How can I remap the play/pause key to Grooveshark? I like to listen to Grooveshark while coding on my mbp.  Since it's a website, every time I want to pause or continue I need to find the tab in my browser and click with the trackpad.

Is there a way to remap the F8/Play-Pause key to provide this functionality?

Hitting this key currently brings up iTunes, which I never use.

I'm open to any scripting and/or coding solutions, if it comes to that.

It is possible for Desktop apps to take control of the play/pause key. Spotify, the Last.FM desktop scrobbler, and a few other apps I've used have all allowed the play/pause media key to work with their app in Mountain Lion. However, browsers will probably never allow websites to register key handling on a global level, because this is an incredibly large security risk. Imagine if a site registered a global handler for all your standard keyboard keys.

I don't believe this is possible. Maybe some combination of browser scripting will allow you to use hotkey software like KeyRemap4Macbook to run an Applescript that finds a tab on the domain grooveshark.com with the status playing, and sends a javascript command into the page to pause it.

But if GrooveShark is 100% flash based, (and IIRC it is,) you're completely out of luck.

GrooveShark needs an app. A native, first-party OS X app that can actually take advantage of modern desktop APIs. Until then, I don't believe this is possible.


New MacBook Pro slow performance, battery not working I have a very recent (mid-2014) MacBook Pro Retina 15" that has been working fine since I got it (about two months).

Suddenly, it has begun to run very slow in all apps, even though CPU usage is very low, and it does not seem to be under stress.

Additionally;

The battery is not charging, The battery is stuck at 22%.
If i disconnect the charger, it completely dies immediately. After restart, date and time is reset to 1st january 2014 0:00
The battery status is "Replace now" even though it should be almost brand new

I've tried these things, which did not help:

Restart
Shutdown/start
SMC reset as per http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
PRAM reset as per http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222

Diagnotics info:

OS version: OS X 10.9.5

About this mac -> More info -> System report -> Hardware

Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:   MacBookPro11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2,5 GHz
Number of Processors:   1
Total Number of Cores:  4
L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB
L3 Cache:   6 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Boot ROM Version:   MBP112.0138.B07
SMC Version (system):   2.19f7
Serial Number (system): [removed]
Hardware UUID:  [removed]

About this mac -> More info -> System report -> Hardware -> Power

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number:  [removed]
Manufacturer:   SMP
Device Name:    bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:  0
PCB Lot Code:   0
Firmware Version:   702
Hardware Revision:  1
Cell Revision:  1206
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 1979
Fully Charged:  No
Charging:   No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8954
Health Information:
Cycle Count:    43
Condition:  Replace Now
Battery Installed:  Yes
Amperage (mA):  0
Voltage (mV):   7519

System Power Settings:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):   120
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):  10
Wake on AC Change:  No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN:    Yes
AutoPowerOff Delay: 0
AutoPowerOff Enabled:   0
Current Power Source:   Yes
DarkWakeBackgroundTasks:    1
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
GPUSwitch:  0
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep: 0
Standby Delay:  0
Standby Enabled:    0
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):   60
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):  10
Wake on AC Change:  No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
AutoPowerOff Delay: 0
AutoPowerOff Enabled:   0
DarkWakeBackgroundTasks:    0
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
GPUSwitch:  1
Reduce Brightness:  Yes
Standby Delay:  0
Standby Enabled:    0

Hardware Configuration:

UPS Installed:  No

AC Charger Information:

Connected:  Yes
ID: 0x0aa1
Wattage (W):    85
Family: 0x0085
Serial Number:  [removed]
Charging:   No

Anyone have a clue what's going on?

The problems were resolved by Apple servicing the hardware.


iPhone FaceID stopped working after 13.5 update––is this a bug or hdw failure? So here's the story...
My iPhone X was working just fine on 13.4.x. Then a couple weeks ago I updated to 13.5.1 because of the rumored FaceID w/Mask unlock. Everything seemed to be working fine––but I think I got so used to typing passcodes I didn't notice if FaceID ever worked after the update.
When I finally realized something was wrong with FaceID, I did the usual: soft reset, FaceID reset, and then finally, factory reset. Nothing worked, and once I reset FaceID, I could never "Set up Face ID" again. Every attempt left me with the "move the phone higher/lower" bug.
Since then, I've also updated to 13.6 with no change in FaceID. After reading more than a few pages on the web, I've got the following diagnosis:
iPhone X FaceID checklist:

Proximity sensor/AutoBrightness OK
Animoji OK
Selfie camera portrait-mode does NOT work, “move farther away” msg, no background blur
Rear camera portrait mode OK

"Set up Face ID"

shows "position your face within the frame" or "move iPhone a little higher/lower"

Can someone help me determine if this is 1) a software bug or 2) a fatal hardware failure that coincidentally emerged within days of upgrading to 13.5.1?

May vote is neither.
It’s not a software bug in that release - we would have floods and floods of people with issues if there were a bug breaking FaceID.
It’s not likely a coincidental hardware failure. Of course if you suspect that seek hardware service immediately.
It’s much more likely some general corruption on the combination of your software, your apps, your data and the device. The steps to troubleshoot that would be to get a good backup, erase all settings and content, set up FaceID alone before you restore any data. If that doesn’t work, then restore the device entirely from a computer. Repeat the “set up nothing except FaceID” test.
Based on that you may have hardware - seek service knowing you have a backup.
Or you may find the hardware and software work, then decide to erase and try restoring your backup or just setting up new.


Add Recovery Partition to APFS drive? After some drive juggling [cloning to HFS+ then re-cloning back] to fix an error on my APFS boot drive, I'm now in the position where I no longer have any partition with a Recovery volume.

Carbon Copy Cloner offered to create one when I first made the clone, but as I was squeezing this into a tight space on a drive with several partitions on it already, including one with an MBR wrapper, the operation failed.

Due to further, unforeseen issues, I also had to sacrifice my Time Machine drive, so I now have no direct source to copy a Recovery Partition from.

I'm on a Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 macOS 10.13.5, which will not boot to Internet Recovery.

Is there any way to create one, hopefully without reinstalling the OS?
Alternatively, will running the OS installer directly from the App Store "live" [ie launching it from the running Finder] over the top of the existing OS do the trick?

I will, at that point, have 2 bootable OS partitions on 2 separate drives, so potentially I could run the update to one from the other, if that will gain anything.

There are many previous questions on Ask Different regarding this, but none recent enough to cover APFS.

I'm still open to quicker ways to do this, however, I managed to solve it by running the full High Sierra installer over the drive.

Get the installer from the App Store. You need to use search as it doesn't appear in your Purchase History.

Run the installer - for some reason it insists on doing the Firmware update again, even though that had already been done.

Note: It says to hold the power button 'until the light flashes or you hear a tone'. Empirically, waiting for the tone is more likely to succeed. Releasing the button when the light flashes isn't guaranteed to work. If you hold for a few seconds after the tone is heard, the machine will automatically boot anyway.

The install took about 45 minutes in total.

Recovery Partition was restored.

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1000.0 GB  disk5
                                 Physical Store disk3s2
   1:                APFS Volume KickMeHard              498.6 GB   disk5s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 19.8 MB    disk5s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                515.3 MB   disk5s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk5s4


How can I change my Mac OS X Services to all be in english? I am not sure how this happened, but many of my services are now in, what I believe is spanish:

How do I change this back to English? My language in the Language & Text system pref is set to English where ever possible. I am using Mac OS X 10.6.8.

This problem seems to crop up occasionally, and I haven't heard a definitive solution outside of the standard troubleshooting routines: determine if the problem is a software setting by creating a new user account, rebuild permissions, and so on.

Beyond the basics, there are two solutions that might help. First, in this thread over at the Apple discussion forums, someone has a similar problem and is able to resolve it by removing some spurious login items, then logging out and logging back in. It's worth looking at your login items suspiciously.

Second, you might try to change the system language to something new, like French. Log out and back in, then change back to English. It may be that you have some wonky settings left over from an old program, and that switching away from English and back re-aligns everything.


What changes have been made to bash in Lion? I am working on some bash shell scripting for a local login script and it works fine on Leopard and Snow Leopard but fails on Lion.  I was curious if there was a place that listed the differences in bash on Lion?

Assuming a SnowLeopard or Lion installation that has the latest software updates, the version of Bash is the same. 3.2.48(1)-release.

On SnowLeopard you may have a 32bit compilation in some cases, whereas on Lion it is (by default) 64bit.

The command username="$(whoami)" is extemely unlikely to ever change it's output on bash, since doing so would incur the fast moving, brain devouring wrath of an infinite number of ravenous zombie sysadmin types.

(By the way sysadmins are almost never undead, despite the occasional appearance to the contrary. The description was added for dramatic effect, and no offence to sysadmins was intended. I offer my heartfelt apology to any actual undead sysadmins, and their families, and I urge them to grab a shotgun immediately and barricade the bedroom door, double tap to be sure.)


How can I keep my Mac awake AND locked? I want to leave my Mac awake overnight so it syncs 4GB of data from Dropbox. I need to prevent the machine from going to sleep because that pauses the Dropbox sync

I've been using Caffeine to keep the computer awake, but it also keeps the computer unlocked which is insecure.

I need a method to keep my Mac awake (so that Dropbox can sync overnight) but also locked (so no one can read my email). It'd be great if this method also turned off the screen (to preserve power), but honestly that's not even 100% necessary.

In System Preferences > Energy Saver, check the box for "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" (on laptops, this is under the Power Adapter tab)
In System Preferences > Security & Privacy, check the box for "Require password after sleep or screen saver begins" and set the delay in the dropdown menu to "immediately"

Now, you can hit command-option-power to turn off the display without sleeping the computer, and doing anything that turns on the display (like hitting a key or clicking a mouse button) will prompt you for your account password.

