Problems after deleting Bootcamp Partion/EFI I am running High Sierra 10.13.6 on a MacBook Pro.

To cut a long story short, I installed a release of Windows 10 on my Mac and did not like it. So I decided to delete it.

I did my best to remove Windows by using the Disk Utility to delete the partition, but problems arose when the Mac would restart. The Mac would automatically boot into recovery mode in Windows. I would have to shut the computer down, then power up while holding down the optionkey until I could select the Mac Drive. I researched a bit more and found this could be fixed by mounting the EFI volume on /dev/disk0s1 and deleting the Windows and Boot folders inside the EFI folder. So, this left just the the APPLE folder. After following these steps and restarted the computer, I was greeted with a flashing grey folder with a question mark on it. So, I restarted with option key held down, then chose the only drive, the Mac drive.

I ran the diskutil list command. The output is shown below.

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         120.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:           Windows Recovery                         901.8 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +120.1 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            66.7 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 22.0 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                515.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

Now, I think I made the mistake by deleting the Boot folder, but I am not sure. So,  Also, as an aside question: As previously stated, I have deleted everything regarding Windows, so why is the line below appearing?

   3:           Windows Recovery                         901.8 MB   disk0s3

If anyone could help me, it would greatly appreciated.

Quote from OP:

  Now, I think I made the mistake by deleting the Boot folder, but I am not sure.

My response:

You were correct to remove the Boot folder.

Quote from OP:

  I would have to shut the computer down, then power up while holding down the option key until I could select the Mac Drive.

My response:

You should have held down the control key before choosing the Mac drive. This will make macOS the default operating system went starting up.

Quote from OP:

  As previously stated, I have deleted everything regarding Windows, so why is the line below appearing?

3:           Windows Recovery                         901.8 MB   disk0s3

My response:

This is part of Windows. You should remove this partition and add the space back to the APFS container. The commands to do this are given below.

diskutil eraseVolume free none disk0s3
diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


Mac Pro USB ports competing for power? I have an '08 Mac Pro. If I try plugging in my Belkin N150, it works. Then if I plug in my iPad to the slot beneath it, the wireless kicks out. Then if I plug the wireless back in, they both work. So I think the slots are competing for power? What are some solutions?

The iPad is a high power draw device, and Belkin N150 USB Wireless adapter probably is no power slouch either, so it is technically possible for them to be overdrawing an internal USB Bus or Hub in the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro has 5 independent USB Buses as noted in the picture below.

Now depending where things are plugged in they show up in different USB Buses, you may want to Open your System Information Application, and try to avoid placing the iPad and the Belkin N150 on the same bus.

For Example, on my computer the ZyXel... and the DataTraveler are plugged into front USB ports and they appear to be sharing the same usb tree. While my external Hub labeled "Generic USB Hub" and my VF0680, CIRCA102 are all plugged in rear usb ports on the Mac Pro, note how the CRCA102 is on its own Bus.


Music app only shows an outdated music library after I've retrieved it from backup I made a clean reinstallation of my Mac a few days ago due to a problem that had been bugging me for a while now. And, among other things, I tried to retrieve my music library from my backup via Time Machine back to the music app. It was the folder „iTunes“.
To get all the settings back I’ve opened the file “iTunes Library.itl“.
But unfortunately, it seems to be completely outdated (it’s from late 2019!) which also shows in the music app. There are only songs and playlists listed up to that date, even though the songs in the iTunes Media folder (or to be more specific, in username/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music) are all up to date. I suspect that this happened because of the outdated .itl-file.
How can I get back the settings I’ve had a few days back with all my playlists and songs?

Thanks to Apple Support I was able to solve it. If you haven't saved your music library in iCloud, you need to retrieve the iTunes folder from your backup (or generally the one where all your songs are saved) and another folder in the same directory, Music, which should contain a single file, Music Library, that's up to date.
Close the Music app (if it was open) and reopen it while pressing the option key (alt). Navigate to the above-mentioned file Music Library and you've got your latest library back.


How to turn off Launchpad transparent My MacBook, with Retina Display, has problems with smooth animations. How can I turn off the transparency (and blur) in Launchpad on OS X El Capitan?

Also I'd like to turn off animation when I open folders with apps in Launchpad. Is this possible?

You can enter the following commands in Terminal.app, they will turn off the relevant animations:

# showing and hiding Launchpad
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-show-duration -float 0
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-hide-duration -float 0

# changing pages in Launchpad
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-page-duration -float 0

# restart Dock
killall Dock

There are quite a few other animations you can turn off as wel. Take a look at this answer or you could use TinkerTool

To turn the animations back on, you enter the same commands, but with 1 instead of 0


How can I identify the first occurrence of a repeating event in Calendar Before Sierra Calendar and after "defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu 1" we could locate the first event of a repeating event in our calendar. This was extremely useful for deleting all linked events from without having to hunt them down one by one. This would be required if one of the events became disassociated from the rest of the repeating events because a change had been made to it, like time of day.

Has anyone figured out how to replace this removed "feature" - the debug menu?

One out-of-the-box method is to drag the event to the desktop, creating a .ics file. When you have a QuickLook of the .ics file by pressing the space bar, a preview of the recurring event will come up with the event's start date in the title bar.
Works with Big Sur.


Pause screen recording in QuickTime X I found a screen recording feature of QuickTime X very useful. Except you can't pause the recording, as in most other screen recording programs. Or can you?

record as usual
when ready to pause, move your mouse over to the recording box and click anywhere to activate that box (the Quicktime Program)
press "option button" on keyboard and the record bar will change to Pause ||
BUT, this DOES NOT PAUSE the timer, to do that,click the Pause ||
Now, it's truly PAUSED and you can let go of the "option" button
Now, the record button turns RED, when in this mode, it's PAUSED
To restart recording, simply click the RED button
Do steps 2 to 7 all over again for another pause in your recording


Can you recover a deleted message or chain of messages from iPhone? I see all of these software that claim that they can recover messages deleted from your iPhone. Do they actually work?
For example, if I received 2 text messages from my friend and I immediately deleted them. Is it possible to recover them?

If you have done an iCloud backup before those messages have been deleted then you can bring them back from iCloud backup with a restore from iCloud.


Why does Apple's website not make extensive use of CSS3 fonts? Ever since Steve Jobs published his Thoughts on Flash, I've always seen Apple as advocators of open web standards. Scrolling halfway down the What is Safari page seems to confirm this notion.

So, why does Apple overwhelmingly use images for their headers? For example,

and on Retina displays,

Wouldn't it make sense, with respect to both open web standards and page load time, to instead link to the fonts in a CSS file?

Apple has been notably touchy about 3rd-Party use of their fonts in the past and I'm inclined to say they still are.  Apple use to include a few fonts in OS 8, for example, which had Apple-copyrighted design.  You had access to them in that anything that specifically used that font rendered correctly, but if you wanted to be able to select the font in a text document, you had to jump through some hoops and enable it manually.

The font in question is almost definitely Myriad Pro or an Apple derivative.  You "must" purchase a license to use it commercially.

While I generally agree with your assessment of using CSS3 fonts, it seems that Apple may be more concerned with copyright.  Load time differences are probably negligible for most people accessing the Apple site.  I'm sure they have people in Marketing looking at that data.


iOS 5 for iPhone secretly contains iPad calendar features? The iPad calendar is much better than the iPhone version.
Arguably, with the Retina Display the iPhone should be able to display a similar interface.

All of the current iOS devices have different feature sets, yet claim to support the same operating system: iOS 5.

As of this writing iOS 5 is available for all iPad models, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 GSM, iPhone 4 CDMA, the iPod touch 3rd generation and the iPod touch 4th generation.

When the iPad was introduced, it came with iOS 3.2, which was a version made specifically for the iPad.  It included several features that would later be incorporated into iOS 4 and made available on other devices.

When iOS 4.2 (I think) was released, it marked the first version of iOS that was compatible with both iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

My question is this:

Does each device have a build of iOS created specifically for their hardware with every update release?
Or does the firmware file for the OS contain all of the features/interface elements for the entire product line (Like the iPad calendar interface) and only make available what features/settings the device should have?

Note, I know that iOS 5 can pull small updates and doesn't have to download the entire firmware each time. I'm asking about an initial upgrades and installs.

iOS 5 comes in different "flavors" for each device.  iOS is stored on the computer you sync to as an .ipsw file.  These files are located here:

~/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates/

~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates/

~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/

Each device's "flavor" of iOS is optimized and only contains the code needed for the device it pertains to.


How can I receive FM radio broadcasts on my iPhone 4? How to listen my local FM stations in my iphone 4? Like I can listen with my old Nokia phone, without using Internet, GPRS etc.

Is iPhone 4 lacking this facility?

I heard about "Pandora Radio" but it uses the Internet to run and it's also not for Indian FM channels.

In my Nokia Express Music Mobile I can listen my local FM stations without any GPRS, Internet in mobile.

The iPhone 4 does not have a radio tuner. All it has is the appropriate cellular band, WiFi, and Bluetooth. In short, no there is no easy way to do this.

Some radio stations make apps so you can stream their content via the internet, or offer live streams. I would check out the radio station's website to see what they have available.


Can't remove LDAP account from Internet Accounts The goal: Remove LDAP Contacts account from list of the Internet Accounts.

The problem: Removed LDAP account reappears in the Accounts list in 5 seconds after deletion.

Current OS: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Steps:

System Preferences -> Internet Accounts
Select the LDAP Account
Press "-" button
Press "Remove From All" button on the pop-up dialog window "Do you want to remove the LDAP account “ldap.hostname.com” from all your computers using iCloud Keychain?"
Account removed from the list
After 5 second appears in the list.

UPD: I've updated to Mojave and was able to delete these accounts.

I have the same problem on High Sierra (starting from 10.13.4, currently up to 10.13.6).

I tried to reset my iCloud keychain. It worked, until my iPhone (6S+, iOS 12.1.4) got connected to Wi-Fi and pushed data with those accounts back.

