Where are our iCloud images stored? My wife and I recently changed to Apple. Our setup includes a Macbook Pro, Apple TV and two iPhones. I have purchased 2 TB of iCloud storage which I am sharing with my wife.

We have ~3000 high-rez images that we want to migrate into iCloud Photos. They are stored on a Dropbox account today, so I installed iCloud for Windows on our old PC and started adding the images to shared albums in iCloud photos.

After quite some time, it seems like they are all uploaded and we can view them on all devices.

Now, here's the thing I can't wrap my head around. Even though it's about 12 GB of images that we've uploaded so far, iCloud still says we only consume 1 GB of disk space, and on my iPhone, the internal disk space says "~180 MB images" and "~5 GB other". The "other" part came when I started syncing images.

On my phone I have both iCloud-images and Optimize iPhone storage enabled. I though this would mean that the images where saved in their original resolution in iCloud, and at a lower kind of "preview" resolution on our phones, but since iCloud usage is not incrementing I guess I have understood it wrong.

The All images folder on my device is empty, but the shared albums folders are full of images. Shouldn't the disk usage on iCloud reflect that?

We're a bit worried that we have done something wrong and that our images might be deleted by mistake. Hence, here's a few questions that you'll hopefully be able to answer for us:

Are our images uploaded to iCloud and not stored locally on my phone?
If they are uploaded into iCloud, how come we don't see an increase in disk usage? Why should one pay for additional iCloud storage when it doesn't increase?
What happens if I reinstall my phone? Will our images still be left "intact" in iCloud and ready to be synced once the phone is back up and running?
Is iCloud photos sufficient as a backup solution for the images? Or is it recommended to use an additional backup (I mean, more backups is always better, but is it overkill?)

The reason this seems confusing is that you've added the photos to "Shared albums".

Usually you would add your own photos to the Photos Library, which is essentially meant to be a collection of all your photos. Compared to that, "Shared Albums" is meant for taking out smaller collections of photos that you want to shared with third parties.

Photos added to your own Photos Library do count against your iCloud storage limit, however photos added to shared albums do not. This is why you're not seeing any increase in your usage of iCloud. Shared albums comes with a built-in limitation of 5000 photos per album.

You can read more about iCloud Shared Albums storage restrictions here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202786

When you add a photo to a shared album, or to the Photos Library, the photos are uploaded to iCloud, yes. Whether or not they're also stored locally on your phone depends on your settings and how much storage space you have. You can choose to "Optimize storage", which means that only some is keps in full resolution on your phone, as space permits, otherwise only low res versions are kept on the device. The full res versions will be fetched from iCloud on request.

If you reinstall your phone, nothing happens to the iCloud stored photos. They will all be intact and ready to be synced after the phone is back up and running. However, note that you will need to be able to login with your Apple-ID (i.e. remember email-address, password and 2FA device if applicable).

Whether or not this is sufficient as a backup solution is up to you. If it were me, I wouldn't say it is sufficient - I would always keep photos stored in a minimum of two systems. With iCloud Photos you can setup your devices so that the full res images are stored both in iCloud and on a local device. This leaves you with 2 copies... however a single error (user error or bug) could erase your photos from both places at the same time. That's why I always recommend a second backup.


Shortcut to move windows between Mission Control spaces? I can switch to another desktop by pressing CTRL-RIGHT or CTRL-LEFT. Can I also somehow take the active window with me to the new active desktop (similar to Ubuntu/Unity)?

Options provided by OSX

Using your mouse, click and hold the window you want to move to another Space.
a) While still holding your mouse button down, use your Spaces keyboard shortcut to move to the desired Space. (default: ctrl+←/→)

b) Drag the window to the edge of the screen. Wait a second or two and the window will be dragged into the next space.

You can change the delay before the OS switches spaces using...(here 2 seconds)

 defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-edge-delay -float 2.0; killall Dock;

Third-party solutions

SizeUp (unlimited free trial available)

Your question has been asked before on stackoverflow.com.


Keynote stretch line animation Is it possible in keynote 09 to stretch a line through an animation without making it more broadly?

I would do the animation of the line as a Magic Move. To do that, start with the line on a slide. In the Slide Navigator, duplicate the slide. On the second slide, adjust the length of the line (and position if you wish). Select the first slide in the Slide Navigator and apply the Magic Move transition.

I like using Magic Moves for things like this because it makes it easier to deal with multiple elements on the slide.


Where have my safari, App Store, iTunes Store, and Siri gone? I was trying to manage storage and deleting pictures to clear up space. I went back to my home screen and noticed something was different. Well it seems my Safari icon is gone. Also iTunes and my AppStore is nowhere to be found. It's been this way for two weeks and I've been tryin to search all through my phone to find em. When I go to settings I can't find any if them either. I thought about askin Siri to bring em up for me but she seems to be gone also!! And it comes up some voice control thing! Can anyone help?! How can I get them back?

Sounds like your restrictions were turned on somehow. Try the following:

Open Settings
Tap General
Scroll down to Restrictions and see if it says it's On
If it is, when you tap it, it will ask for a "Restrictions Passcode". If you don't remember setting this then just try your unlock code or SIM PIN.
You'll probably notice that the toggles for Safari and the others are set to off. If you don't want these restrictions in place then just tap "Disable Restrictions" at the top of that view.
You'll be asked to enter that passcode one last time to disable the restrictions

And that's it! You should now be able to access everything again!

If you can't, there's another possibility that the device is being managed with a provisioning profile so if the above doesn't work, leave a comment and let me know. :)


What's the font in Mac OS X's GUI? What is the font that's used in Mac OS X's graphical user interface (GUI), in the menus, dialog boxes, etc.? Is it different from what was used in the classic Mac OS (i.e. OS 9 or older)? If so, what are the fonts back then? I like the font but never knew what it was. Thanks.

The font you see in most places on Mac OS X is Lucida Grande, it is the system font in OS X 10.1 Puma to 10.9 Mavericks. Mac OS 1-7 used Chicago, then Mac OS 8 and 9 used Charcoal.

The most recent additions are Helvetica Neue (OS X 10.10 Yosemite) and San Francisco (OS X 10.11 El Capitan through Mojave)


Is It Possible to Have the iPhone Speak the Name of the Caller? I am wondering if there is any software or any way that the iPhone can can be made to speak the name of the person who is calling. The reason I am asking is because I use a bluetooth headset all of the time and need to know who is calling so I don't need to look at my phone all of the time.

If you enable VoiceOver (in Settings → General → Accessibility), your phone will speak the numbers (or names for contact entries) of incoming calls. However it changes the user experience of the phone substantially (it will read everything on screen for you). I'm not aware of any way to enable VoiceOver just for phone calls unfortunately.

Another option would be to record custom ringtones reading the number/name for some of your contacts (you can assign custom ringtones in the Contacts app). This is obviously time consuming (although if you have  a Mac, you could speed it up with some scripting of Address Book and the system reader), and only useful for the contacts you set custom ringtones for—any incoming call not in your address book is out of luck.

There's very little integration with the Phone app available for third party apps—not much more than sending a number to call, so it's unlikely this could be solved by an app without jail breaking (and possibly not even then, I don't know).


Is there a way to send Apple proposals for usability improvements? I think this would be nice to have if there already isn't a way to send UI feedback.

For example, is there an e-mail address dedicated for that proposal, such as usability-improvement-proposal@apple.com or something similar?

Apple already has a mechanism for this.  It's called Apple Product Feedback.

  Apple strives to bring the best personal computing experience to
  students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the
  world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet
  offerings. Apple welcomes your feedback on its products.

Apple will accept feedback on every product they make from their devices like the iPad, iPod, iPhone, Mac computers, dongles and peripherals, Apps, macOS, iOS, Watch, TV, iCloud, Pages/Numbers/Keynote, XCode, Music and Pay (not a comprehensive list).

If you have an improvement you would like to share, I encourage you to submit your feedback, suggestions and opinions to Apple.


Is it possible to reverse the position of the number and emoji keyboards? On my iPhone, the emoji keyboard is to the right of the number keyboard:

On my iPad, it’s on the left:

Due to muscle memory, every time I’m typing on my iPad I bring up the emoji keyboard in error. I won’t ask anyone to explain why Apple have been inconsistent here, but is there a way to reverse them? I’ve tried removing and re-adding the emoji keyboard in settings, but that didn’t work.

I did file this as a bug during the beta testing of iOS 12, but I'm fairly sure it still remained a problem in the final release. However, my iPad is running iOS 12.1 beta and the keyboard now matches my iPhone:


Is there a good, full-featured EPUB to PDF converter? There are tons of PDF to EPUB converters but almost no EPUB TO PDF.

Only thing I've found is a free online converter (takes some time to upload, lacks the cover and the sidebar navigation) and a shareware (that I couldn't get to work).

Does Calibre work? It offers Ebook Format Conversion for a lot of formats, quote from the FAQ:

Calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats. It can convert every input format in the following list, to every output format.
Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ
Output Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, HTMLZ, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ


App not launching in ipad and iPhone Development gives iOS app(.ipa file) to test. I am able to install the app to iOS devices(iPad 6th generation and iPhone Xr with iOS 13) using iTunes. After installation app is launching, but when i connect the device to internet, app not launching.
Tried few fixes

Settings > General > iPhone/iPad Storage > Uninstalled the app

Settings > iCloud > disabled iCloud backup and iCloud Drive

Tried re-installing the app, but issue continues.
I am using iTunes in Windows OS, as i don't have macOS hardware. Appreciate any help to solve the issue

So to summarize, the app ipa is on the iOS device and you need more logs from iOS.
TestFlight is the solution to this sort of problem since it enables telemetry to the developer that you can’t get using iTunes or macOS Finder.
Tell the developer the app doesn’t launch when connected to the internet and to send a new build. Their code signing is being rejected. One reason could be your test device isn’t enrolled for non-production code entitlements. Since you don’t have a Mac, Xcode can’t help you read the specifics from your device. In this case, they should use TestFlight so that you don’t have to mess with these easily preventable failures and make it easier for them to collect failures from your test devices (IMO).

https://developer.apple.com/testflight/


Ways to retrive deleted iMessages on iPhone This may be a popular question, but I have not seen a very satisfying answer for it. It is unfortunate when one accidentally deletes iMessages because all of the history of that message is gone, and there appears to be no way to get it back on the device itself.

