iCloud Photo Sharing extremely slow I am trying to create a shared album in iCloud, containing about 750 photos and 50 short videos.

Using Photos both on iOS 9 and El Capitan, the process of adding the photos to the album is extremely slow.

On iOS, when I try to share the photos I am shown a modal "preparing" dialogue that doesn't seem to progress.

On my Mac (which does not have "Optimize Storage" enabled) the sharing progress bar fills slowly, then stays mostly filled for a very very long time, while heavily using the CPU.

Given the amount of network traffic that is caused by the request, I assume that Photos is trying to download/re-upload each image.

Given that the photos are already stored on iCloud, I would expect to be able to share the photos instantly, as I can do with Google Photos.

Is this the expected behaviour or am I suffering from an abnormal issue?

EDIT: added photo of iOS dialog

Adding one photo to a new shared album works ok, but as I add more photos in one go the time taken scales up quickly.

What happens during the Preparing step is Photos first downloads all the photos/videos being shared (so this step can be skipped on a device that holds full-resolution copies of your photos). You also see this step when trying to share a photo by email or iMessage, with Optimize Storage enabled.

Then it will downsample photos to 2048 pixels on the long edge (5400 pixels for panoramas), and videos to 720p. This step takes place locally, consumes a lot of CPU power, and may take a very long time, particularly with videos. That would explain why you can share a single photo fairly quickly, but then the progress indicator seems stuck once you select everything. I’m almost positive it’s your videos incurring this extra processing time.

Finally, Photos will re-upload everything to a separate iCloud server, which is exempt from your storage quota. However, each shared album is limited to 5000 photos/videos combined, with videos themselves limited to 5 minutes long.

Do note that these steps appear to occur asynchronously. However you’ll still ultimately be bottlenecked by either your CPU or Internet upload speed.

I would advise you to do this from your Mac, if possible. Not only can you leave it plugged in overnight, prevent it from sleeping, and continue using it while it’s doing its thing, the resampling step should be much faster with your Mac’s CPU than with your iPhone’s (generally speaking).


Is this a good strategy to optimise web images for iphone? I have a lot of old assets (html and image files) I need to optimise for mobile devices. The existing assets were created for desktop and did not have mobile device in mind.

I am planning to make the following changes:

1) In front end, if it is running on a desktop device, its content will be loaded form the existing url (e.g. static.example.com/document1/index.html). But if the website is loaded from an  iphone6, it will switch to static.example.com/document1_iphone6/index.html

2) document1_iphone6 is basically a duplicate of document1. All the image assets will be resized to fit 750x1334

Is there any problem/flaw with this plan?

I think you are on the right track of optimizing images for mobile devices, but I think that the way you are going about it won't scale very well. If you just target iPhones with resized images, you're going to be supporting 5 different sizes, iPhone 6+, iPhone 6, iPhone 5/5S, iPhone 4/4S, plus the original, which isn't that bad.

But what if you want to support Android phones at the same level, having an image for every device made? You're going to end up with dozens of different image sizes.

Android screen resoultions

Here is another link with a larger list of device sizes.

mydevice.io common smartphone sizes

Not only will you have dozens of different devices, but your naming scheme won't work that well, as some resolutions are used for multiple displays, leaving you with duplicates of images.

A better way to optimize for mobile is to target screen resolutions instead of devices. For example, you could target a set of resolutions like

  xxxhdpi: 1280x1920 px
  xxhdpi: 960x1600 px
  xhdpi: 640x960 px
  hdpi: 480x800 px
  mdpi: 320x480 px
  ldpi: 240x320 px

With this method, you can support all mobile devices with just 6 different sizes, plus, when a new device is launched, you won't need to resize every image on your site for the new device.

This is all assuming you are just talking about resizing your image assets. If you are going to be redoing your layout for every device, you would be much, much better creating a responsive site that scales for mobile devices.


The backup on Server is already in use I have OS X Mavericks with the Server software installed. The server machine is an iMac with a Drobo attached via USB. I use the Server Time Machine service to create a backup server on the network, using the Drobo as the storage device for backups.

I am currently backing-up two Macbooks to this Time Machine Server. Some backups will succeed but every other day or so, I will get an error on both laptops that the backup failed with the following reason: The backup on Server is already in use.

I have only been able to clear this problem by restarting the server.

Does anyone know why this might be occurring and what I might be able to do in order to prevent it from happening?

Thank you.

Just for the completeness of this issue. If you land here and do not use MacOS Server, but a Synology DiskStation, do the following:

Login to your DiskStation as root
Open the main menu
start the resource monitor
switch to connected users
select the blocked user and press disconnect


On creation of folder in a specified folder create sub folders in the new folder I'm new to AppleScript and Automator. I have explored the different threads at Apple but unable to find something useful.

Well, my problem is that I have a folder i.e "work" I have applied folder action on it. On creation of new folder at "work" i.e "abc" I want to create three new folders in "abc". Check out my code

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
  tell application Finder
    repeat with this_item in added_items
        make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Main"}
        make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Lower"}
        make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Upper"}
   end repeat
  end tell
end adding folder items to

The first thing I see wrong in your code is tell application Finder, as Finder in this case is a variable, since it's not double-quoted.  It should be: tell application "Finder"

That said, you have as Tags, macos, mac, applescript and automator and did not state in the OP where and how you've applied the code to the target folder, this_folder, as a Folder Action.  In other words, if you've created the Folder Action in Automator and have just that code as the code in a Run AppleScript action, even with the double-quotes around Finder, it will fail. That coding structure is only valid as an AppleScript .scpt file assigned to a Folder Action using Folder Actions Setup... on the Services section of the contact menu in Finder.

The following example code is how I'd write it as an AppleScript .scpt file assigned to a Folder Action using Folder Actions Setup... on the Services section of the contact menu in Finder.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    try
        tell application "Finder"
            repeat with this_item in added_items
                if (class in (get properties of this_item) as string) is "«class cfol»" then
                    make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Main"}
                    make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Lower"}
                    make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Upper"}
                end if
            end repeat
        end tell
    end try
end adding folder items to

Note that even though by using the try statement, it should eat any errors, nonetheless, I've also added an if statement to make sure the item being acted upon is a folder, not a file. Note that while the if statement is not absolutely necessary, nonetheless, it's a more proper way to write code in my opinion, however, it could be left out if you want.

User's AppleScript .scpt files for Folder Actions should be saved to, e.g.:

/Users/me/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/filename.scpt

If you are creating the Folder Action via Automator, then in the Run AppleScript action use the following example code_:

on run {input, parameters}
    try
        tell application "Finder"
            repeat with this_item in input
                if (class in (get properties of this_item) as string) is "folder" then
                    make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Main"}
                    make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Lower"}
                    make new folder at this_item with properties {name:"Upper"}
                end if
            end repeat
        end tell
    end try
end run

Note that I have tested both example code blocks under the conditions stated above and it works as coded.


The iPhone could not be updated. An unknown error occurred (4013) - Is there still a way to solve? Today my iPhone X got stuck at a logo-flash-loop. After searching for some information with Google I tried the "voldown+volup" restart way.

The infinite logo loop did stop but I still can't access my iPhone. I saw a screen like this:

I searched again and found that there is a way to update my iPhone software without erasing my data. It says that I just need to use iTunes on Mac to update the iOS software.

Which I think is very good. So I opened my iTunes on my Mac and it really tells me that there's an update (like 13.3.1).

After clicking some confirm buttons, I ran into this screen below.

After downloading the iOS package. And everything starts to move on. I saw an error like this:

What can I do now? What is trouble for me is not just data, pictures, but I have 2 of my bank apps on the iPhone which is super inconvenient to recover if I can't access them.

it looks like you are using iTunes which is not available in the latest macOS Catalina.
Please try the same with apple configurator 2. It might help.

This error might have occurred because your macOS is not up to date.


Cloud storage options for iPhoto's primary storage (not for backups) My wife and I both have Macbook Airs with relatively limited internal hard disks. If we could just offload our iPhoto libraries, we'd be fine.

