Can you explain this Wi-Fi Calling dialogue? When you try to turn on Wi-Fi Calling on iPhone (Settings->Cellular->Wi-Fi Calling->Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone, using iOS 11.0.3) you get an interesting pop-up message:

  Enable Wi-Fi Calling?

  When you join a network, the country where the network connection is made may be sent to your carrier and your cellular identity may be sent to the Wi-Fi network operator. The city may be sent to the carrier for routing short code calls. This can be changed in Settings.

What does this mean? I was just going to turn it on to help make better calls in my house, though I guess people might use Wi-Fi calling to save on charges when traveling abroad. But why would the carrier and "Wi-Fi network operators" need to know each other's information? And what is this other setting they are referring to?

Finally, another question related to this same page: The second option is "Prefer Wi-Fi While Roaming." What if you want to prefer Wi-Fi even when you aren't roaming?

You ask a number of questions which I'll try to cover. Most of these questions are answered officially in Settings, Cellular, Wi-Fi Calling, About Wi-Fi Calling & Privacy. Note that arrangements vary by country and carrier so you'll have to check there for the exact details (for example, some countries have emergency call location requirements). However, here's a brief summary:

Your current country is sent to the carrier. This is because some carriers do not allow out-of-country Wi-Fi calling due to regulatory reasons, and because they want to charge you roaming fees. It is also necessary in routing emergency calls.
Your cellular identity is sent to the Wi-Fi network operator. This is because some Wi-Fi network operators allow you to authenticate to hotspots via your cellular subscription (EAP-SIM is the protocol name), and will charge differently/free for Wi-Fi calls or cellular subscribers.
The "other setting" is in Settings, Privacy, Location Services, System Services, Wi-Fi Calling.
The last question about preferring Wi-Fi is carrier dependent. The carrier sets the threshold of signal where it wants to use Wi-Fi or cellular. When my carrier initially introduced the feature, it only used Wi-Fi when the cellular signal was weak, whereas another carrier had Wi-Fi calling for years set theirs to always prefer. At some point my carrier changed it so it always prefers Wi-Fi over cellular, likely as they became sure they had adequate capacity.


My iPhone screen suddenly goes black with circle waiting animation at the center. I forced restart it. And now it can't get past loading screen I was working, when I noticed my phone screen suddenly goes black with the familiar white circle animation. I can't do anything to my phone (and I'm now afraid it was a forced iOS system upgrade). After waiting for a moment, I decided to force restart it (press power + home) because even an iOS system upgrade doesn't take that long in the waiting screen. The iPhone restarted, showing its usual black apple on white background logo. But I have waited for 5 minutes and there's no sign of it will ever finished. I restarted it again, but the result is the same. What should I do?

I think a restore might be in order.

First I would plug it on a Mac or PC with an USB cable and do a full encrypted backup. I suppose iTunes will still be able to back it up, but it might require you to authorize its access on the iPhone itself, in which case you'all have to rely on an iCloud Backup restore after the software restore.


How to get calendar invites to come in as iCal and not as Google Calendar invites? I use my Gmail email-address as my Apple ID. When people send me calendar invites, I only receive them on Google Calendar. And since I deactivated the calendar on my Macs for Gmail account, I don't get notified at all (besides an email).

Is there a way to receive the invitations on iCal instead? Or do I have to use a non-Google address as my Apple ID?

Or do I have to use a non-Google address as my Apple ID?

No, you need not change or create a new Apple ID. A calendar invite sent to an email address registered with Gmail will automatically get added to Google Calendar. Also, it won't automatically get added in Apple Calendar.

You can do subscribe to your Google Calendar in macOS Calendar app. The instructions to subscribe can be found in the following links:

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37648
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT202361

However, it is not possible to get the calendar invite via Apple ID in iCloud calendar.


Why download a Yosemite .dmg when I can create my own? Having a Mac I wanted to know can't I just make my own .dmg file using AutoDMG? Instead of finding some random file on the Internet and hoping its not infected? Is there any other software that would allow me to make a Yosemite image. Not a boot drive. By making my image file I can use it on my VMware software right?

You can use the Mac App Store download of OS X 10.10, Yosemite, directly with VMware Fusion. There is no need to create your own disk image, .dmg, unless you need to customise the installed files.

Within VMware Fusion's Select the Installation Method window, select Install from disc or image and choose the OS X installer from your files.

Downloading OS X

If you need to download an older version of OS X, sign up as an Apple developer and use the Software Downloads to obtain the legacy installer.


In Safari, is there a way to use the keyboard to select and click links/buttons on web pages? When I use Firefox, I can tab through buttons and other links on web pages and then use the space bar or enter key to "click" the link or button. Is that same feature available in Safari? I think it's something in the preferences in Firefox that lets you do this, but I don't see that option in Safari's prefs.


Macbook Pro internal hard drive issues, any way to get this working? Apologies for myself, I'm a new member and clueless about Macs in general.

I have inherited a 2010 Macbook Pro and I've been hoping to use it for some light work.

The old password to the computer was lost so I figured I would just reinstall the OS. I don't have any install disks so I booted into Internet Recovery.

The High Sierra installation seemed to be going good, but about halfway through the installation, it would restart and give me the question mark folder.

I booted into disk manager and noticed the hard drive was not showing up. After a bit of research I saw that the hard drive cables were notorious for failing, so I ordered a new one and put it in along with an SSD I had laying around. I went back into disk manager but the drive still won't show up. Fair enough, I figured maybe the SSD wasn't compatible(?) so I put the original drive back in. After booting to internet recovery, it displays a loading bar, then when it finishes, it restarts and boots to the question mark folder, never going into the recovery menu.

I figured now my only option was to install the OS on an external drive. I tried the original drive in an enclosure and it would finally show up in disk manager, but after formatting it, the installer tells me the computer is "missing a firmware partition" A little more research tells me I need the firmware partition to be on an internal drive, which the computer cannot read.

I'm at a loss, I understand why the computer needs the firmware to be on an internal drive but I feel there's got to be a way for me to at least get an OS up and running so I can test the computer a little better.

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

EDIT:
I feel like a dope, I chose the APFS option when formatting and I think it's now able to install to the external drive. Not sure what the issue is with reading the internal drive still.

I would start again to see if you can test the MacBook Pro's hardware (including the internal drive). This is also a good idea anyway because of its age and the fact you don't know the history of this Mac.

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. To use this, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: The extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Assuming you find no problems, I would then reset the NVRAM of your Mac as well. Before doing so, unplug all external devices (including monitors, keyboard, etc).

Resetting NVRAM on your model MacBook Pro

Your Mac use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) to store a whole range of settings. Here’s how to reset this:

Shut down your Mac. 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 Mac tries rebooting again.
Let go of the keys and see if your Mac boots up (not likely).

Assuming it doesn't boot, try again to install macOS onto the internal drive to see if it makes any difference.

Finally, if you couldn't get Apple Hardware Test to work at all, but you do now have macOS installed on an external drive, you could boot up from that and see if you can run Disk Utility to test and/or repair the internal drive. Assuming you can do this and it passes, you could then try installing macOS again onto the internal drive while you're booted from your external drive.


Unwanted network disk mounts El Capitan has brought back a problem that I had with Yosemite at first - it disappeared after a later OS update.

I have a headless MacMini on my home network, with a daisy chain of firewire disks attached to it. I use them for backing up photographs and movies (~3TB worth), and the MacMini runs CCC to keep all disks synced. The two disks I use most often have aliases in my dock so I can access them easily.

After the 10.11 upgrade they keep mounting spontaneously on my desktop.

They are not among my login items. I have cleared the Recent Items from the Apple menu, and have cleared Recent Servers from the Finder/Go/Connect to Server... menu. Directory Utility shows no mounts. I have disabled the Guest account as I had read it can cause unwanted connections.

The one clue I have is that I can dismount the two disks, but they will remount on opening some apps like Preview or TextEdit - perhaps something to do with their open dialog looking for files to open? I have no files on either disk that they have ever opened or saved to those disks.

Using Main Menu Pro I have cleaned the system cache, all user caches, font cache, DNS cache and all logs. I'd do it all again with Onyx, but it hasn't been updated for 10.11 yet. The disks still keep mounting!

BTW, today I updated another mac at home and it has started automounting just one of those two disks - the only one of the two that it has ever mounted. I'm missing something - any ideas what it might be?

Further to my automounting network disk woes:
Zapping PRAM doesn't work either, nor does playing with what shows in the sidebar of Finder windows among the Bonjour, Connected Server, and Shared sections of Finder prefs, but.....

I might have just found the answer, and it's weird. I had noticed that opening Preview or TextEdit would always mount these network disks, and those two apps, in Apple's infinite wisdom, start up with an Open... dialog set to one's Documents folder. I had made aliases of the two disks and placed those aliases in my Documents folder. By dragging them to my Dock I had a clickable icon for each that showed them to be network disks (just dragging the icon of the mounted disk directly to the Dock shows them with a generic folder icon). I wondered if the Open dialog of Preview was mounting the disks as part of showing what was available in Documents for it to open, so I dragged the aliases onto the Desktop. The disks still mounted, so I tried a restart to see if Preview would still do it. It did. So then I cleared the System cache, all user caches and restarted again. This time the disks didn't mount! Being either brave or foolish, I dragged the aliases back into the Documents folder, and they still don't mount on opening Preview! I have restarted since just to see if they would reappear on opening Preview, but they don't. It's odd how this has happened immediately on upgrade to 10.10 and again with 10.11. With 10.10 it went away with a 10.10.x upgrade, but this time I may have solved it


What programs actually use the memory on a Graphics card? I noticed that the Graphics Card memory is hardly used at all, even during Cinebench 3D testing despite the FPS being high. What programs actually use the graphics card memory?

Trying to determine if the M295x is worth the money to upgrade in a new iMac. (I do mostly video editing with Premiere Pro and After Effects)

Currently running an iMac 5k with the M290x card.