I checked this again, by disabling iCloud keychain on iPhone (Settings > Passwords & Accounts > iCloud > Keychain > Off), then resetting iCloud keychain on Mac, and then enabling back iCloud keychain on iPhone.

Seems the solution is to reset the iPhone (and other iOS devices, supposedly) and then reset iCloud keychain via Mac.
But I'm not ready to go so far to test this theory, unfortunately.

Below is how to reset iCloud keychain from previous version of this answer.

You should probably backup your login and iCloud keychains, to avoid losing passwords and having to re-enter them after reset.

Login keychain stored in login.keychain-db file which is located in ~/Library/Keychains/ (Finder > Go > Go To Folder (cmd + shift + g).

You can copy it somewhere safe and then add it back (Keychain Access > File > Add Keychain)

Unfortunately, it's not possible to do the same with iCloud keychain.
There is other solution.

To reset keychains:

Open System Preferences > Internet Accounts > iCloud
Uncheck Keychain in the list
Open Keychain Access > Preferences (cmd + ,)
Press Reset My Default Keychains button

Now go back to System Preferences > Internet Accounts > iCloud

Check Keychain back
Enter your iCloud password
Click Use Code, then choose Forgot Code when you're asked to enter your iCloud Security Code
Click Reset iCloud Keychain to confirm
Follow the onscreen steps to create a new iCloud Security Code (should be optional)

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht202755


Get iPad serial number on iCloud My girlfriend and I have traveled to Singapore and her iPad has gotten stolen.

We can't seem to find her iPad serial number anywhere (she never plugged it into her computers as it was backed up through iCloud and it charged faster through the socket), and she's binned the box it came in from.

Apple's support website doesn't show it under her Apple ID either. We've also tried going through other possible emails, but there's only the one.

It does, however, show under Find my iPhone on the iCloud website. Is there a way to retrieve the serial number through here?

We need it so that the police here can match it to a database of lost and found devices.

I've found how you do it.

With Xcode installed, open your terminal and run:

open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist

This will open the property list editor.

Navigate down to Root -> Devices and look under each device to recognise the one you're looking for. There are 2 identifying factors: DeviceClass (which can be iPod, iPhone or iPad) and Firmware Version String. Through those two I was able to get the serial number I needed.


Network sharing fonts I've got four iMacs in a design studio and I want to share fonts between them so InDesign documents and the like won't get errors when they're being worked on on any of the machines.

Are there any software solutions or methods for this problem? Don't mind paying, just need it sorted out reliably so that we can have equivalent fonts on multiple machines.

Extensis makes the Universal Type Server for this purpose. I have no experience with it.

The Universal Type Server "Lite" version, designed for up to 10 users, costs US $1395.


MAIL attachments turn to zero kb i have configured my Google APP email account on my new MACbook Pro (OS x 10.9.4).

it was working fine for couple of days but now any attachment that i try to save it get save with ZERO size.

Note: this problem is only with Encrypted Folders.
if i download the save attachment to unencrypted folder, there is no problem encrypted

Google APP email uses Google designed Encryption.

To set it up you need to use the Google Apps Message Encryption Quick Start Guide.

For the Attachment settings see the Google instructions  Attachment compliance setting

Basically what it means is you have to tell Google APP how to handle the attachments.

To configure Attachment compliance settings for your domain or organizational unit:

Sign in to the Google Admin console.
From the dashboard, go to Apps > Google Apps > Gmail > Advanced settings.
In the Organizations section, highlight your domain or the organizational unit for which you want to configure settings (see Configure advanced settings for Gmail for more details).
Scroll down to the Attachment compliance section:
    If the setting's status is Not configured yet, click Configure (the "Add setting" dialog box displays).
    If the setting's status is Locally applied, click Edit to edit an existing setting (the "Edit setting" dialog box displays), or click Add another to add a new setting (the "Add setting" dialog box displays).
    If the setting’s status is Inherited, click View to view the inherited setting, or click Add another to add a new setting (the "Add setting" dialog box displays).
When you're finished with your changes, click Add setting or Save to close the dialog box.


A non-closed circle icon in macOS menu bar that I cannot remove On the top menu bar I have a non-closed circle and every time I click on it I get the colourful (loading circle icon). I cannot remove this thing. What is that?

Assuming you just want to remove it, you could check your Login items:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Users & Groups
Make sure your User Account is selected at top left
Click on the Login Items tab
Look for any items listed in the list of login items
Now remove any items you don't want to start automatically by clicking on its name (so it's highlighted) and then clicking on the minus - button
Once it's removed, exit System Preferences
Restart your Mac to test to see if the icon is still there


Trouble with iPhone 5s I just got a new iPhone because my other one broke & I was wondering how do I get my information (pictures, contacts) transferred back to my new phone? My broken iPhone was backed up... I've done it before but i forgot the steps.

Assuming that you have an iCloud backup since you tagged your question with the "iCloud" tag.

If your old iPhone was backed up via iCloud then you just start the Setup Guide (the thing you see when you first start up an new iPhone) and go through some basics like language and connecting it to your Wi-Fi network. After that you will be asked if you want to set up the phone as A new iPhone, From an iTunes backup or From an iCloud backup. Choose iCloud backup. In the following step you will need to enter your Apple-ID login credentials. After that your iPhone will start downloading the data and it will take care of everything by itself.

The Setup Guide is easy to follow. Just read carefully and follow the instructions.


User home folders not detected I have a Macbook Pro running Lion 10.7.3. It has an SSD with 2 partitions: the OS is located in partition 1 and my user home is in partition 2.

Everything was working fine, but some days ago I had to restart the notebook and now the OS says that it can not access to my user folders, I cannot navigate (via terminal) to the OS folders, like Library and others.

I've tried many things, including run fsck and Disk Utility's to Repair Permissions but nothing works; what could happened? Suggestions to solve or try?

Check in the  "User & Groups" System Preferences, it looks like OS X may have somehow forgotten the path to where your "Home directory:" is at.

If you can still login, verify that your Path is still what you set in System Preferences for your "Home directory:" path.

If you can't log in, then try logging in as another Admin user to fix your home directory location.

Try to login as that user and then edit, verify where the OS thinks your home directory is for your primary user account.

Create a new Mac OS X adminstrator account without an existing administrator password might be helpful in your situation, so that you can have another admin account to help you trouble shoot.

Restart the computer in Mac OS X single user mode by holding Command-S at startup.
Mount the computer's drive for read/write access. To do so, type the following command at the command prompt, and then press Enter:

% mount -uw /
Remove the file that identifies that the initial run of the "Mac OS X Setup Assistant" has been completed, with this command at the command prompt, followed by Enter:

% rm /var/db/.applesetupdone  #Update on Lion it looks like its .AppleSetupDone
Restart the computer by entering this command, followed by Enter.

% reboot
The Mac OS X Setup Assistant screen should appear after the reboot, just as it does when you start up a brand new computer or upgrade to a new version of Mac OS X.
Create a new user account with the Setup Assistant. Be sure to name this user something different than the admin user that already exists on the system, and use a strong password (see "Mac OS X password tips"). At the end of the Setup Assistant process, the system will automatically log into this new user account. The account will have a unique ID (UID) that is one higher than the last user that was on the system, and will have all administration privileges.
Log in as the new user, and then edit the "Home directory:" Advanced Options path for your primary user.


How many finder action undos are possible? I'd like to understand how deep the queue one can go undoing their previous actions in finder?

Empirically, five, but not always.

I wouldn't rely on it; if you disturb the queue in any way you can find it's just one.

Test by duplicating a small file 7 times, then undo til it stops... 5 steps.
Trash the dupes.

Test again, duplicate the file 5 times. After the 5th copy, 'break the chain' by then copying one of those files to another partition.
You're down to one undo step.


Share iPhone screen for MacBook wirelessly? Is it possible to share the screen of my iPhone on my MacBook wirelessly?

You can use AirPlay's Screen Mirroring on the iPhone to mirror the display to your Mac running AirPlay server software such as Reflector or AirServer. With the software installed on your Mac, open Control Center, choose Screen Mirroring and select your Mac to begin mirroring.


Connect 2 external monitors (1 VGA + 1 HDMI) to MacBook Pro I have a 13" 2017 MacBookPro.

I wish to connect two monitors to it, a Samsung HDMI monitor and a LG VGA Monitor. I am using an Aukey Multiport USB-C Adapter.

I can't connect the two monitors at the same time. When I do it, only the HDMI works. If I plug it out from the multiport, the VGA monitor shows up.

What could be the reason for this behaviour? How do I resolve this issue?

With that adapter, you can only use 1 video output at a time.  From the product description in the link you provided:

  Alternative Video Outputs: Connect a display to your computer using
  either the HDMI port (4K@30Hz Max resolution) or VGA port (1080p Max
  resolution). If both are connected, only HDMI will output

Emphasis mine

To connect two monitors, you need two video adapters - an HDMI and a separate VGA adapter. The following should work:

Type C USB-C HDMI Active Adapter
USB-C Thunderbolt to VGA adapter

I always recommend using Active Adapters because they regenerate the signal from DiaplayPort to actual HDMI or VGA signals.


Horrible high pitched noise from iSight mic only under OSX My old 2008 Macbook's iSight microphone is acting up but only under OSX. In bootcamp running Windows XP, it's fine!

The problem is a high pitched sound, very reminiscent of old radios with the pitch going up and down.

It happens regardless of the app I use
Rebooting OSX did not make a difference.
Adjusting the mic volume does not help.
Turning ambient noise reduction off does not help.
CPU is idle and fans at 3200rpms, same as Windows XP
I've not changed any audio settings or loaded any audio software
It's happening while using headphones so it's not a feedback loop

Windows XP does NOT have this high pitched noise, just the normal background noise and it is usable.

Any ideas?

PS: Not that I think it's relevant but I'm running Snow Leopard.

It's quite old question but I had same problem with two USB cameras just few days ago. To fix it go to the MIDI setup (i.e. by Spotlight Search Bar). On the left side choose your USB microphone (USB camera) and on the right try to change frequency to 44 100Hz and format 16-bit. Previously I had 24-bit which causes the problem.


Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Tool to Convert Pictures or Images to Text I have scanned text. I am looking for an affordable OCR tool (Optical Character Recognition) tool. I tried OCRTOOLS from the App Store, but it crashes with the first picture I tried.

Any recommendations?

If you use Google Docs, it has OCR built in.

When you're uploading something, just check the Convert text from PDF or image files to Google Docs documentsoption.

You can download Google Docs files as whatever format you want.


Spotify on Mac: Songs constantly won't play and get skipped over An example:

My friend running the app right next to me is able to play the same songs without a problem from his phone, yet on my Mac app it just skips over them. I've been having this problem for lots of tracks for a long time. Has anyone else had this problem? Any solution?

I fixed this by completely nuking the app and all support folders and re-installing.


Tired of the Apple Mail Client Woosh sound on mail send I am using Macbook pro 13inch 2015 model. Using OSX Sierra.

Every time I send a mail with the apple mail client is makes a woosh sound. In order to suppress this sound I have done the following things

Go into settings -> notifications and switch off the notification sounds for mail client.

Disable User Interface sound effects in settings -> sound.

However still when I send a mail it makes a stupid woooosh sound.

Go to Mail's Preferences. ⌘+.

Mail > Preferences > General tab

Deselect the

  Play sounds for other mail actions

checkbox.


Access passcode locked iPhone with broken screen without jailbreaking My iPhone screen broke but I know my passcode.

Is there anyway I can enter my passcode from my Mac? If yes, what app/software?

I already deleted my backup (iCloud) due to space, so I need to back it up before I wipe it. Can someone guide me through the process or a share a viable link? Apple Support Communities is too ambiguous for me.
This image seems relevant:

My screen is not functioning.
I've tried iExplorer/iBrowser, all to no avail.
I need an app/software to control my iPhone from my Mac.

Solution 1: USB keyboard

You can use the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter.

Connect the adapter to your iPhone.
Connect a USB keyboard to the adapter.
Enter your passcode

Solution 2: Bluetooth keyboard

If you had connected a bluetooth keyboard to your iPhone before you can use it to enter your iPhone's passcode.

Make sure your iPhone has bluetooth enabled
Turn on your keyboard and pair wait for it to connect to your iPhone.
Enter your unlock passcode.


How can I modify the Date Added field in iTunes 10 I haven't tried doing this in quite some time (iTunes 7 era), but I seem to remember simply editing the XML file iTunes creates was NOT sufficient in updating the Date Added field in iTunes.

In case you're curious why I would want to edit Date Added, it is because I most often enjoy listening to music with iTunes sorted on Date Added field. Most of the time this is a logical order for me, but occasionally (when importing more than one album at a time) iTunes imports a batch of songs in a seemingly random order, so I might have very differing albums intermixed. In these cases, I'd like to go in and make sure the Date Added times are grouped by album.

Just change the system clock and add the file again:

Remove the track.
Change the date on your system clock to the desired date.
Add the track.


Discrepancy between availble space and capacity on external HD Disk Utility report (Consistent with Finder)

Mount Point :   /Volumes/partition2
Format :    Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Owners Enabled :    No
** Number of Folders :  10

Capacity :  1.9 TB (1,900,231,068,160 Bytes)
Available : 1.9 TB (1,899,390,058,496 Bytes)
** Used :   841 MB (841,007,104 Bytes)**
** Number of Files :    55

sudo zsh;

du -hs *(D)

744K    .Spotlight-V100
0B  .Trashes
4.0K    .fseventsd

I am unable to recover those 841 MB. I have tried reformatting but nothing changes.

I noticed this issue after copying 2 files to the external drive and deleting them. I didn't pay attention to those stats before doing that but I suspect they were the responsible what's happening. Their summed sizes were at least similar to these 800 MB (I can't confirm if it's exactly the same as they were since deleted).

It's a new external hard drive and I need to know whether it's working properly. I have no experience with those and I don't know if I'm simply missing something obvious.

UPDATE 1: Trying the 1 pass zeros erase in Disk Utility (as suggested by @IconDaemon)

UPDATE 2: After the 14 hour process, there are still 841MB used. I can live with that but I fear this may accumulate.

UPDATE 3:
Repair Disk

Verify and Repair volume “partition2”
Starting repair tool:
Checking file system
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume partiton2 appears to be OK.

It didn't solve the problem.

UPDATE 4: I ran the WD Drive Utilities' Complete Drive Test and no bad sectors.

UPDATE 5: Reformatted to FAT - 2.2MB Used. Then tried Exfat - 9MB Used. HFS+ again - 850 MB.

Maybe it's just the case that HSF+ needs 0.05% of the drive to work as @IconDaemon pointed out. Alternatively Disk Utility is using some inefficient process to do the formatting.

Try using Repair Disk in Disk Utility to fix any disk anomalies, or run fsck -fy / in single user mode.


macbook pro 15 inch retina, keyboard shortcut for desktop display I have the latest MacBook Pro 15 inch with Retina display, OS 10.8.4. Not wanting to use the standard Fn keys but use them as Apple has assigned them.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to display the desktop? I find the finger drag on the trackpad literally a drag!

Thanks, Carin

cmd-F3 works for me.  If you have Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys turned on in System Preferences > Keyboard, then it would have to be fn-cmd-F3.


Disable the iTunes import finished sound Often I'm listening to the songs being imported during the import, using the new tracks in the library. When iTunes completes the import there's an annoying finished chime that sounds loudly because I'm listening to music.

There doesn't appear to be anything relevant in the prefs dialog. Web searches weren't helpful, and I've looked around in itunes prefs files but nothing looks useful there either.

I'm hoping that there's an undocumented plist pref.

I use iTunes on a Windows 7 machine.

EDIT: @daniel-lawson approach seems to be the only way to solve this.

Searching for filenames beginning with complete in the iTunes directory, I found: C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.Resources\complete.wav
If you might want to reverse this in the future, make a copy of complete.wav
Truncate/Empty complete.wav somehow.
No more Import Complete sound.

Alternately just delete complete.wav. I prefer to keep the filename in the directory; maybe this will prevent a software update from re-creating it.

After looking around a bit more using the filename, I found this issue addressed on forums, and the answer seemed to be: delete the file. Also, someone has written a GUI around this that probably just edits the file: I Hate That iTunes Done Chime!

I found the answer here, and it worked for me on Windows 10.  Instructions copied just in case the website goes away:

Click Start then Control Panel
Type sound into the search box at the top of the Control Panel and press Enter
Click the Sound link from the Control Panel. The Sound properties window launches
Click the Sounds tab
Scroll down the list of available sounds in the iTunes section. There are two sounds associated with iTunes: Complete and Page Load Complete
Click the iTunes sound that you want to turn off
Select None from the drop-down box under Sounds. Click Apply
Repeat Steps 6 and 7 for each iTunes sound that you want to turn off


If I erase my iPhone, will this erase my iCloud too? If I erase my iPhone, will my iCloud be erased too?

No, factory resetting your iPhone will not alter your iCloud. Upon setting up your iPhone again you will be given the option to reconnect to your iCloud account if you desire. iCloud also stores iPhone backups that you can restore your phone from. Apple's apps are really good about storing items in iCloud, however many others are not. If you are worried about losing your content, be safe and make a local backup to a machine through iTunes, just to be safe. Alternatively, I believe you could schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar and have them reset your phone for you.
EDIT: If you have "Find My iPhone" enabled, no one will be able to use that device without your iCloud login credentials.


How can I make VLC output its sound through USB headphones? Whenever I plug-in my earphones with a round connection into my MacBook Pro, the sound automatically switches to them. Whenever I plug my headphones with a USB connection (Logitech USB ClearChat Comfort Headset) and I am playing sound in iTunes, the sound automatically switches. Whenever I plug in my headphones and VLC is playing, the sound continues to play through the speakers. Is there any way to make VLC work with my USB headphones?

Update: It seems that the headphones don't work properly with Skype either.

VLC can't switch audio interfaces on-the-fly. You either have to stop playing media entirely, and go into the preferences and change it, then start playing your media again; or, the slightly easier way:

Kill VLC
Plug in headphones (and ensure they become the primary output sound device, hold option and click the sound icon in your menu bar, select usb headphones if necessary)
Start VLC

Assuming VLCs preferences are still set to use the Default Audio Device for output, then it'll use them when you start playing content again.


messages disappeared from some mailboxes and smart mailboxes following removal of an account from Mail I upgraded to Mountain Lion recently. My email changed as well. I used to have my 40K emails in different mailboxes and now I realize that the new way to do so is with 'smart mailboxes' (I actually like it).

Problem

At home, with an iMac: the transition to ML was OK until today when I had a problem with my outgoing emails. I decided to take the approach of 'delete the account and rewrite the settings':

that caused all my emails (except 200 that are 'live' on my server) to disappear from the iMac.

Elsewhere: at my office, everything is on a Mac Pro, which also runs Mountain Lion.

Questions

Is there any way to retrieve all my emails? (Do I still have the old email's folder somewhere?)
If not, then with the data on the Mac Pro at the office: how can I export/import back home?

Thanks!

Removing an account from Mail removes all local copies of messages for that account.

  Is there any way to retrieve all my emails? (Do I still have the old email's folder somewhere?)

If the account was for an e-mail service that uses IMAP or Exchange Web Services

In Mail, simply recreate the account. With IMAP, all messages:

are (primarily) stored on the server
may be (secondarily) cached by e-mail clients such as Mail in OS X

– and so recreation of the account should regain access to everything that is on the server.

If the account was for an e-mail service that uses POP

It's normal for Post Office Protocol (POP) to not leave a copy of a message on the server after that message has been delivered. (Metaphorically: your postman or postwoman does not keep copies of your mail.) However, e-mail client software may be configured to stray from that default, to leave some things on a POP server.

If you used POP for your account configuration:

be prepared for the possibility of not finding some things on the POP server
it may be desirable to use Mail on your other Mac (the Mac Pro) to save or export data.

If the deleted messages were on the iMac alone, and if you had no backup on a separate disk

The likelihood of recovering data from JHFS+ may be low.

