RAM usage on a slow MacBook with OS X Yosemite I'm helping a friend with his MacBook.

The problem is that his MacBook is kind of slow.

He has 2 GB of RAM.

I'm not familiar with Apple things at all, so I tried to see RAM usage with the activity monitor.

It shows that he has about 30 MB of ram free on his 2 GB of total RAM space.

This wasn't a new MacBook, so he never "formatted" it (I know we don't format a Mac, but you can reset it to factory default).

Can you point me in some direction to troubleshot this slow MacBook?

While Apple says you need a minimum of 2 GB RAM and 8 GB of disk space, those are the minimums.

I would recommend adding RAM to speed things up. (4 GB would be just enough, the more the faster).

Look up your model and get it if it is not MacBook Air. (no upgrade for MacBook Air).

You are correct, there is no formatting, but to speed up the hard drive, use Disk utility to do so.

Getting it back to factory settings would mean to erase all data and do a fresh instal--usually not necessary since you can refresh the operating system online (Internet) using the cmd+r during start up.


MacPro Hard Drive 3 TB or Larger formatted to Logical Volume Group by Disk Utility I have an Intel MacPro in which I recently installed a new internal 3TB hard disk.
I attempted to format it in Disk Utility using the standard GUID partition map and encountered a strange problem. Disk Utility formatted it using a Logical Volume Group (LVG) instead of GUID.
Furthermore, Disk Utility subsequently refused to allow me to reformat or repartition this drive. The Partition Layout drop-down in Disk Utility is greyed-out. I seem to be stuck with a LVG drive.
Specifics

Model: MacPro Quad Core (Early 2009/Nehalem MacPro4,1)
System: OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5
Disk Utility: Version 13 (450)
Hard Disk: Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB

How can I remove the Logical Volume Group partition scheme and reformat this drive in the GUID standard recommend by Apple?

This problem has been reported to occur on Intel MacPro's using internal drives from various manufactures with capacities >= 3 TB. Specifically, it's been reported when using Disk Utility in OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and Mavericks (10.9).
Although there have been solutions involving using diskutil in Terminal posted here at AskDifferent and elsewhere on the web, I found a simpler solution: Format the disk using Disk Utility from an OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) Install DVD.

Warning: This solution will cause you to lose all data on the drive.

Backup any valuable data from the drive in question.
Reboot using the OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) Install DVD. (Hold down the C-Key to boot from the DVD.)
Choose your language (eg. English).
Instead of installing OS X, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
Select your drive from the pane on the left of the Disk Utility screen.
Choose the Partition tab.
Select your desired Partition Layout.
Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) under Format:
Check the Options button and verify that GUID is selected as the partition scheme.
Click the Apply button and verify you want to proceed.
When the partition and format process is complete, quit Disk Utility and reboot.

The disk will now be correctly formatted using a GUID partition table.
(If you need to repartition or reformat the drive in the future, you will need to repeat this process. Hopefully Apple will fix this bug in a later version of Disk Utility.)


How to create a keyboard shortcut for Preview `Move To…` Using App shortcuts in System Preferences -> Keywords allows me to create a shortcut but it does not work when I try it in Preview.

I tried the following keybindings (which do not conflict with preview's bindings):

⌥⌘M, ^⌥⌘M,  ⌥⌘K, ^⌥⌘K

If you don't apply it to "Preview" but to "All Applications" in "System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts" any unused shortcut will work:

and the resulting Preview menu:


Connection L2TP via IPSec to VPN as PPTP VPN no longer supported on macOS Sierra How to resolve problem with connection to VPN via L2TP/PPTP on macOS?

Apple announced ending support for PPTP in latest macOS Sierra.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206844: Prepare for removal of PPTP VPN

So the only chance I have is to try it with L2TP via IPSec as my server admin does not offer any other options.

Admin says there is a problem with L2TP/IPSec using on login from macOS Sierra because Apple has got its own implementation for IPSec with its new OS version and common solutions do not work.

Some pages advise to use OpenVPN, but anyway, is there any possibility to connect to VPN with no-longer supported PPTP?
Or are they any options to connect with PPTP/L2TP, other than using mac's Network Interface within Network Preferences?

The FlowVPN client is free (and works with any provider).

It supports PPTP and OpenVPN on macOS Sierra:

https://www.flowvpn.com/download-mac/

Just overwrite the FlowVPN server address with any server and it connects.


show dock permanently on the primary display only or simultaneously on both displays I have an external monitor connected to a Macbook. The current behaviour of the dock is that it jumps from one display to another whenever the cursor is at the bottom, which I find quite annoying.

Is is possible to change this to either of the following?

Show the dock permanently on the primary display only
Show the dock permanently on both displays

You can achieve the first, lock it to a single display - though it will entail a change in working practice.

System Prefs > Mission Control
Uncheck "Displays have separate Spaces"

Your Spaces/Desktops will then always move as a pair, locked together.

Then use System prefs > Displays > Arrangement
You can drag the menu bar representation to define your primary display. The Dock will remain always on this display.

As the Dock is always shown either on the active Space/Desktop in single-screen, or only on the primary display of a multi-screen setup, there's no way to make it appear on two displays simultaneously.


How do I prevent 'Open with...' showing multiples of same app? Anyone know why this happens and how to make it show only one instance of each?

From the comments, I was able to resolve this using the following command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


Lost folders after upgrading to Catalina. Any chance to recover them? Two days after upgrading to Catalina, I have noticed that some subdirectories are missing. I'm not exactly sure when these directories went missing as I was on vacation, but here is what happened.

I upgraded to Catalina few days ago
Decided to delete some directories, mostly node_modules from old projects, to get some free space.
After that I didn't touch anything and discovered that some directories are missing when I get back home.

Original size of www directory was somewhere around 55GB and similar size is shown in Finder. DaisyDisk also shows that there are 55GB of hidden files somewhere (it's not telling where).

sudo du -sh www/ shows directory size of 10MB.

Free space before deleting node_modules was 11GB and after deleting (now) is 20GB. If files under my www directory were really deleted, free space would be much larger.

Based on other answers found here and on the Internet, I have tried the following:

Tried restore using DiskDrill. No success.
Run First Aid under Disk Utility. No success.
Relocated Items directory is empty. No success.
Recovering using Stellar Data Recovery. No success.
Scanned using GrandPerspective. No success.

What else can I try?

There is a 3rd party app called Stellar Data Recovery. There is a free trial period that can be used to recover your files. I used it about 8 months ago for some lost files and it recovered them for me. It was relatively easy to use as I did it myself and I'm not great at that type of thing. The software sells for $80 but it has a free download.


How can I restore the smooth surface of my iPhone? The iPhone has a touchscreen with a slippery surface which is important as the user can slide his/her fingers easily.

The touchscreen's surface of my one year old iPhone has become rough.

How can I restore the smooth surface of my iPhone?
Can you recommend lubricants that restore the slippery surface of the touchscreen?

Any surface preparation you apply will not stay on there long, and may well be just as annoying as it rubs off on your clothing etc.  Most of the lubricants I have seen used (often for ski/snowboard prep etc) are nasty horrible things that are designed to impregnate the surface to allow for low friction.  There is no way you can ever impregnate the glass, so this techniques are doomed to failure.  Also, I would be careful with what you apply too, as you may damage the oleophobic coating that is on the glass as standard.

I would recommend simply washing the glass with a very mild detergent, and then wiping clean with a lint free cloth.  If your glass remains rough to the touch after this, then it is likely a permanent feature caused by excessive wear, and cannot be rectified.


Help Understanding Terminal's Command OS X 10.11.5 on a Mid 2011 iMac. I'm new to development on OS X and am trying to understand enough to figure out a Ruby path issue I'm having. I ran Inspector on Terminal and was surprised by the complexity of the command.

Instead of something like /bin/bash it is

login -pfl mark /bin/bash -c 'exec -la bash /bin/bash'

I don't understand how all these parts work together, or how the result differs from /bin/bash.

the login command is used to login to the unix system of OSX.
to learn more about it type

  man login

As an example if you have a terminal window open and you are also logged into the GUI desktop you are logged in 2 times.
you can see how many sessions you have open by typing uptime
example:

7:52  up 23:49, 2 users, load averages: 1.43 1.53 1.50

the 2 users are your terminal window and your OS X gui.

if you open another terminal window and run uptime again you will see 3 users.

17:53  up 23:50, 3 users, load averages: 1.47 1.51 1.50

The command shown in the inspector is the command used for the terminal to login to UNIX.  Not what command is running in the terminal session.
You can see what programs the terminal is running in the process info section of the inspector. You are only running login and bash in the screen shot you have uploaded.

To see the command of a running process select it in the inspector click the gear and click copy command. Paste it somewhere else.


What Could Cause the Ethernet to not Connect to Internet, Yet Connect to Devices on Network This has been my problem for about 6 months. On my 2011 MBP, if I connect a working ethernet cable to my ethernet port, it will either do nothing or my internet connection will die totally, even when I'm on a strong wifi network.

More intriguing (frustrating), when I jump on a network connected to a simple switch, I have no internet connection. I.E ping www.google.com gets request timeouts or unreachable hosts. But I can run ifconfig en0 ...,  then ssh into another computer on the network, and from that ssh terminal I can connect to the internet no problem. My 'network', by the way, is just my laptop and a desktop connected to a network switch. This happens on multiple switches from different companies.

I've reset everything in Network Preferences, but no help. Has anyone seen this behavior? If so, what can I do to fix it?

I don't have enough reputation yet to add comments above, so I'll put my questions here:

How does your MBP get the IP address for its ethernet interface?  DHCP?  Manually?
What is your default router set to (netstat -rn)?
Can you resolve, say, google.com (nslookup www.google.com)?
Can you ping any/all the servers mentioned in /etc/resolv.conf?

That should help to debug.

Thanks.


Disable all Notification Center sounds? I know it's possible to turn off sound alerts app-by-app in notification center, but is there a way to turn them off altogether. I hate all system sounds!

