Can I fix things so Archive Utility doesn't hang on all zip files? I am using Mac OS X 10.8.2. I don't know exactly when it started (might have been after the upgrade to 10.8.2, but not sure), but now, any zip file I try to open starts up 'Archive Utility', but then it just hangs and I have to force quit it. The zip file is never unzipped.

As a workaround, I can go to the command line and use the 'unzip' command, but that is not very convenient.

Can I re-install this application to see if that would help or is this part of the OS and thus cannot really be re-installed separately?

It's related to the Apple Events bug in 10.8.2 that also makes revealing files in Finder stop working.

As a workaround, you can terminate the appleeventsd process with sudo killall appleeventsd sudo killall -KILL appleeventsd. (Without -KILL the process is sent a TERM signal and many processes stop responding as @myhd described.)


Setting the system-wide PATH environment variable in Mavericks In previous OS versions one could set the system-wide PATH environment variable in /etc/launchd.conf to make it available for all apps (not just the command line).

In Mavericks this appears to be no longer used.

Is there another technique for doing this in mavericks?

Yosemite

/etc/launchd.conf is no longer supported in 10.10. See man launchctl:

  The /etc/launchd.conf file is no longer consulted for subcommands to run during early boot time; this functionality was removed for security considerations.

You can now for example save this plist as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/my.startup.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>my.startup</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>sh</string>
    <string>-c</string>
    <string>launchctl setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

The launchctl setenv command is ran as the user, so it only applies to processes launched in the user domain.

This method doesn't apply to applications that are reopened at login if "Reopen windows when logging back in" is checked.

Mavericks and earlier

In 10.9 and earlier, you can for example run

echo setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin|sudo tee -a /etc/launchd.conf

and then restart to apply the changes.

Other methods

/etc/paths and /etc/paths.d/ apply only (or mainly) to shells. The lines in /etc/paths and /etc/paths.d/* are added to the path by path_helper, which is run from /etc/profile, /etc/zshenv, and /etc/csh.login. I don't know any programs other than shells that would consider /etc/paths or /etc/paths.d/.

~/.MacOSX/environment.plist stopped working in 10.8.


How can I open a recent Pages file when I get the message "The required index.xml file is missing" How can I open a recent "Pages" file when I get the message "The required index.xml file is missing".
Can anybody help?

Just right click on the pages file you want to open, and it will give you the option to "open with" the new version of pages.


Unable to pair again bluetooth headset I used to have a this bluetooth (BT) headset paired and working. Because it had some audio stuttering issues, as a troubleshooting measure I decided to un-pair (remove from list of BT devices in Mac OS) and pair again.

The problem is that now the headset is not seen anymore. I have the headset in pairing mode and the BT preferences window open and there's no way it'll show. Other BT devices show, and I can pair the BT headset with other devices.

Using Mac OS 10.10.4.

How to pair the headset again? Thanks!

OK, I got this idea: maybe it's the headset that is preventing the pairing from happening (remember I removed the pairing on the Mac, but on the headset it might still be somehow locked with the previous pairing for this specific device). When I read the manual a while ago I remember there was a way to clear the pairing settings.

So I did that, and voilá!, I can now pair with the Mac again :-)


Backup software like Time Machine and CrashPlan combined? Is there a good backup software that combines Time Machine snapshot functionality on local level with CrashPlan remote backups as well? I am currently using both, but find both unsatisfactory.

My main problem with Time Machine is that it consumes a lot of resources and not playing nice. I have a pretty new beefy MacBook and I just know when TM starts running. Everything gets slow and it heats up. Check the processes, and sure enough backupd is at the top.

With CrashPlan I have less of a problem. It is generally very nice piece of software. But recently it is getting stuck for some reason and only know when I get notification by email that there were no backups for 2-3 days. Also it is quite bulky, and also UI is very ugly and not Mac-like.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

I am a big fan of Arq (http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/), which works just like TimeMachine but with remote backups on Amazon S3/Glacier.


Why is my Early 2014 MacBook Air's Trackpad Uneven? My Early 2014 MacBook Air's trackpad is uneven; it's hard to click on the top left corner of the trackpad but it's easy to click on the bottom right corner.

Is this supposed to happen, or is there a problem, say, something is stuck under the top left corner of the trackpad?

The most likely culprit is the battery being swollen.

When you get a physical "deformity" like this, it's due to one of two things:

accidental (or intentional) damage where the case and components don't line up anymore
something putting physical strain on the components themselves.

I'm assuming you didn't drop the Mac or have something heavy impact it.

The battery swells because of off gasses being trapped and it's something you need to fix right away as the trapped gasses at a minimum can damage your Mac (what you're experiencing) to becoming a fire hazard due to thermal runaway.

If you have the technical skills, you can remove the battery and continue to operate your Mac without it as you wait for a replacement battery to arrive.

The battery is located just below the logic board - the four black "squares".  It's an entire module that can be replaced by removing the five screws (red/orange circles denoting different sizes.)  For full removal instructions, see iFixit.com

Image Source:  Ifixit.com


mac os x - usb hid - how the receive device added / device removed callbacks? I'm a beginner at programming on mac os x.

I am following this tutorial.

And I have this program:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <IOKit/hid/IOHIDManager.h>
#include <IOKit/hid/IOHIDKeys.h>
#include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>

static void Handle_DeviceMatchingCallback(void *inContext, IOReturn inResult, void *inSender, IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef)
{
    puts("YAY Handle_DeviceMatchingCallback");
}

static void Handle_DeviceRemovalCallback(void *inContext, IOReturn inResult, void *inSender, IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef)
{
    puts("YAY Handle_DeviceRemovalCallback");
}

int main()
{
    IOHIDManagerRef HIDManager = IOHIDManagerCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, kIOHIDOptionsTypeNone);
    IOHIDManagerSetDeviceMatching(HIDManager, NULL);

    IOHIDManagerRegisterDeviceMatchingCallback(HIDManager, &Handle_DeviceMatchingCallback, NULL);
    IOHIDManagerRegisterDeviceRemovalCallback(HIDManager, &Handle_DeviceRemovalCallback, NULL);

    IOHIDManagerScheduleWithRunLoop(HIDManager, CFRunLoopGetMain(), kCFRunLoopDefaultMode);

    IOReturn IOReturn = IOHIDManagerOpen(HIDManager, kIOHIDOptionsTypeNone);
    if(IOReturn) puts("IOHIDManagerOpen failed.");

    while(1)
    {
        puts("sleeping...");
        sleep(1);
    }

    return 0;
}

What I am doing wrong, because I do not get the callbacks when I insert or remove any hid device in the USB port.

IOHIDManagerScheduleWithRunLoop is hooked to RunLoop, so You need to start one. while loop is not the solution here. So in order to get callbacks You should replace while loop with CFRunLoopRun() call. More informations about RunLoops in documentation.


Any way to set/add tags on a file with Applescript under Mavericks? Trying to move some of my scripts over from labels to tags under Mavericks, but I can't seem to find a way to set/add tags with Applescript.

Anybody that know how to do this? As far as I can figure tags aren't actually new, just new in terms of being a more central part of the updated Finder.

You can use xattr. This copies the tags from file1 to file2:

xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags "$(xattr -px com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags file1)" file2
xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo "$(xattr -px com.apple.FinderInfo file1)" file2

The tags are stored in a property list as a single array of strings:

$ xattr -p com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags file3|xxd -r -p|plutil -convert xml1 - -o -
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
    <string>Red
6</string>
    <string>aa</string>
    <string>Orange
7</string>
    <string>Yellow
5</string>
    <string>Green
2</string>
    <string>Blue
4</string>
    <string>Purple
3</string>
    <string>Gray
1</string>
</array>
</plist>

The tags for colors have values like Red\n6 (where \n is a linefeed).

If the kColor flag in com.apple.FinderInfo is unset, Finder doesn't show the circles for colors next to files. If the kColor flag is set to orange and the file has the red tag, Finder shows both red and orange circles. You can set the kColor flag with AppleScript:

do shell script "xattr -w com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags '(\"Red\\n6\",\"new tag\")' ~/desktop/file4"
tell application "Finder" to set label index of file "file4" of desktop to item 1 of {2, 1, 3, 6, 4, 5, 7}

'("Red\n6","new tag")' is old-style plist syntax for this:

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

xattr -p com.apple.FinderInfo file|head -n1|cut -c28-29 prints the value of the bits used for the kColor flag. Red is C, orange is E, yellow is A, green is 4, blue is 8, magenta is 6, and gray is 2. (The flag that would add 1 to the values is not used in OS X.)


Can you set own prices when selling music on iTunes? Can you set your own track/album prices when selling music on iTunes?

I was able to find answers on several forums (not on Apple's website/KBs), but they were contradictory (some say that it's $0.99 automatically, some that you can choose the price).

Can someone clarify the pricing parameters an artist can use on the iTunes store?

Check this info in official Apple site.This & this interesting sources. I think it could help.

If you already have an account with iTunes for music distribution, you can review your pricing options in the legal documents by logging in to https://itunesconnect.apple.com/ and then selecting Agreements, Tax, and Banking - if you don't have a selling account, you can apply and if accepted, you will get to review the legal agreements and then decide to proceed with signing them if you wish.

https://www.apple.com/itunes/working-itunes/sell-content/music-faq.html


Find my friends inaccurate location Is it possible for find my friends location to initially identify the correct location and then suddenly shift to an inaccurate location even if that person is still in his initial location?

What happened was I was tracking my son on his way to school just to know if he got there safe and after a few minutes, FMF located him exactly where he should be (school), but after checking again, his location changed to a few streets away from where he should be. I tried to find out what that place was and it was a furniture store which is not even open yet.

So I'm wondering if it's possible for find my location to give off inaccurate information?

Yea it's very inaccurate sometimes, believe me I got mad at my daughter because she told me she was at my sisters house but the gps was saying otherwise so I got upset at her but she was actually at her house.My sister confirm that, I had to apologize!