OS X tends to quickly reuse space after that space is marked as free, especially if that space is an an area of hard disk that is preferred for performance.

Mobile Time Machine local snapshots provide handy backups, but this feature of Time Machine is laptop-oriented (probably not enabled on your iMac).


How to disable the SpeedStep when using MacBook Pro without a battery? First of all, the specs:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
OS X 10.9.1 (Mavericks)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB RAM

The Problem
Recently, my battery randomly died and I had to disconnect it, otherwise, my computer would not properly turn on (MacBook Pro was restarting itself and turning off over and over again).
Now, every time I plug-in the power cable, it starts straightaway (even without pushing the power button), turns off after a few seconds, and then starts normally. Weird.
Nevertheless, the main problem is, after some time, the laptop becomes VERY slow. By "VERY slow" I mean - games become unplayable (FPS drop from 60 to 6) and kernel_task starts using more than 500% of the CPU. Moreover, the mouse speed significantly increases.
I tried the interrock's (the 10th post) guide but it does not seem to work correctly and caused me a kernel panic related to the SleepEnabler.
P.S. I have read somewhere that Apple does this "underclocking" intentionally, for safety or marketing (to buy a new battery) reasons. Please correct me if I am wrong.

OS X will intelligently throttle CPU based on certain
conditions in an effort to a) prolong battery life and b) avoid system
damage (through excessive heat). Apple does not "sabotage" machines in
an effort to get customers to buy new batteries. –  cksum

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Solution (That Worked For Me)
https://web.archive.org/web/20190507215911/http://www.rdoxenham.com/?p=259

It does seem like you have a problem with your battery, although it's likely that it's only adding to the underlying issue which you've touched upon.

The concept behind Speedstep seems good, however, the way in which it works is quite bad — especially when it comes to kernel_task. I believe it's the reason you're seeing such a dramatic slowdown — because this "feature" is consuming the majority of your MacBook Pro CPU so it can apparently cool your system down and save energy.

  Intel SpeedStep Technology allows the system to dynamically adjust processor voltage and core frequency, which can result in decreased average power consumption and decreased average heat production. (from Intel)

What this equates to is you end up losing a significant portion of the CPU while SpeedStep hijacks kernel_task and continually carries out low-overhead tasks until the CPU temperature drops. Your system essentially becomes bogged down so you can save energy regardless if you want to or not. I would imagine that most people expect to be able to use all of their CPU power when they want to — not when their system allows them.

Luckily this “feature” is built into a kext, in which each model identifier specifies how to control the temperature of the CPU. It's a simple fix, and most people that have similar issues to what you describe are quite happy once they realize this. I take no credit for this fix, for it's all thanks to Rhys Oxenhams who researched this and came up with a solution.


MacBook Pro detects external monitor but shows black screen MacBook Pro 8,1 (13", i5 2.3Ghz) - when I connect an external screen through a MiniDP -> DVI adapter the Mac detects it (knows it's a Samsung SyncMaster and lets me change its resolution) but doesn't show anything on screen. Even though the Mac thinks that the screen works properly (I can move the cursor out of the Mac's screen), the external monitor's led blinks as there was no signal at all. Changing screen resolution doesn't help.

I've browsed many similar questions on the internet, unfortunately most of them suggest upgrading the OS. I'm using Mac OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. What should I do?

I had the same problem, and I think I found what causes the problem. My macbook air was detecting the display, but only thing I saw was black screen.

Either your monitor is using VGA signal even if you are using DVI cable or you are using DVI to VGA adapter in between. MiniDP to DVI only produces digital signal.

For more information check a blog post of mine.


How to make sure album art shows up everywhere (Mac & iPhone) while using iTunes Match? What's the correct way to manage album art while using iTunes Match and have it show up everywhere?

I've noticed that, typically:

When iTunes Match correctly applies album art in iTunes, it only appears on the first track of the album.
Viewing the album after having downloaded it from the cloud to my iPhone, I can typically see the album art
Some songs on the album, when played on the iPhone, will display album art, but some will not.

How can I best apply art through iTunes to have it show up everywhere? Must I ensure it's applied to every song, and then Update iTunes Match?

You don't need to download a song on your iOS devise via iTunes Match to get its artwork updated on that device. All you need to do is go into Settings -> Music -> turn off iTunes Match, and then turn it back on. All artwork will update over a few minutes. (I turned device off and back on again before turning Match back on just to be safe, but not sure it's necessary.)

You can go into your Music and see the little spinning wheel constantly working a half second at a time (for each album cover being updated from A to Z). with iTunes recent update to artwork, this is how I got the new artwork over to my iOS device.


Yosemite disables audio output on external monitor change When I plug or unplug monitor so the screen configuration changes, or if I open/close the MBP lid, then:

The audio stops
When I try to change volume, the volume symbol is crossed like this: Ø

Can it be fixed somehow? E.g. on Skype calls it's very annoying.

Look at the What If I'm Running the Stable Version? of this article.

  So, open System Preferences,  go to the Sound menu and then look in the Output tab to see which device is used for output.

I confirmed that when I unplugged my HDMI monitor and plugged it back in, the monitor was selected by default, but when I then manually selected Headphones and then unplugged an reconnected my monitor again, this time Headphones stayed selected.


Will the Airport Extreme card from the 2006 Mac Pro work in the 2008 Mac Pro? An Airport Extreme card that claims to work with the 2008 Mac Pro and the card that I am using in my current 2006 Mac Pro. The cards look similar and since the ram is transferable from the 2006 models to the 2008 models I was wondering if the same is true for the airport extreme card? The cards appear to be the same physically. Has anyone actually tried it before or know of a definite answer?

Yes it will! Just tried it with success!

My largest indicator that it would work was by reviewing high reputation eBay sellers who where selling similar cards and claiming a wide range of Mac Pros.

Successfully transfered the Airport Extreme Card from the Mac Pro 2006 in to a Mac Pro 2008

I have the following Airport Extreme Card that identifies itself in System Information as :

Card Type:         AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x8C)
Firmware Version:  Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.11)

The card as pictured is:

Installation Note:  There were 3 wires to choose from inside the Mac Pro (Both models), labeled 1,2,3.  The longest one I thought was for the Bluetooth module, clearly not the case in the Mac Pro 2008. Anyways, I connected the shortest wire to the top antenna port and the middle length to the lower antenna port on the Airport Extreme Card. Test working great, with this configuration and logic. This is the same logic I used when I initially installed the card in the 2006 Mac Pro as well. Not really sure what the long length cable is for as pictured below.

I would assume this would be for a true 802.11n card since those had 3 antennas in their spec?


Can I use Time Machine but still be able to access deleted files on my Mac? Normally I just copy important files on my external HDD or move the big files on there cause I don't have much space on my Mac.

However, I want to try Time Machine, because it might be less prone to HDD failure. Since I recently just got a toasted HDD and now all my important files are lost.

Question is, if I want to just move a big file from my Mac to my external HDD just to free up space on my Mac (I'm always low on local storage), can Time Machine do that?

Yes, you can move files away from your Mac to an external HDD when using Time Machine.

The file will remain in the backups until the backup drive runs full and Time Machine starts deleting older backups.

Note however that the backup will contain a version of the file from before you’ve moved it to an external HDD. If you want to backup files on your external hard drive with Time Machine, you’ll need to remove the external drive from the list of exclusions in Time Machine settings.


Some messages only appear on my Mac I like being able to text off my MacBook.
Sometimes the responses don't go to my phone so I miss messages and only get them when I open my Mac.

Does anyone know how I can receive messages on my iPhone and my Mac?

On your iPhone, go into Settings->Messages->Text Message Forwarding and switch the switch by your Mac off. Once off, switch it back on and then authenticate it on your Mac.


How to open GUI applications on remote machine logged in via SSH on OS X I am logging into a remote Fedora 12 machine via SSH. I have enabled X11 forwarding by passing -X parameter to ssh. I also tried trusted forwarding with -Y. Both of them fail with (gedit:3711): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display, when I try opening a file with gedit on the remote machine.

What am I missing?

Try running a local X11 application first. If that doesn't work, reinstall Xquartz and log out and back in again.


Download size/time of iTunes Movies and Rentals + Apple TV use What is the range of file sizes that are downloaded when purchasing or renting a movie via iTunes? This would be useful in estimating the time to download.

Apple's help is very vague just saying that "The download time depends on the speed of your Internet connection." without providing any references to file size or anything to help work out a time.

Do rentals buffer and allow immediate playback - or is the complete file required?

With the new Apple TV not having local storage - how does it deal with movie purchases or rentals? Does it require a computer with home sharing enabled to download it to?

A single movie will usually be between 1-2G. The amount it will want to buffer will depend on the speed of the buffering.

Having a reliable sustained download speed of about 300K/s then it should buffer and start playing within a few seconds.


iphone rings through speaker with earphones connected Just noticed that my iphone 8+ (ios 11.3) rings through speaker even when headphones are connected (works both with earpods and beats solo wireless). Is it a bug or a feature? Is there any way to disable it?

This is normal, provided your ringer switch is set to ring.

Setting the ringer switch to silent will prevent the ringer from sounding from your phone's internal speakers, but not through external Bluetooth or wired speakers/headphones.


Download older version of Xcode? I upgraded to Xcode 8 and now I really regret it.
I'm trying to download Xcode 7.3.1 here:
https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

It is a 4.8 GB file.

After three attempts - the download appears to finish around the 1-2 GB mark - and then I can't open or resume the download:

How do I download this without the download being disrupted?
Is there another place to download older version of Xcode?

Try Google Chrome and curl:

Open Terminal
Open Google Chrome and go to Developer Apple downloads.
Scroll down to Xcode 7.3.1 and click the + sign.

open Google Chrome's Developer Tools (altcmdI) > Network panel
Click on Xcode 7.3.1.dmg to start the Xcode download
Right-click Xcode 7.3.1.dmg in the network panel > Copy as cURL

Stop the Xcode 7.3.1.dmg download on Google Chrome's Downloads page or in the status bar
Paste the content of the pasteboard to the Terminal window with cmdV and add -o Xcode7.3.1.dmg. Then hit the enter key.