System Preferences -> Sounds, and set Alert Volume to the minimum. (I'm using Yosemite, and this might not exist in earlier versions.)


iOS12 beta crashed doing update I've been running the iOS consumer beta for a few months largely without issue.  Today it offered to install the latest update.  The battery was highly charged and I had it sitting on a wireless charger and it failed in the middle of the update.  Now it just cycles with the white apple logo showing and off in a 5 second loop.  I got it to connect both to iTunes and imazing but neither could fix the problem, no doubt because they are trying to do ios11 and running into conflict with iOS12.  Help!!!

Put it into DFU mode and use iTunes to restore it. You can restore it to either iOS 11 or iOS 12 beta 9.

Here are instructions on entering DFU mode: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/DFU_Mode (Since the instructions vary between devices and you did not mention which device you have, I won't copy and paste them all to this page)

When it's connected to iTunes you should be able to press Restore. If that doesn't work, try restoring a specific IPSW file. You can download files here: https://ipsw.me

You can use the IPSW by holding option (mac) or shift (windows) when pressing the "Update" button. It will prompt you to select the IPSW.


Macbook Pro with OS X 10.8.4 will not connect to WiFi I bought my mac in india recently and i'm using it in UK. It worked fine for a month but now,  whenever i try to connect to the wifi, it says "connection timeout". There is no problem with the wifi because my family doesn't face any such problems on their laptops. I tried refreshing network preferences but didn't work. What do i have to do to make it connect?

Connection timeouts can be related to authentication issues sometimes. I recently answered a similar question regarding wifi problems that describes how to remove the network and password details.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/100217/6529

I would suggest trying this to see if it is an authentication problem.


Cannot update Mac OS. "There was an error in Software Update preferences." Mojave I am running Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6 (18G103).

I am getting notifications that mac os has a software update to be installed. However, when I open software updates in system preferences, I get the error "Preferences Error. There was an error in Software Update preferences." My mac will not update.

The only possible reason that I can think of that this might be happening, is because I tinkered with disabling badge notifications and mac os update notifications using a terminal command. The command I used was

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 0
killall Dock

I'm assuming my error has something to do with a corrupt or misconfigured .plist file but I'm not sure which file I should be looking at and how to check it. Could someone please help me debug this issue? Thank you kindly for your help and patience.

I had a similar error. I my case, I think it was caused by a borked system or Xcode update (not sure which or if something else entirely).

I was able to get everything back to normal after updating from the Terminal command line using softwareupdate. You can see all the options with

softwareupdate --help

What worked for me was just to install everything that needed to be installed, which I assume included the broken installation, using

sudo softwareupdate --install --all

After a shutdown (not reboot) per the instructions, my computer performed a solid update and all was well.


Mail starts on every boot in macOS Catalina Every time I boot my iMac (19,1) into macOS Catalina, the Mail.app is open and waiting on the desktop.

The 'Open at Login' option appears to be bugged. Upon first start/restart of Mail, it's not set. If I click it, it gets a tick. From then on when I click it, it remains ticked and will not set to off.

How can I fix this and stop Mail opening on startup?

Which 'Open at Login' option are you referring to specifically?

Things to check:

System Preferences > Users & Groups > [your user account] > Login Items tab

If mail has been added their remove it.

When you log out, restart or shutdown, you should get a "Reopen windows when logging back in" option.  Make sure that is either unchecked, or manually quit Mail before your log out, restart or shutdown.


AES-IS support and processor architecture in 2010 iMacs Which processor architecture was used in mid 2010 27'' iMacs? (iMac11,3 - EMC 2390)

The CPU is an Intel quad-core Core i5 CPU, 2.8 GHz.

I'm trying to find out if it supports the AES Instruction Set natively at the hardware level, because it would significantly speed up File Vault encryption.

So far I've found that it could either be Clarkdale or Lynnfield, but only the first one should come with hardware support for AES.

The 27" iMac from Mid-2010 (i5, 2.8Ghz) had an i5-760 inside.

The model is, in fact, a Lynnfield processor with quad cores.


Is there a user-friendly editor for Karabiner complex modifications? I have a large list of Karabiner complex modifications and it is hard to keep track of them all including conflicts, excluded applications, etc. From what I can tell the user is expected to edit ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json by hand. However this isn't practical at all, since each modification definition ends up being quite verbose and I can only see 1-2 per screen. Is there some more efficient method that I'm missing? Or should I just write my own program to generate the karabiner.json file?

I found Goku (see answer by furins) and a few other tools but none seemed any easier than editing the JSON. In the end I wrote my own scripts which I'll share here.

There are two Python files:

decompose.py takes a karabiner JSON and breaks it up into a many files and directories, so you can edit one rule at a time.
compose.py takes these directories and rolls them into a single JSON that karabiner will accept.

I keep both the single JSON and the decomposed directories (as well as the script) in my dotfiles repo. When I want to alter a keybind, I create a directory for it (easiest method is to copy an existing one and modify) then do a roundtrip encode/decode. Eg.: python compose.py; python decompose.py; python compose.py.

After this my first step is to check git diff to see if my new rule has some error that broke the whole thing. If so, I have many options to revert the changes via git and try again. When done, I test the keybind with Karabiner-EventViewer and its intended use case, and commit.

The scripts are obviously limited and hacky, because they are for personal use (and I think the "proper" solution to this would be to just not use a Mac, har har). I suggest starting with a known-working JSON such as PC-style shortcuts so you can see how the existing rules work. They do work reasonably well, but some caveats:

Each rule goes into a directory. The directory name is built from a number (to keep the rules from changing order and confusing git) and the name of the rule. Obviously rule names can have special characters, but directories cannot, so there's some funny normalization I had to do with that. It can be a bit fragile if you do fancy things with the rule name.
I use PyCharm which has its own keyboard shortcut interceptor. Because of this, all rules are blacklisted from PyCharm at the composer/decomposer stage.

compose.py:

import json
from pathlib import Path

p_decomposed = Path('decomposed/')

# Load scaffold
p_scaffold = p_decomposed / 'scaffold.json'
with p_scaffold.open() as f:
    scaffold = json.load(f)

# Load rules
p_rules = p_decomposed / 'rules'
for p_rule in sorted(p_rules.iterdir()):
    if p_rule.stem.startswith('.'):
        continue
    print(p_rule)

    p_rule_json = p_rule / 'rule.json'
    with p_rule_json.open() as f:
        rule = json.load(f)

    p_manipulators = p_rule / 'manipulators'
    for p_manipulator in sorted(p_manipulators.iterdir()):
        with p_manipulator.open() as f:
            j = json.load(f)

        rule['manipulators'].append(j)

    profiles = scaffold['profiles']
    first_prof = profiles[0]
    complex_mods = first_prof['complex_modifications']
    rules = complex_mods['rules']
    rules.append(rule)

p_composed = Path('karabiner.json')
with p_composed.open('w') as f:
json.dump(scaffold, f, indent=4)

decompose.py:

import json
from pathlib import Path

with open('karabiner.json') as f:
    j = json.load(f)

profiles = j['profiles']
first_prof = profiles[0]
complex_mods = first_prof['complex_modifications']
rules = complex_mods['rules']

# Dump everything except the rules into a "scaffold file"
complex_mods['rules'] = []
with open('decomposed/scaffold.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(j, f, indent=4)

def normalize_rule_name(raw_name):
    """
    Normalize rule name by removing special characters, to make it suitable
    for use as a file name.
    """
    lowered = raw_name.lower()

    filtered = ''
    for c in lowered:
        if c.isalnum():
            filtered += c
        else:
            filtered += '-'

    while '--' in filtered:
        filtered = filtered.replace('--', '-')

    if filtered.endswith('-'):
        filtered = filtered[:-1]

    return filtered

def blacklist_pycharm(manipulator):
    pattern = "^com\\.jetbrains\\."

    if 'conditions' not in manipulator:
        return

    for c in manipulator['conditions']:
        if c.get('type', '') != 'frontmost_application_unless':
            continue

        if pattern not in c['bundle_identifiers']:
            c['bundle_identifiers'].append(pattern)

def process_manipulator(manipulator):
    """
    Gets applied to every manipulator before dumping it to a file.
    """
    result = dict(manipulator)

    blacklist_pycharm(result)

    return result

# Dump each rule to a separate file
for n, rule in enumerate(rules):
    # Normalize name
    desc = rule['description']
    desc_norm = normalize_rule_name(desc)

    # Pull out manipulators and save the rest
    manipulators = rule['manipulators']
    rule['manipulators'] = []

    p_rule = Path('decomposed/rules') / f'{n:03d}_{desc_norm}' / 'rule.json'
    p_rule.parent.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

    with p_rule.open('w') as f:
        json.dump(rule, f, indent=4)

    # Dump each manipulator
    p_manipulators = p_rule.parent / 'manipulators'
    p_manipulators.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
    for i, manipulator in enumerate(manipulators):
        p_m = p_manipulators / f'{i+1}.json'
        with p_m.open('w') as f:
            json.dump(process_manipulator(manipulator), f, indent=4)


Deleted everything from iCloud but storage space not freed I have deleted everything from my iCloud account storage but it still has 2.4 GB storage available and I can not free all the space.

It looks like iCloud Drive is still on:
Delete all files from it and then turn it off.


Mac book Pro to Dell E2414H monitor issue I am trying to connect my MBP with my DELL monitor. I have purchased an HDMI to VGA adapter(converter). when I connect them, my MBP flashes on and off intermittently and my external monitor says nothing is connected. I have checked and rechecked all the connections but am having no luck.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Adapters can be finicky things.  I have had mixed results even with genuine Apple display adapters.  You would think something this simple would be a no-brainier; just buy, plug in and go to work.  It may be the adapter itself that is giving you problems so you will want to return it and get another.

However, as has been previously stated, you should be using the DVI port.  The VGA is analog and while not "bad" per se, you are not getting the full performance of your monitor by using VGA and you may be introducing issues like what you are experiencing because the the DP to VGA adapter has to convert digital video signals to analog.  Then, interestingly enough, the monitor has to convert the analog signal back to digital.

Why not just go digital end-to-end?

I personally used this cable with great results  Mini Display Port to DVI.  This one is Thunderbolt compatible as well.