Are there existing apps that would recover messages onto the device?

I am not aware of apps that can recover messages from your iPhone. If you accidentally deleted messages off your iPhone, you would need to restore the iPhone from your most recent iCloud or iTunes backup.

The restore will bring back all the SMS/iMessages that were present on your iPhone at the time of the backup itself.


Is there any free/paid Windows emulator for Mac OS X? I am new to Mac and I am looking for a Windows emulator for Mac OS X. I want to use an application which is not available for Mac.
Please recommend the strengths and weaknesses (including cost) of the various options available.

Wine
You could try Wine and use the  Winebottler frontend for installing common Windows software.
With Wine isn't 100% compatible with all windows programs, so consider yourself lucky if all your applications work.
Virtualbox
Virtualbox is a PC virtualization software. You'll need to install Windows as a "Guest operating system", which requires a Windows license.
Virtualbox is compatible with all Windows software, but has limited support for hardware 3D acceleration.
Boot Camp
For 3D games you'll need to use Boot Camp.


How do I enable the one-handed keyboard? I would like to enable a different keyboard layout for one-handed use. I know it's possible, since it was mentioned at WWDC 2017, but how do I do it?

Settings doesn’t have an option to enable a one-handed keyboard:

In the Keyboards list, there is no one-handed keyboard either.

Keyboard switching icon

Hold down on the keyboard switching icon (usually a globe or smiling face) and on the last menu item, pick the right or left option. Note that this only works when more than one keyboard is enabled because the keyboard switching icon only shows when needed.

The 3 keyboard icons are for enabling the one-handed layout.

If you pick the left option, you'll be able to use the keyboard with only your left hand, and the same is true with the right option. The center option makes the keyboard two-handed again.

Settings app

In the Keyboard settings (Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> One Handed Keyboard), you can select between the keyboards.

This method works regardless of how many keyboards you’ve enabled.

Here's an example of the right-handed keyboard:


How is Messages traffic routed? AppleID signed in to MacOS message for the first time: are SMS messages to cell phones routed through the iPhone?  Assume the recipient is not using an Apple device (not use iMessage).
If I did not have an iPhone, would I be confined to sending messages to AppleIDs (email addresses)?
If any additional context is needed to confine a proper question please ask in comments.

In answer to question 1, it depends. Some carriers allow WiFi calling on other devices (you can check by going to FaceTime > Preferences > Calls from iPhone checkbox). If WiFi calling is being used, your Mac sends it over the internet to the cell carrier. If it's not, then it's sent through your phone (I'm not sure if it's sent over the LAN or through Apple's servers to the iPhone, but I think it's the first).
Second question: correct, you'd only be able to send iMessages to AppleIDs.
Hope this clarifies your questions.


Choppy Fullscreen Flash or HTML5 video playback in Chrome on Mac Pro Does anyone know how I can solve this annoying issue of fullscreen video in Chrome displaying very choppy and jumpy?  It's unwatchable.  I've had the problem in Chrome ever since I got this 2014 Mac Pro.  It's not the Chrome pepper flash plugin because I've disabled that and it's no different, and besides - it behaves the same with YouTube's HTML5 video player.

I've tried disabling all plugins, disabling all extensions, and it still is the same.

Apple won't help as fullscreen video works beautifully in Safari - even 4K Youtube video.  The problem exists with Youtube, Vimeo, etc.  I have noticed that some news websites videos play fine when fullscreen if the transition to go fullscreen doesn't make the screen blink - like it's trying to change the resolution (like is the case when youtube/vimeo videos go fullscreen, there is a slight blink and delay when going to fullscreen mode). If I try going fullscreen with Facebook videos - the sound plays but the image is black.

Please help - I have no idea what to do. The behaviour is the same in Mavericks and Yosemite.

Try disabling Hardware Acceleration...

Control-click the Flash application or video during playback.
From the context menu, select Settings.
The Display panel is the first panel shown.
Deselect the Enable Hardware Acceleration option, and then click Close.


Mojave: Default start time of new events When I create a new event in Calendar, it starts at 9:00 am and ends at 10:00 am. I want to change that to one hour earlier. Is there a way to achieve this?

I know there's a way to change the default duration of new events and it's not what I'm looking for. I found this question without an answer for the iPhone. I'm on macOS 10.14.6.

You can choose the time to start / end your day with macOS Calendar - it's in the general setting.

For specific events, Calendar app should do natural language scheduling like many third party calendar apps have done for quite some time.

https://flexibits.com/fantastical

Fantasitcal has a free trail and is worth every penny in my experience, but you can use native new event controls to just make your appoint for the date and time of your chosing. Siri will do this as well for you, you just need to be in a place where you feel comfortable speaking to your Mac and enable Siri.

  Make an appointment for next Wednesday at 11 am

And with the text above, you should see this completion (for the next few days at least when another next Wednesday will be selected).


How can I resolve a permission error when installing gnuplot from homebrew? I am trying to install gnuplot on my mac. after trying    brew install gnuplot, I get the following errors:

  You must 'brew link lua jpeg' before gnuplot can be installed

And when I try    brew link lua jpeg I get the following error:

  Could not symlink file: /usr/local/Cellar/lua/5.1.4/include/lualib.h
  /usr/local/include is not writable. You should change its permissions.

Any suggestion? BTW, my XCode and brew are updated.

sudo chown $(whoami) /usr/local/include
chmod +w /usr/local/include
brew link lua


change firefox proxy from terminal How can I change proxy for Firefox from Terminal app? Not the whole computer proxy settings (the ones in Network tab), but just Firefox's.

Here is a shell script I drafted for Mac OS X to use SOCKS, which works okay for me. You can modify it toward your need. For you, you will need to modify values of network.proxy.http and network.proxy.http_port in prefs.js
#!/bin/bash
FIREFOX="/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox"
PREDIR="$(ls $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles/ | grep release)"
PREFILE="prefs.js"
FULLPATH="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/$PREDIR/$PREFILE"

#IPADDR="localhost"
#PORT="7777"
#PROXYTYPE="1"

IPADDR="$1"
PORT="$2"
PROXYTYPE="$3"

TMPSOCKS="/tmp/network.proxy.socks.tmp"
TMPSOCKSPORT="/tmp/network.proxy.socks_port.tmp"

# Insert an ip into firefox for the proxy if there isn't one
if ! grep 'network.proxy.socks\"' "$FULLPATH"
  then
    echo "no network.proxy.socks defined"
    echo "no need to save value"
    echo 'user_pref("network.proxy.socks", "'"$IPADDR"'");' >> "$FULLPATH"
    echo 'user_pref("network.proxy.socks", "'"$IPADDR"'");' placed in $FULLPATH
  else
    echo "network.proxy.socks exists, preserving value ..."
    grep 'network.proxy.socks\"' "$FULLPATH" > "$TMPSOCKS"
    sed -i '' 's/^.*network.proxy.socks".*$/user_pref("network.proxy.socks", "'"$IPADDR"'");/' "$FULLPATH"
  echo replaced network.proxy.socks to $IPADDR
fi

# Set the port
if ! grep network.proxy.socks_port "$FULLPATH"
  then
    echo "no network.proxy.socks_port value defined"
    echo "no need to save value"
    echo 'user_pref("network.proxy.socks_port", '''$PORT''');' >> "$FULLPATH"
    echo 'user_pref("network.proxy.socks_port", '''$PORT''');' placed in "$FULLPATH"
  else
    echo "network.proxy.socks_port found, preserving value ..."
    grep network.proxy.socks_port "$FULLPATH" > $TMPSOCKSPORT
    sed -i '' 's/^.*network.proxy.socks_port.*$/user_pref("network.proxy.socks_port", '''$PORT''');/' "$FULLPATH"
    echo inserted port $PORT to network.proxy.socks_port
fi

# Turn on the proxy
if ! grep network.proxy.type  "$FULLPATH"
  then echo 'user_pref("network.proxy.type", '''$PROXYTYPE''');' >> "$FULLPATH"
  else sed -i '' 's/^.*network.proxy.type.*$/user_pref("network.proxy.type", '''$PROXYTYPE''');/' "$FULLPATH"
fi

# Open Firefox ...
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox

# After Firefox is closed, need to replace the original value
if [ -f "$TMPSOCKS" ];
    then
    ORGSOCKS=`cat $TMPSOCKS`
    sed -i '' 's/^.*network.proxy.socks".*$/'''$ORGSOCKS'''/' "$FULLPATH"
fi
if [ -f "$TMPSOCKSPORT" ];
    then
    ORGSOCKSPORT=`cat $TMPSOCKSPORT`
    sed -i '' 's/^.*network.proxy.socks_port.*$/'''$ORGSOCKSPORT'''/' "$FULLPATH"
fi

# Turn off the proxy
if ! grep network.proxy.type  "$FULLPATH"
  then echo 'user_pref("network.proxy.type", 0);' >> "$FULLPATH"
  else sed -i '' 's/^.*network.proxy.type.*$/user_pref("network.proxy.type", 0);/' "$FULLPATH"
fi


El Capitan and old Photoshop to bootable partition I have a working copy of Photoshop CS3 on a 2011 MacBook Pro. I would like to put it and an older OS on a bootable partition so I can use the CS3 occasionally and not have to pay monthly fees to Adobe. I am getting a new Mac soon, probably a MacBook Pro, and will want to use the partition with it since the CS3 will not run with newer systems.

I have the DVD's for CS3 and an install DVD for OS 10.5 from the 2011 machine. How do I make sure it is bootable and this system works? Can I use Time Machine to move the CS3 from the 2011 machine or should I use the install disk? Since the OS disk came with a specific laptop, will it work with a new machine as a bootable partition?

Macs very rarely support booting versions of macOS older than the one they shipped with—exceptions are few and far between, and never more than a year's release. This means that, at least on a new machine, partitioning and installing an older version on bare metal is out of the question.

Though CS3 does support Intel Macs without Rosetta, and in theory, the binaries should launch on modern versions of macOS, compatibility with newer versions is... mediocre... at best. There's some info floating around about it, but nothing is really guarenteed to work.