Example:

curl 'http://adcdownload.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_7.3.1/Xcode_7.3.1.dmg' -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, ... <redacted> ...; as_dc=nwk; ADCDownloadAuth=<redacted>' -H 'Connection: keep-alive' --compressed -o Xcode7.3.1.dmg

If you add additionally -L -C - at the end (after the suggested -o Xcode7.3.1.dmg), you can resume previous downloads (i.e. download interrupted server-side).

I hope this works for you.


How to boot into macOS directly in Boot Camp? I just got Boot Camp with Windows 10 on my Mac. How can I boot into macOS without having to press the Alt/Option key after the chime sound?

Currently, when I start the Mac normally, it boots into Windows, and then I have to switch from there to Mac which requires another restart. Is there any way I can do this?

If you go to the Boot Camp Control Panel in Windows, you can select the boot drive in there. This will be in effect until you change it again from within macOS's Startup Disk system preference.


Can the iPad / iPad 2 handle iOS 6? I've heard anecdotal evidence of iOS 6 seriously impairing the performance of the iPhone 4 (and had a poor personal experience with it on iOS 5). I was wondering if anyone has had any problems upgrading older iPads to iOS 6.

We've got an original iPad and an iPad 2 and aside from not wanting to lose Google maps I'm worried that the update will negatively affect our devices.

Is this worry backed up by reviews or experience of those who have upgraded already?

The short version:

Original iPad, no.
iPad 2, yes.

The details also matter for some features, per http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/#compatible:

There's also the device specific features fine print:

Turn-by-turn navigation is available only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPad 2 or later with cellular data capability. Flyover is available only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 or later, and iPod touch (5th generation).
Siri is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad (3rd generation), and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires Internet access.
FaceTime video calling requires a FaceTime-enabled device for the caller and recipient and a Wi-Fi connection. FaceTime over a cellular network requires iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, or iPad (3rd generation) with cellular data capability.
Offline Reading List is available on iPhone 4 or later and iPad 2 or later.
Made for iPhone hearing aids require iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.
Panorama is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation).


Enable Function Key Lock when using external keyboard/Disable when using internal keyboard on Mac Book Pro When I'm developing I almost always have an external Bluetooth keyboard connected to my Mac Book Pro, and prefer the function lock to be active so the F1-F12 keys work without having to press the fn key. But when using the internal keyboard, I tend to be doing more casual things and brightness/volume etc are more commonly used.

Can I enable/disable the function lock depending on which keyboard I am using?

To make this work you have to use a third party tool: Karabiner.

To enable this you have to create a filter for the external keyboard and invert all function/consumer keys.

Prerequisites:

Download, install and open Karabiner
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences
Open the tab Misc & Uninstall
Hit the button Launch EventViewer
Hit the tab Devices
Make a note of the vendor and product ID of the external keyboard
Close the EventViewer
Hit the button Open private.xml
Open the file private.xml with an appropriate editor
Enter the customized keycode and replace the vendor and product ID by IDs found above

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>Apple</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x05ac</vendorid>
  </devicevendordef>
  <deviceproductdef>
    <productname>ExternalKeyboard</productname>
    <productid>0x0256</productid>
  </deviceproductdef>
  <item>
    <name>Function to Consumer for External Keyboard</name>
    <identifier>private.function2consumerExtK</identifier>
    <device_only>DeviceVendor::Apple, DeviceProduct::ExternalKeyboard</device_only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F1, ConsumerKeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_DOWN</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F2, ConsumerKeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_UP</autogen>
    ...
  </item>
  <item>
    <name>Consumer to Function for External Keyboard</name>
    <identifier>private.consumer2functionExtK</identifier>
    <device_only>DeviceVendor::Apple, DeviceProduct::ExternalKeyboard</device_only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_DOWN, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::F1</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_UP, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::F2</autogen>
    ...
  </item>
</root>

Replace the ellipses by all other necessary consumer and function keys
Save the file
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences the tab Change Key
Hit the ReloadXML button
Enable the remappings. They should be listed at the beginning.

The final behavior should be as following with the function lock activated:

Internal keyboard:

F1: F1
Fn+F1: brightness up

External keyboard:

F1: brightness up
Fn+F1: F1

etc.

If you disable or skip the Consumer to Function for External Keyboard part it should act like this:

F1: brightness up
Fn+F1: brightness up

which means that the "function key layer" is disabled and only the consumer key layer is working.

etc.

Other possible keycodes:

KeyCode::EXPOSE_ALL,                 KeyCode::F3</autogen>
KeyCode::DASHBOARD,                  KeyCode::F4</autogen>
KeyCode::LAUNCHPAD,                  KeyCode::F4</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::KEYBOARDLIGHT_LOW,  KeyCode::F5</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::KEYBOARDLIGHT_HIGH, KeyCode::F6</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PREV,         KeyCode::F7</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PLAY,         KeyCode::F8</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_NEXT,         KeyCode::F9</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_MUTE,        KeyCode::F10</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_DOWN,        KeyCode::F11</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_UP,          KeyCode::F12</autogen>


Touch ID best practices Are there any "best practices" for setting up Touch ID fingers on an iPhone?

I know how to setup this, but I believe I may miss some of the unlock scenarios during setup and end up unable to unlock my phone without taking it in hand or one of the "ways" I held it during setup.

Apple does not provide any guidance as to which fingers you should set up. It is purely a matter of personal preference as to which fingers you use based on the ways you hold your device when unlocking.

I suggest adding fingers you consistently use when trying to unlock your device to Touch ID, and removing any fingers you don't use often. In case you didn't label your Touch ID fingerprints, you can see which fingerprint corresponds to which row in Settings by holding your finger on Touch ID when in the Settings page.


Why are the network resources empty in Safari timelines, even if resources are there? Every single page I go to, the Timelines->NetworkRequests tab shows lots of requests and their timing (top half of the pane), but the bottom half is empty, making it impossible for me to see what requests were made.

I know this is something simple I am overlooking, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is.

Here is an image from loading Wikipedia:

From your screenshort, I notice you don't set the time scope, please refer my screenshot, notice the red-mark I made.


Disable system wide Ctrl+Click in OS X I'm used to navigating through my code using Ctrl+Click. In OS X this function still works in my IDE, but it opens a context menu as well, which is very annoying!

I've done lots of Googling and didn't manage to find any answers that would let me disable Ctrl+Click system-wide in OS X 10.6.7. All the answers that I was able to find refer to Fusion and VMware.

I have a proper mouse with two buttons, I never used Ctrl+Click and cannot see the use case for it. Could someone please tell me how to disable it?

You can map control+click to command+click globally with KeyRemap4Macbook. Put the following in your private.xml:

<root>
    <item>
        <name>Control+LeftClick Command+LeftClick</name>
        <appendix>Control+LeftClick Command+LeftClick</appendix>
        <identifier>control_click_to_command_click</identifier>
        <autogen>--PointingButtonToPointingButton-- PointingButton::LEFT, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L, PointingButton::LEFT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
    </item>
</root>

This will cause any ctrl-click you type to be seen by the system as ⌘-click.  That will prevent the contextual menu (since you won't actually be producing a ctrl).  You'll still need to change your IDE settings, but this way you can keep the muscle-memory for the shortcut.


Create Dock Icon for Spyder (installed with Anaconda) How can I create a single dock icon for an application that is launched via the Terminal?

I have installed spyder using anaconda. I can create a launcher app using Platypus (see this answer). But the actual spyder-application opens a new (ugly) dock icon labeled "python" next to it:

The confusion starts when I want to switch to the Spyder app: I have to click on the python icon and not on the spyder one...

Platypus is not necessarily needed to add an icon to spyder:

Starting spyder in the CLI is a two stage process:

~/anaconda/bin/spyder is a shell script executing the "proxy app" ~/anaconda/bin/python.app which itself launches another "proxy app" ~/anaconda/python.app/Contents/MacOS/python including an argument.

Since the last shell script resides in an app bundle you can simply add an icon:

The two proxy apps are "wrappers/launchers" for all other python science apps included in Anaconda. You don't want to break Anaconda - therefore you have to create two "spyder-only" launchers.

Make a copy of ~/anaconda/bin/python.app: ~/anaconda/bin/python.spyder.app and change the shell script inside (don't forget to also change the user in the path!).

#!/bin/bash
export PYTHONEXECUTABLE=/Users/user/anaconda/bin/python
/Users/user/anaconda/python.spyder.app/Contents/MacOS/python "$@"

Then create a copy of ~/anaconda/python.app: ~/anaconda/python.spyder.app and add an icon to it.

Started from the Terminal the command spyder will launch python.spyder.app with the custom icon.

Now you may use Platypus to create an app to launch spyder (instead of using Terminal.app). Use the following settings:

This may break after an Anaconda or a spyder update.

I don't think you can run spyder with a single spyder dock icon (with the Platypus spyder launcher as a permanent Dock item) because the python.spyder.app/python.app itself is a wrapper for spyder again. So after hitting the Platypus spyder app icon in the Dock you will always get a second spyder icon - the reason why your solution shows the default python.app icon.


Upgrade Macbook Pro Retina A1502 SSD I have an Early 2015 Macbook Pro Retina with a 128Gb SSD and 8Gb of RAM. I know I can't upgrade the RAM but I can upgrade the SSD. Will an Apple Store upgrade my SSD if I take my Macbook to them? Is it possible to know how much will it cost? Or maybe exchange my Mac for another one (same model) with a 512Gb SSD paying the difference?

I have seen this SSD in Amazon that should work for my Mac but if possible I prefer an official Apple Store to do the replacement. I'm asking because I will be traveling to NY and in my country they won't upgrade the SSD.

Yes, but I've heard Apple uses proprietary firmware on their SSDs (I could be wrong), however OWC does make SSDs specifically for the 2015 Retina MacBook Pro, so it appears they've figured out how to make replacements. Here's the link. I'm not affiliated with them, but have bought RAM and a replacement Mac battery from them, both of which work great.


