rsync directly to the TM volume and restore all your home folder.
Check and make sure permissions are correct, reboot!
Everything should look just as it did before you removed your first/second HDD.  Turn off Guest login.

Never symlink your home folder!  While this worked fine, it made recovery a PIA! rather, symlink your individual folders like Documents, Music, Photos, Movies, etc.  It doesn't look as clean, but in the end, it is safer.

If my "data" drive had gone down, I would have had the same issues as I did with this. A system I can not login to.


How to transfer music betwen Mac's? I just got a new iMac and I am trying to transfer my music from my old MacBook onto my new iMac. I have all the songs in iTunes Library.
Thank You all

If you have all the files in your iTunes library, then simply copy the library folder from its old location to ~/Music (the Music folder in your home folder) on your new account. Launch iTunes and it will detect the library.

If you wish to have your library elsewhere, place it somewhere else, then hold ⌥ as iTunes launches for the first time to let you select the library location.

With regard to the actual copying of the files, there are a number of ways you can do it. The easiest way may be to copy it over the network — AirDrop or AFP will let you copy the library, albeit pretty slowly. Alternatively, if you have an external drive big enough, you could copy it to that, then move it off onto the new Mac.


How do I watch a live stream on my iPad? I enjoy watching P2P live streams (Flash) on my iMac and I would like to be able to do the same thing on my iPad. I have tried Puffin Web Browser, but the streams that I would like to see are covered in pop-ups with hinky links. On the iMac these will disappear when I go full screen, but within Puffin I can't click that full screen button.

However, I also have VLC for iOS installed. Is is perhaps possible to watch a P2P live stream via VLC? (I tried Open Network Stream and paste urls there, but that didn't quite work. Perhaps don't know how to pick the right url?)

Can you recommend a set-up?

Puffin Web Browser is not always great for button-like functions within flash content. However, for most flash videos Puffin Web Browser has a "Theater" mode. So in Puffin Web Browser go to the live stream that you would like to view, and wait for it to begin to play. Now, instead of attempting to click the full screen toggle within the player that is showing you the live stream, swipe from the right edge of your screen to bring up the sidebar, and press the "Theater" button. Your video should now be playing in full screen, or as close to full screen as it is going to get. If you really prefer not using Puffin Web Browser, the only version of VLC that fully supports P2P video is the version available on Cydia. If you like stable devices, that is not recommended.


ThunderBolt 3 to Firewire 800? I have several FireWire 800 Hard disks full of data/video/images I need for work. Last week I bought a brand new iMac and only today I realized that Apple is not selling any Thunderbolt 3 to FW800 adapter?

I couldn't believe it, and I hope there is a solution otherwise I will switch away from Apple forever.

Buy a drive caddy for $22.00 (USB3).
Take all your old Firewire drives apart pull each disk out, and slip them into your modern caddy. Plug the caddy into USB and pull your data off as needed.

Don't toss the drives. You can use them for backup media etc. through the caddy.
Be sure you do a modern reformat on the drives, and run Disk First Aid.


El Capitan Apache error message AH00526 Yesterday I upgraded my Mac from Mountain Lion to El Capitan. Trying to get apache2 working I get the following error message:

  AH00526: Syntax error on line 20 of /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-mpm.conf: Invalid command 'LockFile', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration.

What might be the remedy?

LockFile is one of the directives of Apache ≤ 2.2. This was replaced by Mutex in Apache 2.4, which is the version of Apache installed with OS X 10.11, El Capitan.

Edit the file /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-mpm.conf to remove this part:

#
# The accept serialization lock file MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL DISK.
#
<IfModule !mpm_winnt_module>
<IfModule !mpm_netware_module>
  LockFile "/private/var/log/apache2/accept.lock"
</IfModule>
</IfModule>

Then check config apachectl -t and restart sudo apachectl restart.


Is it beneficial to use an Airport Express's wifi instead of my modems? I have a modem/router that came with my ISP and I have two Airport Express.  I have the Airports so I can extend my signal further.

My current setup is:
Modem -> ethernet -> Airport Express 1      -> wireless ->    Airport Express 2.

On the Airport Express 1 - I can either create a new wireless network for AE2 to connect to, or I can join the modems connection.

What advantages / disadvantages do I have to creating a new wireless network on AE1 vs. joining the existing one from the modem?

The advantage is you can locate the airport potentially closer to you than the modem. The disadvantage is you need to set it up and perhaps string an ethernet if you wish to avoid delays of wirelessly extending a network.

If I could, I would always run an ethernet cable (gigabit if possible, but 100 is usually faster than any WiFi consumers use in practice) from the router to all base stations.

That allows you to choose different channels and devote 100% of the wireless bandwidth to serving clients as opposed to backhauling traffic to the router.