On newer macs without the eject key, please use control-shift+power instead.


How can I never see scroll bars? I can change the scroll bar behaviour to only show when scrolling:

 > System Preferences... > General > Show scroll bars

But I never want to see scroll bars.

How can I completely disable them? I just want to scroll with keyboard/trackpad, the scroll bars are ugly and get in the way too often, and I never have a need for them.

I want to turn off scroll bars 100%.

You get the three options shown. That's it. macOS makes no provision for your particular desire in its design.

You should make an enhancement request at Apple's Product Feedback site.


Add/replace image in Keynote 9.1 (6369) from outside Photos or Movies I am working in Keynote 9.1 (6369).

Apple support shows one can drag-and-drop in an image. But is there really no more direct way to, having clicked on the photo icon in the bottom-right corner of the media placeholder, navigate outside of the Photos or Movies directories? That seems astounding.

Can I set the list of directories from which Keynote allows me to choose images? Or is there a setting to navigate via Finder instead of the default UI for choosing?

If this behavior is improved in the more recent versions of Keynote, that might be close to a reason to upgrade my OS.

In Keynote 9.2.1, if you can't find the image you're looking for in the built-in pop-up, you can simply drag and drop an image file from Finder into your slide.

I believe this feature is available in all versions of Keynote.


How to be connected to two different LANs simultaneously? I have a home router is connected to the internet, I have a MacMini that connects to the router via WiFi. This works fine.

Now I have got another Linux machine which I connected with a cable to the Mac, and defined manually a LAN (The Mac is 1.0.0.1, the Linux is 1.0.0.9). Now both show me an established connection, and I have installed an SSH demon on the Linux machine. So far everything is fine. But when I try to ssh from the Mac into the Linux, I get a timeout almost every time. Occasionally it works, usually with the WiFi made inactive. My guess is that the ssh request is simply forwarded on the wrong LAN, but it's only a guess.

I'm not sure why, but I found two vnics that are active on the Mac. They have an address that starts with 10.x.x.x, so I don't think they're interfering, but thought it's important to note here.

So, any ideas whats going on?

Here is the output of ifconfig from the Mac:

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
    inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
    inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=2b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,TSO4>
    ether c8:2a:14:58:4d:c2
    inet6 fe80::ca2a:14ff:fe58:4dc2%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
    inet 192.168.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
    media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>)
    status: active
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 28:cf:da:05:4e:93
    inet6 fe80::2acf:daff:fe05:4e93%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
    inet 192.168.2.102 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
    media: autoselect
    status: active
fw0: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078
    lladdr c8:2a:14:ff:fe:f4:a3:78
    media: autoselect <full-duplex>
    status: inactive
p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
    ether 0a:cf:da:05:4e:93
    media: autoselect
    status: inactive
vnic0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    ether 00:1c:42:00:00:08
    inet 10.211.55.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.211.55.255
    inet6 fe80::21c:42ff:fe00:8%vnic0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
    inet6 fdb2:2c26:f4e4::1 prefixlen 64
    media: autoselect
    status: active
vnic1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    ether 00:1c:42:00:00:09
    inet 10.37.129.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.37.129.255
    inet6 fe80::21c:42ff:fe00:9%vnic1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x9
    inet6 fdb2:2c26:f4e4:1::1 prefixlen 64
    media: autoselect
    status: active

Martin,

You have set up two conflicting networks in the Mac.

The way to fix this is to tell the Mac exactly what you want to do which is, I assume, to share your Mac's WiFi 'net connection over Ethernet to your Linux box.

The first thing you need to do is take out all references to a network over the Ethernet interface as Sharing will take care of all that. So if you have manually set IP addresses and such then take all that out.

Open System Preferences > Sharing and select Internet Sharing. Then in the drop down "Share your connection from: " choose "Wi-Fi" and in the box tick "Ethernet".

This should fix your problem but it might require rebooting the Linux box.


Prevent others finding me in Game Center I don't want people to see me in Game Center. How can I prevent others from finding me?

People seem to locate me and I don't want them to. I would like to stay incognito but I can't find a privacy button to keep my name invisible.

While in Game Center open your Account and change how others can contact you (or not contact you).

See example


Mystery computer appearing in the Finder's source list On my MacBook, in the Finder's sidebar there's a machine appearing under "Shared" that I don't recognize and definitely doesn't exist on our local network. When I attempt to connect to it, I get this message:

The server "otseeley-remote" is available on your computer. Access the volumes and files locally.

What is this and how do I get rid of it? I already checked Disk Utility and there are no extraneous volumes mounted or anything.
EDIT:
Additional information based on the questions below:

There are only two computers on the network, both running Mac OS X - this MacBook, and my PowerBook. The PowerBook shows up in the source list as a separate item from "otseeley-remote"
There is no Time Capsule on the network, though I do have a Time Machine drive plugged into the PowerBook (not shared, though)
No VPN
One wired printer, connected to the MacBook
Two other wifi networks other than my own appear in the wifi dropdown, so I suppose it's possible that the mystery machine is on a neighbor's network (though why would it show up in my source list?)

EDIT 2:
The mystery computer shows up on both my MacBook's and PowerBook's source list, but not always at the same time. Sometimes it appears on one and not the other; other times, it appears on both.
EDIT 3:
I have two user accounts on the MacBook and both accounts show the "otseeley-remote" item in the Finder. Not sure if that means anything, but just wanted to add another data point.

The message "The server "otseeley-remote" is available on your computer. Access the volumes and files locally" means that what you're seeing in the sidebar is your own computer, not a different machine... why you're seeing it is the real question, and unfortunately I don't have any great answers for you.

More troubleshooting is in order, and if this were shorter I would have posted it as a comment....

There's a very similar question on SuperUser which unfortunetly has no answers... if I were you, I would comment on that question and link to this one. That will bump that question and possibly get an answer to it.

Someone has the exact same issue on MacWorld's forums however they never returned to give any more detail or let us know if the problem was solved...

Do you have an Airport Extreme with a drive attached to it? This person and this person also mentioned seeing the same message with an Airport Extreme device which had an attached USB hard drive.

A lot of people refer to this problem when talking about virtualization software. That was my first thought, but you said you're not using it.

If you turn off your airport card, does the share go away?

If you open the Terminal and type/paste in: ping -c 5 otseeley-remote.local, what do you see?

EDIT: Let's see if this reveals anything. If you use a program like Bonjour Browser, do you see otseely-remote under any of the services? (You can expand all the levels of the tree by option-clicking on the topmost disclosure arrow twice)


Why does iPhone Activity not recognize Apple Watch Activity has been set up? The Activity app on my iPhone always shows the "setup" screen: "Set up Activity on your Apple Watch". I have already set up Activity on my Apple Watch; it works fine and shows the rings filling up each day. But I cannot access historical Activity data which should be displayed in the iPhone app.

I have tried restoring the watch from a backup and setting up the watch as new. Neither has worked.

A little background: I bought my Apple Watch along with my iPhone 6s Plus. That initial pairing worked without any bugs in Activity on phone or watch. However, two weeks after purchase, my iPhone experienced some kind of catastrophic failure. I got it replaced at the Apple Store. Since pairing my watch with the replacement phone, the iPhone Activity app has never recognized that I have already set up the Watch Activity app.

I have since solved the problem. Something was seemingly corrupted in the iPhone's Health database. Nothing could read or write data to the Health database, including step data (which should be automatically added from the Mwhatever chip) and manually entered data such as weight.

To solve the issue, I unpaired the phone and watch, then set up both the phone and watch as new. Setting up the phone from a backup did not solve the problem because the (hypothesized) corrupt database was (seemingly) included in the backup.

Since setting up the phone as new and re-pairing the watch, Health data works fine.


Does installing security updates through the command line require an immediate reboot? I have some end users that delay installing important OS X updates by clicking 'Remind me tomorrow' on the automatic update prompt, sometimes waiting days or weeks to get updates installed.

To combat this I'm putting together a script to automatically install software updates in the background using the softwareupdate utility.  In testing, after installing a Security update, I got this message:

  You have installed one or more updates that requires that you restart your computer.  Please restart immediately.

Is an reboot required only to activate the updates, or can it be harmful to the OS or other running processes to install updates in the background and not immediately reboot?

Some updates require a restart of the computer, some don't. The reason for a restart can differ - sometimes it's needed to complete the update/installation process, other times it may be simply to ensure that the OS and/or software can utilise the update.

In terms of installing updates in the background, this isn't a problem in itself unless its updating a component/software that's currently running, in which case you need to either close the relevant software or effect a restart for the OS to release the component so it can be updated.

Is what you're trying to do harmful? In most cases not, but in some cases it could be, depending on what the update is doing.

For critical updates, the better approach would be to:

auto install updates outside of particular hours or
force the update/restart upon users.

With the second option, it's common to have a script that prompts the user that an update is going to be installed and the computer will restart in xx minutes - where xx provides plenty of notice (e.g. 15 mins, 30 mins, etc) and gives them enough time to plan around the restart (such as saving work, grabbing a coffee, etc).

However, what I've done is set this up so the script provides the user an option to 'Restart now' so they have the flexibility to just get it over and done with rather than waiting for xx minutes to pass. The script does not provide a 'postpone' or 'remind me later' option for any critical updates. It is just going to run and the user has been forewarned.


View cellular signal of iPhone on Mac when I'm using tethering with my iPhone, is there any way to see the cellular signal strength on my mac?

Any free solutions are still welcome.

Yes, download TetherStrength (Mac App Store link).


Itunes run whenever the windows start, how to block no run? After install itunes, it starts whenever the window start, How can I block?

