How to add AAAA flag (IPv6) to DNS resolver configuration on Sierra? I have working IPv6 interface with /64 prefix. It means I can connect to direct IPv6 addresses through browser but can't connect to IPv6 hosts like testv6.madore.org.

The issue is in DNS configuration where I don't have flag "Request AAAA records":

$ scutil --dns

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : xxxxxxxx
  nameserver[0] : xxxxxxxx
  nameserver[1] : xxxxxxxx
  nameserver[2] : xxxxxxxx
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : Reachable

Can someone tell me how to manually add/enable that flag too look like:

flags    : Scoped, Request A records, Request AAAA records

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

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

The Problem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pinging by IPv6 address works:

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

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

And HTTP connections by IPv6 address work:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DNS configuration

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

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

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

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

SystemConfiguration

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

The scutil Kludge

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

First we create the IPv4 part of the service:

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

And then we create the IPv6 part:

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

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

DNS configuration

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

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

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

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

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

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

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

A couple things to note:

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

A nice script

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

# After tunnel comes up
wg-updown up IFACE

# Before tunnel goes down
wg-updown down IFACE

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

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import re
import subprocess
import sys

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

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

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

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

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()


How to make Visual Studio Code run python 2.7.15 I'm using an iMac with High Sierra. I used Anaconda to install both python 2.7.15 and python 3.6.5. I created virtual environments for both of these.  I'm trying to learn python and I'm using Visual Studio Code. I've run scripts fine that were developed for python 3 but the code I'm currently working with was developed for python 2. I can not get VScode to run using a python 2 interpreter, it seems to use python 3 no matter what I do. I could rewrite the script to make it compatible with python 3 but I'd rather not do that. I've tried running VScode from the python 2 virtual environment but that seems to have no effect. I edited the settings in VScode and changed the variable python.pythonPath to point to python 2 but that doesn't work. I used the command pallet to change the python interpreter but that doesn't work either. How do I force VScode to run python 2.

Start VScode and open your python script. Using either the command palette or the status bar, select the python interpreter you wish to use. Both options present a list of available interpreters. Now you may run your code by right-clicking in the edit window and selecting "Run python file in terminal". A terminal window opens below the edit window and your code executes there. Note: You must execute your code using the right-click technique described above. Other methods, such as using the command palette with "run: code", will not work


My MacBook pro late 2011 15" has 800% usage with kernel_task So my MacBook Pro is getting super slow and laggy after a while of usage. I updated to Sierra today and my kernel_task is sky-rocketing - hitting up to 1100% and I have no idea why? I've tried all kinds of things like an SMC and PRAM reset and it didn't work. Has anyone had the same issue? Does anyone have a fix?

Edit: I have 8GB of RAM and a 250GB SSD with 35GB of free space.

So after long time of surfing the web i found this which fixed the issue:

Reboot into recovery mode (Command + R on boot prior to startup chime), select Utilities/Terminal, csrutil disable  (repeat process, use csrutil enable after removing the file), reboot.
Go to About this mac under the apple in the upper left and click on More info
Click on system report
make a note of what it says after Model Identifier (MacBookPro8,2 is mine).
From the Root drive (not home folder): – System  Library – Extensions – IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext (alt-click/View Contents) – Plugins – ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext – View Contents – Resources -– find the name from step 3 and move it to a folder that you can find again if needed.
Restart and you’re done (other than enabling SIP).

I can use my Mac again!


Why aren't the section titles of man pages completely greppable? This was tested in El Capitan and in a colleague's High Sierra, in the standard Terminal (bash).

user@hostname ~ $ man ls | grep "BU"
BUGS
user@hostname ~ $ man ls | grep "BUG"
user@hostname ~ $
user@hostname ~ $ man ls | grep "IEEE"
     files in order to be compatible with the IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'')
     The ls utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'').

To clarify: "BUGS" is a section title in that (and various other) manpages. For section titles, grepping only seems to work for the first 2 characters; this is consistent across a few different section titles we tried. For the rest of the content, grep seems to work as expected.

I ssh'd into a non-BSD flavored Linux box (Amazon Linux) and it does not appear to exhibit the same behavior.

What's going on here?

You can see what is happening if you view the raw codes within a man page. One way to do this is to export the man page to a file and inspect its contents directly:

man ls > man.ls
nano man.ls

The word "BUGS" actually looks like this in the file:

B^HBU^HUG^HGS^HS

You'll see that the headers contain formatting characters, so the entire word "BUGS" is not present.

If you want to access the plaintext contents of the manual page, you can use the command

man -P cat <thepage>

The -P option sets the pager on other unix and cat will ignore the formatting information, giving a plaintext output. However, this doesn't appear to work on macOS, so the output needs a manual col -b step in the pipeline:

man ls | col -b | grep BUGS


Import a subset of photos based on date I am importing thousands of photos off an SD card. About 15k images, mostly time-lapse. They are from different times so about 4 sets 3-4 images, I want to import each set as a separate album.
Scrolling that many images is a huge pain, can I automatically select or import based on date ranges?

Also, is importing just copying the files - could I use another application to copy based on date range instead? I do not know if the Photos Library is actually a directory structure?

Import the photos to a folder on your Mac. Then you can use smart folders and spotlight and fast file operations to delete / move / Pre-process the files.

Photos is absolutely not a folder oriented Storage system. Check out Photo Mechanic by camera bits for a folder oriented workflow.

We use that and high speed SD card readers and can ingest about 100,000 images from 18 cards in a couple hours with 2018 or newer MacBook Pro. Look for USB-C SD card readers.

Lexar Pro thunderbolt is about $100 each - LRWCR2TBNA
Lexar Pro USB is around $40 each - LRWCR1TBNA

You can even get stacks if you know you’ll have this workflow, but we just use gaffers tape to hold things secure on heavy ingest days around major sporting events.


3.5mm mic: how to explain my MacBook that it's just a mic and not an headphone set Like title, I'm using a Boya M1 lavalier mic with a 3.5 mm plug. When I put it into the jack (that is the same of the headphones), my audio go mute, because computer thinks I'm using a headphone.
Luckily, the mic works as expected, but I can not hear any audio. So if I am in a conference, I cannot hear them.

Is there is a software solution? If not, what hardware solution could I use?

You do not have a microphone jack. You plugged your microphone in the headphone jack. This is why you can not select internal speakers.

Try one of these adaptors:

USB Type A:

https://www.amazon.com/customerpicks/Explore-usb-adapters-for-microphone/49a722acca2e7546619b

USB Type C:

https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-External-Headphone-Microphone-Compatible/dp/B075YFDJ4Q

https://www.amazon.com/Headphone-Microphone-Plantronics-Sennheiser-Compatible/dp/B07KPLDJ18

Or get a USB microphone and skip the adaptor.

https://www.amazon.com/usb-microphone/s?k=usb+microphone

https://www.amazon.com/usb-c-microphone/s?k=usb-c+microphone

Perhaps the jack is for a headset (combination microphone/headphone).

There is this question: How to use a wired headphone AND a mic at the same time on the Macbook Pro Retina?. The answer would suggest the jack would accept a plug with two rings. This would allow the jack to be used for a mono microphone and stereo headphones. If this is your arrangement, then the you still would need a USB solution since using the jack would not allow the internal speakers to be used.

Although, you have to wonder. If you used the microphone jack and left the headphone jack unused of an adaptor, like the one shown below, then could the internal speakers be accessed? My guess is probably not.


remove SelfControl app can anyone help me to remove the selfcontrol app that is blocking my facebook and you tube? i'm using a macbookpro w/version 10.11.6. i haven't contacted SelfControl app for help yet.
iv'e already deleted the app but it still effects my computer.

If you're impatient about letting the clock run out, check your calendar and alerts for the next 24 hrs and jot down anything important during that time.

quit SelfControl

Go into System Preferences, date and time, and sign in your password to unlock. Advance the date one day, and relock everything. SC's timer goes strictly by the system clock.

Start up SC again. You'll get timer at all zero's (SC thinks it's tomorrow [and so will everything else on your machine, which is why you want to check time-sensitive things beforehand] ) and likely a message 'stuck?' or something like that. un-stuck it. Now you'll get the standard timer selection. You can set it for the minimum--15 minutes--and let it run out again, to get a more graceful time-out. Now you can go into your blocklist and delete everything there, start it up again for 15 minutes and run it out. In fact I recommend you delete everything there, because selfcontrol can really crap your system, especially when you have other blocking elements (system security blocking, lulu, etc.) competing.

( I wound up with Safari, Chrome, Skype blocked which I had nothing to do with, and were never in the blocklist (I checked the plist manually; there was nothing but n.c.h .c.o.m sites: I got SC specifically for stopping n.c.h apps from phoning home.) I couldn't wait 24 hours, Skype and a browser are an essential for me. )

From there you can decide whether to delete SC altogether and be done with it. Wharton School absolutely recommends having nothing to do with it in the first place, and gives 5 very good reasons why.