Lock iPhone Besides On-Screen Content I am just wondering if iOS devices have the ability to show only on-screen content and lock all other items on the device.

For example: say someone got pulled over and the officer required to see a copy of their insurance document. So they show them a virtual copy of it on their iPhone in the camera roll, but when the officer takes the phone to their car if they try to swipe anywhere on the screen or go to the home screen it requires a faceID/passcode.

Is this a feature that is currently available on iOS?

The simplest way to do this is take a screenshot, save it to your photos and then set it has a lock screen.

Guided Access is the “official” way to lock one app, but that takes more clicks and your phone isn’t locked when you hand it off.


I forgot security questions and rescue email Recently I got some money in my Apple ID and a few years ago I made a rescue email ( which I forgot how to enter ) and put some security questions I forgot how to awnser and I cannot buy apps ,music or movies because I need to fill in the security questions !
If I don't find an awnser on here, I will call Apple customers support.

Call Apple support, there is no way to do this yourself.


Add attached filenames to subject in my applescript? i'm a newbie with applescript. I managed to get together a little script that add selected files from finder to a email attachment as a service workflow. Now i stuck on the last issue.
I'd like to add the filename to the subject.
Here 's the applescript. Could anyone help?

property mailSubjectPrefix : "Datei(en) für dich: "
property subjAttNameSeparator : ", "
property attachSeparator : "*******"
property attachPrefix : "Anhänge:"

set theSubject to "Datei(en): "
set theContent to "Datei(en) für dich:"
set recipientAddress to {}

tell application "Contacts"

    set recipientAddress to "mail@mail.com"

end tell

tell application "Finder"
-- Make a list to gather the names of the selected files
set fileAliases to {}
-- Get the selection of the frontmost Finder window
set fileSelection to the selection
-- Iterate of the selection
repeat with fileItem in fileSelection
    copy the fileItem as alias to the end of fileAliases
end repeat
-- Check if the selection is not empty
if the number of items of fileAliases is 0 then
    -- Audible feedback, so the script always does something.
    beep
else
    -- Now talk to mail to create the message
    tell application "Mail"
        set newMessage to make new outgoing message at beginning with properties { content:theContent, visible:true}
        set mailSubject to {}
        -- Set a recipient

        tell newMessage
            make new to recipient at end with properties {address:recipientAddress}

        set MailSubject to fileAliases

        set oTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to subjAttNameSeparator
        set subject to mailSubjectPrefix & (mailSubject as string)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oTID

        end tell
        -- Attach all the selected files
        repeat with fileAlias in fileAliases
            make new attachment with properties {file name:fileAlias} at after the last paragraph of newMessage

        end repeat

        -- Put Mail in the foreground
        activate

    end tell
end if
end tell

Simply change this line:
    set MailSubject to fileAliases

to this:
    set mailSubject to fileAliases as string

    tell application "Finder" to get insertion location
    set text item delimiters of AppleScript to result

    set mailSubject to rest of text items of mailSubject

ADDENDUM:
I hope you don't my observation that the script you present in your question contains a lot of redundant and/or badly formed code.  It works just fine, so it's not of great consequence beyond one of aesthetics.  However, a neater, well-formed script makes it easier to identify errors and—in the case of longer scripts that perform more tasks—will run more efficiently/faster.
So, with this in mind, I took the liberty to re-write your script, which I hope might be useful as a learning tool, or simply just be easier to get along with if you want to make further changes to it yourself.
    property mailSubjectPrefix : "Datei(en) für dich: "
    property subjAttNameSeparator : ", "
    property attachSeparator : "*******"
    property attachPrefix : "Anhänge:"

    set theSubject to "Datei(en): "
    set theContent to "Datei(en) für dich:\n\n"
    set recipientAddress to "mail@mail.com"

    -- Get the selection of the frontmost Finder window
    -- as a list of aliases
    tell application "Finder"
        set fileAliases to the selection as alias list
        set text item delimiters of AppleScript to insertion location
        set fileNames to rest of text items of (fileAliases as text)
    end tell

    -- Check if the selection is not empty
    if the number of fileAliases is 0 then return beep

    -- Now talk to mail to create the message
    tell application "Mail"
        set text item delimiters of AppleScript to subjAttNameSeparator
        tell (make new outgoing message at beginning ¬
            with properties {content:theContent, visible:true, subject:mailSubjectPrefix & (fileNames as string)})

            -- Add the recipient
            make new to recipient at end with properties {address:recipientAddress}

            -- Attach all the selected files
            repeat with fileAlias in fileAliases
                make new attachment with properties {file name:fileAlias} at after the last paragraph
            end repeat

        end tell

        -- Put Mail in the foreground
        activate
    end tell

If you have any queries to need clarification on any points, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.