Connecting to Mac Mini via SSH unreliable More often than not I am getting this error when connecting to a brand new Mac Mini, firewall disabled:

ssh -l [username] [fixed_ip]
ssh: connect to host [fixed_ip] port 22: Connection timed out
ssh -l [username] [fixed_ip]
ssh: connect to host [fixed_ip] port 22: No route to host

(For security reasons, I have [fixed_ip] and [username] instead of the real values above.)

The connection does work sometimes, though. How can I make it more reliable?

Problem solved after disabling the screensaver and changing the energy saving options on the Mac Mini server.


Macbook Pro 2009 15” Recovery mode non existant os x 10.5.8 I have a number of issues with a MB 2009 15” running Leopard.I wish to upgrade to El Capitan if possible. Do I alter the computer time and date so it corresponds with the download as I can remember from past experience on an imac i had to do just that..I used internet recovery but cmd r or cmd option alt r doesnt seem to show it rjust goes straight to the front login page, perhaps leopard doesnt have that function.I dont have the original leopard startup disks For this model only a 2009 mb 13” which probably wont work.if someone could give me a guide on what exactly I should do it would be most appreciated..
Secondly I have I have blue/white vertical bar on center left of the screen . It doesnt show up when I linit to an external monitor..
Thank you for your time..
Macbook Pro 2009 4 gb ram
S

If you have another mac, donwload High Sierra, which is the newest version compatible with 2009 iMacs, create a bootable disk and follow Apple's instructions on how to reinstall macOS.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969


I want to restore a device I previously selected to 'Forget Device' on Bluetooth I have Apple Nano 7th generation.  I turned on Bluetooth and a device was recognized. I selected Forget this Device.  I now want to restore the device. How can I do this?

Maybe try restarting the iPod.
You can do this by holding the power button and home button until the screen turns black, and then releasing both buttons and holding down the power button again until the Apple logo appears.


iPhone has stopped updating apps automatically I have to open the App Store and tap Update to keep all of the apps up to date. There is always a big list of apps waiting to be updated, which takes quite a while to complete. This issue seems to have started around the release of iOS 9.

The option for Automatic Downloads is ticket under Settings > iTunes & App Stores;
Connecting to Wi-Fi has not resolved the issue;
The instructions displayed on Apple’s support page has not resolved the issue;
Reset All Settings has not resolved the issue.

There seem to be countless of people with this issue if you search the Internet. Unfortunately, none of the suggested resolutions by users have helped in my case. Could Erase All Content and Settings really be the only way to resolve this issue?

As I was in the middle of relocating, I had updated my country amongst other personal information in my Apple ID. It appears installed apps stop updating until you reinstall them from the App Store for the new country even if the app is available under the very same name. You will be informed App Store switches country upon opening App Store for the first time after updating country in your Apple ID.

I have rung Apple about this issue, and they did not have much of a solution other than reinstalling the apps.
You could switch back to your old address to have automatic updates resume, but keep in mind your new ‘foreign’ payment details (ie credit cards) will not be accepted. At the time, I was told there is no way around this. I hope Apple changes this policy in the future as it is the only service which does not accept my foreign issued Mastercard to this day.


Is there a way to make my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard hibernate with a keyboard shortcut? Is there a way to hibernate at all?
I know if the battery dies when it's sleeping it hibernates, but is there a way to go directly to hibernate with a keyboard shortcut?

Option-Command-Eject is the system-standard key to put the machine to sleep.

If you want to do more than sleep, you can use this preference pane to fine-tune the sleep or hibernate behavior: http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html

Edit:

More information about sleep, hibernate, and more on the Mac: http://www.geekguides.co.uk/104/how-to-enable-hibernate-mode-on-a-mac/


Karabiner ( KeyRemap4MacBook) Ctrl to Command, preserve Ctrl+Tab and Command+Tab I've been struggling with this for a few hours now. What I want to achieve is I want to map Left Ctrl to Left Command ⌘. However, I want to preserve the functionality of Ctrl+Tab. So Ctrl+Anything should be Command ⌘+Anything with the exception of Tab.
What I could achieve:

Leave Ctrl and Command ⌘ as they are (default)
Map Ctrl to Command ⌘ (in this case Ctrl+Tab = Command ⌘+Tab)
Map Ctrl to Command ⌘ and map Command ⌘+Tab to Ctrl+Tab (in this case Command ⌘+Tab is not preserved)

(I might want to add some other exceptions in the future, but seeing the basics surely helps).

Thank you.

Since both right and left ⌘ are identical in functionality (I hope this is the case in your setup), we first map left Ctrl to the right ⌘:

<autogen>
  __KeyToKey__
  KeyCode::CONTROL_L,
  KeyCode::COMMAND_R
</autogen>

Then map right ⌘+Tab to Ctrl+Tab:

<autogen>
  __KeyToKey__
  KeyCode::TAB, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
  KeyCode::TAB, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L
</autogen>


Enforce maximum content width in Safari (Lion full-screen on big monitor) Web sites vary as to whether they enforce a maximum width for the content within the window. When running Safari full screen on Lion, is there a simple way (without rolling up my sleeves and playing with style sheets) to establish my own maximum width? Lines of text are too long if I happen to be connected to my 24" monitor, but I like how this full screen mode maximizes vertical space.

You can change the width of each page in full-screen Safari.

Move your cursor all the way to either side of the 'window', until you see the normal window resize cursor. Click and drag in, and the 'window' will shrink horizontally.

You can set a different width for each tab.


Can AirPods' double-tap to Play/Pause be made to work in other macOS applications than iTunes? In macOS, it's possible to assign AirPod double-tap to Play/Pause audio (under Bluetooth options; instead of invoking Siri).

But for some reason double-tap Play/Pause only works with iTunes.

If you use the Play/Pause button on the Mac keyboard, or even send it via the wired EarPods, the command command can be intercepted by other applications like VLC. I also use a Chrome extension called StreamKeys whereby the Play/Pause button can control playback on popular audio and video streaming sites.

Question: Is there a way to make the AirPods control system-wide Play/Pause? If no simple solution exists, could this be done some elaborate way via scripting?

I don't know much about Macs but this is how I got it to work with VLC (generic options described below also):

Set the AirPods bluetooth options to open Siri on double tap
Have something running in the background checking if Siri is open
If it is open, execute Play/Pause and close it, then go back to checking if Siri is open

These are the two scripts required to get the above working:

MacBook-Pro:~ user$ cat airpods_controller
#!/bin/sh
while :; do
    pid=$(ps x |grep Siri.app|grep -v grep|awk '{print $1}')
    if [ -n "$pid" ]; then
        kill -9 $pid
        osascript -e 'tell application "VLC" to play'
    fi
    sleep .5
done

MacBook-Pro:~ user$ cat airpods_controller_launcher
#!/bin/sh
ps x |grep airpods_controller|wc -l|grep 2
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    nohup ./airpods_controller &
fi

To have it start automatically, just add airpods_controller_launcher to your startup items under Mac Settings and it's hands off from there. Check the checkbox to make it hide on startup and in Terminal options, set the terminal to close on success if you don't want the window to hang around.

To get it working by simulating media keys instead of osascript (to be more generic), the following looks like it would work:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/13396296/494354

To get it working with Chrome and some other apps, this may help: https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice


How to select an operating system to boot without a keyboard? I'm in a pretty sticky situation right now...

The USB keyboard that I've always used broke.  I do have the wireless keyboard that came with my iMac.  However, my iMac is dual-booted.  When I turn it on, the cursor for the operating system to boot is over Linux by default.  Therefore, because I don't have a keyboard connected, I can't select to boot OS X.  If I was able to boot OS X, I would be able to connect the wireless keyboard.

Is there any way I can boot OS X without a keyboard?

Thanks.

If you have an Apple Remote for your Mac, you can try the following:

shut down your Mac (by holding the Power button for a few seconds, if necessary)
press and hold the Menu button on the Apple Remote
start your Mac by pressing the Power button
release the Menu button on the Apple Remote

You should now be able to choose a startup volume.

If your keyboard has still not connected to your Mac via Bluetooth, you can select the startup volume by pressing the Left and Right button on the remote. To confirm and boot from the highlighted volume press the Select button.


Deleted iTunes matched songs still taking up space I recently turned on iTunes Match and opted to delete local copies of my music. After doing so, my available space on my SSD did not report a change, despite deleting almost 100GB of tracks. Is this data cached somewhere on my SSD and the OS will manage this for me as I add new files to the drive, or do I need to manually do something?

I realized this was a bit of user error. I did not click the remove from computer option, so the files remained in my music folder.


How to get MacOS Catalina to allow VMWare Fusion to have Accesibility permissions I'm trying to give Accessibility permission to VMWare Fusion. It shows up in the System Preferences but clicking the checkbox does nothing.

This is Fusion 11.5.3 which is specifically targeting Catalina.

How can I grant it Accessability permissions?

You are doing the correct step. Unless VMWare has an uninstall / reinstall or way to clear that, you might need to start over with the database that tracks that entitlement.

Make a new admin user in system preferences and log out of the current user.
Log out of the current user and log in - try. Also consider disabling automatic log in and restart - then use the new account.
Make sure SIP is enabled: csrutil status should show enabled
Be sure you allowed the kernel extension for VMware Fusion to run. You have to click allow in the general security pane before you can go to the privacy pane to allow Accessibility and other more granular entitlements. Uninstalling and reinstalling VMWare Fusion should prompt you for this kernel approval before you have to accept the EULA and enter a license but after you approve the installer to run an admin script.

To wipe all the settings for that app, you need it's bundle identifier:

How do I reset Screen Recording permission on macOS Catalina?

In your case, the reset would be for the VMware Fusion app or processes. To get that, you can open the command line in terminal app and type mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier and then drag the VMWare fusion app into the window and press return.

tccutil reset All com.vmware.fusion


Strange boot up screen 2019 MacBook Pro When restart or boot up my 2019 MacBook Pro, immediately after I enter my password at the login screen, a black screen appears with white words. The words are scrolling and they appear to be some sort of console output. Does anyone know what this is and if it’s indicative of a problem? This occurs every time the machine is restarted unless I boot into safe mode.