How can I get my Mac to see and transfer files from my android phone? When I hook up a USB cable from my Mac to my Samsung Galaxy phone I get a notice that says
"Can't access device storage" "Make sure your device is unlocked and that File transfer or MTP mode is selected"
How do I find "MTP mode"? How do I find "Unlock"?

Android devices require a driver/app install - they will not natively hook up to a Mac.
Google provides Android File Transfer for this task.


How do I get syntax highlighting of source code files within Quick Look back in Lion? Source code files viewed using Quick Look on Snow Leopard had syntax highlighting. Unfortunately the syntax highlighting has disappeared on OS X Lion. Is there a way to get it back?

I don't think Snow Leopard did that by default, you most likely had a QuickLook plugin installed, such as qlcolorcode or colorqc2. You can simply install this again in Lion.


Is there a repeating, vibrating timer app for the iPhone that supports app-switching? When studying, I used to use one of those cheap digital kitchen timers that chirps every ten minutes as a little reminder of how fast time was passing -- it helped me keep track of time without the temptation to constantly glance at the clock.

The kitchen timer gave out on me recently, so I've been looking for an iPhone app to replace it. Ideally, it would have an on and off setting, and when on, would periodically vibrate in my pocket every ten or fifteen minutes.

Unfortunately, the apps I've found are quite chintzy and don't support switching between apps, or stop as soon as the phone is set to sleep -- and either of these is a deal breaker.

Are there any iPhone apps out there do what I'm looking for?

(I've been burned by a couple of paid apps that turned out to be lemons, so I'd be most grateful.)

I would suggest you use an interval timer like this. IntervalTimer

Just customize it to your needs and don't care about the high and low intensity options it has. If you adjust them you can have a perfect vibrating timer


Disconnecting disks from Airport Extreme Since Apple released the new Airport Utility with the simplified UI, there doesn't seem to be an option to "Disconnect All Users" to kick all users off a hard drive to safely remove it when connected to an Airport Extreme. See the screenshot for this button in the previous version of Airport Utility.

How should I do this in the new version?

Consensus is that Apple simply forgot it - or didn't make the UI clear!

Deselecting "Enable file sharing" looks to have replaced it. At the very least that will disconnect users before you pull the plug.


Artifacts when viewing pdfs in Preview (and Skim) When I view PDFs with Preview or Skim sometimes scrolling cause the following artifact

Here in 0,06 it seems as if one or two rows of pixels are cut.

If I cause the fonts to redraw by any means (getting the text out of displaying area, selecting text) the artifact disappears. I wonder where is the right place to report this bug.

The first, simplest step for troubleshooting even an Apple app that is acting up is to quit it and delete its preference files. There are some utilities that check the validity of preferences files and delete corrupt ones. Easier still is to move them to the trash from your
User Library at ~/User/Library/Preferences
or the Main Library at HardDisk/Library/Preferences. The application will rebuild a fresh set next time you open it.

(Note I am not referring to the Library within the System Folder.)

If there are complicated settings you might want to remember, make a sticky first!

The second step is often to download or otherwise install a fresh copy of the application itself. It's surprising what both these steps can accomplish.


Lion : Assigning a fullscreen app to a space With SnowLeopard, I was using spaces, with two spaces. On the second space, I was running a fullscreen application.

I created a shortcut to switch from my first space to the second space : Cmd+1 goes to space 1, Cmd+2 goes to space 2 (displaying my fullscreen app).

I recently upgraded to Lion and cannot reconfigure it to have the same behavior I had with Snow Leopard :

When running my app fullscreen, a new space (sub-space ?) dedicated to this app is created. Now, when pressing Cmd+2, it displays space 2, but it is empty, as my fullscreen app is somewhere else.

How can I make sure my fullscreen app sticks to a space, so that using Cmd+1 and Cmd+2, I can quickly switch between my normal desktop (space 1) and my fullscreen app (space 2) ?

In Lion, the only options you have to manage the order of spaces are...

System Preferences → Mission Control → Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use
Manually drag spaces in Mission Control

The shortcuts to switch between spaces and desktops are set in...

System Preferences → Keyboard → Mission Control

But, you can only set direct shortcuts to Desktops - not any space.


Is BootCampDrivers.com safe? I've had tons of scaling and performance issues in scaling of 3D applications and games under Windows on my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 (MBP 16,1) due to the extremely outdated AMD drivers Apple ships with BootCamp. Searching online, the solution appears to be installing a customized version of more modern drivers from BootCampDrivers.com, a website providing improved 3D drivers for Macs running Windows. Before putting anything valuable on my Mac, I decided to give them a try and - as expected - everything was smooth and scaling issues (making any fullscreen game unplayable) were fixed. I have since wiped Windows and was planning to reinstall it fresh now.

While the drivers work amazing, I cannot find much info on the Internet about how they are getting made. How can I ensure that they do not contain malware of some sort? I doubt someone is deploying a trojan specifically made for users of high-end MacBooks running Windows who are looking for drivers that aren't several years old, but is there a way to be a bit more sure, perhaps by actually comparing the drivers with the original ones?

It appears that the custom installer of AMD graphics drivers also installs a certificate root to enable signed BootCampDrivers.com code. Does this provide any sort of security or can anyone create such a certificate to be approved by Windows?

Apple does recommend visiting AMD's website for updated Windows graphics drivers. See Boot Camp Support or more specifically Update AMD graphics drivers for Windows in Boot Camp. I would assume AMD would provide the most up-to-date drivers for their products. Also, often Apple Software Update and as well as Microsoft Update will provide updated drivers for Windows hardware.


Is there a way to read the Spotlight comment in Automator workflow I need to do some clean up on Spotlight comments. Is there a way to read the Spotlight comment, then set it to another value ? For example let's say I need to remove one specific word in the comments. Adding is easy, with Set Spotlight Comments for Finder Items. I'm looking for the opposite action.

Since it appears that Automator doesn't have a "Get Spotlight Comment" action (surprisingly), maybe you can do this with AppleScript.
(See this forum)

Something like:

tell application "Finder"
    set thisItem to "Macintosh SSD:untitled folder"
    set Comm to comment of folder thisItem (* get comment *)
end tell
return Comm (* to return the Comment string for editing *)

This returns the Comment (in the Get Info Window) of the specified folder on my Desktop, and could be modified to modify the comment of all items passed in by Automator.

In Automator, you'd have to add the action "Run Applescript" and insert a script like this there.
Unfortunately I don't think you can have the script take both the files & new comment as input from the previous Automator action.
So you'd probably have to hard-code the comment modification part, and add a set comment part, perhaps like so:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Finder"
        set thisItem to the input as string
        set Comm to comment of folder thisItem (* get comment *)
        (* manipulate the comment strings*)
        set comment of folder thisItem to "NewCommentString" (* set comment *)
    end tell
    return input (* to pass the file list to next automator action)

end run

This script currently only modifies a single file's comment - I believe you'd have to loop through the file list to do it on many files.  (To make the new comment modifiable at run-time, maybe use "Show this action when run" on the *Run AppleScript" action?). Or you might end up moving the entire script to AppleScript.


sudo: unable to cache user root, already exists Suddenly started getting this strange error when attempting to run any command via sudo:

sudo: unable to cache user root, already exists

I've tried different Terminal windows, repairing permissions, restarting, and tried creating a new admin user but still get the same issue. As far as OS X is concerned I'm still an administrator and can perform any actions that open an administrator's password dialogue box, but I can no longer run any command via Terminal that requires the use of sudo.

Does anyone know where the cache that sudo is mentioning might be located, and whether I can delete and recreate it (and if so, how if it isn't a simple delete)? Is there any other way to solve this issue?

It seems that in my case I was able to repair the problem while writing my question, by reading the man pages more closely and running the following command:

sudo -k

This command revokes all outstanding sudo permissions and forces you to re-enter your password the next time that sudo is used.

However, I've been unable to discover why this issue presented itself in the first place, but wanted to post my solution nonetheless for the benefit of anyone else that encounters this problem. If someone knows why it might happen then please feel free to comment or add to this answer!


How can a bring the windows of an application on the primary display? For some reason my Air still uses its own LCD when the lid is closed, so that I often find that an apps windows are all on a display that I cannot see.

Is there any way of bringing them to the primary display without randomly clicking and dragging in the hope of hitting a title bar?

Although the issue is rather strange, you can always take a look at some of the utilities suggested in this stack exchange question. I personally use SizeUp so I'm able to move windows from one display to the other at will (something I do fairly often).


Siri location reminders problem I have added my favorite stores, Coffee shops, and addresses I go to a lot, into my contacts list, so I can say to Siri "Remind me to check the mail when I arrive at mom's house." However, Siri responds with "I am sorry I can remind you at work, home, or gym."

So what am I doing wrong?