Here's a screenshot running Cinebench 3d test - high FPS, no GPU memory being used...

3D games do. In fact, they often use lots of it, which is why you see cards with many gigabytes of memory these days.


Can Time Machine back up an external hard drive in addition to internal one? I have two external hard drives connected to my Mac with OS X El Capitan.  I am using one of the external hard drives with Time Machine as the back up hard drive only.  The second external hard drive I use to store my many photos.  How can I get Time Machine to back up both the internal Mac hard drive and the external hard drive storing my photos?  Right now, it will only back up the Mac internal hard drive.  I need it to also back up the external hard drive.

Yes - you should be able to backup your external drive with the photos by removing it from the "Exclude" tab in the Time Machine pane in System Preferences (in this case the external drive is FCPX):

As Nancy Casas also mentioned, a disk in gray will have to be reformatted for Mac, while one in black will not.


Listing all opened documents across all open visible apps in AppleScript I've come across doing something like:

Code:

tell application "Preview"
    set p to {}
    set p to documents
end tell

Output:

{document "1st.pdf" of application "Preview", document "2nd.pdf" of application "Preview"}

But this is highly app-specific—doing this on MS Word, for instance, yielded pathnames and some apps like CodeRunner don't understand the documents keyword at all.

Given these open documents:

Current open documents from all open visible apps
+– Microsoft Word.app
|  +– 1.docx
|  +– 2.docx
+– CodeRunner.app
|  +– 1.sh
|  +– 2.py
|  +– 3.pl
+– Preview.app
   +– 1.pdf
   +– 2.png
.
.
.

I want an output of something like this:

{"~/Documents/1.docx", "~/Downloads/2.docx", "~/Dropbox/folder/1.sh", "~/Dropbox/others/2.py", "~/Downloads/folder/folder/3.pl", "~/Documents/special/1.pdf", "~/Dropbox/special/2.png", ...}

How is it possible to list all open documents across all open apps?

I’ve been trying to do this myself. I have concluded that there is no standard, guaranteed way to get the open documents of a running application.

What you tried is the best method. For apps that use the Cocoa document architecture (the majority), there is automatic AppleScript support for getting all the open NSDocument objects and querying certain properties of those objects. The mapping between the AppleScript properties and the Objective-C properties is shown below.

AppleScript property => Objective-C getter:

path => fileName
modified => isDocumentEdited
name => lastComponentOfFileName

What you want is the path property. Like tell application "Preview" to set documentsList to path of documents.

Unfortunately, this automatic AppleScript support is only available for apps that use the Cocoa document architecture and have AppleScript enabled (via the NSAppleScriptEnabled Info.plist key). Therefore, this method will not work on some apps. For example, CodeRunner does not have AppleScript enabled. And TextMate does not use the Cocoa document architecture.


Assisting Boot Camp Assistant I decided to "give a hand" to Boot Camp and partition my drive, setting aside a FAT32 partition for installing windows (through Boot Camp) in the future.

Can one do this or does Boot Camp Assistant need to be handed a single-partition drive and do the partition itself?

From the Boot Camp FAQ:

  Boot Camp Assistant works only with an Intel-based Mac that has a single hard disk partition

Boot Camp won't work with your multiple partitions, unless the partitioning was done by Boot Camp itself.

You'll probably need to undo the partition to use Boot Camp, or use one of the many ways discussed online for installing Windows without the usual Boot Camp installation steps.


Macbook 16 turning off and on display rarely Working on a MacBook 16-inch for a couple of month.
Some weeks ago i started using an [Apple power extension cable](
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK122LL/A/power-adapter-extension-cable) - just for a couple of hours.

While working with MBP I saw a couple times it would turn the display off and on for one second or less (just like one very short blink that turns display fully off and on).

Just one, but like, once a day.

I thought it could be because of the power adapter extension.  I never used it so I returned to using the MBP's direct power adapter without the extension.

I have been working without extension for a couple of weeks and it was fine except today.  I saw one blink again, without any extension.

So I'm just curious (and a bit nervous because i can't go outside), is this some kind of static electricity that turns the display off and on for a second or is it a hardware or software problem?

It happens quite rarely but makes me write this question.

For any power related issues with a Mac I would recommend you try one time an SMC reset: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295. As Apple puts it: “Resetting the system management controller (SMC) can resolve certain issues related to power, battery, and other features.”

If that procedure doesn’t fix your issue you might want to have Apple technicians run deeper tests on your hardware by booking a service appointment.


How can I repair an NTFS partition from Lion? What free tool can I use to repair an NTFS partition under Lion.

I already have Tuxera NTFS on it and I do not want to install windows for this task.

From the Tuxera for Mac manual:

3.3 Checking and repairing NTFS file systems

There is only limited support for checking and repairing NTFS file systems at this time. The best way to repair a damaged NTFS volume is using chkdsk in Windows.

If you install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X, you will find that it includes a utility called ntfsfix, which can repair some fundamental inconsistencies of NTFS volumes. This utility is currently not integrated with the file system bundle, and thus can't be invoked through Disk Utility, because of reports that it has corrupted some users' NTFS drives.

If you want to try it out despite these warnings, you will have to invoke it manually, from the Terminal. Type “man ntfsfix” for usage info.


OSX Firewall: Forwarding Ports & Ignoring Non-Local Requests On my production Debian server I use this to forward requests that come in to port 80 to a non-root process running on port 8080:

sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

(The process is a Node.js cluster, but I doubt that it's relevant to this question.)

I develop on my Mac and am trying to build a more elegant environment for myself without adding any unnecessary software to my computer. I added an entry to my /private/etc/hosts file so I can use a pretty local domain:

127.0.0.1 myapp.dev

Now I want to access it without specifying a port. In other words, rather than http://myapp.dev:8080, I would prefer http://myapp.dev. I would also prefer not running my web server directly on port 80 so that it does not have root privileges.

I know my computer comes with a firewall, but I have not been able to find much information about it. So I'm looking for a simple way to forward anything coming to port 80 off to port 8080 like the IP Tables solution on Debian. I would most prefer to use the firewall that came with my computer and to set this up in the simplest way possible.

Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Bonus Points: Is there a simple way to ignore all requests coming to port 80 (and 8080 for that matter) except those from my own computer on which the web server is running?

One solution, using IPFW, which co-exists with PF as of OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) is to simply run the command:

sudo ipfw add 100 fwd 127.0.0.1,8080 tcp from any to me 80


Can no longer ssh in to machine as git user after upgrading to Mavericks I've got a server (just a mac mini) with two accounts:

myRegularUser
git

(and some others)

The git's home directory is in /Users/Shared/git.

Since upgrading to Mavericks, I can't ssh into git@myserver.com however, I can still ssh into myRegularUser@myserver.com.

When trying to ssh as the git user it immediately says "connection closed".

Sharing is enabled, and the Firewall is currently off.

Known problem? Easy fix?

Double check git is a user who's allowed to ssh in to this machine.

Go to System Preferences -> Sharing and select Remote Login from the list on the left hand side of the pane.

Make sure Remote Login is turned on my checking the box next to it in the list (sounds like it is though, since you can ssh in as your own user account).

Make sure the right side of the pane either says Allow access for: All users or in the box below this option your git user appears in the list of allowed users. If it's not in the box below, press the + button to find it in a list of users registered with the system and add it to the list.

Now make sure that /Users/Shared/git is accessible to the git user.

Open Terminal and do:

cd /Users/Shared/git

Use ls -la to view the permissions on the folder:

/Users/Shared/git [ian@iansimac] [20:22]
> ls -lah
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   2 ian   wheel    68B  6 Nov 20:22 .
drwxrwxrwt  14 root  wheel   476B  6 Nov 20:22 ..

If . in the list shows the owner to be an account other than git or the permissions to be something that git can't use to access this directory you'll need to change them.

If git is the only user who should access this location, consider something like:

sudo chown -R git /Users/Shared/git
sudo chmod 755 /Users/Shared/git

If that doesn't lead to a solution, try watching your Console while attempting to ssh in to the machine as the git user to see what it says. You can filter console messages for sshd to see just ssh-related messages:

11/6/2013 8:25:54.006 PM sshd: ian [priv][53178]: USER_PROCESS: 53189 ttys001
11/6/2013 8:26:37.217 PM sshd: ian [priv][53178]: DEAD_PROCESS: 53189 ttys001
11/6/2013 8:26:41.164 PM sshd: unknown [pam][53214]: in od_record_create(): failed: 13
11/6/2013 8:26:41.164 PM sshd: unknown [pam][53214]: in od_record_create_cstring(): failed: 13
11/6/2013 8:26:42.538 PM sshd: unknown [pam][53214]: in od_record_create(): failed: 13
11/6/2013 8:26:42.538 PM sshd: unknown [pam][53214]: in od_record_create_cstring(): failed: 13
11/6/2013 8:26:42.538 PM sshd: unknown [pam][53214]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): OpenDirectory - Unable to get user record.
v11/6/2013 8:26:42.540 PM sshd[53212]: error: PAM: unknown user for illegal user foo from localhost via ::1

And failed login attempts look like the last line in the output above.


stderr error log from launchd scripts filled with non-errors I've added versions of the following to each of the launchd plist files for all of the scripts I run on my server:

<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/script_logs/server.domain_expiration.error.log</string>

These are all PHP shell scripts, so I capture standard output with an output buffer and store that in an SQL database, not in a log file. But for the errors, I use this to create error logs.

The problem is that what I'm getting in my error logs is often not errors. For example, the error log for my launchd VPN script writes every incoming VPN connection to the error log.

2019-05-04 06:33:43 EDT Server 'com.apple.ppp.l2tp' starting...
2019-05-04 06:33:43 EDT Loading plugin /System/Library/Extensions/L2TP.ppp
2019-05-04 06:33:43 EDT Listening for connections...
2019-05-04 06:34:23 EDT Incoming call... Address given to client = [redacted]
2019-05-04 06:35:21 EDT    --> Client with address = [redacted] has hungup
2019-05-04 06:35:35 EDT Incoming call... Address given to client = [redacted]

That doesn't look like error output. That looks like regular old normal, no problem output. The two "calls" were me connecting and disconnecting from the VPN normally.