As it stands, your options are basically as follows:

Try to get CS3 (or if you want to up your odds, CS6) to work on a modern version of macOS
Continue using your old MacBook Pro (or another Mac) exclusively for CS3
Run an older version of macOS in a VM and deal with the potential slowdowns/issues associated with it (macOS isn't usually the happiest about running in a VM compared to other OSs.)
Use a Photoshop alternative (e.g. Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, etc.)
Bite the bullet and pay for CC

I understand that none of these options are really that great; it's something I've struggled with too, personally. However, Adobe gives no other option really.


Mysterious early morning cellular data usage On my iphone 4s, there are these cellular data usages ranging from 1MB to 80 MB between 1 AM to 3 AM. This happens everyday. anybody knows what's going on and how to avoid it? During that time I am sleeping and the phone is connected to the WiFi.

Secondly I have noticed that when I lock my phone, it starts using cellular data instead of WiFi!!!

I have iOS 8.

Try checking your data usage history, as it seems like a known issue. A lot of people did complain but I can not find a solution to it.

It could be something like this secret (well, not so secret any more) program as detailed in the Wall Street Journal:

  Updated Nov. 13, 2014 8:22 p.m. ET

  WASHINGTON—The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands
  of mobile phones through devices deployed on airplanes that mimic
  cellphone towers, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is
  snagging a large number of innocent Americans, according to people
  familiar with the operations.

  The U.S. Marshals Service program, which became fully functional
  around 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five
  metropolitan-area airports, with a flying range covering most of the
  U.S. population, according to people familiar with the program.

I've noticed the same thing myself, and I hear light planes flying over my greater NYC area home in the early morning several times a week. Because I'm a bit paranoid, I turn off my phone at night.


How to select a paragraph using 3D Touch On my iPhone 7 using iOS 10, I can hard press on the keyboard to move the cursor around. I've noticed on a few occasions that, instead of moving the cursor around, hard pressing on the keyboard will select a paragraph of text. However, I haven't figured out what aspect of hard pressing on the keyboard triggers a paragraph to be selected.

So my question is: how can I select a paragraph of text using by hard pressing on the keyboard and using 3D Touch?

When you use 3D Touch, there are two levels of pressure that it can detect. In order to use the keyboard as a trackpad (to control the cursor position) you only need to press to the first level of pressure. This is important because the "deeper" or second level of pressure is what enables selecting text.

Once you have control of the cursor, move it so that you are in the middle of a word (if you weren't already). Then "click" harder on the screen and the current word will be selected. Drag the cursor around to select additional words.

To select an entire paragraph, after getting control of the cursor, you need to "triple click" just as you would on a real trackpad or with a computer mouse. The difference is the "clicks" are hard presses on the screen.


Why does "Chromium Helper EH" crash when I try to launch Chromium? Every time I launch Chromium, a dialog box appears almost immediately telling me that "Chromium Helper EH has unexpectedly quit." Several things don't work, including the New Tab button missing the + symbol, several keyboard shortcuts don't work, and pages don't load more than halfway. What's happening and how can I fix it?

(Extra phrases to help this show up for people searching for "Google Chrome": Google Chrome Helper EH, Google Chrome crashes.)

It turns out that in 10.7.3, installing Chromium/Google Chrome from another account causes this bug. Simply installing it while using the account it will be used in solves the problem. Unfortunately, no other accounts can use it.


Can Numbers do conditional coloring of a cell based on a rule? I have a spreadsheet of open projects with payments for each milestone.
Right now I set a cell to red if the client still owes, green if the client paid, and no fill if we havent reached the milestone yet. What I would like to do is get a sum on all red cells and another sum on all green cells. My hope is to make it easy to see how much money has been paid and how much is owed.

Here's a better option:

Add an 'Account Status' column
Select the entire column and set the cell format to [Pop-Up Menu] with options for 'Unfinished', 'Paid', '30 Days', '60 Days', '90+ Days' (or whatever options you want)
Select the entire column and set some conditional rules to color the cell according to the text in the cell (e.g. a green for [Text Is 'Paid'], a yellow for [Text Is '30 Days'], etc.)
Add some summary cells with COUNTIF formulas for each of your Pop-Up menu options ([=COUNTIF(Account Status,"Paid")], [=COUNTIF(Account Status,"30 Days")], etc.)

Note that this will color ONLY the cells in the 'Account Status' column. There are some tricks to color the entire row, but this should be enough to catch your eye.

You can also use AppleScript if you need more complex summaries, but scripts cannot run automatically, where conditional rules do.


Does iOS allow any app to look at the clipboard data? As far as I know, there should be a way so that the clipboard data is only provided to the app when it is user initiated. My question is: does iOS actually allow any app to look at the clipboard's data even when it is not user initiated. Is it a fact, or is it not?

The whole purpose of clipboards is that apps can read from it and write into it. Usually this happens due to a copy/paste request by the current users, but there are apps (e.g. Podcast apps or browsers) which peek at the clipboard to see whether it is in a any form actionable by the app (e.g. if it is an URL). And there are, as recent news show, apps which seem to peek into the clipboard to grab data, passwords etc.
If you are curious about how code to access the clipboard can look like, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41452868/reading-from-the-clipboard-with-swift-3-on-macos gives some examples.


iPhone app that can send emoticons to non-iPhone devices Please does anyone know any app that I can use to to send emoticons to non-iPhone devices. All the ones I have seen are for iPhone to iPhone

Emoji, as the iOS emoticons are called, are Unicode characters that need a certain set of glyphs to be able to be displayed—think of it as a missing font not displaying correctly. If the device doesn't have the "font", it can't show it.

What you're asking for is impossible: you can't do that without a custom font installed on both devices, and on most smartphones that's not possible to do.

However, if the person on the intended receiving end is using a Mac running OS 10.7, they will display, as Apple decided to make them available in Lion.


Is it normal for 1000 threads to launch on booting up MacBook Pro? My MacBook Pro is very slow immediately after booting up. Only after 5-6 mins have passed after booting, I am able to launch any application or use my MacBook properly. When I checked processes using "top" command on mac Terminal, I saw almost 1000 threads running on my MacBook. Is this normal ?
Attaching the screenshot of "top" command.

 Processes: 302 total, 2 running, 300 sleeping, 1020 threads                                                                                23:19:55
Load Avg: 1.58, 1.58, 1.52  CPU usage: 9.48% user, 5.59% sys, 84.91% idle    SharedLibs: 253M resident, 63M data, 23M linkedit.
MemRegions: 26938 total, 1140M resident, 158M private, 304M shared. PhysMem: 3526M used (1011M wired), 569M unused.
VM: 1759G vsize, 1118M framework vsize, 320(0) swapins, 320(0) swapouts. Networks: packets: 51990/48M in, 45361/7234K out.
Disks: 157047/5111M read, 51916/1058M written.

PID  COMMAND      %CPU  TIME     #TH   #WQ  #PORT MEM    PURG   CMPRS  PGRP PPID STATE    BOOSTS           %CPU_ME %CPU_OTHRS UID  FAULTS   COW
720  SandboxedSer 0.0   00:00.03 2     1    47    1364K  12K    0B     720  1    sleeping  0[1]            0.00000 0.00000    501  3142     178
719  ocspd        0.0   00:00.02 2     1    30    1176K  0B     0B     719  1    sleeping *0[1]            0.00000 0.00000    0    1785     139
718  syspolicyd   0.0   00:00.09 2     1    33    3432K  44K    0B     718  1    sleeping  0[1]            0.00000 0.00000    0    3640     178
717  XprotectServ 0.0   00:00.05 2     2    44    3032K  0B     0B     717  1    sleeping  0[1]            0.00000 0.00000    501  3673     177
715  QuickLookSat 0.0   00:00.68 2     1    53    13M    1856K  0B     715  1    sleeping  0[0]            0.00000 0.00000    501  17221    246
713  automountd   0.0   00:00.02 7     1    30    1144K  0B     0B     713  1    sleeping *0[1]            0.00000 0.00000    0    2619     187
712  com.apple.ap 0.0   00:00.73 4     2    210+  9776K+ 12K    0B     712  1    sleeping *0[21+]          0.00000 0.03544    501  10239+   377
711  cupsd        0.0   00:00.08 3     1    45    2676K  0B     0B     711  1    sleeping  0[0]            0.00000 0.00000    0    2327     152
710  printtool    0.0   00:00.04 2     2    31    1056K  0B     0B     710  1    sleeping  0[27]           0.00000 0.00000    501  2618     159
708  colorsync.us 0.0   00:00.03 2     1    51    1012K  0B     0B     708  1    sleeping *0[1]            0.00000 0.00000    501  1665     146
707  MTLCompilerS 0.0   00:00.42 2     2    32    21M    0B     0B     707  1    sleeping  0[13]           0.00000 0.00000    501  9832     257
706  MTLCompilerS 0.0   00:00.15 2     2    25    6312K  0B     0B     706  1    sleeping  0[3]            0.00000 0.00000    0    5070     253
705  com.apple.hi 0.0   00:00.06 2     2    33    996K   0B     0B     705  1    sleeping  0[80]           0.00000 0.00000    501  1679

As far as I remember on Linux laptops, number of threads launched immediately after boot up is far fewer when compared to macOS.

The number of processes doesn't really matter, as long as they don't consume CPU time. Rerun with top -o cpu to see the processes using most CPU at the top.

Having said that,

right now you have 302 active processes which looks okish for a freshly booted system
a load average of 1.58/1.58/1.52 is practically nothing, and the CPU is 84.9% idle.

So whatever slowness you experience does not come from anything CPU intensive.


Ambient light sensor not working when moving from light to dark rooms with an iPhone or iPad Over the years, I've collected a few iPhone 4's and 4S's, as well as a couple iPad 2's and a new/third generation iPad. They're all equipped with an ambient light sensor that darkens the display in dark settings or brightens it in bright settings. All in all, this has proven to be a boon to me over the years, and made my experiences with the iOS family of devices a generally positive one.