On the surface it sounds as if you're doing everything right; I have however found this process to not always be quite as straight forward as one might think.  For starters, I've found that newly added contact data is not immediately available to Siri.  I have had to wait as long as 5 to 10 minutes before she recognizes the new entry.  Once the data parses through iCloud though, she usually gets it without missing a beat.  Another tip that I've picked up is using nicknames for locations to make speaking them a little easier.  For example, I travel regularly for business, so as soon as I arrive, I add the hotel address to my contact list and provide it a nickname of "The Hotel"; That way I can simply ask to be reminded when I leave the hotel instead of when I leave "Omni Hotel and Spa Downtown LA".  I of course have to change this nickname every time I check into a new hotel but if you frequent the same coffee shop or supermarket, it should work quite well for you.

On another note, in order to use your example of "Remind me to check the mail when I arrive at Mom's House", you must first assign the relationship of "Mother" to a specific person in your contact list (unless of course you have your mother listed in your contacts as simply "Mom" as opposed to a full name).  You can do this either in the contact edit screen of your own contact by adding the field "Related People" or you can simply tell Siri "Sally Smith is my Mother".  You can also get Siri to recognize the relationship by giving a command using the relationship, such as "Call my Mom"  if the relationship is not set, Siri will ask you who your mother is.

If you're still having trouble after trying some of this let me know in the comments, we can work through exactly what you're doing step by step and drill down the problem.


Using an iPhone 6s from USA in Europe I'll soon visit US where I want to buy an iPhone 6s (money reasons).My question is: will I be able to use it properly (full capacity) in Europe (Romania)? I read a couple of topics and found out there are problems related to LTE bands and others but I don't understand it yet.

When I traveled to the EU with my iPhone 6s having Verizon service on it, it worked perfectly fine there since it's a world phone.
Although verifying with your carrier would be the ideal thing since carriers could have rules of not accepting phones not branded by them and also to verify for 100% that the LTE bands are correct for their network but as far as operation wise I could confirm that I used my iPhone 6s in the EU back in March.


Mac OS: Some apps (mostly java) are very slow at first loading System: Macbook Pro Duo 2.4Ghz, 4GB, Snow Leopard

I first encountered this problem when running eclipse. When I first run it after every reboot or waking up, it painfully takes > 7 min to load. The same actually happens the second time or even third time I load it anew on the same session. Next times, however, loads rather fast.

When already loaded, eclipse seems to go just fine, but when running (very simple) Java programs, the JVM virtual machine typically loads also slowly.

Suspecting the problem was with Java, I tested running simply java without any parameter whatsoever (that is, it prints the help) after a reboot, and it takes also minutes. Following runs go well.

As for other Java programs, the game Minecraft loads relatively fast but then the game goes quite slow.

So I could think that the problem is with Java but, however, I'm experimenting a similar problem when uncompressing zipped files, using both the Archiver program that comes with Snow Leopard and with TheUnarchiver (they are not Java!). The first time I want to uncompress a file, even if small, it takes ages, then second times for the same file or other files which may be much larger runs very fast.

And these first painful loads happen every time I reboot or I wake up the laptop!

Do you see any reason for these problems? Things I've already checked:

Give enough cache size to Java (through Java Preferences I give it 1GB in hard disk)
Deactivate backups
Checked off secure virtual memory
Parallel working load is negligible. I have 2GB free at all times.

Thanks a lot.

I found the problem. The antivirus Sophos was running constantly (InterCheck process) including for zipped files (that is, jar files too). Being off, everything works fine.


There is no connected camera message with built in FaceTime camera Anyone run into "There is no connected camera" message while using any of the camera applications (Messages, PhotoBooth, Skype, etc.)? I tried force quitting all the applications that use the camera but with no luck. Even tried sudo killall VDCAssistant without any luck. Restarting the machine fixes the issue, but it is highly annoying to do so every day. I am running 10.8.1 on 2012 MacBook Pro.

From osxdaily:

Quit all open apps that may try to use the FaceTime camera
Open Terminal, found in the /Applications/Utilities directory in OS X
Enter the following command string exactly, then hit return:

sudo killall VDCAssistant

Enter the administrator password when requested, this is required to execute a command with superuser privileges as prefixed by sudo
Relaunch the app that was attempting to use the camera

Or... Use Activity Monitor, search for VDC and force quit it.


Is it possible to configure Safari's search box to use google.co.uk rather than google.com? Is it possible to customise the search engines used by Safari 5.1 on Snow Leopard? I'd like to get it to use google.co.uk rather than google.com for searches. I've found a couple of old posts (including this one which doesn't seem to apply any more) but nothing very recent.

the query string is defined in :

~/Library/Safari/Configurations.plist.signed

but the file is signed and cannot be edited without being replaced by safari.

Also, it seems that every time you use this search bar, Safari hits This file on apple.com which can make one assume that Safari compares the 2 files and replaces the local one when needed.

I think your only options are via extensions or another browser


Multi-Boot Windows 10 & Various Linux Distro on External SSD Running Mojave on MBP 2014.  Just purchased a Samsung T5 SSD 1TB drive and want to run Windows 10 and various other linux distros (Elementary, Mint, Parrot Security, Kali) on it so I could take the drive with me and either boot from my mac or another computer.  I got Windows 10 to work by following

https://9to5mac.com/2017/08/31/how-windows-10-mac-boot-camp-external-drive-video/

I was successfully able to boot between Mojave (on MBP HD) and Win10 (External SSD) by holding down Option key as it boots.  I then made a bootable USB stick with Elementary OS and booted to that stick.  I had already created a partition for the Elementary OS but went ahead and allowed it to partition it the way it wanted to during the install menus.  I chose the partition that I had made before to which it changed it to EXT4.  Then I created another smaller partition for swap.  Once Elementary was installed, it asked for me to reboot.  I held down Option and saw my MacOS drive, Windows (External SSD, which was actually the Elementary OS) and then EFI (External SSD, which was the Win10).  I tried to boot into Elementary OS and just had a flashing cursor at the top and nothing else.  Trying to boot into Win10, it would not get past the choosing where you want to boot from.  Like it was locked up.  Any ideas on how I can get this to work?

A short answer to your question will not fix your problem, but at least you may become more aware of the difficulties installing other operating systems on Macs.

Both Windows and Elementary install their boot files in the hidden EFI partition. When holding down the option key at startup, you invoke the Mac (firmware) Startup Manager. This startup manager does not detect all possible correctly installed operating systems.

  The Mac Startup Manager assumes each EFI partition will only contain at most the boot files for a single operation system.

While both Windows and Elementary are using the same EFI partition, you will not be able to use the Mac Startup Manager to boot both operating systems.

Possible solutions are:

Use more than one EFI partition. A drive can have more than one EFI partition. Additional EFI partitions do not have to reside at the beginning of the drive.
Use a different startup manager. A free startup manager would be rEFInd. I prefer to install rEFInd so this manager can be booted from the Mac Startup Manager, the rEFInd will then allow you to select other operating systems. Actually, rEFInd instructs the Mac firmware to boot the selected operating system.

BTW, I have found difficulty installing most versions of Linux to use an EFI partition other than the default. I usually have to manually move the Linux boot files to an alternate EFI partition. Also, care must be taken to insure any Windows boot files are not overwritten by a Linux installer. The file that usually is overwritten is EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi. This file is copy of the EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi file.

You can access any EFI partition from macOS. To access the primary EFI partition on the first internal drive from the Finder, enter the command give below in a Terminal application window.

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

To unmount, enter the command given below.

diskutil unmount disk0s1

In your case, make the appropriate substitution for your external drive.

Below are the elementary boot files store in the EFI partition. This image was captured from an VirtualBox install. Note: the files EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi and EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi are identical.


gdb's TUI mode broke on macOS When I try to scroll the source window with the arrow keys, the previously outputted lines are not properly overwritten, resulting in a weird looking:

My ~/.gdbinit only contains set startup-with-shell off.

I installed gdb by brew install gdb. Here is the version info:

[sunqingyao@192.168.0.111 ~/Projects/play_ground]$ gdb --version
GNU gdb (GDB) 8.0
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-apple-darwin16.6.0".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".

I'm using iTerm2 under Sierra 10.12.6 (16G29), if it's relevant.

Yes, I came with the same problem.
TUI is useless when debugging with gdb and src layout. It's a bug of iterm2 which can't fully support complicate output. Sometimes, TUI crashes too when using vim and multi-windows setting.
Apple likely has left gcc and gdb behind. So my suggestion is switching to clang and lldb. Both work fine so far on Mac command line and they are advanced tools. At the mean time, switching wouldn't cost you much time if you could use gdb well.
Good luck. And by the way, Xcode is a gread tool for your peace of mind.