Does macOS have a command to retrieve detailed CPU information like /proc/cpuinfo on Linux? Linux has a command to retrieve detailed CPU information using cat /proc/cpuinfo. Using this command, users can get CPU and CPU's core information like below.

processor   : 0
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 142
model name  : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7267U CPU @ 3.10GHz
stepping    : 9
cpu MHz     : 3096.000
cache size  : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 2
core id     : 0
cpu cores   : 2
apicid      : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 22
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc unfair_spinlock eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch invpcid_single pti retpoline fsgsbase avx2 invpcid rdseed flush_l1d
bogomips    : 6192.00
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor   : 1
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 142
model name  : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7267U CPU @ 3.10GHz
stepping    : 9
cpu MHz     : 3096.000
cache size  : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 2
core id     : 1
cpu cores   : 2
apicid      : 1
initial apicid  : 1
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 22
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc unfair_spinlock eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch invpcid_single pti retpoline fsgsbase avx2 invpcid rdseed flush_l1d
bogomips    : 6192.00
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Does macOS/OS X have a command to retrieve detailed CPU and CPU cores information equal to Linux /proc/cpuinfo? I really want to know a CLI command to retrieve the Mac's CPU core ID.

I tried sysctl machdep.cpu, but it didn't retrieve CPU core ID.

The Terminal command sysctl might be what you're looking for, in particular sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu:

[my_mac:~] admin% sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu
machdep.cpu.max_basic: 22
machdep.cpu.max_ext: 2147483656
machdep.cpu.vendor: GenuineIntel
machdep.cpu.brand_string: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8210Y CPU @ 1.60GHz
machdep.cpu.family: 6
machdep.cpu.model: 142
machdep.cpu.extmodel: 8
machdep.cpu.extfamily: 0
.
.
.

machdep.cpu.core_count: 2
machdep.cpu.thread_count: 4
machdep.cpu.tsc_ccc.numerator: 134
machdep.cpu.tsc_ccc.denominator: 2

Info gleaned from OSXDaily.


How to reauthorise a Google account in Internet Accounts (after changing Google Account password) on Mac OS 10.11 My Google Account is connected to Mac OS X using Internet Accounts. I changed the password of my Google Account (at google.com) and now the OS - and especially Mac Mail - can no longer access the account.

I believe that Mac OS X is using OAuth to authorise with Google, so is it possible to force the OS to reauthorise the connected account (without deleting and starting again)?

Mac OS Version: 10.11.3

Have you tried opening System Preferences > Internet Accounts? Opening it will usually ask you to reauthorize when you've changed passwords. If not you can try checking and unchecking Notes.


How to allow non-identified developpers'app I'm wondering how to allow non-identified developers' apps since I updated my MacBook Pro to macOS Sierra.

This option seems to have disappeared.

Can someone help?

You can right-click on the unidentified app and choose open.

You can completely disable gatekeeper with the command:

sudo spctl --master-disable


The safest, most reliable way to move files from drive A to drive B I am trying to come up with the safest way to move data between two drives, designed to handle the worst possible circumstances. For example: if you were trying to move the only existing copies of pictures of your child being born while a crazed monkey was roaming the halls and might pull the power cord on your Mac and/or the external drives at any moment.

Note that there is a similar question for syncing, but I'm asking specifically about moving which is a different problem, because (amongst other reasons) you have to be able to tell which files have been moved and which have not. You also need to account for the possibility that some files might have been copied to the intended destination but not removed from the source.

This solution does not have to use the GUI. In fact I find the Terminal comforting. I don't mind installing new programs (especially if available via brew). Only requirement is that the solution be compatible with Mac OS X 10.8.

Here is the work-flow solution that I have in mind:

cp (copy) files (if needed)
checksum files (either after copy or if an existing copy of the file is found)
Move original file to trash (not rm!) after a file has been moved to new location

More specifically:

User specifies where files should be moved to (target/destination folder). Call it $DEST (This would be similar to the --target-directory flag to GNU mv
User specifies files/folders which should be moved to $DEST. Call that $INPUT
Script would then look for each file/folder from $INPUT on $DEST.
If file/folder is found on $DEST then checksum it against $INPUT copy.
If checksum matches, move $INPUT copy to trash.
If checksum does not match, replace $DEST copy with $INPUT

Note: while I do care about permissions (technically I care about "executability"), I do not care about "ownership" as I am the only user of this local system.

Before I go and re-invent the wheel, does something like this already exist?

Basically I want as much assurance as possible that a good copy has been made before I delete the original, without doing a full sync between the two drives.

I'd use the same solution as for syncing, with the option given to rsync to remove the source files. Something like this:

rsync -azv --remove-source-files $INPUT $DEST

As you mentioned, why reinvent the wheel? rsync checksums each transferred file to be sure it has transferred correctly.


Is it possible to disable force shutdown from the power button? I have a MacBook Pro Mid 2012 and I would like to know if is possible to disable the "force shutdown by pressing the power button for 5 seconds".

It is not possible to disable the force shutdown, it is hardwired, and the interrupt cycle runs continuously checking for it.


Only the first AirPods Pro I put in my ear works I bought my AirPods 2 months ago and since 2 days they started being weird. Only the AirPod that I put in my ear first works but when I put the other one in it keeps on lagging and bugging and still plays over one AirPod

I had the exact same issue with my right AirPod and I bought them about 2 months ago also!!!  I think there may have been a bad batch of AirPods Pro.  I called apple and they sent me a new right AirPod and they work perfectly now.  I suggest doing the same thing.
Also, when you get the replacement, I had to unpair, then reset the AirPods a couple times before it would connect to the new one.


PC as Bluetooth Headset for iPhone I am trying to set up my computer (running Windows 8.1) as a headset for answering/making calls for my iPhone 4S. I have connected my iPhone through bluetooth, and can listen to music and create keyboard inputs, but cannot use Handsfree!

I have all of the services enabled for the iPhone:

I don't understand why my PC cannot act as a bluetooth headset, as Hands-free is selected! I have the latest bluetooth drivers installed for my computer. My guess is that it may be two drivers not working correctly (seen in Device Manager):

Could these two drivers (MAP MAS-iOS and Wireless iAP) not being installed be the cause of the problem? I have been searching for these drivers online and cannot find them.

It turns out that these features are specific to the manufacturers Bluetooth drivers. I was able to find another manufacturers drivers, and they have hands-free as a function:


How can I get a list of potential methods for DefaultKeyBinding.dict? I would like to take more advantage of being able to define shortcuts in the Mac DefaultKeyBinding.dict. However I cannot find a comprehensible list of what I can remap. Right now I am searching for every bit of functionality I want to find and hope that someone already posted an answer for that. I have just found that adding

{
  "@\UF702" = moveWordLeft:;
  "@\UF703" = moveWordRight:;
  "@$\UF702" = moveWordLeftAndModifySelection:;
  "@$\UF703" = moveWordRightAndModifySelection:;
}

enables me to use ⌘← and ⌘→ to move by word but I would like to extend this to ⌘⌫← and ⌘⌫→ to delete forward and backward until the end of word.

I was trying to find a Apple's Cocoa documentation to get the full list of methods, but so far this is the best I could find: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html

Any recommendations?

It seems that you can trigger any methods you want for the active view of the application you are running. This is the most comprehensive list of methods I have found.  It is the oldest snapshot of osxnotes.net, now down, on the wayback machine (so they may have updated it before it was taken down). See the links in the "Methods" section for even more information than the link itself provides.


problem with deleting some texts and then not being in chronological order I have an iPhone 6. I clean up and only delete certain texts. When I do that the name and group of texts does not fall into the chronological line up, it stays at the top. Does that make sense? Why does it do that?

Totally concur... On my old 4S, when I would delete some but not necessarily ALL of some messages in a conversation, that conversation would drop in my messages to its proper place, based on the date of the that last text.

With 6S, someone from 6 mos ago can send you a text.  After you reply and delete it, that message thread from 6 mos ago stays on top.

With the old 4S, they would drop down to their proper place based on date of last text.

That's a big bummer about the new iPhones versus the old ones.  And it makes it easy for something important to fall off the radar.

.


Cannot connect to software update server By some reason I cannot connect to the software update server. I'm receiving the following message when I try to fetch the updates:

Can you suggest how I can switch to the native Apple update server? I used to be assigned to the corporate one before, but it's no longer the case. Any chance to change it without bringing my laptop to the Apple store?
The options suggested here didn't help. I keep receiving the same error.
OS version: macOS Sierra 10.12

Check you're using the correct command - there were a few variants for different OS versions, but this will work for 10.10 onwards, including 10.12 Sierra:

sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog


How can I Hide Desktop Icons on Mojave? The following commands used to work to hide the desktop items. In Mojave, it just refreshes the dock and everything remains. Is there another way to do this?

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false; killall Finder

Mojave does support hiding Desktop items. If for any reason true or false does not work, try using 1 or 0. Example below worked on macOS 10.14.5 and hides items from view:

$ defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop 0; killall Finder


Connecting Apple TV HD to a monitor over USB-C port Does Apple TV HD support connecting to a display via USB-C port? I use the same display with my newer MacBook Pro with USB-C port.

I use a display with three input options, a DisplayPort, an HDMI port and a USB-C port. I am able to connect my MacBooks using any one of them i.e., Mini Display Port to Display Port and HDMI cable on a 2013 15" MacBook Pro and a USB-C to USB-C cable on a 2019 16" MacBook Pro.

I have the HDMI port engaged with the MacBook and I wondered if I can connect the Apple TV HD to the display via USB-C, but turns out I can not get anything to appear on the display. I am able to connect the Apple TV to my 16" MacBook Pro using the same USB-C cable fine.

Does Apple TV not support outputting to a display over USB-C? Is there anyway to enable?

No, the Apple TV does not support outputting to a display over USB-C. There's also no way to enable that as the hardware to do so simply isn't there.

The USB-C connection can only be used for USB data transfers (such as for example upgrading firmware, connecting to Xcode debuggers or similar).