Non app store apps for iPhone 3G I recently bought iPhone 3G from a friend, but i can't download apps from the official appstore because my iOS version is 4.2. Is there any website or even a way to install apps like facebook, without custom firmware like whited00r?

No, this is not possible. If an app requires a certain version of iOS, then you must meet that requirement, otherwise the app will not be able to be installed. You may be able to get hold of a version of the app that used to work on iOS 4.2, but it depends on the app.


How do I know which keyboard locale file I'm using for my keyboard layout? I was reading a great answer to how you can extend the list of characters Lion shows you when hold down a key for a few seconds. The in answer he says:

  choose the keyboard file relevant to your locale if you are using a different keyboard layout

In /System/Library/Input Methods/PressAndHold.app/Contents/Resources/ I see quite a few files. I'm not sure how to figure out which one, precisely, I need to edit to make the changes laid out in that program. I'm using an english keyboard, but I'm in Canada. To the best of my knowledge though I'm not doing anything Canada-specific with my keyboard layout. It's a plain, english, Apple keyboard -- the kind you'd buy in any Apple Store in the United States.

The plist file that applies to me could be any of:

Keyboard-default.plist
Keyboard-en_CA.plist
Keyboard-en_US.plist
Keyboard-en.plist

How do I figure out which specific keyboard plist profile is the one I'm using?

It's determined by the list in the "Language & Text" preference pane's Language tab.

The plist file that is chosen is the one that matches with the language in the list that is highest to the top that has a match.

For example: if your list shows "Canadian English, UK English, Spanish, …", Keyboard-en_CA.plist will be chosen, as it best matches Canadian English. If the list is "Português, Suomi, English, …", Keyboard-en.plist will be chosen, as it best matches English, which is the language closest to the top that is available. (The last is assuming that Portuguese and Finnish plists aren't available.) If there are no languages in the list that have plists present, the Keyboard_default.plist would likely be chosen.


How do I find out what application is trying to wake my MBP? my mac book pro is refusing to stay asleep. I noticed it will wake up roughly every thirty minutes and display the screensaver password screen and even when the lid is closed I will be able to hear it wake and then go back to sleep quite regularly. I installed please sleep but that didn't fix it either. another curious thing I noticed was that sometimes when waking the mbp from sleep it will not let me type anything into the username/password fields. only closing the lid and reopening it after a few seconds will fix this.

I'm running 10.6.7 on a 17" 2.66ghz mbp i7 with 8gb ram.

my question is this: how do I find out which app is trying to constantly wake up my system? (wake for networks access is disabled.)

Macs will wake up in response to many hardware events. Changing a USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt cable or even plugging in / powering on a connected device will wake Macs that are sleeping. Keyboard presses, clamshell sensor detecting an open of the display lid will also wake up a sleeping Mac. These are pretty well known and obvious, even if you don't realize a pet or power fluctuation can cause a wake event.

Two software items will also wake a sleeping mac and both rely on the power management / system management controller. Both are seen in the Energy Saver preference pane. This is how applications can do the same thing as hardware and wake your mac.

For macs with a battery - the power adapter needs to be connected and powered for much of this to work. The Wake for network access is both the standard WakeOnLan (WOL) as well as Apple's Bonjour Sleep Proxy. I like the article About Wake on Demand that explains how Apple has extended the concept of WOL and made a service.

If you disable these two items - software can no longer wake your sleeping mac and you can know if it's a hardware event or a software event. The other answers go into how to look at the logs to know which event has made a specific wake up request. Hopefully this helps frame the bigger picture of how your mac can take a cat nap with one eye open.


Very suddenly, only purchased music is showing up on iPhone ( but everything is in iTunes) So, yesterday at a stoplight, I was scrolling through the music on my iPhone 5 (running OS 7.1) to play a song (one that I had uploaded to iTunes from my own CD and had recently downloaded to the phone from the cloud).  The light went green, so I stopped fiddling with it until I got to the next light.  At that point, when I looked at my phone, I suddenly didn't see the song I was about to play.  In fact, most of my music wasn't showing up (either on the phone itself or available for download from the cloud).

When I got home, I realized that the common denominator was that all the music showing up as available on my iPhone was music I had purchased via iTunes. None that I had uploaded myself was showing up.

I double-checked the "show all music" setting on the iPhone, and it was still set to do that (as I always have it).  If I turn it off, I don't see any music on my iPhone at all.

I've syched and restored my iPhone, but without any results.  All the music is still there in iTunes on my home computer, but only the minority of songs purchased via iTunes is showing up on my phone.