I tried , msconfig -> start program -> disable itunes help

Installed ccleaner disable apple on startup

disable some apple service on msconfig

I checked every option on itunes setting

but never works , itunes run and pop up always..

A third party application is likely starting iTunes.  (such as plex media server)

Beginning with iTunes 12.2 the Library.XML file is no longer automatically generated. Enabling preferences > advanced > "share iTunes library xml with other applications" seems to solve the problem of some third party applications starting iTunes.  Apparently if the XML file is not present then the 3rd party application opens iTunes to access the library, if the XML is present there is no need to open iTunes.

Apple didn't explain this change well, and in fact the option isn't even included in the iTunes help file yet (at least windows iTunes help). Instead Google "share iTunes library xml with other applications" to learn more.


What do I do when I get a "sync session failed to start" message when syncing iPhone to itunes? The context is that I'm restoring my wife's new replacement iPhone from a backup. It already did the first sync, where it gets all the settings and whatnot, but not the apps.  Tried the second sync, where it normally transfers the apps, but I'm getting the error message.

On your iPhone, force close all the Apps in the multitask window. Depending on your version of iOS, you do the following:

On iOS 7 and before:

From the Home screen, click the Home button twice.
Tap and hold on the app.
When it starts to jiggle, tap the X to close it.
Repeat until all the apps have been closed.

On iOS 8:

From the Home screen, click the Home button twice.
Swipe the application preview window upwards to close the app. (you can close multiple apps at once)
Repeat until all the apps have been closed.

Now do a Soft reset of your iPhone:
Hold both Home and Sleep button for around 10secs until you see the Apple logo then release. After it returns to Home screen, connect to sync and see if this resolves the issue.

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18381241#18381241


iTunes one account with multiple users I am a mum with 2 children.  I have had an iTunes account for myself and have now attached my kids new iPods to that account as they are too young to have their own accounts/ids.  My question is;  Is there a way to have multiple users under the same account.

The problem is that unless we write down every single purchase they make, there is no way of knowing which child has spent their allocation of the gift card amounts! Also discovered that there are 'in-app' purchases which may cost 'game money' or real money and sometimes difficult for kids to tell which.  They don't need a password and they don't show on your transaction history!

It would be so much easier if you could set up 1 account - mine, so I can monitor and control what they are buying, but have multiple users so we attach a gift card (or credit card) to each user. That way they know when their own allocation has run out.  Please tell me there is a way to do this.  I am sure lots of families are in the same situation.

I am not particularly savvy in the ways of iTunes and clouds etc so would really appreciate a simple 'non-techie' answer.

Gift cards are tied to iTunes accounts so if you want to let the store keep track of the different gift cards you will at least have to set up individual iTunes accounts for each of them (and yourself). Of course this also means that you have to switch the user in iTunes accordingly each time you want to make a purchase.

Thinking ahead, this approach is somewhat future-proof as well. In a few years your kids will switch to their own computer account with their individual iTunes installation etc. If they already have an individual iTunes account as well they can keep using their apps without having to bother you in case of upgrades etc.


Pro.sparsebundele is in use. What is it? I got this message when trying to back up my Macbook Pro using time machine:

  The disc image MAMA'S’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle is in use, try ejecting the disc image.

How do i do it?

Found a solution here:

Access the Airport Extreme using the AirPort Utility.
Go to Manual Setup.
Go to Disks.
Click on Disconnect All Users…

At this stage, unplug or turn the external HD off, the plug it back or turn it on.


iMessage Crashes and Causes my iPod to Shut Down I have an iPod touch 4th gen and whenever I go onto imessage, it first crashes about twice, then on the third time or so, it causes my iPod to turn off completely. This happened after I someone gave me thier contact info and I tried texting them for the first time. After that, the app didn't open again.

I would try and go on contacts and try to send a message from there. Also, you could always use a font app and send a text. (It worked when my iPhone did the same thing)


How to close apps from Mission Control on macOS Sierra? I'm used to being able to close my apps from the mission control view by clicking on an X sign in the upper left corner - I don't have this feature in Sierra. How can I turn it back on or do it in a similar way from Mission Control?

I have recently bought a new MacBook Pro after 4 years of using Windows, and I really missed the ability of directly closing windows in Mission Control, as I used to do in my good old Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

I have searched around the web and in macOS Sierra settings, but I didn't found a OS native way of achieving it.

So I installed this little tool (I also used it in the old days) called Better Touch Tool. It allows you to set customised keyboard and gesture shortcuts.

I use a 3 finger tap to close windows directly bellow the cursor (which works anywhere, even in Mission Control). You can set up any shortcut you want. I find using it very convenient, I hope you do also.


Can I send as someone else using Mail.app on iPad? Is this possible?

In normal MS Outlook you can send as someone else (if you are on the distribution group I think). It's an option when you reply to an email.

Can you do the same using Mail.app on iPad?

Mail.app on iPad does not support sending as or send on behalf of. So there is no way you can do this via Mail.app.

But you can try this on a Macbook for example:
in Mail > Preferences > Accounts it will show the account you have set up. Next tothe emailaddress, type a comma and then the other email you want to send from. Save it and now when you compose a mail, you can choose which one to send from.


Given its IP, how can I find out the name of a Windows PC on my network? I'd like to find out the computer name of a Windows PC (like the name shown in the 'Shares' section of the Finder, e.g. bill-pc) given only its IP address. nslookup doesn't do the trick.

I'm also interested in the reverse lookup: given its Windows name, how can I find out its IP address? ping bill-pc or ping bill-pc.local seems not to work in some cases.

If you're using Lion, you can use smbutil:

usage: smbutil [-hv] subcommand [args]
where subcommands are:
 help       display help on specified subcommand
 lookup     resolve NetBIOS name to IP address
 status     resolve IP address or DNS name to NetBIOS names
 view       list resources on specified host
 dfs        list DFS referrals
 identity   identity of the user as known by the specified host

For example (assuming 192.168.1.9 is a valid IP on your network):

smbutil status 192.168.1.9
smbutil lookup bill-pc

If you're using Snow Leopard, you should be able to use nmblookup:

nmblookup -A 192.168.1.9
nmblookup bill-pc


Alternative Ways to Control The Volume Level Of My Mac In OS X? Generally to either increase or decrease the volume level of my Mac, I always go to the volume menu bar and adjust the slider accordingly.

I was wondering:

What other ways exist within OS X to adjust volume settings and perhaps give even finer adjustments to the volume level that is produced ?

Use the volume keys on your keyboard (hold Shift + Option for finer control)
Go to the Sound pane of System Preferences


Itunes crashing even after reinstallation I access songs from bootcamp drive. All of a sudden, itunes took approx 20mins to open in macbook. Every action like playing a song took a huge time and finally it crashed. I get this when i right click the app "Application not responding".

I uninstalled and then reinstalled it. It worked fine for a week. Now the crashing has started again when I tried to play an ALAC format song.

I can't keep reinstalling itunes everytime I want to play songs.

I dont think the problem is with the library being in a different disk because itunes creates a copy in Macbook drive inside the "itunes media" folder.

Please help me with this serious bug.

Try to open your iTunes in safe mode ,(restart and hold shift) then started iTunes just fine. This same issue i had .
If this didn't solved can please post the crash report of the iTunes , when its occurring again.


Will I lose all existing photos if I turn on photo-syncing to iTunes for the first time? iPhone4, syncing to iTunes 10.6.3 on a mac G5 running OS 10.5.8
(This is the latest system version that the G5 will run)

I sync some audio on the G5 to my wife's iPhone, no problem.
About half the iPhone memory is taken up with photos going back several years- photos have never been synced. If I turn ON photo syncing now, will it delete all photos on the phone? We do NOT want this to happen! But it's clogged up, and the photos don't need to be on the phone, just kept somewhere else where we can see them. But how do we get them to that "safe somewhere else" without risking them getting deleted forever? [I really miss the days where an iPod showed up on the desktop as an external disk, and you knew where you were!!!!]
The dialogue on iTunes says 'Sync from folder...' which is what alarms me. I want things to go from the phone to a folder.

Hope someone can explain this to me. Cheers!

@IconDaemon is right, best bet is to use Image Capture to download the photos to your Mac:

Connect the phone via usb.
Spotlight "Image capture" or Go To... /Application/Image Capture
Under devices in the image capture window you should no see the
iPhone, select it and it will start loading all the photos.
At the bottom of the window there is a "Import to" selection menu. Choose an iPhotos library, or just select a folder to download to, then click import all

You can optionally choose to delete the photos from the iPhone once imported.

Now that the photos are on your Mac, you can turn on iTunes syncing for photos and select the iPhoto library or folder that you choose to download to.


How can I show the login window after a period of inactivity? How can I make my Mac display the login screen (as though I'd selected "Login window" from the fast user switching menu) after the session has been idle for a certain time?

I can make it log out after some amount of inactivity, but I don't want that. I want my programs to continue running.

I can also set the screen saver to require a password, and clicking the "Switch user" button on the password dialog will display the login screen. I'd effectively like to skip that step and go directly to the login screen without having to push the button.

One solution could then be this one...

Download this ScriptSaver (ScreenSaver): http://swannman.wordpress.com/projects/scriptsaver/ - which can run AppleScripts.

Then write an AppleScript script with this content:

tell application "Finder"
    do shell script "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend > /dev/null"
end tell

Setup a ScreenSaver in "Desktop & Screen Saver", and configure this with the ScriptSaver, which you then setup with the AppleScript script from above.

After min. 3 minutes the current user session will be switched to the Fast User Switching window.


Quartz Composer in MacOS X 10.7.3 How do I install Quartz Composer in Mac OS X Lion?

According to Xcode 4.3 release notes, Apple restructured Xcode — what gets installed (and where) has changed.

