Why does iCloud Drive get stuck? Uploading of Desktop and Documents to iCloud hasn't worked for me for months (macOS 10.12).

I have now started from scratch with a brand-new install, and am trying to sync just ~70MB of files that are sitting on the desktop.

It's been stuck on "77.8MB of 77.8MB" for 3 days.

Why does this happen, and how can I fix it?

I've looked at possible solutions (like logging out etc.), but this is a fresh install, shouldn't it just work?

All programs are supposed to "just work", however bugs are unavoidable when humans are programming.

With a brand new install it seems that logging out or rebooting the Mac to test if this fixes the problem shouldn't be a problem. So you might want to give that a try.

If you want to fix the problem without logging out or rebooting, try opening a terminal and running:

brctl log --wait --shorten

This should give you a reasonably readable output of log info from the syncing process. Hopefully this will give you a clue as to why the process isn't progressing.

You can also try simply killing the bird process that handles the synchronization. When it starts again it might progress to completion.


Unstuffing an old encrypted .sit file I have several .sit files (compressed directories photos or text documents) from from the early 00's that I encrypted under OS 9 (I think). I have the password. I've tried extracting these using the Unarchiver, but of course, I didn't expect it to work on the encrypted files.

Is there any way of decrypting and unstuffing these old files?

I figured it out! Again, this is for a situation when you know the password.

Download an OS9 emulator. I used SheepShaver and found a perfect bundle with everything here.
If OS9 detects that the file is encrypted (i.e. the files appears with a little yellow key symbol in the corner of the icon), try double-clicking on it or opening it through "Apple File Security" under Applications > Security.
If you get the error, The "Apple File Security " could not be opened because "KeychainLib" could not be found,

Go to the Extensions Manager.
Under Control Panel, enable Keychain Access
Under Extensions, enable everything that starts with the word "Security".
Then restart.

If OS9 does not detect that the file is encrypted (i.e. no little lock symbol), you may have luck changing the file attributes as per the suggestion here (it goes without saying you should try this on a copy of your file first):

In your normal OSX terminal, use xattr -w -x 'com.apple.FinderInfo' '65 6E 63 32 63 72 70 32 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00' yourfile.ext
This should signal to OS9 the file is encrypted and you should then see the little lock symbol.

Try double-clicking the file. If you get the error, A file error has occurred. The file may be damaged, try dragging the file to the OS9 desktop (instead of trying to decrypt it within the directory shared between OS9 and OSX).
When prompted, say you want to decrypt the file and type the passcode.
Unstuff the file with Stuffit Expander (in OS9).
Presto! Now you can bring the files back to the present.


Can the Kinect be used as a control interface for Mac OS X? Is there software and/or drivers that support using the Kinect to replicate the same behavior triggered by the Multitouch gestures? Would it be possible for me to swipe my hand leftward in the air and switch to a different desktop or space, for example?

It would seem there's two steps to make this work. The first would be to establish Kinect-to-Mac communication. We know this is already possible by the various hacks already available.

The second component we'd need is to translate one form of USB input (the Kinect's) to be assignable to the multitouch gestures. We know this may be possible because software like BetterTouchTool allows nearly infinite customization of multitouch gestures.

So... is this possible?

Possible? Yes. Available? Not yet. There have been plenty of reports of people using the Kinect with OSX but no one as of yet has release any definitive software package that allows for gestures to be used. Most people don't seem to be releasing their software.

Check out this video:

http://www.kinecteducation.com/blog/2011/04/20/kinect-controls-mac-os-x/

It's the closest thing I've seen to what you are asking.

EDIT:

There is a step by step guide to getting the Kinect to connect with the Mac here:

http://kinecthacks.net/connecting-kinect-to-mac-os-x/

So if you wanted to mess with it yourself, that would be the place to start.


My iPod is disabled, how can I recover? My iPod 4 was disabled for 1657 Mins Yesterday. I put it on the charger to see if it would make a difference the next day and it did. Those mins were gone and all it said was connect to iTunes (but it is still disabled).

I need to reboot my iPod on iTunes but I don't know how. Please help.

If you enter your password wrong too often, you either have to wait the time shown on the screen or erase the device with iTunes (or through iCloud, but that probably doesn't apply for you). The exact procedure depends on whether you synced your iPod with your PC before. Apple has a support document explaining the required steps in detail.

PS: If you haven't used iTunes before, you will have to install it on your PC first.


Syncing someone else's iphone to my itunes Can I sync someone else's iphone to my iTunes and put my songs on their phone without losing their imformation such as contacts

Store the contacts in iCloud? And yes, with the new iTunes this should be possible.
You can even download all the apps from their device on your computer.
You just have to confirm with the Apple ID that you want to sync with your computer.


(preferably) free app to lock iPhone for predetermined periods of time Reading here

https://apple.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic
https://apple.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask

my understanding is that I can ask question about third-party Apple software, as long as I don't ask "which is your favourite app to do something". However, there is also a Software Recommendations site on Stack Exchange so I'm a bit confused as to whether my question is on-topic or not...please migrate my question to Software Recommendations if it's off-topic here.

Concerning duplicates, I've searched the site and I found

Any way to automatically lock *Me* out from *My Own* iPhone for a specific amount of time?

The answers don't satisfy me, because I don't want to jailbreak my phone. I know for sure that today there are some paid apps which don't require jailbreaking and allow me to disable the Internet connection (both WiFi and cellular data, but not cellular voice) with a recurring schedule, for example from 9 PM to 8 AM. Are there also free apps?

Requirements:

the app should "resist" attemps to force the block, but it's not necessary that it's 100% tampering-proof. Its main use will be preventing kids to access the Internet after a certain hour, it's not like it must resist hacker attacks :-)
the schedule should be configurable
it should be possible (but not easy) to overcome the block if needed. For example, one evening it may be necessary to use the cell phone after dinner. In that case, for example pressing a button and then waiting 15 minutes with the screen on should allow to stop the block.

If free apps don't exist or have glaring flaws, I will accept suggestions for paid apps, but I'd prefer free apps.

There are no App Store apps which are able to prevent other apps from being opened. Apple does not provide such functionality to apps, so you will not be able to find an app which is able to do this.

Preventing apps from being used is something the OS can do for some native apps. See Settings → General → Restrictions for being able to set a passcode to prevent access to certain functionality on the device.


How to download and install Darwin 13 OS in x86? I've conducted a research on UNIX operating systems and found out that an experimental OS (Darwin) is used for development of the OSX; just like Fedora on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Darwin OS has a license of "Apple Public Source License" or freeware.
Darwin OS can be installed on x86 computer architectures according to Wikipedia.
I've searched all over the net and torrent sites but it seems that the links to recent versions of the OS like 13, 12, etc. are very hard to find.
I've tried the site "opensource.apple.com" but the "Download" section could not be found. I think that the links are hidden.
1) Where can I download a recent version of Darwin like 12, 11, or 10? I just found Darwin 8.0.1 here.
2) Can I download the source code and just compile it to ISO format?
3) Can you give me direct links?
Answers will help me a lot for studying Objective-C (Java programmer here).
Thanks!

The PureDarwin project is attempting to maintain a complete and bootable implementation of the Darwin OS. From their website:

  One current goal of this project is to provide a useful bootable ISO of Darwin 10.x and Darwin 9.x.

Darwin itself is a modified FreeBSD OS with Mach microkernel.

Note though that having Darwin is not a necessary part of developing in Obj-C. Both gcc and clang support Obj-C development in newer versions. You are, of course, limited in what you can do relative to using Obj-C on an OS X machine because there are far fewer standard libraries available outside of the OS X world for Obj-C.


Email forwarding - iOS Someone sent me an email with an image attached. I want to review the image and forward it to someone else.
How do I do that?

Using the application Mail click on your mail. Then click in the bottom bar the 4th icon that is an arrow. Press Forward. If it asks if you want to include attachments from original message, press Include. Then just fill the information depending on who do you want to send it to.


Can't tell if apache is running on Mavericks Why can't I see httpd in activity monitor nor top in Mavericks?

Activity Monitor default view of the process list is 'My Processes':

Switch to 'All Processes' in the menubar to additionally see other users' - like root or _www - processes:

Check again in 'Activity Monitor'

If it's still not visible it's not running.

httpd not running is default for Mavericks client and server.


Revive Li-Ion Battery White MacBook (2006) I have a White MacBook (2006) with a new battery (2013) that I accidentally let sit discharged for too long (a few weeks). Now the battery doesn't work. If I leave the battery in the laptop while plugged in, it gets very hot as if it is trying to charge but won't. So, to be safe I am running the computer with the battery pulled. Anyone know any ways to revive the new dead battery, or am I stuck buying a new one again?

If a lithium ion battery is drained and left to sit for an extended period of time uncharged, it can go into a "sleep" state that does not enable a recharge by standard charging methods.
I found this info at http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

"Li-ion should never be discharged too low, and there are several safeguards to prevent this from happening. The equipment cuts off when the battery discharges to about 3.0V/cell, stopping the current flow. If the discharge continues to about 2.70V/cell or lower, the battery’s protection circuit puts the battery into a sleep mode. This renders the pack unserviceable and a recharge with most chargers is not possible. To prevent a battery from falling asleep, apply a partial charge before a long storage period."


iPad Mini - Stuck in black Apple & White Background loop I didn't even do anything to my iPad mini but the battery went out. When I charged it with my cable it kept on showing the white background and the black apple screen and now I can't turn it on.

Is there anything I can try in order for the device to turn on?

Absolutely. This is a problem that has been bothering people for a while but luckily there is a very common solution as the issue is only temporary.

Option 1

Hold down the Home and Power button until the phone reboots.
Let go of the Power button but keep holding down the Home button until you get back to the lock screen.

Option 2

Hold down the Home and Power button until the phone reboots.
On reboot, hold the volume up button until you are back at the lock screen.

Both of these options force a reboot, which in the majority of cases, is all you need to do.
Let me know if that makes sense to you and report back with the option that worked for you. I'd be interested to follow up with you on this.


Can I download apps from the US app store if I'm using a different store? Can I download apps from the US apps Store even if I'm currently using the italian store ?