Time Capsule external USB drive - as second Time Machine Drive? I have a 3TB Time Capsule ac. Which is used for Time Machine wirelessly.
I would like to connect an external USB Hard Drive to the Time Capsule and use it as an extension to TimeMachine to backup more than 3TB.

What problems if any would I encounter? And how will this work?
Can I have the external drive connected to the Time Capsule work with Time Machine as well?

Connecting an external drive won't extend the built-in storage per se; rather, you'll be able to back up to either the internal disk, or the disk connected via USB. Of course, you can switch back and forth, but they won't be combined into one volume.


Can I get drivers to run Win 7 64 bit on a MacBook 2.1 manually? I have a working MacBook 2.1 mid 2007, i wish to run Win 7 64 bit. Is there a way to get the drivers i need manually? apparently running Win 7 64bit on this model is not fully supported.

I have never installed Windows on a MacBook. However, I have installed 32 bit Vista and Windows 7, 64 bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 on a 2007 iMac. I base my answer on the assumption your experiences would be the same.

For all 64 bit installs on Windows, I used the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033. The Apple website Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp indicates your Mac should use the same version of the Boot Camp Support Software. Instructions for installing this software are given as a answer to Using Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 to install 64 bit Windows 7 or 8.

You should install Windows to BIOS boot. The main reason for this is that many of the drivers included in the Boot Camp Support Software are designed only for BIOS booting.

According to Apple, the Windows 7 installation media is suppose to include Service Pack 1 (SP1). Although, users have posted success installing without SP1. The Microsoft website Installing Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp does not mention needing SP1.

I could not boot from the Windows 7 DVD because the DVD contained multiple ways to boot. If you have this problem, then see my answer to to “Select CD-ROM Boot Type:” error during Windows install

USB flash drive based Windows installers would not work with my 2007 iMac. So, other than using the optical drive to install Windows, you could choose to use the procedure outlined in Installing Windows 7 or 10 Pro 64 bit without DVD or Flash Drive


How to prevent Cisco AnyConnect from disconnecting when locking screen My Mac Book pro with 10.11.2 has this annoying feature that it disconnects Cisco AnyConnect VPN every time I lock the screen.

I found some instructions on how to prevent Wi-Fi disconnection when locking the screen, but I could not apply those instructions to the AnyConnect network. I´m usually connected with Ethernet cable, if that matters.

Is there some way to disable such feature?

TL;DR

Launch Terminal and run:

ifconfig | grep -B 6 'status: active' | head -n 1 | cut -d : -f 1

Then run (replace en0 below with the output of the command above):

cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources
sudo ./airport en0 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO
sudo pmset -a sleep 0

Long version

I am on MacOS Mojave (10.14).
For me this helped against automatically disconnecting from Cisco AnyConnect while on WiFi:

Open the Terminal app and paste:

ifconfig | grep -B 6 'status: active' | head -n 1 | cut -d : -f 1

This returned:

en0

Then type (replace en0 on line 2 with the returned value above):

cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources
sudo ./airport en0 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

Type your password.
Check if the setting was saved by typing:

sudo ./airport prefs

Which should return this:

AirPort preferences for en0:

DisconnectOnLogout=NO
Unable to retrieve JoinMode
JoinModeFallback=DoNothing
RememberRecentNetworks=YES
RequireAdminIBSS=NO
RequireAdminNetworkChange=NO
RequireAdminPowerToggle=NO
WoWEnabled=YES

DisconnectOnLogout should be set to NO.

Next, prevent the system from going to sleep after locking:

sudo pmset -a sleep 0

That should do the trick, worked for me.


Opening .doc from Mac Classic on a modern computer I have an old Macintosh Classic running Mac OS 7.0.3. It has Word 5 installed on it and contains a some .doc files created within it. The documents are in Czech language and contain letters like ěšč and so forth.

I would like to copy them to a diskette and open them up, either on a Windows PC or a modern Mac, however, saving them and moving them over to the computer allows me to open them in Word, but the non-English characters are all corrupt. Is there any way to open the documents so that they display as they should?

I have tried saving the files as various versions of Doc, WordPerfect and so on (pretty much anything Word 5 offers), but all behaved the same way.

Note: The documents seem to open fine in Office 95 on Windows 98.

The perils of proprietary and binary file formats.
You should try to transfer and convert all files you care for now.
Preferably into an open, plaintext based format.

There are a few other options, like converting the to be printed page to PostScript or PDF, but the below seems to fit your scenario best?

Microsoft Word
Summary: How to transfer Microsoft Word files between Mac and PC. Macros to speed up things:

  Introduction

  Generally, you get the same results importing on the target computer and exporting on the source computer when you exchange text files between Word for the Macintosh and Word for Windows. It is not quite true when your file contains graphics. We found that the conversion modules of Word for the Macintosh do a better work converting to and from the Word for Windows files than the modules of Word for Windows.

  Word for the Macintosh

  From version 6, Word files are identical (binary compatible) on the PC and on the Macintosh. There should be no more conversion problems. However, you should note that the migration to Word 6 doesn't proceed so fast on the Macintosh because the perceived advantages of this move are not blatant. Word 6 is pretty slow, even on a Power Mac. If you have to give a Word file to a Macintosh user, you better give her/him a Word 5 file. If you know that the file will be mounted in a DTP package, you should definitively give a Word 4/5 file. Adobe and Quark had a hard work to produce usable import filters for Word 6.

  Word 5 for the Macintosh opens all PC Word formats up to Word Windows 2. Word 4 for the Macintosh only imports the Word DOS files. All versions of Word for the Macintosh can export to Word DOS (3/4/5).

  Identification codes of Word for the Macintosh versions 1, 3, 4 et 5:
  FE 32 for Word 1
  FE 34 for Word 3
  FE 37 for Word 4 et 5.
  Word 3 is not supported any more in Word for Windows 6 and higher. You therefore have to open the files in a more recent version of Word for the Macintosh and resave in Word 5 or 6.

  If you get incorrect accented characters opening some Word DOS files in Word Mac 5 (it never happened with Word Mac 4), you should know that Word Mac 5 insists on getting a correct code page at the end of the file header. Word 5/5.5 on the PC put this code at the right place, but it is not the case of Word DOS 3/4 and of some conversion packages (main culprit: Wordperfect). You will have to open the files with a binary editor and put B5 and 01 (437 in little-endian) at offsets 7E and 7F of the Word file.

  Word on the PC

  Word for Windows 2 can import Word Mac 4/5. As a matter of fact, it is even the best revision level to exchange data between platforms and you should get back to it if you encounter problems (mostly with version 6). Word for Windows (versions 2/6/7) can't import files created in Word 3 for the Macintosh. It is hard to ascertain the origin of those files because the signature is the same for Word 3, 4 and 5 ('MSWDWDBN'). If you use an hex editor, look at the second byte of the file. If you have 34h, it is a Word 3, if 37h, Word 4/5.

  Word for Windows 6 uses the same binary format as Word 6 for the Macintosh. When you get errors opening Macintosh Word 5/6 files in WinWord 6 (accented characters, corrections which don't make it to the disk) with the saved and reopened file, you will have to proceed that way: reopen the original Macintosh file, select the whole file, go in the 'Tools' menu and check the language you want. Go in the 'File' menu and check the paper format in the 'Layout' item. We observed that WinWord 6 often messed with these two parameters.

  Word 3/4/5/5.5 for DOS can't handle Macintosh Word files. But Word for the Macintosh can save as Word DOS files.

  Conversion Macrocommands

  You will find below three Word macros to automatically save in Word Mac 5 from WinWord 2, 6 and 97. The two macros for Word 2/6 are still in French, but you should not have big problems to rewrite them in English. The main difficulty is not to save in a specific format, but to get the filename in a variable of the macro. We found the trick of the dialogbox 'Statistics'. Maybe there are others. If you do the work of porting this macro in English, please send it to us. It will surely help some users. It should not be difficult. Just register a macro while getting the character count and saving the file under another format.

Macro to save in Word Mac 4/5 from Word Windows 97

Sub SaveMac5()
'
' SaveMac5 Macro
' (c) 1999 Pierre Duhem
'
Dim nomfich, nomfich2 As String
Dim lg As Integer
nomfich = ActiveDocument.Name
lg = Len(nomfich)
nomfich2 = Left(nomfich, lg - 3) + "mcw"
ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=nomfich2, FileFormat:=108, _
    LockComments:=False, Password:="", AddToRecentFiles:=True, WritePassword _
    :="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False, EmbedTrueTypeFonts:=False, _
    SaveNativePictureFormat:=False, SaveFormsData:=False, SaveAsAOCELetter:= _
    False
ActiveDocument.Close
End Sub

Macro to save in Word Mac 4/5 from Word Windows 6

Sub MAIN
'Macro saving the current file in Word Mac 5, extension "mcw"
'Version for Word Windows 6
Dim nom$
Dim dlg1 As StatistiquesDocument
Dim dlg2 As FichierEnregistrerSous
FichierRésumé .MiseAJour
GetCurValues dlg1
nom$ = dlg1.NomFichier
pos = InStr(nom$, ".")
nom$ = Left$(nom$, pos) + "mcw"
FichierEnregistrerSous .Nom = nom$, .Format = RechercheConvertisseur ("MSWordMac")
FichierFermer (2)
End Sub

Macro to save in Word Mac 4/5 from Word Windows 2

Sub MAIN
'Macro saving the current file in Word Mac 5, extension "mcw"
'Version for Word Windows 2
Dim nom$
Dim dlg1 As StatistiquesDocument
'To get statistics, character count, etc.
Dim dlg2 As FichierEnregistrerSous
'to save as...
FichierEnregistrer
GetCurValues dlg1
nom$ = dlg1.NomFich
pos = InStr(nom$, ".")
nom$ = Left$(nom$, pos) + "mcw"
FichierEnregistrerSous .Nom = nom$, .Format = 109, .VerrouillerSaufAnnotations = 0, .MotDePasse = ""

FichierFermer
End Sub

Other options to consider might be:

Trying LibreOffice and hope it does a decent job at conversion.