Why this and not an adapter and a separate DVI cable?  I prefer having a single connection end-to-end as the more connections you make means more points-of-failure.  That cable above has worked for me on several MacBooks, an iMac27 and a Surface Pro 3 tablet.

I hope that helps.


Is my MacBook Pro Retina fan failing? My MacBook Pro Retina 15" (Mid 2012) has what sounds like a failing sound. I've uploaded a recording to Dropbox however it's hard to hear.

The best I can describe the sound is that it sounds as if the fan is vibrating more then usual. There's a sort of buzz coming from it.

I know the best bet is to take the laptop to an Apple shop, but the closest one to me is an hour away, so wanted to make sure. Also, it still is under warranty, but without hearing the noise, what other tests can be done to check if it functions properly?

(Also, the battery needs replacing, which was confirmed by the Apple Store. When that is done, are the same fans put back in? I'm not sure what's glued to what inside).

If they are replacing the battery and it is under warranty, just tell them the fan is buzzing and they will look at it while replacing the battery. It may just be something got in there and it's clanking around which could be solved by compressed air, but it could be failing.


How can I completely reset iMessage in Yosemite? I'm experiencing issues sending iMessages from my Mac. It used to work, but stopped. I tried a bunch of "fixes" I found online:

sign out of iMessage and log back in another day
rebooting
restarting my phone

None of these worked to resolve the problem.

I tried to reset the Messages app by removing some .plist files, but that didn't work (those instructions are from 2012).

I'm running Yosemite 10.10.2. How can I reset the Messages app to a blank slate?

[EDIT Sat, Feb 14]

I also tried setting up Messages using another user account on my Mac, and it worked flawlessly. This leads me to believe there's some kind of issue with iCloud syncing between my iPhone and Mac.

I posted on the Apple Support Communities board for help. From the response I learned that removing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imagent.plist clears some Messages app state. When re-launching it, I'm presented with a fresh sign in flow.

In my case, the root issue still wasn't resolved.

In Console.app I found log messages like the following:

2/16/15 3:23:18.011 PM identityservicesd[4905]:
  [Warning] SQLITE_CORRUPT encountered error 11 while accessing
  /Users/mike/Library/IdentityServices/ids.db, exiting!

Searching for that turned up another post on Apple's Support Communities board which suggested removing ~/Library/IdentityServices. This solved the issue I was having, and I haven't yet noticed any unwanted side effects.


iPad Wi-Fi stopped working I have suddenly lost the Wi-Fi on my iPad. Me and my friend have a Wi-Fi account with AT&T and his iPad Wi-Fi is working just fine. Why not mine?

You will need to restore your iPad.  Hold down the top and bottom buttons till the screen goes black and you see the Apple symbol.  Then follow the instructions on this page http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1808  to restore your iOS.   I think once you do this and re-sync your ipad a lot of your problems (that you have posted about on here today) will be resolved.


Mail.app doesn't delete the draft email after I have sent it I use Mail.app to access my Gmail account and it doesn't delete the draft email - which is created automatically - after I have sent it. How do I correct this?

See point #18 on this TidBITS article on making Mail.app and Gmail IMAP co-exist happily -- hopefully it will help?

(I have not yet taken all the recommendations they give, but the longer I go on using both, the more I turn back to this to help file off the rough edges.)


Folder pop open but not in Finder I'm running High Sierra 10.13.5 on my iMac. In the dock at the bottom of the screen, there is a collection of folders on the right side of the dock. When I click on one of these folders it pops open but not in Finder. It has a look as shown here. I added a folder to the dock but it doesn't respond like this. Is there a way to make folders in the dock respond this way? And what is this called?

When I right click on the new added folder I get the options shown at the bottom.

Right-click on your folder in Dock and choose "List" for "View content as".


Upgrade to Catalina erased all data, have backups but how to restore applications/software? I had tried upgrading my MacBook Pro to Catalina from Mojave a couple of times on my own, but always got stuck on a 'could not be verified' error at the very end of downloading the said upgrade. Finally I decided to get it done at a verified Apple Service Centre. I have backups of my important documents on iCloud as well as a Time Machine backup for everything on an external hard disk.
I had submitted my MacBook Pro to the Service Centre yesterday and got it back today. The upgrade to Catalina is perfect, but I've lost all my data and applications. Even the user profile that I was using is nowhere to be found.
Now iCloud is automatically restoring some of the documents that I had backed up, but the applications/software that I had installed are completely lost. I do have a Time Machine backup, but I am not sure how I restore to that one. Moreover, restoring would take me back to OS Mojave, I think.
Is there any way I can keep Catalina but get back my applications/software from Time Machine?

The Migration Assistant is the program on any Mac that allows you to transfer in or out data and applications. I would connect your backup drive and then start the assistant.
It will then show you the information from the most recent backup or if there are many backups and the system can’t tell which backup was on your Mac, you can choose from the many destinations that can be saved to one Time Machine drive.
You can bring in accounts, settings, applications or a mix of some or all of the above.
Here is Apple’s support article that I think does a good job of the overall design and intent of this process.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

Since Catalina has excellent support for containers, the old steps to reinvoke the assistant are a bit complicated. If you don’t have anything on your new system, erasing the content / reinstalling in an erase install might be much easier now that you are on Catalina.


Search returns only 'older' emails How do I fix my mail search feature on my Mac?
Somehow my mail indexing has gotten "frozen" on my Mac (OS Sierra 10.12.6), so that messages newer than last June do not appear in searches.

This happens for all my accounts (Exchange, IMAP and iCloud), using both Mail.app (Version 10.3 (3273)) and Outlook (Version 15.41 (171205)), and for all mailboxes (e.g. both Inbox and Sent).

When I start typing characters in the search bar of the mail client, the only emails that appear are those older than ~6 months ago.  More recent emails do not appear in search results.  Even if I am looking right at a recent email, and enter the name of the person who sent it, it won't appear in the results.

Things I've tried:

I've tried rebuilding the Inbox to no effect -- even after waiting around for 10 minutes for it to re-download and re-index thousands of messages, I see the same behavior.
I've tried moving "Envelope\ Index*" files in ~/Library/Mail/V4/MailData elsewhere to force re-indexing as per these instructions, but that simply resulted in an utterly blank list of emails and no searches were possible.
I have looked under System Preferences > Spotlight and Mail is checked.  Nothing is entered under the Privacy tab.

It is possible that this behavior is somehow a symptom of the iOS mail client on my iPhone; but an investigation of the phone's mail settings didn't reveal any help re. indexing.  The mail is still being left on the server, so it still appears in all my mail clients, it's just that search on my Mac is impossible for emails more recent than last summer.  Search on my iOS client works fine.

Any help?  Thanks.

Might it be the case of removing Mail & Messages and adding it back in to the System Preferences for Spotlight?


OS on external SSD for performance? I have a 2011 iMac 27", and back then opted for a HDD. Back then (and now still) I fear for the lifespan of SSDs, and hauling an iMac 27" to the store is cumbersome, so it looked the right choice.

But now, I notice that the drive is the main bottleneck for pretty much anything I try to do, and I would love to benefit from the better performance of an SSD. (Though still not regretting my choice for HDD internal storage, mind.)

Will installing OS X and my applications on an external SSD be faster than an internal HDD?

If I did my reading right, I really should be getting something with a Thunderbolt connection. But I wanted to check here to be sure, and wondered if OS X is at all bootable from a Thunderbolt drive?

To answer your first question, Yes booting from an external SSD should be much faster than a stock HD.

Thunderbolt is definitely the fastest interface around so that shouldn't be the bottle neck.

Yes, from a brief Google search it looks like people are booting from  Thunderbolt drives without a problem.


How to find and remove duplicate calendar entries (Mac OS, Yosemite) I'm using the Calendar application on Mac OS X 10.10.1 "Yosemite". The calendar is laden with many years of history, and I've just imported some data from a phone as well. It turns out that some of the phone entries were new, but some were duplicates of entries already in Calendar.

Note that "duplicate" has some complicated cases. For instance, there are weekly repeating events where the phone's data correcting deleted some instances of the meeting (we didn't meet over the New Year holiday), while the original Calendar data incorrectly shows those instances occurring. Such pairs are "duplicate", even though they aren't identical.

How can I automate the process of identifying which calendar entries are duplicates, choose which one to keep, and delete the other? Is there AppleScript magic or something?

It can't be done since Apple doesn't think that's something anyone would ever need to do.

Maybe it's time for Apple to invest a few cycles in updating iCal, Contacts and Email - they haven't been updated in a decade.


Can I copy a file to iCloud drive from the command line? I'd like to write a script to backup some files to my iCloud drive. The drive shows up in the Finder, but I don't see it from the command line.  Is there a way to do something like:

  cp mystuff.tgz /iCloudDrive/backups/

iCloud Drive directory is located here:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs

There are some other directories listed inside Mobile Documents, their names depend on the app which owns them. For example: com~apple~Pages/.


Preserve scroll position when navigating back/forward in Safari? It seems we've been spoiled by other browsers, but sometimes you just can't use them (like for viewing Apple videos).

When I hit back/forward in Safari, then immediately I lose my place on the page. Is there an option to make Safari remember your page scroll position like every other browser?

It appears as though you're running into the "continuous scrolling" nightmare, which has become popular in recent times.

On all "regular" websites, this is not an issue from Safari 6+ and since at least Lion.

The problem is that some websites load a page, then when you reach the bottom of that page, it loads the next page below the current one. This is meant to be useful, but in the majority of cases it breaks navigation, since the page reloads on navigation.

There is no solution to this mess, other than to disable continuous scrolling, if the webpage you're accessing gives you that option.


Applecare Validity for Macbook in Turkey I am getting conflicting answers (even from the Apple itself) about the validity of the applecare plan for Macbook Pro (purchased from US) in Turkey. I know that there are Apple stores in Istanbul and that Apple gives technical assistance there. However, some says that applecare is not valid in Turkey. They say that in order to benefit from the applecare plan I should either mail my computer to US or bring it to US or perhaps to some nearby EU country where the plan is valid. On the contrary some says that applecare is completely valid for MacBooks in Turkey (though not for Iphones, Ipads, etc.). I would be grateful if I can have the correct answer and, if the plan is valid in Turkey then how the process works. Thank you.