My Mac Pro 1,1 won't boot from any type of usb stick I tried to install several unsupported versions of OS X on my Mac Pro 1,1 but no matter which method I use, after choosing the usb device in the boot manager the mac would just boot into os x lion as normally. I even tried sudo bless and using another usb port but it still won't work.
Can anybody help me with?

tober

I think whichever way you force the newer firmware, you're going to have to have the installer on HD or DVD. I've never been able to boot a pre-09 Mac from USB & I've tried pretty much everything the interwebz has to offer in that regard - though my oldest Mac Pro was an Early 08 so I've never needed to force it quite so hard, as I don't need to push the firmware upgrade too.

Here is a guide on how to get Yosemite onto a 1,1 They reckon it can be done from USB, but I'd say YMMV & be prepared to have to run it from a spare hard drive instead.
I'm not certain if the investment in a newer Graphics card is compulsory for functionality, or whether it's just to get the machine to be as fast as possible after the upgrade, same as the CPU swap at the end.
I've an old GT 120 I have knocking around that I occasionally use for troubleshooting & it has no problems on 3,1 4,1 or 5,1 machines.

The longevity of this particular method will depend on how long mega.nz has the patched files, I guess - & also whether you have any particular reason to trust or distrust a non-Apple source. On the latter I really cannot comment, though I can see no reason anyone would go to all this effort in order to be able to botnet the few remaining Mac Pro 1,1s out there ;-)

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2015/3/2/how-to-resurrect-a-2006-mac-pro-11-so-it-can-run-osx-yosemit.html

Precis:-

  Things that you will need:

  A Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 Cheese grater desktop with OSX Lion 10.7.5 system drive
  8GB USB drive
  A graphics card better than a GT120, I used a Radeon HD 5770, original mac version with its appropriate power cable. There are flashed PC cards out there, but they won’t display a boot screen. I like a boot screen, so I purchased a proper Apple card (2nd hand)
  A download of a pre patched version of OSX Yosemite 10.10 https://mega.co.nz/#!SoAgnKqI!GUinePUGF3jAAu3oUym-GHBC9doWRTU1p6nnkXkJFdQ
  Either boot.efi file downloadable here. Black is a white Apple on a black background and Grey is the traditional Apple boot screen:
  Black:      https://mega.co.nz/#!G9oimYaK!38dBEPUwPb2y8Inh0w-REL6MH-9K90vZjpMSzazNy-E
  Grey:       https://mega.co.nz/#!j1hWFSIS!4zFpN9f3L6zV_D5wXJ1KMT40KkLlXKQ901-eQaRaLTA
  I chose the black screen as I dual boot into OSX Lion 10.8.5 or Yosemite 10.10.2. The black screen tells me instantly that I’m booting into Yosemite.
  A spare hard drive, mechanical or SSD for the new system drive. You could partition your old Lion drive, but I prefer to build on drive that’s minty fresh. If I stuff anything up, I can always boot back to my untouched Lion system drive. Contingency plan…
  A download of Yosemite 10.10.1 or 10.10.2 Combo updaters http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1786?locale=en_US
  [That would now be 10.10.5 - see http://www.apple.com/us/search/combo-update?src=globalnav_support]
  A download of Diskmaker X http://liondiskmaker.com/

  Open up Lion Diskmaker X and follow the instructions to create a bootable USB “special” Yosemite installer from the big Yosemite image you download before. This is the patched version of Yosemite.

  Don’t install the Apple App store version as this does not have ze patch…

  http://www.cultofmac.com/313198/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-yosemite-drive/

  Install Yosemite from USB drive to your new “Yosemite HD” system drive. Bay 4, remember?? Hold down the Mac option key to choose your boot drive after start up chime.
  Install the boot.efi patch, I used the black version. Restart the mac, hold down the mac option key to choose your boot drive after start up chime You should now be able to boot into either OSX Lion or Yosemite 10.10 flat. Woo Hoo!
  Install the Combo updater

Edit
All the mega links are already gone, I'm hunting for replacements & will post as I find them.
I've asked a dev friend of mine who has a post-Lion 1,1 if she has a source. Will add to info if we can findone]

New bootloader here - https://github.com/Piker-Alpha/macosxbootloader


Devices sharing Apple IDs: what credentials can an user with an iPad PIN use? I have several devices sharing the same Apple ID, one being an iPad (plus 2 iPhones, 2 Macs etc). I want to share my iPad PIN unlock code with others in my flat so they can use Spotify / control the Audio etc., but I don't want them to have access to anything else (e.g. my Apple account, my non-Apple email accounts).

Firstly, I don't believe there is any way (e.g. multiuser) way of me (e.g.) having my mail on there, and it not being available to anyone with the unlock code - correct?

Secondly, even if I delete my mail accounts, to what extent am I still in danger? Are secrets (e.g. passwords) shared between devices for Apps / Accounts? IE can people put them back without entering the password or restore the device to a state where it had the password? Can I stop the casual user deciding to buy lots of Apps? Is there a way to lock down the device less hammer-to-crack-a-nut than removing my Apple ID and all accounts or (e.g.) factory reset?

You have some limited control by enabling a couple toggles.

Require password for all purchases, every time or use family sharing to restrict the ability of that iPad to get new downloads from the managed / signed in account of your choice. - https://www.apple.com/family-sharing/
Sign out of all and any cloud services you don’t trust them to not delete things (they can delete anything you can delete - photos, contacts, mails) so them reading the information is not the worst that can happen.

You might be able to use parental restrictions / guided access to lock one app in the foreground, but I would just say - have them get a used device or you get a used device and just let it be community / no accounts / require password to purchase or make a “children” account for the shared device and enroll AppleID in family settings so you have to explicitly approve all purchases on that secondary ID.

https://support.apple.com/HT202612


iPad inbox out of date I have a work email account that uses Zimbra as the backend server. For my iDevices, I set up this account as an exchange account and everything usually works fine. On my laptop, it's set up as IMAP (for some reason I can't set it up as exchange there).

My problem is that when I read mail on my MacBook and move it to another mailbox, it doesn't always update the inbox of the iPad. My iPhone seems to be fine though. I'm seeing old mail still in the inbox even after I slide down the message list to "refresh". Any ideas?

So I went through the settings to see what might have been different. The only thing I noticed was that I was syncing "unlimited" emails on my iPad but only a month on my phone. I changed the setting on my iPad and the inbox seems to have cleaned itself up. We'll see if it sticks. I'll mark this as answered tomorrow if it does.


Smartctl doesn't show SMART data for any of my NVMe drives I have a number of NVMe M.2 drives which I connect to my MacBook Pro using a Yottamaster USB enclosure. However, when I try to view SMART data for any of these drives, I'm met with a generic error:
$ smartctl -a disk18

smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 20.4.0 x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

identify failed: 0
Read Device Identity failed: Unknown error

A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

So I try the permissive option, as they suggest:
$ smartctl -a -T permissive disk18

Again, I get an unhelpful error:
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 20.4.0 x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

identify failed: 0
Read Device Identity failed: Unknown error

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     [No Information Found]
Serial Number:    [No Information Found]
Firmware Version: [No Information Found]
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   [No Information Found]
Local Time is:    Fri May 14 15:21:33 2021 EDT
SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 82-83 don't show if SMART supported.
SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMART is enabled.
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

What might I be missing? I'm quite sure that these modern NVMe drives support SMART monitoring. I formatted them to APFS and exFAT before using, but they still show these errors. I have not found any documentation online to deal with these errors.
In contrast, I can view the SMART data of any of my SATA SSDs and HDDs.

You can try using this command instead:
smartctl -a -T verypermissive disk18

This will ask smartctl to ignore even more quirks.
Note that this effectively just ignores the fact that the drive is not responding properly to SMART commands that it ought to handle. If you can retrieve some information from the drive using this option, you're lucky - but there's going to be stuff missing from the reports.
Note that it might well be that your drive supports these commands, but the USB-enclosure you're using does not support passing them through. It is always easier to work with something directly connected rather than having it go through a USB-bridge.
If you have a different enclosure, I would try that as a test first.


Cannot switch source with Apple TV 4 and Samsung TV I just got the Apple TV 4th Gen and once I've it set up, I cannot change the input to my XBOX. Not through apple remote, the tv remote, or the button on the back of the TV. Please help. My Tv is Samsung UN70KU6300

Apple TV 4th Gen does not play well with others. Turn off CEC (HDMI Control) on the TV. This means that you will have to manually change inputs when switching sources.


OSX-formatted USB drive giving strange partition message when I attempt to eject it. "Boot OSX" hidden partition? I have a USB3 drive with 128GB of storage.  It has been working normally up until this evening, when I tried to right click > eject the drive.  I received the following message:

“Mymusic” is a partition on a disk that has 2 partitions. Do you want to eject “Mymusic” only, or both partitions?

When I open Disk Utility, it only shows the one single partition listed under the drive.  I ran First Aid on the drive itself, and it reported no problems.  However, when I tried running First Aid on the partition, it failed because it could not eject the drive.