From Apple's documentation:

  Several additional tools are no longer part of the default Xcode installation, they are now downloadable as separate packages. The More Developer Tools menu command (Figure 5) provides a direct jump to developer.apple.com/downloads in Safari where these development tools can be found.

Once you open that and log in with your Apple ID, then download and install "Graphics Tools for Xcode - ...", which includes Quartz Composer.


iPhone 5 Music Playlist Missing I deleted some playlists on my iPhone 5 to make some space for some apps. But the playlists are not in iTunes. I didn't delete the playlist from iTunes, but when I synced my iPhone with my iTunes, and I checked the playlists to re-sync them, they were missing.

This is how syncing works. If you delete the playlist from your phone, it gets removed from iTunes the next time they are synced.


Is running Linux through a VM as fast as running it natively on MacBook? I am trying to decide whether I should run Linux natively or through a VM on MacBook 7,2? How much performance difference would I observe? Is it worth installing Linux natively or is running it through a VM sufficient?

If you do not need real performance, you should run a VM. It's MUCH easier to install and the support with mac is better. For instance, you won't have any problem with your trackpad under a VM.
However, if you need some huge performances or direct hardware access, you should run linux natively, if you want to run Kali Linux and do some pen testing, using a VM would be a pain because it would slow down a lot cryptography and access to the wifi drivers for exemple.

So for what you want to do, I suggest you to install a nice linux distribution on a VM, for instance a Debian based linux like Ubuntu. If you can afford a paid VM software like VMWare it would be much smoother and better integrated with your Mac, but for your purpose, I think VirtualBox would do the job !


How does apple verify my list of trusted devices and browsers? When I logged in to icloud for the first time on my windows pc, my iphone made a loud notification sound and a message saying that another device has just attempted to log in to my icloud account popped up.  I selected "allow" on my iphone and the verification number was then displayed.  From my pc, I entered the given code and was taken to the icloud launchpad, where I received a prompt asking me if I wanted this browser to be remembered as trusted (so I dont have to go thru that process again, I assume).  I selected yes and I logged out soon after.  Later, I went back to icloud with a different browser and immediately another warning was displayed on my iphone.  Going back to tbe browser I originally signed in on didnt ring any alarm...although it;s the same device that wants to access my account.  My question is what info is exchanged in the verification process to ensure that I dont have to repeat the two factor step with a trusted device?  Also, is there any data from this exchange stored on my pc?

This is ensured by storing a cryptographic proof in cookies on your local computer. In authentication schemes like this, it is often named a "token".

This allows Apple's server to later confirm that the browser is indeed trusted because the contens of the cookies are sent automatically to their server when you browse for example www.icloud.com.

The cookies are prefixed X-APPLE (for example X-APPLE-WEBAUTH-HSA-LOGIN. 2FA is HSA version 2). You'll be able to see these cookies for yourself by opening the developer tools while on for example www.icloud.com, and then access the Resources tabs and select Cookies.


Access the system library folder rather than the user library folder with Terminal I am trying to chmod a folder in the library of my Mac but I can only get to the folders below the user level.

I need Library/WebServer/Documents/..., but I can only get to user/me/..., etc.

Does anyone know what I need to do?

Even administrator users should use sudo -s or sudo chmod /Library/Webserver since the default group structure on OS X is to protect system resources from modification without the logging the privilege escalation. You will need to be an administrator of the mac to use sudo, so you can always su to an existing admin account first before using sudo.


WiFi: No Hardware Installed and using wifi adapter I am getting an error 'WiFi: No Hardware Installed' and am trying to use a micro usb wifi piece (http://www.amazon.com/computers-accessories/dp/B005CLMJLU). I know this hardware works fine as I've been using it on a Raspberry Pi but it doesn't seem to be recognized on OS X Mountain Lion or Lion. How would I tell the os to use this piece of hardware rather than built-in WiFi?

thx

To upgrade this to an answer, this Edimax piece needs a driver.

Drivers are available at Edimax's website for download.


Does Skype work for the Guest login? Skype works fine when I launch it on my Login.  When I switch to the Guest login, though, Skype launches but does not connect after 90 seconds.  Does it eventually connect if I give it more time, or is there some architectural obstacle that prevents using it as Guest?

You say that you 'switch' to the Guest login. Are you using fast user switching and leaving Skype running on your other account? It may not be a problem with the Guest account, but with trying to run multiple instances of Skype on the same machine.


How To Upgrade Snow Leopard to Lion (not Mountain Lion) I couldn't find Mac OS X Lion in the App Store. Can I go from Snow Leopard to Lion without migrating to Mountain Lion?

Many programs are now dropping support for Snow Leopard (newer XCode, newer fortran compilers, etc.), but I don't want Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion still lacks support for some software that I like (ex. Little Snitch).

What are my (legal) options?

Call Apple, 1-800-My-Apple and order Lion over the phone.

This is the only way to get it now. Apple will email you a code you use on the App store to download it.

BTW - Little Snitch is Mountain Lion compatible now.  I highly recommend upgrading to Mountain Lion.


Parallels: Make sure VMs never start automatically at program startup If I quit Parallels when there are virtual machines running, then these machines are automatically started the next time I start Parallels.

Is there any way to make sure that Parallels never automatically start any VM at startup?

I have already set the "Start Automatically" setting set to "Never" for all my VMs. (Its under "Virtual Machine > Configure...", and then "Options > Startup and Shutdown"). But this is not helping.

I'm using Parallels Desktop 9 (Build 9.0.24251).

Please enable On Quit: ☑ Disable Resume for Parallel Desktop in Parallels Desktop -> Preferences -> General


Troubleshooting "Unexpected argument" error when running defaults write Trying to change the default screenshot directory to a specific folder in my google drive, but when I try the following command

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ‘~/Users/tommy\Google Drive\Sync\iMac\iMac Screenshots’

I get this error

2014-11-10 21:49:43.644 defaults[2184:76708] Unexpected argument DriveSynciMaciMac; leaving defaults unchanged.

and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

There are backs lashes (\) in your path that should probably be forward slashes (/). You also use curly quotes (‘ and ’), which are weird at best. Try using straight quotes ('), although in that case straight double quotes (") should do as well:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location '/Users/tommy/Google Drive/Sync/iMac/iMac Screenshots'


How to make my iMac recognize my USB external hard drive? I just bought a new Seagate hard drive for Time Machine backups. I plugged it into my iMac and the hard drive never showed up in Finder. The drive does not appear in Disk Utility and the command diskutil list outputs only my system HD /dev/disk0. Even when I go to the System Profiler the drive does not appear under USB.

However, when I plug the device into a MacBook the drive shows up and runs regularly. I have made sure that the USB drive that I am plugging the hard drive into is working. I even formatted the drive using the Disk Utility on the MacBook put the drive still doesn't work on the iMac.

I think it might be a mounting issue but don't know where to go from here. How to make my iMac recognize my USB external hard drive?

If your USB hard drive is the bus-powered variety (that is, you don't plug it into the wall for power), then it is possible that it is requiring too much startup current to run on one of your computers.

Some computers are pickier than others about how much current a device can draw, and over what period.

You might try a cable like this:

Basically, you can use power from two USB ports, instead of just one.

If your hard drive has a jack for a power adapter, use that instead.


Urgent - iPhone disabled, rescue data I have the iPhone 6s of my grandma here.  She asked me if I could recover the photos she has made with her iPhone after it disabled itself for some reason.

I have already updated it multiple times over the recovery mode with iTunes. If anybody has any idea on how I could solve this quickly, I would be forever thankful. I believe my mother would love to have some of these pictures as well.

If you've restored the phone once, the data is no longer on the device.

You (your grandma) would have either needed a backup via iTunes on their computer, or backups being made via iCloud.

If you plugged the phone into her computer and there weren't restores available, and the iPhone setup phase doesn't say it can restore from iCloud, there's no backups to restore.

However, phone backups and service data are two different things. There is a change that if you set up the phone and log her back into her Apple ID, her "live account data" (service data) would come back if they were being stored in iCloud via iCloud Photos.

Have you gone all the way through the restore process and Apple ID login on her phone?


Missing hot corners and Dock keeps defaulting I recently installed a Jamf software in order to recieve the latest MS Office, and during the installation the dock was reset to the default preferences.

After installation I went to customize my dock by removing and adding apps to the dock, setting the magnification zoom, and auto hide. This is when I noticed Hot corners didn't work too.

This is where the problem starts – I tried to set the hot corner settings, but the moment I press the back button or exit out of settings, it doesn't save the settings.

I have tried PRAM and SMC resets, removing Jamf files, resetting home folder and ALCs, repairing disk permissions in recovery mode, trying hot corners in safe mode (which it still doesn't work) and killing the Dock and SystemUIServer in terminal with no avail.

After trying all of these, turning on the macbook back to normal, the hot corners still doesn't work, and also the dock has resetted back to it's default settings again.

Is there any help to this? I feel uncomfortable using the keyboard, dock or using the 4 finger pinch to access launchpad.

So I've finally found an answer that resolved my Hotcorners and resetting dock.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/22421052#22421052

The first two helpful comments were what solved my trivia.

Basically,

Head over to ~/Library/Preferences and delete com.apple.dock.plist
Restart/Reboot Mac
Go back to ~/Library/Preferences and ⌘+i to get info on the .plist, and make sure the permissions are set to Read & Write for Administrators.
Test and customize your dock to your liking!