Apple products have a global warranty, so you should be covered.

You need to contact Apple directly - someone there will be able to organise something for you. You may need to provide proof of purchase, so have that ready (scan it in if you haven't got a digital copy).

For your info, below is an experience that may shed some light on this for you.

I recently helped a lady who purchased a new iPhone from a local online store. About 10 months later the iPhone developed a fault, and while it was definitely under warranty, it took a while to establish this fact because the serial number came up as having been purchased in Thailand, and because it was dated about 7 weeks earlier than when she had purchased it.

In this case, she needed to show her purchase receipt to correct the commencement date for her warranty, as it was originally showing as only 8 days remaining compared to the two months she thought she had left. It did get all sorted, but the issue had to get escalated before it was resolved.

So, if it was me, I would visit Apple's contact page for Turkey and contact them directly via phone to discuss.


How can I remove Skype 8's icon from the menu bar? Skype 8 does not allow to remove its icon from the menu bar in their settings anymore. How can this be done?

Since Skype 8 is an Electron app you can modify its source code. Run this command in Terminal:

LC_ALL=C sed -i '' -e "s/this._tray =/\\/\\/is._tray =/" -e "s/this._trayBaseToolTip =/return;\\/\\/yBaseToolTip =/" /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar

It will prevent the menu bar icon from being created.


Xcode 6.4 sync to app store from new machine after old lost About a year ago, I have developed an iOS app on a Mac machine and synced it to the app store.

That machine has lost, so I got a new one connected to my Apple developer id. I have recovered my work and changed a few things in the code.

But when I try to resync the app, I get the attached warning.

From a quick search on Google I realized that I needed to export my developer profile from my previous machine and import it on the new machine.

Because I don't have access to that machine I need to somehow recreate the developer profile.

Any idea for how to do it?

You don't need the old developer profile any more because you don't want to concurrently develop on two machines. Therefore, you can revoke your certificate and generate a new one to install on this machine. Go to the Member Center → Certificates, click the + button and generate a new development certificate.


localhost refused to connect after upgrading to High Sierra After upgrading Mac to High Sierra and some other upgrades there is a problem connecting to localhost.
Actually, upgrading to High Sierra was OK but according to the Mac update history the last update was to MacOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update.  It was kind of strange because the problem started after I hit restart with update but this update required one more specific restart.

The Spring Boot applications work fine. I can connect to them from a test client using opened ports. A connection to the Apache server form the browser also works fine. However, the browser connections to my applications are not working

The problem was that the Chrome security certificate required for these applications stopped working after upgrades.  Reinstalling the certificate solved the problem


Trying to replace volume sound in OS X to what was present before. Encountering permissions problems even as root. Help? I'm trying to get the old volume feedback noise on my MacBook.

I have a copy of the sound file but the system is refusing to let me replace it, even as root. I found this article that also explained it step by step for terminal but even terminal is giving me problems.

I'm currently on a 2010 13" MBP with OS X 10.11 Beta 5 (15A262e). Any ideas?

The article[1] you have referenced will not work on OS X 10.11 El Capitan (beta versions included). This is due to the new System Integrity Protection (SIP) feature. SIP is intended to protect operating-level system files (in /System and other filesystem locations) from modification, even by a user with root-level privileges.

If you are committed to doing this task, you could try turning SIP off, following the article, then turning SIP back on. Instructions for disabling/enabling SIP are easily found online.

[1] Note that the article does not give any 'date posted' information, but appears to have been posted around Sept-Oct 2014?


Can I use Google's new CardDAV-based contacts sync to sync between my Exchange contacts and Google contacts on my iPhone? I want my Google contacts and my Exchange contacts to sync through my iPhone as follows:

Google contacts <--> iPhone <--> Exchange contacts

and I was looking at Google's CardDAV sync as a way to do it. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-new-way-to-sync-google-contacts.html?m=1

First, is this even possible?

What I can't understand is that after you add the CardDAV account to the iPhone your new contacts must go in that specific contacts group in order to sync. But of course they won't sync to Exchange since the Exchange contacts by definition are in their own group.

Can I do this?

I haven't had an opportunity to test this out, but I'm pretty sure that the iPhone silos contacts on a per-account basis. When you set up a CardDAV or Exchange account in Settings, it's unique from anything else. The contacts don't intermingle, beyond showing up in the same app.

You can think of it like having two different email accounts that your phone checks. You can access both, they'll even show up in a unified inbox, but emails in a folder on one account don't get synced to a folder on the other account.

Off the top of my head, to synchronize the two accounts, you'd probably need an app running on a computer that could synchronize between the two, and then connect your phone to either the CardDAV or Exchange server as the canonical version.


Which version of iWork can I use on OS X 10.6.3? I have OS X 10.6.3 installed on my iMac.

I would like to download a trial version of iWork but the latest version (9.1) is not compatible with my OS X version.

Which is the right version of iWork for me and where could I download the trial version?

According to Apple's iWork system requirements page, you should be able to download this trial version.


Getting iTune to add remote items to library I keep my music on a local Ubuntu server. Is there any way I can get iTunes to recognize the networked directory as part of its library?

you can try  mt-daapd (firefly server) to serve media files to your
iTunes from your ubuntu machine.
Setup it on your server* and then add in Itunes Preferences->Advanced where your library is..

*this is a tutorial on how to install mt-daapd on your ubuntu server

http://all-tech-thoughts.blogspot.gr/2010/09/how-to-setup-firefly-mt-daapd-on-ubuntu.html

Also bear in mind sometimes for some versions of itunes mt-daapd compatibility breaks.
Updating to current itunes version usually helps...


How do I snap a photo on my iPhone with the apple earphones I have an iPhone 6s and am running iOS 10. I just tried to take a photo using the earphones volume up and down but nothing triggered. I also tried another pair of earphone, but it still didn't work. Is there a setting I'm missing? or did they disable this in iOS 10.

I successfully took a photo via the following process with iPhone 7 & iOS 10 & the apple earbuds (with lightning connector, and also with lightning to 3.5mm jack variant of Earbuds):

Open the default iPhone camera app and, with earbuds connected, press volume down on the in-line remote.

However, the above process did not work when the apple earbuds were replaced by a set of Anker bluetooth earbuds, paired and connected to the phone.


How can I swap the primary display automatically in a dual-monitor setup? I have a MacBook Pro and two Thunderbolt displays at work. I work with the MacBook lid-closed because it's overkill and I don't have enough desk space anyway.

Every morning I show up to work and plug in a Thunderbolt cable and power cord, but my primary screen (the one in front) and secondary (one off to the side) are swapped. I have to this stupid song and dance in the Displays / Arrangement system preference and it's getting annoying:

Is there a way to do this automatically? With a setting? An AppleScript? Is there a reason that the screens are always flipped?

Update: I think I got it.

There's a utility called cscreen which lets you control the display settings. Running it shows all displays:

$ cscreen
DisplayID  Index     Depth     Width     Height  Refresh
 4249fef       1        32      2560       1440     0
 4248344       2        32      2560       1440     0
use -h to display all usage options

Sure enough, you can force one of them to be primary (with menu bar):

$ cscreen -i 4248344 -p

You can script setting the second screen as the primary like this:

$ cscreen -l | perl -lane 'print $F[0] if $F[1] == 2' | xargs -I id cscreen -i id -p

Now, to bind to a key, I first created an AppleScript script, SwapScreen.scpt:

Then I used QuickSilver to bind the script to a F13:

Now, when I plug in my MacBook, if the screens are messed up, I simply hit F13. Sweet!


How to upgrade storage for Macbook Air? I'm getting my first Mac, a Macbook Air 2015. My other machine is a PC used for gaming and I thought I could use my external HDD with both. Now I see NTFS is read only in OS X. For now it's unlikely that I'll run out of space on the 128GB SSD because I stream both videos and music and don't save large collections of photos or videos on the notebook but if might need some more space, what would be the best way to upgrade storage? Move the files on the HDD to my PC, format it to another file system and only use it with the Macbook? Does OS X have a utility for that? I heard it's possible to upgrade the SSD but will it void my warranty to have it done?

Your best option is to get a memory expansion module.  I have a 2013 Air and I purchased the PNY 128gb StorEDGE.  It's very fast and would double the available storage on your Air.

As others have indicated, opening the Air to add another/bigger SSD would be more expensive and difficult than just adding an expansion module.


Tools to diff two Keynote '09 slideshows Is there any tool which I can use to effectively diff two Keynote '09 slideshows?

TL;DR

An Apple Keynote (i.e. a .key) file consists of a directory structure which contains all the resources used in a slideshow (i.e. images, videos) and a .apxl file containing the structure and the text of the slideshow, encoded in a given format. Therefore, it should be possible to diff two versions of the same slideshow comparing the list of resources and the XML file. The comparison should give decent information about what has been changed or added between two versions of the same slideshow.

Is there any tool which is able to do some clever (e.g. strip metadata away from the comparison) diffing between two Keynote slideshows?

I ended up writing my own script who does that. It's available at:

https://github.com/robertoaloi/keynote-to-text

Contributions are welcome.


How to use Gmail contacts on an iPod Touch I have an iPod Touch 4. It easily lets me set up the Mail and Calendar apps to use my Gmail account, but I can't seem to find a way to get the Contacts app to use my Gmail contacts. Am I missing something or is it not possible?  Seems silly that it wouldn't let me use my Gmail contacts with my Gmail account.

You need to set it up with Google Sync.  There's a step-by-step guide on the Google Sync Support Page


High Sierra Mail Preferences Missing When I go to "Preferences", a window named "Signatures" appears, which is empty. All my many previously saved Signatures are gone, and there is no way to access Mail Preferences.

Hopefully you have a Time Machine (or other) backup that you can restore the files, which are located in

~/Library/Mail/V5/MailData/Signatures

and the files seem to be called by some sort of PID string ending with ".mailsignature"

Restore those files from backup to get your signatures back.