It sounds like your Mac is starting up in 'Verbose Mode'.

This shouldn't normally happen, unless you hold down the required key combination, or unless your Mac's NVRAM has been set to always start verbose.

Try resetting the PRAM to clear the boot arguments.

If that doesn't work, try the following Terminal command:

sudo nvram boot-args=""

(Assuming you don't have a need for any other custom nvram parameters.)


My Mac gives me a black screen after logging into one account, but not another Whenever I start my MacBook (mid 2009, running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6), like any normal day, I click on my main account and log in.

Today, when I tried typing in my password, it let me in as usual but I get nothing but a black screen with the spinning beachball cursor. However, I can log in to my other account perfectly fine.

I've tried booting into safe mode and logging in but it just gives me the same result. I've also run First Aid on the disk, but that didn't resolve the issue either.

How can I troubleshoot this further?

Removing the user/library/preferences could help, however, if you still have the same issue and booting in safe mode has not solved the problem, means that the user is damaged.

so try removing user/library/caches

if you still have the problem, the fastest solutions are next:

restored a time machine backup to a date where issue does not exist if you have one.
create a new user as administrator, sign into this new user and from finder transfer the content from the old user to the new one.

note: in this step you tested that preferences were not the caused of the problem, so moving the content of this folder from the old to the new one will bring you all the settings into the new account. Also note that apps are open from all users, so you will not have to install any app either. the only thing you would have to do is to set up the mail accounts in mail app from the new user.


Docking Station for 13" MacBook Pro and Surface Pro 3 Is there a docking station that is compatible with both 13" Macbook Pro (2015 model A1502) and a Surface Pro 3?

I am looking for one that has

Connectivity up to two monitors (DVI/HDMI/VGA)
Ethernet adapter
1 USB Port
Portable

Thank you

I have a client that has used this model docking station and he seems to really like it.  It's the Pluggable USB Docking Station.

Update:  The USB docking stations in general seem to have an issue with the DisplayLink technology meaning that the dock with the exception of the display will work just fine.

From DisplayLink's website:

  Known issues with DisplayLink on OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11
  (Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan)

  The
  following minor issues have been found on OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11
  and do not currently have a resolution:

  Corruption around window borders for Carbon applications (for example Microsoft Office 2011)
  Afew applications can show corruption and/or missing contents while
  updating windows contents. Examples are Maps, iBooks and the Dock.
  The window server can crash logging our the user when minimising
  applications, for example iTunes.
  Apple menu icon misplaced on DisplayLink screens
  Since 10.11 El Capitan, corruption shown while mirroring DisplayLink screens

  The following issues have been found on OS X 10.9, 10.10 and have been resolved in 10.11:
  - The Window Server crashes logging out the user during some full screen transitions, for example Show Desktop and Mission Control.

  These issues are beingworked on jointly between DisplayLink and Apple.

This is an ongoing issue.  If you can live with video issues, then pretty much any USB 3.0 dock will work.  If video is super important, then you are going to need separate docks.


Stop spacebar triggering quicklook when using Quicksilver If I invoke Quicksilver and type "activity", and then press spacebar in order to finish typing "activity monitor", instead of a space being included in my search string, it invokes quicklook on whatever the current target is.  Quicklook also steals focus, so no further keystrokes arrive at Quicksilver.  Is there any way to prevent this?  I don't seen anything in the preferences.

The default spacebar behavior was changed from “Normal” to “Smart” a couple of years ago. Users that had chosen a setting explicitly were unaffected, but if you had never picked anything, the new default took over.

You can change it back by going to Preferences → General → Command and looking at the Spacebar behavior setting.

Having said that… You should never need to type a space when searching and you should never need to type that many characters. The main feature of Quicksilver is that it lets you find things with an abbreviation that makes sense to you, and doesn’t require typing full names of things.

To find Activity Monitor, a m should be enough.

I encourage you to try the Smart behavior. It’s quite a time saver. This is what it will do:

If the object has children, show them (unless it's a text file)
Jump to the third pane if the current action requires it
Quick Look if the object supports it
If user is holding Shift, go to the parent (same as left arrow)
Switch to text mode
If in the second pane, select the first action that takes an argument in the third pane


Recording a Screenscast a webinar? What are some good options for recording a screenscast or webinar?  Often, but not always, they are delivered by goto meeting and are quite often put on during horribly inconvenient times for our office.  Are there simple software that would let us record these on our mac and watch later.  Sort of like Tivo'ing them!

Quicktime makes movie recordings and is free / included with all Mac OS X. From your requirements I would start there and ask again if you run into issues.


New Apple TV screensavers not downloading I've read about and seen other people have new cities appear in the Aerial Apple TV screensaver. My Apple TV, and with the latest software, doesn't seem to ever show these. Has anyone else had this? I've also experienced a black screen when the screeensaver is meant to otherwise appear.

It sounds like you need to change how often Apple TV downloads new vidoes from Never to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Open settings > general > screensaver > download new videos


SD Card not readable after upgrading to El Capitan I'm not able to use my SD card on my MacBook Pro after I upgraded the OS to El Capitan. I tried to reset PRAM without success. Consider that if I put the SD card on another Mac it works perfectly. Any suggestions?

I would install the older OS to another USB drive so that you can verify that the new OS is really causing the issue and it's not a hardware failure.

When you boot to the old OS (hold option key when booting to choose which OS of the ones connected) run diskutil list to check the filesystem on the SD card.

It's unlikely that it's a format that's no longer included in the new OS. It's more likely that you'll find the card itself faulty or the hardware has changed and needs to be cleaned (lint can obscure one pin connector) or repaired. You can also get a USB to SD card reader to avoid needing to reinstall the old OS just to eliminate the SD card reader as a potential source of the problems on the Mac with the new OS.


Assign monospaced font family to selected text with keyboard shortcut in mac os x I write a lot of technical emails, and like to use a monospaced font for the code bits. Highlight text, hit apple-T, choose my font from the list of favorites, then close the font window. Is there a way to use a keyboard shortcut to apply a given font to the currently selected text? Ideally this would be OS-wide, but if that's not possible I can use it for just a single app (Mail.app)

I've been looking for doing this for a very long time.

I finally managed to end up with something that really works great for me, with the help of Alfred and Highlight CLI tool.

Here is the Alfred script portion :

query="{query}"
if echo $query|grep -e "^__SHORTCUT__"
then
    echo "$query"|sed -E "s/^__SHORTCUT__//"|pbcopy
    syntax=txt
else
    osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}'
    syntax=$query
fi

pbpaste|/usr/local/bin/highlight --syntax $syntax --font Menlo --font-size 12 --out-format=rtf|pbcopy
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using {command down}'

Make sure the shortcut trigger adds __SHORTCUT__ to be recognized and argument is "Selection in OSX" :

Short demo https://youtu.be/y8NJT52APRQ


Show hidden files in SELECT folder only How do I show hidden files in one directory only? I have a development folder that I'd like to see hidden files in, but I don't want to see hidden files anywhere else on my computer.

Here is the code I tried in the terminal to show all hidden files but it's not what I want. Thanks!

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

This isn't possible. You can either show all hidden files or hide all hidden files. This setting can't be set for individual folders.

See this Super User question regarding .htaccess


iTunes: show ALL artists The artist list displays all artists that appear on at least one non-compilation album. Is there a preference somewhere to change that to display all artists, i.e. including those that only appear on a compilation?

You can't do that in Artists view. The only way to do that is to show the Column Browser (View > Column Browser > Show Column Browser, or Command-B). Unfortunately, in iTunes 11, the column browser is only available in Songs view, or when you're viewing a playlist. But it will show all the artists, even those in compilations, as long as you choose View > Column Browser and uncheck Group Compilations.

iTunes 10 was much better for using the Column Browser, alas.


MBA doesn't see SSD. How do I recover my files? I have a 1.5 y.o. Macbook Air A1466. Today i left it turned on on charger and went to work. Got home and found it hung. Reboot with powerbutton resulted in a question mark of death.

I tried disconnecting all cables, did PRAM reset and tried internet recovery.
There's simply no SSD in the disk utility, only a recovery partition.
Hardware test showed no errors, but had no single mention of hard drive either.
I had no backup (I know).

Is there any way to recover my data? Is this something apple geniuses will be able to help with?

Laptop still under warranty, but Im worried about files on the HD. Are they gone forever?

EDIT:
Visited genius bar today - they ran a couple of tests and said that SSD is dead. All other components passed the tests. They recommend I contact a 3rd party data recovery company and agreed to replace the disk under warranty after recovery is done.
They won't give me back the faulty disk, but would sell it to me for $545+GST - price of a new working SSD if bought from them.
(This is the hard way to learn importance of periodic backups. Easy way - learn from my mistakes).

More than likely the files ARE recoverable but the difficulty & cost to do so could either be a little or a lot.  My first step would be to start a case with Apple, either by calling AppleCare (1-800-APL-CARE), visiting an Apple Retail Store’s Genius Bar (be sure to make an appointment beforehand) or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP).  This link can help you find an Apple Store or AASP in your area.

With the age of your Mac and the issue you describe it might be tied to the MacBook Air SSD REP that Apple announced a few months ago.  Once they evaluate the issue, which will likely be fairly quick since it's possibly a known issue, they can provide you with info on repairing the Mac and recovering the data.  Apple’s policies prevent their staff from assisting (aside from recommendations) with data recovery but AASPs may be able to provide onsite data recovery or more budget friendly recommendations.

The only other thing you might attempt on your own before seeking data recovery from a specialist is to try and browse your Mac from another Mac.  You can do this by using Target Disk Mode, which is triggered by holding T while powering on your MacBook Air. Once it’s in Target Disk Mode you can connect it to another Mac using a Firewire (with Thunderbolt adapter for your Mac) or Thunderbolt cable.  A functioning drive would then show up in the secondary Mac’s OS as an external hard drive.

Beyond that your best bet is consulting your local AASP and/or AppleStore for data recovery recommendations.