Airdrop seems to be missing on my Macbook Pro System:
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
macOS 10.13.6 (17G14033)
Issue: I cannot send files to my MacBook Pro from my iPhones using Airdrop. When I try to share a file from a iPhone to the Mac using AirDrop, the Mac just doesn't show up among the available users. I looked for AirDrop among the Finder Favorites, and it's not there:

Following the instructions on this website, I navigated to the Go menu in Finder, selected Go to Folder and pasted in this path:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications

This is what I see:

However, if I click on the AirDrop icon, I get this error message:

What is happening? Can you help me get AirDrop to work on my Mac?
EDIT: there's no AirDrop item in the Finder → Go menu

the Shift+⌘+R shortcut doesn't seem to do anything at all, and finally both WiFi and BlueTooth are turned on:

Is there any personal information in the contents of the app AirDrop? I did some digging in the package contents but couldn't find any. If it has no personal information, I can upload and attach the airdrop app, and you can save a backup of the corrupt app and paste my app in.


How do I manually uninstall the Developer Tools? I installed the Developer Tools way back in Tiger or Leopard and I'd like to uninstall them now. I have Xcode 4.0.2. How do I uninstall them manually?

Yes, simply run the following in Terminal:

sudo <Xcode>/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all

Where <Xcode> is the default installation of Xcode, typically:

sudo /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all


Can the Time Capsule back up multiple drives (internal and external) at the same time? I have a 500 GB internal HDD on my MacBook Pro and a second 500 GB external USB drive as well.

Is it possible to tell Time Machine to back both the internal and external drives up to one Time Capsule?

Yes - when you set the Time Machine to back up to the Time Capsule - you will include the internal drive by default.  I would let a couple of backups complete, and then go to the settings for time machine under options and make sure the external drive is not excluded. Kick off a a backup with the external drive connected to make sure it works.

If the drive isn't connected when a back up event arrives, the internal will get backed up - but the software will remember and resume backing up the external any time it is connected and a back up happens. You don't need to always have the external drive connected for this to work, you just lose some chances to back it up when it's not connected.


Is https://bugreport.apple.com/web/ restricted to developers? If so, is there any mechanism for the public to report bugs or is that just included in https://www.apple.com/feedback/?

Technically, you need a developer account and be signed into it to use that mechanism.

About Apple Bug Reporter
Apple Bug Reporter is a web-based tool that developers can use to
report issues with Apple software and services, request enhancements
to APIs and tools, and track the status of their feedback. To access
Apple Bug Reporter, sign in with the Apple ID associated with your
developer account.

(Emphasis mine)
The general public would use the public facing feedback page https://www.apple.com/feedback


How to add a Safari toolbar button that runs an AppleScript How do I add a button to the Safari toolbar that, when clicked, executes a given AppleScript?

Another solution, and this is really dependant on what you want to do, is to use Services to execute your Applescript.

It doesn't create a toolbar icon, but will allow you to create a service from your AppleScript. You can then define a shortcut key in the System Preferences Keyboard Services pane

This page over at automatedworkflows.com shows an example as well as a link to the rather useful ThisService program.


Tool to install fonts on demand I have too much fonts installed on my Mac, so photoshop (or indesign) can take a long time on operations that involve them (program startup, selecting them on the character palette etc)

I'm looking for a simple software, with an interface similar to Font Book (better if more compact), that allow me to view all the fonts inserted on it (but not in the system), and install temporarily on the system a desired font as I need it.

Thanks in advance :)

Theres a few really good font managers out there that offer you this capability.

Suitcase Fusion's been around for a long time and is really popular, personally I find it a bit bloated though.

Fontcase is probably the most similar interface to fontbook and is also one of the most popular. It used to be my favourite, but i've found it buggy in ML.

Font Explorer X is again popular and has been around a while.

Type DNA is an interesting new contender, it was one of the first apps to get it's plugins working with CS6. They're also offering 6 month free trials to students.


Unable to install pgAdmin on MacOS Big Sur; possible verification problem So, I potentially have a stupid yet hopefully quick issue; I am attempting to install the latest version of pgAdmin onto my Macbook Pro with the M1 chip running Big Sur. When I attempt to open the installation package nothing happens and it refuses to open. I believe it may be a verification issue, but not 100% certain.
Does anyone know how to (preferably simply) resolve this?

that program needs to install software in non standard locations. I don't have the equipment you have but am confident this is a Big Sur issue.
Go TO System Preferences:Security and Privacy:Full Disk Access (on the sidebar)
You will likely need to authenticate then add the pgAdmin installer.
Untested and best guess answer...


localhost is always responding with "Connection refused: localhost:80" I've been working with the integrated webserver of OS X El Capitan for a while now.
I am developing a website project and thus, this was the perfect solution for me.
I was starting the local server using php -S localhost:8088 -t . in the specific directory containing the website data (index.php etc.).
Everything was working fine until I refreshed the page one day and it suddenly printed: Connection refused: localhost:8088. There were no changes made to any config files or anything else.
It doesn't matter which port I am using, it always refuses the connection. Sending a request to 127.0.0.1 in my browser tells me It works!. But, once I am starting the server and calling 127.0.0.1:8088, my browser responds with its default page displaying that the connection has been refused, as if I did not start/run the server.

The first thing I did was checking whether the Apache config is broken.
But, apachectl configtest printed Syntax OK.

When I tried to ping localhost, I encountered a 100% package loss, so at first I thought that the bug may be located inside the hosts file.
cat /etc/hosts/ printed out the following:

##
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Looks appropriate, doesn't it?
So, I checked my firewall options and discovered that I had "Stealth mode" activated. Unchecking it resulted in having the ICMP-packages finding their way correctly and there was no package loss any longer.

The thing is that I don't know why this problem suddenly occured and how I am able to fix it. I already restored all Apache config files to the originals, but that didn't solve it neither.
It seems to be listening on that port, but I can't access the server as it always refuses the connection.
Even if the server is not started, accessing localhost prints Connection refused: localhost:80. I don't know where the error could be located.
Apache's error log didn't show anything conspicious neither.

sudo lsof -i -n -P | grep TCP | grep LISTEN showed that httpd is using IPv6 only, so that should work.

If you need any more (config) files, just request them.
Thanks!

It turned out that the problem occured only in Opera, not Safari or any other browser. I found out that I had Opera Turbo enabled which would of course let me access my own localhost correctly.


Best way to use LED Cinema Display & Thunderbolt Display with Macbook Pro 2016 I have 2 Apple monitors: An old LED Cinema Display that has a Mini DisplayPort and a slightly newer Thunderbolt Display with a Thunderbolt 2 connection.

I am currently using them both connected to my 2014 MBP with no issues.

I recently got a 2017 MBP and would like to see if there is ANY setup that will allow me to connect both monitors.

From what I've read, the TB3 to TB2 adapter will not work with the Mini DisplayPort.

Is there any other setup that people have used that has worked for them?

Thunderbolt is a multiplexing of several signals - PCIe bus, USB 3.1, power and DisplayPort.  On the 2017 MBP you have at least 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports.  This means you don't need to convert from TB to DP/mDP as the signal is already there.

The LED Cinema display uses an mDP interface and the Thunderbolt display requires a Thunderbolt connection.

So, all you need is a USB-C (Thunderbolt) to DisplayPort cable for the LED display, and a Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter you mentioned along with the Thunderbolt cable you already own (from the previous setup) for the Thunderbolt monitor.


Partition Size Limit for BootCamp for new Mac Pro Machine? I'm looking at an 8TB Mac Pro machine for business. I have found 4 year old articles stating there is a 2.2tb size limit on Boot Camp.

There is no current data.

Called and spoke with a senior advisor who could find no documentation. Was told to just buy and try it or reach out to the community....

Has anyone put more than 2.2tb on the windows side of a machine with a larger hard drive?

Will be running windows10.

Mac Pro models introduced in 2013 or later do not have a 2.2 TB size limit for 64 bit Windows 10. If there is a limitation with respect to using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10, then Windows 10 could be installed without the use of the Boot Camp Assistant. Although, you would still want to use the Boot Camp Assistant to download Windows Support Software (i.e. the Windows drivers).

Windows runs on a Mac the same as any PC. Boot Camp refers to several entities, such as:

There is a Boot Camp Assistant application which can download the Windows Support Software and simplify the installation of Windows.
There is the Boot Camp installer, which installs the Windows Support Software.
There is Boot Camp software installed in Windows that can configure hardware and set the default operating system to boot.
The volume (partition) where Windows is installed is given the label BOOTCAMP and thus is referred to as Boot Camp in the Apple documentation.


iTunes on iOS shows song genre instead of a title for random albums (the same album on Mac shows everything correctly) I have a mp3 album on my old drive. I've imported it to iTunes on my Mac. Everything looks correctly.

When I want to sync that album to my iPhone, it's synced however instead of track titles I see that kind of weird stuff:

It drives me nuts and I can't have it like that.

What's funny, when I go on my iPhone to:

Settings -> Music -> Downloaded Music -> Depeche Mode -> 101

I see all titles displayed correctly the way I would expect in iTunes.

What's going on? Please advise.

I actually had the same issue for a specific album. I fixed it by going to the Album's info, checking the box titled "Use Work and Movement" and deleting the text in the "Work" field, and syncing the phone.


How to synchronize QuickTime video playback with 3 different Macs? Do you know a method to play three (QuickTime) videos in sync on three different machines? At least I would trigger the space bar to start them in sync.

I don't know how well synchronized it would be, but you could try using at (or launchd or cron) to run an osascript command at a specified time.

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.atrun.plist
at 16:12 <<< 'osascript -e "tell app \"QuickTime Player\" to play document 1"'


Can I download a song twice without paying a second time in iTunes? If I've previously bought a song in iTunes, can I download it again on another computer without paying for it a second time? Both computers are authorized to the same account.

If you log in to the iTunes Store with the same Apple ID, you can. Go to the Purchased section (located in the sidebar on the main page) and re-download any songs you wish.