Can I upgrade iMac 27inch 5K Display's RAM from 8GB to 32GB/64GB? I am new with Apple products. i just bought iMac 27 5k, 3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 , 8GB Ram, 2TB Fusion Drive. i wanted to know if it is possible to increase its RAM? i asked the dealer here in Pakistan but they say you can't upgrade the RAM. you will see to send the to Apple USA which will be another expensive story.

I want to know if i can increase its RAM to 32GB or 64GB?

Also what are the good supported ram which was not really expensive but affordable. can you guys directly what kind of ram i need and how to upgrade the ram? i have no idea what of ram i need to purchase online, its so confusing

Yes, you can upgrade the RAM, and have many different options. I bought the very same system you did, and it came with 2 4 GB chips in the four available slots.  I ordered two 4 GB chips for $100 US from https://www.macsales.com, received them 3 days later, popped them in the two open slots and the system recognized the full 16GB; even though the chip pairs are from different vendors, I had no problem with it.

It is incredibly easy to change the RAM on the iMac and MacSales even has videos to show you how to do it. You can take it all the way up to 64 GB. The best way to see if you need more RAM is to open up Activity Monitor and watch the swap space in the memory tab. Under normal circumstances, the only time swap space is used is when the system needs more RAM than is physically installed. So if you see a lot of swap space being used, that means you are using up all the available RAM.

One note: Unix-based systems like Mac and Linux use far less RAM than Windows, so do not compare the two platforms for RAM capacity needs.


MacBook Pro 7,1 OS X upgrade to Lion or Mavericks I own a MacBook Pro 7,1 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and need to upgrade my operating system in order to allow my kids access Netflix as it says I need to update my browser.

Apple software update says I have latest available software.

Can I download Lion or Mavericks from anywhere?

As I don't really want to risk going to Yosemite in case it renders my MacBook Pro useless.

OS X Yosemite runs amazingly on my 2009 MacBook Pro (5,3). I don't know who started all this nonsense about Yosemite running poorly on all Macs, but it's perfectly safe and very useful on new Macs and even ones like mine that are a few years old.


Front camera on an iPhone 4S no longer works The back camera works just fine but the front one does not. When I select it, it just freezes. When I quit the app and select it again it presents just a black screen; no image. I tried closing and resetting the phone but that hasn't helped.

Can anyone help me fix this in some free way?

Thanks to @IanC to find the duplicate, so before we close this here is the answer.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/61350/46541

  This is a hardware problem. This comes up when the ribbon connector
  from the camera to the main circuit board comes loose or gets
  disconnected altogether. If you have the right tools and enough DIY
  skills to open up your iPhone, it's a very simple fix that should be
  fairly obvious to see. Otherwise, the Apple Store should be able to
  repair it for you (I would think free of charge, but who knows).

  If you do want to take apart your iPhone and attempt the repair
  yourself, PowerBook Medic has some really nice instructions for taking
  apart all versions of iPhones from 3GS and above. They also sell
  replacement parts and will repair it for you as well if you want.
  (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation nor prior experience with this
  company, so use at your own risk.)


Does Find my Mac work if you boot into Windows on BootCamp? If I have Find my Mac set up and Bootcamp is installed as well, will my computer be trackable when I'm in Windows?

What happens if a thief steals my computer and remains in Windows all the time, will I ever be able to track the laptop?

No. The service requires you to be running OS X (Lion specifically) and to have a recovery partition installed (created by Lion during installation). If you attempt to log into iCloud.com to find it's location, it will simply be listed as offline or unavailable.


Why doesn't iTunes backup every time I charge my iPhone? I read years ago when they introduced wireless syncing with iTunes, that they would backup my phone every time I would charge my phone wirelessly. I waited years and to this day this still doesn't work properly. It seems to want to backup randomly. I charge my phone every night, but my latest backup is always more than a week ago.

How do I fix this?

It doesnt back up everytime you charge it. Wireless syncing just means you dont need the data transfer cable, that you can do it "over the air", so the week old back ups are the legit ones


Using external USB hard drives via a USB hub connected to a MacBook Air If I want to connect 2 usb external hard drives at the same time, will I be able to use a USB hub? I read somewhere "Never connect your external HD thru an external USB hub!"

Is this really true?

There is no 100% rule that applies in all situations.

For example:

there are portable USB hard drives that do not require their own power source
there are portable USB hard drives that do not require their own power source with some computers, but do with others
there are USB hard drives that do require their own power source no matter the computer
some USB hubs are powered hubs, while others are not
some USB ports deliver more power than others

My recommendation

If you wish to connect external hard drives via a USB hub, especially is you're going to connect two of them simultaneously, then you should invest in a powered USB hub. By a powered USB hub I mean one that has its own power source. This way you're not relying on the MacBook Air to power the USB hub and two external hard drives simultaneously.


How to change the keyboard for alphanumeric password on lock screen on iPod I want to change the keyboard of my passcode to Japanese. Even if I change the language of my iPod to Japanese and get rid of the English keyboard, I still only can set my passcode in English. I can't find anything that will help me do this. If any of you know please help! Arigato!

Good morning! report it to Apple support
Request them to investigate, ask them to inform you and also post "how to" on their website as well

Note: Usually Apple or other smartphones makes only post the most common situations or most common inquiry's answers

For those more specific questions, one has to ask them to investigate and post it
If there is an Apple support agent or technical support person that knows how to use his or her resources and is willing to investigate on it for more than 5 minutes, they may be able to get you an answer

Thanks!


How do I downgrade an iPhoto library from version 9 to version 8.1 I recently acquired an older Mac and am trying to copy an iPhoto library from a newer computer to it.  However, the older version of iPhoto refuses to open, telling me "You can't open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto... Pease quit and use the latest version of iPhoto."

However, upgrading to the latest version of iPhoto isn't an option.

I found some information suggesting I could downgrade a library to an earlier version of iPhoto.  However, it says to use the "Rebuild Library" command from the "Library" menu.  However, there is no such menu in my version of iPhoto.  I found an Apple on rebuilding the iPhoto library (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638) but the option that I seem to need: "Repair the iPhoto Library Database" does not appear in the "Rebuild Photo Library" dialog box I get on startup holding Command and Option, although the "Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" appears but is grayed out.

I know your pain. I have a 2006 iMac 24 inch and up graded to version 9 iPhoto and every thing went haywire when I opened the program (pixelation, blank screens, frozen screen etc.) I dealt with Apple help over the phone for over 8 hours over a couple of days. They took control of my computer and took snapshots of various screens and sent to their IT for analysis. They got back to me about a week later and said version 9 is not compatible with the GeForce 7300GT GPU. The choice was downgrade to my previous IPhoto version or upgrade the vid card. I chose for the downgrade. The Apple tech took over my screen by remote and spent close to an hour doing wizardry and got it done. BTW He did not lose any of my pictures either. I guess although I provide no help with your problem since the tech did all the work (and I really know nothing) I want you to know there is a solution to your problem out there, somewhere.
Sorry I can not be of more help.
Oh yeah Apple gave me a full refund for the iPhoto ver 9 that I purchased. Apple Help line did everything possible to help me and I was impressed with there attitude and effort.


Any way to make symlinks or aliases resolve over a network with macOS? So I like to move my big folders from the home folder on the macOS System SSD to a hard drive and keep the SSD mainly for the system files and apps, a fairly common practice.
Problem is when I want to access the home folder over a network, if I use aliases I get..
Foo can't be open because the original item can't be found.

Or for symlinks..
The operation can’t be completed because the original item for “Bar” can’t be found.

Alas hard links don't appear to be usable for directories.
But once when doing this I appear to have stumbled upon a method of linking that did resolve over a network, but I don't have that install anymore so can't check.
Is there a way to move and link folders that will resolve when accessing said folders from another Mac on the same network?
It's also no fun that if these are added back to the sidebar as aliases, files can't be dragged into them.

So the answer is that both aliases and symlinks are both respected over network so long as the a share is mounted that contains the path to the original file in Finder i.e now has an eject button.
In my case I'd symlinked from an SSD to a HD, and while the SSD share folder was mounted, I had not yet browsed to any place on the HD so it was not mounted.


MBA (2013-15?) wont boot from macOS boot stick A friend of mine somehow managed to delete his internal drive including the recovery partition while trying to reset his MacBook to factory settings. Now when trying to boot up the MBA only displays the flashing folder with the question mark appears.

He is not so sure about the age of his machine, but says it has to be from 2013 to 2015, so I thought that this issue can be easily fixed by booting from a macOS El Capitan recovery stick which is a version of macOS that should be supported on his machine.

Unfortunately, when trying to boot from this there were some surprises:

Firstly, when I pressed the option key, the Clover boot menu showed up instead of the native one, which I find pretty strange because I thought that this is only a utility for hackintoshes. I have never seen this installed on a real Mac! Moreover, my friend has never heard of Clover and he has got really little knowledge about computers, but he bought it new and was the only person who ever used the machine - so how can there be Clover installed?
Secondly, no boot volume selection menu shows when my USB is not plugged in, but when it is only the USB shows up as an option to boot from - but not the internal drive.

When I try to boot from the stick the Apple logo shows up, but the bar underneath never appears and I am stuck at the boot screen.

I activated verbose mode and tried booting from the stick again. Obviously, this time there was no Apple logo, but also not a single word appeared whereas normally the screen is full of verbose boot messages.

The recovery stick itself is definitely not the cause as I tested it both before and after with my own MacBook Air and it worked perfectly fine. In fact, the bar underneath the Apple logo appeared immediately and you could not see the Apple logo alone for even a second.

Finally, when I try to enter recovery mode, the boot volume selection opens up instead.

How else can I troubleshoot this?

Start the Mac in Internet Recovery mode instead by holding down Alt-Cmd-R during Boot. This will allow you to format the drive and reinstall macOS and the Recovery partition.


Preview hangs when opening any image or pdf Recently Preview has started hanging for me whenever I open any pdf or image. I keep getting the spinning balloon of death and am unable to do anything in Preview, so I have to force-quit the application. Is there something I can do about this?

Crash report is here.

Probably resetting Preview by deleting its configuration from ~/Library could solve that problem.

cd ~/Library
rm Caches/com.apple.Preview \
   Containers/com.apple.Preview \
   Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist\
   Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist \
   "Saved Application State"/com.apple.Preview.savedState

Restart Preview and test.