What is going on here? It's possible I'm not fully understanding what stderr and stdout actually are. Does this make sense to anyone?

I'll have more examples in a few hours once more scripts run, as I have intentionally flushed all these logs.

There is nothing wrong with the output you are capturing.

Convention Only

Developers are free to output anything they want to stdout and stderr. Convention suggests passing error related output to stderr but nothing enforces this choice.

In this instance the php script authors have written debug or progress information to stderr. I presume they expected stderr to be ignored, until a problem needs debugging.

See Confused about stdin, stdout and stderr? for a detailed question and answer on the subject.


iPhone 4 screen lock through unsolicited ad On my iPhone 4 A1332 I had a pop-up this morning from daily-offers-online.com
which I could not remove.

I had no access to Safari until I clicked on the pop-up's OK button (which I did by accident).

How would I know if there is (by having done this) any bug/virus installed on my iPhone? …and how could it be removed?

It's a JavaScript alert from the page that you're currently viewing. It's not malware or anything installed on the device—just JavaScript.

Tap to dismiss the dialog then leave the advertiser's webpage. It doesn't lock the screen, just presents a modal dialog in front of the content.


How do I change a username? (shortname and home folder) Under Linux, this would be a no brainer. Just go into /etc/password and edit that, and rename the directory in /home.
I want the new shortname and the new home folder to match after the change.

Apple's own instructions work quite well. There may be more complex and faster ways out there, but I've never run into an issue (such as incorrect permissions) with these steps.

Mac OS X v10.6 and earlier: How to change user account name or home directory name


I can't change my desktop background-image for my macbook air I'm trying to change the background-image from my MacBook Air background, but it won't change it. I try to click on the image I want from my pictures and it makes it seem like it worked but then it hasn't changed. I tried restarting my computer but it still does not do anything. I also tried changing to one of the defaults apple has but it won't change to one of those either.

Might be corrupted desktop preferences...
Make following steps:

Open the Finder

From the Finder Menu Bar click Go > Go to Folder

Paste the following in this field:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Click Go then move the com.apple.finder.plist file to the trash.
Restart your MacBook Air, then select a desktop background photo from System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop and then it should work.


Routing Bluetooth audio in and out of headphone/mic jack on iPhone I would like to be able to route the audio from a Bluetooth headset out of the headphone/mic jack on an iPhone.  That is, to be able to send the mic input from the Bluetooth device out the jack and receive audio input from the same jack and route to the Bluetooth headphone.

Basically, the iPhone would receive the Bluetooth output, convert to analog and send it to the jack while simultaneously receiving input from the jack and converting to output for Bluetooth.

Is this physically possible on the iPhone hardware?

No.

Though you could conceivably write an app that would do this, there is no way to configure this given a stock iPhone.


Copy and paste between Mac and Ubuntu using keyboard shortcuts via VMware Fusion I use OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 and have VMware Fusion 7.1.1 where Ubuntu 14.04 has been installed. Moreover, I have installed VMware tools patches.

Copy and paste between Mac and Ubuntu using keyboard shortcuts (Cmd+C then Cmd+V) worked fine before. I don't know if it is because of the recent upgrade from VMware Fusion 6.x to 7.1.1 or the installation of the VMware tools patches, copy and paste does not work any more. Here are some screenshots of the settings:

Could anyone help?

Look under the settings for that particular VM, not the "App Preferences."  Each specific VM has it's own settings, and there are granular controls for Host <--> Guest sharing.

I only have Parallels, or I would post screenshots, but it is quite similar, from what I remember of previous VMWare Fusion versions that I used at my old job.

In the "Launch" screen, there should be a gear or some settings button for that specific VM.

Here it is in Parallels, FWIW.


Uninstalling Genieo broke my system Update below, the rest is more or less background information.
After discovering a Genieo install, I vaguely recalled it being, well, not trustworthy. After a quick search I knew I wanted to uninstall it and found this: http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/. (This guide is actually recommended in another question on this site.) I followed the steps, but made two blunders. I rm-ed the files listed in the guide, thereby skipping the recycle bin (I'm not sure what the English name is). After I finished the list I wanted to make a back-up (second blunder: I should have done that before I tried to uninstall Genieo, my last backup is 76 days old) but noticed that the program needed to unlock my drive didn't open, like all other apps that weren't opened yet. At this point, I wished I had the files still in the recycle bin so I could place them back. Fortunately, I already opened Terminal (I have it still open) (so I can still use command line utilities) and Safari (enabling me to type this question). Safari just crashed. Because I can't launch apps, I assume my computer won't reboot. Please save my iMac.
By the way, I don't notice any obvious traces of Genieo still being present. At least that worked.
I would be happy already if I could just make a backup (but my drive is lockable and I need to launch an app to unlock it, so I can't access my external hard drive) and after that boot from a CD and restoring the old backup or restore from Time Machine (the old backup), in both cases I would have access to my latest files and I could place them back one by one (as restoring the whole snapshot would break the system again).
UPDATE
I had an idea how to fix this: boot from disk, make backup, clean install. Now I just need help with the first and last step (never needed to do that). There is one problem though: my iMac is very old; it came with Tiger, but I upgraded to Snow Leopard with a Mac Box Set. My question now is if I can boot from the CD in the Mac Box Set. The accompanying manual says nothing about this.

Turns out I couldn't access my disk when booting from disc (I apologise to all dyslectics reading this). I discovered, though, that since my last backup (which was 79 days before the crash) I had actually only used the computer very little, so I used a single USB stick to back up all files that were created or edited since then. (These files are fairly easy to find by sorting on last edited date in Finder. Luckily, I had still access to Finder.)
Booting from the disc in the Mac Box Set is indeed possible, I asked at the local Apple Reseller and did it myself. It was very easy (<3 Apple). I just had to press C during startup, see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533 for the official list of startup key combinations. (That is where I found the information.) After booting from disc, I used Disk Utility to erase the disk and then reinstalled Snow Leopard. Fixed!


How to disable “Top Hits” in Mail macOS High Sierra has a new area in Mail called “Top Hits.” How do I disable/remove it?

Unfortunately, Top Hits cannot be disabled. However, it should only show up when your search is rather vague (i.e., searching for the word "the" would surely trigger Top Hits). The more specific your search is, the more likely your results will NOT include Top Hits. Be careful, though - sometimes trying to be too specific may yield no results at all! When I search my email, I try to use as few search terms as possible and always include words that are distinct to the content I'm searching for.

I realize this probably isn't the answer you were looking for, but hopefully I've helped you minimize the likelihood of Top Hits showing up when you search your mail.


Can I get paid for releases of new versions of my app in the App Store? Suppose that I develop an app for the iOS platform. The app is a huge success and 80% of my target audience buys it. My customers understandably expect continuous development of the app, but my situation is difficult, because with the market saturated, I can hardly acquire new customers.

Is there a possibility to offer my existing customers a paid update of my app (e.g. buying Office 2010 does not entitle the customer to Office 2013, only to service packs, security updates, ect.) or do I need to release the update as a separate update (and is this allowed in Apple's ToS)?

The App Store doesn't offer support for paid app updates. You can release new features as in-app purchases for the current app (as @Jason said).

If, however, you want to charge for a new version of the app itself, then you need to release the new version as its own app and remove the previous version from sale. A common convention is to name the new app "MyApp 2" (with the "2" as part of the name) to distinguish it, since its actual version number will be 1 since it's a new app. Yes, it's a little confusing...

One issue to be aware of with this approach is that, because MyApp 1 and MyApp 2 are separate apps, users of MyApp 1 won't get any kind of notification that MyApp 2 is available, since it's not an "update" of that app but rather a separate thing entirely.


Is there an iPhone app that will pop a message on another device? Is there an iPhone app that will let me pop up a message on another device (iPad / iPhone / iPod)?

For example I would have the app running on both devices and from my iPhone type "come upstairs" and it would pop up a message on the receiving device that shows "come upstairs"

Try Pushbullet for iOS, which is an app designed to let you instantly send messages, files, and links from one device of yours to another.

Pushbullet will let you sign in with one account on all of your iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices, and will let you write a message on one device and have it pop up as a notification on any or all of your other devices.


Why does ‘freedom’ return the french fries  emoji? In my emoji picker when I enter freedom I see some french fries.

Why is that?

Practical example:

So if I want to write something like the following:

  People of the world appreciate what you're given, go out there and enjoy your freedom

So emojifying the above quote is somewhat dangerous:

   of the , appreciate what you're given, go out there and enjoy your .

The  emoji is offered as an option for any search matching the string ‘freedom fries’, which

  was a political euphemism for French fries in the United States. The term was born in 2003 when the then Republican Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Bob Ney, renamed the menu item in three Congressional cafeterias in response to France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq.

In the character picker, any prefix substring match on a word relating to that emoji will present the emoji for selection. Therefore ‘free’ or ‘freedom’ will match ‘freedom fries’.

Where does the OS find these strings?

 CoreEmoji.framework contains a list of emojis and relevant search strings, per locale, in

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework/Versions/A/Resources/en.lproj/

replacing en with the locale. For the strings used by the character picker when searching, look in CharacterPicker.strings. For example:

/System/L*/Priv*/CoreE*/V*/A/R*/en.*/C*

Open the .strings file as a .plist in Xcode to prettyprint it as shown above, or use plutil:

$ plutil -extract "" xml1 -o - /System/L*/Priv*/CoreE*/V*/A/R*/en.*/C*
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<string>fries | freedom fries | french fries | fast food | junk food | food | object</string>
</plist>

$ plutil -convert json -o - /System/L*/Priv*/CoreE*/V*/A/R*/en.*/C* | jq -r ".[\"\"]"
fries | freedom fries | french fries | fast food | junk food | food | object

I don't want QuickType to suggest  as an autocomplete to ‘freedom’!