For example, I would like to download Spotify, which is not available in the Italian store:

Should I change credit card? Or can I use the same one?

You will need to create an account on the US store.  Apple probably won't accept your foreign credit card either (at least they do not in Canada), so you need US gift cards to create an account.  Google for more information.


Git pre-commit hook that checks for open application I am using git to manage a project that has a few binary files that need to be closed before being committed. So I need a git hook, that checks to see if the application that has these files open is running.

Here is the script I am using

#!/usr/bin/env osascript

tell application "System Events"
    set apps to the name of every process whose background only is false
end tell

if "Some App" is in apps then
    error "Some App is running. Can't commit until Some App is quit" number 5
end if

But I am getting this error when I commit or execute the pre-commit.  Even when "Some App" is not running.

.git/hooks/pre-commit:50:106: execution error: An error of type -10810 has occurred. (-10810)

Permissions on the file are

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 toddgeist  staff   263 Dec  7 07:33 pre-commit

You don't say what problem you're running into, so let me guess.

If you're having trouble with how to phrase the "-- show a message and exit with non zero status" part, use the error command:

#!/usr/bin/env osascript

tell application "System Events"
    set apps to the name of every process whose background only is false
end tell

if "Some Application" is in apps then
    error "Some Application is running" number 5
end if

The number (5 in the example) doesn't matter; osascript will exit with status 1 no matter what number you choose. You don't have control over the formatting of the message, but the non-zero exit status will block the commit.

If you're having trouble getting the pre-commit hook to even run, remember to save it as .git/hooks/pre-commit and make it executable.

(update)
if you get the -10810 error try doing it with out System Events. Like this

#!/usr/bin/env osascript

set someApp to "Some App"
set appIsRunning to false
if application someApp is running then
    set appIsRunning to true
end if
if appIsRunning then
    error "Can't commit. Please quit Some App" number 5
end if


Why I have 3 different Java versions on my Mac? today I was looking after my Java Version and I got very confused. I found three different ones:

If I look in Webstorm it uses: 1.6.0_65
If I make java -version I get: 1.7.0_45
If I look in the system settings I get: 1.8.0_45

What can I do to just have system wide ONE Java version which will be the version which I update via my system settings: 1.8.0_45?

Different applications will link to different Java libraries. Older apps will most likely require Java 6 (1.6.0_65), whereas newer apps will link to newer builds of Java respectively.

By way of example, I know that the Mobile Connect app for my old Huawei 3G modem requires Java 6 to be installed, Adobe Photoshop CS6 requires Java 7 (IIRC) and your browsers will most likely request you to run the latest Java, which is Java 8.


iTunes insists on erasing my iPhone I have an iPhone that was synced to an iTunes library. Then I upgraded my Mac, and forgot to backup the iTunes library and transfer it to the new Mac. Ever since, I have been manually managing my music by dragging and dropping it from the filesystem onto iTunes, and not "syncing".

And things have been working fine for the past few years. But now, after yet another Mac upgrade, and upgrading to iTunes 11, I can no longer manually manage my music on my iPhone. When I try to turn on "manually manage music and videos", iTunes says:

The iPhone “kPhone” is synced with another iTunes library on “kart's macbook”. Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library?

I don't want to erase the whole phone -- apps, app data, app settings, synced data in apps, videos, books, etc. I just want to copy music onto the iPhone. I have already deleted the music that's already on the iPhone. How do I copy music?

I just ran into the same problem. Here's the solution:

There are "iPhone Managers" that Apple does not promote using but it works 100%. These "iPhone Managers" (the names I'll give you in a second) allow you to transfer your CONTACTS, MUSIC, APPS, APP DATA, APP SETTINGS, PHOTOS & VIDEOS and a LOT more to your Mac or Windows computer.

After you transfer whatever it is you want to keep a backup of to your Mac in a nicely labeled folder on your desktop (just in case the iTunes Manual Backup doesn't keep some of your settings or pictures, contacts, etc.), you can then ERASE AND SYNC and transfer everything from the folder you made on your desktop with all of your files and transfer it back.

This is the only way I know and am doing it as we speak.

I tried posting links but since I'm new it won't let me. You can try these names:

CopyTrans
iFunBox for Mac
FileApp

I hope this helps.


Control Music From Notifcations Bar Using iOS6 is there a way to show or display music controls inside the notifications bar for quick access?

Note: I am looking for a native way to do this. If there is not a way I would welcome 3rd party apps that do this function, however, I prefer the standard music player and do not want to change the music player.

Unfortunately, there is no built in way to do this with iOS 6 (or lower).

There are other ways to control music playback that may function as a work around for you.

If the device is unlocked, double tap the home button and swipe the row of apps from left to right. This will display Play/Pause controls. Swipe one more time - on an iPhone or iPod Touch - for volume control.
If the device is locked, double tap the home button. This will display music controls.


"Disk Locked" macOS reinstall! I have just wiped my iMac, and something must have gone wrong in the process as i cant change the boot drive by holding down option key and when i go to install reinstall macOS through macOS utilities when i select the 500GB hard drive the main one it just says "Disk is locked". Can anyone help me with this issue?

You have to create a new volume prior re-installing OS X. Otherwise you can’t select your drive.

Select Disk Utility from the utilities window of macOS Recovery, then click Continue.
Select your harddrive in the sidebar
Click the Erase button (MAKE SURE YOU DO HAVE BACKUP)
Format: Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Scheme: Choose GUID Partition Map.
Go back to the OS X installation guide.


MacBook Air at 5700 RPM fan speed during summer? it is unusually hot today (37 Celsius, about 100 Fahrenheit) and my MBA mid 13 fan is going crazy. The CPU temp is at 47.5 when almost idle but my fan blows with 5703 RPM (pretty much the maximum). This data is taken from iStats and the fan symbol is literally blinking red.

Is there anything I need to worry about or is everything cool as long as the CPU is still cool? I understand that with an outside temperature almost as hot as the CPU temp, the fan needs to blow a bit more, but I am afraid the fan blasting at 100% could have some unfortunate outcome.

Going into my basement, it goes down to about 4000 RPM, so the fan itself does seem to react to the temperature as it is supposed to do.

2nd question: should I decrease my MacBook use (or maybe cap the max CPU load) just to be safe or is Apple's temperature management smart enough to turn down when it's getting dangerous?

47.5°C is normal operating temperature and you have nothing to worry about. When your computer reaches around 100-110°C (~230°F), it will take cautionary actions. Your computer will automatically cap CPU load depending on the temperature.

It also depends how long you are using your computer at these hot temperatures. If you are doing CPU intensive tasks on your laptop (3D gaming, rendering, etc.) for extended periods of time, you may want to look at manually controlling the fans. iStat has built in fan control settings but I also use Macs Fan Control. In this you can increase the Fan speed and set automatic fan speeds. Do note that you shouldn't always run your computer with max fan speeds because that will slowly decay the life and effectiveness of your fans (you usually don't need to worry about this).

If you're like me and use your computer as a workhorse, you may want to consider purchasing an external fan (only get one if you are really stressing your computer on a daily basis).

Usually, you don't need to do much but you can always help and care for your CPU by keeping it cool (which will extend it's life). If your computer is constantly getting very hot (~90°C) you might wan to start taking measures. 40°C is usually nothing to worry about.

Also, the only hot air outtake is at the bottom of the MacBook so you want to make sure those aren't covered up, if you use your MacBook on your bed, maybe even your lap, try seeing if you can get a desk to help ventilate the laptop.

The laptops temperature is definitely influenced by the temperature in the room. Because you say it cools down when going to the basement, it sounds like a ventilation thing.


Is my Mac compatible with Big Sur? I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017) with 8GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive (84GB remaining).
I have been stung in the past with macOS upgrades affecting the performance of previous computers, so I'm still running 10.13.6 High Sierra. However, I'm now having trouble downloading some apps which no longer support this version.
If I were to upgrade to Big Sur, will it slow down my computer or produce other adverse effects?
(I'd of course back up my data before doing anything!)

If Apple lists a device as 'supported' by an OS, then there should be no problems running it. (In fact, the reason that older Macs are excluded from newer OSes can be that the OS performance is not within Apple's expectations.)
I run Big Sur on a 2014 15" MacBook Pro, which functions very well.
I would suggest that past performance issues are likely to be caused by incompatible software that needs to be updated, or things that are incidental to the OS update.


How can I kill a process using top on OS X? On other Unixe,s I can use top and then hit K and type the process ID.
How can I do that in OS X?

I can type kill [the_pid] on its own at the command line and that works. However, I was wondering if there was a way for it to happen while in the top program.

# top

press shift + s. This will bring up:

signal [TERM]:

At this point you can just press return for a 'polite' process end request ("signal 15") that will let the process clean up files, release memory, etc.
For process that can't be killed this way, you can enter the word ‘kill’ which is signal "9" then press return.

Now top prompts for a pid (process id):

pid:

Enter the pid of the process you want to kill and that should take care of it.


How to figure out how a process auto started itself after login? (I added an Update in the end.)

My related questions:
How to delete hidden login iterms from backgrounditems.btm?
A launchd job without plist file, how does that work and how to find what job triggers it?
Even though the above questions are related, but they are not the same to this question.

I am running MacOS Big Sur.
I found out there were many apps downloaded online will auto start themselves somehow. I am having really a hard time to trace how they auto started.
Take an example, com.xunlei.Thunder.ThunderHelper is always started automatically after the system starts.
So far, I found out there were two things which are related to this process autostart.
One is from launchd job (no .plist file):
$ launchctl list | grep -i thunder
405 0   com.xunlei.Thunder.ThunderHelper

$ launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/com.xunlei.Thunder.ThunderHelper
...
    path = (submitted by otherbsd.330)
    program identifier = com.xunlei.Thunder.ThunderHelper
    parent bundle identifier = com.xunlei.Thunder
...