Running (the now abandoned and not legally availabe and not working on Mac Os X Lion 10.7 or higher) MacLinkPlus program. It was installed on many Macs of that era and might be still in your possession. It can be run on old hardware or in emulation layers, depending on the version you have.

Another cool option mihght be running the most perfect program ever: WordPerfect. Version 3.5e was eventually offered for free download. A very convenient way to get this running under macOS Mojafe 10.14 is detailed here: WordPerfect for the Mac under OS X/macOS:

Basically you need:

  SheepShaver, The "classic" Mac OS 7.5.5, Corel WordPerfect 3.5e,
  Mac OS ROM, Adobe Type Manager LE and Adobe Acrobat Reader

WordPerfect may read your Word files just fine. Since it is very conveniently bundled into a complete package on that site, it may well be worth a download and take a peek at what else comes on the DMG…


"Cannot Verify Server Identity" - Cannot find source I'm getting an odd error suddenly and presumably due to an old certificate that I probably accepted many years ago when I used to use Adium on macOS via iMessage / Messages.  Suddenly, just today, I started getting the following popup in all sorts of apps on iOS 13 on my iPad and iOS 13 on my iPhone:

Since I can’t determine if this message come from the front most app or system settings I’ll need some help with how I can locate what setting or app is calling a site that no longer has a signed certificate that iOS trusts.

What steps can triage this?

Look in the settings app, delete all profiles you don’t know you need and maybe the rest.

Also, VPN profiles could be implicated and for an edge case, look to any iCloud keychains on macOS.

I would make a back up as well in case you end up erasing the contents and settings and restoring from backup after being sure it’s not coming from your network with a clean iOS device that joins your network.


Two external monitors + one own on mid-2015 13-inch entry level MacBook Pro? Is it possible to run two external monitor setup on mid-2015 13-inch entry level MacBook Pro (the one for $1299), so that laptops screen is also available? Basically making it three monitor setup - two external and one built-in.

P.S. I do not consider adding any external portable USB graphic cards, as I've tried one with good reviews and it sucked.

Yes, you can. You can use your HDMI port for one display and thunderbolt port for the other one (You may want to use an adapter for thunderbolt to HDMI). Then you go to Displays tab in Preferences , Arrangements and arrange your monitors however you want.


Transfer file from iOS to macOS without internet, natively? Let's say that I have a large file on my iOS device. Let's also say that:

I don't have internet (or the more likely scenario, AirDrop isn't working for some reason)
I don't want to download third-party apps to get this done
I have a cable that can connect my iOS device to my Mac

How do I transfer this large file from my iOS device to my Mac, without using AirDrop or the internet? Is there a way without having to resort to third-party apps on either my iDevice or my Mac?

If the file in question is a large video or image file visible in the Photos app on your iOS/iPadOS device, you can connect the device directly to your Mac via a cable (Lightning and/or USB-C on iOS/iPadOS device, USB-A or USB-C on Mac) and use the Image Capture.app on your Mac to directly transfer it.

If it's a file stored in one of the apps installed on your iOS/iPadOS device that supports File Sharing, you can again connect the iOS/iPadOS device to your Mac directly via cable, and use iTunes (macOS Mojave and earlier) or Finder (macOS Catalina) to directly transfer it.

If none of the above applies, and your large file is accessible via the Files app on your iOS/iPadOS device, you can use a removable storage media, to transfer the file natively.

iOS/iPadOS supports transferring files by connecting removable storage. Invest into one of the USB-C or Lightning removable storage device. You can even find some listed on Apple Online Store:

Storage - Mac Accessories - Apple

Example:

SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Go: 256GB, 128GB, 64GB.
SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C: 128GB, 64GB.

The same or a similar product can be connected to an iOS/iPadOS device, and Apple's Files app can be used to transfer the file to and from the storage. The same can also be connected the a Mac.

Connect external devices or servers with Files on iPad


Adding text to PDF using Adobe Reader in OS X As can be seen from the screenshot, I have selected "Add text at cursor" and entered the desired text.

But as can also be seen - there is only a tiny very narrow entry there - I can not even discern if any text were actually being displayed.

Adding text should be a simple procedure. What am I missing here?

I guess we can assume that the document does not fillable fields (because if it had, the question would not have come up).

The "Add text at cursor" tool is a markup tool, used for correction text. It sets a marker in the text, and the text to add is contained in the popup.

The suitable Comment tool for this purpose ("filling" out a form) would be the Add Text Comment tool.


Why can't Finder find some obvious items sometimes? I use Finder's Search bar a lot to find specific items nested in my folders. It usually works flawlessly and I find all the items I want. Other times it just doesn't do anything:

Imagine a folder with just 10 files, and one of the is an image ending with .png. If you search .png in the search bar, Finder literally doesn't find it!

This happens to me maybe once every couple days. I'm not sure why - relaunching Finder doesn't seem to help either.

Indeed, the Finder fails to live up to its name in my experience as well. Results seem so frustratingly random as to what is found and what is missed.

Beware of one setting that may help: Finder > Preferences > Advanced > "When performing a search` with a popup menu offering "Search this Mac", "Search the Current Folder", "Use the Previous Search Scope".

Beware of the "Search" bar with scope filter buttons that appears when typing search criteria into the upper-right corner.

Finding the Finder nearly useless for finding, so in the past I have in the past purchased a license to Path Finder, a Finder replacement/supplement app. There are other such apps as well.

Another option is using command-line tools in Terminal.app. For example, this article shows the use of the find command. See also this Question on SuperUser Stack Exchange, How do I find a file by filename in Mac OSX terminal?.


iPhone cropped photos upload to Facebook uncropped Steps to reproduce problem:

Crop a photo in the Photos app.
Open the FaceBook app and post the picture.

Once it has loaded you see the original un-cropped image.

This is a known behavior with the iOS photos app. When you try to share the image, It always uses the original version of the picture which means without the crop or the iOS camera filters.

Solutions to cropping the photo on iOS

Crop the picture using a third-party app and export the image to the photos app
Crop the picture and take a screenshot of the photo and upload the screenshot.


Can't restore my notes on macOS My Mac was updated to Sierra and, although I can use the Notes app just fine, it erased all my previous notes and I don't have a backup in Time Machine or iCloud.
I tried to recover them from the library and changed the extension to .html (for example: NotesV2.storedata-wal.html) but when I open it in a browser it just code garbage.
How can I get my notes back?

It might be possible to recover the text of your notes. I cannot gaurantee this will work for you, but I've tried this in High Sierra and it worked for me. There might be an easier way, I'm not sure.

Using Finder or Terminal check in the following directory (Note - this may well be a different directory from the one you tried first)

~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes

for the following file

NoteStore.sqlite

(In Finder, select  Go->Go to Folder, enter ~/Library/  , then navigate to the dir shown above)

If this file exists, copy it to your Desktop. (Otherwise, sorry, game over, although someone else might know otherwise)

You will now need mac_apt (macOS Artifact Parsing Tool) to analyse this file.

Download a compiled bundle of mac_apt for macOS from

https://github.com/ydkhatri/mac_apt/releases

I had to use the 10.13 bundle on High Sierra.

Using terminal, then cd into the mac_apt directory you have downloaded.

cd ~/Downloads/<name of mac_apt directory>

You should see the following two files:-

mac_apt_singleplugin.app
mac_apt.app

Now you need to run mac_apt_singleplugin.app to analyse your Notes sql notes db

In terminal, run the following in the mac_apt download directory

./mac_apt_singleplugin.app/Contents/MacOS/mac_apt_singleplugin -i ~/Desktop/NoteStore.sqlite -o ~/Desktop/NotesOutput NOTES

This should create ~/Desktop/NotesOutput

Inside this directory will be a log .txt file, and if you are lucky, a Notes.csv file. The csv file can be opened in any spreadsheet e.g. Numbers, and you can search through its fields to find the text of your notes if they were in the original file. You can copy / paste these into text files. Alternatively it might well be possible to run a script to pull out particular csv fields into individual text files - someone here may be able to help you with that particular problem.


How to convert an HTML file with referenced images on the command line to a webarchive? Under macOS I want to convert HTML files with referenced images on the command line/programatically to webarchives.

Given a sample file sample.html containing:

File with resource

This file shows text and references an image.

and an image sample.jpg in the same directory, I can view the html file in any browser and it is render with the image. To convert to a webarchive I tried:

textutil -convert webarchive sample.html

but the resulting sample.webarchive does not, when opened in Safari, render the image - though it contains it (see comments).

How can I do the conversion from the command line correctly, so that the result contains and renders the image? After all that's what webarchives are for!

Use the tool webarchiver (which you can install via brew install webarchiver):

webarchiver -url sample.html -output sample.webarchive

The webarchive produced contains the image and Safari shows the image when it displays the webarchive.


How to sign into Itunes connect I want to distribute an IOS app using Test Flight. If I go to the Account page of the Apple Developer site, I can see my account details so I am definitely logged in.  On the left hand panel there is a Itunes Connect option. If I click on that it goes to the enter link description here. If I click on App, then it has a link with the text 'Get Started'. If I click on this page, it goes to a page, the top of which has an enroll option. But I  do not want to enroll, I want to sign in, but there is no sign in option, and in any case, I have already signed in.

On a separate page I have signed into Itunes Connect but that just takes me to the getting started page with the same result.

So how do I get to the Itunes connect page where I can add my app?

I am using the same apple ID to sign into my developer account and Itunes connect.

I called Apple support, and they almost immediately established there was an error in the setup of my accounts. They fixed this, and everything works well.


Sierra: can't change Magic Mouse scrolling speed Since one of the recent updates I no longer see the option to change the scrolling speed of my Magic Mouse. It's way too slow. Any way to speed it up?

You control scrolling via: System Preferences>Accessibility>Mouse & Trackpad>Mouse Options>Scrolling>

You can vary the scroll speed and inertia.


How to put Wifi card in monitor mode? When I run tcpdump, I do so after having connected to an access point.
Is there a way to run tcpdump without having connected already?