It won't. QuickType autocomplete emoji suggestions, or Messages tap-to-replace words with emojis when the emoji keyboard is shown, is defined by another file, FindReplace.strings.

Emojis are suggested as word replacements when an entire word in the original text matches an entire word in a string relating to the emoji. The word ‘freedom’ will not be replaced by the emoji since the ‘freedom fries’ phrase only exists in CharacterPicker.strings, not FindReplace.strings.

$ plutil -convert json -o - /System/L*/Priv*/CoreE*/V*/A/R*/en.*/F* | jq -r ".[\"\"]"
fries | french fries | french fry


How can I see what ports my hard drives are connected to? 2011 iMac running Mavericks

I have a number of hard drives on my machine, including a standard internal drive, an external SSD on Thunderbolt, a standard external drive on thunderbolt, a standard external drive on Firewire, and a standard external drive on USB.

What I'm not sure of without crawling around and tracking cables and other investigative work, is which volume on my computer goes with which drive, and therefore which connection technology.  It's just been too long since I set it all up.

I thought for sure this information would be in Disk Utility, but it seems it's not (or I can't find it).  Then I thought for sure it would be in System Profiler (System Information) but it's not (or I can't find it).

How can I find out which connection technology is being used by each volume on my machine?

EDIT:  I was able to deduce which drive had to be which from process of elimination, since I found that System Information will show me (under the Thunderbolt heading) which drives are Thunderbolt, and I know from the sizes which drives they must be.  Still I would really like to have a simple direct way to figure this out for the future, if possible.

You should be able to find this information in the System Information Utility. Did you try looking under Storage then selecting each of the listed items? On my system running 10.10.5 each of my connected external drives was listed and clicking on each showed what type of connection it was on under the Protocol type. Hope that helps.


How to insert horizontal line to page headers in Apple Pages I need to include a horizontal line beneath the text of the header in each page of my document. I was able to add a line using the Shape tool, but I cannot get it to repeat when enough text is added to create additional pages.

Can someone tell me how to accomplish this? Here's a screenshot of how I'd like the top of each page to look: (obviously the page number would be different)

Insert a line, move it on the page into the header box (this is easier if you have layout visible - VIEW / SHOW LAYOUT)

Make the line a section master (ARRANGE / SECTION MASTER / MOVE OBJECT TO SECTION MASTER)


IOS Update through tethering I am not having WiFi. To update to IOS 11 iphone needs a WiFi connection.
My idea is to use the Iphone for tethering and connect it "to itself". Will it work? Can I connect my Iphone the WiFi it makes itself and than do the update via mobile network?

No.

It’s not possible to connect to an iPhone to its own Personal Hotspot network as a client. iPhone can only be connected to one Wi-Fi network, so any attempt to join a network will turn off Personal Hotspot.

You can tether to any other device, though and get your download on cellular data from the other plan.


Create a bootable installer for High Sierra under macOS Catalina Question
I'm trying to create a bootable installer for High Sierra 10.13.6 under Catalina. To create the installer app I invoked the softwareupdate command this way:

sudo softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.13.6

Obviously the download started. Then after reporting a progress of about 60% it failed:

Downloading and installing 10.13.6 installer
Install failed with error: Update not found

Any idea what went wrong here? Any advice is highly welcome.

Hardware-Software-Environment

MacBook Pro 2019 running macOS 10.15.4 Catalina. There is no encryption enabled.

Background
As discussed in the first two posts mentioned below you may start with the recipe from this article How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra. This provides you with theApp Store link. At least for me, when initiating the download from a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan, this resulted in creating only the stub installer (as described, among others, in the references below).

References
These two posts, although somewhat more general, are closely related to my above question:

How do I download macOS High Sierra for offline install?

macOS High Sierra media installer

Discussing use cases of the option --fetch-full-installer of the  softwareupdatecommand new in macOS Catalina
https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/downloading-macos-installers-with-updated-signing-certificates-on-macos-catalina/

You are right - this seems to work only if the executing mac does support running the target OS. A download of 10.13.6 succeeds on MacMini7,1 and in a VM but fails on a MacMini8,1. Given that, it is likely you also get hardware specific builds if these are available for a given OS.

The installinstallmacos.py script lists all available options and does show Unsupported Board ID or Unsupported macOS version in cases that are not supported but it is able to download the installers from supposably the same source as the softwareupdate tool.

So either run softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer on compatible hardware, in a VM or use installinstallmacos.py.


How to remove photos from a device which have been imported previously in iPhoto? I have imported all photo's from my phone (Samsung Wave 525) to iPhoto. As I was using iPhoto for the first time, I did not want to delete all photos at the end of importing, preferring to check whether it as done properly first or not. Now that I know that all photos have been properly imported, how do I delete the existing photos from my phone ?

(I've tried importing them again, using "Import All" option - though I get a dialog for what to do with duplicate files, I don't get that dialog which asks me if I wanted to keep the existing photos on the phone or not).

It would be faster and possibly easier to connect the phone, open up Image Capture (comes with every mac) and view the photos there to delete them.


iOS apps take up more space than advertised? I would like to download "RAGE HD" which the App Store says is "643 MB", but after clicking "BUY NOW" there is a message:

  There is not enough space to download "RAGE HD". Please delete some photos or videos.

But my "About" screen says I have "898 MB" available. How much extra space should I need to be able to download this game?

You have to take into account that the exact number is an approximated value and that the device needs additional space to install the application. I’m guessing that although the application says it’s 643Mb, it really uses some more when it gets installed. You’re really pushing the limits of your iOS there :)


Text box not appearing in a Messages conversation I have a recurring problem in Messages on my Mac where, in one group conversation in particular, the text box occasionally disappears. Instead of having a text box at the bottom of the screen I can type into, the conversation simply goes all the way down. When this happens, the text box still appears in every other conversation; I can also still send messages in that conversation from my iPhone. It disappears only on my Mac, and only on that one conversation. The problem persists when I shut down Messages and start it back up. Sometimes the text box comes back, and then later disappears again, on a pattern that I have not been able to discern.

Any thoughts?

Messages 8.0
Mac OS 10.10.2

From another site, try disabling and then re-enabling the account in question as follows.

Within the Messages app:

Select the conversation that has the problem (I don't know that this is necessary, but I did it anyway)
Go to Messages->Preferences...->Accounts
In the box at the left hand side, select the account in question -- it will probably be your Apple ID with "iMessage" below it
Then over on the right, make sure "Settings" (and not "Blocked") is selected near the top
Still on the right, underneath your Apple ID, uncheck "Enable this account"
At that point, back in the main Messages app you should see the text box reappear at the bottom of the conversation
Then re-check "Enable this account"

Done.

P.S. This was done on OS X El Capitan (Version 10.11.1), and Messages app version 9.0 (5084)


Migrating solid state drive to new machine I had a solid state drive running Snow Leopard in a 15' Macbook Pro, unfortunately I fried the logic board and got a new computer. I'd like to use the SSD in the new computer (which is set up to run 10.8).

Is this possible? What is the best way to get my old solid state drive running in the new Macbook?

[edit]: I tried booting the new machine with the old SSD and it refused to book, playing three beeps over and over.

Assuming the drive fits, you should be able to insert the drive in the new Mac and see if the OS is capable of booting. I would make a good backup of the contents of the drive before starting if you can.

If you wanted to be safe, you could use Internet Recovery to install the OS on op of the drive or even wipe it clean and migrate things at a later date.

The drive will either physically fit and be a SATA device or not. The data part of things will be driven by your backup situation and comfort with spending time testing the OS or running a new install to ensure the drivers and OS are proper for the new hardware.

The symptom of three beeps means that the machine has not even completed the POST where RAM is checked, so you will want to first resolve whatever hardware issue is preventing the machine from completing the power on self test (POST).


Windows 10 Bootcamp Drivers problems I have a Macbook Pro from late 2011 with a failing hard drive that had macOS and Windows 7 installed on it. I just bought a new one and decided to put in a Windows 10 USB to boot from since I never used macOS that often anymore. Once I got everything setup there were no drivers (which was expected), so I downloaded them from the Bootcamp Assistant tool on a friends computer. When I try and launch the drivers setup.exe I get the error "This version of Bootcamp is not intended for this computer model". Is there any way to bypass this error or should I download the drivers from somewhere else?

The Answer from Tomothy Sutton should help you with your issue

How to download Bootcamp drivers without Bootcamp assistant?
A list of what download you need: https://support.apple.com/de-ch/HT204048


In macOS Mojave, is there a list of unused keyboard combinations for shortcuts? I am trying to define a new shortcut for "Select the previous input source", since the default shortcut (Control + Space) is conflicting with another app I need to use. Is there any table with a list of unused shortcuts in Mojave that could be good candidates for custom shortcuts? I am trying to find a balance between good usability (not having to stretch the hand in awkward positions to type the shortcut) and avoiding conflicts with already existing shortcuts.

Is there any table with a list of unused shortcuts in Mojave that could be good candidates for custom shortcuts?

There is not. There are a few utilities out there which will show you which key combinations are in use¹ but none (that I am aware of) show you available keyboard shortcuts.

¹ I believe KeyCue is the most well-known and best supported.

One common method among Mac power users is the use of a Hyper Key which is (generally speaking) where you remap holding down the Caps Lock key to equal holding down ⌘ ⇧ ⌥ ⌃ because few apps (and few macOS default shortcuts) use all 4 modifiers (mostly because it is awkward to try to press them all at once, which is why remapping the Caps Lock key is recommended).

Personally, I use a Hyper Key with Keyboard Maestro because, unlike shortcuts defined in System Preferences, Keyboard Maestro's shortcuts are easy to backup/restore, and easy to sync across multiple Macs.