One is a hidden login iterm from $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagementagent/backgrounditems.btm file. NOTE: this login iterm is NOT shown in System Preferences. I found it by using a python script mentioned in my another question in detail python3 ./bgiparser.py -f backgrounditems.btm -c.
I do NOT find anything related to thunder process in the following directories:
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
~/Library/LaunchAgents/
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

I don't start thunder app by myself.
NOW, in order to stop it auto starts, I did the following
launchctl stop com.xunlei.Thunder.ThunderHelper
launchctl remove com.xunlei.Thunder.ThunderHelper
kill -9 405
rm "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagementagent/backgrounditems.btm"

Note again, I don't start thunder app by myself.
Now, I shutdown the MacOS system and unplug the power cable, plug the power cabe, start MacOS system.
Magically, the thunder helper app starts it automatically again. It created a running launchd job again. It created a hidden login iterm again in a new backgrounditems.btm file.
I am very confused and how does it do this?
If I open the app manually and then it creates laucnhd job and login iterm, I am fine with it. BUT I don't start the app at all. I have removed the login iterm file. I have stopped its related process.
Can anyone help me finding how this program auto starts itself?
Thank you very much.
PS:
I know there are the following file and directory:
/Applications/Thunder.app/Contents/Library/LaunchServices/com.xunlei.Thunder.HelperTool

/Applications/Thunder.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/ThunderHelper.app/

I know I could remove them (although I haven't tried it).
But I want to figure out how they are started automatically instead of removing them. Cheers.
Update
I found a scary truth on this issue.
After killing/remove any running thunder processes (inlcuding rm backgrounditems.btm).
I moved Thunder.app to other directory with the following command:
$ mkdir -p $HOME/tmp/thunder_tmp/
$ mv /Applications/Thunder.app $HOME/tmp/thunder_tmp/

And then restart macos system. The most weird thing happened. Thunder helper app started automatically from the new path and login iterms with the new path added to new backgrounditems.btm file:
# Part of decoded backgrounditems.btm file:
{
    "name": "ThunderHelper.app",
    "path": "/Users/myuser/tmp/thunder_tmp/Thunder.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/ThunderHelper.app"
},

It seems MacOS searches my entire harddrive to find all helper app and starts them automatically and added them as a hidden iterm to login iterms automatically too. (might not be true)
If this is true, it will be very scary!
How can I stop MacOS doing this scary thing? Why does it search my entire drive everytime at startup and try to find a helper app to start and add to login iterms too? It's really unbelievable.

This is not actually scary - it is intended, well defined and documented behavior.
Applications on macOS can come with a helper application that is run in the background. The helper app is stored within the application bundle of the main app and managed through the Service Management framework.
When you add an app to a macOS computer, the system will look into the application bundle to determine how this app relates to the system. In particular things such as:

which types of files can this program open
which icon should be displayed
does this program require a background helper application

As you can install applications in any folder on a Mac, this detection and inspection happens everywhere. In particular, you do not have to install apps in the /Applications folder. It does not involve the system "searching the entire hard drive", as application bundles are already specially marked. When an application bundle is added to the file system (or moved around), the system knows about it and keeps note of the above mentioned information.
Registering helper applications by including them in the application bundle is actually the recommended method for apps that are sandboxed (i.e. for example coming from the Mac App Store), as these apps are not allowed themselves to create files outside the sandbox.
If the application does not itself include an option to disable the helper application, it is because the app developer has decided that their application cannot function with the helper. The correct way to uninstall the helper application is to uninstall the main app.
In order to manually inactivate the login item, the least "aggressive" method is to change the Info.plist file inside the application bundle. Using the Property List Editor find the key SMLoginItemSetEnabled and change the associated boolean value to false.
You could also be more aggressive and manually delete the contents of the <app>.bundle/Contents/Library/LoginItems folder.
In any case, you risk the app itself not working - and you will have to be wary of application updates that reverse this change.


First iPhone, what should I Do? So, I've decided to go for an iPhone 4. But since I am new to the whole iPhone thing, what are the things that I should know, to make the maximum use of the device?

Some of the questions I would like to know the answer:

what are the apps I should install?
How do I charge the battery?
The temperature the iPhone should be exposed to in order to prolong the lifespan?

1) That entirely depends on what you want to do. There are a bunch of app recommendation discussions here based around games, productivity, etc. Rather than rehash them, I'd suggest searching those out.

2) Plug it into a USB port on your computer. The phone also comes with a wall adapter for the USB cable so you can charge it from a wall socket.

3) Don't stick it in the oven or the freezer and you should be fine.


How many TSI I am allowed to submit? I bought an Apple Developer Program. I submitted one of my app, and they rejected. They advised me:

If you have code-level questions after utilizing the above resource, you may wish to consult with Apple Developer Technical Support. When the DTS engineer follows up with you, please be ready to provide:

How many times I can ask TSI question? Is it any limit?

How many TSIs are included with my Developer Program?

  iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, and Mac Developer Program Included with each enrollment are two (2) Technical
  Support Incidents per membership year. Additional TSIs are available
  for purchase.
  Safari Developer Program. TSIs are available for purchase in either a 2-Pack for $99 USD or
  5-Pack for $249 USD. Safari Developer Program members may purchase
  TSIs in Member Center under the Programs & Add-ons tab.
  MFi Program. Included with each enrollment are eight (8) Technical Support
  Incidents per membership year.

Source: Requesting Developer Technical Support (you need a developer account to access).


Where's my Applescript application? In the Applications folder (El Capitan iMac) there is no Applescript editor. I've also checked the Utilities folder, but didn't find it. I don't think I would have mistakenly trashed it. Should I download a new one?

The AppleScript editor is called Script Editor.app and usually resides in /Applications/Utilities/.

If the file was deleted you may get it back by reinstalling it separately with Pacifist by extracting it from "Install OS X El Capitan.app (10.11.0) > InstallESD" and updating it with OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 Combo Update or immediately from "Install OS X El Capitan.app (10.11.5) > InstallESD".


How to begin a document numbering with a number other than 1? I'm making a large document in separate docs. I want to number the second doc from 21 on. It will only allow me to start at 1. Any fixes?

On Pages '13 :

Go on Setup (Top right corner)
Section thumb
Start at '21'

On Pages '09 :

Show inspector
2nd thumb
Section
Start at '21'


Deleting empty Directory with File's Ghosts? I am trying to delete bunch of  directories appearing to be empty

    amr@MacBook ~/folders> ls -la -R
total 24
drwxrwxrwx   6 amr  staff    192 Mar  9 14:37 .
drwx---r-x+ 40 amr  staff   1280 Mar  9 14:12 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 amr  staff  10244 Mar  9 14:37 .DS_Store
drwxrwxrwx@  5 amr  staff    160 Feb 27 19:06 a
drwxrwxrwx@  5 amr  staff    160 Mar  9 14:01 b
drwxrwxrwx@  3 amr  staff     96 Feb 27 19:00 f

./a:
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 5 amr  staff  160 Feb 27 19:06 .
drwxrwxrwx  6 amr  staff  192 Mar  9 14:37 ..

./b:
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 5 amr  staff  160 Mar  9 14:01 .
drwxrwxrwx  6 amr  staff  192 Mar  9 14:37 ..

./f:
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 3 amr  staff   96 Feb 27 19:00 .
drwxrwxrwx  6 amr  staff  192 Mar  9 14:37 ..

amr@MacBook ~/folders> rm -r a b f
rm: a: Directory not empty
rm: b: Directory not empty
rm: f: Directory not empty
amr@MacBook ~/folders> rmdir *
rmdir: a: Directory not empty
rmdir: b: Directory not empty
rmdir: f: Directory not empty

with every possible way i could find like this , boot into recovery and trying from there , tried mv to USB and formate it with not like either and got the same message "Directory not empty" until i found this python script

import os, stat, shutil

   def remove_readonly(fn, path, excinfo):
#removes readonly tag from files/folders so they can be deleted
if fn is os.rmdir:
    os.chmod(path, stat.S_IWRITE)
    os.rmdir(path)
elif fn is os.remove:
    os.chmod(path, stat.S_IWRITE)
    os.remove(path)

shutil.rmtree('/Users/amr/folders/'',
          onerror=remove_readonly)

which gave me a new output

OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'folders/a/0c26d4c3daf0b26cd91366caf1df3eca0bad5611e9742a0f8b409d6b80fc6a53--pixman-0.38.0.mojave.bottle.tar.gz'

other directory

OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'folders/b/libpixman-1.dylib'

the thing is those files i already deleted manually when i tried to fix brew but wasn't able to delete the empty directory  directory

Update :
it seem that  somehow i deleted the files but not it's extended attribute and when i try to deleted folder it tries to delete files with it's attribute but it found the attribute but not the file

sudo xattr -rc *
Password:
xattr: No such file: a/784a181552c10546bdab9595d963a36fa65d6e17cc04609285349cb81be623b9--harfbuzz-2.3.1.mojave.bottle.tar.gz.incomplete.lock
xattr: No such file: a/pixman.formula.lock
xattr: No such file: a/0c26d4c3daf0b26cd91366caf1df3eca0bad5611e9742a0f8b409d6b80fc6a53--pixman-0.38.0.mojave.bottle.tar.gz.incomplete.lock
xattr: No such file: b/libpixman-1.dylib
xattr: No such file: b/libpixman-1.a
xattr: No such file: b/libpixman-1.0.dylib
xattr: No such file: f/pixman

Move the folder to the trash. Open the trash and right click on the folder. You should see an option to "delete immediately". Select that option and folder should delete.


share screenshots with Dropbox does not work the automatically share screenshots with Dropbox does not work for me in 10.9. I’m not sure what to do, already installed the latest version of Dropbox

I personally don't have this active on my Dropbox account by default but of you I tried it out on my 10.9 system.

It doesn't work for me either and this could either be because of the OS or Dropbox. What I suspect is that OS X won't allow the changing of the screen shot location from a third party app.

What you can do as a work around is the following:

Launch Terminal and use the following syntax:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /path/

For example, if I want to have the screenshots appear in a specific Dropbox folder, you would use:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Dropbox/Pictures/Screenshots

Log out or restart your Mac and take a screenshot. This should now automatically place the image in the new folder and thus Dropbox is syncing.

For additional fun check out: http://secrets.blacktree.com/?showapp=com.apple.screencapture


How to stream audio using FFMPEG? Building on @Allan's answer, I'm trying to redirect the ffmpeg output to a server.

$ ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ":1" -t 10 - | ssh user@host .... -

But I get the following error message:

  "At least one output file must be specified"

I've also tried using ffserver instead of SSH but I'm not having any luck.

Is it possible to stream audio in this way?

There are two solutions I can visualize for this scenario:

Saving the file to a remote computer
Having a live stream broadcast so a remote computer can receive the audio

Saving the file
This is probably the easiest method.  Allow the stream to finish recording then copy it to a predetermined location on the network.  This script should fit the bill:
#!/bin/bash
#
ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ":1" -t 10 audiocapture.mp3
scp audiocapture.mp3 user@host:/foo/bar/audiocapture.mp3

exit 0

The script doesn't do any error checking of any kind but, will record from the microphone, then when finished it will copy it via SCP (secure copy) to a remote computer.    To make this work, you need to set up SSH Keys to facilitate a non-interactive login.
Stream in real time
The other method, is to broadcast the audio via TCP via a point-to-point connection. Using the same input from the previous answer, we just change the output to a network stream:
$ ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ":1" -t 10 -f mpegts "tcp://remote_host_or_IP_:port"

Where....

-f is the transport format; in this case mpegts (MPEG Transport Stream)
tcp://remote_host_or_IP_:port is the URI value of the remote computer's hostname/IP address and port number it will be listening on.

Set remote computer to "listen"
Using ffplay the remote computer can be set to receive the stream (I used Windows 10 for this part, but will work in macOS/Windows/BSD/Linux)
Issue the command
ffplay -i tcp://local_host_or_IP_addr:port?listen -hide_banner

Where....

-i defines the input stream
local_host_or_IP_addr:port is the IP address or hostname  and the TCP port of the computer that's listening (not the computer that's streaming).
?listen is required to put it into "listen mode" otherwise it will time out if the stream is not there.

Below is an example done in Windows 10 receiving the stream from a macOS host's microphone.  The IP address of the Windows 10 machine is 10.0.0.123 and I am broadcasting on port 1234.
C:\Users\allan\Desktop\ffmpeg>ffplay -i tcp://10.0.0.123:1234?listen -hide_banner

    nan    :  0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0

Once it begins to receive the broadcast, the values above will change and a player "visualization"  window will open up.
Input #0, mpegts, from 'tcp://10.0.0.123:1234?listen':B f=0/0
384 kb/s    nan    :  0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0
  Program 1   0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0
    Metadata: 0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0
Service01    nan    :  0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0       0B f=0/0
FFmpeg    nan    :  0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0   sq=    0B f=0/0
    Stream #0:0[0x100]: Audio: mp2 ([3][0][0][0] / 0x0003), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 384 kb/s
  11.35 M-A:  0.000 fd=   0 aq=    0KB vq=    0KB sq=    0B f=0/0

It will continue to "listen" until the process is killed.


How to activate an iPhone 5 with an inactivated SIM card I would like to use my iPhone 5 with an inactivated SIM card. I tried restoring using iTunes but each time I turn the phone on it starts all over again and asks me what language, what country, enter pass code etc. It connects to my Wi-Fi and then wants to know if I want to restore from iCloud, iTunes, or start new. I've tried this several times.

I would like to test this phone out before I activate the nano sim card. My old phone is an iPhone 3 and uses a larger SIM card so I don't want to deactivate that until I am sure the new one will work.

You can't activate the phone using an inactive sim card. However, if the phone is unlocked you can use any active sim card to activate it.

Take one from a family member or a friend. It's a few seconds process.


How can I display the current DNS servers from the command line under OS X? I want to display the DNS servers that are used by the current network setup on OS X, from the command line.

There are several ways - here are two:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

-or-

scutil --dns


Airpods use on macOS resets double tap action I use my apple airpods with lots of different platforms. On windows, iOS & Android everything is fine.

On macOS everything works too but it resets the double tap action to next track on both L/R (I like to have play/pause)

I have second generation airpods. Does anyone else know why this is happening and how to stop it?

FYI: I use tooth fairy on my mac to quickly connect and disconnect and am running the current 10.4.5 build of mojave.

AirPods double tap settings are unique to each Apple device. You’ll need to adjust the double tap settings on your Mac directly to mimic what you have on iOS.

I personally have different settings on my iPhone and Mac, but that’s a personal decision.

It seems like non-apple devices inherit compatible settings (pause/play, next track, but not Siri etc.) from your iOS double tap settings.

Features That Work on Android

  Out of the box, AirPods functionality on Android is quite limited, but the double tap feature works. When you double tap on one of the AirPods, it will play or pause the music. If you've customized your AirPods using an iOS device, next track and previous track gestures will also work, but Siri won't, nor will "Hey Siri" on AirPods 2 as that requires an Apple device.


Mac Lion Prevent restart after a new software install or uninstall Sometimes, Mac requires a restart after installing or uninstalling an application. What are the steps to prevent complete restart cycle and still achieve the desired result?

I remember I used to do a soft restart in terminal but now forgot the steps. After soft restart, the "uptime" command in terminal used to continue from previous uptime value, like "up 20 days".

You can install updates without restarting by running sudo softwareupdate -i -a. It might cause some issues though. When I installed the 10.8.3 update without restarting, Safari started crashing on launch until I restarted the Mac.

If an installer or uninstaller forces you to restart, you can often just press command-Q to quit the installer.

I haven't heard of anything like a soft restart. You can quit all applications by running sudo killall loginwindow, but it doesn't have the same effect as restarting or logging out and back in.


Clarify costs on my credit card printout when buying apps. I have a iPad 2. In my credit card printout, I have a cost from an app I bought in the AppStore. But I've only installed free apps.

If I lookup what apps I've installed, I cannot see their costs, because I can only see "Installed" information. How can I see the App price when I install it?

Or there is a way to check what I bought and what is charged me?

If you open iTunes and navigate to Store < Show account, there is a history of what you bought including the date and price for every transaction.

I'm sorry for the Dutch language in the screenshot:


Quicktime file not emailing from mac to PC correctly? Someone is trying to email me a Quicktime file from their Mac to my Windows PC.   (This is audio for a presentation.)   They swear that the file contains audio and video on their end, but when I get it, the file is only 14KB in size and plays as 25 seconds of blank screen and silent audio.   The Properties in the QT player show that the file should be 67MB.

Does anyone know what the problem is here?   If the file is too huge, I would expect that nothing would transfer - instead I'm getting this weird 14KB "audio.mov" file.   He's tried it twice - I even sent the 14KB file back to him and he insists it plays fine.

I'm mystified - I don't want to press the person doing this for me too hard, because they're doing me a favor (an unpaid favor at that) and I would like this to be as easy as possible on them.    But if anybody knows "oh, the problem is ______" and how to fix it, that would be great.

UPDATE:  We also tried transferring the file over Dropbox, but I got the same 14KB file  as before.

There are 2 applications on Mac called Quick Time Player.

One is the Quick Time player (without the 7),

The other is the Quick Time Player 7.This one is only basic and can be upgraded to Pro version at cost.

You should be using the QT player (without the 7) to send file via email.

To do that open the file in QT player and click on File - Sharing - Email.

If the file is to big to be sent by email use Dropbox then upload the file there (as you have done already), but make sure you are uploading the correct file. If it is audio it will be at least 5 meg or more (certainly not 14k).


Shell environment variables not available in GUI apps even if app launched via Command Line It is expected that shell environment variables won't be available in GUI apps launched via Spotlight or Finder.app.

But until Mavericks - I could launch an app via Command line such as:

open -a IntelliJ\ IDEA\ 11

And Intellij will inherit the environment variables defined in shell (In my case zsh). This does not seem to work properly anymore. I have seen similar problem, when I launch Emacs.app from command line.

Related thread -  https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/208181/why-did-my-tex-related-gui-program-stop-working-in-mac-os-x-yosemite

BTW, I know I can use Setting the system-wide PATH environment variable in Mavericks for setting system wide environment variables, but I don't want system wide environment variables. I want GUI app to inherit variables that were defined at the point, the app was launched from command line.

You can try something like this:

launchctl setenv VARIABLE VALUE
open -a IntelliJ\ IDEA\ 11
launchctl unsetenv VARIABLE

This will pass environment variable VARIABLE into the launched app and later it will be cleaned, but will remain in the app.


What are the valid users that need to exist on Mac OS X For example with CleanMyMac username option I can see users like "Kerberos FAST Account", com.apple.calendarserver and large number of others all with system privileges  with id 260 or below except for Message Bus which is 500 MacPorts also has a user with id 503. Anything below 500 has a "system" in name. All "real" users that I have created are above 500.

so what would be the list for valid users that I should see in the space below 500 in a standard Yosemite installation with OS X Server on it...

There are 87 valid users. 83 from OS X 10.10.1 (Build 14B25) and 4 from Server 4.0.3 (Build 14S350).

You can see them from terminal with the command:

dscl . -list /Users

The list is as follows:

_amavisd
_appleevents
_appowner
_appserver
_ard
_assetcache
_astris
_atsserver
_avbdeviced
_calendar
_ces
_clamav
_coreaudiod
_coremediaiod
_cvmsroot
_cvs
_cyrus
_devdocs
_devicemgr
_displaypolicyd
_distnote
_dovecot
_dovenull
_dpaudio
_eppc
_ftp
_geod
_iconservices
_installassistant
_installer
_jabber
_kadmin_admin
_kadmin_changepw
_krb_anonymous
_krb_changepw
_krb_kadmin
_krb_kerberos
_krb_krbtgt
_krbfast
_krbtgt
_launchservicesd
_lda
_locationd
_lp
_mailman
_mcxalr
_mdnsresponder
_mysql
_netbios
_netstatistics
_networkd
_nsurlsessiond
_nsurlstoraged
_postfix
_postgres
_qtss
_sandbox
_screensaver
_scsd
_securityagent
_serialnumberd
_softwareupdate
_spotlight
_sshd
_svn
_taskgated
_teamsserver
_timezone
_tokend
_trustevaluationagent
_unknown
_update_sharing
_usbmuxd
_uucp
_warmd
_webauthserver
_windowserver
_www
_xcsbuildagent
_xcsbuildd
_xcscouch
_xcscredserver
_xcsd
com.apple.calendarserver
daemon
nobody
root

For completeness, my OS X (non-server app) Mac has 84 users.

