What are these  characters, and how can I use them? Not sure when this feature popped up.. but in the "Special Characters" menu, ^SPACE (aka my favorite place), there are a whole slew of "Mathematical Letters".  I can't even find them under the symbols list.. aka • Arrows, • Punctuation... but they're in there.. and they are CHIC!

  .  ©     ./

here is a snapshot of what the above text looks like on my computer... does it look the same to everyone else?

here they are in context...

How can I use these fonts... or just type these characters directly, without having to hunt and peck with the mouse in the "Special" characters palette?

EDIT:  After some recent futzing with my FontExplorer Pro setup, I realized i NO LONGER HAD these beautiful fonts.  After much messing around, I figured out THESE ARE NOT PART OF MAC OS X, unfortunately.  They are part of the "XITS Math" font collection.  This is listed as the font's "description"...

  Arie de Ruiter, who in 1995 was Head of Information Technology Development at Elsevier Science, made a proposal to the STI Pub group, an informal group of publishers consisting of representatives from the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Institute of Physics (AIP), American Mathematical Society (AMS), American Physical Society (APS), Elsevier, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). De Ruiter encouraged the members to consider development of a series of Web fonts, which he proposed should be called the Scientific and Technical Information eXchange, or STIX, Fonts. All STI Pub member organizations enthusiastically endorsed this proposal, and the STI Pub group agreed to embark on what has become a twelve-year project. The goal of the project was to identify all alphabetic, symbolic, and other special characters used in any facet of scientific publishing and to create a set of Unicode-based fonts that would be distributed free to every scientist, student, and other interested party worldwide. The fonts would be consistent with the emerging Unicode standard, and would permit universal representation of every character. With the release of the STIX fonts, de Ruiter's vision has been realized.

What a weird.. and fabulous font.  More info can be found here.

They are mathematical alphanumeric characters, which look like glyph variants of basic Latin letters but have been encoded as separate characters, due to their special use in mathematical notations. Italic, bold face, and even use of a sans-serif form vs. serif form may carry an essential difference of meaning in mathematics. For example, a bold italic “a” may denote a vector, in a context when a normal-weight italic “a” denotes a scalar variable. Normally, such distinctions are made with styling or with markup, but the mathematical alphanumeric characters let you make the distinction in plain text, when desired or needed.

The shapes of these character vary by font, even though the basic idea allows less glyph variation than for normal letters. A mathematical italic letter can still take different shapes. So no, they do not look the same to everyone else. See e.g. some samples of mathematical italic a in different fonts.

Moreover, not everyone sees them at all. Few fonts contain them, and it is quite possible that someone is using a computer where no font has them.

So it’s a matter of characters, not fonts. And these characters “are intended for use only in mathematical or technical notation, and not in nontechnical text” (Unicode Standard, chapter 15, page 481).

They are not used much, but people might be using them without knowing what happens. If you use a sufficiently new version of Microsoft Word and enter a formula, using the formula mode, and type an “a”, Word will actually convert the character to mathematical italic a.

Normally, you cannot type these characters directly. You would need to use a character picker like the one mentioned, or some input method based on the Unicode number of a character. But it is possible to create a keyboard driver that lets you type these characters using normal keyboard keys and some special keys – or to programmatically convert normal characters to these characters, as Word does.

There is nothing Apple-specific about this. Input methods vary by system and software, of course, like for other characters.


On new iPhone, when I call people no one can hear me but I can hear them I got a new iPhone last weekend and have a problem: why can’t people hear me on the other end of the phone when I call them? Any tips on what the cause could be?

Assuming everything is actually OK with your phone then I had same problem.

I read on another post it is an issue with Apple's attempt at noise cancelation when making calls when background noise is present.  It was suggested to disable noise cancellation by enabling hearing aid mode (under General-->Assesibilty).  They only down side is it makes you enable bluetooth and amplifies your handset volume a bit.  I tested it with several people and they all noted how much better they could hear and understand me.


How to Run Shell Script upon Application Launch? Not sure if this belongs here or on SuperUser, but it's Mac specific, so I'll go with here.

I wrote a Ruby script that edits TextMate's global properties file and changes the theme based on the time of day (light theme during the day, dark theme at night), and then launches TextMate.

I then made an Automator app that runs that script. I called it TextMate, pasted in the flower icon, and put it in my dock instead of the actual TextMate app.

The script works, but the big obvious thing I overlooked is that the real TextMate is no longer in my dock, so whenever I click my Automator version, it runs, exits, and then TextMate appends itself to the running applications section of my dock, so I have two flower icons down there when the app is running. Another problem is that if I opened the app in any other way (like opening a file from Finder), the script won't run.

So, is there any way to attach my script to the actual app, or tell the system to do something any time TextMate opens, or tell TextMate to do something any time it opens?

The third-party UI-scripting application Keyboard Maestro (KBM) can perform this function. (Along with many others.)

I've been using KBM for 5 or 6 years, it's very stable and reliable.

See screenshot of sample KBM script:


Ordered list with capital letters in PowerPoint? I'd like to create an ordered list in Powerpoint with capital letters as enumeration:

  Diagnostic Criteria

  A. Excessive anxiety and worry

  B. The individual finds it difficult to control the worry

I use PowerPoint for Mac 2011 (German version), the options that PP provides look like this:

You can do this in the English version of PowerPoint 2011.

In PowerPoint, go to the Format menu.
Select "Bullets and Numbering".
Select "Numbering" in the right navigation panel.
Choose the appropriate method.

Since there appears to be a difference between the English version and the German version, an imperfect workaround is to use a custom bullet.

This is imperfect for two reasons:

You would have to specify the bullet for every item on the slide that you want to be enumerated as such.
You can only specify a single character, so you only get "A" instead of "A." for your bullet.

Using this method, this is what your slide would look like:

You could expand on this idea further, which gets increasingly hacky.  For example, you could create a graphic that consists of "A. ", "B. ", "C. ", ... and then use those as your custom bullets.  Using graphics like this for custom bullets can cause difficulty if you want to update your slides in the future but don't have the original graphic file available.


Garage Band does not have Podcast creation option I had Garage Band in Snowleopard which had option to create podcast. I upgraded OSX and get new Garage Band which does not have such option. What should I do now?

If you have a backup, you can use the older version of it: it should work fine. Alternatively, you could use a number of other tools: the older podcast creation apps, any number of audio editing suites, etc. It largely depends on why you want to use a given app and why.


Best way to run Shell commands on VirtualBox Guest What's the best way to run shell commands on a MacOS guest VM? Can't seem to run it through VirtualBox's guestcontrol, only lets you launch apps, not run commands directly. Saw some people suggest SSH, but wanted to see if there's a more direct way before I start down that path. Thanks!

Finally got it working after about 8 hours of trying different things:

VBoxManage guestcontrol "vmname" run /bin/sh --username usr --password pass --verbose --wait-stdout --wait-stderr -- -c "echo test"

Hope this helps someone else!


Cannot mute my ringtone since recent update, will go down to 1 bar and no further Any ideas please? I have to put it on do not disturb, which is less convenient than pressing the volume button.

This is usual behavior for iOS. The ringtone-volume can't be set to zero. If you want it muted, you'll have to use the mute-switch.

Perhaps you're mistaking it with the volume for music, etc. (as soon as music is playing your side button will trigger 'volume' instead of 'ringer' - which can be set to 0).


Opening/viewing iCal in Windows I have this one condition:

The boss is using mac, the secretary is using PC. The boss keep all the schedules in iCal,  and now the secretary cannot manage and see the schedules because i dont know how to open or view iCal in Windows.

Is there any third party software that can do this?

You can try Moo Calendar, it supports iCalendar format. If you have a Google Calendar account, you can use it to sync calendar with Google Calendar.


Retrieve Current iPhone Lock Screen Live Photo Wallpaper I have an iPhone X running iOS 13.1.2 I currently have a lock screen wallpaper which is a live photo i got from an app when I first got the phone. I no longer have the image saved, and can't find the image again in any app or online. Is there a way to somehow access the current lock screen wallpaper while retaining the Live Photo?

I don't know of a way, but you can take a screen shot while in lock screen.

And if your unlocked screens have the same background, you can create a screen page with only one app on it, and take a screen shot of that.  In fact, when I tried it, I accidentally left the one app on its original page, so the page was empty.

Then use a graphic editor to combine the two, thereby removing much of the clock and the app icon.

I took the top half of the empty app page (no big clock) and the bottom half of the empty app page (no dock) to get the image below.

Then if you put the resulting image into reverse image search, you might get the original image.


Apple Watch Sport and Health app I want to add my data to Health app from my Apple Watch sport.

When I enter Health app I see, sorry for the Italian image:

it means:

  Change the settings related to health data of this device in the app
  Apple Watch

but I can't find where I have to setup them.

The health data is automatically added by the watch. If you can see heart rate data, this means your Apple Watch is sending data to the Health app properly.

The message on the screenshot you posted is a bit misleading. In this answer you'll learn how to verify that the heart rate data is being transmitted correctly and how to shut off heart rate data collection.

Seeing Heart Rate data

Open the Health app on the iPhone. Select the Health Data tab. Navigate to Vitals > Heart Rate:

If you see data, that means your watch is properly sending data to the Health app. You can make this visible on the initial screen for the Health app by toggling the Show on Dashboard switch.

Disabling Heart Rate data

You can turn off Apple Watch health data collection. Open the Apple Watch app for iPhone. Select the My Watch tab. Navigate to Privacy > Motion & Fitness. There, you can turn off Heart Rate or Fitness Tracking:


How do I disable the Russian keyboard layout in software? I enabled Russian input source, and am having problem disabling it.

How do I disable it?