OS X Package Management I'd like to know if anyone out there has done a comprehensive comparison of the various package manager solutions available for OS X.
More specifically, I'm looking for:

A list of all the major package managers (ie. MacPorts, Fink, etc)
A pros and cons list or comparison matrix (either self-written or a web link to one)
Information about any caveats for particular systems
Information about possible incompatibilities or reasons for not having multiple package managers installed simultaneously
Subjective reasons why you think one is better than another

Update Nov 29, 2010
Chiggsy gave a great answer but I would really love some more input on this.  I've been using MacPorts recently and it seems to be pretty well done.  I like that its command line options work in a similar fashion to subversion and that it has an interactive mode.

Homebrew

Easy to use
Always up-to-date
Easy to extend (Github-based)


OS X Snow Leopard won't boot into Recovery mode, need to reset admin password My Mac Pro running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 won't boot into Recovery or Internet mode.

I want to reset the password for the admin account as I have forgotten it for all users. I also would like to reset the admin account in general. Formatting the Mac to open in macOS X Server startup would also be great.

Mac OS X Lion, 10.7 was the first OS to introduce the Recovery Partition.
Internet Recovery came later still, in Macs introduced in 2011 [iirc].

That means your only way to boot from other than the regular boot drive is to either use the original Snow Leopard disk, or attempt to boot it from a USB key.
That in itself may depend on precisely which Mac Pro it is. Personally, I have never managed to boot a 2008 3,1 from USB, though others say they have succeeded. I've successfully booted 4,1 & 5,1 Macs from USB. I've never owned a 1,1 or 2,1 to test.

As it is a Mac Pro, you have the potential of a third option - you can drop in a new drive with either a full system on it, or a bootable installer.

If all you need to do is reset the password, then that can be done on older OSes from Single User Mode...

From MacYourself - How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc

  Power on or restart your Mac.
  At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
  This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type
  fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete
  before going to the next step.
  Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
  Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and
  press Enter.
  Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
  Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace
  “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
  Type reboot and press Enter.


Creating a reminder on Mac programmatically/in a script, without opening the Reminders app For creating reminders from a script or command-line, the usual advice is to use AppleScript and tell application "Reminders" to do this and that—which pops the app open so that it accepts the commands. However, the ‘Fantastical’ app, at least in the first version, could create reminders without opening the Reminders app. They were still native reminders sitting there in Apple's app if I opened it. This approach has a couple advantages for me:

It's faster, since the Reminders app doesn't need to launch.

The Reminders app doesn't hang  around, appearing in the app switcher and in the dock. And I don't need to close it.

So what's the trick for doing this?
I'm  pretty  sure there  were no web APIs involved, since I never had an iCloud account and I don't think reminders can even be synced with third-parties like the calendar. Though I guess Fantastical could do something behind my back, but it's hard  to imagine it happening without a trace.

Use EventKit.  Apple has had that API for years.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/eventkit


On Pages, inserting a graph from Numbers gives a black line at the bottom Notice the black line at the bottom of the graph. When I add another graph after it (its inline), the line moves to the bottom of the next graph so that there is only ever 1 line.

Whoops! I figured it out. Its really an underline because the inline text was bold and underline. Select the text, and deselect underline and bold.


iPhone 5 not charging via USB from PC I charge my phone using my PC all the time, and it's been only a week that since I bought my iPhone 5. Now I can't charge my phone with my PC.

What could be the problem thats causing my phone to not charge while connected to my PC?

The USB charger is new.

Check the inside of the phone's charger port with a flashlight. Lint can block all the pins from making a connection which will cause the phone not to charge. Same goes for any open connections like the DC "cigarette lighter" port. Try cleaning the hole(s) out I guess is what I'm saying


Is there an option of liquid cooling/heatsink replacement for mid 2011 Mac Mini? I'd like a quieter/more efficient cooling system but I don't know if there's anything out there for a Mac Mini.

Any hardware options?

I will say no.

I haven't seen anything on the market yet. But since Mac mini is aluminum, you can just cool its casing. But that of course wouldn't be efficient.

The reason no one made one is the same reason no one made a water-cooling for laptop. The design of Mac desktops are more like laptops rather than a Tower PC. There's minimal space for anything else.


iPhone 8 purchased through AT&T change to T-Mobile I was able to purchase an iPhone 8 through my company with AT&T being the carrier.  I have since left the company and would like to use the phone with a T-Mobile plan.  When I put the T-Mobile SIM card in I receive the message Not Unlocked for that Network.  Any suggestions on how to make this work or can I use the phone w/AT&T only?

Your original provider Controls the network lock status.

https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/

Procedures differ per other providers, but for you, start at AT&T to check your lock status or request it be changed.


Schedule text message on iPhone Is there an iPhone app in the App Store which allows scheduling of text messages? For example, I would like to setup birthday messages, so I don't forget them, or reminder messages. I know of such apps, but they run only on jailbroken devices.

If there are none, is there any specific reason why no developer creates such an app? Android and Windows Phone have them, why not iOS?

EDIT: Apparently Apple prevents automatic sending of SMS over the SIM card (i.e. over the network carrier). But there are ways to get around this limitation without violating Apple's App Store terms.

You can use Launch Center.

It won't send the message automatically (Apple doesn't allow automatic sending of SMS), but you'll have a notification that will open a new message with the contact already selected. All you have to do is write the message and press send.


How can I enable Brother printer's two-side printing functionality? My Brother DCP-7055 Printer’s two-side printing functionality does not work (the “Two-Sided” option is greyed out) on macOS Catalina 10.15.4. I have not tested it on any other versions of macOS but it works as expected on Windows. I've installed the macOS driver from the official Brother website, and the installed driver is Brother CUPS as it is stated by Brother. Is there a workaround to enable this option of the device?

On the page you linked, on the Printer driver download section, it specifically states:

  *Not all features are available for all products.

This is one of those features

Also on the Supported OS page, it likewise states:

  Please note that the available features may vary depending on the operating system.

It appears a Brother is using a generic(ish) CUPS PPD file meaning it’s a one-size-fits-all driver and two sided printing is simply not available.

It’s not a “popular” piece of advice, but your best bet is to get something with a bit more robustness in driver support like HP, Xerox, or Lexmark.  Brother has been really strong in the Windows space, not so much with Mac.


iPhone 6s battery issues My iPhone 6s sometimes suddenly goes to 1 - 10% and sometimes 70 - 80% after restarting. Sometimes my iPhone works for 4 - 5 hours and sometimes 100% goes down to 10% in 1 hour or less. What is this problem? Is there a battery issue or issue with software? Should I go to some repairing shop or sell it?

I have seen so many question like this but non of them are giving a correct answer for my problem. I've never experienced this type of issue in my any phone but iPhone 6s is not working fine for me.

Here are few problems that I am facing:

Battery automatically goes down in few minutes.
Auto-Restart.
Freeze sometimes.

A reasonable explanation would be that the battery of your iPhone has come of age. Try to access the battery health (completed charge cycles, charge holding capacity etc.) using a popular battery assessment tool called coconutBattery.

Batteries has a fixed number of charge cycles and post consuming them, the charge holding capacity deteriorates.

It is also advisable to keep the iOS software up-to-date. Having it up-to-date alleviates any software related glitches that may be causing trouble with the hardware/battery.

Post analysis, if you feel that the battery is showing signs of going kaput, you can choose to go for a replacement.


Automatic Wi-Fi/LTE switch based on signal strength on iPhone If Wi-Fi is turned on, then, AFAIK, my iPhone will connect to any available network even if the signal is very weak and inferior to LTE.

Is there a way to make the iPhone automatically connect to Wi-Fi only if the Wi-Fi signal is stronger than the cellular network signal?

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.2.1

If you leave wifi on, it will automatically connect to whatever wifi spot you're set up to connect to. This is different from wifi assist, where your phone will switch from wifi to lte if wifi signal is less.


How to distinguish a terminal window currently connected via SSH? I'm coming from Windows, where I used to use Putty whenever I needed to connect to a server via SSH.

On MacOS this is much easier, as I can ssh into the server directly from the terminal. This is nice, but comes with a caveat: I might have a few terminal windows open at the same time, and mistake a terminal opened locally with a terminal ssh'ed into a remote server (and make nasty mistakes).

Is there any way I can visually distinguish a terminal window connected via ssh, from another one on my local machine?

Look to the title of the window, or the title of the tab if you are using several tabs:

  That won't be enough for me to avoid making mistakes  – Benjamin

  I was thinking about something like the window changing color somewhere. Don't even know if that's technically possible, though. – Benjamin

Assuming a worst case when you are unable to change remote's prompt, edit you mac's terminal prompt in order to make most clear if the terminal is at a client of a Mac of yours.

If you use Tmux, configure non defaults status-fg status-bg so that your Mac's local terminals use a different Tmux color than what is configured at your servers.


Can I upgrade from 10.6 to 10.7 for free? When I bought my new Mac at the end of July, 2011, the dealer (Microcenter, Marietta, GA) Renee told me I had 4 months to upgrade to Lion. I calendared the drop dead date at the end of November, and now discover I only had 30 days.

Is there a way to upgrade for free at this time?

Apple's policy is that you get an OS upgrade for free as soon as the launch date of the new OS has been officially announced. For Lion, this was after July 21st. However, as you discovered yourself:

  Remember your completed order must be entered within 30 days of the date of your purchase of a qualifying computer.

So no, you won't be able to get anything from Apple's up-to-date program, which is the only way to get an OS upgrade for free.


How to place Dictionary definitions higher up in spotlight results I used to use spotlight fairly frequently to quickly look up words in a dictionary.  With Lion, I've noticed that my dictionary results have dropped down much lower in the list of results:

I'd like to bump up the priority of these results so they show up near the top of the list.  However, looking at the system Spotlight preferences in Lion, I don't see an obvious way to do this:

How can I make Dictionary.app results show up higher in the list of Spotlight results?

In 10.8+, you can open Spotlight, type in the word to look up, and press ⌘L to jump to the definition within Spotlight. Pressing ⌘D instead of ⌘L opens the definition of the typed word in the Dictionary.app.