Use tcpdump -I. -I will put the chosen interface into monitor mode, and doesn't need to be connected to an access point.

The full command would be (if your Wi-Fi interface is en0):

sudo tcpdump -Ii en0


Mac Mail - Stagger / batch download emails from gmail over imap Ive got several gmail accounts and google apps for business (depreciated free version) accounts. One of the my google apps for business accounts is 25gb.

I want to add it to mail on my MBP (osx - 10.10.5).

Is there a mode where i can stagger the downloading of the emails as trying to download 25gb of emails over imap will trigger a temporary imap freeze on my account on gmails end (the freeze lasts about 24 hours). To get around this is there a setting where i can download either in batches or or donwload up to the last years data, then i can donwload then next years etc

Assuming you are using Mail.app included with OS X, there is no built-in way within the application itself.

There are other approaches.

Lower Your Internet Speed

However, you could artificially limit the speed of your Internet connection while the initial synchronisation takes place.

You can limit your Internet connection using Apple's Network Link Conditioner. See the NSHipster article about how to get and set up this useful developer tool:

Using this approach will allow you to run Mail continuously without risking your IMAP access being limited.

Manually Enable and Disable the Account

You could add the mail account, then manually enable and disable the account as desired.

Mail.app > Mail (menu) > Preferences > Accounts > Enable Account (checkbox)

You can measure the network traffic using Activity Monitor.app's Network view; see Sent Bytes and Rcvd Bytes.

Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app

This would allow you to watch the initial synchronisation traffic climb to a reasonable level before disabling the account.


5.1 surround sound via optical out without receiver I have a 2010 Mac mini and I would like to output 5.1 surround sound from it.

The optical audio out is the way to achieve this, but I don't want to have an audio receiver, 5 times bigger then the mini.

I know there is the Logitech Z-5500 and the new Z906 that can do direct optical audio-in, but it seems to be the only option.

Is there other speakers with optical-in or small/cheap adapter?

If you want to have 5.1/7.1 (multichannel) audio, you can do it via the optical out (mini-toslink), the HDMI or the Mini-Display Port.

On the receiver side, you must have a decoder, able to decode the stream (PCM for 2 channels and DD/AC3/DTS and their variants) and convert it to analogue signal.

I had the same dilemma when I got my ATV2, I wanted something to be able to utilize my optical SPDIF, and to be able to decode Surround sound. After doing some research, there were several solutions:

Optical->RCA analogue convertors. Stereo only, like GefenTV. This doesn't do multichannel.
A small size 5.1 Decoder - you can read the HD Audio Rush review here.
A Logitech Z-5500.
Full-blown 5.1/7.1 amplifier.

Personally I decided to go with the amplifier and bought a Pioneer 7.1 receiver.


How to tell whether Little Snitch is running or stopped? I am running Little Snitch in demo mode:

After a few hours, how can I tell whether Little Snitch is running or stopped?

From the official website:

  Free Evaluation License

  Little Snitch has a free, built-in demo mode that provides the same
  protection and functionality as the full version. The demo runs for
  three hours, and it can be restarted as often as you like. The Network
  Monitor expires after 30 days.

How can I restart it when it's stopped?

After a few hours, how can I tell whether Little Snitch is running or stopped?

If you enable the »Show inactivity warning in menu bar« feature (right below the button in your screenshot) you will see a yellow triangle if Little Snitch is not running.

  How can I restart it when it's stopped?

If it is not running, the stop button will change to a start button. Press it to start Little Snitch for another 3 hours.


Disk encryption utility that works with both macOS and Linux I have two work stations with different platforms (macOS High Sierra and Ubuntu 16.04). I need to have an encryption utility that works on both of them. To be more specific I need to encrypt a removable hard drives.

Currently I'm looking on veracrypt which looks quite safe and works on both platforms. The problem is that it has its concept of containers which is not so comfortable if I often add/remove files. The other issue is that it is not integrated into the operation systems.

Is there some better alternatives of veracrypt that are simple, safe enough and integrated in operation systems? Ideally integrated into finder and/or nautilus in Ubuntu so I can drag and drop the files I want.

There are quite a few tools available on Linux that can be integrated into the system. On macOS there is only Filevault in the system.
If you are willing to install osxfuse then macOS gains a lot more possibilities.
Some solutions currently available:
Ciphershed

CipherShed is free (as in free-of-charge and free-speech) encryption software for keeping your data secure and private. It started as a fork of the now-discontinued TrueCrypt Project. Learn more about how CipherShed works and the project behind it.
CipherShed is cross-platform; It is available for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux. Although, as packages for OS X and Linux do not exist, yet, users of those platforms will need to compile CipherShed.

BestCrypt Container Encryption
Advertised as:

Lock up your private data - Use BestCrypt Container Encryption to encrypt files and folders on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

SecurStick

The SecurStick program for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux has been developed as part of the c't article Encryption Service (c't 6/2010 p.170) and allows the encryption of data on USB sticks and others media.

And an alternative fork of truecrypt (that seems to have lost momentum): Gostcrypt
After listing these options there is the difficulty of integration to consider.
In my opinion veracrypt gives the least trouble when working cross platform. It's free, apparently well supported, actively developed and audited. They even have a canary online.
EncFS seems currently not such a good option. But at least it was audited and the problems may have been rectified by now. EncFS works easy on Mac and Linux and restarted development this year. The wikipedia page about EncFS lists the features and Prism-Break recommends it now for both: Linux and macOS. Install EncfS via e.g. homebrew. A GUI-Wrapper increases the comfort (but the provided binary is unstable on 10.12+). For Nautilus integration have a look at EncFS easy, fast and reliable.
If integration into Finder is most important then you might stick with Filevault on the macOS side and try to teach your Ubuntu some new tricks regarding decrypting Filevault with libfvde. That should be available in your standard package repositories and is not that non standard in usage.
libfvde's support status is officially:

libfvde is a library to access FileVault Drive Encryption (FVDE) (or FileVault2) encrypted volumes.
The FVDE format is used by Mac OS X, as of Lion, to encrypt data on a storage media volume.
Project information:
Status: experimental
Licence: LGPLv3+
Supported FileVault2 implementations:
Mac OS X Lion (10.7)
Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)
Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9)
Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10)
Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11)

But that information might be outdated by now since there was a release just 4 days ago.
Further options might exit here: "What are current cross-platform disk encryption options?" Or just using encrypted archives like zip files.


What are the consequences of having a work and personal iPhone with the same Apple ID? I'm considering having both a work and personal iPhone.

The phone numbers will be different, but I'd like to use the same Apple ID for convenience.

But I'm concerned about possible cross-pollination. Presumably text messages will be separate, but things like apps and photographs will be the shared. Perhaps iMessage texts too?

You can use the same Apple ID and as you wrote, apps, music, books and so on are shared between devices.

Regarding Photos, you can turn on/off syncronization (Settings -> [your name] -> iCloud -> Photos, then turn on/off iCloud Photo Sharing)

Regarding iMessage you can turn on and/or off this feature from your phone (Settings -> Messages)


move watched iTunesU video to another folder I'd like to write a script which will move watched iTunesU videos to another folder. There are two questions:

How to find these videos? Automator is able to filter tracks based on play count, but apparently the tracks do not include iTunesU video
How to prevent iTunes from re-downloading these videos again?

You can't easily do it with Automator's actions directly, but you can with AppleScript (which you can wrap in an Automator action if you need).

This AppleScript will get all the iTunes U items that have been watched at least once and move them to a folder you specify.

Note that this does not remove them from iTunes, and you can still play them from iTunes (this is because of how OS X apps track files - in most apps you can move a file you have open and the app can still access it as if nothing has happened).
If you want to remove the item from iTunes altogether, you can add delete theItem on a new line after set the end of theList to the location of theItem.

If you want to avoid redownloading, you'll have to manually change the iTunes U download settings (although I'm not sure if iTunes will actually redownload an item that has been deleted - typically it only downloads new items).

Be sure to change the path to the destination folder to your desired destination, on the set theDestination … line. It must be a folder that exists already.

Script

tell application "iTunes"
    set theList to {}
    set iTunesU to tracks of playlist "iTunes U"
    repeat with theItem in iTunesU
        try
            if played count of theItem > 0 then
                set the end of theList to the location of theItem
            end if
        end try
    end repeat
end tell

tell application "Finder"
    set theDestination to POSIX file "/Users/rob/Desktop/test/"
    repeat with theFile in theList
        move theFile to theDestination
    end repeat
end tell


How to recover an iMovie I am currently in the process of recovering information from a damaged hard drive on a Late-2009 iMac. I am using LazeSoft Data Recovery for the recovery process. Thus far it has worked quite well and I have recovered many of my pictures.

However, the one very unfortunate thing is that I am - thus far - unable to recover my iMovie movie. The movie was completed and saved (I had put it onto a DVD, but I don't have that copy). So my question is, how do I recover this type of file? I believe the movie was approximately 4 GB in size and so I attempted to save it to a 250 GB drive, it still said the file was too large for the drive. Also, once I got the files that I thought belonged to the movie, I could not open them on the identical iMac that I am using now (which doesn't have iMovie, but does have QuickTime). What am I missing here?

The short answer is you recover this file in the same way you'd recover any other file, but this assumes you're only wanting to recover the final movie you produced and not all of the raw footage and project files? It also assumes you exported the video in a playable format (i.e. not just to DVD, but also as a single video file such as a .mov or .mp4 file)?

If so, any good data recovery package will provide filtering options that make it easier for you to isolate and recover what you want. In your case, if you know you saved it as an .mp4 for example, and that the file size was about 4GB, you should be able to select .mp4 as a file type and select any matching files within the vicinity of 4GB in size.

If you're not 100% sure of the file type, any good data recovery package will also group files into categories such as Pictures, Movies, etc. In this case you could select any video or movie files that are around the 4GB size.

Another option some packages will give you is the ability to see the original path of the files. If so you can look for files in your user's Movies folder in which there should be a number of iMovie folders and files. This may allow you to browse and find what you're looking for.

Did you create a disk image instead?