On-screen indicator for brightness level or sound level not showing up when changing settings I was deleting some CoreServices and without knowing what OSDUI helper does I deleted it instead of renaming it as .disabled and now when I change the brightness or sound I don't see an on screen indicator like before which shows the current level of sound or brightness - this is my assumption.

Even accesibility is not opening

I don't know why this is happening!

I would suggest reinstalling macOS. Shutdown your computer, power it back on and immediately press and hold Command + R. When it finishes booting, select your language and select Reinstall macOS. Follow the prompts. Apple support link for more info. This shouldn't overwrite your personal data, but I always recommend having a backup just in case.

It's generally not a good idea to be deleting or changing files in the System or Library folders unless you know exactly what the file does and you are willing to accept the risk of an unstable or broken system.


AppleScript Opening iCloud Documents I am trying to write an AppleScript to open a Numbers document, which is stored in the Numbers folder on my iCloud drive, so that I can access a cell value and create a reminder with it (or otherwise notify myself of this value).

When I try to access the file directly using the symlink to my iCloud I created in my home folder, Numbers says the file doesn't exist.

I found the following on a blog post, though I am not sure I am using it right.

set the defaultDestinationFolder to "/Users/luketimothy/Desktop"
set filePath to "/Users/luketimothy/Library/" & "Mobile Documents:com~apple~Numbers:Documents:Budget.numbers"

tell application "Numbers"
    activate
    try
        open filePath
    on error

    end try
end tell

This script also results in a "file doesn't exist" error.

I tried copying the file into my Documents folder, but I got the same error (and the file doesn't show up in the Documents folder in finder either, even though if I try to copy it again I am asked if I wish to overwrite)

I can't seem to access the Numbers folder in my iCloud folder from the terminal either, which might allow me to use pwd to get an absolute path.

What can I do? Is there some restriction on access to this Numbers folder?

You’re trying to define the filePath variable by combining a Posix path string with an HFS string.

Try defining the filePath variable like this…

set filePath to (path to library folder from user domain as text) & ¬
    "Mobile Documents:com~apple~Numbers:Documents:Budget.numbers"

tell application "Numbers"
    open alias filePath
end tell

OR.. My Personal Preference

property theDocument : "Budget.numbers"

set filePath to ((path to library folder from user domain as text) & ¬
    "Mobile Documents:com~apple~Numbers:Documents:" & theDocument)

tell application "Finder"
    if not (exists of alias filePath) then
        tell current application to display dialog "The File: " & theDocument & ¬
            " Does Not Exist" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button "OK"
        return
    end if
end tell

tell application "Numbers"
    open alias filePath
end tell

If you’re not quite sure how to correctly define a file path, you can always use the following Apple Script code in a separate script editor document to correctly retrieve the file paths

set filePathAsAlias to (choose file with prompt "choose file") -- Returns The File Path As An Alias

OR

set posixPathOffilePath to POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "choose file") -- Returns The POSIX Path Of The File


2015 MacBook Pro 15” Cooling fans seem to be spinning in opposite direction? I just recently placed a new battery and speakers into a 2015 15” MacBook Pro. To do this I had to take out the entire logic board. Obviously, the fans have to be in the correct position as you can only orientate them one way when installing them. However, cool air now seems to be flowing out of the bottom side grills, and is being sucked in from the hinge area. The airflow has somehow been reversed. I have no idea how this is possible, but it is affecting the temp of the cpu. If anyone has any recommendations on what to do, it would be greatly appreciated.

Did a SMC reset and it seemed to fix to issue.


Is there an RSS reader app that can download full articles instead of abstracts? One of the main blogs I'm reading has recently transitioned from publishing the full posts in its RSS feed, to publishing just the first few sentences with a "read more" link. This drastically slows me down when reading, as it requires an extra tap and a good number of seconds to load the full, heavy web page instead of the previously light article.

Is there any app that can automatically fetch the full articles from a blog when reading the feed, or - better yet - store all of them in advance so that it can be read offline?

Edit- Newsflow does exactly this with the ability to save article to pocket for offline reading

Also this can be done with Feedly with a simple tweak. Adding a user script called 'full feed' that you can plugin with tampermonkey or stylish that expands the entire article inside Feedly. This also can be saved to pocket for offline view.


Secondary group membership I have two systems accessing a NAS (Isilon), with local user authentication. On first system (actually two systems with same OSX) running Lion (OSX10.7.5) I used following command:

dscl . -append /Groups/Testers GroupMembership joeuser

Verified his secondary membership with:

dsmemberutil checkmembership -U joeuser -G Testers

This presented "joeuser" to the cluster with access rights based on his secondary group membership and works fine.

On second machine running Mountain Lion (OSX10.8.5) I added & verified joeuser using same commands.

Cluster will not recognize "joe's" secondary membership from the Mountain Lion machine, and will not allow access to directories that were accessible from the Lion machine.

What's changed in user presentation, and how do I fix it / create a secondary membership via different (working) way on the Mountain Lion (and then Mavericks)?

My first thought is that permissions on the NAS have the group "Testers" using the group ID from the Lion machine and that the group has a different ID on the second box.

When you look at permission with the drive connected to the Mountain Lion box does it say group "Tester" has the right privileges or does it give either a different group name or just a number?


Why is Preview excessively slow after upgrading to Lion? After upgrading to OS X Lion, I noticed that my preview app is now excessively slow, taking minutes to open a file instead of seconds, even when opening a local file. In addition, it is often unresponsive.

What is the cause of tis, and do I have to reinstall Lion to fix this issue? I'd rather not go through the whole process again if possible.

OptCmdQ worked for me on a new Macbook Pro i5 2.4Ghz

I can only presume that discarding the previous windows cleaned out something that was causing the app to run slowly.


Software to emulate Windows 7 on OS X, for developing I need to load Windows 7 under OS X. These are my Macbook Pro's features:

Mac OSX 10.7.2
2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Which software would be the most suitable for me, considering that I want to focus on developing .Net Applications.

I know there's VMWare Fusion and Parallels but maybe there's something better or if not, which one would be the best for me? Thanks.

I'm a Fusion user and have been for a few years now. Fusion 4.x has been a nice upgrade and it's a very stable way to run the latest Windows OSes on OS X. I think you'll be fine with Fusion or Parallels -- both are tested and support Win7. VirtualBox is a nice option, but be prepared to go it alone if you run in to any issues.

None is really better than the other in my opinion. They all have some overlapping features and they all have some features that are unique to the product. Try before you buy if you can.

I will comment on your system: you're going to find things running slow with only 4GB of RAM and a Win7 VM for development work. Visual Studio is a pig and it's running on top of an OS that's not terribly great at memory management. I'd recommend you upgrade that 4GB to 8GB (or more if your model supports it) if you want the best virtualized OS experience.


How can I replace the nmblookup command on Lion? Possible Duplicate:
  Where is nmblookup in Lion?

In Snow Leopard, I used to use the command
nmblookup -U 172.16.0.10 -R domainPC | grep '<00>' | awk '{print $1}'
Blindly upgrading to Lion, I didn't realize that Apple removed SMB I am now in trouble.

Is there anyway to replace it with an alternative? I see there is smbutil lookup [hostname], but I am not sure if I can add a gateway like I did with nmblookup.

Did you have a look at the man page?

Shouldn't smbutil lookup [-w host] name do the job?

 Global options are as follows:
 -h      Print a short help message.
 -v      Verbose output.
 The commands and local options are:
 help command
         Print usage information about command.
 lookup [-w host] [-t node_type] [-e] name
         Resolve the given name to an IP address.  The NetBIOS name server can be directly specified via
         the -w option. The NetBIOS name type can be specified via the -t, the default is to lookup file
         servers. For a complete list of name type please see "http://support.microsoft.com/kb/163409".
         The NetBIOS names will be unpercent escaped out if the -e option is specified.
 status [-ae] hostname
         Resolve given hostname (IP address or DNS name) to NetBIOS workgroup and system name. All Net-
         BIOS names will be displayed if the -a option is specified. All NetBIOS names will be percent
         escaped out if the -e option is specified.

For me this worked (replacing your example):

smbutil lookup -w 172.16.0.10 -e domainPC | awk '/IP address of/ {print $5}'


Can a webpage appear in iOS Safari without any Safari UI even if someone visits the URL in the browser? I have a web app added to the home screen of the iphone. is it possible to open this web apps added to the home screen if someone visits a URL in safari.

i'm aware that the web app added to the home screen is actually running in safari, but i want to open that web app .. is there any custom iphone specific URL to call a web app ?

Example : i bookmarked www.example.com on my iphone and the app has all the required META tags to run as a webapp. now if someone visits www.example.com in the browser, it should detect if the app has been added to the home screen and if it is, it should open it.

is this possible ?

The whole point is that i want to open the app without any Safari UI even if someone visits my URL in the browser.

P.S i know the use of window.navigator.standalone - but it does not help in Safari.

When you launch a web app by entering the URL in Safari it runs in the Safari app. But when you launch a web app from the springboard (home screen), it runs in different Safari app. Hence the lack of Safari UI in the that case. What you want isn't possible. And it's actually a good thing because the Safari UI offers option you might need to use ('mail link to this page', 'Tweet', 'Print', ...).

What you want to do may be possible through some kind of hack if you jailbreak, although I doubt it.


What does the gray band at the bottom of some faces indicate in Apple Photos? I'm working with macOS High Sierra beta 17A352a, Photos 3.0 (3201.11.120). I don't know if this works similarly in earlier versions.

When looking at people in the app, most portraits shown simply provide a key photo of the person with their name at the bottom.

Some portraits, however, show a grey band over the person's name.