Mid-2007 MacBook (MacBook2,1) - Software Restore disks I picked up an old Mid-2007 MacBook a few months back, and I have been playing around with it. But, the one thing that I have not found are the original software restore disks, in iso or physical media. I been looking online, and in forums.
I currently have 1.5 GB of RAM on installed.
Any help finding the software restore disks would be appreciated.

The last version of OS X compatible with your Mac is OS X Lion 10.7.5. I assume that you have not purchased Lion from the Apple App Store and therefore can not download a copy. The path to store the Mac from scratch would be as follows.

Install OS X Snow Leopard 10.6. AFAIK, Apple no longer sells this DVD. You can try to purchase a used copy. A free ISO can be downloaded from the internet. You can then either burn to a DVD or create a bootable USB flash drive installer.
Upgrade to OS X 10.6.8. This is a free download from Apple. I should point out you probably will not be able to download this update from a OS X 10.6 install. In other words, the version of Safari is to old. You should attempt to download to a flash drive in advance or use another machine to download to a flash drive.
Upgrade to OS X 10.7. This is available from Apple for 20 USD. This purchase is for a download of the software to upgrade from Snow Leopard.
Upgrade to OS X 10.7.5. This is a free download from Apple.

Because of the age of the Mac, you should consider abandoning OS X altogether in favor of version of Linux. What would be available for your Mac depends on the amount of RAM installed.
Debian with desktop has a 512 MB minimum and recommends 2 GB or RAM.
Xubuntu with desktop has a has a 512 MB minimum and recommends 2 GB or RAM.
The current Debian ISO can be downloaded from here.
Ubuntu is a popular Linux. However installing requires 4 GB of RAM. Xubuntu is basically the same, but with a Desktop interface that requires less RAM.
Note: Due to the age of your Mac, Linux probably should be installed to BIOS boot. I have installed both Debian and Xubuntu on a 2007 iMac with 4 GB of RAM.
I assume you have the memory split as 1 GB + 512 MB. The maximum memory is 3 GB. You could upgrade by replacing the 512 MB with either 1 GB or 2 GB. OWC seems to still sell memory for your model.
You probably could install 32 bit Windows 10. The 64 bit version would require a memory upgrade to at least 2 GB. The drivers can be downloaded from this Apple website. I was able to install 64 bit Windows 10 on a 2007 iMac using the 32 bit Windows 7 drivers. You can download and try Windows 10 without a purchase, but to keep using requires purchasing a license. IMO, Windows probably would run to slow to justify the purchase of a license.

If you attempt to install a current release of either Linux or Windows 10, you should expect to run into unforeseen problems which may be solved by posting a new question.


ARDAgent.app - what is it? I sign into a few different email accounts for different family members and I have a few. Im not sure if that is how it happened but What is ARDAgent.app? I found it as being allowed in my Security and Privacy in my firewall.

ARDAgent is a faceless (no dock icon, no windows) helper application for Apple Remote Desktop.

ARDAgent is very useful for people who use Apple Remote Desktop to manage a large number of Macs; it can run programs on behalf of the remote administrator, for instance.


Unable to import notebook from my desktop "MAC" I recently switched from a Windows PC to a MacBook Pro at my job. It's been extremely difficult to try and get my notebooks imported to onenote on my new mac. For someone reason, I don't see any feature that would allow me to import from my external drive/desktop. The only option I get is to import from onedrive but being that there are so many firewalls on the network, this makes it even more impossible. PLEASE HELP!!!

Onenote doesn't work in a same way that you have in Windows PC. You have to upload your .onenote to Onedrive from your Windows PC and you can access them from your Mac.

So, "Share" your notebooks from OneNote for Windows to OneDrive — then OneNote for Mac will "see" them in OneDrive's Documents folder and sync them down to your Mac.


Sharing photos.app library across multiple machines I have three machines: A Mac Pro, a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air. I created the library on my MBP and all photos are stored on the file server on my network which all machines can access.

Copying the library to my MBA and MP, I can see the thumbnails as you'd expect but it refuses to load any files whatsoever, despite the volume being mounted at the same path.

Has anyone had any success in getting this to work?

I had a look at the database and each file has a hex encoded string stored against it which is storing system disks UUID amongst other machine specific things regardless of the fact that it's on the network share.

According to this Apple Support Document:

  Important: If two or more users attempt to use the same iPhoto library
  and the library is not on a volume where permissions are ignored,
  unexpected results may occur. This includes the inability to see or
  edit certain photos, or the inability to open the iPhoto library.
  Follow the steps below to ensure each user has read/write access to
  the iPhoto Library.

Essentially, a single Library must reside on a volume where permissions are ignored. A NAS or a shared internal/external non-System HD attached to your Mac Pro be a good start. You will not be able to share the Library from the internal boot drive as it cannot be set to ignore permissions.


mac ports always gives me an error Anytime I try to use macports I get the following error:

--->  Computing dependencies for wget
--->  Dependencies to be installed: gettext libiconv ncurses gmp gnutls libtasn1 nettle libgcrypt libgpg-error libidn pcre bzip2 libedit zlib
--->  Activating libiconv @1.14_0
Error: org.macports.activate for port libiconv returned: Image error: /opt/local/bin/iconv already exists and does not belong to a registered port.  Unable to activate port libiconv. Use 'port -f activate libiconv' to force the activation.
Error: Failed to install libiconv
Please see the log file for port libiconv for details:
    /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_textproc_libiconv/libiconv/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: gettext libiconv ncurses gmp gnutls libtasn1 nettle libgcrypt libgpg-error libidn pcre bzip2 libedit zlib
To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
    http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
Error: Processing of port wget failed

This hasn't always been the case.  Have I corrupted something on my system?

Do what the error says, run the following command:

port -f activate libiconv


How do I opt out the Apple iOS beta program? I am using the latest iOS (as of Nov 21, 2020), it's 14.2 (stable version). But the beta upgrade keeps poping out asking me to download it. It's really annoying.
How do I opt this out on my iPhone?
Thanks,

First, you can try deleting the Beta Profile:

Go to Settings > General > Profiles
Click Remove Profile
Restart your device

If you still receive update notification, you should restore your iPhone with the latest iOS release.
In that case you will be sure that the beta profile is completely disabled and won't send you any beta update popup anymore.
Some articles suggest to change the device's calendar date to avoid popup alerts and beta updates, I don't recommend this solution.


External Seagate Hard drive for Mac - Compatibility I am looking to purchase a Seagate External Hard Drive for my MacBook Air.

The products claims it works only with PC (windows), however, I have read multiple places that I can just format the drive and it will work fine with a mac.

1) Is this a correct statement. I assume it is but I am new to OSX and like to check.

2) What is the process to format an external drive? (Using OS X 10.9)

As long as the drive connects to your MacBook Air via a connection protocol that the Air supports like Thunderbolt or USB 2 or USB 3 you can format the drive and use it with your Mac just fine.

To format an external hard drive on your Mac (paraphrased from here):

Connect the drive to your Mac
Open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
On the left hand side of Disk Utility you'll see a list of drives. Find your external drive and select it.
Select the Erase tab and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format and give it a name
Press the Erase button to kick off the process. NOTE: This will erase everything currently on the hard drive!


Data partly lost or hidden on external disk I have an external disk connected to MacBook via USB. From time to time the system alerts that the disk is unreadable, but sometimes it seems to connect and I can browse it in Finder, and even open some of its files with Quick Look, but some folders became empty although the disk has the same amount of free space. The Disk Utility can't repair the disk with alert: couldn’t unmount volume for repair. How can I possibly restore my data? My computer is MacBook Pro (early 2011), OSX Yosemite (10.10). The disk has its own power adapter. I've tried Data Recovery app, but it doesn't see the disk file system and can't scan it, while at the same time I can open some files on the disk in Finder... I also need to force eject the disk because it never ejects normally.

I've tested the disk with the case and power adapter which work for sure (with another HD).

I have solved the problem connecting the disk directly via SATA, I didn't have a Macintosh to install a 3.5" disk into, so I connected it to a PC with Windows 7, installing the HFS+ drivers, which allowed PC to see the disk and read (but not write) the data on it. I was able to copy the data to another external disk which I formatted into exFAT, so it could be used with OSX and Windows both. I still don't understand what was the problem with the disk, but I saved the important data, so I consider the problem solved.


No weather information in Yosemite Notification Center First off I know there's a Weather widget in Today view which is working fine for me. What I am referring to is the weather information that shows up right on top under the big date section for some users as below:

Whereas my Today View looks like this:

What gives?

Edit: For what it's worth, here's what my Location Services pane looks like:

I had the same problem and this fixed it:

Open Notification Center
Click the grey Edit button at the very bottom
Click the red minus icon (-) next to Today to remove it
Click the green plus icon (+) next to Today Summary to add it back

Once I added it back, the weather summary popped up.


How do I see who's online to my linked Gchat and Facebook Chat in Messages? I had Google Chat and Facebook Chat linked to iChat, but since I upgraded to Mountain Lion I can't see who's online through the bar that used to display along side messaging window. Any ideas?

The sidebar shows your list of open chats. When someone is offline, the text "Offline" shows under their name:

This also depends on whether you have iMessage-enabled contact information for those people — it seems that if you do, they never appear as Offline.

(Also note that the buddy list window still works well for seeing who's online!)


Mac keyboard on powered hub does not work initially I have a strange problem with my powered USB hub (USB 2.0) and my wired Apple keyboard which is plugged into that hub.

When I turn on the MacBook Pro (Early 2013), running OS X 10.9, the external keyboard is not working sometimes. As soon as I unplug the keyboard and plug it in again it works. This only happens when the MacBook has just turned on.