What are some of the cloud storage options for iPhoto? Meaning, when I open iPhoto, everything feels local, but is really stored in the cloud.

Note:

This thread talks about wireless NAS as an option, which might
be a better way to go.
I'm talking about using the cloud as primary storage, not as a
backup.

Your best bet is to wait for the release of Photos for OS X Yosemite, which is going to replace iPhoto early next year and will do exactly what you're asking for.

You'll be able to store all of your photos in iCloud, and the Photos app will dynamically cache only the most recent and/or frequently accessed photos locally, freeing up lots of disk space.

Pricing will be 99¢/month for 20 GB or $3.99/month for 200 GB (or 5 GB for free, but that's really not much). There's also going to be a 1 TB option, but Apple hasn't announced pricing yet.

OS X Yosemite and the new Photos app will both be free updates, and will run on any MacBook Air released in late 2008 or later (which is every model other than the very first one).


Unable to delete Mailbox on iPhone 4S I have an iPhone 4S. Software 5.0.1

I have configured the Mail to GMail. Now, I want to delete the mailbox. Here is what I do.

Click on the Mail icon
Click on Edit
Click on [Gmail]
Click on Big Red button called Delete Mailbox
Click on Delete Mailbox prompt
I get an error message as below -
Unable to Delete Mailbox. The mailbox could not be deleted on the server.

I have tried it multiple times but to no avail.

Any suggestions / thoughts?

[Gmail] and its children (Important, Spam, Starred) are not regular mailboxes (or tags, as internally used by Gmail), they are linked to specific Gmail functionality and therefore cannot be deleted. You can delete tags/mailboxes that you defined.


Can an iPhone get infected will malware by sharing a wifi connection with an infected computer? Can an iPhone Xs, not jailbroken, get infected with malware by connecting to the same Wifi network as an infected Macbook on the same apple ID account?

In theory any computer (including smartphones) is attackable over WiFi (or any other channel) as long as software has bugs which can be exploited to do so. Having a infected MacBook to start with, or sharing the AppleID between devices, may make it easier (or open additional attack vectors), but at the end it's always a weakness on the attacked device which makes it possible.


Untangling iCloud Mess Short story:

Ted owns a company. His company put all employees and owner and owner’s family on a single iCloud account. This brought on several problems including iMessages delivered to wrong devices, among many other issues, but that’s the way it stayed for years. Ted sold company recently and company has allowed him to keep iCloud account. Since then Ted used AppleID website to change the common iCloud email address to a personal account. All other devices are still pointed at old iCloud account.

Main Goals:
1. Retain purchases made under common iCloud address.
2. Fix iMessages wrong-delivery issues.

I am developing a process to do this, but I don’t have a great deal of confidence in it.

Here’s a summary of my process.

On a phone still tethered to old iCloud address:

Go into iCloud settings and sign out.
Go into App Store and iTunes and sign out.
Go into Messages and Sign Out.
Create new iCloud address under iCloud settings and confirm via email.
Sign in in AppStore, iTunes, and iMessage.
Confirm all bad addresses and phone numbers are not referenced in iMessages.
Open contacts and make sure there are no references to old iCloud email address.
On Ted’s phone, set up Family Sharing and connect to address created in step 4.

What else could I be doing to help this along? Or is there an easier way?

This is a common engagement that I see and there is really no way to untangle purchases going forward.

The main thing to focus on in my experience is if you can edit the AppleID or not. If the account in question is @icloud.com, @me.com or @mac.com - it's set in stone and you can't really repurpose it.

If the AppleID is not using an Apple extension, then you have much more flexibility to rename the actual AppleID and update all the security, recovery and primary emails and convert a "personal" account to a "role/work" account and the other way.

When looking at the value of purchases, also consider the billable rate and the time spend not doing other work. Often it's simpler to write off the loss of past purchases and just make a clean break. Putting humpty dumpty back together again isn't viable in most cases.

Specifically:

retaining purchases - no go since they stay with the account and you can't use one Apple ID for that many devices without Apple eventually shutting it down.
fixing iMessage - this is doable. It is a lot of work, but you can plan that work on a piece of paper and then decide if it's really worth it to try and reuse one Apple ID or if you will just make a new account and use that going forward with a complete wipe of all the "wrongly configured" devices.

Again, get an estimate of how much your time is worth and how much time the people using the devices is work and solve your particular situation for the lowest $$ invested.


Why isn't iTunes shuffle random? This is a problem that has bugged me for the last 5 years, across multiple devices, operating systems and installs of iTunes and iPods.

I have found that the iTunes shuffle feature does not randomly shuffle songs. In fact, I can accurately predict the exact sequence of songs that iTunes will play. This frustrates me to no end because I like to listen to my music randomly, but I have a few favourite songs that I always start out with.

For example, if I select the song 'Somebody That I Used To Know' by Gotye, it will always follow with this exact sequence of songs:

Blame It On The Tetons by Modest Mouse
Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine by The White Stripes
Mombassa by Hans Zimmer, from the Inception Soundtrack
Break of Dawn by Michael Jackson
Missing Words by Mark Ronson and the Business International

The method I use to start the songs does not matter. I have tried selecting the song in iTunes, searching for it and playing it with Coversutra, or searching for it from within iTunes, playing the song and then clearing the search. All three methods will play the exact same sequence of songs.

I thought this might be due to the same seed being used, but I get the same sequence after restarting iTunes or even my computer. The sequence is the same across different days as well. Waiting for the song to finish or hitting next does not change anything either.

I have had this problem (but with different sequences) for as long as I can remember on my Windows PC, MacBook and my iMac. All different versions of iTunes and operating systems, spanning 5 years.

Why does iTunes fail so hard and something that is so easy? Is there any way I can fix this?

The Summary Version

It is random, but the order is only shuffled once, when you turn random play on. If you want to re-shuffle the order, turn random play off and then on again.

The Detailed Version

I don't think this is a bug, it's a feature. Though I can understand how it might seem broken.

iTunes doesn't shuffle the order of the tracks every time you hit play (or any other control button). Another way of saying this is: it uses the same seed for your playlist every time until you tell it to use another seed.

This may seem contrary to the idea of shuffle but it actually serves a purpose: it lets the skip back and skip forward buttons work in a manner that makes sense. I can move back 5 songs while it's on shuffle to hear the song I heard 5 songs ago, and then iTunes plays through all the songs I just heard to get me back to the spot I was at before going back 5 songs.

I do believe the ordering is truly random the first time it's generated. The problem is it's never obvious how to re-generate the ordering after that so your brain, which is really good at recognizing patterns as that's a handy survival skill when you're hunting and gathering, starts to learn the order over time. It starts to find patterns.

You can see this is the case with this little experiment. Set iTunes to shuffle your entire library. Pick a track. Play 5 tracks and write them down. Now pick any other track and let iTunes play one or two songs after that. Now go back to your first track and play from there again. It'll play that track and the same five after it that you wrote down. Changing tracks didn't reseed the random number generator.

The traversal through your tracks is truly random, but that random order isn't refreshed often enough so it starts to feel non-random.

So how do you get iTunes to generate a new shuffle order?

You uncheck and recheck the shuffle button. Doing this causes iTunes to recreate the random traversal path through your playlist (or entire library). It re-seeds the random number generator.

You can convince yourself this is true with a little experiment. Take an album that has track numbers in the meta data and select tracks 1 through 5 then select File -> New Playlist from Selection... from the menu. You'll now have a playlist with 5 songs in it.

Select that playlist and make sure that the shuffle button is unlit and that the track numbers are showing in the window. iTunes will show you the tracks in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Now hit the shuffle button.

iTunes will show you the tracks out of order. I get: 4, 2, 1, 3, 5.

Now hit the shuffle button to turn it off. And turn it on again.

I now get: 5, 2, 3, 4, 1.

Repeat as many times and needed to convince yourself that iTunes is actually regenerating a random traversal sequence through the tracks in your playlist.