If I click on the drive in the list, and click Partition, it shows a pie chart and 100% of the drive is shown in blue, as one big partition taking up 100% of the disk.  The only thing that looks weird is maybe "Child Count: 3".

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, when I finally clicked "Close All [volumes]", I got this message:

The disk "Boot OSX" wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it.

Hitting "retry" continues to fail.

The disk has been formatted several times, and the most recent format was about a week ago.  It has only ever had one partition (at least, that I added myself; and no one else has physical access to it).  I certainly never added a partition named "Boot OSX".  Maybe some malware or something? But I don't pirate software and am privy to attachments, security, etc.

Here are a couple of screenshots, in case they help:

I'm not sure how this can happen.  How can I fix this?

This EFI partition is discussed at :
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4326715?start=0&tstart=0
The opinion there is that it is created by (some versions of) Time Machine.
Disk Utility hides it by default, but see
https://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php?topic=14019.0
for how to show it and remove it.


On Mac, is it possible to generate a folder structure in Finder's contextual menu? For every new project I start, I create a standard folder structure that looks like this:

(NUMBER) Client Name:
- Subfolder 1
- Subfolder 2
- Subfolder 3
- Subfolder 4

Or like so:

Currently, I copy-paste this from another source folder - wondering if it's possible to add a shortcut to the contextual menu in Finder (pic below), so I can just right-click anywhere and "generate" this folder, with all the subfolders inside? I've had a go using Automator but can't figure it out...

I'm on Mojave (and High Sierra on another machine).

Thanks!

You could use Automator with a Shell Script action. You can set it to take in "Folders" and use the below code (change the Shell Script action to take arguments instead of stdin).

cd $1
mkdir "[--] Unnamed Client"
cd "[--] Unnamed Client"
mkdir Fonts Photos Quotes "Raw Files"

The script moves to the folder you selected (cd $1). It creates a folder for the client and cd's into it. It creates folders for the contents.

If you're always making the folders in the same place, you could remove the input or change it to "Files and Folders" and change the first cd command to cd to the location where you want the client folder.


login screen hangs when I try to switch users without disconnecting VNC client I'm fast-user switched to the login screen.  However, when I start to type my user name and password the keyboard input freezes before I am finished and I get the spinning beach ball and can't log in.  Sometimes if I hit any of the volume buttons the keyboard unhangs and I am able to log in, but this time this isn't working any more.

This only seems to happen if I forget to properly disconnect a VNC client before switching to the login screen.  I still have ssh but I am not sure what process to kill to resolve the problem.  There aren't any processes running the look like a VNC server.  I have looked for any process containing the substring "ARD", "VNC", "Lock", and "Remote" (case insensitive, e.g. ps aux | grep -i ...).

I have run into this problem many times before. To get it to work, try disconnecting after entering your password, wait a few seconds, and then connect again.


How to charge the MacBook Pro from 12 Volts? Aim: I would like to charge my MacBook Pro (MBP) form a 12V lead-acid battery. However there are no official chargers from Apple for that purpose. There exist quite some alternative products on the internet. For example this one simply comes with a MagSafe adapter and lets you choose 18V. However I am afraid that such a solution might hurt my battery.

Does anybody know how exactly the MBP battery is charged? Does it require a particular charge line? Is it OK to simply connect 18 Volts and see what happens?

If you connect 18 V to the power/ground pins, your Mac will be powered off the 12 V battery, but it won't charge: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/132332/26231

To charge, the laptop needs to identify the charger by communicating over the signal pin in the middle. http://www.righto.com/2013/06/teardown-and-exploration-of-magsafe.html

Solution: Sacrifice an apple charger by cutting the cable and connecting the correct pins to your DC/DC converter. I recommend using the 45 W ones so your DC power supply doesn't have to be very big.


Pictures are stored but not displayed in Camera Roll Well, I've been running low space for a long time and this led to a sudden disappearing of old photos (actually 5000 of them - the oldest ones) in camera roll. I don't know how how that worked - maybe iOS tried to free up some space by removing the thumbnails (without asking me???).

The main advice is to remove the photos.sqlite and other similar files from PhotoData directory. That did nothing - the restored base is lacking my OLD ones. Still you can find them all in DCIM folder.

How can I add them back to sqlite??? Thanks a lot!!

upd. ios 9.1

To free space in iPhotos ("Camera Roll"), on your iPhone (or iPad) go to:

Albums > Recently Deleted and then select the photos for permanent deletion.  I'll bet you have tons of photos there gobbing up space.  That should take a lot of pressure off on your available space for photos.  Myself, well I didn't know that was there for ages ... ;-)

Update: After further details from the OP, sounds like he CAN take pictures and they are stored on the device, but these pics are just not appearing in "Camera Roll".  I suspect "Camera Roll" is an alias to the DCIM storage location.  Could be something wrong with how the thumbnails linking to the DCIM storage folder you reference are added.  Thus, the advice you were receiving on removing the SQL-lite db.

Camera Roll itself must be an alias to that DCIM folder.  It would make no logical sense to have pictures stored in BOTH the DCIM folder and also Camera Roll.  How these things interact would appear to be where the problem exists.

I remember with Outlook .pst folders there was a (2) GB limit (I believe) that buggered everything once the file hit 2GB.  I just checked this for you and the max SQL Lite file size is 140 TB, so this can't be the problem.  HOWEVER, the size of the query as to what's retrievable in memory from a huge SQL Lite DB CAN be a limiting factor:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14451624/will-sqlite-performance-degrade-if-the-database-size-is-greater-than-2-gigabytes

The upper limit as to the SQL query to the SQL Lite DB required to display the pics in "Camera Roll" looks a likely candidate if your pictures store is huge and the query size required to display them in Camera Roll is limited in memory


What do I do if I lost my restore DVDs and have a corrupted HD in my Macbook Pro 2010? I have a Macbook Pro 2010 (Core2Duo), and I lost my original software and OS restore DVD. The one that came with the laptop. Now my HD volume is corrupted (many programs quit randomly now -- like iTunes, XCode, etc). What can I do? Can I just go buy an OS X Lion DVD, reformat my HD, and do a clean install? Or do I somehow have to get the original DVD that came with the Macbook Pro and start from there? Please help. Thank you.

There is no Lion DVD on sale, however, Apple sells Lion USB Key, that you can use to reinstall Lion on a new hard drive.

What you won't have, though, is iPhoto, iWeb, iDVD (I probably forgot some) that come when you buy a Mac.

But if you bought them on the Mac App Store, you'll be able to reinstall them at no charge.


Office '08 Can't Read Chinese Characters in Windows-Created Docs? One of my friends had recently purchased a MacBook Pro 13" and had been astounded to find that he couldn't read some of his old documents that were in Chinese in Office 2008.

All the characters had been reduced to little square blocks like [].

He needs to make sure that he has the correct fonts installed—Office is trying to display the document, but couldn't find the necessary characters.

It's possible that the previous owner of the MBP deleted fonts he didn't use, or that those particular documents used a font that didn't come with the OS.


Prevent internal drive from mounting automatically I don't use the internal hard drive on my iMac any more, but for obvious reasons, it's awkward to remove it. I'd like to stop OS X from automatically mounting it when the iMac boots. Is this possible? I didn't see anything in Disk Utility that looked appropriate. I know I can unmount it myself, but I'd prefer if it were never mounted in the first place.

I found a previous answer that describes editing /etc/fstab. However on OS X 10.11 "El Capitan", this file contains only the following information:

IGNORE THIS FILE.
This file does nothing, contains no useful data, and might go away in
future releases.  Do not depend on this file or its contents.

...so that appears to be no longer relevant.

1) Make sure the disk you want to prevent mounting at boot is mounted.

2) Launch Terminal.

3) Run the following command to print out information about the disk:

 diskutil info /Volumes/<volume that shouldn't be mounted>

4) Locate the line that starts with: Volume UUID:. Select the UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) that follows on the rest of the line. It will be something that looks like FF9DBDC4-F77F-3F72-A6C2-26676F39B7CE. Your value will be different

5) Copy the UUID to the clipboard.

6) Navigate to /etc by typing the following and pressing enter:

 cd /etc

7) Edit (or create) an fstab file by typing the following and pressing enter:

 sudo vifs

8) Enter the following line, substituting the UUID you copied in step 5). (Note: vifs uses the value of the EDITOR environment variable to pick the text editor to use. This article assumes you are using the default value of vim. In vim, starts in command mode. To add a new line, move to the end of the document, and press the o key to append a new line and enter edit mode. Then type the following and press the return key.):

UUID=FF9DBDC4-F77F-3F72-A6C2-26676F39B7CE none hfs rw,noauto

9) Type escape to return to command mode and then type ZZ to save and exit vifs (or some other method to save and exit if you are using something other than vim.