The weirdest thing to me is simply the suddenness of it.  It had been working as it always had, and suddenly wasn't.  It's possible that in my scrolling to find that song, I somehow managed to accidentally switch a setting, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be any obvious cause for the change, unless it's that I haven't updated to the latest OS8 yet.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Peace,

ted

It sounds like you use iTunes Match? if so, did your annual subscription run out or expire?  if so, you may need to pay the ANNUAL fee and turn the service back on.


Finder in Mavericks will not tag files on network drives Is there a workaround? How can I fix this?
These files are on SMB shares to Windows servers with a NTFS file system. Is there a better way to connect to windows shares? Please guide as I am new to the Mac world. Thanks.

I'm also having this problem. I've seen a few users comment on it on different forums and Apple's Support. No one has offered a real answer, other than this seems to be a problem with Apple's implementation of SMB or the way the Finder interacts and reads those Volumes (or the way attribute files are saved/stored/read on them).

The format of the servers volume doesn't really matter and should be transparent to the client. All Finder can see is a SMB share, whether that share is on an ext3 filesystem or a NTFS one is quite irrelevant.

I've tested connecting to the same volume with AFP, SMB (which in Mavericks now uses SMB2 by default) and CIFS (forcing Finder to use the SMB v1 protocol). As far as I know, tags info are stored in .DS_Store files for each folder.

Connecting with CIFS or SMB, tag support is buggy. Tags sometimes appear for a few seconds and then disappear. In addition to the .DS_Store file, a ._FILE_NAME file is created for each file. Getting the properties of the file sometimes shows the tag.

Connecting with AFP tags work as expected. Just a .DS_Store file is created. But no tag info is available if tag was assigned while mounted as SMB.

Is a pity, because SMB2 is faster than AFP in my tests, but sacrificing tags for it is too bad.


Does TimeMachine has an higher priority than the sleep delay? When a long backup will soon occur or is running, will it go on and end even if the enter-sleep-mode settings is foreseen earlier?

There is a sleep assertion for Time Machine. So while doing a backup your mac won't enter sleep mode. If you are not sure, while a backup is in progress, check with this command: pmset -g assertions. In the processes that prevent sleep mode you will found: BackgroundTask named: "Time Machine backup"


Is there a way to use my iOS 8 device as USB Mass Storage Device for Windows I want to download a file to my iOS device, connect it to my windows xp computer as a USB Mass Storage Device and transfer it.

You can download files on your iPhone from computer by moving into some app's directory in iTunes. There are a lot of apps with such functionality. For example USB Disk. But in order to access the files on another computer iTunes must be installed also. Without it the only things you can view are photos and videos.

There are also apps that set up a local file server which can be accessed  wirelessly from any device in the same network just by typing iPhone's ip in the browser. Like this one.

Connection of iPhone as flash drive requires access to iPhone system directories which is achievable only through jailbreak.


How to fix latest text bomb on iPhone 8? I sent the text bomb (Italian flag with a non-english characters on either side) to my girlfriend while she was on iOS 13.3. phone hung as expected. Was able to get control after a reboot and deleted the entire chat on messages that contained said text and things seemed fine but the phone still hangs occasionally. Upgraded to iOS 13.4.1 and the issue is still there. I've tried hard reboots but that didn't help.

Is there anything else I can try except for a full reset?

I can post the actual text here but I don't want to affect anybody using an Apple OS.

There were no preceding backups, but taking a full backup, hard reset and restoring it seems to have worked well enough.


Does it hurt a large desktop Mac to be transported repeatedly? I travel to two different homes and spend six months at each one, taking my desktop 27" Mac with me. I travel by car, and always pack it in the original shipping crate so it's well protected. Will all this driving cause things to loosen inside or anything else adverse?

Apart from the obvious risk of significant damage from drops and what not (which you seem to have taken precaution against), the only real vibration prone component of computers is generally the hard drive.

When a hard drive is shaken to violently, there is a risk that the read/write head will touch, scratch, and damage the spinning platter. However, in their off state, hard drives park the heads either in a "parking zone" in the very middle of the platter (where no data is stored) or on the outside, away from the platter. In this state, vibration isn't a threat, since the heads aren't able to reach any sections of the platters with data.

TL;DR: It's fine so long as it's off during transport


Serial number and sound unavailable after taking apart MacBook Air to clean it I decided to take apart my MBA by myself to clean it up. I know that it is wrong — it was my decision and I knew what to do. I did everything very carefully. After I put everything back my MBA works fine, even better than before, BUT the machine's serial number is missing and sound has been disabled (there is no startup sound, no sound in headphones, and the built-in speakers do not show at all in system info).

I didn't replace a motherboard, just took the MBA apart and put it back together again. So I can't see how I could have damaged something on the motherboard that would explain the serial number disappearing or sound not working.