It's the same thing for traversing your entire library: if you never uncheck and recheck the shuffle button the order never gets regenerated so things will start to seem non-random. After I unchecked and rechecked shuffle and began playing my entire library from my original starting track from my second paragraph above I got 5 different songs after it this time. So the order was changed, it's just less obvious when you're looking at your entire library instead of a playlist.

There's a caveat to all of this: iTunes DJ (aka Party Shuffle) works differently. With Party Shuffle you can influence the selection so that there's weighting given to more popular songs in your library. This obviously isn't random playback. So if you want truly random playback you want to shuffle your entire library from the Music view in the sidebar, not the iTunes DJ view. And you want to uncheck and re-check that shuffle button before each listening session to keep it truly unpredictable.


.config directory does not exists after upgrade to Catalina After upgrading to Catalina the .config dir doesn't seem to exist in the home directory of my user.

How can I fix this? I doesn't seem to be able to simply create it because folders starting with a dot are system folder.

Currently my home dir looks like this:

No wonder some apps like visual studio and brew are complaining about the missing .config-folder.

.config starts with a dot, so it is hidden by default, and ls won’t show hidden files unless you ask it to with the -a option.

Use ls -a to list all files/folders including hidden ones.
Try ls -a ~/.config to specifically list the folder you’re looking for.
Create the folder if it doesn’t exist with mkdir ~/.config.


unable to find Paragon NTFS for Western Digital(WD) external drives I have had Paragon NTFS 15's free version for Western Digital Drives. Just like Seagate offers. Somehow I had to erase my MacBook Pro and the software has been deleted. So now I am unable to find it on the web. Can anyone help me out here?

It looks like there are two options. The first is to use the paid software from Paragon Software. While it is not free, it appears to be the most compatible option going forward.
Western Digital also has a link to an older version of NTFS for Mac. Keep in mind that the new NTFS for Mac looks to be compatible with macOS 10.14 where WD’s software lists compatibility up to 10.12.
Paragon Software does say in their FAQ that you may be eligible for an upgrade from WD or Segate’s older versions of NTFS for Mac.

I’m a user of a Seagate or Western Digital device with pre-installed
NTFS for Mac. How can I get my update?
You are eligible for a special update for you current version of
Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software. Please contact our Support
Service at support@paragon-software.com to reclaim your update.

Source: NTFS for Mac FAQ


Is there a keyboard shortcut for switching between different desktops of the same application? There's the shortcut Cmd+tab for switching between open applications. Then there's the shortcut Cmd+` for switching between open windows of the same application. But if I have the same application open in two different desktops, neither of these shortcuts are really applicable. Cmd+tab to an app with multiple simultaneous desktop instances just goes to the desktop for that app that you were most recently using. Cmd+` does nothing.
For instance, I have the terminal version of emacs in one desktop. Then I have another desktop with some terminals. How can I easily switch between these desktops using only my keyboard?  The easiest way I see is to three-finger swipe up on the trackpad and use the trackpad to select the desired desktop.
I'm on Catalina, version 10.15.6.

How can I easily switch between these desktops using only my keyboard?

Here is a screen shot of System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control for two Desktops.
As you can see, by default, you can use control-left-arrow or control-right-arrow
You can also check the checkboxes for additional options, e.g.:

Switch to Desktop 1
Switch to Desktop 2

Then you can use, e.g., ⌘1 or ⌘ and the Desktop number for whichever you want to move to.

Terminal also assigns a keyboard shortcut for up to nine windows, e.g. ⌥⌘1 etc. up to ⌥⌘9


Restricting Command+tab options to only apps that are in the current space Edit: The original accepted answer is no longer valid for Mavericks.  I am keeping it accepted for historical reasons, but all readers using Mavericks should use and up-vote this answer.

By default, pressing ⌘+tab will display a list of all open applications.  I would like that list to only include applications in the current space, or at least give priority to applications with windows in the current space.  In other words, I'd like OS X to mimic the behavior of most X window managers with respect to their workspaces/virtual desktops.

Here's my rather long-winded explanation of why I want this:

I have disabled spaces' auto-switching, and I've mapped each space to a ⌘+space # shortcut.  In general, I usually have one application open per space, maximized.  Since I really only ever have a half-dozen or so applications open at any time, I can easily switch between them in constant time with my left hand.  The problem is that I sometimes do have two or three windows from different applications open in the same space (e.g., I often have a PDF reader open in the same space as my web browser).   Let's say I have a terminal open in Space 1 and both a web browser and Preview open in Space 2.  If I am in the terminal and then decide I want to open a web page, I switch to Space 2, where the web browser has focus.  I then want to consult a PDF that is open in Preview, which is in the same Space but whose window is behind the web browser.  If I hit ⌘+tab, however, the first option will be to take me back to Terminal in Space 1 (since Terminal most recently had focus).  In the worst case, I will have to cycle through all n open applications by repeatedly pressing ⌘+tab in order to get to Preview.  I want the first hit to ⌘+tab to bring me to the next application with windows in the current space, i.e., Preview.

I know that using Exposé is the more "Apple" way of handling these situations, but I want to avoid having to reach for the mouse.  I know I can also use the arrow keys to select a window in Exposé, but once again that breaks my mental model of the window layering, will institute a cognitive feedback loop in the selection, and will require worst case log(n) keystrokes.   As far as I know, there is no constant-time way of switching to a specific application in the current workspace using only the keyboard.

control+F4.  Cycles through the applications in that Space.
 (I actually have this mapped to control+`; which I find easier to remember, being close to the cmd+`; to cycle through an application's windows.)

To change the keyboard shortcut, go to the Keyboard preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Keyboard & Text Input.  It's the 'Move focus to active or next window' option.

(Edit to fix the keyboard shortcuts; I didn't realise that the backtick character wasn't showing up.)


When minimizing, not have new window of same app come to focus There's a couple of behavior's that I find very frustrating, and no luck yet in fixing them:

Imagine chrome with multiple windows open.  There's one in front, then another application, then the other chrome windows.  When I hit apple + M to minimize, another chrome window pops up, rather than showing me the other application, which would be desired.

Similarly, if I have chrome windows on multiple desktops.  If I'm using one application on the first desktop, go use chrome on the second, and switch back to the first, chrome will appear on top when all I want is the original application!

The wrong window appears on the foreground in leopard.

Thoughts? Thanks!

Have you considered using CMD-H to hide the application instead of minimize it? If you minimize a window, the app that owns that window is still the focused app, but if you hide an application, it will change focus to the next app in the switcher.

I can't help with the second part of your question. I assign apps to spaces so they don't clutter my spaces (even though they do sometimes - I'm looking at you, Photoshop).


Rasterising text automatically I'm working on a typeface, and am looking at generating test-cases of how specific strings are rendered. What's the simplest way of automatically rasterising many different text-files into a bitmap?

Add a html header with font selection (by mean of cp and >>) and then usewkhtmltoimage (https://wkhtmltopdf.org/) to generate images from that. Alternatively, look at the source code and write some 20 lines of Qt code using the same approach.

Proof of concept in PyQt5:

from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets
app = QtWidgets.QApplication([])
w = QtWidgets.QWidget()
w.setWindowTitle('Textbox to image')
font = QtGui.QFont()
font.setFamily("Herculanum")
font.setBold(True)
textbox = QtWidgets.QTextEdit(w)
textbox.setFont(font)
textbox.resize(280, 40)
textbox.setText("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr")
textbox.grab().save("image.png")

Result (png):

That, with custom distortion is how I actually created a large ML dataset for OCR from custom fonts.


OS X El Capitan - Cisco Built-in VPN client - split traffic On OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), with the Cisco Built-in VPN client, I would like to configure the route table in order to have the following thing :

subnet traffic 192.168.101.0/24 goes through the VPN
everything else (196.168.1.0/24 my local network, and all the internet) goes through en0, and not through the VPN

Is there a way to configure it with some tricky route add|change|delete commands?
Moreover is there a way to run this commands every time I connect to the VPN.