Airplaying: consumption of mobile data? If I create a Personal Hot Spot Wi-Fi (on an iPhone 8 with iOS 12.1.3), connect an Apple TV 4k to that Wi-Fi, will I incure mobile data usage if I airplay to the Apple TV using previously downloaded iTunes movies on the iPhone?

As you are not on a WiFi network, data will be used to transmit the signal.

  If you have no wifi to connect to, then you will using cellular data which will eat up your data. don't want it to eat data, then get a wifi connection.

(Source)

As you have the move downloaded the data consumption will be reduced but data will still be used.


Apple TV, xfinity, and remote app I have my 3rd gen Apple TV connected to an xfinity hotspot (that's the only wifi I have right now) and the remote app from my iPhone 6 Plus S isn't finding it on the air play menu? They are both connected to the same xfinity hotspot. I can mirror air play but my remote app just won't find my Apple TV. I tried three different apps too and none of them are working.
Some help would be best appreciated.
Thanks

Although I can't say for sure, my "gut feeling" is that this is a firewall issue - your router could be blocking ports 3689 and/or 5353.

See also: If the Remote app won't connect


Mysterious WindowServer process calling every 3 seconds I use a program with a GUI design a little bit different than usual and a strange issue:
With all drop-down menus, something is forcing the window to close and therefore prevent me to use it.
I noticed in the console some spamming errors from the WindowServer (SkyLight) process, appearing around 20 times per minutes.
This is message I get:
"_CGXWindowIsOrderedIn: Operation on a window 0x132 requiring rights private by caller private"
I find it very strange and almost "virus-like".
I hope I'm wrong.
After scouring the web for a few hours, I can't find a way to get rid of these errors.
Is any of you have an idea of where this could come from or what can I try?
Note: It's not happening on my others user account on the same machine.
EDIT: Finally, I found the culprit!! It was an app called Witch developed by ManyTricks so nothing like a virus or a malware. I'm contacting the devs right now to see if they can fix it.


Messages in the Cloud with multiple Apple IDs Background

I use the same main Apple ID for iCloud across all the iOS devices (a couple iPhones and a couple iPads) in my household. However, for one of the iPhones, I use a different Apple ID for Messages/iMessage. This is on my wife's iPhone; she uses her own Apple ID for Messages so that she has her own set of messages and conversations on her phone.

So, on her iPhone, the iCloud info shown at the very top of the main Settings.app view shows my Apple ID credentials. However, down in the Messages settings under the Send & Receive view, her own Apple ID is listed.

Question

If I turn on the new Messages in the Cloud feature — the one that's new in iOS 11.4 — how will this work with the setup I've described above?

My fear is that after I've turned on Messages in the Cloud on my iPhone — and all my messages sync up to my iCloud account — when I turn on the Messages in the Cloud feature on her iPhone, all my messages will sync down to her phone. Or, probably just as bad, possibly all her conversations and my conversations would be merged together in some Frankenstein sorta way.

I'd rather not have to try this in anger in order to find out how it'll work. Either of the scenarios above would be hard to recover. So, I'm hoping someone already knows what'll happen.

Thanks!

Don't turn on iCloud Messages for either device.

You can continue to use iCloud Backup and include your Messages, if you want them backed-up. If not, leave that off, too.

As previously mentioned, sharing Apple ID's nowadays will start causing more problems as Apple and developers start using individual iCloud accounts for more individual use.

Perhaps looking into other photo sharing options to get what you need, until Apple does something, is the better short-term approach.


How to install new Netflix on old iPad? I have a 32GB iPad 1 that I have had running for about six years. Recently, there was a virus and I had to reset it. I did so successfully. It has iOS 5.1.1 (9B206) installed.

In General > Software Update I see "iOS 5.1.1 Your software is up to date".

When I go to the App Store and try to install Netflix, I am informed that "this application requires iOS 9.0 or later". Obviously, I can't do so.

Is there a way to install ANY version of Netflix on my iPad?

What version of Netflix is stored with your iTunes Library on your Mac/PC? You could check this to see whether you still have the old version:

If so: you can select and sync the Netflix app from your iTunes library to your iPad.
If not, and you have a Mac: Your Time Machine backup should have backups of all the apps previously downloaded/synced with your iPad. These will be located within your iTunes Library. So you could go back far enough to find a version of the Netflix app that will work with your iPad and restore that version to your iTunes Library. Then select and sync that version to your iPad from within iTunes.
If not, and you have a PC: Assuming you have past backups of your iTunes Library, you can do the same as above (i.e. copy back a version of the Netflix app that will work with your iPad to your iTunes Library. Then select and sync that version to your iPad from within iTunes.


iPhone 4 water damage Phone stopped working. Took it apart only batt, antenna, and some covers. Cleaned with brush and alcohol. Put back together.  The phone works perfect except: screen does not light up. Looking closely can unlock and it is receiving messages as it should. Not sure where the connection is for the LEDs or what connector to look at.

You probably should take a look at iFixit's guide. They have guides on how to teardown stuff, and that should mention things you should be aware of when you tear it down. One of that would be the screen/backlight connector.


Macbook Pro 2014 doesn't recognize internal display I have a Macbook Pro mid-2014 running macOS Catalina 10.15.3

A few years ago, I dropped it, and broke the screen, then bought a replacement screen and repaired it myself.  Until today, I had no problems with it (except for a minor bug, which I asked about in this question).

Today when I turned my mac on, the internal display does not turn on, but the two external monitors I use work fine.  The internal display is not shown in the display settings, nor in system information -> hardware.

What I've tried:

NVRAM reset
disconnecting the battery from the motherboard, and all cables that are connected to the internal display, then reconnecting
a full reinstall of the OS

I've also tried a plethora of other suggestions, but I don't think they are relevant.

After a bit of research, I suspect the "logic board" might be damaged, but I don't want to spend the money for replacement parts without being certain.

  What can I do to diagnose this problem? Is there anything else I can try?

The fact that your internal display failed, but not your external ones says that the GPU is working.  It suggests that your display is bad, however, it's doesn't rule out the logic board as it could be the video mux chip.

The only way to positively diagnose this issue is to try a known working display on your Mac or connect your display to a known working logic board.

Since I doubt you have spare MacBook computers laying around, it's best that you take it to a repair shop for diagnosis.


Delete partition and restore to mac without bootcamp I am looking to restore my hard drive to just mac fully. I installed windows using bootcamp but in trying to remove windows as it was faulty, I accidentally removed bootcamp assistant from my mac.

I would like to delete disk0s3 and restore it to be part of my main Macintosh HD which contains my mac OS install. However, I am not sure how this is organised as not sure what container disk1 is. Any advice on how I can clean this up to just have 'Macintosh HD' using the full space available? The format of Macintosh HD is APFS (encrypted). Should I just erase disk0s3 and give it the same format? If so, what name should I give it?

I plan to update my mac software and recover bootcamp assistant that way hopefully to reinstall windows.

Thanks in advance

To convert a Microsoft partition to free space requires a single command. For example, disk0s3 is a Microsoft partition. To convert to free space, you would need to enter the following command.

sudo diskutil eraseVolume free none disk0s3

Free space can be added to a container, if the free space reside immediately after the container. In your case, if you converted disk0s3 to free space, then you probably would be able add this free space to disk0s2, by entering the command given below.

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


Recording a maths tutorial video with iPhone I am making a series of maths video tutorials to put up on YouTube.

I have made a wooden crane that positions the iPhone above my desk looking down so that it captures an A4 sheet of paper. (I have an iPhone5s by the way).

The quality is variable however. Some videos come out reasonably crisp, others blurry.

Crisp-ish:

Blurry:

Is there anything I can do to the iPhone to improve the quality?

I am working in front of a window, so I am getting ambient daylight (I don't really want to use a lamp because that will give sharp shadows of my hand).  I tried outdoors but then the recording is vulnerable to wind-noise.

If I touch the centre of the screen after the record button it sets the focus. I'm not sure whether subsequently moving my hand over the paper forces some refocusing. On my android device I could force manual focus.

Use the AE/AF Lock. Tap and hold on the place you wish to focus on. That should stop the camera from refocusing when your hand moves.


Question: Will an Apple Watch 4 work/pair with an iPhone 6 that has IOS 12.4. but IS NOT an activated phone? I can't seem to find any reference to this scenario. I have the iPhone wiped, updated, and set-up with a new apple ID. But I would prefer not to activate it as that would require a dedicated plan. I use an Android phone. The iPhone is a device that my wife has abandoned that I am attempting to set up with an Apple watch which, in my opinion, is the best smart watch. I'm aware that I won't be able to see, respond to, or make phone calls, but to have the rest would be great. Who knows, I might even become a convert if things go well. :) I bow to those who have an educated answer. Thank you.

The answer is...yes, but you need to activate it first.

From a hardware perspective, if you have an Apple Watch 4 with watchOS 5 and an iPhone 6 running 12.x, you meet the bare minimum of requirements.

The short answer is you need a SIM card to activate and upgrade the phone.  However, you don't need cellular service (well, maybe for a month).  If your phone is "free and clear" meaning you don't have a carrier obligation on it, you are free to take it to whatever carrier you want.

In this case, to activate your iPhone, it needs to communicate over the cellular network once.  After it's been activated you can disconnect your cellular plan and use it as an iPod Touch.  Everything on with iPhone with the exception of both cellular and WiFi calling will be functional.  In other words, you can use it to browse the web, but you can't make calls (including Skype).  However as long as you have WiFi, the rest of the functionality that requires data will work; including your Apple Watch.

Can you do this without activating?

Sure.  If the person giving you the phone doesn't restore it to factory defaults and you don't upgrade it at all, you possibly can use it without activating it but this seems like more trouble than it's worth.  You basically need a SIM to operate the phone.


Microsoft Word does not respond to keyboard shortcuts I have a MacBook Pro with Microsoft Word 2011 installed on it.

For some reason, all the editing keyboard shortcuts - such as Cut: Cmd + X, Copy: Cmd + C, and Undo: Cmd + Z - does not work in it.