Resetting a new serial number is not a huge deal — just need to use Blank Board Serializer, but I can't understand why it is missing.

Could the two be related? What could have happened that explains this.

I'd start with resetting the NVRAM and SMC (in that order) as there's really no harm in trying that first. Before following the steps below, ensure you have no external hardware connected and that you're using the built-in keyboard.

Reset the NVRAM

Reset the NVRAM on your MBA as follows:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your MBA reboots again (i.e. you hear the startup chime a second time).
Let go of the keys and let your MBA reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Reset the SMC

To reset the SMC on your MBA, follow these steps:

Shut down your MBA
Keep the power cable plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

After resetting both the NVRAM and SMC check to see if either (or both) issues still persist.

If they do, then run some hardware diagnostics next.

Testing hardware

The diagnostics you run depend on your model of MacBook:

If it was introduced before June 2013, it uses Apple Hardware Test
If it was introduced after June 2013, it uses Apple Diagnostics

Once doing all this you should be able to identify/narrow down the cause.


iTunes can only perform one task at a time Ever since updating to the latest version of iTunes on my dual core mac mini, iTunes can only perform one task at a time beach balling the entire time.  For example if it is downloading a podcast, and I try and watch something off my apple tv via home sharing on this library, it fails to load.  Same thing if it is syncing my iPhone.

Importing new media into my library also seems to take much longer than it did before, for instance importing a 700mb movie takes ~20 hours.

What can cause such a degrade in performance?

First off, maybe you should check in Activity Monitor if it is iTunes that is the cause of the slow performance or if it is some other process that is taking up a lot of memory/CPU.

If it is indeed iTunes that is causing the problem, try this:

Turn off iTunes Match and/or Genius as they are known to take up a lot of memory and downgrade the responsiveness and performance of iTunes.
You could rebuild your library by following the steps here (offical Apple document): http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451. This excerpt was taken from there and is why I am recommending that you rebuild your library:

  Your iTunes Library file may become damaged and cause iTunes to become unresponsive.

I doubt this will make a huge performance difference, but you could try disabling smart playlists and reducing the number of criteria by which your sort the songs (e.g. In the music tab of iTunes, don't sort your songs by name, album, time, bitrate, artist, date-added, date-modified, etc. - only pick a couple criteria).

I hope some of these suggestions helped you!


Is it OK to charge my iPhone with my iPad charger? I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad.  Since the iPad really charges best off the wall charger I keep it plugged in, but I usually just charge the iPhone off the computer.  Although frequently if the iPad is charged I will charge the iPhone with the wall charger.

Now the Apple sales rep said he heard from someone who heard from someone that that would burn out the phone because the iPad charger is 10 watt instead of 5 watt.  It is true that it is twice as many watts.  I said that I thought it shouldn't burn out the phone because a device should only pull as many watts as it needs, so the watts were irrelevant.  He said that made sense, but he didn't really know.

So I thought I would ask the experts.  Has anyone had their iPad charger fry an iPhone or iPod?  Am I correct in my understanding of watts in chargers?  Is there an official word about the iPad charger causing trouble with other devices?  Have I already voided my warranty?

Your assumption is correct. Your iPhone has an intelligent charge controller on-board and this controller will only draw as much as it needs.

Sure, the iPad power supply can supply twice as much power as the iPhone needs, but it should not be dangerous by any means.

I don't know if there is an "official" word on this, but I would be genuinely surprised that it voids your warranty. Apple engineers are very smart and know that users will interchange powersupplies if they recognize that the connectors are physically compatible (as is the case here.)

Long story, short: you should be fine.


Can someone install a keylogger on a non-Jailbroken iPhone? I personally myself never had an iPhone all my life except I once owned an iPod touch back in 2012 for a couple of months but I am still a tech savvy person and I know the JailBreak process and Android rooting. But here goes my question and its a very simple one.
Can someone install a Keylogger on an iPhone which is not-Jailbroken and its running in its default factory state regardless if its iPhone 6 or iPhone 12 and regardless of whatever iOS version its running inside it? I personally read some Quora forum questions and many people were denying that iPhone is so secure that no kind of keylogger can be inserted/installed and hidden if that iPhone isn't "JailBroken". They were implying like the following quote from one of the guy replying to the question.
As long as your iPhone is not rooted you are safe (most likely the case).
The only other way someone can “hack” your iPhone is by going in through iCloud. Just make sure 2 factor authentication is turned on. Maybe change your password too and you’re good to go!
I’ve made keyloggers for Windows/Android/etc.…. it just can’t be done on iPhone without jailbreaking.
So I want the experts here to confirm if whatever this guy is saying, is true that iPhones are one of the most secure platforms in the world and no one can spy on it by merely installing a 3rd party keylogger app to spy on the owner of that phone unless and except if that iPhone is successfully jailbroken and definitely APPLE itself can see our data which is not a concern for me. My only concern is that no other 3rd person like someone from friends and family, can do a keylogging trick on someone's Locked non-jailbroken iPhone.
Thank you. Awaiting replies.