For the first part (how to split traffic), I had the solution with the two following code lines

sudo route add -net <REMOTE_SUBNET> -iface utun0
sudo route change default <LOCAL_GATEWAY_IP>


Unable to open Google Mail via any browser on Macbook Air I just got a help request from a frustrated friend.  She has a new Macbook Air and is unable to access Google Mail via any browser.  Specifically, here is what she reports to me:

She can access other Google Suites pages (Drive, Calendar) with no trouble.

When she goes to mail.google.com she gets the following error messages:

In Safari:  "Safari can't open this page."
In Chrome:  "This site can't be reached, server took too long to respond (err connection times out)."

She said it doesn't work in Firefox either, but I'm not sure what the error message is.

She also reports that she  doesn't have this issue on any other Apple device or on her PC.

Other interesting details:  She had the exact same problem on her old MB Pro.

If it were just one browser, I would think it's a corrupted cookie file or something.  But I don't see how that could affect multiple browsers.

Any thoughts?

I suggest to check the /etc/hosts file for any entries containing mail.google.com. This can be done by opening the Terminal and running:

cat /etc/hosts

Ignore all the lines starting with a # and look for any line containing mail.google.com. If there is one, you can follow this guide to remove the entry.


Using iCloud Storage to backup data I have some backup HDDs with around 500GB in files. I want to back these files up in the cloud, but I don't want the iCloud folder taking up space in my mac (which has only 256GB).

Is it possible to use iCloud as a storage solution for old files I don't want in my computer or is it supposed to only be a synced backup of files in my devices?

You can use iCloud either to backup your iDevices' data and also as storage for your personal files, just like those saved in your HDDs disk.

Where?

As you said, instead of saving those files in your iCloud folder in your Mac, you can go to the iCloud website and login with your own Apple ID credentials.

How?

After you've logged in to your iCloud space, you'll get to the main screen where you can see all the Apps you can launch directly on the website (Photos, Numbers, Keynote, etc..).
You'll want to launch the iCloud Drive app, and once in it you should see 5 buttons on the top of the page.

The button you're looking for is the second starting from the left: the Upload button.
It will pop up a window where you can browse your entire File System with, and search for the files you want to upload to your very personal iCloud Drive.
After you chose the files, it will start automatically to upload them up in the cloud. Once done, feel free to delete those files from your Mac/Computer and access them whenever you wish, directly from your iCloud Drive App, which can be found either on the website we've just talked about, or even inside your iDevice.

If you haven't activated it yet on your iDevice, simply do the following:

Open Settings
go to the iCloud tab
Find the iCloud Drive option and switch it to ON.

You now have the App visible and accessible directly from the Home screen of your iDevice!

Note!

You're free to use iCloud as a storage solution, but I feel like you should remember by default you get 5GB for free on iCloud, if you want to upgrade your storage capacity, you'll have to pick a storage plan. At the moment there are 3 optional plans for iCloud storage:

50GB
200GB
1TB

The price will vary depending your location, you can check this article from the Apple Support website to find your own location's prices.


Set British PC Keyboard layout on iPad I use the “British PC” layout on macOS, and I’ve started using a keyboard with my iPad (iOS 13.4.1), and I want to use the same layout on it. However there’s only “British” and “International – PC” neither of which match the British PC layout. Is there a way to change the keyboard layout to match the macOS layout?

I think iOS 14 may have British PC as an option now.
If not, or if you can't upgrade, there’s no way yet to add or customize hardware layouts in iOS, even via an app, as far as I know. You can ask Apple to add this feature via
http://www.apple.com/feedback


Command+Tab switches windows in Mac OS rather than the ones inside Amazon WorkSpaces I  have latest Amazon WorkSpaces installed which I use to connect to my client desktop.

I previously had Windows machine. There, if I was inside Amazon WorkSpaces and I pressed Alt+Tab, I was able to switch between windows opened inside my Amazon WorkSpaces.

I have now got Macbook, and here when I am inside Amazon WorkSpaces and I press Command+Tab, it switches between windows opened in my Mac OS and not windows in my Amazon WorkSpaces.

How can I get the behavior similar to Windows?

UPDATE: Apparently, within Amazon WorkSpaces, you can use Option Tab to emulate the Windows key command.

On macOS, command+ tab switches between applications, not windows. To cycle through the windows of the current application, use command and `, usually next to Z(or below escape on some keyboards). To cycle through Tabs within a window, use ctrl +tab.


Reusing iPod touch 3.1 to play music I would like to use my iPod touch 3.1 only for music, pictures and videos.  Can I still download music to this iPod from my current iPhone music list?

You can sync music, pictures and videos to your iPod touch by syncing it with iTunes on your Mac or PC.

You can get the music that you have in your iPhone music list, by syncing the iPod with the same iTunes library that you used to sync music onto your iPhone.


Is there a list of Apple TV 4th gen screen saver images? How can I find out where the pictures on the Apple TV 4th gen screen saver are coming from? Some of them I recognize, but I'm stymied by a few and I'd love to know their source.

The fourth generation Apple TV screen saver is composed of QuickTime movie files. You can see the JSON file that Apple TV loads them from at the following URL.

http://a1.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/000/Features/atv/AutumnResources/videos/entries.json

There are versions of the screen saver for Mac and Windows, not developed by Apple, which you can download at the below links.

https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial/releases/

https://github.com/cDima/Aerial/releases/


If I delete music from an iPad will it affect music stored on any other iCloud-connected device? Asking on behalf of my mother.

The music came on via iCloud syncing AFAIK so I wanted to make sure that removing it in one place wouldn't remove it somewhere else as we'll.

It shouldn't effect other devices as iCloud does not automatically sync music between devices other than downloading newly purchased music to all devices if you have iOS configured that way. (Settings > iTunes & App Store > automatic downloads > music "on")

That automatic download is one way and one time only not perpetual.


How to tell if the iphone 5 is connected to the 2.4 or 5 ghz network? I just got a new 5th generation apple airport extreme and I set it up in the dual band mode and I am wondering if it is possible to see which frequency the iphone 5 is connecting to. I know that on the computer you can hold down option when clicking on the wifi menu, but I would really like to know which one my iphone is connecting to.

See the answers to this similar question.

Since you are using an AirPort Extreme, you can set up a separate SSID for the 5GhZ-network and connect to that one manually on your phone, and from there be able to see which network you're on. To do this, follow the below step:

  Airport Utility 6.0: Airport Extreme > Edit > Wireless > Wireless Options > Tick the box next to "5GHz network name".
  Airport Utility 5.6 and earlier: Manual Setup > Wireless > Wireless Network Options > Tick the box.
  Source

P.S. Having a different SSID does not make it a separate network, it just makes the two bands differentiable.


I cannot configure Mail 5 on Lion to work the way I want with Google GMail I just spent a good hour on Mail app, and its pissing me off.

First archive button is dumb, it actually creates a label called [imap]/archive.

Sending messages is dumb, it actually creates a label called 'Sent Messages'

Deleting messages is dumb, it actually creates a label called 'Deleted Messages'

I don't understand how can the iOS version work well, while the Lion version behaves completely different. Does anyone know how can I get around these problems? My current solution is to use Sparrow. I have also tried looking around the stackexchange websites (superuser and apple), Apple forums, MacRumors, Google, etc..

Other topics with no solutions:
How do I get archive to work in Mail.app in Lion?
http://superuser.com/questions/315171/how-to-stop-mail-app-in-lion-creating-an-archive-folder-for-archiving-in-gmail

Gmail is not exactly IMAP so needs some manual configuration

You need to go in Mail to the folders under your Gmail account and on Trash/Sent Messages/Deleted Messages/Junk select each one of these and then in Mail choose Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For the corresponding Draft/Sent/Trash/Junk.

I originally did this from a very clear set of instructions that I cannot find now. However another set are here.

I also go to the web Gmail Settings and turn off the Show in IMAP check box for the All Mail tag. This means that I only sync one copy of each mail to the Mac.


