How do I restore the computer backup from an older iPad to a new iPad My wife has a first-generation iPad Air running the latest iOS version it can possibly run (12.5.1). There is no updating it any further. She has backed it up using a 2017 MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina 10.15.4. She purchased a new 8th generation iPad. It came with iOS 14.4. She set up the iPad and then tried to restore from her backup. Finder offered her the option to restore from her existing iPad backup. She clicked that and clicked continue. It then prompted her to agreed to the "iPod" terms of service (which seems weird—it's an iPad, not an iPod). When she clicked "Agree," the iPad ejected from her computer and did ... nothing. She and I both have tried this multiple times with the same result. Nothing she or I do/try makes it restore from her 12.5.1 backup.
She contacted Apple tech support. They told her she cannot restore a backup from an older iOS version to a device with a newer iOS version. This is, of course, utter rubbish. It's actually the opposite—you can't restore a backup from a newer iOS version to a device with an older iOS version. So she's stuck with no way to restore her settings, passwords, documents, and, most importantly, game status (levels, accomplishments, etc.) to her new iPad, making her want to just return the new iPad and keep using her iPad Air until it really dies.
I know this can't actually be our fate. I've restored numerous old-iPhone backups to new iPhones in the past decade without a single problem, ever. It shouldn't be any different with iPads. Why can't we do this? How do we do this?

There's no general reason why you shouldn't be able to restore a backup of an iPad Air running iOS 12.5.1 on an 8th Gen iPad running iPadOS 14.4. In general, this should work without problems.
It could sound like the backup you have on the MacBook Pro is somehow corrupted.
I would advise taking a new full backup of the device, and trying the process over again.
Another way to go would be to use the "Quick Start" feature. Turn on your new (blank) iPad and hold it near the old iPad (ensure that Bluetooth is enabled). On the old iPad, you should see a popup asking if you want to setup your new iPad. When asked how to transfer data, select to transfer directly from the old iPad.
The Quick Start feature with direct data transfer is available in 12.4, so as you're running 12.5.1 you should be good to go.


How to go to last location in pdf file opened in preview app of mac? It is really frustration to read a rfc/book in preview app. Is there any way to go to the previous location, similar to any IDE
e.g Intellij

(cmd + shift + backspace) will take me to the last edit location.
(alt + cmd + left arrow) will take me to the previous location of the cursor.

Go to Preview > Preferences... > PDF and check:

          On opening documents: [√] Start on the last viewed page

Edit: Meniu View > Customize Toolbar...> and insert Page History to your toolbar.


Can I use 1333 MHz RAM in a 1067 MHz MacBook Pro? I've got a MacBook Pro from mid 2010 (6,2) and there is 2GB DDR3 RAM at 1067 MHz installed. I want to upgrade to 8GB but with 1333MHz as speed. Is this possible? Can my Mac support this kind of speed or will it generate a lot of erros and kernel panics?

I already saw there were multiple topics about this, but none of them seem to answer the 1067-1333MHz clearly...

EDIT: Will this memory fit my Mac with 100% certainty and without any issues?

Mid 2010 MBPs (7,1) with Geforce 320M are known for freezing when using faster ram. Motherboard chipset supports it, but graphics chip doesn't and OSX freezes when initializes the graphics.

My recommendation - buy 1066MHz DDR3. If you can't find it in your local store, try OWC, it's a reputable online store that guarantees compatible ram at good prices.

ps. I'm not in any way connected with OWC.


connect Windows 8 client to Mac OS X Server Fileshare I want to connect a Windows 8 Client to a SMB fileshare on a OS X Server 10.9. With OS X I have no problems, but I don't know what I have to do to get the Windows client connected.

It seems that your Windows 8 Client is using SMBv3 but your 10.9 Server is using SMBv2. There is a Tech-Note on the Microsoft-Support Site (see here) which suggests disabling the Security-Negotiation Settings, f.e. either manually set the required flag in the Registry:

"HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters"

RequireSecureNegotiate -Value 0 -Force

or running the following command in the PowerShell:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $true


Does using the new FileVault use up less disk space than Legacy FileVault? I was using (Legacy) FileVault on Snow Leopard and when I upgraded to Lion, it kept me on Legacy FileVault. I notice that FileVault uses a lot of disk space which is then recovered once I log out. Sometimes this can be in the range of 5-8 GB. I'm thinking about switching to the new FileVault in Lion, but I'm wondering how the disk usage is compared to Legacy FileVault.

Does the new FileVault in Lion use up more or less space than Legacy FileVault? Will it continue to use up a lot of space temporarily (i.e. after a restart it will free up all that space)?

The two technologies share nothing except the name and cannot be directly compared.  The old Filevault created a spare bundle image file for your home folder, which was encrypted.  The new one simply encrypts the whole drive in a way that is invisible to the user.

If anything there may be a slight overheard to managing a sparsebundle which will not be there for whole disk encryption, but I doubt that it will be significant enough to make it a part of your decision to use it or not.


How to remap 'Shift & Up/Down arrow keys' to type actual up & down arrows? I do a lot of typing in Evernote and I really need an 'up arrow' and 'down arrow' instead of typing 'increasing' or 'decreasing'... Ideally pressing Shift and 'Up arrow' would be the best way to get an upward arrow. I've downloaded and tried using KeyRemap4Macbook but I can't work out how to get the up or down arrows.

KeyRemap4MacBook currently can't insert arbitrary text. For something like this, I'd recommend using DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

Create ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict and enter

{ "$\Uf700" = (insertText:, "↑"); "$\Uf701" = (insertText:, "↓"); }

$ = shift, \Uf700 = up, \Uf701 = down, insertText: will insert a string at the current cursor location

Quit and reopen applications for the change to take effect


How can I change the text colour and font of the username and password in Lion login I would like to change the text you type your username and password in with on the Lion login screen. I have a Command and conquer login screen and I would like to change the colour of the username and password Green and change the font. Is this Possible and how would i do it ?

Apple's ideology is mostly to not let the user tweak the design because, in many cases, the user may choose inferior fonts, colors, etc, and thus make Apple production look bad.

Instead of forcing design choices on user, as proudly does Linux and often does Windows, OS X contains settings that Apple considers “best” for everyone.

Of course, some people complain about certain decisions but it's much like MySpace vs Facebook. You can't change fonts and colors on a Facebook page, but frankly, imagine what a mess it would be if anyone could.

Presumably for this reasons, you can't customize how the text looks in input fields, including the login screen.


Filevault 2 and Changing the Password If I have a system with FileVault 2 enabled on the system and on the Time Machine drive, what happens if I change my system password? Is the encryption based on my login (being able to log in) or is the encryption tied to the password (somehow hashed to the password value so if it changes, the new password can't decrypt the files?)

10.7.4 running FileVault 2, migrated from 10.6.x installation, if that makes any difference...

IIRC, FileVault2 generates its own encryption keys when you start using it. It uses those keys to encrypt the drive, not your password. This is unlike FileValut1 which uses your password itself.

The keys themselves, when stored on disk, are THEN encrypted using your password, and therefore can only be  used to read the disk if you have the password. This is the reason multiple accounts can unlock the disk in FV2, and how the "master key" can exist (multiple encrypted copies of FV2's storage keys).

Yes, changing your password will mean that this new password is required to access the storage keys, and hence the drive. But this only triggers a re-encryption of the keys, which are very small, and not the entire drive.

Since FV1 and FV2 are 2 totally different encryption schemes, the fact that you migrated from 10.6 shouldn't matter. Not sure if Lion is backwards compatible with FV1 directories, but as long as you're actually using FileValut2, changing your password should work as described above.


Linked Folder in a shared folder in Dropbox I have a folder, that I linked with one in Dropbox using:
http://lifehacker.com/5154698/sync-files-and-folders-outside-your-my-dropbox-folder
and was just wondering if that was situated inside a shared folder, would the changes someone else made in the linked folder also automatically get made to the folder on my computer, or would mine overwrite it?

And also, if the other person could link that folder on their computer, whilst mine remained linked, would that be okay, and work properly, so that we would both have the latest files/folders/etc. automatically?

Most file systems know 2 types of linked files: Hard linked files and soft linked files (more here on SO and here on linuxgazette) By default, OS X and Windows use soft links (alias, symbolic links). Both types of links make it possible to acces the same folder from different locations.

Dropbox will treat each folder (original or linked) as an original folder on your system, as if it is the only folder with that content. Dropbox will not know if a folder is a symbolic link or not.

Modifications to the content of a linked folder will change the contents of that original folder. As I said, dropbox will treat that folder as any original 'normal' folder, so changing the content within dropbox will change the original.

In short. On each system there is only 1 original folder. You can create as many links as you like, the content of that folder only lives once on your system. Altering the content on any location (e.g. dropbox) will change the content of that original folder.


tmutil command to install a new larger Time Machine disk, copying old backups to it My old Time Machine backup drive (external USB) is now almost full. I have purchased a larger drive and want to switch to it for Time Machine, migrating all my old backups to the new drive's archive.
I presume that I start by copying the Time Machine archive from the old backup drive to the new one. Then it seems I need to use tmutil associatedisk but the man terminology is rather confusing. Can someone give me the right parameters? Assume my system drive is called BootDrive, the old TM disk is OldTMDisk, and the new TM disk is NewTMDisk.
The iMac runs OS 10.13 (High Sierra).

First, to migrate the data, the only thing you can use is Finder (in case you are copying using another method). No other application has been able to copy and preserve the folder hard links. Just drag the backups.backupdb folder from the old drive to the new drive.
To associate the disk with your mac, use tmutil setdestination /volumes/NewTMDisk and then tmutil inheritbackup /volumes/NewTMDisk/backups.backupdb/(your mac name). You shouldn't need to use tmutil associatedisk because you have not changed your internal hard disk.


Can Touch ID unlock a personal SSH key? Is it possible to use the Touch ID fingerprint reader to unlock my SSH key?

I have a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and I have a traditional text passphrase for my SSH key right now.

I have noticed that I don't get a system dialog asking for my passphrase on 10.12, so this probably isn't a thing, but if I could do it, it would be AMAZING.