Yes, but only with the Apple ID & password.
This makes it really a parental tool on a child's account rather than a general threat to regular users.
There's a list here of some of the better-known loggers, but most are jailbreak only, the others need AppleID details.
https://janetcpatterson.medium.com/top-10-best-keyloggers-for-ios-771d85b2d330


Dongles to connect 2 monitors to a 13" mid-2010 MacBook Pro (mini DisplayPort)? I won't be using the integrated display. Right now, one external monitor is connected through a mini DisplayPort to VGA adaptor. How should I connect a second?

Another option to to use a display multiplexer, like the Matrox DualHead2Go DP.  This will have much better performance (frame rate / snappiness) than the USB solution, at about 4X the price.  It's best with matched dual external displays - or triple; there's also a 3-monitor solution.  I haven't used one personally, but have recommended it to clients with success.  The reviews are quite good.


Can not open Mail app since I updated the last version of Mountain Lion (10.8.2) I just updated my version of Mountain Lion and then when I try to open my Mail app I receive this message :

I tried to reinstall Mail but I don't know how to do it.

Anyone know what the problem is?

The correct version of Mail.app for OS X 10.8.2 (in my case build 12C60) would be 6.2, so your version is too old. Try software update, if that doesn't show anything reinstall the OS X 10.8.2 Combo Update manually. Run software update again after (re)installing this.


Can podcasts be grouped or organised in iTunes? I have a lot of podcast subscriptions in iTunes that cause a long scrollbar. This is exacerbated when a subscription is expanded and available podcasts listed.

It would be great if I could just group podcasts by type (eg, music, comedy, documentaries etc). I've been unable to find a way of doing this myself. Is it at all possible?

No, the only way you can organize podcasts (and iTunes U content) is by title. These two libraries have different view settings than the others.


Sometimes Mail.app doesn't automatically apply rules, although all rules are active I have a pack of rules, which are intended for automatically marking as read & deleting messages when some criteria is met. They work fine when applied manually, but sometimes they are not applied automatically when new messages are received and I have to run them manually. And as I wrote, all rules are active. Is it possible to fix this behavior?

Probably related: Rules in Mail randomly don't apply

upd.: All rules that I have are simple and not using AppleScript or anything similar.

What i did was to delete all the rules.
Quit Mail.
Restart mail.
Create and apply rules again.

Alternatively, you can right click on a particular email, and choose apply rules (if there are rules already configured, of course).


Can iPhone get damaged by magnets in case? I got a Mous case which is great in terms of protection  against falls etc.
However it’s got magnets inside for accessories like to attach it to a car dashboard etc.
Can these magnets damage the phone’s component?
I’m asking because I know usually magnets aren’t good for electronics but especially because it’s now 2 iPhone XRs that I have that keep doing the same crap: randomly slowing down and or crashing. Especially when trying to take a photo or loading some apps but also sometimes just out of nowhere as I’m chatting in WhatsApp.
The first time I got a replacement at the Apple store cause they said the motherboard had a defect. But now this one is doing the same all over again since I got it.
So I’m wondering if that could come from the magnets.
Didn’t get the chance to test with another case and can’t try without a case, I’m too clumsy.

I’m asking cause I know usually magnets aren’t good for electronics

Magnets aren't good for magnetic media but have no effect on the electronics of your device.  In fact, you will find very strong magnets in Apple products like...

the lids of MacBook laptops
the covers of the iPad Accessories like the smart cover
around the edge of the iPad and iPad Pro to secure the Pencil
magnetic mount accessories that secure the iPhone/iPad for viewing/use in the car or other locations (personal note:  I have a family member with these products and they work fine.)

Your question is very similar to the existing question Can magnets harm an iPad? but I wanted to address the issues you were having.

I’m asking because I know usually magnets aren’t good for electronics but especially because it’s now 2 iPhone XR’s that I have that keep doing the same crap: randomly slowing down and or crashing. Especially when trying to take a photo or loading some apps but also sometimes just out of nowhere as I’m chatting in WhatsApp.

Given that you've already taken it in and they said the logic board had a defect; let's assume they swapped it out.  It could be the following:

your digitizer (the screen input) may be failing.  It may be sending random erroneous input to the system.  If it's happening too quickly or too much, it may be overloading the iPad slowing it down or crashing the App.
the accessory may be interfering with the capacitive touch.  The digitizer requires something that conducts a small electrical charge (like your skin) or the fabric on those stylus.  The material used may be lightly conductive and inadvertently sending inputs to the device - try removing the cover/case
software update may need to be installed.
software or iOS may be corrupt (file corruption does happen).  Try doing a full factory reset and a reinstall of the OS.