It has an additional Guest user (FileVault 2 added that one) and is lacking these server apps.

_xcsbuildd
_xcscouch
_xcsd
com.apple.calendarserver


Weird Google Chrome errors in system.log I'm using Mavericks and Google Chrome Version 34.0.1797.2 dev.

This is the error I receive:

Jan 25 17:09:12 genesis Google Chrome Helper[46267]: Process unable to create connection because the sandbox denied the right to lookup com.apple.coreservices.launchservicesd and so this process cannot talk to launchservicesd. : LSXPCClient.cp #426 `___ZN26LSClientToServerConnection21setupServerConnectionEiPK14__CFDictionary_block_invoke()` q=com.apple.main-thread
Jan 25 17:09:12 genesis Google Chrome Helper[46267]: Process unable to create connection because the sandbox denied the right to lookup com.apple.coreservices.launchservicesd and so this process cannot talk to launchservicesd.
Jan 25 17:09:12 genesis Google Chrome Helper[46267]: CGSLookupServerRootPort: Failed to look up the port for "com.apple.windowserver.active" (1100)

Any idea on what might be causing this? I've googled around and found no clue...

As you may know Google Chrome runs as a multi-process application. You have your initial "Google Chrome" process that manages the UI and plays "host" to a number of other processes. A new "renderer" process is created for each tab you open in Chrome, a "plugin" process for each extension you install, and there is a separate "GPU" process for the code that talks to the system's GPU. Each of these other processes appears in Activity Monitor as a "Google Chrome Helper" process.

To make Chrome more secure, the renderer processes run in a sandbox. They are only able to talk to the network through the host process and can only talk to specific files (for example, fonts and ColorSync profiles). They are also prevented from talking to other processes in the system, which is what causes these log messages. The renderer processes are trying to talk to the launchserviced and windowservice processes, but being prevented from doing that because of their sandbox.

This bug was resolved by a software engineer on Google's Chrome Security team with a commit in February 2014. Removing this one line of code resolved the problem.

[NSApplication sharedApplication];

Amongst other things, calling the sharedApplication method opens a connection between an application and OS X's WindowServer, which you can see failing in the CGSLookupServerRootPort error.

The intention was for Chrome to call this method to "warm up" certain resources before enabling the sandbox; gaining access to certain files, processes or network resources before the sandbox restrictions fell in place. However it seems that at some point this attempt started failing, resulting in these errors in the log. My guess is that Apple considered this "warming up" an attempt to cheat the sandbox and started clamping down on it.

If I'm reading correctly this change reached the stable release channel with an update of Google Chrome to 34.0.1847.131 in April 2014.

Interestingly the Chrome team had been discussing removing these calls to the sharedApplication method back in October 2013 and even discussed removing Cocoa entirely from the renderer processes as a goal back in 2009.

On a related note, Apple released a security fix in April 2014 to resolve a bug where "WindowServer sessions could be created by sandboxed applications."


Prevent Atom quitting on Cmd-Q I used to rebind Cmd-Q to invert colors to prevent quitting from programs, but it seems that after Catalina it keeps reverting to quitting after reboot (and it likes rebooting a ton). Is there an alternative? I have cmd-w in Atom to close tabs, now I constantly accidentally close my editor :-/

System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts tabs → App Shortcuts. Use + button to add new shortcut and enter exactly what "Quit Atom" menu item says in atom app. I use cmd + escape for Safari, VSCode and Xcode where I accidentally press Q instead of tab, w, 1, 2, 3 etc. and it's been great so far.  I've been using it for ~3 months now.

Both global and application defined shortcuts work.  Unique menu item is the key.

I am on Mojave.


Install country specific app from other country app store I have my App Store set on country XYZ and I am currently long term traveling (for a few months) in country ABC.

Hence I'd like to install some apps relevant to country ABC. I was able to do that for some apps. But some others tell me that I cannot install them because I am on another country App Store (country XYZ).

Doing a little bit of googling lead me to such thread explaining what could be some reasons behind this annoying situations.

Is there a way for me to still install these country specific apps without switching my App Store country settings?

Unfortunately no.

Apps can be limited by developers and/or by Apple to specific countries. This may be because of copyright, licensing, targeted markets, missing translation among other reasons.

As of this limitation you need to change your App Store country settings / your country specific Apple ID.


Deleting all photos from iCloud I want to free up iCloud storage by deleting photos that are backed up elsewhere.  How can I delete photos from iCloud without deleting them from my iPhone?

This is possible by opening the Settings.app on your iPhone, scrolling down, and selecting "iCloud". Scroll down, then tap Storage & Backup -> Manage Storage -> [Your iPhone Name] (This iPhone). You will then see a list of all the apps that are storing data in iCloud. Chances are the top one will be "Camera" and you can switch that off. Doing that will delete photos from iCloud, and if you were to ever restore your phone, photos would not be restored. However, it will not delete the photos that are on your device already.

Also, it is important to note that iCloud Shared photos, as well as your Photostream do not count toward your iCloud backup storage limit. There is an arbitrary limit of 1,000 photos on your Photostream. You can safely leave those on without affecting your storage use amount.


How to change the color profile of the OS X login screen? I'm using a calibrated version of my monitors color profile.
The monitor is calibrated inside of the OS X System Preferences on a Mac Pro.

The standard color profile of my Samsung monitor "Syncmaster" is very yellow/dark and pretty much unusable.

When I boot up, the login screen looks horrible because OS X loads the unmodified color profile, when I type in my password to log in the color profile changes to my calibrated profile ("SyncMaster Calibrated").

How do I force OS X to always use my calibrated color profile?

I just solved it!

SOLUTION:

1.
Activate the OS X Root User in the System Preferences.

How to activate the root user: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528

2.
After the root user is activated, log out from your account and log in as the user "root".

Go to System Preferences -> Displays -> Color and pick the color profile (that you want on your OS X Login Screen).

Log out of the Root Account and you'll see the selected color profile will be used on the Login Screen.

3.
Log back in to your normal account.

Now you can deactivate the root user via System Preferences, the same way it was activated.

The color profile selected via root user earlier will stay.

Result:
The color doesn't change anymore between Login Screen and account and I don't have a yellow/dark login screen anymore, finally!

Could Apple make that easier? YES!
But that's a pretty fast way to do it, without any "hacking" tricks.


What is the difference in weight between the minimum spec 2018 15" Macbook Pro and the maximum spec? Apple's website lists only a single weight for a 2018 15" Macbook Pro

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

  Weight: 4.02 pounds (1.83 kg)3

  3: Weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process.

So with memory, storage, cpu and gpu maxxed out what is the difference in weight?

I doubt there’s any difference at all. Perhaps a few tens grams, but nothing that would change that it is about 1,8 kg.


right click menu - select search Is there any way to customise the right click mouse menu that pops up over a highlighted word or phrase?

I normally use Firefox, occasionally Safari or Brave.  Normally DuckDuckGo to search, occasionally Google.

But if I highlight something, for example in an iMessage, and right click I'll always get "Search Google for ...." if search is set to Google in Safari.  Or "Search DuckDuckGo for .... " if that's how Safari is set.

So at the very least I'd like two options available - for two different search engines as in "Search Google for ...."/"Search DuckDuckGo for .... ".

Valhalla would be the ability to select the browser too.

Is it possible?

Thanks in advance.

It's not possible in Safari. It uses whichever search engine you define in Safari preferences. And the same applies to Google. Best I can do is use the one option they offer. I  don't know about other browsers.  There might be a programmatic way to do it but I don't know how to do it.

In Safari, it's way easier to change search engine. Go to address bar  (command+L), enter space(spacebar), choose search engine. There's no need to go to Safari preferences to do it.


When shaking my MacBook I hear a strange sound, like a wobble I recently bought a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015).

When I shake it vertically, some slow sounds come from it and it sounds like something wobbles in it.

Is this normal?

Your Macbook Pro should not be making any noise when you shake it, but there are a few things it could be: either the screen is moving ever so slightly or the internal fan is just moving when you shake it. If it is neither of those things (which the fan thing is unlikely so you have to decipher wether or not is it the screen) I would take it into an Apple store. It is most likely a minor issue like a loose screw or the like but if it is under warranty and there is an Apple store near by there is no harm.


Can't install command line tools on MacOS Big Sur After updating my OS to Big Sur, I tried cloning a repo.  In order to do so, I apparently need to install command-line tools.  However, on Big Sur, whenever I try to download command-line tools, I get this warning and no installation.

I fixed the same issue for me by downloading and installing the latest CLT package from https://developer.apple.com/download/more/


Slow connection to my particular brand of router over WiFi with Lion on MacBook Pro I own a MacBook Pro for some months now, it came with OS X Lion pre-installed. Since then, surfing the net with it is painful due to slowness. I also have a MacBook with Snow Leopard on it, there the internet works at normal speed. Based on this I conclude the problem is inside the MacBook Pro - it shows full WLAN connectivity but loading Google takes forever. My Router is a AVM Fritz!Box.

What I tried so far to optimize the speed - unless (noted) the changes made below don't affect the measured latency or speed at which pages render:

Resetting the router, turning WLAN on and off
Switching WLAN channels, trying 802.11n+a and 802.11n+g
Deleting all Wi-Fi networks in the system preferences
Resetting PRAM and NVRAM
Re-starting the MacBook Pro multiple times in a row
Disable iCloud in system preferences
Using another Browser than Safari
Renaming the network
Disableing "Use channels optimized for 300 Mbit/s" in my router (this helped, but still not to equal the speed of Snow Leopard)

What else could I try? I read changing the DNS server Google's can help, bit to  my understanding, this really can't fix the problem. Reinstalling is not an option. I am really desperate to solve this problem because it is more than annoying!

Have you tried flushing the DNS cache? In Terminal.app, enter dscacheutil -flushcache.