How to copy Finder path to Parallels Windows Explorer? I often have deep nested files. For example:
Users/myname/topic/subtopic/project/aspect/subaspect/myfile.pdf

It's easy to navigate to this folder in Finder by using programs like Alfred which can do a quick folder search.

Occasionally, I need to do something with a file using Windows Parallels.

I have mapped my home directory (i.e., Users/myname)to the Z drive in Parallels.

However, it is quite tedious to navigate to the required folder in Windows Explorer. I'd like to be able to quickly navigate to the folder in Windows Explorer by for example dragging and dropping the Finder path into Windows Explorer or copying the Finder path into the Windows Explorer path. But neither of these actions work.  dragging the folder into windows Explorer, copies the folder, and OSX paths don't work directly (OSX uses slash / and windows uses backslash \, and there is the issue that the paths are remapped).

So in summary, my question is as follows:

Is there a quick way of making the Windows Explorer folder in Parallels the same as the path in a designated Finder window on OSX?

Check your Services option the Context Menu. Right click your Users/myname/topic/subtopic/project/aspect/subaspect folder in Finder. You should see "Reveal in Windows":

Result:


Preserve spaces order on monitor unplug on MacBook I'm running the latest macOS (10.12.6) and something keeps annoying me a lot with Spaces: if you have an external monitor plugged in and spend some time configuring/customising your spaces placement, when you unplug the monitor, everything is semi-randomized. Semi, because most of the spaces will stay in the same order, but the number of spaces and the location of the spaces will still change.

Here is what I have when the monitor is plugged in:

Monitor

space 1: empty
space 2: app
space 3: app
space 4: empty

mac book screen

space 5-10: app (1 per space)
space 11: empty

When I unplug the monitor, it becomes this:

space 1: apps that was previously on space 5 and 6
space 2-3: ok, same apps as before
space 4-5: empty
space 6: app that was previously on space 7
space 7: app that was previously on space 8
^ repeat up to space 9 / previously space 10
space 10: empty
no more space 11

This is mostly annoying because I use keyboard shortcut to move between spaces, so basically I have a mental mapping of shortcut to app, but then it's all mixed up as soon as I unplug the monitor.

Is there a way to prevent this behaviour?

Our questions weren't identical (which is why I went ahead and posted my own question) but I think the answer to mine would help you too: Spaces disappear (but not their application windows) when I unplug external monitors

In brief: you can prevent the behavior by unchecking "Displays have separate Spaces" in System Preferences -> Mission Control, but you may or may not like the new behavior any better. Spaces won't disappear anymore but you'll cycle through Spaces on all monitors at the same time, and when you plug your monitors back in, you may find that all application windows stay in the right Spaces but lose their placement (i.e. if you carefully arranged the application windows to fit nicely next to each other on your screen, you may find the windows all stacked on top of each other when you plug the monitor back in).

Whether or not you choose to uncheck "Displays have separate Spaces," you can use a window management app such as Stay or DisplayMaid to save your window configuration and move the windows back to your preferred arrangment after a change.


To let Finder always open a folder with default window width and height The Finder seems to remember the width and height of window that last time I open that particular folder and set such.
In other words, if I opened a folder and make the window really wide, the next time (after closing it) I open that folder, the window is still very wide.
This remains true even if I restarted computer, and even if I delete the .DS_store inside the root of that folder.

How to let Finder forget all previously-remembered window size of every folder in this computer?
I want that every time I open a new folder, Finder always apply the default size, the setting shipped with MacBook (This is about 1/2 width and 1/2 height of the whole window).

Though this is not big deal, it somewhat annoys me that when I have widened a window for some reason, the next time I open it, I have to manually adjust it back to smaller width and height for ease of reading, or the other way round.

This is extreme, but works: (see also Remove .DS_Store files from Mac OS X)

sudo find ~ -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

Restart and observe that newly opened finder windows are of uniform size. This deletes all ".DS_Store"'s. It then seems that they store relevant data regarding window size.

I did this partly out of curiosity, or maybe I have compulsive personality. I don't recommend normal users to mess up with your computer like this, though.


Replace cracked iOS app with purchased app without losing data I've done jailbreak a few weeks ago to try some new apps and games before buying them.
Today I've updated my iPod touch to a new version and I've purchased some apps I liked. To sync iPod touch with new app I have deleted the previously cracked app and then I realized that all data associated to that app was lost.

I don't want to loose data from other apps. How can I re-install with purchased version of the same app without loosing data?

If you don't want to wait for an update, there's an easy fix. First install and open up iFile from Cydia. Navigate to /var/mobile/Applications/, tap the gear in the bottom-left corner and make sure "Application Names" is set to On, and then find the app you want to update and/or buy inside that folder. In the app's folder, there will be a file called iTunesMetadata.plist; delete it. Now go to the App Store. Search for the app, and you'll notice that the App Store thinks it's not installed on your device. Click the "Buy App" button and purchase the app. It won't overwrite any of your saved data from the app, and you'll have legally purchased it. This will also work for any apps that you want to reinstall without losing their saved data.


Mac's Preview app displays disabled layers in PDF. Is there a way to workaround it? Recently I started browsing USGS Togo Maps which can be downloaded as PDF. They are displaying correctly inside Chrome browser's PDF viewer as well as Adobe Acrobat Reader on Mac. However, on the same Macbook, Preview app displays them very differently.

For example, a topo map can be downloaded from USGS at
https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/USTopo/PDF/CA/CA_Cupertino_20180914_TM_geo.pdf

It displays like the following in Preview. It looks like an aerial image and the topographic lines are hardly visible. I doubt it will look good when printed.

However, the same PDF looks fine in Chrome browser.

According to Adobe Reader this PDF contains several layers. The aerial view layer is disabled. Chrome and Adobe Reader do not display this disabled aerial layer, but unfortunately Preview does.

How can I make Preview display it the same way the other PDF viewers do? I would like to use Preview because it can export an image from the PDF at original resolution, which I am not able to make Chrome or Adobe Reader do.

Without purchasing Adobe Acrobat Pro, I couldn't find a way of removing the disabled layers from the PDF so that Preview will not get confused.

I was able to find an alternate solution for my end goal of exporting the PDF as an image.

In Acrobat Reader,

Edit > Take a Snapshot (enable)
⌘-A to select the whole page (now Acrobat copies the image to clipboard)
Sometimes have to ⌘-C to copy image

In GIMP or other image editing tool,

Open a blank image for the right size and dpi. For the USGS topo map, it was 24 in x 29 in at 110 dpi (was my default in Acrobat Reader's preferences).
Paste from clipboard.


Should I use time machine to migrate from one mac to another? I have had my blackbook for a little over 4 years now and think it's time to upgrade to a new macbook pro. I'm currently running leopard on the blackbook with time machine. I'm wondering if time machine is the right way to move my data from my old mac to the new one.

My main concern is that if I do a full restore, I will lose the new software on my new mac (e.g. - Aperture). I basically want to migrate all of my music (from itunes), a bunch of files/projects, photos (I don't use iPhoto), etc. I probably don't care as much about applications.

What's the most painless way of doing this?

NOTE: I would like to be able to use my time machine harddrive with the new computer for the same purpose.

(Extra credit if anyone can comment on migrating Eclipse workspaces. I'm pretty sure just moving all the directories over will work fine if I just reinstall Eclipse on the new machine.)

Thanks in advance.

The best way to do this is with Apple's Migration Assistant. Plug the Macs into each other with an ethernet cable and launch Migration Assistant on both. Follow the instructions on screen.

I've migrated to new machines seven times and it's a pretty flawless system. Based on other answers I'm pretty sure that Eclipse won't really know the difference after migration as long as your short name on both Macs is the same.


Using OS X of a new MacBook on an "old" iMac I have a late 2009 27" iMac. The iMac runs the default OS X version, 10.6.

This week I bought a new MacBook with OS X 10.8. Can I install the new OS X on my iMac without buying 10.8? Does the license allow this, and if it does, how do I do it? If you know how I can register OS X with my Apple ID, I can install OS X 10.8 via wifi.

The licence the install of OS X included with a new Mac is exclusive to that Mac, you can't re-use it on another. Buying Mountain Lion from the App Store entitles you to install it on all of your personal Macs.


Is my Mac infected with the Flashback trojan? I own a 2011 model of MacBook Pro with a Core i7 processor and Snow Leopard. I have found out there is a trojan horse which now controls 600,000 Macs.

How can I find out if my MacBook is being controlled?
How can I remove the trojan?

You can follow these instructions from F-Secure to uninstall/remove the malware:

Run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

Take note of the value, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
Proceed to step 8 if you got the following error message:

"The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist"

Otherwise, run the following command in Terminal:

grep -a -o '__ldpath__[ -~]*' %path_obtained_in_step2%

Take note of the value after "__ldpath__"
Run the following commands in Terminal (first make sure there is only one entry, from step 2):

sudo defaults delete /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment`

sudo chmod 644 /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info.plist`

Delete the files obtained in steps 2 and 5
Run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

Take note of the result. Your system is already clean of this variant if you got an error message similar to the following:

"The domain/default pair of (/Users/joe/.MacOSX/environment, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES) does not exist"

Otherwise, run the following command in Terminal:

grep -a -o '__ldpath__[ -~]*' %path_obtained_in_step9%

Take note of the value after "__ldpath__"
Run the following commands in Terminal:

defaults delete ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

launchctl unsetenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

Finally, delete the files obtained in steps 9 and 11.

Update:

Apple has released an official tool for uninstalling the malware. Read about it and download it on this Apple KB page.

F-Secure has also released a removal tool, which you can download here.


Is this impossible to install XP using BootCamp on Lion? I want to install XP with bootcamp on my Mac running Lion. The only choice that it gives me is to install Win7. Is there a way to install XP on Lion ?

In Bootcamp: You can bypass it by putting in a Windows7 disk and format the drive for the Windows installation.
After that you just restart, press alt to bring up the boot menu and put in your Windows XP CD to install.