Update:

One option is add your private SSH key to macOS Keychain, then use TouchID for Keychain authentication. You will want to use ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/[your-private-key] -- however on macOS 10.12 Sierra the feature needs to be enabled by editing editing ~/.ssh/config and adding:

Host * (asterisk for all hosts or add specific host)
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   UseKeychain yes
   IdentityFile <key> (e.g. ~/.ssh/userKey)

For details, read:

Permanently add your private key to Keychain so it is automatically available to SSH
Saving SSH keys in macOS Sierra keychain

Original:

At present TouchID unlocking of an SSH key is not available for macOS.

The sudo-touchid Xcode project demonstrates how to build a command line application that is TouchID enabled and fails over to a passcode dialog. It runs on the 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. However, it is for sudo, not ssh. This indicates that the idea is technically feasible.
The Prompt 2 SSH client has TouchID support -- for iOS, not macOS. This indicates that comparable applications might become available from commercial developers.
One developer online started an ssh touchid wrapper project a few months ago -- although it is an empty project stub. This indicates that others may be asking a similar question to yours.


MacBook shows Power Source as Power Adapter even when unplugged Similar old questions:
MacBook Air shows battery as power source when plugged in
MacBook Pro: Battery icon shows as charging even when not connected to power source
My Macbook Pro says I'm connected to a power source even when unplugged
SMC reset didn't work for me, and turning the option off and on again didn't help either.
I am using a 15" 2018 MacBook Pro.
The sensor doesn't seem to be damaged as suggested in one of the answers as I can see some difference in reading when disconnected and connected back to the charger -
Charging:

Not charging:

How do I fix this issue?
Since the laptop is assuming that it's connected to a power source, I feel that the battery is depleting faster than expected.
Update: I have observed that when I remove the plug it shows me the "charging" status for some time (3-4 minutes) and then switches to "not charging but plugged in" status. Further, I don't get the sound which denotes the charger is plugged in when I plug it.

I had this issue once, SMC reset didn't help neither nor turning the option off and on again...
What I did was:

I turned off my MBP without beeing connected to a power source
I connected it and waited until the charging logo appear
I turned it on still connected

After that, it came back to normal
(I noticed this bug when I was looking at the istat menu battery log while pluggin/unpluggin the power source)


How to display favicon on my Safari Tab? I want to display favicon on my Safari Tab :

I am using Yosemite 10.10.
I've tried Glims, it doesn't seem to work with Yosemite.

I'm wondering if there are other way around to tweak this natively or with a third party tool.

This is not possible with current version of Safari 9 or 9.1.

If, like me, you do really want this feature, please use Apple Safari feedack form to send feedback to Apple.

They do listen to customer feedback, I can assure you, and when it comes to features like this, the number of requests is essential.


How to hibernate MacBook Pro without a battery I have a Late 2008 MacBook Pro, that runs only on charger (wall power), because the battery died a long time ago. With battery it used to be able to hibernate to disk, but it seems like I can not get that feature to work now, because the battery level never gets low enough to trigger the hibernation to disk - there is no battery.

I want to be able to close the lid and for the system to get into safe state, where I can remove the charger and later restore my work from were I left off, when I plug it in again.

After reading
How to add hibernate mode to MacBook Pro and it seems like my only option is to switch to hibernatemode 25. This is quite old model so it does not support  standby and autopoweroff:

$ sudo pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 womp                 1
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 halfdim              1
 autorestart          0
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 gpuswitch            2
 sms                  1
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            10
 sleep                0
 hibernatemode        3
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         15
 acwake               0
 lidwake              1

Is there a combination of settings that maintains the system state in memory but also always hibernates to disk that works on this model?

It turns out that my sleep image was somehow corrupted and system couldn’t boot from it correctly. After I’ve deleted it, all started working fine again: closing the lid and waiting for the light indicator to start pulsing, disconnected charger, connected it again and system restored from disk just fine.

Previously, I was been able to work around this issue by using DeepSleep utility, that was recommended as alternative approach on How to Hibernate a Mac.

When I want to unplug my MacBook from power I use DeepSleep to hibernate to disk. The resume then works the same like I remember it from when I had a battery in my machine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Can you add Tags to pre-installed apps on macOS Catalina? I'm trying to add Finder Tags to some of my apps in Catalina, but I notice it doesn't seem to let me add tags to pre-installed apps (Messages, News, etc.). Is this still possible or has this functionality been removed due to "ready-only" system partition on Catalina?

No you can’t add tags to the pre-installed apps.  However you can right click the app in Finder and choose the option to "Make Alias" and you can add a tag to the alias file.


What does the clipped corner in the color picker's sample mean? I've noticed sometimes when using Mac OS X's color picker it has a clipped corner.

What does it mean?

I got an answer over Twitter. If that user posts it here, I'll delete this answer:

  Usually means a sampled colourspace like Device RGB versus Generic RGB. Toggle the colour sliders toolbar button and click the little rainbow drop down to see the various colourspaces.

It came in two tweets, here and here.


El Capitan won't save change in default mail reader In El Capitan, whenever I try to change my default mail program from mail.app to Spark, it reverts my preferences as soon as I close the preferences pane.

If the program you wish to select as the new default is in the dropdown menu of available mail programs, there is some Apple bug that won't save it.  However, if you click the "select" option and select your preferred mail reader program from your Applications folder, it will save the new default mail application.


Closed MacBook Pro keeps turning external display on/off I hooked up my old 2012 retina MacBook Pro to an external 4k monitor via HDMI. It works fine while the lid is open, but as soon as I close it, various issues occur.

Monitor won't work or receive signal if I unplug MacBook from the charger (monitor has its own power supply).
Every now and then, monitor will shut/disconnect for a short while and come back online. I checked HDMI connection and everything seems to be fine (new monitor, new cable). What I did notice is that this flickering sometimes happens alongside charger light going off, which I think is related to point #1 above.

Does this sound like a bust charger that is going on and off for short periods of time, or something more serious with my MacBook?

Mac is set to never go to sleep be it on charge or battery, so I don't think this is an issue either.

This also seems to be unrelated to the option Slightly dim the display while on battery power. Just unchecked it, restarted and I am still getting the same issue.

Sounds like you already have the suspects identified (power supply being intermittent, faulty port, faulty dongle (if in use), faulty HDMI lead). If I were you, I'd start a process of elimination. Source another power supply (and/or extension cord, if in use), swap out the dongle/port/HDMI lead. Also, try a different refresh rate/resolution for the display and see if that makes as difference. I'm using an early 2015 MacBook Pro with an Acer UHD4K2K display via display port and the laptop closed. I've had problems with the display not waking at times.

Also, check your Magsafe port for debris. Could be dirty contacts making the charging intermittent.


Set up iMessage on iPod touch without erasing all data My dad has been trying to set up iMessage on my sisters iPod touch so my sister can text me. How do I sign in to iMessage on my iPod?

People have said to clear out all of the data, but we have not done so because all of the apps and contacts will be erased.

Go to Settings → Messages and log in with your Apple ID. This does not erase any data.


How can I change DNS providers without needing to type in my password? On Mac OS X Yosemite, you need to enter in your password to change DNS entries. Otherwise the entries are all greyed out.

I change DNS frequently (Gogo Inflight among others doesn't work with custom DNS resolvers) and I'm the only person that uses my computer. Is there a setting I can flip to disable password protection?

The account you are logged in as needs to be configured as an admin account, because the DNS settings affect all users on the system, not just the current user.  If it is not an admin account, then you will need to authenticate every time you want to change the DNS settings.

If you are logged in using admin account and still have the problem, then open System Preferences, go to Security & Privacy, click the "Advanced..." button, and make sure that "Require an administrator password to access system-wide preferences" is not enabled.


Can’t choose startup disk after wiping hard drive from OSX Utilities I’m helping someone with their old laptop (17”, mid-2009, if that matters). I restarted with cmdR to load OSX Utilities, and I used Disk Utility to wipe Macintosh HD, overwriting it three times and formatted as OS X Extended (Journaled).

Afterwards, after successfully connecting to my Wi-Fi, I clicked on Reinstall OS X, and it’s giving me the option to set up El Capitan (the OS X that’s installed, and from what I can tell, the latest that can be installed). But when I hit continue, it gives me an error message:

  An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.

I get the same message every time I try. So I thought I’d try quitting OS X Utilities without reinstalling OS X and see what happens.

After clicking on Choose Startup Disk, I get a blank list to choose from, with a restart button. No startup disks are available. Clicking restart, as one might expect, yields the following error message:

  You can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk.

  Startup Disk could not gather enough information on the selected disk.

So I quit Startup Disk and went back to Disk Utility, and I tried running First Aid on both Macintosh HD and OS X Base System. Neither one had any issues.

So what is my issue? Did I mess up when wiping the hard drive? Do I just need to reformat it? Is there anything I can do, or have I rendered this computer a hunk of junk? Also, how do I prevent this in the future?

Well, your having wiped and reformatted the HD, there IS no bootable volume on that machine, so that HD cannot be selected as a bootable startup disk, as it has NO data on it at all, let alone a full Mac OS with which to boot.

You'll need to see about getting that OS installer downloaded set up as an ISO on optical media using a different machine to do this, and then running the installer on the target machine from the optical media I think, given the issues you're seeing when trying the network install option.


Unable to increase Macintosh HD partition size with data in a subsequent partition I can't make my main Macintosh HD partition bigger. It's limited by the FAT partition in the middle, which seems to be frozen, I can't move it down to make space for my main partition.

To get some background, I originally had those 2 partitions sharing the space in peace. Then, I created a 3rd partition to experiment with another OS. Once done I deleted that new partition, and boom. It became a no-man's land that neither partition can claim.

I just want to have things back the way there were :(

It appears you have space to image the entire DISK0S4 partition to a compressed img file that would be stored on Macintosh HD.

From there you will be free to delete the partition, upsize Macintosh HD on the fly, and then make a new DISK0S4 FAT.

To start, just select the DISK0S4 and then go to the menu:

New ▶ Disk Image from "DISK0S4"...