Many standard definition videos of about 1hr duration compress to about 4GB in size when saved as a disk image, so it is possible that you've done just that. Of course, if it was a high definition video then it's duration would be a lot less if it resulted in a 4GB file.

Regardless, the fact is iMovie provides the option of saving it's projects as disk images. In this case you would be looking for a .img file to recover. These files do not play in Quicktime by default as they're not movie files, they're disk images.

You will need to mount the disk image first before you can access the data. Typically you can just double-click on them and this will mount the disk just like any other drive (i.e. it will appear just like you plugged a USB stick into your computer).

Once the disk image is mounted, you can access the files. If what you see is a movie file you should be able to play it in QuickTime. However, if what you find is two folders labelled AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS then what you have is a DVD disk image. You can play this in the DVD Player app, or you can choose to create a physical DVD from it using an app such as Burn or Toast to copy the disk image to DVD.

NOTE

You should be aware that recovering data is not perfect. You may be able to recover the file and all is good, or you may find that it's also corrupted in some way (e.g. the video data is there, but the audio data is missing, etc). Also, it may be that the data isn't all located in a single file any more, or that some of it is missing, so if you have no luck finding it by recovering files around the 4GB size, you may need to recover files well below that in the hope of some success.


iPhone 6 screen burn Well basically my iPhone 6 is showing imprinted images in the background, like from previous applications and such. Basically screen ghosting.

Here are some images:

In this case it is impressing the home screen, but it sometimes shows previous apps and such.

What is this issue related to is it hardware or display? Please if anyone has gone through this shine a light because it's really frustrating.

If you have an Apple Store close to you definitely go in and/or book an appointment with a Genius. They will be able to take a look at it and advise you what has caused it. If it is hardware failure and your phone is within warranty, they will generally replace the screen for you on the spot for no charge. More often than not even if you are out of warranty, they will still replace it for free or for a much reduced price.

I agree with the others that this is a hardware issue with the LCD panel.


Git repository workspace folder not displayed in Finder I have a project in Eclipse that is not navigable in Finder. All the other projects within the same Git repository are fine and can be browsed with Finder.

This image should be displaying an Eclipse project folder, not what it is displaying currently. What's even more curious is that it shows a very old modified date. I have modified this project as of today August 27, 2013. The project runs and compiles fine, but is curiously messed up in Finder.

As stated earlier, all other repo project folders appear to be fine. Am I using an illegal/reserved word? Please advise.

The folder is navigable via Terminal, just not in Finder.

It also appears to be from the usage of .service in the project folder name. Since Git will not allow me to rename, I am looking for a way to get around this in Finder.

Edit

I have been able to confirm that the name is causing the problem.  Now how to rename via git in Eclipse.

First, you're right when you say that the problem comes from the .service extension of your folder.

To browse your project from Finder, you can right-click on the folder and click on "Display Bundle Contents", right under "Open".


How to save root aliases permanently? i tried saving aliases (see below) for the root user in .bash_profile to /var/root/.bash_profile and restarting Terminal, but it didn't work. where does the .bash_profile file need to be to maintain persistent aliases in the terminal?

$ cat /var/root/.bash_profile
alias grep='grep --color=always'
alias net='sudo netstat -ap tcp && sudo lsof -Pn -i4'

my specifications:

sh-3.2# system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType
Software:

    System Software Overview:

      System Version: OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
      Kernel Version: Darwin 12.5.0
      Boot Volume: lily
      Boot Mode: Normal
      Computer Name: lily’s MacBook Air
      User Name: System Administrator (root)
      Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
      Time since boot: 12:37

The proper config file name of the standard root shell (i.e. sh) is .profile. So change the name of .bash_profile to .profile:

mv /var/root/.bash_profile /var/root/.profile
source /var/root/.profile

This is working logging in as root in the GUI.

Trying to sudo su in a sudoer's shell won't fetch root's .profile file. Use sudo -i instead.


Finder on macOS: Search works by default with “Name matches” instead of “Name contains” Is there any possibility to change default behaviour of Search text box in Finder to search with “Name contains” instead of “Name matches”?
I know there is this possibility in advanced searching criteria but that is way too lengthy and usually I just need to quickly find some files by part of the filename.
macOS Catalina v10.15.5

Find Any File can do this, an it's only $7.99:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/find-any-file-faf/id402569179?mt=12
FYI I haven't tried it myself, but the developer website screenshot shows searching by Contains:
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php


Why I can't upgrade my Mac Pro OS X 10.7 to a more recent version? Why I can't upgrade my Mac Pro OS X 10.7 to a more recent version?

My system specs are:

MacPro1,1 , Processor 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, Ram 6 GB 667 GHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMM, Graphic Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB, Serial Number C074200V08S

System Software: OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511)

As indicated here, the last officially supported system software is Mac OS X 10.7.5.

Any later system (10.8-10.10) is not running on your Mac and you won't be able to upgrade.

Here (english) or here (german) you'll find a hack/workaround to get Yosemite running on your MacPro1,1, if it doesn't contain a 7300GT or X1900XT video card (which is true in your case because your Mac contains a GeForce 8800 GT).


How do I remotely wake my Mac over Wi-Fi? I am running a server on my Mac mini at home (using the OS X Server app). I would like to access my home network using it's VPN server, but I understand that I can only do this while it's awake. I have already configured my Mac's server to use its IP address for Wi-Fi (for some DNS settings etc), and so connecting it via ethernet would mean that I would have to change quite a few settings...

I'm running OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

How can I do this without having to connect my Mac to my router via ethernet?

I've searched the site and can't find an answer that makes sense to me since they appear out-dated.

Use an Apple Airport or other router that implements Bonjour sleep proxy (optional step)
Configure your Mac to allow wake from Wi-Fi in the power adapter section of Energy Saver
Use Remote Desktop or an equivalent tool to send the Wake-on-lan (WOL) packet to your router that will then deliver it to your sleeping Mac.


Setting up bash_profile but alias not found? Trying to set up my bash_profile but I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

touch ~/.bash_profile

And...

open ~/.bash_profile

Save and close the .bash_profile.
Then close and re-open Terminal and I get this:

Last login: Sat Dec 12 12:52:20 on ttys000
-bash: alias: /Users/BilboBaggins/bash_profile’: not found

What am I doing wrong? The contents of my .bash_profile looks as follows:

alias bp='open ~/.bash_profile'

I copy and pasted code again from Safari into TextEdit and it worked.

 alias bp='open ~/.bash_profile'

I deleted my profile, re-started Terminal, and re-did it by hand, and it broke again. It only works when I paste the code from Safari. So weird. No idea why this is.

If anyone has any idea, let me know because i'm so confused.


Can i stored iMovie projects and files in an NTFS external drive? I'm backing up manually my computer with the data I want to keep.

I've already backed up iPhoto library in a a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition as it seems is the only way to store it properly.

They say that it involves other softwares and some internal databases.

I was wondering if it happen the same iMovie or on the other hand, it is just a group of folders and files. (as I believe it is in this case)

Could I use my NTFS external drive to backup iMovie files and folders? (projects and events folders)

I'm using Mac Os X 10.6.8 and I'm updating to Mavericks.
I'm using Tuxela NTFS to be able to write and read NTFS from my Mac.
I'm using iMovie 11 9.0.4

Yes you can. Since you have Tuxera NTFS installed, you are able to read/write to the drive fine, so iMovie will have no problem saving to it. iMovie projects aren't as complex as iPhoto libraries, so you shouldn't have any problems.


Ping command with parameters from iPhone How I can execute ping command with parameter -s (size of package) from iPhone device. I need it for access to my router with help of knocking mechanism.

I tried different apps in AppStore - no success.
Apps List:

Ping - network utility

Termius - SSH client

Maybe, someone know appropriate one?

IT Tools - Network Analyzer iOS app has a configuration screen for ping, which includes Payload Size:


Warranty issues on replacement iphone Hi i bought an iphone 6 plus from ebay recently and in the listing seller says it is a new phone that came from a iphone replacement and it has 12 months warranty since the day of purchase.

I then asked him how he was going to tranfer the warranty to my name and he replied:

"The warranty is with the phone for 12 months from date of purchase. It's not registered to an individual. So you would be able to take it to any Apple Store if you needed to."

I ask this community is this is normal or theres somekind of bull in here... The warranty is not transfered to me? The warranty goes in the name of who buys the product?!!

It seems the seller has a decent understanding of things and what you wrote smells of no bull.

Apple warrants goods in the country of purchase (which sets obligations on the warrantee and the warrantor). Do keep in mind that the original purchase date of the phone sets the warranty. A replacement phone would have the remainder of the original one year warranty and a 90 day warranty from the date of the exchange - whichever is longer on it's own (the 90 days isn't stacked / it runs concurrently with any remaining warranty).

Possession means you can register the phone and seek all service as if you were the original purchaser with a few exceptions. You probably can't return it and you would need a notarized bill of sale and original receipt to do things like bypass activation lock.

You can check your phone warranty status at https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

You can add AppleCare just as the original buyer could. You can seek any and all other warranty services as if you were the original buyer without needing any proof of ownership or purchase.


How to delete pre-installed apps in Catalina? I want to delete the pre-installed apps, like Music, Books, Siri etc. from my iMac running Catalina. How do I do this?

(NOTE: This question asks the same thing but was closed as a duplicate of this question. Annoyingly, the supposed duplicate doesn’t give an obvious answer to the question, and the original was locked can’t be answered, hence a new question. I can’t add an answer to this question either)

Catalina introduced changes to the way the file system files are stored, i.e. it puts them on a separate read-only APFS volume. The pre-installed apps are also found on this partition. More details can be found in this ars technica article. In short, you need a slightly different method compared to previous versions to get at those pesky pre-installed apps.

(Information taken from this reddit thread)

Boot into recovery by holding cmd + R while the system is booting

Open up terminal (found in one of the menus at the top), and type the command csrutil disable. This will turn off the SIP

Reboot into Catalina

In terminal run sudo mount -uw /

You should now be able to delete the pre-installed apps. I used AppCleaner to do this. It will let you delete them, but you'll have to click remove twice.