However, I've noticed a consistent problem that still has yet to be addressed on any of them, and it seems like it wouldn't really be much of an issue for Apple to fix: Though it works without a problem (and very quickly) to adapt to the changes from a dark to a light room, none of my newer iOS devices will dim when moving back to a dark room; regardless of how much time I give them. The only fix to this particular issue being to shut off the screen, then turn it back on, which instantly sets it to its auto-dimmed state.

I won't accept that I've somehow managed to accrue a collection of the only iOS devices that have faulty ambient light sensors, and I know that it's not a fault of all of Apple's devices with the sensors (because my iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro will auto-brighten and dim all day long as the sun shines and then gets covered by clouds, only to emerge triumphant a few minutes later).

So what gives? Is there a fix that I'm missing? Is this a "feature"? If not, why hasn't Apple bothered to fix it?

For the record, this has been on every increment of iOS since 4, (unfortunately) including iOS 6 on the devices I use for development.

I have noticed that Auto-Brightness works much better on my iPhone then it does my iPad 2, but here are a few things you can check...

Go to settings > Brightness & Wallpaper

Slide the brightness slider to the left... Doesn't really matter where as long as it isn't all the way to the right (max brightness) mine is about in the middle, make sure the toggle for Auto-Brightness is set to on.

You can test it by:

Press the "Home" button and then lock your iPhone by pressing the "Sleep/Wake" button. Move into an area with bright ambient light and use your hand to cover the top third of your iPhone screen. Press the "Home" button and move the slider to unlock your phone. The screen should appear dimmed. Remove your hand from the top third of the display. If auto-brightness is working properly, your screen will get brighter.

You can read more about it here: http://techtips.salon.com/iphone-auto-brightness-works-3626.html


Sync passwords from 2 different iCloud accounts (2 Keychains) How can I copy all of my keychain passwords to another keychain? I have two  different Mac computers with two different iCloud accounts.

You can export your Keychain item(s) to a file from one computer and then import that file into the Keychain to your second computer using Keychain Access.  Apple has step-by-step instructions on its Support site:
Import and export keychain items using Keychain Access on Mac


How to view real time dynamically updated information on thermals and fan speed through the terminal? Is there any way to view real time fan speed and thermal information (CPU, GPU) through the terminal, such as by installing an application with homebrew (i.e. $ brew install ...) or python (i.e. $ pip install ...)?

I found the threads below:

Using terminal to get current fan speed?

Can I get the CPU temperature and fan speed from the command line in OS X?

However the suggestions for terminal applications (such as istats) only give static information (not real time dynamically update information).

There is a github repo called lm-sensors which was designed for linux, however this repo has not been updated in a while and I was not able to install it properly after cloning the git. After I run the Make file, I get errors about header files being missing.

I am running OS X 10.15.4 (Catalina).

This Github repo has a program that can provide CPU temperature and fan speed on macOS and may be useful to you. If it only displays the readings one time, when you run it, just use the watch command to run it continously. (You can install watch using MacPorts or Homebrew).

With regards to CPU temperature and power monitoring:

If you have an intel based Apple Mac, the Intel Power Gadget is a very useful application in getting accurate cpu core, temperature and power usage information.

While Intel Power Gadgets is a GUI based app it also includes a command line tool called PowerLog. (You can find PowerLog in Intel Power Gadget folder in Applications, after you install the Intel Power Gadget App).

Intel PowerLog doesn't display the information in realtime in the terminal, when run, but produces a log file. But you can use the unix tail command to view the log while it is being generated and thus get the output in realtime.

If you know how to code, Intel also provides an Intel Power Gadget API that you can use to create your own cpu monitoring program.

The app Mac Fans Control provides realtime infromation on cpu fan speed and temperature:

If you are willing to pay for their software, contact them and ask if they can provide a command line version of the same app.


Is there any way to block certain sites, eg MacKeeper? MacKeeper (and other sites) adverts pop up on some video sites which I find very irritating. Is there any way to block specific URLs in Safari?

This occurs both on Mac and iPad. Ideally, I'd like a solution I can directly apply to the iPad.

I would suggest OpenDNS.  You can apply it to your entire network using their name servers and block categories or specific URL's.  Although the ad might show up as a frame to a 'Website Blocked' page from OpenDNS, you'll probably find it useful (it's free).


On mac, chrome is not centered, and shifted to the right. How to fix it? This is its behavior.

Also, I was able to maximize the window and see the screen properly. However, as soon I exit the maximized window, it shows the same issue again. Refreshing the page obviously does not help.
Also, if I open a new window, that window is also showing proper. Just every tabs in the previous window are messed up.
How to fix this behavior?

It looks to me like it's "not centered" because your window is actually much wider than your display screen, and extends to the right of the screen. (I think you'll find that within the window, the display of the content actually is centered.) I have seen this on rare occasion. I don't know a fix that's elegant, but you should be able to fix it in this inelegant way: Click and drag the left edge of the window to reduce the width of the window; then, grab the window header to move the whole window back over to the left, hopefully revealing the right edge. If the window is still too wide, repeat the operation until it fits on your display screen. Then size the window to your preference.


Strange issues with garage band 10 and sound fonts sf2 I'm having issues with Garage Band 10, when trying to set up custom sound fonts.
I installed them in /Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks

Then I opened the MIDI file, doing these steps:

I select my track
I choose Smart Control
I select DLS Music Device like this:

Then it seems to work. I can see all my banks:

But when I select the second track, doing exactly the same steps, I see another interface for DLS Music Device. With this one I can't select sound founts. Here's a screenshot:

I can't understand the difference between the first and the second track.

What is causing this? How can I open the right interface I need?

Have the same problem,
strange, but works once in a time (don't know the reason) : try it again after having created a different track without DLS


My mac has 64-bit EFI, but it only boots with 32-bit kernel I followed the guide at
http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html
to boot into 64-bit mode. I had no problems with the instructions and on the boot screen it says "PAE enabled, 64bit mode enabled" but when the system boots, both uname -a and System Profiler tell me that it has booted into 32-bit mode.

I really need to boot into the 64-bit kernel, what should I do?

System is MacBook Unibody (Early 2009, 6 GB RAM, 2.4 Intel CPU, 10.6.6)

64-bit Mac CPUs cannot boot 64-bit kernel due to one of the following reasons:

The machine has 32-bit EFI.
The machine’s model is prohibited from booting K64 through a hardcoded list
within the boot loader. (The list excludes "non-Pro" machines.)

Both limitations are artificial and imposed by Apple, although the first one is important because if a 32-bit EFI were allowed to boot the kernel wouldn't be able to use firmware services.

IF you really, really, really want to boot these machines with a 64-bit kernel, you'll need to perform hackery on /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi. This is quite risky. More info:

http://osxbook.com/blog/2009/08/31/is-your-machine-good-enough-for-snow-leopard-k64/


Little Snitch: Does restricting address/port for an application disable future connection prompts? I have downloaded the trial version of Little Snitch.

After install, when I am prompted with connection requests, I have the option to allow or deny the connection via "Any Connection" or "Only" a specific connection.

If I select "Only Forever", I am assuming that the rule will prevent the application from connecting to another address/port.

But if the application wants to connect to another address/port – will I be prompted to set a new rule for that specific address/port – or will the first rule actually block out all future Little Snitch request prompts?

In regards to the above question, does the behavior differ between Allow and Deny? E.g.:

If I Allow ONLY a certain address AND port – will it disable prompts for all future variants of address and/or port?
If I Deny ONLY a certain address AND port – will it disable prompts for all future variants of address and/or port?

I am assuming that (2) above will just deny that specific combination – but what about restricting allowance as in (1)?

If you click Deny on the picture you posted, then no further notifications will be shown [& the connection will be denied] for gamed trying to connect to (static.gc.apple.com AND port 443), not for (static.gc.apple.com OR port 443).

Any & all other connection attempts will be flagged - e.g. a connection to static.gc.apple.com on port 442 would be flagged, or a connection to notstatic.gc.apple.com on post 443 would be flagged.

The next time gamed was launched, your previous deny would again be flagged for your attention, as you only denied it until Quit.

Note:
If you click on the static.gc.apple.com in the line above, you can broaden the domain you wish to block - though it must be said that blocking Apple devices & services [gamed is an Apple service] from connecting to Apple is not really going to be a good move, long-term.
In general terms, Little Snitch can be used to block any or all connections for any app or service -  as either a precision tool or a sledgehammer!
It should be used with care.


Suggestd Crash due to SGSqliteDatabaseError I'm currently working in an environment with some Openldap users and nfs mounted homes. Everything is working like a charm, but I'm facing some issues regarding some ReportCrash that keeps writing in the users /home/user/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports thousands of logs suggestd_2017-07-12-095040_e5r1p1.crash

When I give a look in /var/log/system.log, it's completely saturated with ReportCrash full log here

  suggestd[2792]: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception
  'SGSqliteDatabaseError', reason: 'Error(5): database is locked (SQL:
  PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL)'

I'm wondering how to perhaps, unlocked that SQLite database ? or simply disable suggestd to write down files every 10 seconds.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7264893?start=15&tstart=0

I've tried to unload theses services, with no changes at all.
I'm looking to either fix that "crash", or simply disable that suggestd once and for all.

Try to unload the daemon:

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.suggestd.plist


Is there some kind of certification for Apple developers? I'm looking for a certification as an "Apple developer" but I don't know if that exists.

I found http://training.apple.com/certification but it only offers certification for OSX and Apple software like FinalCut.

There is no official certification. There are, though, non-Apple-official courses which are highly reputed, such as Big Nerd Ranch's, for instance.


Reset the password for a user when Snow Leopard is running as a VM? Is it possible to reset a user's/root password for a mac image running inside vmware workstation?

I googled for a while and also searched on this site but didn't find anything.

Single user mode (i.e. pressing Cmd+S at boottime) doesn't seem to work under vmware.

Using vmware-fusion tag as the closest possible for this question as I can't create new tags.

----- Adding some notes here:

Finally figured out how to mount the vmdk.

Since my vm is on win7, I shared the vm folder over the network. I used the vmdkmounter (that comes with vmware fusion 3.x ) to mount my vmdk file on a mac. Removed /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone as mentioned by bmike. I had to use

$ sudo rm .AppleSetupDone

as this file was owned by root.