You'll want to mount and verify the image well before erasing anything. Also consider it will be at least twice as slow to move data from one part of the drive to another if you have a HDD with physical heads that have to move. Dumping that partition to an external drive is far faster - you can still use Disk Utility to compress the image to save space and time since the CPU can usually out compress any external disk at less that 25% usage - the bottleneck is the write speed of the drive.


How do I reset/change my security questions on my Apple Id I have an Apple ID and I know my password, but forgot the answer to the security question. I tried to change it at appleid.apple.com but we don't have a link to reset it. See the picture. Please help me ASAP.

You can't see the link as you only get a few attempts at getting the answers correct.

Apple Support Document

  If you can't reset your security questions

  Contact Apple Support in either of these circumstances:

    You don't see the link to send a reset email, which means you don't have a rescue address.

    You see the link to send a reset email, but you don't have access to email at the rescue address.

  A temporary support PIN isn't usually required, but Apple may ask you to generate a PIN if your identity needs to be verified.


Database of all Mac models I need a database of all Mac models produced within the last decade (at least). Something like EveryMac or MacTracker but as a table in SQL or a similar format, to be put into a RDBMS.

Does anybody know where I can get / buy one?

Try MacTracker. It's available in the App Store and Mac App Store. I hit enter before I finished thinking through my answer. What info do you need, Model Numbers or Model Names?


File tree list Mac Terminal I am trying to create a .txt file that is the output of a certain function in the terminal.

So my function is to create a list of all the files that i have inside the folder TEST
so what i typed was:

chmod +x /Users/XXXX/Downloads/Terminal.sh
find /Users/XXXX/Downloads/Test -not -path '*/.*' >/Users/XXXX/Downloads/TestFiles.txt`

so this will create a file named TestFiles.txt, which will contain a list of all my folders and files inside the folder DOWNLOADS. its works perfectly fine for me

so my question is…. is there a way to add the size of each file right next to its name on the list in the .txt file?

Thank you

Try this:

find ~/Downloads/Test -name '*' -exec ls -la -print > ./files.txt {} \;

~/ is equal to: /Users/XXXX

The file "files.txt" is saved in the directory that you run this command.


How do I download a macOS beta point update? What this question is not about

Downloading macOS Developer Beta Access Utility
Downloading a stable/GM release of macOS
Downloading the .0 release of a new macOS beta (when it is released at WWDC)

Say I want to install a macOS beta point update to a Mac that is never online (say if I had a lake house Mac or something). How would I download a .dmg or something so that I could install it on another machine. The macOS Developer Beta Access Utility just starts the update process on the machine it runs on.

I'm sorry, you're question is still a bit confusing to me, but I'll take a stab at it:

Your best bet is probably to comb through the listings you'll find in the Software Update catalogs found in Seeding.framework. That is:
plutil -p /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Seeding.framework/Resources/SeedCatalogs.plist, and (since we're talking Dev builds), probably
curl -Ls https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.14seed-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog | plutil -p.

You'll then need to grep around for the packages you're looking for; they're not always named the same, but if you grep for macOSUpd, you'll find the necessary packages, i.e., http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/46/21/041-19988/kct9qwin7h5nz0awoc9ke03m2s7qp4q7t9/macOSUpd10.14.2ForSeed.pkg.

Does that help?


disable COMMAND+TAB app switcher in 10.15 The other questions asking the same thing are from many years ago and for different versions of MacOS.
Is it possible to completely disable the COMMAND+TAB shortcut for the app switcher? I want to remove/disable the app switcher entirely.

According to Apple: "[...] you cannot define keyboard shortcuts for general purpose tasks such as opening an app or switching between apps."
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-global-keyboard-shortcuts-mchlp2262/mac
But maybe you can share your specific needs so we may find a solution.


A complicated script to automate functions in Safari I can navigate a script to control specific "Menu" items... but I can not find information on directing a script to find and click a specific button on a drop down sheet such as the one shown

Im just too inexperienced to know the proper naming and path commands .. any pointers to relevant information is appreciated.

Here is some more information.

Using Automator and Script Editor I made two scripts, saved them as Applications and set them each with a command key.

The result was that I could quickly open and close Safari and have the browser reset each time...
works like a charm until Apple modifies Safari enough where the scripts need to be adjusted for the new path to the same function.

This time the control to reset is the "Clear History" function with I believe also clears the website data as well.
Safari can be set to open in Private mode by default now so that helps a lot for keeping the cache clean

So once the user hits the menu item "Clear History"... instead of a pop up anything... there is a drop down.??..sheet?

I have gotten the script to get as far as that... the script seems to have located the "sheet"... but can not locate the button I want it to click.

What I have so far that gets .. to.. the button that I want clicked:

tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Safari"
    tell menu bar 1 to tell menu bar item "Safari" to tell menu 1 to tell menu item "Clear History…" to click
end tell

end tell

I tried to insert something like:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Safari" to tell sheet 1 to click (button whose description is "Clear History")

end tell

the error result looks like:

error "Can’t get button whose description = \"Clear History\"." number -1728

Now I’m actually surprise the script got this far as I’m just hacking lines I saw in other scripts that I thought might work.

So basically I just can’t make my script take the jump from controlling a few menu items to getting pointed to some type of drop down and making a button click for me.

Can I extend this to automate UI scripting in Safari?

The following script works for me:

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    close every window
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Safari"
        click menu item 6 of menu "safari" of menu bar item "Safari" of menu bar 1
        delay 0.5
        click button 2 of window 1
    end tell
end tell

tell application "Safari"
    make new document
    set the window_width to 1680
    set the window_height to 1575
    set the bounds of window 1 to {0, 22, window_width, 22 + window_height}
end tell


iOS Simple Counter App with multiple counters and data export? I'm looking for a simple tallying / counter app for iOS that supports data export, and assigns dates to the different counts.  It should also support multiple counters with titles.

Does anyone know of an app like this?

Have a look at Cosy Counter, my new free App for the iPhone. You can manage unlimited different Counters. I intend to update it regularly to add features.


Simple telnet session fails on OS X I am learning Postfix and how it works with SMTP, and here's a sample session that the book shows as an example:

I ran the command hostname on my Mac terminal, and it showed <some_id>.ant.amazon.com (it is my office laptop). So I tried

telnet  <id>.ant.amazon.com 25

And I got the error message:

<id>.ant.amazon.com: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

Then I tried telnet 10.232.45.151 25 as well. It showed the message Trying 10.232.45.151... for a long time before quitting with the message:

telnet: connect to address 10.232.45.151: Operation timed out
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host

I tried telnet localhost 25 as well, with this output:

Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host

What am I doing wrong? How do I have a session like the one shown in the picture?

If you do not have a mail server running then there is nothing listening on port 25. Thus connection refused messages. So you need to run the mail server first.

Also unless you work for Amazon your hostname is not .ant.amazon.com  If you do ask your network admins.

And this bit is a comment - I think you need to learn what telnet does before you start trying to run services.


Yosemite Photos can't delete photos from iPhone I just updated my mac to the new Photos and I imported some images from my iPhone 6. My question is rather simple. Why I can't delete the imported images in my iPhone from Photos??? I was able to do that in the old iPhotos.

Running on version: 1.0.1 (215.65.0)

In Photos you have an option to "delete items after import" near the imports buttons, in the top right corner

In Photos on the other corner I have "Open photos from this device checked"

Try to keep up to date Yosemite, Itunes and Photos. Also in Itunes when you connect your apple device in the Photos settings uncheck "Sync Photos"

After you have done all this. Restart your computer. and try again.


Is there a spec or standard for .mobileconfig? I see a lot of talk about mobileconfig files for standing up new boxes. It seems as if they're a configuration file for Profiles. Is there a spec or standard from which they're generated, or can be parsed?

Is there any where this is documented?

Most of my searches land me on this Apple doc titled: Configuration Profile
Reference. I also found this tutorial which covers using the /usr/bin/profiles command to work with profiles on macOS. That tutorial is titled: Use The Profiles Command In High Sierra.

You can use commands like this to import profiles from a file:

/usr/bin/profiles -I -F ~/Desktop/HawkeyesTrickshot.mobileconfig

The CLI tool dscl also received profile switches in Yosemite.

$ dscl <<<"help" |& grep -A6 "MCX Profile"
MCX Profile Extensions:
    -profileimport    <record path> <profile file path>
    -profiledelete    <record path> <profile specifier>
    -profilelist      <record path> [optArgs]
    -profileexport    <record path> <profile specifier> <output folder path>
    -profilehelp


Search for one letter only In Apple apps with a search feature, how do I only search for one letter?

Let's say I'm reading a math paper, but forgot what the variable "s" meant. In Windows/Linux apps I could just include spaces in my search (" s ") and it found all instances of the lone letter "s". This does not work with my Apple apps and a search for " s " returns all occurrences of the letter "s", ignoring whether the "s" is part of a word or not.

Thanks!

Ps. the specific program I'm using is "Preview".

You quote your search string (put the quotes in the query)

" s "

to force Preview to match the exact query


Deleting app backups of iTunes from Mac I have few space remained on my MacBook Air. When I check Storage and click on Manage, this is what I saw:

iTunes is using up 6 GB of space and these are apps from my phone. And the worst part is there are some apps which are not used any more and uninstalled years ago. How can I get this space back?

iTunes version: 12.6.0.100

Computer's configuration: macOS Sierra 10.12.4

Navigate to your iTunes library location using Finder (by default it is in ~/Music/iTunes), then open the iTunes Media/Mobile Applications folder and delete the apps you wish.


How can I dynamically choose smart or non-smart quotes? In Keynote and Pages (and other apps), I can set a preference in the Auto-correction pane to use smart quotes.  However, I'm writing a bunch of slides that include code.  When typing the code, I don't want to use smart quotes, as they are syntactically incorrect for the language I'm using.  On the other hand, I often have descriptive text where I'd like to use the smart quotes.

I'm getting sick of bringing up the preferences pane several times in a row, just to switch my smart quotes preference back and forth.  There has to be an easier way. I know that cmd-, makes getting to the preference pane easy, but then I have to click one or more mouse clicks.