What ways are there to edit corrections for Gboard for iOS? I'm using Gboard for iOS. Often when I enter a word using the swiping technique it comes up with the wrong word and no suggestion for the word I actually want. The word I want is often only 1 or 2 characters different so my instinct is to press backspace to correct the word but backspace deletes the entire word forcing me to re-enter the entire word again. Usually I end up doing this twice before I realize I have to enter the word by tapping instead of swiping to get what I want.

Are there other methods of correcting/editing a word using Gboard?

You can move the cursor by sliding your finger on the spacebar. Using this technique I can move the cursor back and fix a letter although fixing the last letter is a little problematic. AFAICT to edit the last letter move cursor left then right and pressing backspace won't delete the entire word just the last letter.


Mac OS X pstopdf utility defaults to Letter page size I am using the a2ps utility from Homebrew to pretty print code, generating .ps files, and then the Mac OS X utility pstopdf (used by Preview.app) to convert these to .pdf format. But whatever page size is specified in the PostScript, the generated PDF files have a Letter page size of 11 x 8.5 inches.
For example
a2ps --medium=A4 -P file myfile.py

or
a2ps --medium=A3 -P file myfile.py

generate PostScript files with the correct page dimensions (A4 and A3 respectively) but when converted to PDF by pstopdf the resulting PDF is Letter size with the output truncated at the right/ bottom edge of the page.
I can't find any mention anywhere of how to specify what default page size pstopdf uses.  Opening the PostScript files in Preview.app uses pstopdf in the back end so I get the same result.

If I remove all page size information from a PostScript file, then Preview renders it on a Letter page, even though my default Paper size in CUPS is A4.
There are no user-accessible options or preferences that I can discern. It's certainly undocumented, if it exists.
You may be better off trying to explicitly define the page size in a2ps.
Alternative PDF creators, like GhostScript, offer greater control over the output.


How can I "authorize" a computer? I'm trying to sync my iPhone to my MacBook Pro. I connect the iPhone, launch iTunes, click on the device, then click "Sync".

1

I'm presented with this dialog:

2

I click "Authorize". Then I get this dialog:

3

I fill in the information and click "Authorize".

Then I get this dialog:

4

I click "OK" and instantly I am presented with the first dialog above, the one that says, "This computer is no longer authorized..."

Then it just enlessly cycles between those three dialogs, never letting me authorize the computer.

Any ideas?

Mac OS 10.7.3

iTunes 10.6.1 (7)

There is an Apple support article that gives a couple solutions here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1389

I've also seen people with this problem solve it by downloading and re-installing iTunes manually from here:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

I would try the 3 suggestions in the Apple article first (because they are easier) and then try the download and install.


RSS reader with adblock Is there any RSS reader with a built-in adblock or a plugin to an RSS reader?

I would also be preferable if it had Google Reader integration.

I've added this rule to the end of /Applications/Reeder.app/Contents/Resources/article.css:

iframe[src*="feedads"],
iframe[src*="doubleclick"],
iframe[src*="plusone.google"],
a[href*=".ads."],
a[href*="feedads"],
a[href*="feedburner"],
a[href*="doubleclick"],
a[href*="//ads."],
a[href*="api.tweetmeme"],
a[href*="delicious.com/post?"],
a[href*="digg.com/submit?"],
a[href*="google.com/bookmarks/mark?"],
a[href*="posterous.com/share?"],
a[href*="tumblr.com/share?"],
a[href*="linkedin.com/shareArticle?"],
a[href*="facebook.com/share.php?"],
a[href*="http://twitter.com/home?"],
a[href*="addtoany.com/share_save"],
a[href*="twitter.com/share?"],
a[href*="pheedcontent.com/"],
a[href*="feeds.wordpress.com/"],
img[src*=".ads."],
img[src*="//ads."],
img[src*="doubleclick"],
img[src*="feedads"],
img[src*="feedburner"],
img[src*="share-buttons"],
img[src*="pheedo.com/"] {
    display: none !important;
}

Most of the selectors were taken from a CSS file posted by the original developer of NetNewsWire.

You could also block domains that serve ads in /etc/hosts.


It is possible to create a login which doesn't need a password I was thinking that assigning passwords to OS X accounts is mandatory and you had to set the account to auto-login to avoid having to enter it every time. But can I also define a user account which doesn't need a password?

You do not have to set a password:

Start with Create new user account in System preferences - Users & Groups
Under drop down choose for example Standard Account
Enter name and account but skip the password filed
You will get a warning about not having password, click OK

Account is now created without password.

The Guest account (if enabled) also doesn't require a password.


Installing Xcode 4.1 and Xcode 3.X on Mac OS X Lion I need to install both Xcode 4.1 and Xcode 3.X on Lion.
After installing Xcode 4.1, when I tried to install Xcode 3.X in ~/Developer, I find that I can't install Xcode Toolset with the installer.

Does this mean one can't install Xcode 3.X on Lion? Is there a way to install Xcode Toolset?

The installer for Xcode 3.x fails when you try to run the installer against Lion.

Xcode 4.0 also does not work under Lion, and purposely refuses to start.

Some Developer applications (like Dashcode) do start but more often than not just crash.

If you really depend on Xcode 3 your best bet is to keep Snow Leopard on a second partition alongside Lion and dual boot when needed. AFAIK you can nonetheless target previous Mac OS X and iOS versions to some extend in Xcode 4.1.

You can try installing it on Snow Leopard and then upgrading to Lion - that's the best chance, but it might be easier to keep an external disk bootable with Snow Leopard and Xcode 3.x just in case you run into any glitches down the road.


Can't enable iCloud Music Library issue I'm running iOS 8.4.1. When I go into to the app settings and tap to enable the iCloud Music Library, I get the Replace or Merge. After this the option reverts back to off automatically. I tried lots of times, rebooting the phone, switching airplane mode on/off, but still the same...

UPDATE: I spoke to apple support and it seems like the "iTunes in the cloud" functionality is not available for certain countries yet, so there's no way to enable the iCloud Music Library and therefore there's no way of creating playlists, saving music offline or adding a song to "my library" feature. To me that almost cripples Apple Music app... disappointing

I am also having this problem, and I also live in RO.

I have reported a bug to Apple, they asked me to install some certificates and send them logs after i was trying to activate that switch. But that was like a week or two before making 8.4.1 update so i kinda starting lose hope. Reply them back and no response since then.

It might be a problem in this country..because none of my friends can't activate it.

I have tried everything on the internet to solve my problem and nothing

  UPDATE:
  I have made it, I activated by mistake following these steps:

Change AppStore Store from Romania to SUA
Go to Settings -> Music -> And switch iClound Music Library on
Get back to your Ro Store, and it will remain like this!!!! :)


How to restart the wifi part alone instead of restarting the whole system? The wifi that I use at a particular library has some weird issue. I have only faced the issue at this place. The IT helpdesk is not of much help and I am unable to understand the issue. This happened, every 2-3 weeks. I go there weekly 2-3 days for a couple of hours. This is also the only wifi where I have to put a new username and password every 2 hrs. The issue usually happens the first time I try to connect in a day.

Here is what happens, I see the wifi in full strength, but I am unable to connect to it. The IT guy tries connecting to the wifi via his android phone and it connects fine. Then I do the following:

Wifi icon>Network Preference>Advanced>Wifi>Preferred Networks>remove the wifi from that list
Restart the system
Try connecting 3-4 times, then it connects successfully.

I don't understand why it does not connect immediately once I restart the system. What happens when you restart the system? Does it reset the dynamic IP I get in the network? All I can think of is that the wifi router here has some issue and I cannot do anything about it. But I would like to have a better way of solving the issue.

What I mainly want to know, is there a way I can achieve the benefit of restarting the system instead of actually restarting it. Like a command that restarts the whole wifi part without just restarting the whole system.