My friend who also has Microsoft Word 2011 on a MacBook Pro has his keyboard shortcuts working fine.

This situation really hinders my work, what could be the problem?

Check in the edit menu and see what MS Word thinks its shortcut keys are for cut, copy, and paste.

If they're not the keys you’re expecting, maybe something was accidentally configured in Word’s preferences, e.g. some alternate key mapping.

Also, verify that there are not alternative key mappings specified in the Mac System Preferences, both system wide and application specific, that may be modifying your shortcut mappings to other keys.


How do I redeem an iBooks free coupon? I remember a message after installing the iBooks app on my iPad telling me that I would have one free book to download. I never used it but now I am interested and wonder if this coupon is still active.

How could I know without spending money accidentally?

Find the redeem code button in the iBook store.
Enter Your Promo Code
Push redeem button
After you entered your promo code, you will (hopefully) get a message saying that your item is downloading.


iTunes: subscribe to a podcast without downloading it? I listen to podcasts on iTunes (on OS X 10.11.3 BTW).  There, I said it.  I want to make a list of podcast channels I like so I can find them easily and quickly, but I want to stream them, not download them.  Apparently if I subscribe to a channel iTunes will try to download stuff -- I do not want this to happen.  If I am not online I will not listen to podcasts.

Any idea on how to achieve this?  I tried and failed, and could not goole an answer.

In case it is not 100% clear, I am using a Mac, not a phone.

Go to the podcast page in your iTunes Library by selecting it in the menu bar, then click the gear next to the title, then, under "This Computer", select Download Episodes > Off


How to install WhatsApp on an iPad 4 without 3G? I own an iPad 4 without 3G (functioning only Wi-Fi) running iOS 7. How can I install WhatsApp on this iPad?

From the FAQ on whatsapp.com:

  Other devices are not supported at this time. If you try to download WhatsApp on an unsupported device, you will receive a message that your device is not supported and you will not be able to download WhatsApp. We currently do not support tablets, computers, or Wi-Fi only devices, and do not plan to do so in the foreseeable future.


How to create a Keynote theme with 16:9 AND 4:3 support? In Keynote you can create custom themes that show up in the Keynote theme chooser.
Apple's (newer) themes support all 16:9 resolutions (like 1920x1080) but also all 4:3 resolutions (like 1024x768).

BUT...

if I create a custom theme at a resolution of 1920x1080 and save it, the theme chooser will only give me options of resolutions with a 16:9 aspect ratio, no 4:3 resolutions.

So there's a 1920x1080 option and a 1280x720 option BUT there's no option for 1024x768 or 800x600.

Same goes the other way around.

How do I create a custom theme that supports ALL resolutions/aspect ratios,
like Apple's own themes?

There does seem to be a way to do this, but it involves mucking around inside the theme packages, so proceed at your own risk.

Create the theme you want in 1920x1080 and 1024x768 sizes. (Also at 1650x1050, if you'd like that as an option).
Save the themes with simple descriptors: theme_1920x1080, theme_1024x768, theme_1650x1050.
Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/iWork/Keynote/Themes/.

Use Unarchiver to extract the package contents. You can now delete the initial theme files.

In each package, navigate to /Contents/Resources/en.lproj/ and open the name.strings file in the text editor of your choice.

Delete the resolution part of the name.
i.e.: "name" = "theme_1920x1080" => "name" = "theme".

After you have done so to the name.string files in each of the packages, return to the Themes folder and add ".kth" to each of the folders. Finder will ask you if you're sure. Click "Add."

These themes should all appear under one title in Keynote and you should be able to select both 4:3 and 16:9 resolutions.


Why is “Spotlight Web Content” using so much VRAM and CPU? Why is “Spotlight Web Content” using so much (32.56 GB) virtual RAM and CPU (up to 122.41% apparently)? More interestingly, how can I prevent it from doing so?

I am running this MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM and OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite.

I found this in Acticvity Monitor when my Computer was close to not responding anymore and killing it solved that problem. It shows the process had quite a high number of errors, as well (27443815).

The Spotlight Web Content process is part of Spotlight Suggestions. When you start to type in Spotlight or the Safari address bar, Apple sends what you are typing out to their servers to suggest possible web matches and pre-fetch web pages based on what the system thinks you might be looking for.

For example, if you start to type N E, it may pre-load netflix.com.

As far as why it using so many resources, that's difficult to say. Is this the first time this has happened? It may have crashed. Keep an eye on it and see if the issue reoccurs.

You can also disable Spotlight Suggestions and that should stop this thread from appearing altogether.

Go to System Preferences > Spotlight and uncheck Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web Searches. Then, in Safari, go to Preferences > Search and uncheck Include Spotlight Suggestions.


Will my experience be compromised using AirPods Pro with Bluetooth 4 only hardware? I have a MacBook Air 2014 with Bluetooth 4.0 and I’m considering to buy AirPods Pro. I assume that it makes sense to promote an accessory with the lowest standard they're compatible with, and AirPods Pro are promoted with Bluetooth 5.I can’t find answers to things like does Stereo sound or Spatial Audio require 5.0. The Wikipedia article  only mentions iOS devices.
Will a macOS 4.0 device compromise AirPods features in any direct way?

Yes, AirPods Pro will work with a MacBook Air 2014 and provide stereo sound. You will not, however, enjoy Spatial Audio, that is reserved for iOS devices only. See this support document for specific requirements regarding spatial audio.


Late 2019 Macbook Air with Intel Core i5 8GB RAM 128 SSD I have a late 2019 MacBook air with an Intel Core i5. I REALLY want to upgrade this processor to make the laptop just a bit better. Because I just bought it, I really don't want to get a whole new computer. I was wondering if it is possible to replace the possessor. I have heard that the processor is attached to the logic board so I am open to getting a new logic board. If anyone wants to help me out that would be greatly appreciated!

No, the processor is soldered. I highly doubt buying a logic board is a good choice. You can't buy it from Apple, so you're stuck with third party options. It's also fairly likely that a working logic board that you want is going to be fairly expensive, maybe even more expensive than just buying a new laptop.

Your best value is sell this mac - perhap helping someone get it set up so they are happy paying full price and then order the gear you want paying the delta in what your sells for and what the new costs.


Why doesn't the screen command source my .profile? When I start a new screen, the aliases that I have set in my ~/.profile do not seem to be sourced.

Does anyone know where I can change this or which file is actually read when starting a new screen?

For an alias to work in ~/.profile the session needs to be a login shell. Bash, which is probably what you're using, is typically read from ~/.bash_profile.

There's a good explanation of the differences mentioned here:

https://superuser.com/questions/183870/difference-between-bashrc-and-bash-profile


MagSafe2 (fake) replaced power cord My cat obliterated my power cord yesterday. Being a student, spending around 100 euros on a new charger was not an option. So I found a 10-years-experience-in repairing-electronics-company and they replaced my power cord today for around 25 euros.

The process was opening the 'main-box aka the charger itself', cutting the power cord and replacing it with a new one from what they told me (wasn't done in front of me). The charger looks like brand new (by brand new I mean, looks like before the operation, they didn't cracked the case or used duct tape to close it after the process was over) so apparently they didn't lied around the part that they are pro. They also told me that the replacement cord is genuine.

Now, how can I actually check if it is genuine as I am concerned to not get my Macbook fried. Or should I ask what are the risks of having a fake power cord ? Tho' I suppose having a power cord fake should be less dangerous than the entire charger.

I am asking these questions as the MagSafe2 adapter looks quite shady, as the light from the charging LED is leaking around the cord. I attached a picture to be more specific.

After they replaced the cord and tested the charger so I could see that the laptop is charging they went through the menu and showed me some info regarding the power (60W) and infos I simply did not understood. I will post a picture of that screen with those informations. As I do not know how they were before replacing the charger, I cannot compare to the current values.

Thank you

It isn't.  Apple does not sell replacement parts and does not license the Magsafe to anyone.


How do I reset a locked Apple Watch in Airplane Mode? Through a series of events the passcode entries on an Apple Watch has been exhausted and the watch is locked with this message:

  Wrong Passcode

  Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, go to
  Passcode, then tap Re-enable Passcode Entry to try again.

But when I go to Passcode on the Apple Watch app it just spins probably because the watch is in Airplane Mode.

When I try to reset the watch through the Apple Watch app I get this error message:

  Could Not Connect to Apple Watch

  Make sure your Apple Watch is nearby, powered on, and not in Airplane
  Mode.

But I can't turn off Airplane mode on the watch because it locked. Do I have any other options besides taking to the Apple store with proof of purchase?

Looks like there is a way to erase a locked Apple Watch.

Hold down the side button to see the options to power off the watch.
Force touch
Select 'Erase all content and settings'

I discovered you can force touch on the power off screen from this site:
http://www.barryschiffer.com/how-to-recover-an-apple-watch-stuck-in-a-crash-reboot-loop/

Official link - https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204567

If this fails, service from Apple can restore and reset devices that are non responsive or even need hardware intervention or repair.


Old Clash of Clans account transfered - how to create a new village? I have worked with Supercell to transfer my kid's CofC village from my GameCenter account to his. (He had started playing on my machine under my account but he now has his own account.) That is now resolved.

However, since he used to play on my machine, his village is still the one that loads when I launch the CofC app. It's not attached to my GameCenter account, but it's still the one that appears by default. Obviously, I don't want to play my kid's village (and in fact I can't even launch the app when he's playing on his side). How can I start a new village and link it to my GameCenter?

I'm thinking that a possible course of action would be to (1) backup, (2) restore to factory settings, (3) login to GameCenter and create a new village, (4) restore from backup. This should work but it's a bit involved. Anything easier?

Solution found: download CofC on another device using the same GameCenter account (my iPhone), create a village on that device, go back to the iPad and CofC offered to load my newly created village. Problem solved.


Cloning my SSD into bigger one I have a 128gb SSD running MacOSX, I have another 2TB spinning disk too, I have a bunch of symlinks so that ordinary directories that do not need SSD speed are put on the 2TB disk (Downloads, Desktop, etc, for example).

I have purchased a bigger and faster SSD and I would like to replace my existing SSD with this new one.