Is there?  Can I do something so that my smart quote choice is made as I type the quote?
Or is there a way to make the switching easier?
Or can I map a different key somewhere to "smart quote"?  That wouldn't be so bad -- hit the caps lock key for smart quote and the regular key for straight quotes.  Oh, wait, I need to do that for apostrophe also. . .

iWork '09 apps don't seem to have an Edit > Substitutions menu, but in ones that do you can set up a custom shortcut for toggling the Smart Quotes item:


Problems with OS X update and 'enable journaling' I was wondering if anybody has had a similar issue to this before; i attempted to update my OS from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, and when told to 'enable journaling' on my hard disk, i did just that, and within minutes the computer crashed with this error:

panic(cpu caller 0x3044262): "jnl: transaction too big (1569280 >= 1572352 bytes,
    bufsize 4096, tr 0x8b4cfac bp 0x57e8fcf0)"
    @/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.15.3/bsd/vfs/vfs_journal.c:2481

Ever since it has been throwing the same error literally on startup, just as the musical note hits with the apple symbol. when i try to boot from a boot disk or go in to safe mode, it hangs on a little longer but always ends the same. I can get into single-user mode but the commands are strictly read-only. Any attempt to mount -uw results in the same error message and the computer locking up again.

I've also noticed "jnl: unknown-dev: journal start/end pointers reset!" appearing when i go into single-user mode. Once in single-user mode my hard drive is exactly how i left it, with all the files in the right place, but i just cant use them.

I've tried using fsck -fy on the root but it says the disk is fine!

Any help would be much appreciated!

OK, so this problem had me tearing my hair out and cursing the big one upstairs for picking on me, but the solution I found to work is shown below:

Firstly, and this might not be necessary, but I used my Apple Application Installation DVD and held down the D key on boot, which tests the hardware to see if there are any errors. I tried both the quick test and the long test, together taking around an hour.

Secondly I reset the PRAM. I'm fairly sure this did nothing to help my cause, but I put it here for a more complete answer. Hold down Command / Control / P and R, all at the same time as the computer is booting. It will reboot, at which point you can pull your fingers out of that weird position.

Next, and I believe this to be the most important step, load Single-User mode on boot (Command + S). Once the command prompt is ready you should see somewhere in the verbose type above it a drive (something like /dev/disk0s2). What I did now was to use

/sbin/fsck_hfs -f -d /dev/disk0s2

This debugged and fixed the drive in question, and upon using the 'reboot' command in single-user mode, the computer started up fine, and has been as good as gold since!

Regardless, this has taught me to back up my drives and also reinstall my OS on a new HD.

Hope this helps anyone in the same leaky boat!
Ste


Can gray weekend coloring be eliminated on Calendar for Mavericks? I'm running OS X 10.9.1 (Mavericks). The new calendar design has the weekends tinted gray.  Fine, I suppose, if you're a 9-5er, but I'm a musician and weekends are my weekdays.  Weeks aren't all the same, and any day can be a work day or a day off.

Does anyone know how to turn off the gray tint if I can't assign my weekends to match my actual schedule?

No, this cannot be changed.

It is hard coded.


Why does OS X Mavericks block the purge command in Terminal? When I try the purge command on my terminal, OS X Mavericks gives me the following message:

Unable to purge disk buffers: Operation not permitted

This hasn't been the default behavior until now. I wonder why Apple changed that. Is there a reason behind this decision? What are the advantages/disadvantages of this?

You need to run this command with root privileges. Try:

> sudo purge

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:

Enter your account's password and it should run the purge command.

Apple probably made the decision for security purposes. The only disadvantage is you have to type in your admin password. The advantage is, for non-admin users, they can not run this command and potentially harm their OS.

Usually commands that require sudo in order to run at all are potentially destructive or invasive. Two other commands with this requirement are dtrace and xcode-select.


How can I run Warcraft III (a PowerPC app) on OS X Mountain Lion? When I tried to install Warcraft III I got this nice message that says:

  You can’t open the application “Installer.app” because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.

So what's the best way to run Warcraft III on a Mountain Lion?

There are a few articles online regarding PowerPC apps, but I would like to have an answer here as well.

Two ideas I can think of.  First, dual boot with OS X 10.6, which still supports Rosetta.

The other is to obtain a copy of Snow Leopard Server, which had a license which allowed you to run it in a virtual machine.  (The license for normal SL did not allow you to run it in a VM.  Lion and Mountain Lion changed the license to allow it.) Then use Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run it.  However, I don't believe the graphic support is very good with guest OS X machines, so it may not run well.

Even if you can find a way to install the app, IIRC Warcraft III was a PPC binary for the game as well, so you'd still be stuck.


AppleScript runs in Automator, but fails when launched via a shortcut I have the following AppleScript in a service using Run AppleScript in Automator:

on run {input, parameters}
    set date_ to short date string of (current date)
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke date_
    end tell
end run

It is set to receive no input in any application, and the output replaces text.  If I put the cursor in the editing window in Automator and click the run button, it works, and I get the output, e.g.:

...
end run8/15/18

I bound this to a keyboard shortcut (System Properties -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> select my script and bind a key combination).  However, when I press the key combination, regardless of the application, I briefly (1-2 seconds) get a little spinning gear in the menu bar, and the following error in the console:

  Detected missing constraints for < private>.  It cannot be placed because there are not enough constraints to fully define the size and origin. Add the missing constraints, or set translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints=YES and constraints will be generated for you. If this view is laid out manually on macOS 10.12 and later, you may choose to not call [super layout] from your override. Set a breakpoint on DETECTED_MISSING_CONSTRAINTS to debug. This error will only be logged once.

The date is not added to any application where I do this.  I've seen one other person with a similar issue here (https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/10311-applescripts-no-longer-work-script-editor-hangs-not-responding-on-sierra/) but they didn't get an answer either.  This is confusing, as it appears to be related to window rendering, but I have no GUI elements in my script, AFAIK.

I'm running:

Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6 (16G1510)
Automator Version 2.7 (428)

Ok, while researching for this post I found this post(https://superuser.com/questions/153890/assign-a-shortcut-to-running-a-script-in-os-x/264943) that claims that there is a bug that prevents system services from running after Snow Leopard.  Anyone know a workaround without third party tools?

I was able to get it to work by saving the AppleScript as a separate application, then creating an Automator Service that simply launches that app. Here are the steps:

Create a new AppleScript in Script Editor and paste in the following code (yours, but with a slight addition):

on run
    set date_ to short date string of (current date)
    tell application "System Events"
        set visible of (first process where it is frontmost) to false -- return focus to initiating app
        delay 0.1 -- make sure the application has had time to regain focus—if the script doesn't work, try upping this value a little
        keystroke date_
    end tell
end run

Save the script as an Application.
Create a new Service in Automator and add a Launch Application action. Set the application to the one you just saved from Script Editor.
Link a keyboard shortcut to that Automator action.

I can't verify that it works on Sierra, but it's working on High Sierra 10.13.6.


How can I resize my Mac boot partition? I am having some problems using Disk Utility.

I am trying to combine all my partitions in to one (as it used to be), so that no space will be left unallocated. The problem is though my Recovery HD, it won't let me, it isn't letting me to do so. I can't increase my Mac HDD, but I can easily increase my Recovery HD.

I don't how my Recovery HD is visible, that is a big mystery.

How can I get it as it used to be?

iPartition

For all my partitioning, I use and recommend iPartition. It will allow you to resize partitions without deleting any data. It will automatically move partitions if necessary to allow resizing into free space that is located after a second partition.

  With iPartition, resizing a partition is as simple as selecting it, grabbing the resize handle and dragging. Not only that, but if you have several operations to perform, iPartition lets you queue them up and run them one after another, so you can have a cup of coffee while iPartition works. This feature, coupled with iPartition’s ability to automatically rearrange your existing partitions when necessary, makes iPartition the easiest partitioning tool that you’ll ever use.


Migrate SSD to another Mac...should I reinstall macOS? I have a customer who buys a 2012 iMac to replace his old 2010 iMac.  The 2010 iMac has an SSD with macOS 10.13 and would like to replace the mechanical HDD in the newer Mac with the SSD he's got in his 2010 iMac that he recently replaced.

I have two options to tackle this:

I just migrate the SSD from the old iMac to the new iMac.  Then upgrade macOS from 10.13 to a newer macOS.  This will account for any driver incompatibilities as the hardware on the new mac is different.
I migrate the SSD likewise, but then reformat and reinstall a newer version of macOS, so as to avoid any driver incompatibilities.

Option 1 is certainly faster and will avoid having to reinstall apps etc.  Will I have major issues with driver compatibility, etc?

Any help much appreciated.

MacOS is largely hardware-agnostic, in that every installation contains all the drivers for all the hardware that it supports. The only exception to that is special builds of the OS created for brand new hardware, released after the latest OS version.

I have physically swapped or cloned complete drives from one Mac to another for many years, across a range of different models, and OS versions, largely without incident.

The only time cloning didn't worked for me was transferring to a Mac with a T2 chip, and yes, the issue (non-booting) was fixed by reinstalling the OS on top of the cloned data. I have not seen any other problems since then.

Migration Assistant is a lot better than it used to be, but is not without problems itself, (such as not migrating stuff), but if you want to go that way: copy the drive's contents to some other disk; erase and install the new OS; and then Migrate the data from the backup copy of the SSD's data.

FWIW, I have just migrated the contents of a 2012 MacBook Pro onto a brand new MBP, connecting the old hard drive directly with a SATA/USB cable, and it took about 8 hours for c. 600 GB of data.

It does seem broadly unnecessary to wipe the disk and then put everything back onto it!


Terminal problem with Ctrl + Arrow and Shift + Arrow keys I am running Mavericks on a new Macbook Pro. When I use the Ctrl and Shift keys together with the arrow keys, I get some sort of key codes as output in the terminal. I am pretty sure that this problem is new and that it didn't happen a few days ago. But I am not 100% sure. Anyway, this is what happens:

If I press Ctrl+← (Left arrow), ;5D is output in the terminal. Similarly:

Ctrl+→ (Right arrow) outputs ;5C
Shift+← (Left arrow) outputs ;2D
Shift+→ (Right arrow) outputs ;2C

As I mentioned, I am pretty sure that before today I could use those shortcuts to move between words and select text. Has anyone seen this before? I have already looked through some of the existing questions about arrow key shortcuts, but I have found no references to this exact problem.