From the Wi-Fi icon the second option is Turn Wi-fi Off. Select this, wait a few seconds, then open the Wi-Fi icon again and Turn Wi-Fi On. This is how you would restart your Wi-Fi on macOS without restarting your whole computer.

Also to elaborate on your other question(s) - there are a multitude of networking policies and configurations that could be complicating this connection. The hardware itself could be out of date or possibly just full on users and you're connecting when someone drops off - there could be network policies in place that take extra time to validate your machine. The list is quite endless. If you are eventually able to connect it's likely that you'll need to work with your IT folks to figure out the specific issues - or just deal with this buggy connection - but you shouldn't need to reboot your entire machine to make this connection work. There's really not much difference in doing that vs. turning the Wi-Fi off and on again from the menu.

Good luck!


External USB NTFS drive not recognized in macOS High Sierra My external USB drive, formatted as NTFS, is no longer being recognized in High Sierra.

As soon as I plug it in I get the following error message:

I tried running First Aid in Disk Utility but it is greyed out.

I then tried to verify the disk in Terminal and this is what it spit out:

When I type in diskutil repairvolume /Volumes/SSD/ it spits out the same error and then un-mounts the drive.

Is my drive corrupted beyond repair? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

I fixed it by performing a chkdsk /f in Windows.


Disabled iPhone 4S after restore iPhone 4S disabled after a number of passcode incorrect entries.  I followed instructions to hook it up to an iTunes account etc and then to restore it to original settings.  The screen that no appears is iPhone disabled, emergency calls only.  There is a valid sim card in the phone.  The error that came up after the restore was 'could not connect phone to iTunes as valid passcode required'  Any ideas?

When the phone initially said disabled, you could have just left it untouched for a few hours and it will give you the option to try the passcode again, normally has a count down timer to when you can retry the passcode.

Anyhow, you can restore the phone using the DFU mode, hold down the home and the power button until screen goes off then immediately release the power button whilst still holding down the home button, make sure the phone is connected to the computer and have iTunes open when doing this.

The screen will remain black, but you should see the iPhone appear in iTunes where you can restore it.


Xcode failed to download. Use the Purchases page to try again Xcode is showing in the Mac App Store, ready to be updated. Clicking update results in an error:

  Xcode failed to download. Use the Purchases page to try again.

Steps taken that didn't help:

Rebooting
Removed ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.appstore.plist
Searched and removed MAS-related files:

sudo find /var/folders/ -ipath '*com.apple.appstore*' -print | xargs sudo fgrep -i xcode
sudo find /var/folders/ -ipath '*com.apple.appstore*' -delete

How can I successfully update Xcode?

Deleting the temporary folders as recommended didn't help. In the end I got it working again by enabling the Debug menu for the App Store app and resetting the application; it is now finally downloading the update as it should.

Steps:

Open Terminal.
Run the following command:

defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true

Relaunch the App Store.
Choose the menu item Debug → Reset Application.

Based on steps from: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4398074?start=0&tstart=0

It is possible that signing out (Store → Sign Out) might have solved the issue too (part of the application reset process is to sign you out) but this was not tested.


New MacBook Pro 13" (late 2016) with three external 4K monitors Considering getting the new MacBook Pro 13" with four USB-C ports.  It is capable of supporting two 4K monitors out of the box, but can anyone help me figure out how to add a third 4K monitor?  Would this require something like a DisplayLink 4K adapter?  Thanks for any help.

Apple says that the 13 inch MacBook Pro will only support two thunderbolt displays so you should plan to rent or be able to return any hardware purchases you make if you can't get three displays to work.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204154

I'm not saying it won't work even though not "officially supported" - just that it might not work even if you have cables and ports to connect all three devices due to driver or software issues and not cable/connection issues. You'd want a Mac Pro if you need up to 6 displays as they have the graphics horsepower to run those pixels in an officially supported configuration.


How can I find which Control-Command keys are mapped to particular programs? I am using iTerm2 under High Sierra 10.13.6. iTerm2 lets me assign Control-Command key combos to particular actions. This mostly works fine, but at least two of these do nothing: Control-Command-B and Control-Command-D. I suspect they are being grabbed by something at the system level. However, manually walking through all of System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts didn't show anything for these two.

Is there a way to get a list of all key combinations and map them to what they are (or are not) assigned to?

There are a few apps out there which are meant to help show the available keyboard commands. The only ones I can remember right now are:

KeyCue which is €19.99 but does have a trial. I suspect this is probably the best of the bunch, although it’s the most expensive.
CheatSheet is another one, which is free, although it doesn't show nearly as many shortcuts as KeyCue does.

(If I can remember others I will edit this to add them)

Unfortunately, when I tried KeyCue and CheatSheet, neither of them showed anything for ⌃⌘D or ⌃⌘B.

I know that ⌃⌘Dis used for the system dictionary (highlight a word, press ⌃⌘D and you’ll get a dictionary lookup for it). But I don’t see a preference for it in System Preferences to allow you to disable it or re-assign it.

Also ⌃⌘B doesn’t seem to do anything on my Mac, so that may be specific to some app that you have installed.

Be sure to check the ”Services” area of Keyboard preferences:

That’s where I usually find the culprit when something has stolen a keyboard shortcut that I want to use.


How to record a screen film of an iPad? I would like to record a screen film of my iPad. If possible, I would like to include my spoken comments.

How can I do that ?

Starting with iOS 11, screen recording is a built-in feature. It also includes an option to turn the microphone on during the session, by long-pressing or hard-pressing the screen recording button.

iOS 11 is still in beta but it's now in public beta which means you don't need to be a developer to enroll and test it.


See website visit time in Safari history I'm trying to figure out how to determine the time websites were visited in the Safari history. (I can't imagine why this isn't easy to do like in every other browser I've ever used).

NOTE: I'm running Safari 9.0.3 and El Capitan 10.11.3.

I've done some research and found some files in ~/Library/Safari. The file History.db file looks possibly promising but I haven't been able to figure out how to find the timestamp from this yet.

So I woke up today to my sleep-tracker app telling me I went to bed an hour earlier than I thought I did, so naturally I assumed the app was the one who made the stupid mistake. Luckily I'd surfed the web before going to bed, but apparently Apple changed things up again as of High Sierra or Safari 11 so the other answers didn't work for me.

I found out how to get the visit times, and since I went way to far to get to the bottom of this highly unimportant issue already, I thought I'd share my findings here:

Edit

Okay so I got carried away a little more and wrote a bash one-liner to do all the hard work for you. Just open the terminal and copy-past it in. It should work without having to install anything, unless apple has changed something again in the mean time.

You can ignore the empty lines in the output (they are http-redirects) and you can change the last number 30 in the command to filter the number of lines you want to see.

sqlite3 ~/Library/Safari/History.db 'select visit_time,title from history_visits order by visit_time desc;' \
 | while read i; do d="${i%%.*}"; echo "$(date -r $((d+978307200))) | ${i#*|}"; done \
 | head -n 30

Original answer

So instead of having a simple folder with all the history like before, they now write the history into a database. Here's how you get the info if you really want to:

The data is now stored in an SQLite Database, so you're gonna need some tool to read that. I suggest the DB Browser for SQLite. Just install it the usual way.
Now open the database file. It is located here: /Users/[yourname]/Library/Safari/History.db.
In the Browse Data Tab click the Table: dropdown and select history_visits.

Now, sort by visit_time and find the thing you are interested in.
Those numbers under the visit_time column are a Core Data Timestamp, so to get something human-readable you need a converter. Simply use this one: https://www.epochconverter.com/coredata

Hope this solves your history-related conundrum.


When I set my IOS devices to use an Internet proxy, my iOS Remote app won't connect. How fix? My ISP started having problems loading NYtimes... I live overseas. Their only answer was: OK, configure your devices to use this proxy.

So I configured my iPad etc to connect using the proxy. All very good.

BUT as a direct result, the iPad (and IPod touches) now simply hang when I try to run the Remote app to control my iTunes on my Mac.  Argh... That is key for me.

Any advice on how I can keep the Proxy from killing my Remote app?