I'm leaning toward an issue with the digitizer (it or the case) because this symptom says a lot:

when trying to take a photo or loading some apps but also sometimes just out of nowhere as I’m chatting in WhatsApp.

Magnets would corrupt and disrupt things, not open other apps. To get an app to open, you need something to send input to the phone telling it to launch (or switch to it if already open).  Assuming you don't have a preset Shortcut the only thing that would send that type of input is the digitizer.


Time Machine automatic backups fail, manual backups succeed Short Description
Automatic Time Machine backups fail (with an error code of '19'), but manual backups succeed. Does anyone know what would cause this behavior?
Long Description & Troubleshooting Recon
On OSX v10.8.4, I've set up Time Machine to write backups to a network-attached storage (NAS) device. When Time Machine attempts to execute an automatic backup, it fails with the following error (appearing in system.log):
Sep  5 10:03:26 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17870]: Starting automatic backup
Sep  5 10:03:26 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17870]: Backup failed with error: 19

If I go into Time Machine settings, right click on the drive icon above the "Select Disk..." icon, and choose "Back Up Now", the backup succeeds:
Sep  5 10:21:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Disk image /Volumes/BA_Backup/local’s Mac mini.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Sep  5 10:21:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Sep  5 10:21:07 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
Sep  5 10:21:10 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Will copy (24.7 MB) from Macintosh HD
Sep  5 10:21:10 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Found 10645 files (230.8 MB) needing backup
Sep  5 10:21:10 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: 1.31 GB required (including padding), 3.59 TB available
Sep  5 10:22:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Copied 16396 files (173 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Sep  5 10:22:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
Sep  5 10:22:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Will copy (442 KB) from Macintosh HD
Sep  5 10:22:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Found 23 files (442 KB) needing backup
Sep  5 10:22:06 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: 1.04 GB required (including padding), 3.59 TB available
Sep  5 10:22:11 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Copied 461 files (2.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Sep  5 10:22:11 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Created new backup: 2013-09-05-102211
Sep  5 10:22:12 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Starting post-backup thinning
Sep  5 10:22:12 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Sep  5 10:22:12 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Backup completed successfully.
Sep  5 10:22:12 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Ejected Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/BA_Backup/local’s Mac mini.sparsebundle
Sep  5 10:22:13 shaun-macmini.local com.apple.backupd[17955]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.

Subsequent automatic backups still fail, however everytime I've executed one manually, I have no issues.
Research into whatever the cause of "error 19" is hasn't revealed anything useful so far. Most advice on the Apple forums ranges from resetting the Time Machine backup to replacing the NAS device. Since the manual backup succeeds, that would seem to indicate some issue with the NAS mount. The manual backups seem to both mount and unmount the NAS device (or so says the logs), but the automatic backups do not appear to do the same thing.
I tried adding the mount of the NAS device to my user's "Login Items" and re-establishing the mount, but that does not appear to resolve the issue, either.
If I right-click the Time Machine icon in the top menu and select "Back Up Now", I get an error that the backup disk is not available. However, I can immediately go into the preference pane as described earlier and invoke a successful backup there.
What's causing my automatic backups to fail?

Not a real answer, more a workaround to have your backups automatically despite this bug. That worked for me (see this answer of my own question).

Open a command line and say tmutil destinationinfo. Copy the ID you see in the ID line (a long suite of alphanumerical characters and -'s).

Now type tmutil startbackup -d TheID replacing TheID by the ID you just noted before (so something like tmutil startbackup -d 11326F32-D5BA-4FE8-83FB-E9CBD8F6FF2D but with an other ID). Open Time Machine Preferences and check if the backup is running. You may have to wait a few seconds before you see anything.

If that works, you can add it to your crontab so it is automatically run manually every hour (sounds contradictory?). Type crontab -e on the command line to edit your cron jobs, and add the following line in it:

0 * * * * tmutil startbackup -d TheID

again replacing TheID by the ID of your backup. Next hour check if anything is happening. You can replace the leading 0 by the minute you want it to be run.


Is it possible to highlight text of inbox emails? In Preview.app, I can highlight and annotate text in a PDF file. Can we do the same thing to emails in my inbox in Mail.app?

I have long time collaborate projects and I need to go back to previous emails very frequently — it would be great if I can highlight texts in emails.

Apple Mail doesn't have a way to do this natively.  I can't think of another email client that does what you're describing either.  Here are some ideas and workarounds that might help you accomplish something similar to what you describe; perhaps one of them will suit your needs.