If I turn the powered hub to an unpowered hub (just by unplugging the power chord) the keyboard works fine - even at startup.

Does anyone have a clue what may be the problem?

You should try using the keyboard extension cable that comes with your keyboard. For somewhat obscure reasons, this solved the problem for me and other people trying to use the Apple Wired Keyboard with USB hubs. See also https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/179299/33925


How to make sure macports only upgrades to ports that are at least a month old? The goal is to insulate a code base from potential problems with new port upgrades.

So maybe if a port upgrade outdated command can be amended not to use the freshest of the fresh ports, you can avoid tracking down errors in ports affecting your code.

As far as I see,  port info port_name doesn't have any extra release date options:

$ port help info
Usage: info --category --categories --depends_fetch --depends_extract --depends_build --depends_lib
            --depends_run --depends --description --epoch --fullname --heading --homepage     --index --license --line
            --long_description --maintainer --maintainers --name --platform --platforms --portdir --pretty
            --replaced_by --revision --subports --variant --variants --version

I suppose the best alternative to this is to perform daily incremental upgrades. Then when something breaks, it's easier to rollback since likely only a few ports will change per day.

You could potentially monitor the SVN repo that all the Portfiles are distributed in to determine when last each port was changed.

Take a look here: http://guide.macports.org/#development.local-repositories, and set up a local copy of the macports trunk. Once in a while go see what revision number (#####) was committed about a month ago, and svn upgrade -r #####

Make sure you remove the default macports source, though:

#rsync://rsync.macports.org/release/ports [default]

Clearly a different approach to where you were heading with the port command, but it would work.


Do I need to keep any cautions in mind when transfering an external SSD into my Macbook? Hi I am now successfully running my MacbookPro off of a bootable external SSD (which is runnung Yosemite and onto which I cloned my whole system) and I would like to switch it out with the old HDD inside my laptop (just have to wait a few days until I can borrow the screwdrivers).

I assume I can just follow the normal steps of replacing a hard drive since everything is operating off the SSD at the moment and the HHD is prettymuch dormant, but I am not well versed in this area so I just want to check before I go doing it.

So, do I need to do anything special in this case?

Nothing that I can think of.

My own experience was just - clone, test for a few days, decide all was good.
Then, eventually retire the old drive for good.

You might want to check that the new drive has the correct Recovery Partition in place before making the final swap.

Disk Utility can tell you if the partition is present, if you set the Debug menu to 'show every partition', but I'm not sure how to tell whether it's the Yosemite recovery partition.

Booting into it with no other drive connected would be the certain way; assuming no-one else comes up with a nifty way to ask Terminal etc.


Is there a way to reopen last windows when you launch TextMate in Lion? I know TextMate isn't Lion optimised, but is there any way to do this?

As mentioned in the troubleshooting section you can achieve this by entering the following into your Terminal.app:

defaults write com.macromates.textmate NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool NO


Extending native spell check When I use the messages.app, messages I type are automagically corrected/replaced. How can I enable this feature across many more apps like Chrome for example?

The system-wide spell-ckecker is accessed through System Prefs > Keyboard > Text... top right, 'Correct spelling automatically'...
 but I'm not sure Chrome doesn't just ignore it, it does most other things set system-wide.

If you look in the Edit menu in Safari, for instance, you'll see "Spelling and Grammar" & also "Substitutions"
Chrome only has part of the Spelling and Grammar menu, & Substitutions is missing entirely.

So, I think the TL:DR is Chrome can't/won't do this.


Delete a TextEdit document in iCloud I would like to delete a TextEdit document stored in iCould.

The only solution I found was to

open the document
move the document to the hard disk "File → Move To ..."
delete it locally

Any better solution?

This seems quite counter-intuitive, but...

In TextEdit, select File > Open…
Press the iCloud button at top left.

Then:

drag the icon you want to delete to the Trash in the Dock
or control/right click the file icon you want to delete and choose the Move to Trash option (pictured below)
or press cmd-backspace (the backspace key is labelled with a left-facing arrow)


" Item can't be played " whenever I tap on a song I'm currently using iPhone 6 with iOS9.3.1. Whenever I try to play music I get an error. After I tap on a song I get the error item can't be played.  Also, I have tried restarting my iPhone multiple times but it doesn't seem to work.

This happened to me too (itunes 12.4.1.6-ipad 2). If you're trying to sync over wi-fi, try plugging in directly with the cable... worked for me.


External DVD on Macbook Pro 2018 with multiport adapter This model/OS does not support connected CD/DVD drives, it can only use remote devices.

I need to read and write optical media for medical reasons, so being able to use a directly connected drive is more than useful.

An external (generic) DVD connected to a Thunderbolt port is not recognized and it's even not powered, but connecting it to the multiport adapter powers the DVD that is recognized by the Thunderbolt bridge in USB mode, but the device does not really work, nor for audio CDs, nor for video DVDs, nor for data.

I'm half the way on, but I cannot really use it.
Is there a suggested way to get my Mac recognize this peripheral?

It seems solved by updating Mojave to 10.14.6.

Audio CDs work and most data CDs/DVDs work as expected.

Only RW disks seem difficult to read, but this seems a completely different problem.
So it seems that using a multiport adapter can help connecting a USB CD/DVD drive.


My App Store refuses to Download and Install the MacOS upgrade from 10.10.5 to 10.11 I clicked on resume download a hundred times, but it still shows up like the picture ("Waiting"). It's been like that for hours. I tried downloading the 10.11.5 Combo Update but I was told I needed 10.11.x to install it. So I downloaded the earliest combo update I could find for 10.11.x, which is 10.11.1, and I got the same message, that I need 10.11.x to install. How can I upgrade?

You have to go through the App Store to get to 10.11 (technically not true-- you can buy El Capitan on a USB drive, for example). What I mean is you can't just go to apple.com and search for El Capitan and download it. After you have some version of 10.11, you can apply the 10.11.5 Combo Update (although you will not have to since you will get the latest, freshest 10.11.x from the App Store and that's 10.11.5).

The 10.11.5 combo update is for taking a 10.11.x system to 10.11.5. It won't work on 10.10.x. So you are doing the right thing going through the App Store, but I think something is clogging up the download-- probably an older software update that didn't complete.

Look in the Purchases section of your Mac App Store app. You may have an older OS download that is stuck (or paused) too, in addition to the El Capitan. Maybe Mavericks, maybe something else. If you click "Resume" on that one I think it will simply disappear and your El Capitan will resume instead. I Basically you have to get rid of the OS download that is clogging up the works. You may be surprised to find such an old and incomplete system upgrade in the Purchased section-- I was, when it happened to me.


How to save my app files and/or data from my iPad 1 whose screen won't turn on? Backstory:

I bought an original iPad when it first came out, my first Apple product, and it's been a great computer but recently it doesn't work anymore. Basically, the screen won't turn on.

Everything else seems to work. I know this to be true because I've touched the black screen randomly (Well, I remember the position of my homescreen apps), turned on apps, and heard sounds from the app. I just can't see anything.

Just to be clear,

I only have 1 PC desktop computer with Windows XP installed.
I like to think I know a lil' bit more on computers than the average person but that's about it. Please no advanced techie-talk.
My iPad has ios version 5.x. Uh... the one before Google Maps was removed. It's the 64Gb with 3g version.
I regret not enabling Apple's syncing thing before it broke. Apple icloud? Think would've stored my app data.

What is the problem:

My main problem is, how do I take out the many files I have on that iPad 1?

The files I'm most interested in rescuing include

Apple's photo app pics

Photos I've taken with camera and inserted
The pictures I've edited with some Adobe app
The screenshots I've taken

App data

Paper by Fiftythree - I created some nice illustrations with this app but don't know how to get it out
Browser bookmarks - Not a big deal but if possible.
Basically, any other app data. I can't remember them all and what I've had.

What can I realistically do to fix my iPad screen?

Sorry, it's my first Apple product, so I don't know what can be done if anything. I guess what are my options? If my iPad screen can't be fixed, what can I do with it besides throwing it in the trash? By which I mean is there something cool I don't know about? Just wondering.

Just to reiterate, my more urgent question is number 1: saving my files.

What have I found + tried:

I've connected my iPad, gone to iTunes, and noticed a tab where I can download and upload app files. I was able to extract my writing notes from the "ia writer" app. However, all other apps like the one from Adobe aren't there.
I thought I could still use my ipad by pretending to be blind and using voice command (I think they call it that) but don't know if can turn on the accessibility features with my current situation or know how to use it.
I wondered how to turn on the icloud thing even with the black screen -- assuming Apple's icloud will back up my data through the Internet. If the icloud thing is the best solution, I won't complain too much that I have to get another ipad to rescue my files.
Found I can still update the iPad's ios via iTunes. Would that help? Fear that since can't see the screen, the update might show some confirmation button and won't progress with install, making matters even worse.

How do I feel:

Guess it doesn't matter but aside from feeling down my iPad doesn't work, I can't at least take my files with me. In a way, my files are more important, especially my illustrations from the Paper app and the photos I took.

Connect the device to iTunes and force a backup using the menu command.
Restore that backup to another device and carry on with getting the files off.

You should be able to borrow someone's iPad for little expense (a few beers or buy them a Pizza) and then wipe your data once you're convinced you've exported all the data you care onto the computer or wherever it's going to live.


Does Microsoft Office 2011 work in High Sierra? Does anyone know if MS Office 2011 works in High Sierra?  I'd like to upgrade, but I'm on a deadline and I can't spend a lot of time upgrading right now.  Plus, I really detest "subscription" software which apparently is the way Microsoft is going.