10) Type the following and press enter to reset the auto mounter:

 sudo automount -vc

11) Quit Terminal

Now, the next time you restart, or unplug the drive in the case of an external drive, that volume will not be mounted. All you have to do is launch Disk Utility, select the grey, disabled volume, and click the Mount button.

Source


Maximum current that could be drawn out of iPhone 4 headphone Jack? Any clues regarding this value? I couldn't figure it out. I am trying to find the power budget for devices such as Square (www.squareup.com)

Thx

In your example of the Square Reader, it can be deceptive. I too wondered how there was power running to the headphone jack as Apple requires/uses the dock connector to charge, sync, etc. All the add-on devices use the dock and other than headphones I don't know of companies using the headphone jack. Why had no one used it before Square. Read on...

The Square reader actually takes the magnetic information from the swiped card and turns it into audio tones. These tones are then interpreted by the Square App and allow it to process the swipe like a regular credit/debit card transaction.

In my opinion, a very elegant programming solution.


iPhone 5C taking >25 minutes to charge from a dead battery from <8 hours ago I have an iPhone 5C, and I left it in the charger for >25 minutes to recover from a dead battery within the last 8 hours. It will not turn on. The charger works. It can charge another iPhone (6 Plus). The iPhone (5C) shows a dead battery with charger when not plugged in. When it is, it shows a dead battery without a charger. I have not had any water damage, ever. I don't know if there is a way to force power on an iPhone. iTunes does not recognize it, but the iPhone does charge from the USB port it is plugged into. For 25 minutes it has been in an Apple USB wall adapter block. There are no signs of physical damage. It is iOS 7.x or 8.x, but not 9.x. It did not have 3D touch, if that helps.

Note: I am using a non-Apple charger that has worked before in the same phone.

Thanks in advance!

My experience has been that some (most?) non-MFi chargers/cables are unable to bring an iPhone out of a completely discharged state. In the past, I’ve had to use an MFi-certified Apple charger/cable first; only after the iPhone came back to life did the unofficial charger work.


Proper way to connect a macbook to an external monitor I have a macbook air and a 1440 IPS monitor that I usually connect to. However, I'm a bit concerned because sometimes the monitor screen becomes a bit distorted (ants on screen). It usually takes one or two on/off switches to get it working as expected. This only happens when I connect to the monitor for the first time.

I'm not sure what the actual problem is. It could be the macbook, the expensive thunderbolt to dvi adapter, or the monitor. Although I have been using this setup for over a year, I'm worried that it may be harmful in the long run. A bit paranoid, I know.

What I usually do is hook up my running macbook to the monitor. When I'm done, I disconnect it while it's running. Is there any harm in doing this? Or is there a proper way that will minimize damage (e.g., booting up the macbook while connected to the monitor)?

No, there shouldn't be any harm in doing that. Thunderbolt is hot-swap so you can insert and remove the cable at any time while the machine is running.

Going from Thunderbolt to DVI shouldn't require an expensive adapter. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 includ


How can I set up an iOS compatible network pdf printer? I would like to have the ability to generate pdfs from the applications on iPad and iPhone that are print capable.

What I am asking for here is an object that would appear as a printer in OS X, but is actually set up as a virtual printer, a bit of software that anything that can print sees exactly as a printer, that can be shared over a local network and will list in any apps on any iOS devices that are currently running print-capable apps.

Simply put: how do I set up a local network pdf printer for iPad?

I need this to work with iOS5 and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

1 - Install PDFwriter (free). It will allow you to add a new printer in Settings > Printer & Scanners > + button. When you print using this new printer, it will generate a PDF file under /Users/Shared/[username]/

2 - Install handyPrint (donationware). It will allow you to share the virtual PDF printer with the mobile devices.

You might need to disable or create a custom rule on the Mac's firewall so that the devices will find the printer. Change this under Settings > Security & Privacy > Firewall.

PS: I have only used on Mavericks and iOS 6, but I'm 97,21% sure it will work on Snow Leopard and iOS 5.

PPS: There might be similar programs to acomplish this, you don't really need these ones. If you want to see alternatives, search for "virtual printer mac".


Find/replace in TextEdit? How can I change all occurrences of one string to another in TextEdit?

Other text editors call this "find/replace".

Edit Menu > Find, or CMD+F

The Find dialog has a "Replace" section in it, and a "Replace All" button.


Boot Camp, Windows and a Kinect I am going to be playing around with the Kinect v2 and I know I'm going to want to try 3D scanning areas that are not just my room. I intend to scan the outdoors mainly. So this brings me to requiring a powerful laptop. I really don't want to buy a Windows laptop, I want a Mac laptop. I could use an open source API for Kinect, that works on Mac but it seems to be quite slow and obviously won't be as robust as Microsoft's official SDK.

Am I correct in thinking that it's possible to install Windows on a Mac, and run Windows natively (without running in a VM) on the hardware (with the help of Boot Camp perhaps)?

Would the Mac's GPU work correctly while using Windows? Would the Windows drivers work for them?

The last concern I have is if the Mac's USB 3.0 chipset will work fine with the Kinect (it uses USB 3.0) when Windows is booted. Does anyone have any insight about this?

When I'm not using the Kinect, I will of course only be booting OSX. I have no intention to use the Mac laptop for Windows other than when I'm using the Kinect.

In short, yes, everything would work fine for you.

You would get a Windows license, and use Apple's native Boot Camp software to create a Windows partition. This runs completely off the hardware and without the need for a VM.

Part of the Boot Camp installation process is to install the correct Windows drivers for your Apple hardware, so the Mac's GPU and USB 3.0 ports should work.

As far as hardware goes, you would need a pretty good laptop and graphics card. I recommend Apple's MacBook Pro 15in with Retina Display.


Can an iPad Pro Charge a MacBook Pro? I have a 2018 iPad Pro and a recent MacBook Pro (with USB C). Is there any way I can control what charges what when I connect the two? If I connect the two with a USB-C charger, my MacBook automatically starts charging my iPad. Can I have it work the other way around? Can I have it not transfer power, and just be used to transfer data (like for Sidecar)?

This poses a more general question about USB-C: How can you control what direction power goes? I have a USB-C Battery that automatically charges my laptop or iPad when I plug it in, but as soon as the battery dies, the MacBook/iPad will start charging the battery!

While the iPad Pro can charge other devices off of it, including other iPad Pro devices, I see no indication that charging a device like a MacBook is possible.

I don't see any feature in which you can disable power transfer while connected via USB-C, like while using Sidecar in a wired configuration.

Apple does have instructions on how to charge another iPad Pro from the iPad Pro, including how to select which iPad Pro charges which:

  If you have two iPad Pro models with USB-C ports, you can connect them
  directly with a USB-C cable. One iPad Pro will draw power from the
  other. If you want to change which iPad Pro charges, unplug the USB-C
  cable and then reconnect them.

You could try the above with your MacBook and iPad Pro, but it's unclear if that would work.


Resizing Images with Automator into multiple sizes I followed this simple guide to resize images in a batch with Automator:
copy

copy file to resized folder on Desktop
add suffix _S (for small)
resize it to 25% of its original size

Though I want to resize into multiple sizes:

copy file to resized folder on Desktop
add suffix _S (for small)
resize it to 25% of its original size
copy file
add suffix _M (for medium)
resize it to 50% of its original size

Unfortunately this results in the second resize being applied to the already resized image.

So, is there a way to reset the chain back to the original file and not the resized file?

The easiest way would be to re-order your workflow a bit.

Instead of making the small size first, then the medium size, make the medium size first, then create the small size from the medium.

So your workflow would look like this:

Copy Finder Items to the folder you want
Add Text to append the _M
Scale Images to 50% (if that's the medium size you want)
Copy Finder Items to make the small file
Change the Add Text action to Replace Text, replace _M with _S
Scale Images to 50% (50% of the already scaled image will be 25% of the original)

This is what it should look like:

General Method Using Variables

The above method works well for your particular situation, given the sizes you wanted. But if you need oddball sizes, or are doing some other action where feeding the output of the first task into the second won't work, Automator's variables can be used.

You can use the Set Value of Variable action to store the original input in a variable, then recall it for later use with the Get Value of Variable action.

With this method, your workflow would be:

Set Value of Variable and specify a variable name
Copy Finder Items to the folder you want for the small images
Add Text to append the _S
Scale Images to 25%
Get Value of Variable with Ignore this action's input checked (click the Options button on the action if you don't see this)

Make sure the variable selected is the one set in step 1

Copy Finder Items to the folder for medium images
Add Text to append _M
Scale Images to 50%


App Keys (.plist keys) Isn't there some wiki or apple documentation which shows which app keys can be used for apple software?

NOTE: I searched the whole net and didn't find any databases on this topic, so if there isn't really such a database maybe we should create one where we can share these keys. Is it possible to create a wikipage in this manner on stackexchange?