What does the band, or lack of, indicate? I think it means that that person is having some processing done, because leaving the People section and returning usually has the bands gone.

I was under the impression, that this was just to improve visibility of the white font, but since you're saying the bands come and go, that's probably not it. I'm on iOS 11 Public Beta 6.


Disabling App Nap in Mavericks I want to disable App Nap globally on a late 2009 iMac desktop running Mavericks, is this possible?

Yes you can by setting NSAppSleepDisabled globally:

defaults write -g NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true


Does anyone find that spotlight forgets docx files every day? For setup, we've been dealing with spotlight issues for 4 years on two MacBooks with my wife's files.  We've done all the usual tricks (for example spotlight privacy tab, sudo mdutil -E / ) and they work for a day or a few days but then the problem returns.  I've searched a lot and compiled a ton of links on spotlight (and tricks).

Spotlight eventually forgets the docx files it indexed. One day a keyword yields 100s of docx results and the next day it yields a couple to none.  The MacOS version is 10.13.6.

My current fix is to find all the docx files and force each one to be re-indexed.

find /Users/username -name '*.docx' -print0 | xargs -0 mdimport -d1

This command has it re-index them using the Rich Text importer. Again this works for the day and by the next day searches produce little to no results.

Has anyone encountered this problem? And found a solution?

I was having a similar issue with Numbers files, with them being remembered by Spotlight for varying lengths of time and then being forgotten. Often I had to open files from the 'Open Recent' menu because Spotlight didn't return them. Usually that got them back into the spotlight index, but only temporarily. Perhaps it wasn't only Numbers files, just that those were the ones I'd been searching for.

In my case, it turns out that I had very little free disk space. Enough for what I thought of as my storage needs, but apparently not enough for the system to operate correctly.

I moved 30GB of files to an external drive, emptied the trash, rebooted, ran sudo mdutil -E /, waited for indexing to complete, rebooted again.

That was yesterday, and so far so good. Spotlight has returned everything that I've thought to search for. Also, my machine had been getting quite sluggish but now feels quite responsive. I hope this helps you, or others who find this thread.

[Update: things are better but not solved. There's still some mysterious gaps in my spotlight search results. Doesn't seem to matter whether it's files on the local disk, on iCloud drive, opened recently, etc.]


Multiple user accounts in Safari like in Chrome? Note: creating a separate system user is not an option for me.

In Google Chrome, I can create separate "users" and launch a new Chrome window. Tabs that are opened in this window have their own sessions (cookie jars) that I can keep separate from other user's sessions.

This is great for me because, as a developer, I have personal and work "users" with separate logins for many of the same services.

E.g., I have a personal and a work gmail account - instead of combining them in gmail, I prefer to keep them separate. In my personal Chrome window, I login to gmail to read personal email. In my work Chrome window, I login to gmail (Google Apps for your domain) to read work email.

Another common one is digitalocean, github, and bitbucket. I have personal accounts for each, and work accounts for each. Keeping these things in separate Chrome windows is very helpful for me.

Another great thing about it is Chrome will save my tabs for me. When I'm at work, I can close my personal user window and open my work user window. All of my tabs from the last time I was working will be there. When I'm done with work, I open my personal user window and all my personal tabs are restored.

That said, Chrome is a bloated pig and hogs my RAM and battery. On a brand new Macbook Pro, with Chrome running, I'll get around 4 hours of battery life. With it closed, I can get much closer to 8 hours.

I'd like to ditch Chrome and try Safari, but without such a user profile feature, I'm afraid it will not be useful for me. If it's not natively possible, is there a plugin/extension available?

Thanks for any information.

I, too, have looked for this ability in Safari, but it just doesn't exist. I've submitted an enhancement request at Apple's Safari Feedback page every time a new version has come out.


How can I create an alias for Finder in OS X El Capitan? I want to add a Finder shortcut to my Launchpad, but I am unable to do it.

Is there any way to create an alias for Finder in OS X El Capitan?

Run the following command in Terminal (it will create a symbolic link for all users):

sudo ln -s /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app /Applications

Or just for currently logged on user:

ln -s /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app ~/Applications

Finder will appear in the applications list opened with Launchpad.


Can't update cabal in Mac OS X 10.6 I am trying to install cabal (for Haskell) in Mac OS X 10.6.5 (64-bit kernel). When I try the command "cabal update" I am presented with the following error:

cabal: Codec.Compression.Zlib: premature end of compressed stream

Does anyone have experience with this and knows how to fix it?
Thanks.

Apparently:

  This bug disappears if you compile cabal-install with GHC 6.12.1. (here and here)


How do I access my iBooks on iCloud? There is no icon for iBooks or options to include iBooks on my iCloud whatsoever.

Apple did not write a web application to access books via a web browser, so you can't access your iBooks via iCloud.com. Access to that data is only possible on a Mac or an iDevice with the iBooks application.

It might be an interesting feature though. You can submit feature requests to Apple using the feedback form on apple.com.


Can't listen to music with iPhone speaker I am using an iPhone 4 running ios 7.1.1. Recently, I've had a very frustrating problem, and it is not being able to listen to music with speaker. I'm pretty sure the speaker isn't broken because I can use it for alarms. Also, in my voice memos, the sound works although I have to click that speaker button on the top right corner so that the sound would come out of the speaker instead of the earpiece (top speaker).

When listening to music, there is completely no sound, and I can't adjust the volumes. Here's a screenshot of my music.

I think the problem first occurred after recording with my voice memos and syncing my phone to iTunes to transfer my recording from my phone to PC. After that, there's just no sound coming out of my phone speaker. The music works when i'm using earphones. It's still frustrating though. Any suggestions?

The music slider grays out to indicate that it no longer has control over the volume of an output device. This is most likely because there is a volume control on your speakers that overrides the iPhone's internal volume control.

Have you tried increasing the volume using the control on the speakers?


Ordering an iPhone from different region So I ordered an iPhone SE from Apple.com It delivers in United States, But I Live in Georgia(Middle East) and The phone will be send to me by mail.

I ordered a phone with unlocked carrier but i'm still not sure if There are any problems with unlocking and using the phone with my local carrier? And if so how can i solve the problems?
Thank you.

The good news is your country is not entirely locked out of the Apple ecosystem and you will be able to make an AppleID and host it in your country of Georgia and have access to the App Store.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204411

Past that, it’s not great news since many services will require you to have your AppleID hosted in a different country. Much of Apple’s offering is not directly offered to the country of Georgia. I lack experience on the cellular carriers, but since iPhone are sold in Turkey directly from Apple and from two resellers in Armenia - you likely have easy access to carriers to register the eSIM or put a physical GSM SIM in your new phone and have it work perfectly. There is zero hassle on swapping SIM at your convenience on unlocked phones from the US - no downside to buying from us other than you may have to ship it back for warranty service if Apple requests that when you ask for service. Nor many down sides, bit I can’t get you details lacking a good knowledge of carrier status in Georgia.

Also, you shouldn’t run into issue importing it after checking the Global Trade Compliance information that Apple publishes.

https://www.apple.com/legal/more-resources/gtc.html


Automator: Select only one file out of many files in a folder. Script needed? I have a folder with different 100 rtf-text-files in a folder.

I would like to have Automator to take the content of one text-file and send out it out via mail once a day to the same mailing-addresses - without sending the same text twice.

Because I am a newbie and don’t find a way to filter out only one rtf file with Automator’s predefined actions, I think I have to create a script.

What I’ve got so far:

New Application:

Find Finder-Item: I chose the folder with the files. Condition: File extension is rtf —> now I’ve got all (3 test-)rtf’s as result.

(*)

Open Finder-Item: Open with default application
Get Contents of TextEdit Document
New Mail Message

What this workflow does: It opens all rtf-files in TextEdit. Then a new Mail-Window opens and displays the content of the last opened textfile. Of cause it does’t send it.

I think I have to include a step/script where the (*) is, so Automator has a specific rtf-file to pass to the next steps.
Can you please help me to find this step or show me how to create a script? Or maybe you know another solution?

When wanting to randomly choose from a group of files, to send the contents thereof as an email, while ensuring the content from each file is used only once, requires maintaining a list of filenames from which the content has already been sent. There are quite a few different ways this list can be created, accessed and maintained.

Staying away from Automator and using AppleScript for the entire process, the easiest would be as an AppleScript property variable, however an AppleScript property variable gets reset if the script is recompiled in Script Editor and or saved again after it's been originally saved.

This is not necessarily a problem, if once the script has been properly configured to meet the needs and is functioning properly during testing, it is then saved as an application and not modified or saved again after the initial run of it having been saved as an application. If that might be an issue, then the list will need to be saved as a disk file. (Personally, I'd choose to use the disk file.)

Saving the list of filenames from which the content has already been emailed as a disk file can also be done in a number of ways. You essentially need to pick one of the possible ways and code it accordingly.

The following AppleScript code examples, shows two ways to accomplish the overall task. The first, using an AppleScript property variable and the second using a disk file, to maintain the list.

Note: In one of my comments, I asked "Do the files have to be Rich Text or can they be Plain Text?", and the reason for this is, as Plain Text the file would not need to be opened in the GUI to retrieve the contents, where as with Rich Text it would need to be opened in .e.g. TextEdit to retrieve the contents. Not having to do it through the GUI is faster and visually less obtrusive. Also, if this is done in Automator using the Get Contents of TextEdit Document action, it retrieves the contents as plain text anyway. So, it is actually advantageous to use Plain Text files over Rich Text to begin with. These examples are coded to use Rich Text and TextEdit, with a modification shown afterwards if using Plain Text.

In the first example AppleScript code, there are some variables which you'll need to set:

thisFolder - The location of the folder containing the 100 files.
theRecipientName - The Name of the Email Recipient.
theRecipientAddress - The Email Address of the Email Recipient.
theSubject - The Subject of the Email Message.