It could be your DHCP router handing out IPv6 information incorrectly, which is especially annoying if you don’t need IPv6 — like at home. This seems like the most logical explanation, given that all browsers and applications are suffering from the speed issues.

Go to System Preferences → Network → WiFi → Advanced → TCP/IP and set “Configure IPv6” to “Link-local only”.


MacPro 3,1 (2008) logic board SAS connector: Has anyone "replaced" the stock hard drive backplane? I have a lightly hot-rodded, early 2008 MacPro 3,1. Boots from an SSD mounted in the lower optical bay and attached to the second optical SATA port. Each of the four internal drive bays hosts a 3TB drive which I have configured as a striped and mirrored ZFS partition. Unfortunately, all my 2012 drives are running at 2008 speeds and are limited to 3 GB/s.

Looking for insight from anyone who has replaced the stock hard drive subsystem to 6GB/s speeds via a 4 or 8 channel PCIe SAS/SATA card with an internal SAS connector and connecting it to the built-in SATA backplane with an "extension" cable.

My workflow is predominantly InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop with light video editing occasionally tossed into the mix. My typical "large" Photoshop files range from 200MB to 600MB. Most InDesign files are 100 to 200 pages in length with transparency, layers and multiple elements on each page.

I'm not looking for ideas surrounding Apple's RAID card that sits in the topmost slot. I'd rather use the stock backplane since I can plug directly into it.

For anyone posting, I'd appreciate suggestions on a SAS card for the upgrade. It needs a minimum of a single internal mini-SAS port, but dual internal ports would be welcomed (for attaching the boot SSD). Since I'm running ZFS I dont need hardware RAID support. Just need to talk to the bare drives. Lack of boot ability means I only run the backplane and keep the SSD on the motherboard.

While increasing speed is my main intent, I don't want to sacrifice system stability or data integrity.

For changing the back plane you might look at the Pro Cable 1 with a review here.

There is also the DX 4 if you want to really stuff you Mac Pro with drives.

I don't have direct experience with a controller but was leaning toward a MAXPower RAID mini-SAS 6G-1e1i since it has both internal & external SAS ports.  Note that this card will not boot the Mac Pro.

The real problem is that I would want both a RAID card and a Mercury Accelsior and the Mac Pro (2008) only has 1 free x16 PCI 2.0 slot and you would need 2.

There is also a rumor of a Mercury Accelsior with eSATA ports in the near future.


How come Quicktime plays .avi files but iTunes doesn't? I think I might be missing something but it seems like Quicktime is happy playing my .avi movies but iTunes isn't. So I have to go through the rigmarole of converting .avi to .mp4 with iTunes before viewing in iTunes or on my iPod Touch. This of course means I end up with two versions of the same file (three if I need to view on iPod). Is there some solution to the issue? I'm going to have to buy yet another portable hard drive before the month is out ...

As per this MacRumors forum post:

  There are three ways to get .avi files to load into the iTunes library, these are packaging it in a supported format (QT-Pro workaround), adding extra entries to the CFBundleDocumentTypes (may cause problems when updating iTunes) or adding the movie-type meta-data to the file. Adding the movie-type meta-data to the file is the quickest, easiest and safest of all of these options (IMHO).

He then outlines a method to add the movie-type metadata.

in Terminal (requires Dev Tools)

$ SetFile -t "MooV" /path/to/movie.avi

Then run this Applescript:

tell application "Finder"
   set file type of file this_file to "MooV"
end tell

The original post I linked above has a full Applescript droplet or Folder Action that could do this automatically.


iMac doesn't start, all i see is colored lines and then checkered lines on a white background I have iMac 2010 which is out of warranty. I recently came up to the computer and it was sleeping and was not waking up. I held the powered button for a while, so it turned off. Then I pressed it again. The iMac turned on, but I saw colored lines on the white background with apple logo and activity indicator spinning. It was spinning for a bit then the screen changed to checkered color lines and white background, and it froze that way. I turned on my TV that the iMac is connected to and all I see there is white screen. I tried cmd+Option+P+R and it did restart, but same thing happened. I also tried plugging out all the cables, including power. Waiting for few minutes and plugging them back in, but that didn't help. What else can i try? Do you think the monitor is dead or the video card? Hopefully not the hard drive. Here are the screen shots of what happens:

Update.
I am trying to do as little as possible, not to loose the data. I don't have much backed up.

I found the diagnostic CD and was able to run it. I ran the quick test and it found no issues. Now I am running the extended test. Would the extended test detect bad video card? I tried to start the iMac in Safe Mode with the same result. What are my choices, if it is the video card? To change it I would probably have to replace the whole motherboard, and Apple will charge I am sure over $300 if not more. Is there a way to boot from a flash drive to let's say Ubuntu and access the hard drive?

Here is the screen shot from that Diagnostic screen:

What you show us here are typical symptoms of a dead video card.


Space number in menubar Is there a way to show the space number in the menubar so you can easily tell which desktop you are on in yosemite?

Not in the menubar but you can show the name of the wallpaper on the desktop if that helps:

defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE;killall Dock

Source: http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/20/show-the-location-path-of-current-wallpaper-in-mac-os-x/


Multiseat on Mac OS? How to make 2 or more users to use the same Mac OS at the same time? As I know for windows there is Aster, for linux there is Xorg.
I researched this topic for quite some time and cannot find a satisfactory solution for mac. The only thing I could find is connecting through remote desktop to the computer in a special way. But there are a lot of problems with it:

You still have to use a spare PC to connect to the mac
Remote desktops are very slow and buggy, even video encoded like Nomachine is not suitable for gaming at all
It takes some time to connect to the remote desktop each time. Especially because of the special way you need to connect

There are no native multi-seat solutions for current macOS that allows multiple, simultaneous users on the same Mac each with their own screen, keyboard and mouse.

You can create a multi-seat solution by running Windows or Linux on the Mac instead of macOS.

In theory you could also run for example a native Linux and virtualise several macOS instances to provide multi-seat usage of macOS on the Mac. In practice, you'll have licensing worries amongst other things.


Ensure MacBook Pro is fully asleep when travelling I have a 13" Mid 2014 MacBook Pro running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

I carry around my MacBook Pro in a backpack. I tend to close the lid to  put it in sleep mode before putting it in the backpack. How do I make sure that it is indeed asleep before putting it in?

I did google this topic a lot. Many people agree that you can close the lid and put it to backpack and travel without any problems. Also, many people disagree that because sometimes MacBook get overheated and some hardware failed because of this.

From what I understand, the only problem against closing lid and travelling is because the MacBook may not fully-sleep properly somehow when closing the lid. So my question is:

What is the best practice to make sure my MacBook is fully asleep and safe to be carried around and travel?

I am very confused how to make sure my MacBook is fully asleep. Whenever I put my MacBook Pro in sleep mode by clicking  → Sleep or closing the lid, the built-in apple logo on the back of screen just turns off directly.

Some people mention to make sure sleep light begins to pulse. I have no idea what this means. I don't know what is the sleep light and I don't see any lights pulsing.

PS: Some tips I found may be useful to you:

How to ensure there is no apps preventing your MacBook to sleep?

launch Activity Monitor.app --> Energy tab --> look at the column Preventing Sleep. If there is no Yes. Then there should be no apps stopping the system to sleep.

I wrote a simple script to make beep noise to test sleep status

I wrote a simple script to make beep noise. Run the script before closing the lid. If there is no beep noise, it kinda means the app is not running properly, thus it's in a sleep mode. I run this script everytime from terminal.app before closing the lid.

$ cat sleep-detector.sh
while true;
do
    echo `date` " -------- not sleep yet"
    tput bel
    sleep 2s
done

From the output of the program (I am not pasting the output here. You can try it yourself.), even if there is no beep noise, you can see that the script is actually running for about 20 seconds (or less) after the lid is closed.

If anyone have any better scripts/ideas, please let me know.

Just close the lid. Do not use  → Sleep button

In some of my tests, if I use  → Sleep button and close the lid immediately without waiting for the system fully asleep, the system actually wakes up by closing the lid. (because my simple beep noise script makes sound in this situation when the lid is closed). So, it's much safer to close the lid directly if you intend to close the lid.

Turn off Power Nap

Turn off Bluetooth before closing the lid

Turn off Wifi (if possible) before closing the lid

You can not stop mDNSResponder MaintenanceWake so far in High Sierra

So You can just live with it and let MacBook wake periodically.
You can find this wake message from the output of pmset -g log | grep -i MaintenanceWake from terminal.

Some people mention to make sure sleep light begins to pulse. I have no idea what this means. I don't know what is the sleep light and I don't see any lights pulsing.

The pulsing sleep indicator reference that you appear to be encountering in Web searches is a feature present in non-retina unibody MacBook Pro's (last released in Mid 2012) and looks like this:

Image credit: https://www.nix.ru/art/pic/web_news/2010/jul/pb1279346977.jpg

This indicator is not present in retina MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and retina MacBook.

Closing the lid indeed puts your MacBook Pro (and any other MacBook) to sleep mode. This is the default behaviour. The only cases when a MacBook Pro doesn't enter sleep mode when shutting the lid are:

It is connected to an external display. In this case, it works in so called clamshell mode.
You are using a 3rd party utility program to force MacBook to remain in awake state despite closing the lid.
When connected to a power source, the MacBook technically remains in sleep mode but can perform certain activities if Power Nap is enabled.

Even if you are not putting your MacBook Pro to sleep mode explicitly by using  → Sleep command, closing the lid puts it in sleep mode by default. It is quite common practise among MacBook users and some folks (including yours truly) seldom shut down their MacBook Pro.

There should generally be no risk in carrying it in your backpack. However, it would be advisable to watch (hear) for any fan noises and look (feel) for any heat to die down before tucking it in.


How can I show photos that aren't in an album? I am trying to organize all my photos in iPhoto. Is there a filter or setting that allows me to see all "unsorted" photos? ie photos that aren't in an album?

File → New Smart Album and set the condition to ‘Album is not Any’.

Media not in an album will appear in this new Smart Album.