Boot into recovery again and in the terminal type csrutil enable to re-enable the SIP. I’m not sure if this step is necessary as some things I’ve read suggest that it is automatically re-enabled, but that’s what I did.

You should now find that the apps are gone.

Note: I have found that the apps can reappear, I suspect this might be related to updates, but I don’t know. You should always install updates, but you might have to delete these apps again after updating.


Is it possible to buy a genuine iPhone battery online? I searched for an iPhone 3GS replacement battery on Amazon and while many items claim to be original/genuine, a lot of reviewers still complain that they are not/not as described/do not work well. Is going through Apple the only way to get a genuine battery or is it possible to order one online?

I've replaced several batteries in older iPhones including the iPhone 3.. I have not tried in the iPhone 4 models.

In the original and the iPhone 3 / 3GS, it's really quite simple. The batteries were fine (from Amazon). They come with the tool to separate the back panel, look at iFixit.com for instructions, but just take your time and be patient..

HTH


MacBook chargers turns green, then red, and then stops charger I have been using a MacBook charger for about 6 months, and now I tried to use another one which I have used before with this MacBook.

Now, the battery is low enough that the MacBook can’t start, but only display the battery icon on the screen.

When connecting it to the power, the charger led turns green, then red (signaling that it is charging) and finally, turns off (after about 15 seconds).

I tried cooling down the MacBook and the charger, and after that I tried recharging. It did work for a longer time, but then the behavior explained above appeared again.

Why is this happening? How can I fix it?

The other charger does work. This charger stops working once the MacBook is started (or woke up from sleep).

If one charger works, and another doesn’t, the non-working one is most probably broken and needs to be replaced.


Adobe Illustrator wont open on Sierra Anybody knows how to fix Adobe Illustrator CC 2014 on Sierra? The app just dont open anymore. I was using it on a clean install of El Capitan, but after Sierra, the app crash right after toolbars appear.

Things that I tried:

Set 755 (read/write permissions) on /Library/Application Support/Adobe, ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe.

Result: App crash.

Path:                  /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC 2014/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator
Identifier:            com.adobe.illustrator
Version:               18.0.0 (18.0.0)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
...
Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000068
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process:   exc handler [0]

VM Regions Near 0x68:
-->
    __TEXT                 0000000100000000-00000001014ca000 [ 20.8M] r-x/rwx SM=COW  /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC 2014/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libsystem_c.dylib               0x00007fffb20ad6c0 flockfile + 4
1   libsystem_c.dylib               0x00007fffb20af38f fread + 31
2   com.adobe.amtlib                0x0000000107ecd4d9 0x107ea0000 + 185561
3   com.adobe.amtlib                0x0000000107ec210b 0x107ea0000 + 139531
4   com.adobe.amtlib                0x0000000107ea2bf7 AMTPlugPlugRequest + 81
5   com.adobe.PlugPlugOwl           0x000000011da9e2ef int boost::_bi::bind_t<int, int (*)(char*, int), boost::_bi::list2<boost::arg<1>, boost::arg<2> > >::operator()<char*, int>(char*&, int&) + 49
6   com.adobe.PlugPlugOwl           0x000000011da9cf01 boost::detail::function::function_obj_invoker2<boost::_bi::bind_t<int, int (*)(char*, int), boost::_bi::list2<boost::arg<1>, boost::arg<2> > >, int, char*, int>::invoke(boost::detail::function::function_buffer&, char*, int) + 28

Start application with sudo.

Result: App wont open.
Log in Terminal The application with bundle ID com.adobe.illustrator is running setugid().

Reinstall software (Install only run with sudo).

Result: After install, first run with sudo, and App not even open after accepting the license. No logs, no crash.

Create another user (Edit 1).

Result: The app not even bounce on Dock,

Illustrator CC 2015 Trial, Installer only with sudo. First run with sudo, then crash. Updated to 2015.2.1 again only with sudo. Now there two results (Edit 2).

Result 1: With sudo, The application with bundle ID com.adobe.illustrator is running setugid(), which is not allowed.

Result 2: Without sudo, maybe this is a big clue:

/Applications/Adobe\ Illustrator\ CC\ 2015/Adobe\ Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe\ Illustrator ; exit;
2016-10-10 12:37:18.454 Adobe Illustrator[2481:60401] AdobeCrashReporterInitialize: executionTime = 0.003444 seconds
2016-10-10 12:37:25.209 AdobeIPCBroker[2490:60500] *** CFMessagePort: bootstrap_register(): failed 1100 (0x44c) 'Permission denied', port = 0x1703, name = 'com.adobe.AdobeIPCBroker'
See /usr/include/servers/bootstrap_defs.h for the error codes.
Segmentation fault: 11
logout

Lastest version of Illustrator on CC, install only work with sudo, download ok.

Result: The app not even bounce on Dock.

Maybe it is a lost cause... for now moving to another app.

Was this a clean install of Adobe or an "restore" from a Time Machine backup?  I have personally had issues when going from one issue to the next (Mavericks to Yosemite and Yosemite to El Capitan) and migrating my software instead of clean installing it.  Doing a clean install fixed my issue each time.

So, first thing to do, is uninstall and do a clean installation of Illustrator.

At the time of this writing, Adobe wasn't experiencing any issues with Illustrator.  See macOS Sierra (10.12) compatibility FAQ | Creative Cloud

However, they do provide a link for people to report bugs.  If doing a clean install doesn't solve the problem I would report the problem.


Magic mouse two button click stopped working My Magic mouse two finger right click stopped working 4 days ago. I can use the control click combo to right click but the mouse was way more convenient. I have not changed any settings, it just stopped working.

I am using a Macbook pro 15", both were purchased togeather about two weeks ago and worked fine until 4 days ago.

I googled around and could not find any suggestions to get it fixed, does anyone have any ideas? Thanks

BetterTouchTool will do this.

Go to its preferences.

Then make your settings look like this window.


How to remove Italian browser ramsonware? Arma dei Carabinieri - Attenzione! Il Suo computer personale è stato bloccato per I've a MacBook Pro and Mavericks. My browsers are blocked by ramsonware. It asks 100 $/Euro and says that your computer is blocked by the Italian cops and constantly redirects you to a fake page.

I've tried to remove it resetting Safari and Chrome, but the virus is still alive.

What should I do to remove this thing?

Here is a link for removing ransomware on a Mac.
it's pretty easy:
http://www.thesafemac.com/fbi-ransomware-virus-rampant/
From the post:

There have been many reports among Mac users recently of being “infected” with an FBI ransomware “virus,” telling them that their computer has been seized and that they have to pay money to get it unlocked. Fortunately, from the reports I’ve been getting, there is no indication that this is actually Mac malware of any kind. It’s simply an obnoxious browser pop-up, displayed via JavaScript, in an attempt to fool people into paying.
I have yet to see this behavior first-hand, but it’s undoubtedly being caused by JavaScript that has been injected into legit sites, either through malicious ads or by hacking the site. Keep in mind that the old wisdom that you’re fine if you avoid “bad” sites is no longer particularly good. Most malware these days is distributed through legit sites, so any site could potentially fall victim.
force quit Safari
The question, then, is what to do if you see this pop-up. If you cannot close the window or the browser, then you will need to force the browser to quit. Press command-option-esc to display the force quit window. In that window, make sure your web browser is selected, then click the Force Quit button. Once the browser quits, you can close the force quit window.
Depending on your browser and/or system settings, your browser may try to reload the pages that were open the last time it quit. This could cause the problem to recur immediately, as soon as you open your browser again. In Safari, you can avoid this by holding down the shift key while opening the app.
Once you have your browser open again, you should be fine. You could clear your cookies and browser cache if you like, but that really won’t be particularly useful. Contrary to popular belief, this will not cure such problems or prevent them from occurring.


How to restore individual app data from iCloud while keeping all the other apps installed and new data created since the last iCloud backup? I just discovered that one of my apps X "disappeared" for whatever reason from my iPad. It contained MBs of valuable data, and luckily I have an iCloud backup dated a week ago or so which have it all. However, I installed two dozens of new apps since then and likely created some amount of user data that I'd like to keep.

How do I restore that single app with all its data from iCloud while preserving all the other apps and their data installed since the date of iCloud backup?

I've read the related question, but it doesn't directly help in my situation:

I disabled backup to iCloud to prevent overwriting the X data in iCloud with an "empty" copy of X. Will simply "disable backing up to iCloud" for X and than backing up all the rest to iCloud (followed by reset and restore from iCloud) solve my entire problem? If so, how to run it properly?

when I try to enable backup to iCloud, it needs an Internet connection--which creates a risk that X will be overwritten before I deselect it
when I try to disable backing up of X, iOS says that all of my data for X in iCloud will be deleted:

  Do you want to turn off X backups and delete the backup data from iCloud?

I've already re-installed the X hoping it will bring all of my user data--but of course it's didn't. Now the question is whether it's better to keep it -- to avoid risk of losing its data in iCloud,

  Do not delete the app if its data are in the iCloud.
  Deleting the app, will also delete the app data and its preferences

--or to remove it, to merge the iCloud data of X with latest data of all other apps from iTunes backup that I create today, right before restoring from iCloud, per this:

  Now restore your iPhone to the latest backup you just made which is as
  per Step 3. This will not erase or replace the apps you installed and restored via iCloud. It will only merge.

Alternatively, is it possible to manually "merge" backup of X from iCloud into/with current-moment iTunes backup per SafeHarbor knowledge from this answer?
Any other how-tos will be greatly appreciated.

Update: After restoring from iCloud, the X app is not restored; App Store shows an icon to download it from the cloud (which will not restore its data, as I've seen before the reset). Any suggestions?

My own answer will be not applicable to every situation, but here is how I solved the problem.

All the data I needed from app in question (X) can be easily extracted once the app (with its data) is installed on the device.