Well-built applications (hopefully including most of Apple's own apps) should be self-documenting -- Apple recommends that developers include a preference manifest inside each application that describes the preference keys they use (including their names, data types, descriptions, reasonable default values, etc).

To view an app's manifest, right-click (or control-click) on the app, and select Show Package Contents; then open Contents/Resources, and look for a file or folder named after the app's bundle id with a ".manifest" suffix (e.g. Safari's is in a sub-bundle, so it's actually in Safari.app/Contents/Resources/com.apple.safari.manifest/Contents/Resources/com.apple.safari.manifest).

The manifest file is itself in .plist format, and may be a little hard to ready by hand, but if you look for the name values listed under <key>pfm_name</key>, you should find what you're looking for.


Disable share (email, message, airdrop) on Finder and Safari Finder has the option to share via email, message or airdrop is you right-click/(control-click) on a file as one can see in the image below,

I don't need this feature and I wouldn't mind if it weren't for the fact that if you accidentally pass over the said option, I get the beach ball for a random interval of time ranging from 5-60 seconds.

A similar event also happens when I click on Safari's Share menu.

Granted that one can use keyboard shortcuts to avoid control-click altogether, but I prefer the mouse.

I have already turned off all contextual services in keyboard preferences and pored over the safari and finder .plist files to no result.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Without installing third party apps please!

Operating system: Mountain Lion 10.8.5
Programs installed: fresh install (a month old) + libreoffice, Dupeguru, VLC, qbittorent, synctwofolders, cool-term, DJview.

You can't.

But you can do away with the buttons at some places at least:

Anywhere you see the "share-button" you can command-drag it out of the toolbar and it will disappear.

Also you can disable parts of it it via your system preferences:

Click on the "extensions" pane

Then disable the sharing services you don't want by unchecking their checkmark:

Lastly, there's the extension in the "today"-section of notification center.

You can easily delete it there by clicking on "Edit" and then clicking the red delete icon.


How can I complete an iPad update when I can't hit "continue"? (broken digitizer) My iPad's digitizer has a few dead areas.  I can live with it.   I just updated iOS using iTunes, and it's saying

                   Update completed
  Your iPad was updated successfully.  There are just a
     few more steps to follow, and then you're done!

                       Continue

..... and, the "continue" button is right in a dead area on the digitizer.

Rotating the iPad does nothing; it will only interact in the home-button-down orientation.

I have tried home button, on/off and rebooting.

Is there any way I can access the iPad through iTunes to get through this screen?

No. You'd need to enroll that iPad in a MDM that can push a profile to suppress that setup step. I still believe you'll need to tap something there as well on iOS 11 so you may need to pay to repair the digitizer at this point.

If you had screen zoom accessibility on, you might be able to multi you h your way to zooming and panning that control so it was on part of the digitizer that still works but I don't think that's enabled either during the pre-setup portion of iOS or amenable to set over iTunes and USB/WiFi sync.


How do I get rid of Genieo from my MacBook Pro? I am trying to get rid of Genieo which accidentally got installed on my MacBook Pro, when I considered using jEdit. I followed their Download link which appears to be on sourceforge, when the following screen appeared:

I should not have been so naive and I should have read more carefully, but since it is not uncommon in having to push yet another button when downloading and because I though sourceforge was a trustworthy resource, I followed the link, ending up with Genieo installed on my mac.

The result is that I am currently being spammed with Genieo driven popups. I want to get rid of this, but the only howto I can find points to Genieo's site where I can download an uninstaller.

I can't say that I trust a site which uses murky marketing tricks to lure people in using their software in the first place, so I am quite hesitant in downloading their uninstaller. I am afraid of what that might unleash on my Mac.

Is there any way to get rid of Genieo manually?

Is there any way to get rid of Genieo manually?

The only way is to do so manually. Carefully follow Thomas Reed's Genieo Removal Guide to completely rid your machine of the offending adware. Here is an abbreviated version of Thomas Reed's guide:

Quit Genio. Remove /private/etc/launchd.conf.
If it's not present, move on. If it is, trash it and restart the machine (See the warning in the full guide about overlooking this step).
Remove the following files, if present:

/Applications/Genieo
/Applications/Uninstall Genieo
/Applications/Uninstall IM Completer.app
~/Library/Application Support/com.genieoinnovation.Installer/
~/Library/Application Support/Genieo/
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.download.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.update.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.engine.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.update.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client
/usr/lib/libgenkit.dylib
/usr/lib/libgenkitsa.dylib
/usr/lib/libimckit.dylib
/usr/lib/libimckitsa.dylib
Restart the machine again.
Remove /Library/Frameworks/GenieoExtra.framework and empty the trash.
Remove the Omnibar Extension from your browser. See full guide if you are unsure how to do so.
Reset the Home Page, and possibly default search engine for your browser.


Which countries can an individual iOS developer reside in in order to receive payments from Apple? I want to sign up as an individual or as a company and sell apps on the App Store. SInce I have not purchased access to Developer Program I cannot check which countries are eligible..Any other way I can check this?

Apple sells the developer program from the online stores in these countries:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/open/country_selector

You could assume that if the developer program is for sale on your country's specific Apple online store, then you are good to go as far as selling apps from that country to anywhere Apple sells apps. I've not heard of anyone having issues, but maybe there are some bizarre edge cases where you can't sell apps everywhere if you are registered in a specific country.

Also, each country has local pre-sales support, so you can contact them before ordering if you have reservations about proceeding with payment. They will get you a specific answer if you ask. Lastly, You can even pay for the developer program and then you get to review the terms and conditions. If they are not to your liking, the developer support phone number and contact information is available to you to request a refund which you could figure out within a week or two of reviewing the T&C.


Deleting background apps You know when you're on the mac and you tap f4 and all these apps and games you already deleted is still there. How do I get rid of them?

Apps can exist anywhere on macOS. Use spotlight to search for the apps you want to delete and see if you have multiple copies.

When that's done, you need to rebuild your spotlight index. That feeds both spotlight search and the launchpad icon list.


Deleting contacts from "All iPhone" also delets them from "All Exchange"? On my iPhone SE, I found that my "Default Account" for Contacts was iPhone.  That was why newly created contacts would not sync with an Exchange Server.  So I changed it to Exchange.  I did not like the fact that migrating the iPhone contacts to the Exchange account needed either a 3rd party app or transferring through the cloud in some way.  So I handraulically re-typed the contacts as new contacts in the "All Exchange" group.  I made sure that the "All iPhone" group was unchecked.  This caused the new contacts to sync with Exchange Server.

To tie up lose ends, I made sure that only the "All iPhone" group was checked, then deleted the re-typed contacts from that group.  Then I made sure that only the "All Exchange" group was checked.  Lo and behold, the contacts were gone.

1) Is this a bug?

2) How do I avoid this?

3) And how do I prevent Contact settings from switching to iPhone?  I seem to be always switching it back over the years, after being burned repeatedly.

Thanks.

All iPhone [or All iCloud if you have that set up] is the 'master list'.
All contacts are in that list.

All other lists are sub-sets of that.
Anything not in any sub-set will only appear in the master list.

If you delete something from the master list you are also deleting it from any & all sub-sets.


MacBook Pro Shift key problem My MacBook Pro with Retina display has the following problem:

Left Shift Key not functioning
Sometimes Shift is on automatically and when restarting, will restart in safe mode

What I've done:

Try using USB keyboard, the problem persist (always in Shift e.g press 8 will output *)
Restart holding OptionCommandRP, get option to reinstall and three others
Restart holding OptionCommandOF, the problem is gone but not for long (first time, it takes a day to happen again.. now, every 30 minutes or so)
Install Karabiner-EventViewer, the press the Left Key definitely give no response; when my MacBook Pro in Shift, the log shows Shift flags for every key pressed.
Reinstall macOS, seems not solving my problem

How can I stay out of safe mode, and use the functionality of shift keys?

I have the same issue with MacBook Pro A1502 EMC 2875 on macOS 10.12.6 fresh installed and previous 10.10.

I also see graphics glitch on PWD logon switching to the desktop, and it's sluggish.

I re-seated ribbon cable and reset SMC. It worked for a while, then it returned.

I believe the keyboard got light liquid damage, so I'm changing it as a test.


Can I combine TextEdit files w/o copying and pasting? I’ve kept daily journal entries in Text Edit. Is there a way I can combine them into one file without cutting and pasting? I’m using TextEdit 1.1 on Mac OS El Capitan Version 10.11.6.

Credit:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2242153?tstart=0

You can achieve this by opening terminal and typing cd [path of the folder where your journals are located] you should replace [ ] with the the folder where your diary entries are written , just drag and drop the folder into the terminal window.(Remember to hit space after typing cd) Then you can merge all the text edit files into one by typing
cat file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt > file4 The file1.txt, file 2.txt and so on will be your diary entries so if you have more just type the name of the file followed by a space and the > symbol will merge all the documents into one file4.txt you can change the name as per your concern.