I can't delete photos on my iPhone 4s even though the delete button is there, why? I've selected the photos I want to delete but, the delete button isn't turning blue. They were all taken on the iPhone but, the sim card has been removed. Do I need the sim card or not to delete the images?

SIM presence changes nothing. Even if you have iCloud photos you can delete photos without service or network and then those changes will only sync up once you connect.

Something else is amiss. Do you have a backup of the device and opportunity to test a restart / reset / restore?


Dual-Boot OS X Snow Leopard on MacBook Pro Is it possible to dual-boot Snow Leopard on a Mid-2012 MacBook Pro running Sierra? I have the DMG file so maybe I can make a bootable flashdrive?

Unless I'm totally missing something from your question, no mid-2012 MacBook Pro can run a version of OS X earlier than Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4.

More specifically, each of the three mid-2012 MacBook Pros initially shipped with Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 and the firmware does not support any prior version of macOS. On the positive side they do all support macOS Sierra.

If you have need to dual boot into an older OS, then it will have to be any version from Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 and above.


Game Center and iMessage for iOS9 vs. iOS10 multiplayer game? Trying to play Quatrian's multiplayer app "FaceMe Backgammon" between an iOS9 and an iOS10 client. How can I get these two to connect since the changes to the Game Center and iMessage?

FWIW, the two are able to play Zynga's "Words with Friends" but that doesn't require the Game Center.

The iOS9 device sends invites to the emil and Game Center username of the iOS10 device, but they are not received.

The iOS 10 device has the Settings > Game Center but does not have an invite option.

The two can txt w/iMessage, but the iOS9 only has "Message".app (the green one, which receives iMessage - blue - data) and doesn't receive iOS10's iMessage invites.

The in-app multiplayer options are limited to Game Center "friends" but does not have the option of inviting.

The email response I got from the people at Quatrian deferred to their "tips" page (which does not address iOS10) and these fairly useless links:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5007662?tstart=0

http://appletoolbox.com/2015/10/ios-9-game-center-not-working-blank-page-fix/

Well, after a bunch of back and forth with the Quatrain folks, I finally heard this from them:

  After a lot of investigation, it looks like there is no simple way to
  add friends between iOS 9 and iOS 10 devices. We will be working to
  integrate the new iOS 10 Game Center functionality, but it won't be
  ready for a while as Apple made some drastic changes to the Game
  Center functionality.

  As a workaround, you can play the Auto-match games and if you select
  the Auto-Match Length of 5, you are almost guaranteed to only play
  each-other as most players don't use that option.

My friend and I tried the simultaneous "Auto-Match Length of 5" option and were able to play backgammon together. While playing there are "send friend" invite options but mine "went out" to who knows where and theirs (iOS10) at least gave a message saying not available.

So, sounds like there's some work to do for app developers to maintain the new style of Apple's Game Center functionality with non-iOS10 devices.


Has anyone managed to put a GeForce 980m inside iMacs with MXM slots? Here you can read about people trying to put non-Apple MXM GPUs inside iMacs:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/

Of course, there are issues due to EFI incompatibilities (I hope someone will resolve them in the future), but e.g. a GeForce 780m seems to be working in some cases. I wonder whether anyone tried to use a powerful GeForce 980m for this.

GTX980M in Mid-2011 iMac 27" (Jan 2017):
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4175243/all


How to delete a word, which was typed mistakenly, from Safari autocomplete recommendations? I just typed a word mistakenly, and this typo is being listed for the autocomplete words. How can I remove this word from Safari recommendations, in order words, how can I command Safari to unlearn it?

Things I've tried so far:

Delete the cookies of the website that this word was typed
The word is not listed in the ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary

p.s. My OS is 10.15.3

Okay, I've found the solution myself. Hope it helps others MacOS users:

Go to Safari Settings, the select the AutoFill tab. Click the Edit button of the Other forms option. Locate the related website, and click the Remove button.


Splitting large files over multiple DVDs I have an installer file 6GB in size, and I need to burn it to DVD, but I only have single layer (4.7GB capacity) media.

How can I split this big file into pieces that will fit on my media?

I am thinking of making an ISO, is this the correct approach?

I only want free or open source solution please.

Using terminal, you can split a file into chunks of the size of your choice.

These chunks can be then stitched back together again quite easily.  This allows you to spread a large file over a number of CDs/DVDs, or more often floppy discs back in the day when this was more of an issue.

In the following example I have an ISO file of approximately 50Mb, that I split into 25Mb chunks.  I then stitched them back together again under a new name and checksummed them to prove they remain identical:

StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ ls -l
total 99328
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:30 ocz_tools_316.iso
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ split -b 25m ocz_tools_316.iso
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ ls -l
total 198656
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:30 ocz_tools_316.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  26214400  3 May 09:32 xaa
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  24641536  3 May 09:32 xab
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ cat x* > new.iso
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ ls -l
total 297984
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:32 new.iso
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:30 ocz_tools_316.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  26214400  3 May 09:32 xaa
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  24641536  3 May 09:32 xab
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ cksum *.iso
1518140433 50855936 new.iso
1518140433 50855936 ocz_tools_316.iso

If you only have a single layer DVD writer (or single layer discs) then changing the command to suit the capacity of your media is advisable, the -b 25m bit will need to be changed to something like -b 4600m for approx 4.6Gb chunks.  Don't try to squeeze every last byte from the first DVD, just in case it is rounding up the capacity, I'd probably advice 3500Mb for you to ensure it will fit as either way it's a 2 disc job.

Should you choose a split size that results in more than 2 files being created, they will be called xaa, xab, xac, xad etc in alphabetical order, and the command to stitch them back together remains unchanged.  You'll  note that the last file is just the remainder, and will typically be smaller unless the split is a direct multiple of the original file - see the following output with a 10Mb split:

-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff   8912896  3 May 10:12 xae
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xad
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xac
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xab
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xaa

Renaming them to be installer_part1 etc might be advisable if you wish to store them for longer than a short time just to transfer them, but ensure you do not change the order of the files when you stitch them back together via a typo etc.

Note that in my example I used an ISO file, purely because it's what I had laying around on my desktop.  You should be able to split your installer file just fine as it is without having to change it, but note that this command works on single files only, and as such you cannot use it on a directory/folder, although you can use it on a zipped directory/folder.  If you are in any doubt as to your source file, you can simply compress the file regardless to save doubt, simply right click on your file and click the compress option to get a zip file out of it.


What the weird files '!' and 'export' are and where do they come from? I have a MacBook which was recently bought and macOS Sierra 10.12.5

Sometimes the weird files named '!' and 'export' are being created in some random directories, for example in my home directory or in others. The files are 0kb both and have such permissions and owner:

-rw-r--r-- alx(my user) staff

What application creates such files and why? I'm tired of deleting these files from everywhere.

I've checked the .bash_profile file and found this lines:

> export GOPATH=$HOME/go
> export PATH=$GOPATH:$GOPATH/bin:$PATH
> !

It looks like I made a mistake when I ran console command during GO installation. I've removed this '>' symbols and now everything is ok.


Mac mini hangs on Apple logo after Mojave 10.14.6 Update 2 My mac mini (model Late 2012) worked fine until I installed the "Mojave 10.14.6 Update 2" security fix today.  After the automatic reboot (required for the update), the boot process hangs after displaying the Apple logo.  (There is no progress bar showing up below the logo.)

I already tried resetting the SMC, but that didn't change anything.  Booting into "Internet recovery mode" worked and I could run "First aid" over the harddisk, but that didn't fix the problem.

When I boot in verbose mode (Cmd-V), I see the message

Attempting system restart...MACH Reboot
Attempting system restart...MACH Reboot
Attempting system restart...MACH Reboot
Attempting system restart...MACH Reboot
Attempting system restart...MACH Reboot
Attempting system restart...MACH Reboot

repeated endlessly, after a few kernel traces WRT corekrypto.kext.

Unfortunately, I don't have a time machine backup of this Mac.

How can I recover my system?  Is there a way to boot of an installation medium and recovery the system without having to reinstall everything?

Thanks a lot for your help!

[EDIT:] I managed to take a video of the boot log.  The first error reported is a kernel panic with message "FIPS Kernel POST Failed [...] corekrypto_kext.

Why did the security upgrade leave the system in this state and how can I fix this without having to reinstall everything?

[EDIT 2:] I just found this issue on the net: https://eclecticlight.co/2019/10/18/beware-apple-security-certificates-after-24-october-they-may-have-expired/  Could this be the problem I'm facing?  How can I fix the certificate?

Newer hardware can boot to internet recovery and attach an external drive to copy files off.

If you can boot to a recovery partition on that HDD - that would be the fastest method. Otherwise, you’d need to boot your Mini in target disk mode or bring an external bootable OS to it to copy files off before erasing it.


Required to fetch few details on FileVault I require to fetch below few details on FileVault enabled users.
1)Private recovery key set or not
2)Institutional recovery key set or not
3)Authorized on every logon - supported or not.
Which commands will help us to fetch these details for File-Vault enabled users.
I want to get these details as a part data collection.

From man fdesetup :

haspersonalrecoverykey [-device] [-verbose]
    Returns the string "true" if FileVault contains a personal recovery key.

hasinstitutionalrecoverykey [-device] [-verbose]
    By default, this will return the string "true" if FileVault contains an
    institutional recovery key. On CoreStorage volumes specified using the
    --device option, this will return the hex representation of the public key
    hash instead of "true". The hash option is not supported for APFS volumes.
    This will return "false" if there is no institutional recovery key installed.

usingrecoverykey [-verbose]
    Returns the string "true" if FileVault is currently unlocked using the
    personal recovery key.

supportsauthrestart
    Returns the string "true" if the system supports the authenticated restart
    option. Note that even if true is returned, this does not necessarily
    mean that authrestart will work since it requires that FileVault be enabled.


How can I prevent an application from showing on the Dock? Working with Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks).

I have an application that is launched with my session and displays its menu from the status bar.

Also, I would like to know if there is a way to prevent this application from also showing on the Dock since I have the possibility to access its menu from the status bar.

If I remove the icon from the Dock, then the application quits.