I have Microsoft Office 2011 installed on 2011 and 2013 iMacs. Both Macs have been upgraded to High Sierra (macOS 10.13.3). I have not noticed any problems. The update shown in the image below is available from Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.7.7 Update. The publish date for this update was 9/7/2017, making this is a fairly current update.


Configure MBP back to factory but with most recent OS What I'd like to do is get my MBP back to an "out of the box state": fresh install, recovery partition. However, I believe my partition is for OS as it was on October 2013. What I'd like is a fresh install of newest version and recovery partition being an installer for newest version. At time of writing, El Capitan.

What steps would I go about to have a fresh El Capitan install and an El Capitan recovery partition.

Download OS X from the App Store and create a USB Installer.
Boot the Mac from the OS X USB Installer and use Disk Utility to create a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition and then install OS X.
After the installation and the setup of the first user were finished boot to Recovery Mode
Disable System Integrity Protection with csrutil disable entered in Terminal.app
Reboot to Single User Mode and enter /sbin/fsck -fy and /sbin/mount -uw /
Remove the first user ($user) from the local directory db with dscl and its user folder /Users/$user with rm (hint)
Remove the file .AppleSetupDone with rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Reboot to Recovery Mode and reenable System Integrity Protection with csrutil enable
Finally shut down the Mac


How to stop my texts (iMessage) from showing on my Mac Whenever I send or receive messages on my iPhone they show up on my MacBook also. I was wondering how I could get that to stop?

It used to be that my texts wouldn't show up, and I could message through my MacBook also but now its just annoying and I'd rather not have my siblings creeping through my messages by reading them on my laptop.

Disable it in iMessages Prefs/Accounts...

[Edit] Re-reading your question, you want to be able to send from iPhone & MacBook, but not have the MacBook show any conversations initiated from the phone?
Never tried that one, but perhaps by disabling one or more of the account number/email address options further down the same page.

I've always had conversations appear in both locations, Mac & phone, never seen it behave any differently, unless I was in some poor reception area.


Does the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter transmit 4K 60Hz signal from M1 MBP? I have a 13" 2020 M1 MacBook Pro (MBP).
I'm currently experiencing some issues with a third-party USB-C hub. I'm considering replacing it with a USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter. The page for the adapter, if read literally, suggests that the M1 MacBook Air (MBA) can drive 4K 60Hz video via this adapter, but the M1 MBP cannot.
Can anyone confirm that this adapter can transmit 4K 60Hz signal from an M1 MBP?

I just tried plugging a 4K monitor into my M1 MBP using that adapter, and it only gave me options up to 30Hz at 4K.
I also didn't see any M1 Macs listed in the 60Hz list. So I suspect that all the M1 Macs will only run at 30Hz using a 4K screen on that adapter.


What does "No Service" or "Searching" mean on iPhones? I am new to iPhones and iOS. Since the update to iOS 12.1.4 my mobile connection breaks from time to time (seems to be a known issue) and "No Service" is shown at the top left of my display. I am not exactly sure what it means.

Previously, I used a BlackBerry Passport with BB OS10. There were two different information symbols for connection issues (with respect to mobile networks): a red cross indicating that no connection to any network is possible and another sign indicating that no connection to my provider's network is possible. If the second symbol is shown, I can make emergency calls (because there are other networks available). If the first is shown, I cannot do emergency calls.

Now, I am wondering what "No Service" means in iOS: no connection to any provider (no emergency calls) or no connection to my provider (emergency calls possible). My guess is that "no service" means the first and "searching" means the second. Is that correct?

No service means no calls are possible as you have no network,

Searching means no calls are possible and it is searching for your service set-up via your SIM card and Settings.


Change tabs on Windows when using Fusion? I was wondering if it is possible to switch tabs while in Windows using Fusion (i.e like how you would alt/tab in general on a Windows machine). So far it only switches back to the Mac side, so I was curious if I could make tabbing into other applications/windows in Fusion easier.

The keyboard combo on your Mac keyboard is  option + tab.


How can I automate changing the quality of several photos? I would like to be able to reduce the quality of the photos I have in a directory through some sort of automation.  One of the requirements is that I cannot change the dimensions of the photo.  The way I have been doing it so far is just by

opening each photo in preview
choosing save as
selecting jpeg
selecting a low quality
saving

This can take a long time when I have over 100 photos.  Is there an easy way to automate this with AppleScript, or through any other sort of means?

Here is a simple Applescript that uses the Image Events built into OS X. Add salt to taste.

property kFileList : {}

tell application "Finder"
    set theSourceFolder to choose folder
    set theDestinationFolder to choose folder

    my createList(theSourceFolder)

    set lastItem to (count kFileList)
    repeat with thisItem from 1 to lastItem
        set theFile to (theSourceFolder & item thisItem of kFileList) as string

        tell application "Image Events"
            set theImage to open theFile
            save theImage as JPEG2 in ((theDestinationFolder & item thisItem of kFileList & ".jpg") as string) with compression level high
        end tell
    end repeat
end tell

on createList(mSource_folder)
    set item_list to ""

    tell application "System Events"
        set item_list to get the name of every disk item of mSource_folder
    end tell

    set item_count to (get count of items in item_list)

    repeat with i from 1 to item_count
        set the_properties to ""

        set the_item to item i of the item_list
        set the_item to ((mSource_folder & the_item) as string) as alias

        tell application "System Events"
            set file_info to get info for the_item
        end tell

        if visible of file_info is true then
            set file_name to displayed name of file_info
            set end of kFileList to file_name
            if folder of file_info is true then
                my createList(the_item)
            end if
        end if

    end repeat
end createList

Acorn is also good for cheap and easy automation via Applescript that will offer more choices than what Image Events, but Image Events is free so there's that


Seamless listening from iPhone to iMac? Is there any way to synchronise music playback position between iOS and OS X, so that I can go from listening to a song on my iPhone, then continue listening to it at the same place on my computer when I open it?

Yes there is. By using iPhone app called Seamless.


Kill all the active process I could close specified apps like

$ killall "PDF Expert"
$ killall "Google Chrome"

The active processes could be check with command top

How could I kill all the process with codes like

for process in processes; do
       killall "$process"

There is a much more powerful command on the shell to kill processes. Have a look at the "pkill" command syntax:

    PKILL(1)                  BSD General Commands Manual                 PKILL(1)

NAME
     pgrep, pkill -- find or signal processes by name

SYNOPSIS
     pgrep [-Lafilnoqvx] [-F pidfile] [-G gid] [-P ppid] [-U uid] [-d delim] [-g pgrp] [-t tty]
           [-u euid] pattern ...
     pkill [-signal] [-ILafilnovx] [-F pidfile] [-G gid] [-P ppid] [-U uid] [-g pgrp] [-t tty] [-u euid]
           pattern ...

My personal favourite for killing specific processes is

pkill -9 -u <user> -f <Match against full argument lists.>

So if I want to kill all processes from the Razer Synapse software, because the update agent sometimes has hung up and the Razer Synapse Tool does not start, I type

Tatooine-2257:~ mallert$ ps -eaf | grep Razer
  503 87700     1   0 12:46pm ??        15:46.40 /Library/Application Support/Razer/RzUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/RzUpdater
  503 87749     1   0 12:46pm ??        30:42.02 /Library/Application Support/Razer/RzDeviceEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/RzDeviceEngine
  503 92697     1   0  2:04pm ??         0:13.17 /Applications/Razer Synapse.app/Contents/MacOS/Razer Synapse
  503 42720  1007   0 10:02pm ttys006    0:00.00 grep Razer
Tatooine-2257:~ mallert$ pkill -9 -f Razer


Mountain Lion - Does it allow different users to share database files using iCloud? If a small business wanted to share a common database between all of its employees, is it possible to create a single iCloud account for a specific App rather than for all the iCloud related software on the iOS device?

iOS and OS X only support a single account to access iCloud. It can't be done on a per-app basis.

Furthermore, the iCloud syncing stuff isn't really designed for concurrent multi-user access, it's built for the sort of syncing that needs to happen for personal devices - i.e. that you're using only one device at a time. It's also worth noting that from a developer's standpoint, iCloud is far from perfect, particularly with regards to the Core Data (database schema) syncing and storage.

You don't say exactly what your needs are, but I strongly suspect you'd be better served looking somewhere else for a business-critical app.


How to disable emojis system-wide? I never want to see an emoji again.
I have seen instructions for disabling them in specific apps, but I want a nuclear option.

How do I get rid of them for all apps, all users, all contexts?

I'm on OSX 10.10 Yosemite

You might be able to remove Apple's Color Emoji font, but you cannot remove it with FontBook. Instead, go to /System/Library/Fonts/ and drag "Apple Color Emoji.ttf" to the Trash. You must authenticate yourself as an administrator to do this. I haven't tested this, and I don't know if your computer will catch fire.


Decode MacBook assembly date from system report file? My task is to create a simple database containing information about the MacBooks my company owns. In order not to do it manually, I decided to ask everyone using a Mac to send me a system report file in the .spx format, then I've built a simple parser to extract basic info from these files. I've been able to extract CPU model and freqency, RAM size, etc.

One thing I've been unable to find the assembly date of the particular unit.I've tried 'assembly','manufacturer', 'date' and several others, but to no avail. Is this contained in the system report file?

Sign up to be a Self Servicing Account with Apple and you can look up machine PO date by serial number using their global service exchange API.

https://support.apple.com/self-servicing-account-program

That is far more reliable than trying to reverse engineer batches of serial numbers or internal components. You can also look into build details and get technical manuals / diagnostics - so this effort to get registered will pay dividends far more than a quick script.

If you really only need a quick script or don't meet the requirements for a GSX account, I would start here:

https://github.com/krypted/swiftwarrantylookup

The date isn't in the files you collected, but the serial number is which is likely the closest proxy to a build date you have at hand.