Install iTunes Backup from different iPhone with iOS 10.2 I have got my new iPhone currently with iOS 9.3.5 and another older iPhone with iOS 10.2. My goal is to get 10.2 on the new one (NOT 10.2.1!!). I tried a iTunes and iCloud backup but the version is still 9.3.5 :/

What can I do?

First of all, iTunes backups don't contain firmware, so they can't upgrade or downgrade your device. They only contain data like messages, contacts and application documents.

You won't be able to install iOS 10.2, as it is no longer being "signed" by Apple. Only firmwares being signed by Apple can be installed on devices - as such, only iOS 10.2.1 can be installed. You can check which firmwares are currently being signed by Apple at https://api.ineal.me/tss/status.


Single-user mode, data recovery, mount usb I have a crashed hard drive. I had no luck with a USB to SATA using MacDrive Pro. I can get the drive to drop into shell with single user mode when I boot the drive.

Can I mount a USB drive or something to copy data off?

I tried /usr/sbin/diskutil mount but I got a framework not being available due to single-user mode.

How can I back the data up?

You may also want to consider the Recovery partition if it's accessible.  Use CMD+R at boot to launch into Recovery mode.  This would let you mount a USB stick or even a network connection to transfer files.

If you do have another computer available, you could boot this Mac into Target Disk Mode by holding the "T" key down at boot when you see the Apple logo.  This would allow you to then use the FireWire or Thunderbolt connection to plug your computer into another as a disk drive.


Launchd running an Applescript every two hours I have written a small applescript that I would like to run automatically every 2 hours. I have thus written the following launchd daemon (probably it is an agent):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Disabled</key>
        <false/>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.zerowidth.launched.aspect</string>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>osascript</string
                <string>/Users/***/my_script.scpt</string>
        </array>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/Users/***/file_log.log</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>ThrottleInterval</key>
        <integer>7200</integer>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Then I have opened terminal and done

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.zerowidth.launched.aspect.plist

It worked fine, but only once and not every two hours. Checking on Console I got the following messages (and many more actually):

  com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.zerowidth.launched.aspect): This service
  is defined to be constantly running and is inherently inefficient.

  Dec 16 17:02:25 Air-of-myself-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]
  (com.zerowidth.launched.aspect): Service only ran for 7 seconds.
  Pushing respawn out by 7193 seconds.

Can you help me in understanding what is going on please? How can I run the apple script every two hours?

Thanks.

EDIT. I add, following Robert's advice, the Python script and the Applescript.

Here is Python script. It asks the console to run the LocateMe command and from this it obtains the latitude and longitude of the place where I am. Then calls an API to obtain sunset and sunrise time of this place. Finally a small function decides whether it is day (sunrise < now

output = os.popen('/Users/***/Desktop/LocateMe').read()
###I extract my coordinates
coord = output[1:25]
lat = float(coord[1:12]) ###latitude
long = float(coord[13:25]) ### longitude

my_sunrise, my_sunset = get_ris_and_set(lat, long) ##this function calls an API that gives sunset and sunrise time in the position given by (lat,long)
my_sunset1 = my_sunset.time()
my_sunrise1 = my_sunrise.time()

result = str(is_day(now.time(), my_sunrise1, my_sunset1))
### compare the time now and returns true if it is day false otherwise
with open('/Users/***/Desktop/log_file.txt', 'a') as f:
        print(result, file=f)
sys.exit()

Here is the Applescript: it runs the Python script above and reads the boolean value (if it is day or not). Then it checks if the dark mode on Mojave is on and it switches if needed.

tell application id "com.apple.systemevents"
tell application "Terminal"
    do shell script "/usr/local/bin/python3 /Users/***/Desktop/python.py $@"
end tell

tell appearance preferences
    set value to do shell script "tail -n 1 /Users/***/Desktop/log_file.txt"
    if dark mode is true and value = "True" then
        set dark mode to false
    else if dark mode is false and value = "False" then
        set dark mode to true
    else
        return
    end if
end tell
end tell

Isn't StartInterval the key for running periodically? In your case, set to 7200 (seconds)?

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/CreatingLaunchdJobs.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000172i-SW7-SW7


Not able to open DVD tray in brand new MacBook Pro I just bought a brand new 13" MacBook Pro, i5 2.3 GHz, running Mac OS X 10.6.7.

I'm not able to open the DVD tray of my Mac. I have tried pressing down the ⏏ key in the top right corner several times, as well as fn+⏏, but no success.

Is there some defect with this MacBook Pro or is there some other way to open the DVD tray?

The SuperDrive is slot-loading. You don't open it, but rather slide the CD/DVD into the slog. When you press the eject key, the drive will eject the disc.


Extension for Safari to enable Google Translation WITHOUT adding a button? In the safari extensions there is a cool extension to use google translate on the current web page: "Translate".

However I don't like the fact it is adding a button to the bar. I would like to make it work as in Chrome, where the bar automatically appears when a website is in a foreign language.

thanks

There's an extension called Translate, you can download it here:
http://sidetree.com/extensions.html
(second from the bottom)


How to completely wipe 3rd generation iPod Nano I was using Floola to transfer songs to my 3rd generation iPod Nano and it suddenly stopped working. Now I installed iTunes and I can't seem to be able to delete any of the old songs and I cannot delete them manually. Even my iPod can't see them anymore and classifies them as “other”. How can I wipe the hard drive and start again fresh?


Can I install iOS 6 on an iPhone 3GS? Is iOS 6 compatible with my iPhone 3GS model? The model number of my iPhone is A1303.

Yes, in the Apple's iOS 6 What's new page, the iPhone 3GS is listed with any kind of restrictions.


Bluetooth is not working (maybe reconnecting ...) after update, on my MacBook Pro 15 inch mid 2015, from 10.14.5 to 10.14.6 my bluetooth stoped working. All of my 5 devices were listed in the System preferences -> Bluetooth, but I could only see their addresses (12 letters). There was no button to connect to any of my device.

I tried:

Removing .plist files (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist, ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ com.apple.Bluetooth.XXX.plist)
Resetting SMC
Resetting  bluetooth module + Removing all devices

But none of them helped to solve my issue. In 10.14.6 when I clicked on Remove all devices (Bluetooth Debug option) I didn’t see any device in System preferences, but when I restarted Mac I did see them (addresses).

I hoped that this bluetooth problem would resolve Catalina, but it doesn’t. Bluetooth is still not working, only change is that after I removed all devices and after restart I didn’t see devices (addresses).

In Catalina I can only see my bluetooth mouse and when I click on connect button, I can see how it is trying to connect, but not successfully (changing text from Connected to Not Connected repeatedly ... this problem I didn't have in 10.14.6). I can only see that mouse, any other devices are not shown.

Do you have any ideas how it could be fixed? Any idea would be very appreciated.

Thank you

Reset PRAM/NVRAM after updating to Catalina so that any old data should be removed from the cache.

Shut down your Mac.
Turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R.
You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.

It will resolved your issue. This solution worked in a couple of Macbooks of my colleagues after upgrading.


Split volume for backups I have just got a mac and I have quite a large external drive that I've mainly used for making back ups of important files. Someone told me today that I could plug this into my mac and split it up and use half the space for the Mac and half the space for Windows files. I'm only looking to do this in order to use Time Machine. I wasn't sure how to do this or if it's recommended.

You could absolutely do this. I've been using a setup like that for a while now and it works great.

What you want to do first is backup the files you have on the drive (backup the backup, haha) just so you can create two separate partitions on the drive. Formatting and partitioning the drive will make the data currently on the drive unavailable, so back up anything important!

Now, open up the Disk Utility application and select the external drive in the left pane of the window. Then click on the Partition button and here you can select any amount of partitions you wish to make. Unless you know you will need more later you could settle with two, one for Time Machine and one for important documents/files.

Continue by pressing the dropdown menu Volume Scheme and select 2 Partitions. You can now name each one and set their respective sizes, obviously a full Time Machine backup requires a fair amount of space so depending on how many backups you intend to have you might want to give this partition a bit of extra space.

You also want to specify which format (file system) to use for each partition. This is important if you intend to use the drive with other systems, for example Windows and Linux systems are not very fond of Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (aka. JHFS+). The Time Machine partition should be partitioned as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but the other partition is up to you.

FAT32 (called DOS or MS-DOS sometimes) is the standard file system used by Windows (I believe), it can be used with Mac without any problems. The only drawback is that you can only store files that are less than 4Gb each, which is a pain if you handle large video files.

NTFS requires additional software for Macs to write, but it's (arguably) the most cross-compatible file system if you want to move files between different operating systems.

If you're only going to use the drive with a Mac, choose to format both partitions as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and press Apply. This will create two new partitions that should work natively with any Mac.

Quick edit:
ExFAT can be an alternative to NTFS, depending on your Windows machine you might need additional software to read/write data to it.