Also, note that I have turned off the keyboard shortcut that moves between desktops using the Ctrl + arrow keys.

The same thing happens on my 10.9 and 10.8 VMs. Control-arrows and shift-arrows don't do anything by default in bash. Where were you even using shift-arrows to select text? emacs or vim?

If you want to use control-left and control-right to move between words in bash, add these lines to ~/.inputrc:

"\e[1;5C": forward-word
"\e[1;5D": backward-word

To use shift-arrows in Emacs, map shift-up to \e[1;2A, shift-down to \e[1;2B, shift-right to \e[1;2C, and shift-left to \e[1;2D. If pressing shift-up results in a message like <select> is undefined, try setting TERM to xterm-vt220.


Position of Percentage Symbol on Keynote Charts I am trying to change percentage symbol on charts in Apple Keynote. Keynote automatically put % symbol before numbers. Is there any way to change/set it as after number? Thank you!

You should change the regional settings of your Mac to US. There was an option "US (Computer)". I chose that and it worked.


Run a command in terminal/iterm2 when an encrypted usb partition is mounted I'm not sure if this is possible.

I have an encrypted partition on a USB drive, when I mount it I want to run a script in iTerm2 or Terminal app.

Im not certain it will work for this, but I would suggest looking into AppleScript. I know you can use it to run Terminal commands, but I don't know if there is a way to detect when A flash drive is mounted.


Where to (legally) download Windows iso directly instead of using their .exe utility? Recently, I installed Windows onto a bootcamp partition on my MBP by using an .iso image file of Windows that I downloaded directly from one of Microsoft's official websites (maybe it was www.microsoftstore.com or windows.microsoft.com) and yes, I used a license key legally purchased from the Microsoft store.

I'm trying to find the link to download the .iso file directly again but I can't seem to find it after much searching.  Does anyone know where to download the straight-up .iso image of Windows? (Legally of course!)

Please note:  I'm not asking for the link to the .exe downloader that downloads the media for you.  I already have access to that in the digital content section of my order history at microsoftstore.com.  I'm asking for the link on Microsoft's site that provides the .iso directly.  I can't remember how I found the link to it, but it might have been in a cnet article or something.

Thanks.

Gah.  After searching for an hour, I finally found the link just minutes after I posted this question.  Go figure.  You can get the Windows 10 .iso here after answering a few questions:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO


Is Chromium installed on my Mac or not? I have Chrome installed on my Mac and use it as my default Browser. I remember, a few weeks ago I got a notification that said something like "Allow notificatoins from Chromium...". I quickly swiped it away (reflex), so I don't know much about that. I never installed Chromium on my Mac, and I also search everywhere, didn't find it.
I've read on the internet there are viruses that pretend to be Chromium on Macs, that's why I came here.
Now when I wanted to select an application to open a .pdf file, Chromium appeared in the list, see for yourself on the screenshot.
I can't find Chromium in my ApplicationS folderS (both of them), I also can't find it with command+space.
Do I have a virus on my Mac?

The open with menu just reads the launch services database.
Normally this database self cleans, but can need a clean wipe on occasion.

Duplicate entries in "Open With" menu in Finder even after rebuilding Launch Services

Whether or not a virus is installed won’t be determined by this alone. You’ll want to scan for that using a tool you trust or erase install and review all apps and extensions manually if that’s to your taste.


Wake On Lan (WOL) iMac 2009 El Capitan, Sierra, not working System:

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
El Capitan 10.11.6
Non-Apple modem/router

Wake on LAN isn’t working. I have tried a variety of methods: iOS apps (Fing, iNet, Mocha); Mac applications and scripting on another Mac (WakeOnMac, wakeonlan perl script).

Yes, I’m on a local network, and yes I’ve ticked the ‘Wake for network access’ in System Preferences. Also checked with pmset -g that womp = 1. I have also tried overriding networkoversleep (1).

I initially believed the Ethernet (which directly connects the iMac to the router and should make this process more reliable) disconnected during sleep. I tested this by opening System Preferences > Network and leaving that open while I sleep it. When I woke it from sleep, the Network Preferences panel was still open (obviously) and Ethernet (at the top) showed as Disconnected and features a red dot beside it. It reconnects very quickly, but that’s no good for WOL.

I have now tested installs of Mavericks, Yosemite and macOS Sierra on a separate partition. Mavericks and Yosemite both allowed WOL (despite the Ethernet 'disconnecting' issue still being there, suggesting it doesn't actually disconnect). macOS Sierra, as El Capitan, does not allow WOL. The pmset settings and 'Wake for network access' etc. are all the same.

Does anybody know of an obscure network setting somewhere that disables WOL despite it being enabled in pmset?

Wake on Lan only works if the Mac is sleeping. You cannot wake up a Mac that has been shutdown no matter what third party apps you have. Mac's are not designed to Wake-up from LAN when shutdown for security reasons.


Minimum Image Object Size in macOS Pages 7.1? Hello everyone: here's one for you! I'm trying to build a new WP layout in Pages 7.1 (NOT a WP doc) and want to include images (objects) within the text box. Seems there's a minimum size you can reduce images to, beyond which Pages will not move. Am I right - or missing something obvious? Apple's documentation in this area is typically vague...

Hope you can help!

Gary H.

OK - fixed it... If you select an image from the Media browser, you HAVE to select 'Other' to select your image otherwise the image you end up with WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BE RESIZED BELOW A MINIMAL THRESHOLD... how nuts is that???


How to remove unused MacPorts packages? Whenever I install a program via MacPorts, it gets and installs lots of dependencies. When I uninstall said program, how do I make MacPorts recursively remove all unused dependencies with it?

To avoid accidentally cutting leaves that might be things you requested you should install the port_cutleaves package then run sudo port_cutleaves
https://guide.macports.org/#using.common-tasks.keeplean

MacPorts 1.9.0 added the sqlite portdbformat and MacPorts 2.0.0 dropped the old flat format. The sqlite port DB format is the default for new installations; old installations that were upgraded to 1.9.x will continue to use the flat format1. You can convert a 1.9.x flat system to the sqlite format by upgrading to MacPorts 2.0 or by changing the portdbformat value in  /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf and then issuing a port command as root (e.g. sudo port installed).

One of the features of the new format is that it keeps track of “requested” versus “unrequested” port installations. An unrequested port is one that was only installed because some other port depends on it. The leaves pseudo-portname expands to all the unrequested ports upon which no other installed port depends. You can use this to “clean up” unneeded ports even if you did not originally uninstall them with sudo port uninstall --follow-dependencies portname (which will do what you want, but only if you remember to use it every time you uninstall something).

You should examine your existing leaves before uninstalling any of them.

port echo leaves

Some common leaves (automake, gperf, libtool, pkgconfig) are build-time dependencies of common ports, so you may want to “request” them (sudo port setrequested port1 port2 port3 …) to avoid uninstalling them just to have to reinstall them later.

You can uninstall any remaining leaves quite easily:

sudo port uninstall leaves

Note: Before pruning your leaves, you may also want to uninstall old versions of ports that are no longer “active”. This may reveal a few more leaves (i.e. ports that are dependencies of ports that are installed, but inactive):

sudo port uninstall inactive

There are several sections in the MacPorts Guide that also describe the process of using leaves to uninstall unneeded ports.


What is the default folder structure for an iTunes library? I have OS X 10.7.6 and I run iTunes 11.1.3. (8)

I moved my iTunes library to a NAS and kept the indexing files on my Mac.

The folders I find on the NAS looks as follows on the same level in my Music folder:

#recycle, iTunes Media, Library

Should I not just have one folder, iTunes Media?
If so can I delete the other two, #recycle and Library?

Indeed, the only folder that iTunes uses to look for media by default is iTunes Media.

However, that doesn't mean that you can simply delete those other folders. You might be referencing files from those folders in your iTunes library. Check those folders for music, and only if there's no files you need in there, then delete them.


How do I use the right click look up feature everywhere on my Mac including Firefox? I want to be able to double click on a word in my Firefox Browser and right click it and select look up to translate it. (or even better, double click and it shows the English dictionary explanation)

But somehow Firefox doesn't allow that.

Firefox version = 72.0.1 (64-bit)
macOS Catalina version = 10.15.2 (19C57)

How can I get this to happen?

Instead of keep looking for solution that allows me to use the native Mac OS look up feature, I use the Firefox add-on Dictionary Anywhere instead:

https://github.com/meetDeveloper/Dictionary-Anywhere

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dictionary-anyvhere/


Can I use the iPad Camera Kit to move photos onto an SD card? Can the iPad Camera Kit be used to move or export photos onto an SD Card? I'd like copy photos from my iPad onto a memory card for a digital photo frame.

you can read this nice article of what can you do with such connector

in sum, you can:

Attach USB Keyboards
USB Audio Devices (like an usb wireless headphones)
Attach a USB Microphone
Removing Items from a Camera or SD Card
Importing Photos from your iPhone or iPod touch
External Hard Drive Support (Jailbreak hack needed)
USB Hubs - Multi-device hookup


Which text editors support both tabbed windows & rtf documents? I am looking to change my text editor / note taking app for OS X. I require only the following:

Tabbed windows: I don't want every document open in a new window. For some reason this seems to be an elusive feature, missing from even many high end word processors
Able to handle rtf documents
Does not require an account (many note taking apps do)

Pretty short list eh? I'm coming up with almost nothing. 'Bean' (http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html) is so far the only one I've found but it's no longer under development and search/replace feature doesn't work properly.

I know this question could be interpreted as open ended or opinion based, but it is not.  I am asking to find out which apps conform to the above requirements, not for opinions about which is best.

I've been using FocusWriter to good effect. It supports RTF, has files in independent tabs, and doesn't require a login.