In the second example AppleScript code, in addition to the variables shown above:

theAlreadySentListFilename - The location and name of the file containing the filenames from which the content has already been sent.

The remainder of the script is coded in a manner (tokenized) to work with these variables and others set within the script. Also, the tell application "Mail" block of code is coded to send the message automatically, however it has been commented out, until testing is done and or if not wanting to automatically send. Uncomment accordingly.

To use this script, in Script Editor, create a new document and save it as an application in /Applications, naming it as, e.g. 100 Messages to Send.app.

Next, copy and paste the example AppleScript code below into the 100 Messages to Send.app in Script Editor and hit the Compile button on the Toolbar.

Modify the variables, mentioned earlier above.

Save the app and test from within Script Editor.

Once done with testing, hit the Compile button on the Toolbar to reset the theAlreadySentList AppleScript property variable to an empty list, then save and close the 100 Messages to Send.app so as not to reset the theAlreadySentList AppleScript property variable once production mode begins.

First example AppleScript code:

--  ### Folder Path Variable

--  # Set the location of the folder containing the 100 files.
--  # NOTE: All 100 files must be in the same individual folder.

set thisFolder to (path to documents folder as text) & "100 Messages to Send"

--  ### Mail Variables

set theRecipientName to "John Doe"
set theRecipientAddress to "johndoe@domain.com"
set theSubject to "Hello World"
--  # Leave the following as 'missing value'.
set theMessageContent to missing value

--  ##### DO NOT modify below this line unless necessary. #####

--  ### Some Other Variables

--  # The property variable  'theAlreadySentList',  is a list of
--  # filenames from which the messages have already been sent.
--  # The value of this property is maintained so long as
--  # this script is not save again or recompiled after it
--  # has been originally saved for the first time.

property theAlreadySentList : {}
global thisFile

--  ### Handler

on chooseRandomFileFrom(thisFolder)
    tell application "Finder"
        set thisFile to some file of container thisFolder
    end tell
    return thisFile
end chooseRandomFileFrom

--  # Get the count of entries in the 'theAlreadySentList' list.
--  # This is used to display a message and break the 'repeat' loop
--  # once all 100 messages have been sent.

set theCount to (count of theAlreadySentList) as integer

--  # Choose a file at random.

set thisFileName to name of chooseRandomFileFrom(thisFolder)

--  # Evaluate the sent status of 'thisFileName' and respond accordingly.

repeat -- 200 times -- # Uncomment if you want a failsafe out of the 'repeat' loop.
    if theCount is equal to 100 then
        display dialog "All 100 messages have already been sent!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        exit repeat
    else if thisFileName is in theAlreadySentList then
        --  # Choose another file at random.
        set thisFileName to name of chooseRandomFileFrom(thisFolder)
    else
        --  # This file has not been used yet, process accordingly.
        set end of theAlreadySentList to thisFileName
        tell application "TextEdit"
            open thisFile
            activate
            delay 1 --# Adjust as necessary. Time must be given for the file to open before proceeding.
            set theMessageContent to text of front document
            close front document
        end tell
        tell application "Mail"
            activate
            set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:theSubject, content:theMessageContent}
            tell theMessage
                make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:theRecipientName, address:theRecipientAddress}
            end tell
            -- delay 1 --# Adjust as necessary. Uncomment to use this command.
            -- send theMessage --# Uncomment to use this command.
        end tell
        exit repeat
    end if
end repeat

In this second example AppleScript code, a disk file is used to store the list of filenames from which the content has already been sent as an email message.

To use this script, in Script Editor, create a new document and save it as an application in /Applications, naming it as, e.g. 100 Messages to Send.app. This is done so you can add a plain text file to the application bundle to use for the list of filenames already sent. (I prefer to keep related support files within the application bundle.)

Having saved the document as an application, now open the application bundle (in Finder, right-click Show Package Contents) to Contents/Resources/ and create the, e.g. Sent Messages Filename List.txt file as an empty file, and then close the application bundle.

Next, copy and paste the example AppleScript code below into the e.g. 100 Messages to Send.app in Script Editor and hit the Compile button on the Toolbar.

Modify the variables, as mentioned earlier above.

Save the app and test from within Script Editor.

Once done with testing, clear the entries from the Sent Messages Filename List.txt, so it's an empty file when running the app for the first time in production mode.

Second example AppleScript code:

--  ### Folder Path Variable

--  # Set the location of the folder containing the 100 files.
--  # NOTE: All 100 files must be in the same individual folder.

set thisFolder to (path to documents folder as text) & "100 Messages to Send"

--  ### Mail Variables

set theRecipientName to "John Doe"
set theRecipientAddress to "johndoe@domain.com"
set theSubject to "Hello World"
--  # Leave the following as 'missing value'.
set theMessageContent to missing value

--  ### Sent Messages Filename List Location Variable

--  # Set the location and name of the file containing the
--  # filenames from which the content has already been sent.

set myPath to POSIX path of (path to me as string)
set theAlreadySentListFilename to myPath & "Contents/Resources/Sent Messages Filename List.txt"

--  ##### DO NOT modify below this line unless necessary. #####

--  ### Some Other Variables

global thisFile
global theAlreadySentList
set theAlreadySentList to {}

--  ### Handlers

on buildListFromDiskFile(thisDiskFile)
    set thisContent to do shell script "cat " & quoted form of thisDiskFile
    repeat with thisParagraph in paragraphs of text in thisContent
        set end of theAlreadySentList to (thisParagraph as text)
    end repeat
end buildListFromDiskFile

on chooseRandomFileFrom(thisFolder)
    tell application "Finder"
        set thisFile to some file of container thisFolder
    end tell
    return thisFile
end chooseRandomFileFrom

--  # Load data from disk file for: 'theAlreadySentList'

buildListFromDiskFile(theAlreadySentListFilename)

--  # Get the count of entries in the 'theAlreadySentList' list.
--  # Used to display a message once all 100 messages have been sent.

set theCount to (count of theAlreadySentList) as integer

--  # Choose a file at random.

set thisFileName to name of chooseRandomFileFrom(thisFolder)

--  # Evaluate the sent status of 'thisFileName' and respond accordingly.

repeat -- 200 times -- # Uncomment if you want a failsafe out of the 'repeat' loop.
    if theCount is equal to 100 then
        display dialog "All 100 messages have already been sent!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        exit repeat
    else if thisFileName is in theAlreadySentList then
        --  # Choose another file.
        set thisFileName to name of chooseRandomFileFrom(thisFolder)
    else
        --  # This file has not been used yet, process accordingly.
        --  #
        --  # Add the filename to the list.
        do shell script "echo " & thisFileName & " >> " & quoted form of theAlreadySentListFilename
        --  # Get the content of the Rich Text file.
        tell application "TextEdit"
            open thisFile
            activate
            delay 1 --# Adjust as necessary. Time must be given for the file to open before proceeding.
            set theMessageContent to text of front document
            close front document
        end tell
        --  # Create the Mail Message (and Send it).
        tell application "Mail"
            activate
            set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:theSubject, content:theMessageContent}
            tell theMessage
                make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:theRecipientName, address:theRecipientAddress}
            end tell
            -- delay 1 --# Adjust as necessary. Uncomment to use this command.
            -- send theMessage --   # Uncomment to use this command.
        end tell
        exit repeat
    end if
end repeat

NOTE: If you are going to use Plain Text files instead of the Rich Text files, then the entire tell application "TextEdit" block of code can be replaced with the following two lines of code:

set thisFile to POSIX path of (thisFolder & ":" & thisFileName)
set theMessageContent to do shell script "cat " & quoted form of thisFile

You can also change the comment above it, --   # Get the content of the Rich Text file., swapping Rich with Plain.


Force iMessage auto complete to ignore Land line numbers RE-WRITING QUESTION FOR MORE PRECISION:

my goal is to use auto complete over my thousands of contacts to reliably send an SMS message.
In order to be reliable, I need to know that the SMS is being sent to a number that is listed as a mobile number, when I send the SMS.

=====

Thus counting on auto sorting defaults is not reliable, since I must go to the contact to see if the top one is indeed the right one.
Counting on favorites being at the top would also not be reliable unless I added a favorite for every mobile contact number, then deleted numbers from contacts w/o mobile a number, and then ensured that as I added contacts, I had a robust way to ensure that I also added a favorite.  (Plus I have to manually favorite 2,000+ contacts)
thanks for the help so far, but I am hoping there is a solution for this!
(I would use a 3rd party app too, if Apple just blew this one completely)

========
Original Request.

It is the dumbest thing.  iMessage will show all numbers for a contact (and not indicate which number is which).

If you select the wrong one by accident, your message will just be silently lost,
since you just sent an SMS to a landline.

Usually apple thinks about the common use case before implementing a feature...
in this case, someone was asleep at the wheel!

I will even be happy with a hacky work around:
   my goal (using some OSX application) is to be able to auto complete on a
   contact name, then quickly send an SMS.

Mark the number you want to message as a favorite and it will get precedence over other numbers.

Also, look for the blue text to indicate iMessage when you see the various options for a specific contact (email or mobile) and you'll be sure to get their messaging account as opposed to sending it to the land line.

Also, as you send more and more messages, the ones you use float to the top. If you've "trained" your device to send to the wrong number inadvertently, you might need to slow down and send a bunch of messages / use the favorite trick to get the preferred number to be the one that floats to the top.

Alas, I don't know a way to categorically prevent a contact's number from being a message target short of deleting the land line and placing it in the "notes" section, which might be viable if you want to retrain the message app and then return the "land line" number to it's proper place in contacts.