One way that should work aswell(havent tested) is if you just create a new empty FAT-partition and then go to step 2.


iMovie 10.0.9 Won't load video I have a camcorder hooked up to my iMac running iMovie 10.0.9. When I try to import the video, I get question marks, and then the HDD Camera clicks off the menu. How can I get the video into iMovie to edit?

Try using Mac's Image Capture (in Applications folder). Then import video to iPhoto instead of iMovie. Then iMovie will automatically import your video from iPhoto.

It's the long way around, I know, but it worked for me.

Daniel


What speed is the SATA controller in a July 2012 macbook pro? I'm thinking about buying a macbook pro (latest 2012 version) and it seems sensible (from a financial point of view) to buy the standard built in hard disk and do the upgrade to SSD myself.

In order to get the most bang for my buck, I'd like to know what the maximum read/write speed of the SATA interface in a macbook pro supports? i.e. is it worth getting a 600Mbps or 300Mbps drive? Is it SATA 2 or 3?

OWC has tested it and confirms that..

  ...the MacBook Pro 15” (2012) has two drive bays, each capable of running an OWC 6G SSD at full 6Gb/s speeds.

which is the SATA Revision 3.0 speed.

They've also setup a striped RAID which benchmarked at "over 1000MB/s read speeds and write speeds that nearly hit 900MB/s".

Regarding the Macbook Pro 13" (2012), OWC recommends using a 6Gb/s SSD only in the main bay, as the 6Gb/s performance of the optical bay is very poor. 3Gb/s models however work without problems in the optical bay.


How can I add a message to an iPhone in erase mode I lost my phone when I was out earlier, and concerned about the data on it, I used "erase mode" on it. Unfortunately, that seems to remove the ability to set a lost message on the phone. Is there a way to set one now? It's in airplane mode, so I haven't been able to try to call it either.

If you had at least iOS7 then when activating lost mode it will give you field to enter phone number you can be reached at regarding lost iPhone. When phone is online (even after restore) then message that phone is lost with number to contact be displayed.

Apple has a page on it called If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is lost or stolen


What has changed in Terminal.app in OS X 10.8? Just upgraded OS X to Mountain Lion and noticed that Terminal.app version has changed from 2.2.3 to 2.3. Unfortunately, can`t find any information about what has changed. Do you know if there is any place that provides very detailed changelog regarding OS and Apps?

The new feature is that it works with mountain lion. Apple updates to a new minor release version number of terminal with every new edition of osx


AirPort Extreme: slow upload via ethernet, but fast via wireless I have a new dual-band AirPort Extreme base station (v7.6.1). I've used it to create a wireless network, and I also connect my Mac Pro (Early 2009, running 10.8.2) via ethernet. When I run a speed test on my iPhone (to test the wireless speed), I get an upload speed of 1.45 Mbps (not super fast, but I only pay for 1 Mbps so I'll take it). When I run the same test on the Mac Pro (to test the wired speed) I get only 0.13 Mbps. The AirPort Utility (v6.1) doesn't provide a lot of options, so I've been unable to resolve this. How can I fix my ethernet upload speeds?

In summary:

AirPort Extreme

Wireless Upload: 1.45 Mbps

Wired Upload: 0.13 Mbps

I fixed this by playing around with my network settings. In System Preferences > Network > Ethernet 1 > Advanced > Hardware I manually set the Speed to "100baseTX" and Duplex to "full-duplex" and my upload speeds have returned to normal.


How to make 64-bit guests available in a nested VirtualBox installation on iMac 5K 27-inch? I have installed VirtualBox inside of VirtualBox.

Host OS: OS X Yosemite
Guest OS: Ubuntu 12.04
Both versions of VirtualBox: 4.3.28

The guest versions in VirtualBox installed on Ubuntu 12.04 are only 32-bit.

How can I make 64-bit available?

At the present time VirtualBox does not officially support nested virtualization, even thought one can nest a 32-bit Guest a 64-bit guest cannot be nested as VT-x is not passed through to the nested Guest and it's one of the requirements to run a 64-bit Guest, nested or not.

VMware Fusion does support some nested 64-bit Guests although off the top of my head I'd have to check the documentation to be more specific.  You can have a look Running Nested VMs at VMware's website.


IBM Trusteer Rapport... Daemons... Is rapportd part of Trusteer or an Apple MacOS Daemon? Working here on problems arising from IBM Trusteer Rapport security software.

Problem: Their daemon rooksd has 60,000 ports open; mac slowed to a crawl.

Question: Is the daemon rapportd part of Trusteer or is it an Apple MacOS daemon? Other comments here say it's Apple. But, IBM Trusteer support says it's theirs.

rapportd, or at least /usr/libexec/rapportd, is an Apple macOS daemon. From the man page:

  Daemon that enables Phone Call Handoff and other communication features between Apple devices.

By examining RapportUninstaller.sh, the expected locations for Trusteer Rapport's rapportd are:

/Library/Rapport/bin/rapportd.app/Contents/MacOS/rapportd
/Library/Rapport/bin/rapportd


Unable to mount Time Machine partition I have a WD external HDD which is plugged into my MacBook Air more or less all the time; it has two partitions one of which is my Time Machine disk. Just today I noticed that the hard drive is not mounting correctly anymore

On boot-up, both partitions do not show up in the Finder at all
When I unplug the drive and replug it back in, only the non-Time Machine partition shows up in Finder. It appears to work like normal i.e. reading and writing (I've already copied all my data off it)
I can't seem to either eject the disk or unmount the partition that is mountable. If I hit the eject button in Finder, the partition name greys out and is not clickable but does not go away.

Via Disk Utility, I am unable to either mount the Time Machine partition (I get the generic not able to mount partition error message) and I am also unable to run Repair disk on it (error message: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.). Screenshot below. I tried erasing the disk but that also did not work (error message: Couldn’t unmount disk.)

It sounds like my hard drive has failed (or is in the process of failing) - the only things that I makes me second guess myself and make me wonder if the disk is salvageable are:

The non-Time Machine partition appears to mount correctly and can be used as usual (although as mentioned above it cannot be unmounted)
The drive is not that old all: probably about 18 months old. I have drives that are older that are still ticking along nicely.

Is this a simple case of a failed drive (perhaps a defective product) or is this a symptom of a software related problem (e.g. there have been several instances where the drive has been unplugged without being ejected correctly)?

I had the same problem and resolved it like this.

Unplugged the drive
Turned off Time Machine in Pref
Rebooted the Mac
Plugged the drive back in
The Time Machine partition mounted


Inverting mouse axis using Karabiner Karabiner seems like an extremely versatile piece of software, but I can't seem to find a way to invert the mouse axis with it. For example: When I move the mouse downwards I want the cursor to go upwards, and when I move the mouse to the right, I want the cursor to go left.(*)

Right now I'm using USB Overdrive for this purpose, but I need Karabiner for other stuff, and it would be nice if I could get away with just one program.

(*) This sounds so strange that I feel I owe you an explanation: I have a trackball mouse which, due to it's form factor forces me to turn it 180 degrees on my desk. By inverting the axis in software, it still moves naturally.

To flip cursor movement you can use a third party tool: Karabiner. Karabiner isn't compatible with Sierra at the time of writing (January 2017).

Download, install and open Karabiner
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences
Open the tab Misc & Uninstall
Hit the button Open private.xml
Open the file private.xml with an appropriate editor
Enter the customized keycode

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
    <name>3rd-Party Pointing Device</name>
    <item>
        <name>Reverse Vertical &amp; Horizontal Cursor Movement</name>
        <identifier>reverse.mouse.movement</identifier>
        <autogen>
          __FlipPointingRelative__
          Option::FLIPPOINTINGRELATIVE_HORIZONTAL,
          Option::FLIPPOINTINGRELATIVE_VERTICAL,
        </autogen>
    </item>
    </item>
</root>

If you already have other items in private.xml omit the first two and the last line of the above code.
Save the file
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences the tab Change Key
Hit the ReloadXML button
Enable the remapping. It should be listed at the beginning.

If you have a second pointing device (i.e. an Apple mouse or a trackpad) and want to use it normally, you have to restrict the mod to your trackball mouse by adding a devicevendordef/deviceproductdef somewhere and a device tag after the identifier tag in your private.xml. Example (sorry, only an Apple external keyboard):

<devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>Apple</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x05ac</vendorid>
</devicevendordef>
<deviceproductdef>
    <productname>ExternalKeyboard</productname>
    <productid>0x0256</productid>
</deviceproductdef>
...
<device_only>DeviceVendor::Apple, DeviceProduct::ExternalKeyboard</device_only>

You get the various device IDs by opening Karabiner > Misc. & Uninstall > EventViewer > Devices


Why is my iPhone 5S overheating so much? Activities such as:

Phone Calls that last around 10 minutes
3G Browsing for 5 - 7 minutes
Watching videos for 5 minutes
Using apps such as facebook / instagram etc for 5 - 7 minutes,
lead to my iPhone 5S severely overheating.

It heats so much at times that it can't be held any more and you have to set it down for it to cool down.

At times, it randomly restarts when plugged in. When it starts to heat the battery drops sharply and sometimes the phone simply dies

I'm fairly certain that the hardware in my phone is being affected with this overheating

My first year phone warranty ends in 10 days and I'm contemplating whether I should give it to Apple India Service and if they will replace my phone.

Any Solutions? Suggestions? Experiences with Indian Apple Service Centres?

Although there are several other answers, I'll contribute my own $0.02 for future readers as well.

The device is overheating due to processes consuming the device's physical memory and is causing it to overheat. Activities like calling and data usage often requires a lot of battery power, which then leads to the device over-heating.

Some temporary solutions would be to:

If you are standing in the sun, remove the device from the heat.
Closing background applications when not using them to avoid battery consumption.