Mail.app: Clear Address Auto-Fill Cache How do I clear the auto-fill address field cache in Mac Mail?  I have loads of old addresses that I do not send email to.

A removal and reinstallation of the email accounts does not affect the cache.

See the menu Window -> Previous Recipients - you can select all and delete or be more selective.

Once that's done you may also want to prune your address book or disable mail from auto-filling from there as desired.


Jailbreak Detection in Apple Profile Manager Am I able to detect if a phone has been jailbroken if it is managed/supervised by Apple Profile Manager?

Profile Manager isn't an MDM that reports details about app install which is usually used to determine jailbreak status. (i.e. If cydia app and other apps are installed, it's a good conclusion that the device has been jailbroken.)

Also, once jailbroken, it's entirely possible the device won't report back the correct information depending on what else is modified past the initial compromise of device security.


uninstall camera and reinstall on iPhone I bought a new Iphone 5. back camera never worked since then. no issues with front camera. camera application also hangs now and then. I want to un install the camera app and re install it. is this possible?

I bought the phone in America and currently using it in India. not sure if I can service it in my local Istore in India.

You can't uninstall the Camera app as it is a built-in app. Instead, you will need to reinstall iOS by connecting the phone to iTunes over USB and clicking Restore in iTunes.

This also will allow you to back up the device and save your apps and content.

Lastly, Apple's warranty is worldwide and you can initiate service in the US online and via phone at http://support.apple.com and if you need a repair, they will give you options even if you are in India if it turns out to be hardware.


How to stop Automator / other task running in background I have a process on my MacBook that triggers when a new file is added to certain folders, like my desktop, it copies the file and places it in another directory that is backed up online.

The problem is I want to stop this copy behavior and really can not find where / what is running it. I think it was automator I created it with (it was a while ago), and I used to see a gear in the taskbar if that helps narrow it down. I no longer see the gear now.

Any suggestions would be very helpful thank you

Bring up Spotlight (press command-space) and type in folder action setup and then press Enter when it comes up.

You can then disable/delete/etc the folder action on the target folder.

You can also, in Finder, right-click (control-click) on the target folder that has the folder action assigned to it as then select Folder Action Setup... in the Services section of the context menu.


Is anti virus a battery hog? My university makes you download an anti-virus and something called safeconnect in order to connect to the internet (eduroam). I'm very careful and wouldn't have either on my computer if it was up to me, but unfortunately I have to adhere to their policies.

I downloaded sophos anti-virus for my 2016 tMBP and think it might be draining my battery. When I go to my activity monitor it says SophosServiceManager is using >99% of my CPU, but on the other hand it says SophosUIManager's energy impact is 0. Here's the entires I see:

CPU:

Energy:

Memory:

Does anybody know if an anti-virus is usually a power hog? Is there anything I can do about it?

Yes, AV is a battery hog.

You are looking at three different processes, actually. The first is SophosServiceManager, which looks like the process that is actually doing the scan.  It looks like it's taking tons of CPU (and thus battery).

SophosUIServer probably just displays the little icon in the menu bar, and takes almost no memory.

SophosScanD is yet a third process.


Applescript: Automatically check and remount server volume stopped working Yesterday, I found a script that makes my Mac (MacBook Pro running El Capitan) automatically check for a volume on a server and remount it if the connection drops. I adapted it slightly to this, so my media server would remount when it drops (which is frequently):

on idle
    tell application "Finder"
        set isConnected to disk "Plex" exists
    end tell
    if isConnected = false then
        try
            mount volume "Plex" on server "smb://USER:PASSWORD@192.168.0.10:445"
        end try
    end if
    return 5
end idle

I saved the script as a Script Editor app using the "Stay open after run handler" option, so it runs in the background.

Yesterday it worked fine. Today, when it attempts to remount the Plex volume I get a "There was a problem connecting to the server" error.

However, I can connect to the server using the 'Connect to Server' command by entering the same IP address, user ID and password.

I'm logging into the NAS with an admin account, so there shouldn't be any disk permission issues.

Is there something in the script I've scrambled, or is this an issue with the Mac or NAS?

I'm completely new to scripting, so I may ask for clarifications on any answers.

I would like to include a link to the original script, but I can't recall where I found it.

Thanks.

I managed to solve this problem by 'borrowing' some code from a blog I found.

on idle
    set intnt to do shell script "ping -c 1 192.168.0.10; echo -n"
    set paras to number of paragraphs in intnt
    if paras < 5 then
    else
        set serverIP to "smb://192.168.0.10/Plex"
        set UserAccount to "[USERNAME]"
        set ServerPassword to "[PASSWORD]"
        set serverVolume to UserAccount
        tell application "Finder"
            try
                if disk serverVolume exists then
                else
                    mount volume serverIP as user name UserAccount with password ServerPassword
                end if
            end try
        end tell
    end if
    return 5
end idle

I also found that if you add this code to the end of an app's info.plist file, its icon doesn't appear on the Dock.

Just copy-and-paste these lines before the final /dict entry.

Downside is I have to use Activity Manager or Terminal to kill the app, but it makes for a tidier Dock.

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


unload nfsd - Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged While I was trying to unload my nfsd instance I found out that I cannot do it anymore.

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.nfsd.plist

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.nfsd.plist: Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged

This behaviour was introduced with the Mac OS Sierra update 10.12.4.

How can I enable/disable the nfsd daemon?

Should I disable the System Integrity Protection, stop/start the service and enable the System Integrity Protection every time? And, if yes, how?

Firstly, you'll need to disable the "System Integration Protection":

How to Disable System Integrity Protection

And now, you'll be able to disable your "Notification Center":

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist

And then, kill the current instance of "Notification Center":

killall NotificationCenter

When you reboot, isn't necessary to do that anymore...

I hope I've helped

PS: Don't forget, at this point your root user will have all permissions. I recommend to reboot into recovery mode one more time to enable your System Integration Protection:

csrutil enable


How do you burn a CD in iTunes? How do you burn a CD within iTunes?

I want to be able to burn some music to a CD, but I just can't find the option.

Select a bunch of songs, pick File → New Playlist from Selection, name it, and pick File → Burn Playlist to Disc.


Alert sound on the hour, every hour (OSX and iOS) Both my Mac and iPhone (possibly my iPad, not sure) play an alert sound on the top of every hour (I believe -- certainly a few of the hours). I don't use notifications for anything (that I am aware of). How do I stop the sound?

The weirdest thing is that I can't find evidence of anyone else having problems with this.

You've checked the Announce time option in Clock tab in System Preferences -> Date & Time.

Uncheck it to silent your Mac. Regarding iPhone, there is no such option until and unless you've set the notifications for an app to behave like that.

Please check the image below for reference


Unix command to recursively copy JPG files in a complex directory tree I have a large directory tree structure that contains multiple JPG files in each directory root and their subsequent subdirectories. I need to recursively extract a single JPG file from each directory root and copy them all to another location whilst maintaining the same tree structure and ignoring the other files. The JPG filenames that I need to extract all are tagged with "RNav.jpg". I experimented with the cp command and wild card but I could not get it to work. I'm running Mavericks and I'm a novice when it comes to UNIX command-lines.

The existing structure is as follows: (up to 500 directories)

VNAME/PNAME1/PNAME1_RNav.jpg
VNAME/PNAME2/PNAME2_RNav.jpg
VNAME/PNAME3/PNAME3_RNav.jpg
VNAME/PNAME4/PNAME4_RNav.jpg

You can easily use rsync to accomplish this:

rsync --include "*/" --include "*RNav.jpg" --exclude "*" -am source destination

Based off this page. This includes folders and *RNav.jpg files and then excludes everything else. I've used -a instead of -r to preserve more information (my personal preference) and added -m to prevent rsync from creating any parts of the directory tree that wouldn't contain any files.


Turn off Macbook automatic hibernation mode? I'm having a problem with my MacBook Pro (mid 2012) where by when I lock my machine and then return several hours later (at least six hours) it will not respond to me pressing the keyboard.

I have to press the power button and then it boots up requiring a password.  Once this password has been entered it takes a few minutes to slowly start all of my processes again (I hear skype logging in behind the blue screen) eventually my bluetooth mouse and keyboard are connected.  Finally I can then enter my password to actually gain access to my machine.

This is a problem I've had with OSX since Mavericks was released.

Below is a screenshot of the settings I have tried to change (everything possible) to stop this stupid behaviour and it still persists!

From a Terminal, use the following command to disable hibernation:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

If you later want to enable hibernation, use:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3

If you want to free up the disk space used by hibernation, use the following command:

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

Note: This file is automatically recreated as needed if hibernation is reenabled and it doesn't already exist.


How to enable location settings for the app when app is not on the list of location services? The screen above describes situation. Any idea how to turn it on? I have ios 10.

The app I mean is hostelbookers. It was not happening while ios 9.

Location services for Safari are enabled:

And there is no my hostelbookers app on the list of location services. They are sorted alpha betically.

I tried by opening http://www.hostelbookers.com in a browser. Same pop up shows up. I guess the website is not coded properly. They just made that button but its not probably working. Best alternative is search by entering city name.

Thanks


iOS RSS reader App for offline browsing? I am looking for an iOS app (iPhone and/or iPad) that lets me store read articles permanently for easy offline browsing.

I have tried a bunch of the ones out there, but somehow they just don't work.


Why can't iTunes find media on my Time Capsule drive? I have a new MacBook Air that is connected to a Time Capsule for both internet and storage.  I have a fresh installation of iTunes (up to date) and am going to preferences / advanced and telling it to find media in a folder on the Time Capsule.  I have both keep itunes media folder organized and copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to the library unchecked (don't think this matters, but just in case it does). It seems to accept the setting without error, but my media never shows up.  I've restarted both iTunes and the Mac with no change.

Did you add your media to iTunes?

menubar -> file -> add to library

Then restart iTunes.


View Notability .note files on my Mac I use Notability, a journal app, on my iPad and backup my documents to Dropbox using the app's proprietary .note format. How can I read my .note files on my Macbook? I am willing to convert the files to another format before reading them.

As of a few weeks ago there is a Mac OS X version of Notability.

You might also be interested what Gingerlabs says about it (FAQ).