I have set it up on an external disk mount that connects via USB, and cloned my main using Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDupper, with both I could not get it to BOOT after I replaced my main disk with the bigger one inside the casing.

What am I doing wrong?
What I did:
- Partition virgin SSD with 1 full size partition using disk utility with boot GUID Partition Table.
- Use CCC or SupperDupper to clone it.
- Open up machine, replace old SSD with new SSD.
- Turn on computer.

It will always fail to boot. So I just go back to using my original SSD.

Finally solved it.

After countless tries, here is what worked for me :

Format your new disk using macsx extended (journaled) and with GUID boot table.

Clone your disk into the other disk (in my case SSD to SSD) using Carbon Copy Cloner.
Then go on AppleLogo->System Preferences->Startup Disk and select the disk that you cloned INTO (destination).

Press restart, and it will appear in the booting options.

In my case, after it shows in the boot options I can select it and boot from it (even tho it is still external).

Hackintosh only:
In my case this wasnt the final step, since, after removing the original disk and mounting the new disk it still wouldnt boot.

So, I plugged the OLD disk into the USB external case, so the boot options would show, booted from the NEW disk as in previous step (settings->startup), and then Ejected the OLD disk once it booted, to prevent problems, I noticied that all apps were running normal (important to make sure you boot from the correct disk, since they are clones, you wouldnt notice a difference), and then reinstalled my Multibeast settings.

Removed the old disk from the usb slot before I restarted again.

Success, now, the new disk is cloned from the old disk, and has boot info re-installed onto it.

PS: if you are also planning to upgrade your OS, keep the old disk around and intact, so you have a quick and complete backup to work with just in case.

PS2: I use TimeMachine, but I unplugged it before any work just in case I needed it later, suggest you do the same.


Is it possible to use an apple TV2 with standar tv (composite) The title say it all... Is it possible to use an apple TV2 with standar tv (composite). The apple tv 1, the original have a composite connector, but the tv2 dont. You will ask me to get an HD tv, but i dont watch TV, i like to use it for music only.

Unfortunately, according to Apple, the only connector the new Apple TV has is HDMI, which means, if you want to use it with your TV that doesn't have HDMI input, you'll need an adapter. Just google 'HDMI to composite adapter'

If you only want the audio, then .... you'll still probably need an adapter. HDMI cables carry both audio and video so you'll need to convert the signal to something your TV will accept to get any music playing.


ERR_ADDRESS_INVALID from Chrome, but telnet works This evening I discovered that I could not access any websites from Chrome, Firefox, etc. At first I though my router might just need rebooting, but I quickly found that I had no trouble tracerouteing to e.g. google.com.

Furthermore, if I telnet to www.google.com port 80 it connects, and GET / returns a web page. Other machines on the same network have no connectivity problems, so it seems specific to this one Mac.

What is wrong with networking such that Chrome and Firefox refuse to connect, but I can access things fine with command line tool. And how can I fix it?

Update: I get the same ERR_ADDRESS_INVALID when I try to point Chrome to http://74.125.224.193, which is what dnslookup on the same machine gives as one of Google's IP addresses. What exactly does this error mean, since obvious this address is not, in and of itself, "invalid".

Second update: after about 5 minutes, the above address suddenly brings up Google's web page. But I try another web site by IP and it gives the same ERR_ADDRESS_INVALID.

Third update: After about 30 minutes of trying various things I finally gave up and rebooted the machine.  This fixed the problem.  However, I still would like to know what the problem was, and if it is possible to fix it without rebooting.  It seems to be a rather disturbing trend that Mavericks is more prone to needing a reboot than earlier versions of OS X.

This is probably something obvious that you've checked already, but do you have some wierd proxy settings in the OS or the browser?

Failing that, run the Developer Tools in Chrome and look at the 'Network' tab - does that show any redirects or anything?  Maybe the browser can connect to the first IP but fails when that sends you elsewhere?


How to use Cocoa Emacs as editor for Mutt I'm taking yet another run at Emacs.  I've installed Cocoa Emacs, and so far so good.  Now I'd like to use Cocoa Emacs as my  editor for Mutt.  With MacVim,  it's trivial to use Macvim, i just put:

set editor="vim -o -f"      # editor to use when composing messages

in my .muttrc, and everything works.  When I want to compose a mail, I type m in Mutt and a new Macvim window opens on top, when I quit, I'm in the Mutt mailing screen (where I can put in cc, attachments, and type y to send).

When I've found anything about using emacs with Mutt it's always been a very complicated explanaition.

Surely there is a simple way to get emacs to do this?

Thanks,

John V.

With Emacsclient, keeping Emacs running all the time
Emacs uses a slightly different setup than e.g. vim. The editor itself can remain active all the time (because you may have it open for other things as well) and you use a utility called emacsclient to connect to it (pass a file to edit) if you need it.
Add the following line to your config file (.emacs):
(server-start)  ; Starts server for (among others) emacsclient

Or, if you don't wish to keep the server for emacsclient running at all times, you may issue the command M-x server-start to emacs when you're ready to run. Issuing that command is probably the right thing to do when you're already running emacs, unless you want to reload .emacs.
All you have to do now is to make sure that MUTT uses emacsclient as its editor. You can do this by adding the following line to your config file (.muttrc):
set editor="emacsclient"

Recent versions of mutt (at least 1.4.1) require the following format:
set editor="emacsclient %s"

Source: Emacs and MUTT
Starting Emacs every time
set editor="emacs %s"


Can't modify selection of "use cellular data for" for some apps in iPhone 6 after update to iOS 9 After update to iOS 9, for many of the apps in my iPhone 6, the "cellular data" selection is locked in "Settings/Cellular/Use Cellular Data For" or in the corresponding "Settings/[App Name]" entry. The toggle can be flipped but the new value is not stored when exiting Settings. If the value reverts to off, the app can't access the cellular data network. The apps with the value reverting to on, can. Cellular Data and Data Roaming are on. All apps have the most recent updates.

I've tried toggling "Airplane Mode," "Cellular Data", turning off the iPhone, resetting "All Settings," loading a previous back-up, and restoring the phone. Nothing seems to work.

Please help!

There's been a bug with iOS since iOS 7 where the CellularData.db can become corrupted. Once the file has a problem, the Settings app can't save changes to it and there's no easy way to wipe just that file and start over.

This file is saved as part of the backup process and then restored, still broken, when you restore from backup.

Now that a jailbreak is available for iOS 9, you can manually delete the CellularData.db to reset it which avoids the need to restore the device (and not restore from backup) which is an alternative.


Keyboard shortcuts - make OS X like Windows? I run Windows 7 at work and OS X at home. 2 sets of muscle memories is a hassle - is there  a way to map all 'Apple +' commands into 'Ctrl +'?

E.g. turn ⌘ + C into Ctrl + C?

KeyRemap4MacBook can change key combinations like control+c to command+c everywhere:

You can add your own settings in private.xml. See the source for the keycode constants and predefined settings.

You can change text editing shortcuts by creating a DefaultKeyBinding.dict. See TextMate Blog » Key bindings for switchers and Windows%20Bindings.dict.

Related questions:

Is there any way in mountain lion to change copy paste shortcut keys?
Efficient key bindings using both Mac and Linux


iPhone marks first unread e-mail as read I believe this problem started with iOS 9. My iPhone is connected to an IMAP account and used to correctly maintain unread status. Now it is common for - especially but perhaps not exclusively - the first unread e-mail to lose its unread status.

I mark the message as unread and it shows the unread status, the unread count increases, it sync with the server (status line spinner runs and stops). Later on, sometimes very shortly (seconds) afterwards, the unread count has gone down again and the message has lost its status. This seems to happen whether the message view, the unread view, inbox view or all inboxes view is the view that is left open. The message is not open on another device.

My Google skills are not turning up much for this. Any ideas?

This appears to be fixed in iOS 10 (there was a moderately large update of Mail.app).


Error : unknown file system while trying to install Debian on my Mac mini I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a Mac mini 2.1. The hard disk is 80 GB and the first half is occupied by the Mac OS X and on the second half I'm trying to install Debian. I tried to follow a lot of different tutorials and two Linux distros:

debian-mac-8.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso
debian-mac-8.6.0-i386-netinst.iso

Also, I've installed rEFIt and/or rEFInd, but nothing. The error I get is always the same:

status: got partition of type "unknown" found,will not touch this disk. Error: not found returned from gptsync.efi.

I get this error when I do "start partitioning tool" from rEFIt. And also another error:

error: unknown filesystem.

So, after 3 days of hard work, I don't know what to do.

NB :

I was able to reach the point in the installation process where I needed to create partitions to install Debian. This partitioning was part of the Debian installer. I did not encounter the same problems you have reported.

I am not sure why you are using rEFIt and/or rEFInd. I did not need to.

Some of the steps I took:

I burned the file "debian-mac-8.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso" to a RW DVD
using the Disk Utility application. The OS X was Yosemite. I assume
Snow Leopard would work the same.
I did not need rEFIt or rEFInd to start the installation. I just
restarted the Mac and held down the option key to invoke the Startup
Manager. Next, I inserted the DVD and waited for the DVD icon labeled
"EFI boot" to appear. Finally I select this icon to boot from.
I choose the "Graphical install" option when prompted.
My connection to the internet is hardwired, so I did not have to
configure wireless settings.
The installer did not have the software for Broadcom wireless
hardware in my Mac. I instructed the installer to bypass this
problem.

Perhaps you could modify your question to include the output from the following Terminal application commands. These commands will not change your Mac. The commands just give me a better understanding of how your drive is partitioned.

diskutil list
sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0


Download link for older Safari Technology Preview version 51 As was answered in this question, Cannot paste images from clipboard to Facebook in Safari unlike Google Chrome, Safari Technology Preview 51 has the attribute to copy and paste Facebook and Tumblr images. Apple has recently upgraded Safari Technology Preview to release 52 and it has more Facebook related bugs than release 51. It has also lost that attribute.

Where can I download Safari Technology Preview version 51?

Use the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://developer.apple.com/safari/download/

Once you find the download page of the version you'd like to download, strip Wayback Machine's URL prefix, and download it directly from Apple's servers.