I followed the instructions here: http://blog.michael.kuron-germany.de/2011/10/mount-ext3-vmdk-in-vmware-fusion/ that shows how to mount the vmdk.

Unmounted the vmdk. Restarted the vm and created a new account.

Before this, I tried a lot of options to mount the .vmdk including
- xmount on ubuntu
- vmware-mount.pl (comes with vmware server) on ubuntu
- winmount application on win7

but none of them really worked for me.

Thanks everyone for your help.

A quick solution to the problem is to simply make a new admin account with a password you know. The details are covered step by step in another answer, but here is the summary:

You should be able to mount the disk image of the mac using vmware tools and delete the /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone file. Upon the next boot of the VM, you will be prompted to create a new admin user whereby you can choose a new unique short name (to avoid stomping on an existing account) and use that admin account to reset the other user's password.

If you truly need to enter single user mode from inside your virtual machine, simply remap the keys as described in this KB article from VMWare:

Switching Mac OS to Single User Mode


Is there an easy way to remove an app from iTunes and all iOS devices? We have 2 iPhones and 2 iPads synced to iTunes. It seems that to delete an app, I need to delete it from all devices individually and iTunes - i.e. 5 deletes. Is there a better way to do this?

Not sure which iTunes version you have installed but as of 10.2, once I deleted an app from the app list in iTunes, the app is deleted from all iOS devices the next time they're connected and synced.


Will an iPad 2 3G from UK work on a Poland's (or another country's) 3G network? I have the possibility to buy an iPad 2 3G which is written iPad "UK", on the vendor's site. I expect it to have a different charger plug, but that's all.

Being in Poland, will I be able to make it work with 3G cards from Poland?

The broader question is to know if there is a country limitation, or a difference of norms in the 3G matter for the iPad 2.

It's not locked to any one carrier so you should be able to insert a Micro SIM card for your local carrier and it will work.

The catch is that there are different sets of GSM frequencies in use, so you should verify that your chosen carrier uses frequencies supported by the iPad.  Odds are it will work, but better to be safe.

From the specs page, here is what it supports:

  UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800,
  1900 MHz)

The broader situation is that the only problematic (less interoperable) 3G iPad is the Verizon-specific model sold in the USA


Would Like To Use my Time Capsule as my Main Router Instead of my NVG589 I have a Mac Mini server running the latest version of Mavericks and server app version 3.2.1.  When I first signed up for AT&T U-verse I had a 2Wire 3801HGV modem.  I was able to set up web hosting using the server app and Phusion Passenger for my Ruby on Rails applications running Lion Server. Even upgrades to Mountain Lion and Mavericks did not mess up anything.  Everything worked as before.

A few months ago all my U-verse services quit working well. The wiring was updated to CAT-50. My modem was changed to the Motorola (Arris) NVG589.  Now web browsing is slow at best and my web hosting no longer works.  Either my websites do not display at all or they display with no images.  I assume the DNS is set up properly for the web hosting because the correct websites show up.  I did a clean install of Mavericks and put the same DNS settings as I had when everything was working.  I also did a Server Hardware Test just in case something was wrong with my hardware, especially the memory.  No problems with the hardware were found.  I came to the conclusion the problem is with the NVG589 modem.

I did some web searching on the AT&T site and others and found that the problems I describe occur with the NVG510 and the NVG589 because of a known software bug where the DNS check times out really quick before most websites can display. The only option I have (I guess) is to make my Time Capsule the main router.  I found a solution in several places, including the AT&T forum.

I have two questions regarding this:

It was suggested that if the Device IPv4 Address is the same subnet as my personal router's LAN segment that I should change the subnet on my personal router (aka Time Capsule) to something like 192.168.10.0.  How can I change this number in Airport Utility (or some other tool)?  I could not find a way to do this.
The steps also say to disable the section on the NVG589 where I opened ports 80 & 443.  I know that theses ports are already open on my Mac Mini server.  How do I open them on the Time Capsule?  Right now I am in bridge mode at the advice of an Apple specialist while trying to solve another problem long ago.  When I change the router mode of the Time Capsule to DHCP will I be able to open ports using Airport Utility (or some other tool)?

If I cannot resolve this I have lost my development server where I need to be able to test my websites assigned to a domain before deploying to my production server.  I checked the AT&T website and the only modem mentioned for AT&T U-verse is another modem that looks similar to the one I have.  Maybe it will work but I just wonder.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm going to take it that you're reading something along the lines of these instructions from dslreports.com. If so, to answer your questions:

1) What you're looking for is if the public (WAN) side of the network is using their own DHCP-allocated address pool for the network branch your area is provisioned with. This would be IP addresses that start with 10.x, 192.x or 172.x. These are the same IP ranges typically used for LAN addresses issued by DHCP servers on internal networks. The instruction is to use one of those address ranges that does not match that of the WAN side of the AT&T modem. So let's say that your modem has a 192.x.x.x WAN address: set your Time Capsule to use the 10.x.x.x address range in its DHCP settings. This will prevent matching and conflicting IP addresses as packets are transferred through the modem, as the modem is performing a basic NAT function in relaying the packets.

2) Yes, you need to disable any of the port forwarding done on the NVG589 since all the packets will now need to be handled by the Time Capsule. @colomb's answer shows the configuration section of the Airport Utility where you would need to set up the new port forwarding rules, as well as what mode to operate the Time Capsule in. The "Network Options" button at the bottom of his screenshot is where you will set the DHCP address range for the Time Capsule as well as enabling the NAT Port Mapping Protocol.

The end result of all of this is that the NVG589 will now effectively be just a modem for the AT&T service and your Time Capsule will be your router and DHCP server with your port forwarding configuration.


Why is an application running so slowly when started with launchctl? I've written an application in C++, using OpenGL and Cinder. When I launch the app file from the Finder, it runs nice and smoothly at 60FPS. However, when I launch it using launchctl load the performance is terrible, the UI is sluggish and in general it runs at about half the desired FPS.

I'd like to use launchctl to keep the application alive in the event that it crashes or needs to restart for content updates. I've read through this tutorial: http://www.launchd.info/ and found some configuration settings that might be useful, namely Data, MemoryLock, NumberOfProcesses, ResidentSetSize & Stack, but I'm not sure what values to set these at, or if they are even useful.

One interesting note, is that I've noticed that in the Activity Monitor, that the CPU usage is much lower when using launchctl.

Here is my current plist file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>

  <key>Label</key>
  <string>PROCESS_ID</string>

  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>

  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <true/>

  <key>ThrottleInterval</key>
  <integer>30</integer>

  <key>Program</key>
  <string>PATH_TO_EXECUTABLE</string>

</dict>
</plist>

Update:
I figured out a work around for this problem. Rather than pointing to the executable, we can use open and supply a path to the app file. I haven't figured out what the difference is between launching the executable directly, but it seems to remediate the problem.

Here is an example:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
  <string>/usr/bin/open</string>
  <string>-W</string>
  <string>/Applications/Safari.app</string>
</array>

I had the same issue and it was solved by adding the ProcessType tag.

    <key>ProcessType</key>
    <string>Interactive</string>

I had been looking at this issue from all kinds of angles comparing cpu/gpu usage, attributed system resources etc (as you must have as well) and it just wasn't apparent WHAT THE DIFFERENCE was, ie why the performance hit. In the man page it states:

  This optional key describes, at a high level, the intended purpose of the
       job.  The system will apply resource limits based on what kind of job it
       is. If left unspecified, the system will apply light resource limits to
       the job, throttling its CPU usage and I/O bandwidth.

You must have experienced as well that this throttling wasn't extremely apparent when looking at the process' properties.

I got this solution when I emailed the excellent folks of launchd.info about this, hooray for them. Hope this helps you.


Adding new rule for emails containing header Is it possible to create a new rule for mail to perform an action if the message contains a custom header?

I want to automaticaly detect emails that contain the "X-hashcash" header.

Yes.

If you go to Preferences Rules and Add Rule then the first of the condition pop up lists has Edit header list.. as the last choice. In the dialog click on the + and add in X-hashcash. Done.


How to remap "right option" key to "control + option + command + shift" in Karabiner? This is my first experience with the mac app Karabiner.
I was wondering how to map following key:
right_command = shift + alt + ctrl + cmd?

NOTE:

There is one macro already available for caps-lock to bind it to shift+alt+cmd+ctrl.

But, I would like to get the combination for right command, since cap-lock is useful when I have to type acronyms like NVM, AKS, ASAP and so on.

You can edit the karabiner json file:
~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json

Look for this part in your profile:

"complex_modifications": {
    "rules": [ ]
}

Then add a new rule:

                "rules": [
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Change right option to command+control+option+shift.",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "right_option",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "optional": [
                                            "any"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_command",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_control",
                                            "left_option",
                                            "left_shift"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ]
            }

Restart the karabiner, it should work now.


Adding partition to disk creates unwanted third partition I'm using disk utility to try to divide the partition I'm working on, which is 51.28 GB, into one main partition (to run OS X on) and one smaller HFS+ partition (on which I will eventually install GRUB to boot Arch Linux, which is in other partitions). However, using Disk Utility, when I have this partition selected and click the + button, whatever size partition I try to create, Disk Utility shrinks the current partition to 25.6 GB, creates a partition of the size I select, and then creates a third partition out of the remaining space. Does anybody know why I might be experiencing this problem? I am running OS X version 10.11.5 on a early 2015 13" Retina MacBook Pro.

Use the following steps.

Open the Disk Utility application. Highlight the appropriate drive.
Below is an example.

Click the the icon labeled Partition. The following popup pane will
appear.

Determine the size you want for the new partition. Subtract this
value from the size of the current partition. In this example, I
need a 30 GB partition, so the difference will be 69.656 GB. Replace
the current "Size:" value with this difference, then press the
return key. Below is the result.

Highlight the new partition by clicking on the pie piece.

First, select the "Format:", then enter a name in the "Partition:"
field. Finally, click on the "Apply" button.

When finished, click on the "Done" button.

The final result is shown below.


iPhone Spotlight not showing results A few OS updates ago (maybe as far back at the first 9.x version?), Spotlight search on my iPhone has performed very inconsistently.  I can enter the same search string several times, but I'd say no more than 50% of the time do any results appear.