This also includes disabling WiFi and/or service when not in use.
Games are very bad at power consumption, "Clash of Clans"  being a major example using up to 10.3mAh/min sometimes even when not in use.
Avoid the use of 3rd party cables (as mentioned by another user who answered).

Put your phone into sleep mode every once in a while the system can cool down and regain some of the used RAM.
Delete some apps, the less apps using your battery and memory the better.

As for long term solution, get the new phone. Even though the device heating to rather hot temperatures can be normal, after a short period of data usage it shouldn't. Often times it is some faulty hardware that is causing the problems.

If you aren't in the situation to get a new phone, then a factory reset is the way to go. This will delete any apps or cached data that would be causing the battery over-consumption and would restore the device to its intended factory abilities.

Hope this helped!


df -h yielding what looks like a strange output: /home, /dev, and /net have 0% free space I have a MacBook Pro with 1 TB of disk space.

When I run df -h I get the following:

It tells me I have 702 GiB available on / which I suspect is true -- but nothing on /home.

Do I have a virus or something?

You could have a virus or not, but the df listing is 100% legitimate and normal.


How to change Skype language on iPad I have an iPad with Settings->General->International->Language set to Hungarian. Still, my Skype is in Chinese and I have no idea how to change that.

I tried to change the iPad's language, to change the language in my Skype profile, to reinstall Skype, to delete Skype's backup in iCloud than to reinstall, but no use.

Any ideas?

Skype doesn't come in Hungarian (see the info published on the app store page for it). So it probably takes the next priority on your OS.  Is Chinese second on your Language list? If so, move English to the top temporarily so that it becomes the default after Hungarian.


Can I disable the iPad's "helpful" password/number shadowing? I use my iPad for lectures.  During this, it is connected to a Big Screen that the students can see.  Every now and then, I forget to turn off the "auto lock" feature meaning that I have to wake it up and re-enter my passcode.  Or I might want to show the students some resource on the local intranet which requires me to enter my university password.

Since the iPad keyboard works by touch and this is a somewhat imprecise method of entering data, it seems that the iPad and its apps echo the last key struck when entering a password (on the keypad for unlocking then each number "glows" as entered).  This, then, reveals my password or whatever to any students who happen to be watching (usually, they're asleep by the time I have to wake up the iPad and I've learnt to wake up the iPad before waking up the students).

Before you ask, yes this did happen today.  I'm pretty sure that I got my passcode in before the screen or the students woke up, but to play safe I've now changed my iPad password, all my other passwords, my date of birth, my social security number, and my mother's maiden name.

I can turn off the screen, or disconnect the iPad, but that's also a hassle and it involves me remembering that in the middle of the lecture (thinking of two things at once is never a good plan for me).

Is there any way to disable this "helpful" security "feature"?

There is no way to stop the 'last key ghosting' that you mention, it's baked into the OS and not controlled by a setting anywhere.  A jailbroken phone may have possibilities if you are happy with hacks etc, but I don't think you are interested in that route (correct me if wrong).

What you can do is tweak the passcode requirements in ways that may reduce the number of times you need to enter your passcode.  By default, when you lock your screen (or when it times out and does it itself) you need to re-enter your pin when unlocking.  There is an option in Settings > General > Passcode Lock called Require Passcode with options of Immediately, After 1/5/15 minutes.

This is very useful if you want to quickly unlock after it timed out on you without needing to retype your passcode, and does not require you to turn auto-lock off.

Realise this is only a workaround for half of your problem, but may prove useful regardless.

As for other passwords, you could keep them in a password manager program which allows you to copy the passwords whilst keeping them obscured and paste them into password fields.  I don't have any specific recommendations, but leave it to other answers who may be able to take inspiration from experience with these apps.


Change html files to txt on entire folder Is there a mac terminal command to change all .html files to .txt including the files in sub folders too?

I guess actually you just want to rename them. Run the following from inside the folder. If you do not trust the command, add echo before mv to see what it would do.

find . -type f -name "*.html" -exec bash -c "mv {} \`dirname {}\`/\`basename -s.html {}\`.txt" \;

This does the following:

Looks up every file (-type f) in the current folder (.) whose name is ends with ".html" (-name "*.html")
It than finds out the path of the file (dirname), adds a slash (/) and the name of the original file without the ".html" suffix (basename -s.html) and adds a ".txt" suffix.
Then it renames the original file (mv).

   Actually, the ` ` notation for using a programs output as part of a command is deprecated. $() should be used instead, but in the case of find the backticks are easier to use.


Siri giving out incorrect info I have Verizon and Siri is giving me a fax number for a location rather than a phone number. My friend has AT & T and it displays the phone number. Does it matter which carrier is used? Can I correct this (it is my place of business)

Siri pulls information from your contacts. Make sure that the information in your contacts is accurate.


Maximize window shortcut What is the keyboard shortcut to maximize a window on OSX? I'd like to know the shortcut that is equivalent to double clicking on the window title. I do not want to make the window full screen.

One of the default settings in System Preferences > Dock is [√] Double-click a window's title bar to zoom; however by default, Finder does not have a keyboard shortcut to zoom a window.

One may add a keyboard shortcut for the Finder > Window > Zoom command in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts, as shown in the image below.

Click the [+] and fill in the sheet, then click the Add button:


AirPort Utility (5.6) stuck on "Configuring your existing wireless network to allow it to be joined" I just bought a new AirPort Extreme and set it up as my main wireless network. I also have a 1st gen. Time Capsule and a 1st gen. AirPort Extreme in addition that I want to connect like this:

Main AE --> TC 1st gen --> AE 1st gen

The first two I have managed to set up flawlessly, and that works great. Now I'm trying to connect the last AE to the TC, but when I set it up in AirPort Utility 5.6, it displays the text "Configuring your existing wireless network to allow it to be joined", and doesn't do anything.

I have no idea why it won't work, but if I try to set it up via Lion-AirPort Utility, it just chooses the main AE, and won't let me choose to connect to the TC.
Is this a known bug, or is there a way to fix it?
Thanks.

I tried to use Lions AirPort Utility again, and found a way to choose which base station to extend, but it only shows the main AE again.

AirPort Utility 5.6 isn't really supported anymore, so I found the only true solution to be to use Airport Utility 6.1.

To solve this question, I had to reset every single AirPort Express, Extreme and Time Capsule, but it works a lot better now.


Dock in Lion FullScreen I would like to know if there is a way to have the dock always there when running an App fullscreen in lion?

It is very unlikely that Apple will ever support this request officially, as it would go against their whole "full-screen" philosophy. However, it ought to be possible to create a SIMBL hack which achieves it.

If you do want the dock visible when using an app - perhaps the best solution is not to use fullscreen, but simply make the app window large by using the green traffic light button or dragging the edges.


Clicking on external links opens Chrome but not the link When I click on an external link and Google Chrome is not running yet, Chrome will launch but will not open the linked page. Instead, it starts at my last opened tab (which is the behaviour I expect), but the clicked link should also open in another tab.

When I click the link a second time, it will open correctly in a new tab.

Why is this?

EDIT:
For clarification, it's about macOS. Furthermore, I found it behaves different to how I described above. The link is opened in a new window the first time, instead of a new tab in the existing window. The problem is, that it does not come to the front, so the old window from my last session in Google Chrome is in the front. You don't notice the new window behind the old one unless you use mission control to see there is a second window.

EDIT 2:
Since this question got a lot of attention I finally accepted the top voted answer, though this wasn't my problem in the first place at all. I can see that there are two problems here:

When there is a pending Chrome update, Chrome does not open the external link at all, just opens another window with the default start screen. (Bug)
When Chrome is up to date, external links are opened but this time still a new window in the background and not as a new tab when restoring the last session. (bad design)

Hope this should be clear now :)

I had this happening all afternoon. Then I checked Chrome | About Chrome and it was waiting for me to relaunch to update. That fixed it.


Making an AppleScript that holds down a key So I'm trying to make a script that holds down a key like Left option. But I don't want to use something like

tell application "x"
    keystroke *keycode*
end tell

I tried doing that, but the app I'm trying to make it work for won't accept it.
So I thought of trying to make a script that just holds down a key (specifically a modifier key) for an indefinite time.

Is there any solution?

Try running your code using the key down & key up features of AppleScript.

code:

tell application "System Events"
    key down option
    delay 5
    key up option
end tell


LG Ultrafine 4K display - USB hub turns off when screen turns off / unplugged from MacBook I have my MacBook plugged into an LG Ultrafine 4K display (as recommended, sold and partially engineered by Apple).

When I unplug my Mac from it the USB hub stops charging devices attached to it. This is ridiculous as I mainly use it as a charging hub.

There is nothing in the manual about this - and I can find nothing on Google.

Is there any way to keep the USB hub powered all the time?

This is expected behavior.  According the LG specifications the maximum power supplied when in sleep mode is 1.2W and when off is .5W. (This is for the monitor as a whole, not just the USB ports. For this answer, let's assume all of the power is being redirected to the ports - for illustrative purposes only)

Using the formula for watts and converting to solve for Amps,

W = V * A  => A = W ÷ V

So, assuming that the 5V remains constant, the amps it's supplying is .24A in sleep and .1A off.  For the record, that's not enough to charge a Nokia 3310 from 2000 much less a smartphone from the last 10 years.

The power requirement for USB 2.0 is to supply upto 500mA (.5A), 3A for USB 3.1 and up to 5A for power delivery (the type C interface).

When you unplug your MacBook from the monitor, it goes into sleep mode and dropping power consumption which ultimately disconnects your devices.

My solution is to purchase an Anker USB charging hub that's designed for this type of task. I've purchased this exact charging hub and positioned it at the side of my desk to charge the myriad of devices.  Even when I need to connect my device to my Mac and charge simultaneously, I have a hub that's capable of delivering 10W on the port.


DLNA Server work with Sony Bravia Which DLNA Server do you recommend to install on my mac to make it work with my Sony Bravia?