-- why the heck would Remote app care about the proxy anyway?  It does not need to connect to anything outside my apartment.

-- I already tried configuring my computer's entire Mac OS to also connect to the proxy . Did not fix the problem. Note that normally, I am leaving the Mac's OS NOT connected to the proxy but rather only having my web browser (Firefox) use the proxy.  Partially because having the Whole Mac configured to proxy did not fix the browser... And it did not help matters when I saw that the Preferences control panel for the proxy was reformatting the port number of the proxy to display the number like this: 8,080.  Uhh... You think apple might have fixed that embarrassing bug in its last update.

Thanks!!!

You could try using something like WireShark to confirm that your connections are going where you think they are.


I can't enter passwords in Safari 11.1 on macOS 10.13 High Sierra because the last character gets removed I installed a brand new 10.13 a few days ago. I downloaded it from the App Store and I installed all updates. I'm runnning Safari Version 11.1 (13605.1.33.1.4).

Somehow I managed to log into Google, but I can't log into any other website. Safari does the following when entering text into password fields  – on every other webpage except for Google:

the first character is entered
after that, it looks like the last character is removed after keyup
this happens when using the internal or an external keyboard

Normal fields like text, textarea etc. work fine, though.

Here's a gif showing the problem – no Backspace or Shift+Del is pressed. This happens just in Safari  – Chrome and Firefox work fine:

I have the following settings:

autofill: don't store passwords and credit card information
no extensions are installed
Adobe Acrobat plug-in is installed

I tried to change the settings and to disable the Arcobat plug-in, but nothing changed.

It seems that macOS’ autocorrection kicks in. I noticed this behavior in a password-field that could be switched to plaintext: Characters get replaced with emojis. For example:

()

… was turned into:

☮

I assumed you checked your accessibility and keyboard preferences. I have had numerous issues with keyboard setting being modified/added during the updates. sticky keys and other settings were modified that I wasn't aware of...I had to start using the manual keyboard viewer until I was able to get it fixed...

.

only other thingi I can think of is trying on an alternate or guest login to see if you have the same problem on a clean user.

I know I am still struggling with my fare share of HSierra simple glitches but I hope you can get this one solved! Good luck!


VPN issues Cisco IPSec Mavericks 10.9.3 This is my first post here on AskDifferent. I have a user who can not connect to the VPN on his Mac. It is a MBP 11,1 with a Core i5 2.4GHz 8gb of memory running OS X 10.9.3 . I have had him create a new VPN connection with all of the necessary information and still no dice. No one else in the company who is running Mavericks is having any issue VPNing into the office.

I am at my wits end here. I am typing this on a MacBook Air that is currently on the company VPN.

Please Help.

To use the Cisco VPN Client, the following network ports must be opened in your firewall software:

500 UDP
4500 UDP
10000 UDP

Normally, When you install the Cisco VPN Client, it automatically opens these ports on the firewall. So check whether the user has another software firewall installed on the computer, If so you will need to manually open these ports.

Hope it could help.


A script to automatically split an Aperture library My Aperture library contains a ridiculous amount of pictures (well over 30 000) which means it is extremely slow whatever the hard-drive and computer I use.

I want to split my library into separate libraries.  The split could be yearly or with a fixed number of pictures per library.

Should it be possible to do this automatically  (automator script, command line etc)?  If so, any suggestions how?

(This would probably be useful for iPhoto too)

My current solution is to use smart albums (but I encounter the difficulty of deleting the pictures:  Delete all pictures in an album from library in Aperture)

It doesn't seem possible through Automator, but it could be through a little complex Applescript…

My personal approach was first gather various projects by context in folders (e.g. abroad holidays) and then - for each of them - export its content as an external library every 5 years. Hope this can apply to you!

O.T.: I'd like to post this as a comment, but it seems that I don't have enough reputation…


How to quit 'screen' if you don't have \ on the keyboard To quit screen you need to hit ctrl+a, ctrl+\. How do you do that if you don't have \ on the keyboard?

On my keyboard I need to hit shift+alt+7 to get a backslash - if I'm in an editor. Won't work for screen of course.

One solution I meanwhile found was to create ~/.screenrc and add bind q quit to it. This allows me to quit by typing ctrl+a, q.


Will a US bought iPad (newest) on Verizon work in India? Im looking to buy an ipad here in the US as a gift for a friend in India.

I have looked at the 4G LTE bands and am not betting on if Indian carriers may end up using the same bands, but what concerns me is the following:

Is the iPad(AT&T or Verizon) locked to its respective network?

Since the GSM/HSPA+ use similar frequencies in India, could I possibly plug in an Airtel (local carrier) SIM and expect 3G to work well at least?

Recently, Airtel Launched 4G/LTE services in Bangalore, but it made no difference to iPAD 3 community. When I contacted Airtel technical support, they offered me a LTE Indoor Wireless Gateways. Their claim is that one can carry LTE wifi-spot along with iPAD  not a bad idea for those who are travelling with all their electronic gadgets.

Technically, new iPAD now supports 700 MHz and 2100MHz LTE bands, and in India, DOT has allotted 2300 to 23400 MHz spectrum for BWA/LTE. Secondly, difference is of-course LTE technology modes namely Time Division Duplex (TDD – also called as TD-LTE ), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD – also called FD-LTE) and half FDD. Apple LTE Specs are following for AT&T & Verizon FD-LTE network configuration, and Airtel got a TD-LTE network. So all new iPad 3 users in Kolkata and Bangalore will have to settle down for a 3G network.

In India 2100 MHz band is used by defense is about to vacate 5 MHz for BWA sooner or later. 700 MHz band is used by BSNL, Defence and other disaster management agencies, about 40 MHz bandwidth is used and TRAI has recommended to get this frequency band vacated for BWA usage.

BSNL had opted itself out of BWA/LTE space, which will make private players to dominate and bring in their price plans. Further, it will be interesting watch others including Qualcomm, Infotel (Reliance subsidiary), Aircel and Tikona who have won e-actions during mid 2010, and their plans on LTE deployment. Missing harmony between spectrum winners will result in issues in interoperability, and end users will have to bare that pain. It will be similar to current TV Set Top Boxes stories, they are not portable between satellite dish service providers, though equipment are generic.

But, it’s not because Airtel which uses TD-LTE technology, iPAD which wont able to connect (as one Airtel communicated to me) but because of frequency band which iPADs built with (700 & 2100 MHz) and DOT allocated (2300 MHz). I wish, Apple to push new baseband update (aka modem firmware – not sure about other dependencies such as Antennas and etc) with 2300 MHz band offered by DOT for BWA. There is difference between India operators and American operators, American Operators spend in millions for interoperability and Field Testing. FT is also done in India, with much reduced scope & coverage. Remember they have also invested in huge for spectrum, equipment and other assets, so they surely have done due-diligence to confirm deployment obligations from DOT/TRAI/Government to protect end users like you and me.


Terminal command to record audio through macbook microphone? Is there a command we can use via terminal to start recording audio through my macbook microphone?

Use FFMPEG.

(This has become one of my favorite command line utilities for video/audio conversion and streaming).  It's an open source framework for audio/video encoding, decoding, streaming, converting, and muxing.  It's included with many (paid) AV utilities.

You can capture the audio as a stream through Apple's AVFoundation.

Get the device ID

$ ffmpeg -f avfoundation -list_devices true -i ""

[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7fda1bc152c0] AVFoundation video devices:
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7fda1bc152c0] [0] FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7fda1bc152c0] [1] Capture screen 0
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7fda1bc152c0] AVFoundation audio devices:
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7fda1bc152c0] [0] USB Audio CODEC
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7fda1bc152c0] [1] Built-in Microphone

The device you're going to need is ":1"  AVFoundation uses the convention "V:A" for "Video:Audio"  so, if you want to capture video from your FaceTime camera the the audio from your Microphone, you would use "0:1".  If you wanted just the audio only, you would use ":1" and leave the video out.