So I did the following:

Backup the latest state to iTunes (saving a previous backup with "Archive" just before doing that)
Restore to the previous iCloud backup where the X app was still installed and had data
Extract all the data I need from X (I'm my situation, via iTunes > (my device) > Apps > Documents section
Restore back to the latest iTunes backup made in step 1
Re-install the X app in question from the scratch.


Managing AVCHD videos with correct date I'm copying the .mts files directly from my Canon HD camcorder's SD cards.  It appears the camera only writes the date of video capture to the "Modified" portion of the file meta data, but doesn't update the creation date.

When I copy it over, OS X puts today's date/time as the last modified, and so the date of the video capture is lost - at least in the file meta data.  I haven't checked to see if it's also encoded in the MTS file (perhaps someone here knows how to check this?)

What are my options for preserving the file information when copying?  Using import with iMovie and others takes much, much longer than just copying them over, so I'd rather avoid using an import process, but at this rate it looks like that might be my best option.

Any other ideas?

It looks like the best way to copy the camera data without importing it is to use the disk utility to image the SD card.  Later on it can be mounted and normal camera import utilities will work and capture all the related metadata not stored in the MTS files.


Time capsule over ethernet is incredibly slow I am transferring files from my Time Capsule (4th Generation, 2TB, model A1409) to my laptop (Ubuntu) via the Apple Filing Protocol. The Time Capsule is connected directly to the laptop via an ethernet cable (wifi on the laptop is disabled): standard LAN port to standard laptop ethernet interface. The Time Capsule is not being used by any other device (i.e. it is disconnected from my primary router; no laptops/mobiles/etc are connected to it physically/wirelessly aside from the Ubuntu laptop).

The transfer speeds are incredibly slow: ~260kB/sec. I am transferring several large files that equate to ~7GB, which is taking several hours to transfer.

Why is the network speed so slow? How do I increase the speed?

Configure the ethernet interface in Ubuntu to use Gigabit in full duplex
Reset the network card by powering down the laptop and unplugging it from mains for a few seconds
To effectively use Gigabit ethernet, use a Cat 5e or Cat 6 cable
Start the copy after a reboot of the devices (with WiFi and other connections disabled)


Macbook Pro, BenQ GW2765HT, and Displayport cable After a few days to a week of normal use of my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015 with Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB) and the BenQ GW2765HT LED monitor via display port, I found that my mac was no longer being detected by my monitor and vice versa. I had no idea what to think except that the wire I had was faulty, so I exchanged it for one of the same brand. And then, bam, another week or so into use of the new wire the same thing happened. This time I decided to exchange it for another brand of Mini Displayport to Displayport cable. The same thing again! Clearly I was not taking the right approach to this problem.

My usual “setup/workflow” is that I have my monitor closed and use only the external display. At night, I turn off the monitor and unplug the power to my MBP (to not overcharge my battery) in no particular order. I wonder if my pulling the power, or some combinations of actions is killing the cable? Any thoughts?

[This was my original thinking, but I have just gotten the cable working again—will offer a preliminary solution below.]

I disabled the ddc/ci on my monitor and, while my HDMI cable was connected at the same time, swapped to DisplayPort and the cable started working again somewhat magically.

I'm really not sure what happened, but I'm chalking it up to the ddc/ci thing.


Delete Users and Separate User and Groups I am using a Mac for both personal and work and want to keep them separate as I can. I think a good solution would be for me to have 2 users -- a personal and work user -- but the only problem is when I download software in my personal account it appears in my work user account. Luckily I caught this early enough I could just delete my work user, but can't seem to be able to do that.
How do I delete a user? How do I keep the user profiles separate so what I download in one doesn't show up in the other?

Normally, if you download something (apps, files, anything): it is saved in your User account's Download folder.
When applications arrive, it is usual to copy or install them into the root level /Applications folder. This location is accessible to all users.
If you want applications to be available to only one user, then move them to <user>/Applications. You may need to create this folder inside your user account.


How can I find where an app's files are stored? Besides the app's package, is there a way to find where it stores its other files from during installation?  Are they only allowed to install into the "Library" folders, or are there other places?  I want to wipe my drive and do a fresh install when I upgrade to Mountain Lion.

Deleting the files from an individual app and doing a clean install of Mountain Lion are two different things. As per mckeed's answer, you can use AppZapper to delete an individual app, other alternatives being AppDelete or Clean my mac, although the latter could be a bit overkill for what you want.

Fresh install for ML is a different story though, I did a fresh install the other day and I'm super glad I did - I'm one of those people who just collects apps and files they don't need and everything gets a bit clogged after a while. Simple instructions to do so are:

Start off by backing up whatever you need (I know this ones a bit
obvious), save anything you want to keep to an external harddrive.
You'll need to get your hands on another external harddrive or usb stick at least 8gb, and it has to be empty as we're going to use this to make a mountain lion boot disk. If it's not empty, don't worry we'll erase it in step 7.
Download mountain lion from the app store, but don't install it otherwise the app disappears and you'll have to re download it.
Secondary click (right click, whatever you want to call it) the install icon and choose "show package contents" from the menu.
When the contents of the install file are displayed you'll see a folder called "SharedSupport", open this up and you'll find a file called "installESD.dmg". Copy this file somewhere so you know where to find it.
Open "utilities" in your applications folder and open "Disk Utility"
Plug in your blank USB drive from step 2. You'll now see it in the left pane of the disk utility window, click on it to select it.
Click on the "Erase" tab in the main disk utility pane. Change the "format" dropdown to MAC OS Extended (Journaled) and then name your disk something that makes sense to you like "Mountain Lion Install". Click erase.
Click on the "Restore" tab in the main disk utility pane. In the "source" section, you'll need to navigate to and select the "InstallESD.dmg" file we copied earlier. In the destination tab you'll need to select your now clean drive. Click Restore.

The drive and your mac will now make whirry and buzzy noises for a while. When it's done cooking it will tell you. You now have a Mountain Lion boot disk.

Restart your computer with the new Mountain Lion drive plugged in still and immediately hold down the option key when it starts back up. If you've done this right, instead of booting OSX you'll see a picture of your drive to select. Click on the disk you created earlier to boot from it.
Now the scary part. You don't want to install just yet, somewhere on the screen there is an option for utilities, I think from memory it's in the top bar. Click utilities and select "disk utility" which looks alot like (actually exactly like) the disk utility app you used to make the disk earlier. This time, select your macs harddrive in the left pane and click the erase tab, make sure the format is set to MAC OS Extended again and click erase.
You've now erased your harddrive. Close out of the utilities window and continue the installation as normal installing Mountain Lion onto your newly clean Harddrive!

Hope all this helps, best of luck!


Can the Google+ app be installed on an iPod Touch? I have a 3rd generation iPod touch with iOS upgraded to version 4.3.3. When installing the Google+ 1.0.1 app, it gives the message shown in the picture below.

Question: Is there a generation or iOS version of iPod touch that will allow the Google+ app to be installed?

Not today.

It looks like the current app asks iTunes to require GPS on iPhone.

iPod Touch and even iPad with GPS are prevented from downloading the app directly and iTunes will not install it.

I don't know why iTunes doesn't tell you what specific devices the app will work on rather than be a little vague about "not compatible with this device".


Partition my HD with Disk Utility, cannot resize the partition WITHOUT installing Windows. WTF? I am installing Ubuntu on my Mac to exist as in parallel with OS X Yosemite, version 1010.3. The screenshot looks similar to previous questions, e.g. How can I resize a partition with Disk Utility?

However, the GUI for Disk Utility does not give me access to resize my partition. Normally, you can click the righthand bottom corner of the volume and drag. I do not have that option---there are no three lines in the bottom righthand for the cursor to drag.

I cannot manually change the size of the partition in the "Size" box. Normally, you could click/highlight the values and change them. I cannot. The text is "faded".

Why doesn't the Disk Utility GUI allow me to choose the size of the partition? Should I just do this via the Command Line?

EDIT: Doesn't anyone else think it's weird that Apple (via Yosemite) forces you to download Windows if you want to partition your hard drive correctly? Note to Apple: FIX THIS!!!

Here are instructions for undoing a Core Storage conversion (source - this method worked for me). It should be non-destructive, but as always, take a backup first!

Boot into Recovery HD. If for any reason you don't have Recovery HD, then you'll have to make a bootable Yosemite drive and boot into that.
In the Menu Bar, select Utilities > Terminal.
Run diskutil cs list. You'll get an output that looks like this (credits to the Ask Different user in my source):

Select your Logical Volume ID (the one highlighted in the screenshot) and copy it to the clipboard.
Run the Terminal command diskutil cs revert Paste-Your-Logical-Volume-ID-Here.
Run diskutil cs list to verify that your computer can't find any CS volumes.
You're done! Now Disk Utility should be able to do everything you need it to do to your HD!


How to switch to underlying window of the same application? If I have 2 windows of the same program open (Google Chrome for instance), and I want to get to the underlying one, how can I do that -- without minimizing the fore window.

If I click the Chrome icon, in the bottom tray it justs shows me the window in the front. There is no window in the right of the tray since it it not minimized. If I command+tab, I just get one icon for the application, which focuses the window that is already in front.

The only way I know of to get to the rear window is to minimize (or move out of the way) the front window. I find this slightly annoying, (and sometimes even forget I have a second window open because I don't know of anything indicating there is a second window open?)

So is there another way?

You can switch between an app's windows using a keyboard shortcut, a menu bar item, the app's Dock icon, and Mission Control.

The keyboard shortcut to switch to the next window behind the current one is cmd+`. That corresponds to the Window-> Cycle Through Windows menu bar item. The menu item isn't available in all apps, but the shortcut usually is.

You can also use the Window menu in the menu bar to go directly to the window of your choice. Each window is shown there, and you can click on its item to switch to the window.

A similar menu is available in an app's Dock icon's contextual menu (access by clicking and holding, or right/control-clicking):

You can also acces visual previews of all of an app's windows and click on the preview of the window you want to switch to. To do this, press F10. This brings up Mission Control's Application Windows function. You can also access this function by the Show All Windows item in an app's Dock icon's contextual menu.