I've tried reseting & restoring my iPhone, but the problem persists.

Is this a known regression or something I can try to fix?

I too have had this problem since I updated. Usually I find it's just some serious lag ad if you wait it out results will show up. If not there may be a bigger problem with your iPhone. Or you might just need to do a good old software update!


Why does Xcode always have trouble submitting archives to iTunes? Some Background

Xcode not submitting to iTunes flawlessly has ALWAYS plagued me! I just don't understand what's going on, ever!

I know what I am doing, I have quite a few apps in the iTunes App Store and Mac App Store. I know it's just buggy software because these issues didn't start happening until Xcode v4.0.

I Archive my application on iOS Device or Release mode and when Organizer appears, I login choosing the correct developer team, correct version and correct certificates. I also Validate my applications first and fore-most and always receive "Passed Validation" with no problem.

My applications also never build with any issues or warnings.

Most of the time, Xcode will just sit there and hang for a while on Your application is being uploaded. It's a 5/50 chance I'll get either of the 2 screens below.

Sometimes it will just sit here and animate and do nothing, even after about 10 minutes.

Sometimes the progress bar will get to about 10% (more or less), then other times it will get to around 80 - 90% (guestimate).

I have experienced extreme wait times with 2 applications I have done that have been over 300MB's which is understandable because there is a lot of data to upload.

But what I don't understand is why this same thing happens with, for instance my current application, which is around 15MB's archived.

Xcode seems to be very spotty and only seems to work some of the time and I have no clue why.

Question

Has anyone else experienced what I have mentioned above? If so, have you been able to narrow the issues down? And is there anything I can do differently to ensure that I have 100% successful submissions in the future?

Just waited for some hours and suddenly received the "No issues found. Passed validation. Has been submitted." notification. Very strange, but true.

Must have someting to do with current numbers of uploads to the store.


How can I sync and organise apps on iPhone from Mac? Is there a macOS app to manage and organise apps on iOS? Apple used to
have this as part of iTunes but since they have dropped that feature there doesn't seem to be any real alternative to manage all those iPhone apps into separate screens and a manageable order.

You can use the free app Apple Configurator 2 to organize apps.

Once the device is connected, right-click > Modify > Home Screen Layout:

Then you can manipulate the apps, folders and home screens as you could in iTunes.

Configurator has plenty of of neat features, especially if you manage other people's iOS devices.


Downloading large files in background on iOS 12 I usually download large file in YouTube app for offline viewing , also use “Shortcut” app to download large file, I have set background refresh on for both the apps

The problem is that , the moment I switch to other app download stops immediately and restarts when I open the app again , this also happens when screen locks automatically.

Is there any way to download file without keeping screen on till the download completes ?

As long as it is not implemented by the developer, there is no way to keep downloading in the background.

If you are interested you can read up on that in apples developer documentation here


Protect data while laptop is at repair shop I've got to give my computer (mid 2012 MBP, 15", running OSX 10.10) to a repair shop (not Apple store, but Apple authorised) for them to replace the battery.

My concern is that someone at the repair shop could either access data on my drive or install something malicious.

I've got FileVault enabled and a secure password to log in to the machine, is there any further steps I could take (short of removing the HD prior to giving it to them)?

If you have FileVault enabled there is no need to do anything else to secure the boot volume of your hard drive.

So if there is only one volume on the drive you are fine. Just shutdown the Mac from the Apple menu before handing it in to be repaired. They will not be able to open the drive (or boot the Mac of it).


For a given Location, I only want to connect to one specific WiFi connection. How? When I'm at a specific location, I want my MBP to connect to only one specific WiFi connection available.  Too many times it "automatically" connects to garbage WiFi signals like "xfinitywifi" or "CableWifi" that are nearby, and I always have to manually set the connection to the one I really want to use.  Is there a way to limit a macos WiFi connection to a specific WiFi signal?

Source:
Here's how to forget a wifi location so that you don't auto-connect to it when in range.

Click the Wi-Fi icon toward the upper right of your screen in the menu bar. It looks like a pizza slice.
Click on Open Network Preferences.

Click the Advanced button.
Click the Wi-Fi tab.
Select the network(s) you'd like your Mac to forget.
Click on the minus (-) button.
Click on the OK button.
Click on the Apply button.


ios 8.0.1 - download completed but unable to install I downloaded iOS 8.0.1, tried couple of times - 'Install Now', it asks me to enter passcode, then it asks me to accept 'Terms and Conditions', once accepted it shows message - 'Verifying update...', after some time it shows message:

  Unable to verify update

  iOS 8.0.1 failed verification because you are no longer connected to
  the Internet

Though I am connected to Internet :(

I am trying to upgrade it on iPad mini - retina display.

Any clues?

Apple revoked iOS 8.0.1 last night after issues with iPhone 6 models were revealed.

The installation is failing as the device can't verify the download is correct as iOS 8.0.1 is no longer available.

To delete the download, go to:
Settings app -> General -> Usage -> Manage Storage

Find the iOS 8.0.1 option, select it and tap delete.

Finally, go back to the Software Update screen and it will show iOS 8.0 as up to date.


Can I receive messages in my iPhone as iMessage if it's turned off or out of battery? In case my iPhone is turned off/out of battery, will I be receiving messages as iMessage or text message?

This may be helpful:  from PC Pro blog: How iMessage works:

  If you send a message to a fellow iMessage user who has their data
  switched off, the phone attempts to send it via the data channel at
  first, but if it can’t get through after five minutes or so, the
  message turns green and is sent via the traditional SMS channel
  instead.  [emphasis mine]

See the article for more details.

This next might also be relevant if you have another iOS device you'd like to receive at instead, when your phone is off: gigaom - iOS 5: iMessage:

  To ensure your Message is received on all your connected devices, you
  must have them sent to your Apple ID email address. In limited
  testing, if someone sent me a test message to just my phone number, I
  only got the text on my iPhone. However, if they sent the message to
  my me.com address (which is my Apple ID address), I got it on all
  devices. This is because Apple can’t associate your phone number
  (assigned by your carrier) with devices other than your iPhone.


Replace "Compress" in Finder context menu with other compression app I've lost some sensitive data because the built-in compression utility generates corrupt files and doesn't show any error.

After I compressed about 1 Gb of files with Finder's "Compress", I decided to delete the original data just to find that the file was corrupt and couldn't be extracted. This have happened to me acouple of times.

Is there a way to change the default behavior to show errors during compressing or to replace zip from the compress contextual menu?

BetterZip includes a service for compressing files:

You might also just use zip or tar from the command line:

zip directory.zip directory
COPYFILE_DISABLE= tar -czf directory.tgz directory

Note that zip currently removes extended attributes and ACLs.


Windows 7 Boot Camp Automatic Brightness Is it possible to enable automatic brightness on my MacBook when I use Windows 7 ?

Go to Control Panel → Hardware & Sound → Power Options → Change Plan Settings → Change advanced power settings → Display → Enable adaptive brightness and switch it on for On battery and Plugged in.


How to move all events on an "On my iPhone" calendar to an iCloud-synced calendar? I have been using Calendar on my iPhone for a good while now. Today, I decided to open the Calendar app on my Mac, but none of my events are there! Both computers are signed into the same iCloud account.

After a bit of poking around on my phone, I have found that I've saved all my events to a calendar called "Calendar" in the Calendar app, which is in the "On My iPhone" section in the list of calendars, as opposed to the "iCloud" section of the list. This explains why it is not syncing: it is a local calendar.

I'd like to have all the events on my Mac. Ideally there's a way to change an existing "on my iPhone" calendar to an "iCloud" calendar. If that isn't possible, then hopefully there's a way to copy all the events from one calendar to another. I think I'd be able to do this on my Mac, but since we're starting on the iPhone I'm not sure where this kind of option might be hidden.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated!

I think the easiest way is to use a third-party iOS/iPadOS file managing software such as iMazing. This would allow you to access your iPhone calendars and export them into formats such as .ics or .csv file. You can find more info here.


proxychains suddenly stopped working When I run some program with proxychains, it shows an error like below:

%> proxychains brew update
[proxychains] DLL init: proxychains-ng 4.11
[proxychains] DLL init: proxychains-ng 4.11
dyld: warning: could not load inserted library '/usr/local/homebrew/Cellar/proxychains-ng/4.11/lib/libproxychains4.dylib' into library validated process because no suitable image found.  Did find:
    /usr/local/homebrew/Cellar/proxychains-ng/4.11/lib/libproxychains4.dylib: mmap() error 1 at address=0x10E5A3000, size=0x00006000 segment=__TEXT in Segment::map() mapping /usr/local/homebrew/Cellar/proxychains-ng/4.11/lib/libproxychains4.dylib
[proxychains] DLL init: proxychains-ng 4.11

Any ideas?

Uninstall proxychains-ng brew uninstall proxychains-ng.
proxychains-ng need Xcode 7.x to build, build with Xcode 8 will cause this problem. Run xcode-select to change Xcode command line tool version, in my case sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode7.app/Contents/Developer.
Reinstall proxychains-ng brew install proxychains-ng.


What is this key, and where is it on a MacBook Air? This is a picture of a tooltip from IntelliJ IDEA. Does anyone know what key is being referred to? I don't have anything like it on my MacBook Air.

It is the symbol used for the escape key (esc), located on the upper left corner of pretty much any keyboard, MacBook Air included.


OSX is repeatedly asking for login keychain password After starting up my newer iMac it's asking for for the login keychain password for several applications. It is stuck in a cycle that I can't cancel out of. Any suggestions?

It sounds as an issue either with the Keychain App. Try repairing it. To do so just:

Locate the Keychain Access application, under /Applications/Utilities.
Choose Keychain Access > Keychain First Aid.
Enter your User name and Password.
Select Verify and click Start.
If any problems were found, select Repair and click Start again.

It could be, too, that you've changed your account password without using the Accounts Preferences pane. If that is the case, for your default keychain to be unlocked automatically when logged in, you'll have to Synchronize your Keychain Access and login passwords. To do so just:

Open Keychain Access.
From the Edit menu, choose Change Password for Keychain "login."
Type the former password of the account that you are currently logged in to, then click OK.
If you entered the correct password, a new window appears; enter the original password again in the Current Password field.
In the New Password field, type the password that matches your current account password.
Re-enter the newer password in the Verify field, then click OK.