UPDATE: Mainly interested in support for mkv videos.

There is plenty fish in that ocean. So it all depends on your patience, budget and admin skills.

If you want good quality for free and easy to setup, I would recommend PS3 media server http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/. It worked well for me.

I sold my Sony gear last year when I moved so I can not attest that it works now but I don't see why it would suddenly break compatibility. It works with all my DLNA clients (with a few limitations over WiFi and perfectly over the wired Gbps network).

There are others and most notably serviio http://www.serviio.org/ that work well but aren't necessarily the simplest to setup.

Have a look at http://alternativeto.net/software/medialink/ to see if you find anything else that you would like.


Messages showing "Tap to Download" instead of images Lately when someone sends me a picture via iMessage, I see a box that says "Tap to Download" instead of an image. Most of the time when I try tapping the box, it says "Downloading" but it is stuck at 0 bytes out of about 2 MB. Other times it will actually download after I tap it and show me the image.

This seems to be tied to the user sending me the message. E.g. I can view all photos I get from Alice perfectly (no tap to download required), I can view all photos from Bob (after tapping to download), I cannot view any photos from Charlie (I get a tap to download box, but it's stuck at 0 bytes).

If I view the conversation on another device (e.g. a MacBook), I see the image just fine.

Why is this happening, and what can I do to resolve this issue on my iPhone?

I tried restarting my phone, but that doesn't help.

On the device with the issue, go to Settings -> Messages -> Send & Receive and then click on your Apple ID to sign out and then sign back in again. This seems to resolve the same issue for other people.

I think the reason for the issue you are experiencing is a corrupt file, by signing out and back in your device deletes a handful of files associated with your iMessage chats and regenerate them afresh from Apple's servers.


Where are my Pages documents? Recently replaced iMac hard drive through recall program. Used Time Machine/Seagate Backup Drive. Everything seems to be restored but my Pages documents. How do I find them?

What about looking for files with the pages extension (.pages) in spotlight?

Open spotlight (keyboard shortcut: Command + Spacebar ) and type: .pages

If you see a file popping up, hold Command an click on it. The file's location will then be opened in finder.


How do I clear data listed as "Other" on my iPhone? Since iOS 1 I have always lost Gigs of storage to the "Other" category on my iPhone.

I have cleared my Safari data, told my phone not to sync music, apps and just about every other syncable option and yet I still find myself loosing 2-4 gigs of storage after about a month of use.

I have read that the issue lies in the way iOS and iTunes handle deleting data, incomplete synchronization and building the iTunes library on the Phone.

The "Other" Section in iTunes normally does contain 70 - 200 MBs for system information but 2-4 gigs is clearly an error. How can I fix this or am I stuck Restoring my phone every month?

Problem Details:

iTunes is up to date and I have tried on both OS X 10.6.x and 10.7.x
Have Had issue with iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, iPad and iPod touch 2nd
Gen.
Devices are not and have not been jailbroken
Application data has been accounted for
Safari Data has been cleared
5.1GB Audio/0.01GB Photos 3.1GB Apps/0.04GB Books

I cleared 2gb of "other" space by using DiskAid to dig into the file system of the phone and clear out corrupted data.

WARNING - this may be dangerous, use extreme caution. If in doubt, don't.

Once diskaid is installed and running, click the file system menu on the left to expand the folders on the right. When looking around, I found a 2gb file in applicationarchives related to a program that I know didn't download correctly, and had since been deleted. Removing the file freed up the "other" space.


add a permanent static route in high sierra I'm adding a route to all 192.168.1.x ips through a gateway like so: sudo route add 192.168.1.0/24 10.0.0.2 .  How do I add this route permanently in High Sierra?

I suggest to use networksetup which works persistent and also in separate network locations.

First, open your terminal of choice i.e. iTerm2.app or Terminal.app

list your network locations:

networksetup -listlocations

choose your desired network location:

sudo networksetup -switchtolocation <locationofchoice>

list "devices" called networkservices

networksetup -listallnetworkservices

list persistent routes on "device" of choice i.e. "Ethernet"

networksetup -getadditionalroutes Ethernet

add your route to "Ethernet"

sudo networksetup -setadditionalroutes Ethernet 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.2

list persistent routes on "Ethernet" again to check

networksetup -getadditionalroutes Ethernet

To see all commands:

networksetup -help or
networksetup -printcommands

Hope that helps ;)


How do I see the number for an unknown caller who is not in my contact list? I have an iphone 4 and although I get a notification for a missed call but i cant see the number of the person calling all it shows is missed call from "unknown" i cant find anything on the internet regarding a fix or a setting? please help, if a person calls me and they're not in my contact list i can never call back cause i don't know who called? this is extremely frustrating!

Whether the caller's number shown or not does not depend on your contact list. It is the information which is provided by the carrier (AND the caller because the caller can disable it and you won't see any number even if the caller is in your contact list).
If you see "unknown" that means the CallerID was not provided. If it's provided then you would see the number of the callers even if they're not in your contact list.


Using crashplan to backup a time machine disk So, crashplan themselves say it can't and shouldn't be done, because of hard links and how TM works... But can't it, really?! Isn't there any way around it?

Reason I want to use CrashPlan is because it does everything else I need - except easy recovery, which TimeMachine provides.

PS: "Nope, it can't be done" and a very detailed answer on why, or "do it with rsync" or something are both ok here.

Do not attempt to prove crashplan wrong. Many bad things can happen.
Use the new Time Machine (since Mountain Lion) instead.
Problem solved.


What is normal for startup chime till Apple logo shows? My late 2015 iMac recently started taking a very long time to go from the startup chime till the Apple logo appears - about 2.5 minutes. Between the chime and the logo, the screen was black.

After resetting SMC and PRAM, I traced it to an external USB-C SSD, but in the course of narrowing things down I noticed that the "time to Apple logo" varied somewhat depending on what was plugged in, for example:

no USB devices plugged in: ~6 secs
only external hub plugged in (no additional devices): ~8 secs
only external USB3 HD plugged in: ~9 secs
only external USB3 SSD plugged in: ~20 secs
everything plugged in (except USB-C SSD): ~22 secs
only external USB-C SSD plugged in (with supplied USB-C to USB-A cable): ~150 secs

Is there any guidance on what is normal and expected for "time to Apple logo", and why the variation between different USB3 disks, let alone the exceedingly long time for the USB-C SSD?

It could be that the system is looking for the most appropriate boot device.

You can set this by following these instructions:

Open System Preferences
Ensure that the boot drive you would like is the one selected.
Choose "Restart"

Hopefully this will help.


Can I update from iOS 5 to iOS 6 on iPhone 4? I don't want to update to iOS 7 on this iPhone 4 and since I'm borrowing it from a friend, I don't want to jailbreak it either.

It's not a matter of downgrading to iOS 6, it's still an upgrade since I'm currently running iOS 5.1, I just need to know where to find the update and how to go about doing it.

There is no Apple supported way to update an iOS devices OS except to the latest current OS release that runs on that device (or a beta OS, if it is strictly a test device and you are a registered developer).  Apple no longer signs (which includes vouching for the security of) any earlier OS releases (except for old devices, such as an iPhone 3GS).


Dimensions as criteria for iPhoto smart album? In iPhoto '11 (latest version, on Mac OS Lion), can I make a smart album for all photos of a certain size (e.g. 960x640)? Can I make a smart album containing photos of multiple sizes?

EDIT

I answered my own question. See my answer below. Yes, it's possible.

Answering my own question. Here's how you do it:

You need to set it a condition for [size][space][unicode ×][space][size 2], for example: 320 × 480. Not straightforward, but it works. However, it doesn't actually care which order you put the width and height, so this one will find 320x480 images as well as 480x320 images.


How to partition free space in a Mac SSD I have a Mac with a 250Go SSD. I used to have a Windows partition, but as I had no longer any use for it I wanted to free up its space.

My error was here : instead of using BootCamp helper to delete my Windows partition, I deleted the space in the Disk Utility app.

Now, I am in this situation when I open my Disk Utility:

So there are clearly 2 free spaces of 30Go each on the drive (which is weird since it says there are 251Go total, and if we sum up the 3 spaces here it gives something like 280 Go). Then I tried to partition the space like this :

Which gives me the following error:

Sorry for the French, basically it says that the starting util of the volumes I wanted to free up are mounted. So I went and tried with my terminal to find those spaces, but they are nowhere to be found :

diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            219.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +219.0 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 BB809D5E-5AC1-490E-8037-651B300154BD
                                 Unencrypted

/dev/disk3 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +7.5 GB     disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS InstallESD              7.2 GB     disk3s2

Since I can't find the volumes in my diskutil list, I can't force the unmount on them. How to retrieve this space ?

Do you have something like in the screenshot in your Disk Utility app?


Do you need an iPhone to build iPhone apps? I have an iPhone but am thinking of getting a OnePlus 5T and selling my iPhone.

I also have a Mac and I've started to develop React Native apps too.

Is the iOS simulator enough to test and publish apps to the iOS App Store, or should I keep my iPhone?

Strictly speaking, no, you do not need to have an iPhone in order to build iPhone apps. The iOS Simulator does a pretty good job and allows you to test how your app is likely to work on a range of iPhone models (or other devices).

However, having some physical devices you can install your apps on is certainly an advantage. In my own app development there have been a number of times that I've identified that something just hasn't looked quite right on an iPod, iPhone or iPad (whereas in the Simulator it looked fine). And, I've also had instances where something didn't quite look/work right in the Simulator, but it was fine on a physical device.

Only you can decide whether keeping your iPhone is worth more to you than selling it.


Why has my iPhone camera stopped focusing? My camera doesn't focus any more. Is that a known issue and is there a fix for this? If not, can I take it to be fixed? I had this phone for less than a year.

Since the phone is less than a year old, it will be covered by the default AppleCare warranty. I suggest contacting Apple, and they will probably just replace the phone outright.