Is VMware Fusion 5.0.5 compatible with OS X El Capitan? I'm currently running OS X 10.9.5 on my MacBook Pro along with VMware Fusion 5.0.5.  I want to upgrade to OS X EL Capitan. Will version 5.0.5 of VMware Fusion be compatible?

According to the following VMware kb article: System requirements for VMware Fusion (2005196) VMware Fusion 5.0.x is not compatible with El Capitan as hosting OS.
After upgrading to El Capitan you need at least VMware Fusion 7.x.

Fusion 5.x
Any 64-bit capable Intel Mac (compatible with Core 2 Duo, Xeon, i3, i5, i7 processors or better)
Mac OS X 10.6.7 Mac OS X 10.8 or Mac OS X 10.9, either Client or Server
...
Fusion 6.x
Any 64-bit capable Intel Mac (compatible with Core 2 Duo, Xeon, i3, i5, i7 processors or better)
Mac OS X 10.7, Mac OS X 10.8 or Mac OS X 10.9, either Client or Server
...
Fusion 7.x
Any 64-bit capable Intel Mac (compatible with Core 2 Duo, Xeon, i3, i5, i7 processors or better)
Mac OS X 10.8 or later
...
Fusion 8.x
Any 64-bit capable Intel Mac (compatible with Core 2 Duo, Xeon, i3, i5, i7 processors or better)
Mac OS X 10.9 or later
...


Automator workflow to split PDF I have an automator workflow, that is supposed to take a PDF from Hazel, split it into it's single pages and store the new PDFs one level above the input file. The output folder of the single page PDFs should depend on the input file.

Link to workflow in Dropbox

The first action is only for debugging purposes and doesn't contain a file in the saved version.

The last action claims to finish successfully, but it doesn't write anything. Or least I can't find any PDFs where I'd expect them.

When I set the target of the split PDF action to a preselected, fixed folder it works. But then the output location won't be determined by the input file.

How to get it to do what I want?

P.S.

Just found this similar issue (thanks to the issue suggestion bar on the right). I'll try that Apple script over there later, maybe the presentation of my folder isn't as the action would like it

Automator: extract PDF text and save in current directory

An adaptation of the code from the above mentioned thread

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        set thePath to POSIX path of (container of container of (item 1 of input))
    end tell
    return thePath
end run

worked like a charm.

So I guess, the problem as in the presentation of the folder. While the "Set Variable" action can deal with a finder folder object and preview it correctly, the split PDF action apparently can't.


What are the electrical requirements for magsafe charging? I'm supplying power to a MacBook Pro via a magsafe cable from a broken 60 W power supply.

Is it safe (1) to omit the initial high impedance 6 V or 3 V and simply apply "14,5V to 18,5V on Magsafe 1 and up to 20V on Magsafe 2"? Do I have to match the voltage of the power supply reported by the cable connector (16.5 V)?

Powering your (Apple) laptop in the wild
 Teardown and exploration of Apple's Magsafe connector
What voltage readings should i get from my 60 watt magsafe

(1) Assuming I'm not shorting the pins with a spoon. This risk seems to be why the PS only turns on full power after it senses 40 kOhm across the power pins for 1 s. Is there a risk of shorting the pins when the plug is not properly seated? In that case I'd apply power after nicely seating the plug.

Is it safe (1) to omit the initial high impedance 6 V or 3 V and
  simply apply "14,5V to 18,5V on Magsafe 1 and up to 20V on Magsafe 2"?
  Do I have to match the voltage of the power supply reported by the
  cable connector (16.5 V)?

The "initial high impedance 6V or 3V" is handled by the power supply that sends the 3/6V until it detects a "power line low" condition (the MagSafe is connected) at which point it sends the full 16-20V DC

Do you need this initial 3/6V?  No.  What you need to do is supply clean, stable 16-20V DC to the MagSafe cable (shielding to negative, white inner to positive) because that's what's required to power your Mac.

  This risk seems to be why the PS only turns on full power after it senses 40 kOhm across the power pins for 1 s.  Is there a risk of shorting the pins when the plug is not properly seated? In that case I'd apply power after nicely seating the plug.

Yes, there's a risk - a low one.  It's extremely difficult to short the pins on a MagSafe connector.  I'm not saying it's impossible, but the design makes it so it's extremely difficult to do so.  However, if you do short the points, the damage will most likely be minimal (you'll blow the MagSafe DC-In board and not the whole logic board), but in my experience, it's not worth it.

What I have done is connect a MagSafe to a switched AC adapter "wall wart" that supplied 18V at 3A to my MagSafe and powered my "benchtop" MagSafe diagnostic power supply.  I did it this way so I could insert a multi meter in line so I could measure amperage draw.  I've never shorted pins and this worked great.

Standard disclaimer:  Don't try this at home.  I only play a professional on TV.


How can I hide calendars from Siri? When I open the Calendar app, I have some hidden calendars which I don't normally want to see.

But when I ask Siri what meetings I have, it shows me all the events. I don't need to know what my family is doing when I ask about my own meetings:

How can I hide some calendars from Siri?

Short answer: No.

No, at this moment it is not possible to hide calendars from Siri. I highly recommend you send this feedback to Apple.

A workaround would be to use a second calendar app to show the calendars of your family and use the normal calendar app only for your own calendars.


Increase space between two directories from “ls” I recently switched to Mac from Ubuntu and I've still had a quite a lot to figure out.

For iTerm2, how to adjust the space between files/directories? The following screenshot shows what it looks like after I did "ls". As you can see, the two directories "mathematica" and "python" are very close;

The columns are equal sizes, it's just that the word is longer and therefore uses more of the column width. It is not possible to change the column width.

To print ls in a single column, run ls -l.


With a 2019 MBP, are there any benefits to driving a 4K display via Displayport (1.4) vs HDMI (2.0)? I have an LG550 27" 4K monitor that has HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity.
When driving it from a MBP 2019, I can use my dock's HDMI-USB-C adapter or an USB-C to DisplayPort Female adapter and then use the monitor's delivered cables.  Neither adapters were very expensive, but they seem to do the work.
Are there are any practical advantages to using HDMI vs DisplayPort or vice versa?  Looking at a web page, a high definition (5K) painting and a text editor, I couldn't see much difference.  Both look pretty good.  Should I expect any difference?.  Does the CPU/GPU need to do any extra work to accommodate one port over the other?  I should probably check with Total War Warhammer 2 too, as that's a pretty demanding game graphically.
No intent to do monitor chaining, btw.

No

Freesync sometimes isn't supported over HDMI, but this monitor supports it. On top of that, macOS doesn't support Freesync anyways.

USB-C can "natively" use "normal" DisplayPort and HDMI in its alternate modes, so as long as your dock supports HDMI 2.0, there should be no differences. (N.b.: do note that this is is different from DisplayPort++, but practically speaking, this doesn't really matter for your purpose.)


Icons with .js extension I ran CleanMyMac 3 earlier today and after cleaning my MacBook all my .js files have PHPStorm icon. How can I reset it to default icon ?

Its pretty easy, here's how you do it:

First of all select your folder/file in Finder, then right click on it and select Get Info.
In the info panel, click on folder/file preview in the top left corner.
Now, when the preview is highlighted, hit backspace ( ← ) on your keyboard.
Done!

If you cant select that .js than do the same thing to a different .js


Log keeps displaying the same error message at a rate of ~5 per second For some reason, I keep getting this message 5 times on the console every second (approximately):

mdworker[56948]: (Warning) Import: Bad path:

What does this mean? What are the symptoms of this?

If it helps, the following processes I am running:
Chrome, Skype, Photoshop, Xcode, Calculator, Applescript Editor, Terminal, Disk Utility

And I also have a no-ip DUC Daemon running

UPDATE: It stopped, and threw some logs similar to this:

11.05.15 21:39:51,000 kernel[0]: [0x4af4807000, 0x1004000]

and an extremely long log with kernel: at the start: http://pastebin.com/Y5h2MgEu

UPDATE: It started again, so I restarted and now the mdworker shows a message 14-17 times a second.

Exclude from Spotlight

Others reporting this problem suggest external storage may be the cause; a USB stick, network drive, or NAS.

If you have any external storage connected to your Mac, try adding it to the Spotlight Privacy list:

System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy > + Button

mdworker is a helper process for Spotlight on OS X.

Sources

Mdworker : (Warning) Import : Bad path: wrote:

  The problem is MacOS/Spotlight indexing cannot handle partition in NTFS/FAT32 format, which is windows stuff.

mdworker: (warning) import bad path continuously.  What does it mean? wrote:

  This happened to me too with a fat partition that I have mounted which I share with my other OSs.

Stephen Foskett shared his experience with this bug in Mac OS X Bug: ExFAT Hangs Spotlight and Time Machine:

  I’ve had terrible issues with Mac OS X never completing Spotlight indexing and Time Machine backups. I was pulling out my hair until I decided to check the console log. That’s when I saw this: Thousands of mdworker errors, with a dozen appearing every second.


High Sierra missing openssl manpages Using the default manpage paths (via /private/etc/man.conf), the openssl(1) and related pages (i.e. x509(1), req(1), ca(1), etc.) are missing.

Has anyone discovered if these were placed in a different location or if left out altogether?

These manpages are missing for me as well on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65). I also noted that some manpages are outdated and incomplete (for example pmset is from 2012, lacking some details).

However I do have some manpages via MacPorts (e.g. OpenSSL(1)).

I have these paths in /private/etc/man.conf:

MANPATH /usr/share/man
MANPATH /usr/local/share/man
MANPATH /usr/X11/man

(the latter two are non-existent), and these in /private/etc/manpaths:

/usr/share/man
/usr/local/share/man

(the latter again non-existent).