This is needed because, as Apple explains it:

  If you change your account's password using your Mac OS X Install disc (or if your network-based account password is changed due to a network admin forcing a password change), your default keychain password (which uses the same initial password as your user account) does not change. Because of this, you will be prompted to enter a keychain password each time an application requires authentication that your keychain would normally provide.


List of preinstalled Python packages in Yosemite? I have installed many python packages via sudo pip install and some of them have messed up the system by overwriting or updating preloaded python packages. Now I want to revert all the damage done and install my own packages only in a virtualenv. Is there any way I can obtain a list of python packages, preferably with their version, that comes with a clean Yosemite?

pip (1.5.6)
setuptools (5.4.2)
wsgiref (0.1.2)

Yosemite 10.10.2


iPhone 5s iOS 10 icloud unlock hi I am an iPhone 5s second hand user. When I update my phone, it is locked and I don't know the original owners icloud ID and password. so it is locked and can not open my phone right now. so please tell me the steps to unlock the icloud . I have search in the Google and YouTube but the answer that shown in that is completely fake. so help me

It's not possible unless the previous owner removes the device from their icloud account.


Can I install Win 10 (GPT formatted USB installer) on MacBook Pro without using BootCamp? I have a brand new MacBook Pro provided by our home & contents insurance which is replacing my wife's Mid-2013 model that was accidentally damaged.

She ran Win 10 on the old one, installed via BootCamp.

My question is, if I use a GPT formatted Windows 10 install USB that I usually use for UEFI installs on "normal" computers, can I just install straight onto the SSD without needing BootCamp?

Ideally I'd want to use this with only Windows installed (i.e. I don't need it to be a dual boot machine).

Of course you can!

  Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup!!! I am not responsible for any damage caused by this guide. You have been warned.

Skip to step 4 if you only want Windows and no macOS.

Step 1: Open Disk Utility by simply typing Disk Utility inside Spotlight.

Step 2: Select your disk from the list at the left, but NOT the containers, and press Partition located at the top. If it asks you whether you want to partition or add a new APFS volume, select Partition.

Step 3: A pie of your disk should have appeared now. From here, select your macOS partition and click + (plus) button. There is a new partition now. Arrange it's size either from the properties, or by dragging it from the borders. This is going to be your Windows 10 partition. Give it at least 40GBs of space. Name the new partition (not macOS partition) with a name that you will remember, such as BOOTCAMP, but make sure it is all in capital letters. Lastly set it's type as MS-DOS (FAT) and press Apply. You'll be warned that you are resizing your boot partition, just press OK.

You need a USB formatted as FAT32 with at least 8 GBs of free space to continue... Skip to step 5 if you already have an installation media.

Step 4: Download and install unetbootin from here. Then run it and select Disk Image option on the screen. Select ISO option from the dropdown menu next to Disk Image text if it is not already selected. Then press the button with three dots (...) and select your Windows ISO image (assuming you already have one). Lastly, select your USB from the dropdown menu next to Drive text and press OK. This will burn the ISO image to the USB.

Step 4.1: To learn what your USB is called, open up a Terminal from Spotlight and type:

diskutil list

This will show you all of the drives connected to your computer. Your USB is something like /dev/disk1s1 or /dev/disk1s2 (but definitely not /dev/disk0). You can understand which one is your USB by searching for your USB's label.

Step 5: Now open up the Bootcamp assistant for the last time. Once it's opened, select Action > Download Windows Helper Software. This will download Bootcamp helper. Select the target as your desktop and continue.

Step 6: Once your bootcamp software is downloaded and unetbootin is done, copy the contents of the WindowsSupport folder to your USB's root directory.

Step 7: It's time to begin the installation! Reboot your MacBook and when it's powering on, press and hold Alt (option) key on your keyboard. Once boot manager appears, select the EFI Boot or Windows option. This will start the installer. Give it a few minutes and once the button to begin the installation appears, press it. Wait for it to start. Once it starts, select Custom installation option. This part is important!!! A list of volumes should have appeared now.

Step 7.1, For Dualboot: Select the partition you created earlier for Windows and click Format. When it's done, re-select the Windows partition and press Install. Now just relax and wait for it to finish.

Step 7.1, Remove OS X and install Windows: This will destroy any data on your other volumes! Delete all of your partitions one by one. Once there is only free space left, create a new partition and install Windows on there.

Step 7.2: Wait for the installation to finish.

Step 7.3: Once the computer restarts, hold the alt key and select Windows or EFI Boot option with a hard drive icon.

Step 8: Once you fully setup Windows, select your USB from Windows Explorer and go to WindowsSupport folder. In that folder, run the setup program. Install it like a normal program and you are done!


APFS on external drive missing from Disk Utility When I use Disk Utility app in macOS Mojave to format an external drive, I do not see the new Apple File System (APFS) offered as a choice of format.

Does it matter that my external drive is a Toshiba Canvio® Advance Portable External Hard Drive plugged into a MacBook Pro Retina (late 2013) via USB-3 cable? I know APFS is optimized for solid-state storage, so does Disk Utility not offer it for a spinning-metal disk drive?

➥ Why is APFS not offered by Disk Utility?

Disk Utility will only offer APFS if Partition Map is "GUID Partition Map".

If the Partition Map is "Master Boot Record" APFS is not an option (and neither is encrypted HFS).


AirPort Express orange yellow light problem and not discoverable at all My AirPort Express is showing a permanent orange light. Every ~5 minutes it blinks green once and after this I get continuos yellow.

The AirPort device is connected via LAN to my Linksys WRT-160NL router that is configured with DHCP enabled - is supposed to give and IP to the AirPort.

The AirPort is undiscoverable via LAN or WiFi.

If I try the hard reset procedure, all I get is flashing yellow led after few seconds but no other effects.

Is it older than a year? AE power supplies eventually fail due to internal heat.  At least one failure mode - the one I recently observed - is just as you described it.  If I kept trying, I'd occasionally get a green light and Airport Utility would discover it long enough for me to set a configuration, but it would soon fail again and go back to a slow-blinking yellow light.  It would happen just often enough to keep me trying to revive it, but I finally let it go after sinking a couple of hours into it. At least in the US, if it is being used with a system that has AppleCare coverage, I believe the AE will be covered too. I hope that option is open to you.


MacBook Pro freezes 4 or 5 times a day with no info in the Console My mid-2011 MBP (Core i7, Lion), seems to fart around 4 or 5 times a day. It usually happens randomly. There doesn't seem to be any issues in Console before the "boot" line.

What happens is that computer stops responding, including mouse, lights, function keys, etc. The only thing to do is to turn it off manually and back on again.

EDIT DEC 1, 2011 for the last 3 weeks I haven't had a single freeze. It all happened after I updated my OS X.

Your hard drive could be failing. Download SMART utility to check.


Boot into Safari-only mode in Mountain Lion? In Lion, you used to be able to boot into a Safari-only mode. Where did that go in Mountain Lion?

In Mountain Lion, Safari-only mode was replaced by a full guest account, however you can get it back by enabling FileVault 2.


Control Video Speed on VLC conveniently I prefer changing the video speed on VLC on my MacOS but pressing them once increases/decreases the speed by 0.5x  which is quite troublesome. Also, I know the keyboard shortcuts to increase/decrease the speed and I don't want to change it using the mouse under the Playback -> Playback Speed.
I wanted the Change-Speed to be around 0.1x so that a single click increases or decreases the speed by 0.1x, similar to the Video Speed Controller Plugin for Chrome/Firefox Browsers.
Changing the value at Preferences -> Input/Codecs -> Playback speed changes the default speed of the video.
Can anyone help me change that by 0.1x?

The Faster and Slower option in the Hotkeys Section changes the speed by 0.5x.
Instead, you've to use the Faster(fine) and Slower(fine) option to increase and decrease the speed by 0.1x.


Open a picture with Photoshop or Preview based on file location Let's say I want to open pictures from those specific folders with Photoshop by default (with double-clicking the file):

/Users/bob/Project1/
/Users/bob/Project3/

And to open pictures with Preview by default in any other location.

I'm not aware of any solution out of the box. Maybe someone has an idea about it?

You could build a partial solution with using Hazel and Automator.

1st, create an Automator workflow that uses the "Set Application for Files" action on received files to Photoshop.

2nd, create a Hazel rule that runs that Automator script on any images dropped into a specific folder. You could skip Hazel and just create a folder action in Automator but that would fire on any file placed in that folder and that might not be what you want.

Files modified in such a way would still open in Photoshop once removed from that folder, which is why this is only a partial solution.


How can I track total data usage for individual apps on iOS7? I have a data limited 4g contract and my iPad is downloading huge chunks of data overnight, daily. I need to be able to track how much data individual apps are using, however as I am connecting to 4g through wifi, I can't just check mobile (celluar) data usage.

How can I track the total data each app is using, both over mobile networks and wifi?

Data Usage - Onavo Count - Data manager =
tracks each app =
would be perfect and its free


What is the difference among the various event schedulers for OS X / Darwin? I'm confused about the differences among the three (that I know of) tools for scheduling running of code on OS X / Darwin:

cron
launchcd
pmset

I understand that cron is largely deprecated, but it is still used by some utilities (like Super Super!, for some reason), and that pmset has the ability to wake the computer to run specific jobs. But I'm not clear what would guide the selection of one over the other in general.

How do these three methods OS scheduling differ (especially on Mavericks, if things are different there), especially in the kids of tasks they are suited to, and how they behave during sleep or hibernation?

Use launchd instead of cron, at, or other legacy UNIX tools for Mac OS X.

pmset

pmset is a built-in command line tool for getting and setting power related values on Mac OS X. One of pmset's abilities is to add and remove entries from the IOPMQueue; the IOPMQueue is the IOKit level queue that allows your Mac to power on and wake up at a specific time. IOPMQueue also supports scheduling of shut downs and restarts.