Can I have iOS Automation shortcuts run automatically? I've been having a problem where sometimes I'll forget that my iPhone's volume is set pretty high from a previous use. When I put my AirPods in for a phone call or to listen to music, the volume isn't automatically lowered to a reasonable level. Instead, loud, ear-damaging noise blasts through my AirPods when the call starts or the music plays, and I often have to quickly take them out.

I tried to resolve this by using the new Automation feature in Shortcuts. I created an automation that uses the Bluetooth trigger to run whenever my phone connects to my AirPods. When this happens, it sets the volume to 30%.

So far, so good.

But when I actually use my AirPods, all I get is a notification from Shortcuts giving me the option of running the script (see below).

The little popup is actually kind of irritating - I want Shortcuts to just silently fix the volume without prompting me.

Is it possible to have the Automation feature automatically run the script when the trigger occurs?

EDIT: This has improved with iOS 14:
In iOS 14, Turn off "Ask Before Running" to avoid getting a notification and have automations run automatically in the background. See full list at See https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/enable-or-disable-a-personal-automation-apd602971e63/ios

Not all triggers can make an automation run in the background.

When you Arrive, Leave, connect to CarPlay, or use the Before I Leave or Time of Day triggers, or try to automate connecting to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, your shortcuts will only show up as notifications and won't run in the background. These are the only triggers where a user may not be in control of their device or it's state, and thus seem to be limited for security reasons – all other triggers can run in the background.

https://imore.com/whats-new-siri-shortcuts-betas.  See under "Personal automation". It's a long page, so cmd + F.
https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/enable-or-disable-a-personal-automation-apd602971e63/ios


Is there a way to reorder the Mac Menu Bar? Possible Duplicate:
  Change the location of an icon in the menu bar?

The title is sort of self-explanatory. I wanted to group some icons into a more logical and useful layout. This question was last asked (afaik) during Snow Leopard days. Perhaps there are new methods.

Currently, my menu bar looks like this:

and I'd like to move the icons on the left over to the right...

As explained in the referred question, hold down Command key, press the icon in your menu bar, move it. This works at least in Mountain Lion up to Yosemite. But still this only works for movable items. You can move the Wifi symbol, the Bluetooth symbol, etc. But you cannot move the Twitter or Dropbox symbol.


Why do some iPhones have a low battery sound? You guys have never heard of this before. Most of you at least. I own 2 iPhones bought in a legitimate Chinese Apple store. Whenever I use it, they would make a tri-tone dying robot low battery sound at 20% and 10%. This will sound even if you're on silent. So to turn it off (you can't) you'd have to change your ringer volume. There are no apps causing this since I wiped my phone and it still happens. I would like to make a conclusion that only Chinese iPhones have this stupid tone.

Why did they put that on these phones and not American ones?

The app "Battery Alert!" will allow you to change several battery related sounds (warning, alert, and full). It is currently $.99 USD on the app store.


USB-C Wall Charger with data ports I have a new MacbookPro with only USB-C ports. Does there exist a wall charger for USB-C that can provide the appropriate power while also providing a sort of built in dongle for USB and an SD card reader?  I am looking for something like the below image, where the extra USB ports also provide data to my mac when plugged in via USB-C. Does such a product exist? I would never need to remember to bring another dongle again, just bring my wall charger.

Nothing in a very convenient form factor like that or that include an SD Card Reader. There are some good USB-C Docks that provide connectivity and charging Kensington SD4600P USB-C Docking Station or CalDigit USB-C Docking Station but they may not be quite what you're looking for.


iMac boots to blinking cursor after changing boot partition I have an old iMac (2009) and I've been digging through to make sure there's nothing we want to keep before wiping it to sell. Once upon a time it had dual boot through Bootcamp. I was looking at the partitions in recovery mode and noticed that it still had the bootcamp partition. If I recall correctly, I managed to set it so it would boot to that partition (I was curious to check that there was nothing we wanted to keep)
After restarting, it makes the start up chime on a light grey screen, doesn't show any logos, then goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor. I can't get it to boot into recovery now using the usual means.
How can I get it to boot correctly again? I've done nothing else to it, so the OS should still be there.

It was the keyboard. For some reason using a PC keyboard wouldn't bring up the boot options when pressing the equivalent of the option key.


Can't install php56-mcrypt with homebrew I use Homebrew on my testing server on OS X.
I have php56, autoconf, and mcrypt installed through homebrew.

I was successful doing this on a different Mac but I am not having any luck this time.

When I type:

brew install php56-mcrypt

like I did on the other mac, it says:

Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/php56-mcrypt-5.6.7 ==> /usr/local/opt/php56/bin/phpize
2015-05-13 14:19:26 -0700

/usr/local/opt/php56/bin/phpize

Despite it stating that is "already installed", when going into /usr/local/Cellar/ there is no folder called "php56-mcrypt" like it had on my other Mac.

I have not done anything abnormal that I am aware of. What can I do? Is re-installing the best option?

With recent changes in brew (deprecation of homebrew/php) you now install php with mcrypt with the following.

brew install php@5.6 -with-mcrypt=mcrypt

You may have to uninstall previous installs of php


iOS 7 Mail App WIth Gmail: Hide "Promotions"? Gmail on the web has "Social" and "Promotions" tabs that filter certain types of messages.  Most of the time, I plan to ignore emails that end up in either of those folders.

On iOS 7 in the Mail app, is it possible to some how sort out "Promotions" and "Social" emails from the main lot, similar to how Gmail does on the web?  I don't like these emails mixed in with my regular inbox (i.e., the important emails).

I am well aware of a couple alternative options (marking "Promotions" and "Social" as spam or unsubscribing from them), but I'm really just looking for a way to sort them out without doing either of those things.

Try the latest version of Gmail.app for iOS. It now supports promotions/social/forums messages segregated from your "primary" inbox.


Firebug style inspect element on iPhone? Is there anyway to do a Firebug style 'inspect element' on an iPhone?

My site works fine with Safari on my Mac but has a layout issue on iPhone.

They all say this is a remote debugger: http://people.apache.org/~pmuellr/weinre/

From docs:

  weinre is a debugger for web pages, like FireBug (for FireFox) and Web Inspector (for WebKit-based browsers), except it's designed to work remotely, and in particular, to allow you debug web pages on a mobile device such as a phone.

EDIT: Here are more details and step-by-step instructions: http://envyandroid.com/archives/483/easily-debug-mobile-websites-with-weinre


Install CentOS on MBP 2019 I am trying to install CentOS  8 on my 2019 MacBook Pro 2019 with Catalina 10.15.4. I want to dual boot either with Catalina and CentOS.

Steps so far:

Partition with 500GB for CentOS
Created a bootable USB Stick with CentOS
Installed rEFInd

When I press the ⌥ Option while restarting, I can choose between my normal start volume and the USB Stick.

When I choose the USB,  I receive the message: "That start volume is not verified."

How can I get it to boot CentOS?

You can not install CentOS on the internal drive because CentOS does not have a driver needed to access the internal drive. AFAIK, drivers only exists for macOS and Windows. The Windows driver is part of the Window Support Software which can be downloaded from Apple by using the Boot Camp Assistant. The startup manager rEFInd is an exception, because rEFInd uses UEFI based drivers.

You could try installing CentOS to an external drive.


How to select and copy a part of the text of an hyperlink in Mail? When you receive an HTML mail in Mail.app, how can you select a part of the text of an hyperlink in order to copy it to tha pasteboard ?

The only way I found is to display the mail is to diplay the mail in another form (raw source, plain text alternative), search this and copy ? Is there a better way to do this ?

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but when a link is displayed in Mail, if you want to select only a part of it, one trick is to put the cursor slightly to the left or to the right of the link (not too far though, or you'll select spaces too) and select the link's text from this point.

Thus, the cursor will be in 'select' mode, and you're going to be able to select a part of the text from the link. This only works if you're wanting to select the beginning of the end of it though.


App Store Apple ID review Information give ID already exist error I have an apple id which I am trying to use to install apps on my IPad.

When I go to app store and click get -> install then it asks me to login. I provide id and password and then it shows me a popup saying "This Apple ID has not yet been used in the iTunes Store - Tap Review to sign in, then review your account information"

Once I click Review it would show me a form Confirm Country -> Agree to Conditions and then Account. Here I am bound to fill mandatory inputs which include password etc. Once I fill and click Next it give me following error:

"This email address is already in use or you may already have an Apple ID associated with this email address. Please try again or sign in using your existing Apple ID"

I am stuck in this deadlock and can not find a way to get out of it. Can somebody please tell me how to get out of it?

I have sorted out the problem by signing into itunes. For some reason iTunes setup a new apple id and corrects the link. Itunes also asked me to review information when I logged into first time but it did not get into any deadlock.


Bootcamp on an external SSD while unintentional interrupt! I'm a new Mac user and I wonder what really happens when my external SSD (with Windows installed on it using Bootcamp = Windows To Go) is disconnected while being booted to Windows.

Will my Mac system get damaged or will the files on my external SSD get corrupted?

I wonder what really happens when my external SSD (with Windows
  installed on it using Bootcamp = Windows To Go) is disconnected while
  being booted to Windows.

What happens is the exact same thing if you disconnect an internal drive while booting - you potentially corrupt your system files crashing that boot volume.

Since you have an internal drive that you didn't boot from, it wouldn't be affected.

Wondering (curiosity) is good.  Set up a test (don't do with live data or a machine you depend on) and test out your scenario.


Trying to transfer photos from iPhone 5S to Windows 8.1 machine; only about 25 of the 1000+ photos show up in file explorer My wife and I are heading to Europe tomorrow and want to free up space for pictures on her phone. I use iPhoto on my mac, but we want to transfer her pictures from her iPhone 5S to our Windows 8.1 pc I built.

The phone shows up in explorer, but when you click through to the DCIM folder, two subfolders show up, each with only 10-15 pictures. There are probably over 1000 on the phone, so how do I get to them? I've tried using Device Manager to delete the Apple driver, then letting Windows reinstall it. No change.