Apple headphones maximum db output? I've recently got hooked to listening to white noise at work because it helps me focus amidst all the noise. I use the brown noise generator from SimplyNoise for this. I was trying to measure if it was safe to actually listen to noise for around 6-7 hours a day.

For evaluating this, pretty much the only references I've found was that listening to noise at 64dB for 6-7 hours a day is considered "safe" which lead me down this road.

Extracted form Apple's Store In-Ear Headphone's overview:

  Technical Specifications

  Frequency response: 5Hz to 21kHz
  Impedance (at 100Hz): 23 ohms
  Sensitivity (at 100Hz): 109 dB SPL/mW
  Drivers: Custom two-way balanced armature (woofer and tweeter in each earpiece)

If you are using the regular Earphones, although I couldn't find any official technical specs, it's dB output would be lower than the In-Ear's, something like 103 dB.

And for the safe decibels, just remember that:

  A typical conversation occurs at 60 dB – not loud enough to cause    damage.
  A bulldozer that is idling (note that this is idling, not    actively bulldozing) is loud enough at 85 dB that it can cause permanent damage after only 1 work day (8 hours).
  When listening to a personal music system with stock earphones at    a maximum volume, the sound generated can reach a level of over    100
  dBA, loud enough to begin causing permanent damage after just    15
  minutes per day!
  A clap of thunder from a nearby storm (120 dB) or a gunshot (140-190    dB,    depending on weapon), can both cause immediate
  damage.


Search across all tabs in iTerm2 Is it possible somehow to search across all open tabs/sessions in iTerm2? I'd like to do something like a regular search (Cmd+F), searching the scrollback buffer, but across everything I have open instead of just the current tab/session.

Source:

In a window menu, go to Windows -> Exposé All Tabs.  This will show you all open iTerm windows on one screen.

  All iTerm2 tabs will be shown tiled on the main screen. You can mouse over a tab to see it larger, and clicking on it will restore the windows and select that tab and bring its window to the front. You can search the contents of all tabs by typing in the search field that appears on the left. Making a selection from the results below it will highlight the tab that contains that text. This is useful when you have many tabs open and can't find the one you're looking for.


Transfer video from iPhone to Mac without cable? I'm at my job and I have no cable, so connecting my iPhone with my computer is not possible.

I have tried emailing the video, but the iPhone is compressing the video. It is not jailbroken.

Is it possible to transfer the original video?

Emailing full resolution photos or videos

On your iPhone open your camera roll and navigate to the overview screen where all your recent captures are shown via small square icons. Press and hold on the icon for the video you wish to move to your computer and select copy from the pop-up menu that appears.

Still on your iPhone open Mail and create a new message. In the body of the message, press and hold the cursor, and select paste from the pop-up menu. The message you send will now have the full, unadulterated video attached which you can download on your desktop.

Note: on my iPhone 4 I created a 4 second clip with very little motion and it used 6 MB. You may hit your attachment limit very quickly depending on length and resolution.


Two finger left and right swipe on trackpad does not work under Lion On one user account on one of my family macbook air machines (all with the latest version of Lion) the two finger trackpad swipe left and right to switch back and forth (e.g. between pages in safari) does not work . The three finger swipe and all other gestures work like a charm. Any tips how to make the two finger swipe work again?

Others seem to have this problem, too: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3313418?start=0&tstart=0

Have you checked System Preferences? Go to System Preferences -> Trackpad -> More Gestures and look at the top option (swipe between pages). If it is off, turn it on.


Where is "mkpasswd" for OSX? There is a well-known unix utility called mkpasswd available on many *nix systems.

I was just trying to use it from terminal on an OSX 10.10.5 Yosemite (Early 2015) machine, and it is nowhere to be found.

How can I install it on this machine? or is there an alternative already available?

There's a Mac implementation of mkpasswd on GitHub - https://github.com/PrototypeAlex/mkpasswd

Alternatively, Keychain Access has a built-in GUI password generator
File menu > New Password Item... > [click the key icon]

drop-menu artificially offset for visibility

I also found this Apple Discussion on how to achieve it natively, though it's unfortunately above my skill-level, so I'll let you see if you think it might be suitable.


How to exclude songs or playlists from iTunes Songs? I have audiobooks, voice memos, among other things that have a place in my library, but don't need to be in my music list.

Is there anyway to exclude them or hide them from Music?  It's annoying to hit 'play' and be bombarded with pieces of books instead of actual music.

In the Settings of the Song/Track u can set the Option to Skip/Don't play on continous Playback (Sry don't know the exact Name of the Setting in English my OS X is in German)


Folding@Home project killing CPU Three to four weeks ago I read an article which was talking about the project Folding@Home which helps researchers  find a cure for the CoVid-19.
Since then my Mac has been pretty noisy, although the idea was to run the software when I was not working on my Mac. Today I noticed that despite not having so much running on the Mac it is noisy and also kind of hot underneath.
In the iStat, i found out that the FAHclient was taking the most of the CPU power (even when not running it).  I  uninstalled the software and its client is still running in the background.
I also terminated the process related to it in the terminal:

ps aux | grep fah
kill the pid

How can I uninstall it completely as it's not letting me concentrate since a while.

If you don't deselect the Uninstaller in the installer app, the Folding@home folder also contains an uninstaller.pkg:

If the Uninstall Folding@home.pkg is missing in your environment simply download the installer and install Folding@Home again. Then use the pkg to uninstall everything properly.


How do I run Mac OS X partition on Windows 7 through a virtual machine? On my Mac Pro I'm running Mountain Lion. With OS X I can run my Windows 7 partition using VMWare. Is it possible to run my Mac OS X partition in Windows 7 running VMWare or any other virtual machine application out there? If so, could someone point me in the right direction?

Here is a quick summary of running OS X on non apple hardware with (and also without) support from virtualization such as VMware.

Possible - yes
Supported, licensed, intended - no
Legal - you'll need a lawyer to help with that in your specific location.

So, as long as the hardware was Mac you would be probably licensed for Lion and later OS X to run visually no matter what intermediary OS you used as part of the virtualization chain. The how isn't going to be easy since you'll have to defeat either VMWare's checks to prevent any Windows person from running OS X or OS X's checks to ensure it's running on Mac hardware.


How do i fix my MacBook Pro 13 from malware attack? On opening Safari it takes me to Yahoo and I have tried to clear extensions yet it doesn't work. Now,  I can't see any extensions under it's tab as well.

Nothing you’ve described indicates malware...

On opening Safari it takes me to Yahoo...

Mine takes me to Bing. I have my home page and default search engine set to Bing, so this is normal. Check to see what yours are set to.

I have tried to clear extensions yet it doesn't work.

Which extensions? What doesn’t work, Safari or the extension?

Now I can't see any extensions under it's tab as well.

You just stated you tried to clear them out, if you did that, there won’t be any listed.
It’s very unlikely it’s malware.  If you are downloading and installing every piece of software you run into, then yes, you probably are infected in some way.
I personally use a Synology NAS with AV built into it.   As for AV, I actually don’t use on my "production" machine because I'm very, very particular about what gets installed.  However, with a new app, I will usually test it out on a VM with AV, or on an old “scrap” Mac and with APFS snapshots enabled. I take a snap before I make changes prior to installation.  If the application is malware, garbagewae, or spyware (i.e. a Font program that wants access to GPS and contacts) I roll back to a previous snapshot like it never happened.
Now, with all that said, there’s an AV company, I’ve got my eye on - PC Matic (yeah, those guys).  What I like is that they have a white/blacklist model.  If the app is not on the whitelist, it’s not going to run; even legit ones!  So, it really locks things down, but if you’re in a rush to do a  demo of some new software and have whitelisted it, you are up the proverbial creek.
Personally, I think  it might be a strong supplement to Gatekeeper; more testing needs to be done, though.


Can't create partition on free space with Disk Utility I have created new partition by selecting free space option and now I can't merge it or recreate it.

I have tried to use iPartition to create a new partition on free space but it said I have no permission.

How can I fix it?

Your volume Macintosh HD is a Core Storage Logical Volume and part of a Core Storage volume group and thus can't be modified by iPartition or Disk Utility.

You have to boot from an external disk, a thumb drive or in the Internet Recovery Mode to be able to modify the volume with some Terminal commands.

The following diskutil cs resizeStack command is vastly undocumented and as such potentially destructive.

Please backup your Mac OS X before proceeding.

A 2nd computer or an iPhone with the stackexchange credentials to enter the site or the chat is usefull.

Please start Terminal from /Applications/Utilities and enter  diskutil cs list to get an impression.

Example output of diskutil cs list

$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 08436957-C5CD-4DC6-B9FA-05B51A3EEFC8
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         86908663234 B (80.94 GB)
    Free Space:   35364864 B (35.4 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume FFC67A8D-65A8-415E-A594-D7A6BED71844
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     86908663234 B (80.94 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 56C0E988-502B-43D5-90DD-EFBE58143896
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 4F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          86479166504 B (80.54 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Your Mac OS X partition (Macintosh HD) visible on the desktop is equivalent to the Logical Volume F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4.

Reclaim the free space:

After resizing some dozens of disks with diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID I never had a problem with the Recovery HD. So step 1-6 may be considered dispensable and you may directly start with step 7.