The closest option in Apple Mail is to use flags.  That only gives you the ability to flag a message.  You can't even add a note, let alone highlight the text and annotate it.

You could try a third-party application like MailTags (Mavericks 10.9 support is currently in beta).  It's a paid application with a robust tagging system, as well as the ability to add notes.  This isn't a perfect solution since it doesn't allow you to highlight specific text within the email.  MailTags has a free demo; you might want to download it and see if you can reach a solution that works for you.

Another option would be to try Outlook:Mac.  It has both categories and flags built in.  You can also do things like create a task or a note from a message.  Once you have created a task or a note from a message, you can do things like highlight text, but not annotate it.  It also isn't the original message, but rather a copy of the message.

If you do find something that works for what you want to accomplish, please do share it here.  Being more effective with email is a goal for many people, after all.


How to find your stolen mac on a network using the MAC address/Serial number The important stuff:

My Mac got stolen in a public library (unsecure Wifi).
All I have is the MAC address and the serial number.
Can I use another laptop to get onto that network and list out the machines and lookup their MAC addresses? (Let's just assume that he/she dares to return to the library and uses the laptop).

Less important stuff:

The laptop was password protected and I think the thief would have had to do clean install of the OS to use it.
It did not have any post-theft-recovery software or iCloud or MobileMe configured on it.
None of the internet applications have autologin configured so I cannot track the use of the laptop through them.

If they do come back to the same network and you just happen to be on and looking.

From the command line.

    arp -an

This will show you the IP and MAC addresses of any hosts active on the network at that time.

    $arp -an

    ? (10.0.1.1) at e4:ce:8f:68:85:c8 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.13) at 0:19:7e:b0:37:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.20) at 64:b9:e8:2b:ab:97 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.28) at d8:30:62:76:ab:a0 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]

This will at least tell you if your computer is back on the network. I doubt they would go through the trouble of spoofing the MAC address.

Did you have Remote login turned on? If so and it shows on the network, you could login to your computer. This opens up more options.

Such as:

You could SSH into your computer.

Once in you could run something like this.

    while :  ; do sudo osascript -e "set Volume 10" && say here i am && sleep 30 ; done &

Adjust "here i am" to what ever you want your Mac to say at full volume. I put a sleep 30 in to keep them from just powering it off right away and give you time to find them. It would probably take them a few times to figure out that it was the Mac talking. I'd scope out the Macs in the area before running it so I'd know where to look first.


Does the permissions popup for Push Notification in iOS refer to both local and remote (APNs) notifications? I have been racking my brain trying to understand how Push Notifications and Local Notifications are handled by iOS devices. I have come to understand that Push Notifications refer to those notifications that come from a server through the Apple Push Notification service (APNs) while Local Notifications are scheduled on a device by a delivery time and date without any connection to a server. However, on the user end all notifications appear the same and are seemingly managed as the same whether in Settings>Notifications or within an in-app settings page.

My one question however is with the common Push Notifications request alert that is often displayed when an app is first launched (image linked below). Here, Apple uses the language of "Push Notification" which would seem to deal with turning on or off APNs notifications. The problem I think is that the distinction would not be clear to users who do not encounter that difference anywhere else while managing notifications.

Does this alert only deal with remote Push Notifications (APNs) or does it also turn on or off local notifications?

Yes, preferences under Settings / Notifications work too for Local notifications.

Apple's Documentation states that:

  [The user] can also selectively enable or disable push notification types (that is, icon badging, alert messages, and sounds) for specific applications.

Which is not exactly clarifying, but, I've just tested it with a small App which only has Local Notifications and, disabling all possibilities do disable Notifications.

Bear in mind too, that an App which only has Local Notifications will be shown too among the Notification's Settings, which makes no sense if those settings won't affect that App.


2013 Macbook Air not showing 1440p Option on External Display I have a mid 2013 Macbook Air with the Intel HD 5000 graphics chip. I recently purchased a 27" Acer K272HULbmiidp 1440p (2560x1440) monitor that just arrived today. I connected it via a mini displayport to HDMI cable, and was immediately greeted with awful graphics that didn't fit. Turns out its a common issue with external displays on macs, which assume settings for a TV not a monitor. Basically, I fixed it by using a Ruby script to force RGB mode onto the monitor. So that's all good now.

The issue is I can't seem to get the 2560x1440 option on the external display, it will only show 1920x1080. I have heard the mini displayport to display port cable will allow my computer to run an external monitor in 1440p. Is this true? Please suggest what I can do to get the external display running in 1440p. Thank you so much guys.

Did you check if you have a Display Port on the monitor apart the HDMI?
I had the same issue with my late 2012 mac mini, and I had to buy a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort to use the 1440p resolution