Arbitrary code can not be scheduled using pmset or through the IOPMQueue.

cron

cron is a stalwart of the task scheduling world. However on Mac OS X, using cron is not recommended. Use launchd.

cron is implemented by checking each minute for tasks that are due. This allows for a powerful and expressive scheduling format but at the cost of needing to wake the processor up every minute.

cron does not know about your Mac sleeping. If a task is due while your Mac is asleep or powered off, the task will not occur. When your Mac powers back on, the task will not be performed because the minute in which it should have run has passed.

There are other tools that build upon cron and can run missed tasks upon waking. None are included by default with Mac OS X.

launchd

launchd (launch daemon) is Apple's system starter, scheduling tool, and process watchdog. launchd is written for the needs of the operating system first and users second. It is a powerful and capable process used to manage or launch almost every other process on your Mac.

launchd is an improvement on cron for scheduling because it does not need to poll to perform tasks. Instead launchd can remain inactive until the moment a task needs performing. In an era of energy aware and mobile computing, this is important.

launchd will not wake a sleeping Mac to perform tasks.

launchd job tickets are property list (plist) files. These files can be edited with a text editor or with a number of third party applications.

launchd is recommended for, and is suitable for, most scheduling situations.

Third Party

There are number of third party scheduling tools available on Mac OS X. They often provide a graphical interface or offer more features than are included in the standard Mac OS X command line tools. The tool I am associated with is Power Manager.


How to kill the popup in OS X when a disk can't be ejected With ZFS-OSX, sometimes when I try to force eject my HDD and it's failing, the following popup appears on my screen – floating on the top with all the buttons grayed out – and no possibility to close it no matter what I do:

  The disk "WD_1TB" wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it.

  To eject the disk immediately, click the Force Eject button.

      Cancel    Force Eject…

It's quite annoying. It even appears with full-screen applications.

In Linux, I could easily run xkill, but it doesn't work on OS X.

I've tried  -> 'Force Quit…', but it's not appearing on the list and restarting Finder doesn't help.

Any suggestions how to get rid of it without being forced to reboot?

The process is UnmountAssistantAgent, therefore can be killed using Activity Monitor, or by running:

killall UnmountAssistantAgent


Weird folder names in ~/Library/Preferences These empty folders are in my Library > Preferences.  Have I been infected with malware?

I am running OS X 10.10, Yosemite, with the latest update on a Mac Mini.

It is unlikely your Mac is infected.

The odd folder names within ~/Library/Preferences is likely due to a crashing Mac application or process. The crash may be happening within a preferences related section of the application and causing garbage values to be passed to the preferences.

Safe to remove

Assuming a reasonable application is responsible for these files, you should always be able to delete contents from ~/Library/Preferences without loosing critical information or work.

Delete the folders and check again after running a few of your applications. Do they return?


Is it  possible to create a folder in iBooks? I have iPad and iPod touch. Both I bought just for reading books in pdf format.

If it is possible, I want to create some folders to separate the books based on categories I will define.

Yes, as long as you're running the latest version.

Tap the button a the top of the bookshelf where it likely says "Books" (though it might say "PDFs") -- this is the Collections button.
Tap "New" to add a new collections folder with a name of your choice.
Tap the "Books" collection and you'll see all of your books.
Tap the "Select" button in the upper-right corner, then tap on all of the books you want to move into a collection.
Tap "Move" and select the collection you want to move the books into.

Poof, they're now out of the default "Books" collection and now in the collection you chose.


Can't change displays refresh rate I'm using OS X 10.8.3 and I want to change the refresh rate of my display, but I can't. When I go to System Preferences-> Displays, I have two options for resolution: Best for Display and Scaled. The first one is default. A little bit lower, I see the Refresh Rate option at 60 Hertz. When I click it, I can see there is also a 75 Hertz item there, but it's greyed out and unavailable. If I change Resolution to Scaled, then I'm presented with a list of resolutions I can pick. For some resolutions, 75 Hertz is available, but then another problem arises - the entire screen becomes stretched, so there's no point of using 75 Hertz with it.

How do I change the refresh rate without stretching the screen from a Mac Mini MD387 and display LG E2242T?

To use that refresh rate you would have to lower the resolution to a maximum of 1280x1024. See the manual, page 29.


How do I stop iTunes from re-syncing to iPhone? I would like to upload voice memos from my iPhone to my computer using iTunes, and then delete them from my iPhone to save space.

However, after deleting my voice memos from my iPhone, it seems that iTunes is set up to automatically re-sync the voice memos back onto the iPhone. How do I stop this from happening?

To summarize: I do want my voice memos to go from my iPhone to my PC. But I do not want them to go back to my iPhone.

To solve your problem, just simply go into iTunes with your device connected, and click the little icon of a phone below the play/pause button.

(The icon at the bottom right corner of picture)

Once in that page, scroll down to the "Options" and uncheck "Automatically sync when this device is connected.

If the "Sync with this device over Wi-Fi" is on, you should turn this off as well to prevent accidental syncing.

Hope this helps!


SSD and PPC with Leopard 10.5.8 G5 quad core PPC with an SSD in it.  Should I continue looking for 'trim enabling' software?  It doesn't seem to exist.  Does the PPC architecture have a built in feature that manages SSD space?

You can look here[1]. The members of this thread seem to agree that writing 1s (FF) to unused space by the OS allows the GC on the disk to do its job, effectively the same as TRIM.

Unfortunately they devolve into insulting each others' knowledge of SSDs and Mac chipsets in general before doing anything useful. One of the commenters claimed there was a utility to write FF to unused blocks for PPC macs, but I've been unable to find it.

[1]: [http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1953430]


I transfer a picture folder from desktop to an imovie project in 10.0.3 How do I transfer a folder from desktop to an imovie 10.0.5 project?

In iMovie you can import files. The option for this is located in the top of the iMovie screen.


Dual 27" Cinema displays...can I play both sets of speakers? I have a pair of 27" Cinema Displays attached to a Mac Pro running OS X El Capitan 10.11.3.

The displays have speakers.  I'd like to play iTunes (or whatever else) through both sets of speakers at the same time and ideally, set the balance on the left hand display all the way to the left and the balance on the right display all the way to the right to give me a larger stereo sound stage.

System Preferences >> Sound only let's me select one Display Audio at a time.

Does anyway inherently or by third party exist to accomplish this?

Yes! You can create an aggregate device in Audio MIDI setup and play through that, which will play both sets of speakers.

From the Finder, choose Utilities from the Go menu. Open the Audio MIDI Setup application.
Click the Add (+) button on the bottom-left corner in the Audio Devices window and chose Create Aggregate Device:

A new aggregate device appears in the list on the left side of the window. To rename the device, double-click it:

With the new aggregate device selected, enable the checkbox labeled "Use" on the left side of the Audio Devices window. Do this for each device you want to include in the aggregate device. The order in which you check the boxes determines the order of the inputs and outputs in applications like Logic and MainStage. For example, the first box you checked will be inputs one and two, the second box checked will be three and four, and so on.
Note: The list on the right shows the currently connected audio devices and the number of input and output channels for each one.
To use the clock of a device as the master clock for all the combined devices, choose the device from the aggregate device’s Clock Source pop-up menu. Choose the device with the most reliable clock:

If your audio devices all work with word clock, connect them together using a word clock cable. Connect the cable from the device you designated as Clock Source in step 5 to the input of each other device. Refer to your audio device product documentation for specific details.
If any of your devices do not work with word clock, enable the Drift Correction checkbox for the devices that are not designated clock master.

You may have to ensure that you can use the given device for sound output:

From the Finder, choose Utilities from the Go menu. Open the AudioMIDI Setup application.
Control-click or right-click on the device you want to use and choose "Use this device for sound output" or "Use this device for sound input":

If this doesn't work, follow the same process, but using "Multi-Output Device" instead, which creates an output-specific aggregate.


Why it takes 19 days to erase a Time Capsule harddisk? My Time Capsule harddisk was dead. The problem is, why it takes 19 days to erase it?

The time needed to erase a hard disk depends on the size of the disk, the erasure method (1-pass/3-pass/7-pass) and the number of bad blocks.

If your drive contains bad blocks and you try to erase them, the drive may try numerous times to reread/rewrite the entire block and often invokes the error correction to rebuild the data depending on the erasure method.

Examples:

4 weeks ago i had to erase a 320 GB HDD with (finally) 23 bad blocks. It took about 4 hours to finish the task (1-pass).
6 month ago i examined a breaking HDD. Every single bad block took 5-10 minutes to be validated.

Furthermore the algorithm estimating the completion time of the erasure will be misguided depending on the position of the bad blocks.


Is it possible to use Windows PE Bootable drive on OS X I am completely new to Apple machines. I have got a MacBook Pro. I want to see all available drives on the computer. The computer cannot boot into OS X.

I only know Windows PE Bootable drive. I have created a USB. How do I boot on a USB in Mac?

Though it may be possible to create and boot a WinPE thumb drive on a Mac, the purpose of WinPE (or WinRE) is custom-tailored to the needs of admins/users of Windows systems/software/file systems.

Apple (and your Mac) provides its own measures to diagnose your hard- and software, so there is no need to create a Windows PE Bootable USB-thumb drive.

Depending on your Mac and your installed system you may:

boot to your Recovery HD (hit cmdR immediately after the start-up chime)
boot to Internet Recovery Mode (hit altcmdR immediately after the start-up chime). You need a decent internet connection though.
use Apple Hardware Test
use Apple Hardware Test .dmg
use Apple Diagnostics


How can I prevent new iCal events from being all-day by default? Up until Lion, I could double-click inside a particular date (in Month view) and it would automatically create a new event whose time that day defaulted to one hour.  I could then change the starting time, and the ending time would automatically adjust to be one hour later.  This was often good enough, and made adding an event very straightforward.

In Lion, the same action produces an all day event, which I then have to bring up in the Inspector, switch off All Day, and edit both the starting and ending times.  It's a good deal more work.  I don't see a Preference for this.  Does anyone know how to restore the pre-Lion behavior?

You can use iCal's new 'plain English" approach to specify a starting time.

Double-click to create the new event, and include "at 6pm" or whatever when you type in the description. When you hit Return, your event will show the required starting time and will default to a duration of one hour.