First you have to backup your Recovery HD: Start Terminal.app and enter
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1 press enter and quit Terminal.app
Start Disk Utility and enable 'Show every Partition' in the Debug menu
After a few seconds all partitions should be visible
Choose Recovery HD on the left side and mount the partition Recovery HD

Verify the disk

Create a disk image of Recovery HD and save it read-only externally

Check the disk image for restore

Detach all external drives
Restart into Internet Recovery Mode by pressing altcmdR
or a bootable Mavericks or Yosemite Thumb Drive (full system or install).
start Terminal from the menubar/utilities
enter following command at the Terminal prompt:

  diskutil cs list

Copy the Logical Volume (LV) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVUUID should be the fourth listed. In the above example the alphanumeric is:
F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4.
Run the following command:

diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID partsize

According to the number found above it would be:

diskutil cs resizeStack F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4 100%

If you get an error ("A percentage value (100%) cannot be specified for this operation.") use this instead:

diskutil cs resizeStack F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4 0g

This will hopefully expand your CoreStorage volume to allmost full 120 GB. Depending on your disk this will take several seconds (SSD) or minutes (HDD). After a successful resize check with diskutil list if the  Recovery HD still exists.
Quit Terminal.app and start Disk Utility and verify the expanded volume.
Reboot to Recovery HD and your main drive. Delete the disk image created in step 5 if everything works as expected


How can I permanently force Xerox secure printing? My clients are printing direct to a network printer (no print server).

Xerox have confirmed that the Secure Print Only option is only available in Windows, so I am looking at editing .plists, Applescript, Automator and anything else that can allow me to force my client Macs to default to secure printing.

Setting a preset only saves the 'system' settings, not the Xerox features. CUPs has an option to set defaults for the secure printing job type, but not, is seems, to set the default job type.

They suggested editing the PPD file would work but they will not support it. This is outside of my area of expertise but I can get it developed if pointed in the right direction.

A standalone automator app or system service would also be a suitable work around. Might we be able to enforce "secure printing" from OS X?

In Windows there is an opportunity to save individual, but permanent default settings for each application.  I'm sure the same option is there for Mac users as well.

Open the print driver settings.  Do the necessary adjustemnts to black-white vs color, one-sided or two-sided printing eg, and choose secure print.  The before pressing "print" choose the "save print defualts" ....  (I'm nt a Mac user so I cannot say where precisely that option is found.)


Mac App Store update stuck (Installing - Calculating...) I opened GarageBand for the first time, to find that most of the loops required me to download the Apple Loops from Software Update. I agreed to this.

The App Store opened and gave me the option to install the update from Updates - I clicked Install and waited for the download to complete. It did, and then the installation began.

About half an hour later, the update is stuck on (Installing - Calculating...) This doesn't seem normal - the last time I installed the Loops, they were done in about ten minutes.

Force quitting and re-opening the App Store doesn't help, nor does a reboot. When I open the App Store, the update is still at the same process.

Is there anything that I could do to get the update to finish installing?

Here is a screenshot of the App Store in this state:

In an act of desperation, I managed to fix the issue by:

Deleting /Library/Updates
Doing

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist RecommendedUpdates
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist DidRegisterLocalUpdates

in a Terminal session
Restarting the Mac

The update is re-downloading now.

Interestingly, before I tested these steps, I found the update ready to install in /Library/Updates, however when I tried to install the PKG file, Installer claimed that another installation needed to finish (?). Deleting it and restarting fixed the problem.


Some apps in iOS 7 have white text in top bar I am facing this issue with few apps, for example in this case with RedLaser. I am sure that this is not a problem with the app since the bar looks fine on other phones (i.e. text is written in black over a white background).

I have tried deleting the app and reinstalling it. I have also tried resetting the iPhone settings (iOS 7.0.3 on iPhone 5). But I am still facing this problem.

Is there some setting in the phones which forces the text to be white for some apps?

I don't think there is any way to change it in your iPhone. It is up to the programmer to set the colour of status bar that will be shown. What you can do is to write a review for the app, and it might get corrected in the next version of the app.


Is it possible to extend Quick Look to support h.265? H.265 (or HEVC) is the official successor to H.264, with a significant reduction in bitrate for the same picture quality.

However it's not supported widely yet, including in Quicktime, iTunes or Quick Look in the Finder (cmd+space) and I haven't seen anyone talking about support in OSX 10.11 (El Capitan).

I can view files in, for example, VLC, but was wondering if there's any sort of plugin for Quick Look.

QuickLook's API is not all that great. It's meant for documents that can be displayed in a single frame, like text or photographs. There is no way that I know of (or apparently anyone else) to have QuickLook play movies. Apple obviously can, but they're clearly using APIs that the rest of us do not have access to.


Apple A1277 USB ethernet adapter not working on MacBook Air I've bought a USB ethernet adapter (A1277) and tried to make it work on my MacBook Air MD231 (mid 2012) and may OS is OS X Mavericks, but It's not working. I tried adding USB ethernet connection in network preferences, tried resetting PRAM and SMC, and also tried installing drivers given here, but none of them worked. Rebooting didn't help, and I don't have Android file transfer installed (I've uninstalled it couple of days ago), which I saw people saying that uninstalling that helps fix the problem.

What should I do?
thanks

For reasons best known to itself, Apple chose not to include updated drivers for the A1277 adapter when it released Mavericks. In the screenshot you provided, the 'Product ID: 0x1402' in reference to your adapter reveals it was manufactured by ASIX Electronics, and further indicates that ASIX designates it internally as a model AX88772C. (This information comes from the massive OUI database of model and vendor codes maintained by the IEEE.)

Happily enough, even though Apple no longer continues to support the product, ASIX does. Their current driver version (2.2.0) for the A1277 / AX88772C includes support not only for Mavericks, but for Yosemite as well.

You will find the link to download "Apple Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.10 Drivers Installer" as the first entry in the list of driver downloads on this page of the ASIX site:
http://www.asix.com.tw/download.php?sub=driverdetail&PItemID=136


Where can I find the AirPrint firmware update for my HP 8500A printer? I was excited when my new HP 8500A arrived this weekend because I wanted to try out its recently added AirPrint compatibility. However, I can't seem to find the requisite firmware update for the printer. Since I haven't updated the firmware when I tap print from Safari I'm told no printer can be found. What am I missing to enable AirPrint on my HP 8500a?

As noted in my question the printer requires a firmware upgrade to become AirPrint compatible. What is not clear on HP's AirPrint website is how one goes about updating the firmware. Playing with the menus on the printer I finally found that attempting to access the web apps menu causes the printer to check if it has the latest firmware. The printer then determined that it did not and proceeded to download and install the firmware update. After the update the iPad lists the printer as an option for printing. My programmer brain was probably making this too hard looking for a non-consumer friendly way of doing the update. That said can't say opening up the web apps menu is the most obvious way to check for a firmware update.


I can't install macOS Mojave because this copy of the Install macOS Mojave.app application is damaged I've been trying to upgrade my Mac from High Sierra to Mojave, but I keep getting the error below.

I rang Apple support and they told me to wait a while and try downloading it again from the App Store. I've now done this 2 times and continue to get the same error.

I spoke with Apple again and they said to wait a while and try installing it again. It's now been two days and I've rebooted my Mac a number of times, and have attempted installation many times.

I also tried installing all other software updates in case that was a factor. They all updated fine without any problem. The only thing I can't do is get the Mojave installer to run because it is apparently "damaged".

Maybe this is the universe telling me not to upgrade and I should give up, but now I'm here to ask you good folk.

Can someone kindly suggest other options for me?

go to the applications, and delete the "install macOS Mojave" file, and then you are able to re-download the file in app store. Just try to download it again. That's all.


Twitter And Facebook Integration Missing In Notification center? I have recently installed Mountain Lion and noticed that 'Sharing' via Facbook and Twitter are missing!

I have checked the System Preferences to enable this feature but I am stuck. Can anyone help me?

The Facebook integration wasn't available when this question was asked - it was added in OS X 10.8.2 in September 2012.

To activate Twitter and Facebook sharing, you must first configure at least one Twitter and / or Facebook account via System Preferences -> Mail, Contacts & Calendars -> Add Account -> Twitter (or Facebook). Once you've successfully added a Twitter account, the Twitter widget should appear at the top of Notification Center.


Which sticky notes app you would prefer for iPhone which can synchronized to Google tasks? Which sticky notes app you would prefer for iPhone which can synchronized to Google tasks? I want a simple sticky notes on top and always.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by sticky notes, but I have been using the free "GoTasks" for quite some time.  I've found that it is by far the best integration into google tasks, and you can leave little notes with each separate task.


Create driverless print queue in Mac OS 10.12+ I am trying to set up printers via bash script in Mac OS, using lpadmin with the -m everywhere option to let my CUPS server handle the jobs. This works fine from my Linux machines, however the Mac OS test systems (running OS X 10.13) fail with an error "lpadmin: PPD file could not be created"

The command I tried was lpadmin -p driverless_test -v http:/my-server-hostname:631/printers/HP_something -E -m everywhere

I can't see anything wrong with the syntax, and the backend works from the Linux machines, so no problem there either. I have also tried using sudo as well as activating the root account and becoming root.

It's obviously (from the error) having a problem querying the server for the PPD.

As an alternative, you can specify the URL to the generic PostScript PPD:

-m drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd

Or you can use -m raw, though it's deprecated.

Or if all else fails, leave out the -m flag altogether.


Can I upgrade my Mid 2014 Mac SSD? I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) and would like to upgrade my SSD. I've searched online and haven't been able to find which type of SSD would work for this particular model. I've included the specs below.

Is an SSD upgrade compatible with my computer, and if so, what type?

The specs for your Mac can be found at everyman.com. Navigating the various link leads to this website for possible SSD upgrades available for your Mac. Other links lead to this installation video website.


What is the best device to test an iOS application on? I just enrolled as an iOS developer. I now need a device to test my app on a real device and not solely on the simulator.

The iPod Touch seems to be the cheapest option. Will this be enough to test my apps? Or would it be better to buy an iPad, iPhone 3G[S] or iPhone 4?