I've been searching on the web for a solution, I found that modifying the info.plist of the content of the app adding :

<true/>
<key>LSUIElement</key>
<true/>

could solve the issue, but in vain, after that modification, the app keeps "jumping" but doesn't launch. So I recover the code as it was before.

Modifying the Info.plist has made sandboxed applications crash on launch since 10.8.

You can for example run

lsappinfo setinfo -app TextEdit ApplicationType=UIElement

after opening TextEdit to hide TextEdit from the Dock temporarily, but I don't know how to make the change permanent.


What does a firmware password protect? If I create a firmware password on my MacBook, what does that protect me from?

Does it protect from any of these:

Reformatting the hard drive.
Switching OS to boot from (e.g. if Boot Camp is installed).
Restoring the laptop to its original factory settings (i.e. reinstalling OS X).
Installing another boot loader such as rEFIt which bypasses the firmware password

Installing a firmware password will prevent anyone without the password from selecting a different boot disk to start up the computer. It will also disable some startup key sequences, like getting into single-user mode. I don't know how the firmware password interacts with something like rEFIt.

However, if someone can open your computer, they can disable the firmware password by pulling one of the sticks of RAM and/or just access your hard drive directly and do what they want with it.


Mavericks Bluetooth : Connections from undesirable (unpaired) devices... Where is the Advanced Bluetooth option? My problem :

Recently I started to use a Magic Trackpad for my MacBook Air (Mid 12), and discovered some annoyance :

I regularly see some devices connected to my Mac by Bluetooth, the one that I never paired...

One of this devices is my FitBit One, which is not paired to my Mac, but still can connect and use it's (fitbit) battery...

Some others devices appear from time to time with different names, that I do not recognise... Sometimes I know when another device, that my Trackpad, is connected because the trackpad starts to freeze.

I tried to "remove" an unwanted device, but it keeps reappearing...

I can't even imagine what I can do, since the bluetooth options are really limited...

Question :

Is there some way to have an advanced bluetooth options? So I could "force" all devices to ask a permission before even trying to connect to my Mac?

I found some screenshots of advanced view here :  Securing Bluetooth

But this is an old one and I am afraid that in Mavericks the only "advanced option" is limited to "alt + bluetooth" which gives nothing useful to me.

If anyone have an idea how to fix this problem (but still keep using my trackpad :) ), it would be great to share with me :)

Thank you in advance!

EDIT (29/08/14)

Some precisions : I detected this problem by seeing my FitBit One battery life going from one week to 48 hours, exactly from the moment I started to use BT on my Mac.
I use my Magic Trackpad only at work, and I already checked, if I leave my Mac working all night my FitBit will loose somme battery life in one night, and my Mac is the only device with BT enabled...

Here the link where you can see my One listed as Connected, but I never paired it or was asked to. Link

When you say that you see devices connected to your Mac, are you in the Bluetooth Preference Panel or are they appearing in a different app?

Normally your BT is not in discoverable mode, meaning other devices can't see/pair with it unless it has already been paired.  When you open up the BT Pref Pane, the discoverable mode is automatically switched on.  When this happens, it will list all of the available BT devices it can find (like your FitBit) so that you may pair with it.

If it isn't already on, in the BT Pref Pane, enable the "Show BlueTooth in menu bar" checkbox.  This will add the BT menu in the right side of the menu bar.  Clicking on this will show you the currently paired devices and other basic functions.  However, if you hold down the Option key then click on the menu, you are shown an advanced menu. This will show you if your BT is in discoverable mode or not, which it should only be on if the BT Pref Pane is open.

If there are any devices listed in the menu that you don't want paired, choose that device's submenu and select Remove.


OS X Terminal displaying ö when typing | It's the first time this has happened to me. Does anyone know why this could be happening?
I think I configured something wrong in the keyboard settings.

This is working fine in Word 2011, for example.

It probably has something to do with the "Automatically switch to a document's input source" option in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input Sources, which allows you to have different output sources for different applications/tabs/documents. Simply uncheck that to only use one keyboard layout for all applications


Will my Canon CanoScan 500F scanner work with Lion? I'm getting a lot of TWAINBridge errors in the console and Image Capture won't scan documents like it did last week (on 10.6.8 Snow Leopard).

7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- p
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- s
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- n
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- _
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 0
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- _
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 5
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 4
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 0
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 8
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 0
7/23/11 1:46:18.822 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge: illegal option -- 4
7/23/11 2:20:05.051 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.TWAINBridge: ImageIO: <ERROR>  JPEG Application transferred too few scanlines

I checked the canon site - and the latest drivers are only for 10.6 - no mention is made of this scanner on the Canon list of devices that work with Lion.

I have rebooted twice, checked the cables. I'm hoping someone can point out something I may have missed that might get things going for me.

If not, it's off to the used market with some Core Duo macs and all my rosetta software!

It looks like some old saved settings were causing the scanner to hang indefinitely  - pressing scan over and over wasn't working.

I pressed the show details button a few times but didn't realize things were working slowly in the background. After a minute or so - I was able to get into the details, change some settings, and it has been working well.

Those TWAIN errors are not logging now either. Life is good again in Lion scan land.


Can I enable FileVault and then partition my hard drive later? I just bought a 2014 MacBook Pro with a 512GB SSD. I updated to El Capitan today and when it booted up for the first time, it asked me if I wanted to enable FileVault. I chose not to because I wasn't sure if I should enable it before I install Windows via BootCamp (and possibly a Linux disto too).

So, should I enable FileVault now and then partition my drive later for the other OS(es), or should I wait until I partition the drive? Thanks!

Yes, you will be able to partition later. When you partition, both partitions will be encrypted with FileVault.

Alternatively, you could just set it to encrypt your El Capitan partition, it won't make a difference.


Why does installing a package create a directory on my desktop? When I install a package, it creates a directory with the name of the package on my desktop. In Finder it looks like a new external drive:

Why is that? Should I always remove those drives after installation? Or did I do something wrong and this should not show up?

This is normal.  These programs have been downloaded as virtual disk or .dmg files.

For example Mendeley Desktop is a program supplied as Mendeley-Desktop-1.19.4-OSX-Universal.dmg file.  When you open the downloaded file by default you will see it appear on your desktop and as a removable drive in Finder.

Once you have dragged the application to Applications you can eject the virtual disk in Finder and then delete the downloaded .dmg file.

Note some programs - MS Office for example - are supplied as packages (files ending in .pkg) rather than .dmg files.  When you run this type the program is installed without mounting a virtual drive and macOS will automatically prompt you to delete the installer file once done.


Is there a way to flip the touchbar icons? Straightforward question: Is there a way to flip the buttons so the minimized control strip appears on the left and opens to the right, and so the escape button is stuck to the right of the bar? I constantly find myself accidentally hitting the buttons on the right since they are so close to the delete button.

Essentially, I'd like to mirror the two segments (control strip and esc button) of the touch bar shown below:

I don't know if I understand your question current - BUT if I do, then here it goes.

If you open System Preferences=>Keyboard

Then you'll have a "Customize Control Strip..." button - which then allow you to build your own button order in the strip bar.


Why do I need to activate my iPhone? This is something I don't particularly understand. I get that for Windows, activation exists to prevent software piracy, but you don't have to pay for iOS. Perhaps activation exists to prevent Android devices from using iOS or to prevent jailbreaks and downgrades? Anyone know the real reason why?

Activation in the sense of iPhone, or any cellular phone, for that matter, is registering and provisioning that phone for use with your cellular carrier. (Or more specifically for GSM networks, provisioning the SIM card.) It is unrelated to the type of activation found in Windows and other software.

It basically registers your phone with the carrier and obtains your specific settings (phone number, etc).


How to Save All notifications? I have IOS 8 and I want to know how to save ALL of my notifications.
What I mean is, I unlock the phone and then the notification disappears and I didn't read it. I have looked all over and there's no way I've found.

Settings > Notifications > Messages > Show in Notification Centre > … you can set up to 10 recent items

then all you need to do is swipe your screen from the top down & there they are [though if you've never used that before you'll probably need to clear a whole lot of other stuff first time & trim which apps actually need to be in there.]

You can't have all - only the last 10.


`dtrace_deadman_timeout` modification for dtrace scripts such as dtruss? When running some intensive debugging that needs to run on the order of about 5 minutes, I'm finding that dtrace's deadman switch is being triggered regularly and cannot get to the error that is being tracked:

dtrace: processing aborted: Abort due to systemic unresponsiveness

It appears that I could modify the parameters of deadman with perhaps dtrace_deadman_timeout being the most promising. These can be found here and the slide is as follows:

What is the appropriate way to set such parameters on macOS (specifically 10.13.x)?

I've had the same issue. I don't know if it's encouraged, but you can use the "-w" flag to "allow destructive actions." This seems to have fixed the issue for me. However I have no idea what the consequences are. I'm running a very simple script though, so I'm reasonably confident that I'm not doing anything that is very "destructive."

This was hard to find, it was a pdf of slides of a presentation given on dtrace and I get the feeling that MacOS only begrudgingly allows basic DTrace support these days. This is too bad because DTrace is an incredibly powerful tool.

For the sake of any poor soul who wanders here with similar issues, the official DTrace book is really helpful and while it doesn't have all the answers, it has probably most of them.


Can't enable Java for browser For some reason, whenever I try to enable Java in the browser by clicking on the checkbox "Enable Java content in browser" in the Security tab of the Java control panel, it asks for my password and then promptly unselects my selection.

Does anyone know what is happening?

I have OSX 10.10.4. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled the Oracle JRE to no avail.

I've got the same issue. Here's how I resolved it using Terminal commands:

Make yourself to root

sudo su -
Remove the existing JAVA Runtime (JRE) as well as JDK if any

rm -R /Library/Application\ Support/Oracle/

rm -R /Library/Oracle/

rm -R /Library/Java/

rm -R /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/

rm -R ~/Library/Application\ Support/Oracle/
Download and install the latest JAVA versions from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. You probably need the JRE only. In case local java software stopped working you'd need the JDK too.
Open the System Preferences of OS X, click on JAVA -> Security and activate "Enable Java content in browser"

The setting that prevented you from enabling Java content in your browser most probably is in /Library/Application\ Support/Oracle/.