There was a strange photo or icon that showed in one of the folders. Sometimes it looked like a picture that failed to load (maybe something is corrupted)? Other times it looked like an odd windows icon.

Any help would be appreciated.

Try using Photo Gallery [part of Windows Essentials] which can download photos very similarly to how iPhoto does it - rather than trying to hack around the raw file structure, which was never meant to be played in.


Why I can add folder to `On My iPad` location but I cannot add folder to `On My iPhone` location? On my iPad I can create folders wherever I'm in, but on my iPhone I cannot create folder in the location On My iPhone but I can create folders in side the apps' folders like Acrobat.
iPadOS: 14.2 and iOS: 12.4.8

This is a new feature of iOS 13.
Your iPad is on iPadOS 14.2 so has the feature and your iPhone is on iOS 12.4.8 so does not have the feature.


Downloading Mac OS X to a PC Is it possible to download Mac OS X to a PC? Some people have told me that it is possible but I've done some research and I haven't found anything that really convinces me the real Mac OS is somewhere on the internet. I don't want to download a virus or something that is not actually Mac OS (but a "knockoff").

Is there any, 100%, Mac OS that can be downloaded to a PC? And if so, what is the link?

No, you can't download OS X installer from Internet, it is available only via Mac App Store.

If your want to build a PC able to run Mac OS X, this project is called OSx86 or also known as Hackintosh.

There are a lot of guides and hardware compatibility lists on tonymacx86 website.
For example, if you want to install Mac OS X Yosemite on an Intel based PC you can follow this instructions. As you can see, you have to previously download the Mac OS X image from the App Store to build a bootable USB drive.


Restoring Contacts groups from Time Machine For reasons unknown, everything just completely vanished from my Contacts (including contacts and all of my groups).  Note, these are all Contacts that were stored on my Mac -- I don't use iCloud and they are not synced anywhere else.

No problem -- I have a Time Machine backup, so I enter TM, scroll back in time to yesterday, and there they are.  I select all and restore all of my contacts.  Back in the present, all of my individual contacts are there.  But none of the groups are.

I've just spent several hours fruitlessly trying to figure out how to restore my groups.  One thing that has not worked is copying the entire Application Support > AddressBook folder from my Time Machine to my user library:  when I try this, and then restart Contacts, the entire list is empty again.  (I don't understand this behavior at all, by the way.)

  Where does Contacts store my group metadata?  How can I restore it from a Time Machine backup?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been dealing with trying to selectively restore certain data types from TM. Upon disabling the iCloud on a few devices, I lost contacts, calendar, reminders and notes.

I worked with a senior Apple advisor to restore contacts and calendars from TM. (We were unable to get reminders and notes - argh.) I experienced what you have, some restore attempts did not bring back groups. I use groups heavily and so was very determined to find a solution that brought back both contacts and groups.

When I saw your post yesterday, I contacted the Apple advisor to confirm the steps we took to restore contacts, that included groups. He says that it was going to ~Library/Application Support/Address Book, and restoring that entire folder was the solution. I can’t remember for sure (we were trying lots of different things), but he says that was the one that worked. I have to assume he is correct.

In your message, you indicate that this is the route you tried without success. Keep trying...I want to let you know there is a solution, I was able to do so.

C.


Family Sharing working on iOS 8 but not on Yosemite I have set up a family group and added my husband. From his iPhone running iOS 8 he is able to see and download my purchases, but it is not working from iTunes on Yosemite. There is no trace of my account on his Purchased page.  We've logged him out and in of iTunes, the App Store and even iCloud, and restarted the computer,to no avail. He has only one Apple ID and is logged in under that ID on all devices. All is working in the other direction; I can see his account in my iTunes on Yosemite.  What can we do to fix this, or even troubleshoot it? Nothing is written to the console when I load the Purchased page in iTunes on his computer.

The severs seem to get stuck sometimes when you set up Family Sharing.

Best way I've found to jog their elbow is just to download any new freebie app.


How can I automate mouse clicks and keyboard input with Automator in Mac Mojave? If I position my mouse cursor at a certain point on the screen, is it possible to use the Automator or AppleScript to "click" the mouse, enter a keyboard shortcut (say, command-5), press the return key, and then repeat those three things n times?

This code requires the third-party utility, Cliclick.

  “Cliclick” is short for “Command-Line Interface Click”. It is a a tiny shell/Terminal application that will emulate mouse clicks or series of mouse clicks (including doubleclicks and control-clicks) at arbitrary screen coordinates. Moreover, it lets you move the mouse, get the current mouse coordinates, press modifier keys etc.

It's free to download but it's donationware, and is easy to install.

On my system I have. cliclick in the following directory: /usr/local/bin/. Because of this location, in my AppleScript code and in Terminal app, I need to use the full path to cliclick to call the command. For example: do shell script "/usr/local/bin/cliclick c:." In AppleScript it's telling cliclick to click at current mouse location.

This AppleScript code works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave.

repeat 3 times -- Enter Your Desired Loop Count
    -- Clicks At Current Mouse Location
    do shell script "/usr/local/bin/cliclick  c:."

    tell application "System Events"
        delay 0.2 -- Adjust Value If Necessary
        keystroke 5 using {command down}
        delay 0.2 -- Adjust Value If Necessary
        keystroke return
    end tell
end repeat


Problem migrating mailboxes to Mountain Lion I have just set up a new mac and migrated the user accounts from the old system (Snow Leopard) to the new one (Mountain Lion) and everything went well except for some parts of the Mail setup.

In the old computer there were several mailbox (.mbox) directories on the Mac itself.  These mailboxes were transferred to the new computer and it looks like they were successfully processed by the migration into a new directory structure.

However the mailboxes do not show up in the new Mail program.

(Note that the mbox's directly related to the email POP accounts did successfully transfer to the new mac)

For example, there is a mailbox called Travel and for a particular email message it is located in the old and new systems as:

/Users/oldmac/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/Travel.mbox/Messages/24307.emlx
/Users/newmac/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/Travel.mbox/A24F8F9F-8AEC-4802-9FF9-10A497A5352D/Data/4/2/Messages/24307.emlx

And the text in 24307.emlx in the new location matches that of the old location.

So the question is how do I get these local mbox folders to appear in the Mail app?  Do I have to manually configure something under the hood, or is there a user configuration somewhere that I have missed?

Have you tried doing like this?

Navigate to: Macintosh HD → Users → Your User Folder → Library.
Now you need to copy the Mail folder, as shown below. (Yes, the entire folder.)
You should also copy the preferences file for Mail.app. Here's where you can find it: Macintosh HD → Users → Your User Folder → Library → Preferences. The name of the file is com.apple.mail.plist.
Copy the Mail folder and the preferences file to the Library and Preferences folder. Make sure that the folder and file are in the correct location!

Source:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/183


Mount NFS share in /Volumes as a drive Ok, this might be a stupid question to ask, but trying to mount a NFS share (from a Linux machine, if it's worth anything) in a folder that resides in /Volumes never makes the share appear in Finder (not in Volumes anyway).

The folder was made by simply sudo mkdir /Volumes/folder_name and the mount was made using autofs like this:

/Volumes/folder_name    auto_nfs      -nolock,locallocks,rdirplus

I should mention the folder is accessible though the terminal, but it just doesn't show in Finder.

On the other hand, if I modify /etc/auto_master to this:

/Volumes  auto_nfs      -nolock,locallocks,rdirplus

the folder appears, but I loose all my other drives (except the system one and Network)

At the moment, I'm mounting to a regular folder on the system drive which I've symlinked to a folder in /Volumes. Oddly, that works fine, but it does appear as a symlink and it bothers me (and possibly other users).

I have spent quite a bit of time figuring out automounts of NFS shares in OS X...

Somewhere along the line, Apple decided allowing mounts directly into /Volumes should not be possible:

/etc/auto_master (see last line):

#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
/net            -hosts      -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home           auto_home   -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/-          -static
/-          auto_nfs    -nobrowse,nosuid

/etc/auto_nfs (this is all one line):

/Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

This will not work (anymore!) though it "should".

$ sudo automount -cv
...
automount: /Volumes/my_mount: mountpoint unavailable

What's the solution?

It's so easy my jaw dropped when I figured it out.
Basically, we trick OS X into thinking we're mounting * somewhere else. *

When you're talking about paths in just about any environment, the root folder is the highest path you can reach, whether it's C:\ (windows) or / (*nix)

When you're at this path, attempting to reach the parent path, via .. will keep you at the root path.

For example: /../../../../ is still just /

By now, a few of you have already figured it out.

TL;DR / Solution:

Change your /etc/auto_nfs config from (this is all one line):

/Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

To (this is all one line):

/../Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

And re-run the automounter:

$ sudo automount -cv
...
automount: /Volumes/my_mount: mounted

..... there you go! Technically /../Volumes is still /Volumes, but the automounter does not see things that way ;)

This configuration persists the mount across restarts, and creates the mountpoint automatically.

I KNOW, RIGHT?


Does iTunes Match keep updating? I just subscribed to iTunes Match and it's currently scanning my library.

I've got a few tracks named as 'track 1', 'track 2', and 'unknown artist'. My plan is to clean up my library (some day). But will iTunes Match be able to rescan the new names of already matched songs?

In other words, will iTunes Match re-sync those songs already synced or will it only sync newly added songs?

Yes. The iTunes Match Library icon shows up from time to time (I haven't figured out what the exact requirements are) and you can re-scan your library.

Once you changed your id3 data, select the songs, right-click and select "Add to iCloud". This initiates a re-scan in iTunes Match as well.

If you add music, it will by added to iCloud instantly.


Get an iBook from the hard copy Is there a way to get a digital copy of a book I have in hard copy?

Some DVDs now come with a digital download, is there a similar service for books?

Note: most of my hard copies are bought on Amazon.

For things you've bought already, not easily. You can look online for PDF versions of the book which aren't strictly legal, but apart from that you don't have a huge number of options.

However, I've definitely seen books that come with their digital copies - although the last one I bought, which was a Wrox book, required me to install Adobe Digital Editions.

Another option, if you have developer books, might be Safari Books Online, which allows you to save up tokens to download full copies of books.