What device would you get to test?

That totally depends on the apps you want to do.

Do they need GPS localization? A microphone? Front or back cameras? Hi-res camera?

Besides, you can't test an iPad app on the iPhone, so you'll need an iPad no matter what.

Edit:
According to the comment, an iPod Touch would be enough for you.


What kind of 3.5mm extension cables are compatible with Apple EarPods? I bought a pair of Apple 3.5mm EarPods, but the cable is a bit too short.  I'd like to buy an extension cable, but I'm unsure what kind of cable I need to buy that will maintain all of the EarPods' features, specifically:

Audio
Microphone
Remote controls (volume controls, playback controls, answer/end calls, Siri, etc.)

I'm assuming a basic extension cable like this won't work, since my EarPods have three rings on the plug and this extension cable only has two:

Will any extension cable with three rings work?  For example:

You want a four pole 3.5 mm TRRS jack for full compatibility. You’ll lose mic and likely control with the three pole extension but sound should still play.

The spacing is the same (three insulator rings spaced every 1/8 inch apart). Disrgard that signaling using the four conductors isn’t a global standard since his extension just passes the signal between devices.

See some great technical discussions and a comparison of TRS vs TRRS to match your excellent photos of the extensions.

Can I use non-apple headphones with an iPhone?


How do I change my MacBook FaceTime cell phone number? I have a new cell phone number, and, as my FaceTime on my MacBook still has the old number, and so does my iMessage, I'd like to change it. How can I do it?

Apparently, the only option given, under FaceTime's preferences, is to add another email

You can change the phone number associated with your appleid on http://appleid.apple.com

I know that when you update mail addresses there they also update your facetime account, I suppose it should be the same for telephone numbers.


How to change the the screensaver using terminal (without using Preference Panel)? I would like to change the screensaver "Flurry" by the Ken Burns without using the Preference panel, directly using terminal or command.

Quit System Preferences.
Locate the relevant plist in terminal by

ls ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.*.plist

You should see something like

/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.0B39A0DE-D1EE-59FF-85C0-6EA16FCB015B.plist

Note that hyphen-delimited alphanumeric string. It might be host dependent, judging from that ByHost directory name. (Or maybe it's not. At the moment I have only one Mac at my disposal so I can't tell.)
In terminal, run the following commands (with the hyphen-delimited alphanumeric string replaced by what you found in the last step):

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.0B39A0DE-D1EE-59FF-85C0-6EA16FCB015B.plist moduleDict -dict moduleName iLifeSlideshows path /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/iLifeSlideshows.saver type 0
defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.0B39A0DE-D1EE-59FF-85C0-6EA16FCB015B.plist

That's it. There's one problem with this approach: it seems that multiple screensavers are registered with this iLifeSlideshows.saver (e.g. Classic), and I couldn't locate the plist controlling which one is shown. But according my testing, if you've chosen "Ken Burns" in System Preferences and later changed it to "Flurry", then when you run the above commands you will get "Ken Burns" back. Otherwise, no guarantee — for instance, you might get "Classic" if that's the last used one from iLifeSlideshows.saver.


How can a script detect if it has access to some Security & Privacy parameters? I've created a script which uninstalls an application I've created. However, as you may know, in macOS Mojave the system requests the user's permission to allow said script to control System Events. If the user click "Don't allow", the script can't be run and the system won't request the user's permission for that app ever again.

Is there a way to detect if the user has clicked Don't Allow so that, next time the script/app is opened, the user is given instructions on how to allow it to control System Events? (Or even better, request his permission again).

Not really.

The permission dialog will only be shown once - after that the only options are to change the System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy >  Automation setting (which doesn’t reset the dialog) or reset the privacy database via the tccutil utility (see Apple’s tech note).

There is an AEDeterminePermissionToAutomateTarget function to determine if it is authorized to send an Apple Event to an application, but AppleScript can’t use it because it uses a pointer for the target application reference.

Also see this blog for a decent writeup about this mess.


How can I reset the dock? I recently updated my computer from Mavericks to El Capitan, and I'm unable to add or remove items from the dock. If I attempt to change the dock, the computer freezes and I am unable to interact with the computer through the GUI.

The machine has multiple users, and I am the only user on this system that has this problem. I suspect that it's an issue with the way my dock is configured. Is there any way to "factory-reset" the dock? Failing that, is there any way to fix a dock that can't be modified?

Using the terminal, you can try deleting your dock preferences, then restarting the dock:

% defaults delete com.apple.dock
% killall Dock

This won't affect the contents of your dock, but it will reset the preferences that you'd normally edit in the Dock panel of the System Preferences.

EDIT: Per comments below, apparently this does reset dock contents for some people, but not for others—not clear why.


How can I view a YouTube playlist's full name? In the YouTube iOS app, a playlist's name will be truncated if it's too log to fit on a single line. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to view the playlist's full title if it's been shortened.

Is it possible to view a playlist's full name if it's been auto-shortened?

Hit the Share button that looks like a right-pointing arrow
Choose "Twitter" from the list


Terminal and bash can't start with libiconv error I just tried to start Terminal.app in Mac OS X 10.6.8, and got the following error:

 dyld: Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib   Referenced
    from: /bin/bash   Reason: Incompatible library version: bash requires
    version 8.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 7.0.0

 [Process completed]

I have MacPorts installed, so I suspect somehow the libiconv version is messed up. However, since I can't start a terminal session, I don't even know how to troubleshoot or correct this error.

What should I do? Thanks.

Without bash you won't be able to login in the Terminal or via ssh. You could try zsh instead but this is probably depending on the library as well.

Option 1

Open Terminal, ignore the error message in the window, press Shift-Cmd-N and run /bin/sh, /bin/zsh or /bin/csh instead of bash. Then fix the symlinks.

Option 2

Boot from the Install DVD, run Terminal from there and see whether version 8 of the library is still in /usr/lib (or use libiconv.* from the Install DVD). If yes, fix the symlinks and reboot.

OTOH as OS X 10.8 ships with libiconv.2 you might be out of luck:

lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel       16 Oct 16 20:50 libiconv.2.4.0.dylib@ -> libiconv.2.dylib
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  2113600 Oct 16 20:50 libiconv.2.dylib*
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel       20 Oct 16 20:50 libiconv.dylib@ -> libiconv.2.4.0.dylib

Option 3

Like option 1 but try to replace the MacPorts /bin/bash with the original one. I don't know how MacPorts works but the original one might still hang around as /bin/bash.orig or similar.

Option 4

Reinstall the OS from the Install DVD (doesn't impact the rest) and re-apply the OS X upgrades.


How to restore iMac with Time Machine? I'm trying to restore all my content. On boot I press & hold  Cmd ⌘   R .
This takes me to the Internet Recovery option, yet I want to restore from my Time Machine backup.

What could be the problem?

If the drive is completely empty & doesn't even have a recovery partition, then the Mac will automatically go to Internet Recovery if you hold  Cmd ⌘   R  at boot.

To prevent this, hold the  Opt ⌥  key at the chimes & choose your Time Machine volume to boot from. You should then find the option to Restore from Time Machine Backup.


What solution is there for users who need lots of (> 1 TB) storage in a MacBook Pro? So, the time has come to replace my mid-2012 MacBook Pro.  When I purchased this laptop four years ago I paid extra for the 1TB internal drive upgrade; a couple of years later I upgraded again to a 2TB internal drive.  Now I am looking for a newer laptop, and I am frustrated to find that there seems to be no way to get anywhere close to that kind of storage in a newer (post-2013) MBP.  The largest size SSD I can find is a 1TB upgrade, and that is prohibitively expensive.

I know people love the SSDs because they are faster, smaller and lighter.  But surely I am not the only user who values capacity over speed -- right?  What do people do if they need more storage with the newer laptops?

(I recognize that the only real answers may just be "Don't buy a newer laptop"  or "Wait for Moore's Law to catch up with your needs."  I'd prefer a more practical solution.)

Edited:  Regarding "Wait for Moore's Law to catch up with your needs", it looks like that may be happening already, as SanDisk has just announced (September 20, 2016) a prototype 1 TB SD card:  http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/20/12986234/biggest-sd-card-1-terabyte-sandisk.

The wireless networking on Apple hardware is really as fast as spinning hard drives can shove data so there's not much benefit to putting large storage in a device as I see it.

We run the MacBook pro in places where an iMac used to be needed with iSCSI initiators to connect to SAN, AFP and SMB shares to file servers, thunderbolt and USB 3.0 access to drives.

If you benchmark the speed of the SSD in that hardware, you'll see why it's so pricey. If you think of that as fast cache - high speed storage premium tier and then look at your workload - you can think about how you can place low access speed requirements and long term storage elsewhere and let the system cache the files needed locally.

Apple is going that way for iCloud, Photos, iTunes - having a large library and letting the system go out to the cloud as needed to retrieve files. If that change doesn't arrive at a pace you like or you really need to bring several TB of storage with you - there are great options with thunderbolt and USB 3 as well as networked storage to fit many sizes and price points.


Where is the "Home Computer" information that prevents syncing with other libraries stored on an iPod Classic? The iPod Classic (and maybe others?) refuses to sync with more than one iTunes library at a time. This is very frustrating when I keep my music on multiple computers.

Where is the "Home Computer" information stored on the iPod? Is it a file? If so where in the iPod filesystem does it live?

I've been able to do this successfully suing rsync to copy my ~/Music/iTunes/ directory from my "Home Computer" to other computers. I don't remember exactly where the magic is, but it is within iTune's metadata.

Once you sync the first time you don't ever need to sync again. The libraries can diverge after that and your iPod will still consider them both to be the same library.