Record the Audio:

$ ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ":1" -t 10 audiocapture.mp3

The above command will record 10 seconds of audio from the built in microphone and save it as audiocapture.mp3.  You can set how long you want FFMPEG to record by changing the value for -t.  If you want to record a full hour, set it to "3600".

$ ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ":1" -t 3600 audiocapture.mp3

What the flags mean

-f = "force format".  In this case we're forcing the use of AVFoundation
-i = input source.  Typically it's a file, but you can use devices.

"0:1" = Record both audio and video from FaceTime camera and built-in mic
"0" = Record just video from FaceTime camera
":1" = Record just audio from built-in mic

-t = time in seconds.  If you want it to run indefinitely until you stop it (ControlC) omit this value (not recommended)

Input Volume

Keep in mind that you're using the built-in microphone which isn't great to begin with.  Ensure that you set the gain high enough (System Preferences, Sounds) so that the Mic can hear you.  It would probably be best to get a quality USB microphone instead.


iPhone asks to trust computer each time when tethering hotspot is on When tethering hotspot is on, and I connect with my laptop via USB (in order to tether), I get asked each time to trust the computer which is annoying.

Latest iOS 13.2 17B84 ;  Mac OS Catalina 10.15.1 (19B88) .

In the past when the trust store became corrupt, I would see this. Have you followed the reset location process listed by Apple?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202778

Once you do that, I would connect the phone without tethering enabled to just get a plain connect and make sure the computer and device are copacetic with reconnects that don’t prompt.

Once you’re past that, then try the tethering again.


Send from Gmail "plus" (person+something@gmail.com) address in Mail.app? I have a gmail account in Mail.app, example@gmail.com.

How can I send mail from Mail.app using the example+two@gmail.com From address, instead of the example@gmail.com From address?

Looking through all Mail preferences and System Preferences > Internet Accounts I don't see how. Probably there's some workaround though.

It's called an email alias.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/use-email-aliases-mlhlp1205/13.0/mac/10.15

  Create or change an alias

  In the Mail app on your Mac, choose Mail > Preferences, then click Accounts.
  Select an account, then click Account Information.
  Click the Email Address pop-up menu, choose Edit Email Addresses, then do one of the following:

  Add an alias: Click the Add button +, then enter a name and email address.

  Send an email from an alias

  In the Mail app on your Mac, move the pointer over the From field in a message you’re writing.
  Click the pop-up menu that appears, then choose an email alias.


How to recover lost Mail content after Yosemite update? I have just updated Yosemite on my MacBook Air and the outgoing mails cannot be sent - the SMTP-connection fails.
It worked OK a few seconds before the upgrade was started.
I wanted the Outgoing mails to work again.

I did the following in Mail Version 8.2 (2104)

Opened  ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist
Found the block of data that contains the offending mail account
Found the line within this block that says UserAllowsInsecureAuthentication
Changed the line below this from <false/> to <true/>
Quit TextEdit
Launched Mail

Now I don’t see my mail account and the content.
In mail 8.2 os x yosemite 10.10.5 preferences, rebuild accounts take offline accounts take on line and other tools are grey.

Can you tell me how to fix it in to see the email accounts and the contents of all my emails in box, send, trash, junk, archives etc.

Quit Mail
Find & trash the 3 files in ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/ that begin with Envelope Index...
Launch Mail.

That should rebuild the database.

It may not fix your connection issue, but ought to return the missing data.

To fix the connection, try unchecking 'Automatically detect & maintain..." in Prefs > Accounts > SMTP Settings/Edit


How can I “Open an app from an unidentified developer” without using the GUI? Basically, I used the native Safari.app web browser to download a third party application and I want to run / open it from the comfort of my bash shell / Terminal.app CLI; despite the following error message:

“<unidentified_thirdparty.app>” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified
 developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the Mac
 App Store and identified developers. Safari downloaded this file on <today's_date>
 from <the.inter.net>.
                                          |[OK]|

You'll either have to change the settings under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General > Allow applications downloaded from: to Anywhere or in a Terminal, strip the xattr com.apple.quarantine attribute from the downloaded file(s).

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "unidentified_thirdparty.app"


Why is my terminal displaying my IP address beside my name? Well, I was just wondering if it is okay for the OS X shell to display something like this:

192-168-1-7:~ name$

What does the above actually mean? I have tried setting my host name but still didn't work!

And the Terminal window is name is name--- bash ---80x24
What does that mean?

Thank you

The bash interactive shell prompt - if not tweeked further - is determined by the PS1-line in the file /etc/bashrc.

The 6th line PS1='\h:\W \u\$ ' decodes to

\h the hostname up to the first `.' - in your case 192-168-1-7
: delimiter
\W the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde - in your case ~ which is equivalent to the directory /Users/name/
 delimiter/space
\u short user name of the current user - in your case name
$ UserID-identifier (it turns to a # if the effective UID is 0 (~root) - else $)
 delimiter/space

A longer list of possible customizations of the prompt (e.g. time, date, bell) will be shown after opening Terminal.app, entering man bash and going down to PROMPTING.

The Terminal window title shows your working directory, the name of your shell  (bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell) and its size: 80 characters x 24 lines.

Your fully qualified host name is probably 192-168-1-7.SLD.TLD (e.g. 192-168-1-7.dlink.home) and is assigned by a DHCP server in your network. Considering all that your Terminal window name and the embedded shell prompt is completely regular.


Why can't I install OS X 10.6.6 combined updates? To be clear, I can't install any Mac OS X update at the moment.  I reformatted my disk and installed fresh off my Snow Leopard disk.  I then continued to download 1.16GB worth of combined update (10.6.6) and I kept getting an "invalid checksum" error when attempting to open the DMG.

I'll be very clear on this to stop going around in circles.  I have spent the last 2 days looking at this issue, trawling through forum posts, re-installing, verifying and checking my disk, trying 10.6.1 instead, reformatting again, doing a zero fill, the works.  Anything that a forum seems to have suggested has not worked for me whatsoever.

Here's an output from my log:

  Mar  1 19:37:43 Kieran-Seniors-MacBook-Pro installd[182]:
  PackageKit: Install Failed: PKG: extracting "com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.6.1"
  Error Domain=PKInstallErrorDomain Code=110 UserInfo=0x10011a1e0 "An error
  occurred while extracting files from the package “MacOSXUpd10.6.1.pkg”."
  Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 "The file couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format.")
  {
  NSFilePath = "/var/folders/zz/zzzivhrRnAmviuee+++++++++++/-Tmp-/PKInstallSandbox-tmp/Root";
  NSLocalizedDescription = "An error occurred while extracting files from the package "MacOSXUpd10.6.1.pkg".";
  NSURL = "#MacOSXUpd10.6.1.pkg -- file://localhost/Volumes/Mac%20OS%20X%2010.6.1%20Update/MacOSXUpd10.6.1.pkg";
  NSUnderlyingError = "Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 \"The file couldn't be opened because it isn't in the correct format.\"";
  PKInstallPackageIdentifier = "com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.6.1";
  }

  Mar  1 19:37:43 Kieran-Seniors-MacBook-Pro Installer[173]: install:didFailWithError:Error Domain=PKInstallErrorDomain Code=110 UserInfo=0x1003f17f0 "An error occurred while extracting files from the package “MacOSXUpd10.6.1.pkg”." Underlying Error=(ErrorDomain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 "The file couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format.")

  Mar 1 19:37:44 Kieran-Seniors-MacBook-Pro Installer[173]: Install failed: The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

  Mar  1 19:37:44 Kieran-Seniors-MacBook-Pro Installer[173]: IFDInstallController 14EE80 state = 7

  Mar  1 19:37:44 Kieran-Seniors-MacBook-Pro Installer[173]: Displaying 'Install Failed' UI.

  Mar  1 19:37:44 Kieran-Seniors-MacBook-Pro Installer[173]: 'Install Failed' UI displayed message:'The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.'.

Things I've done:

Redownloaded any update version and tried to use them.  10.6.6 was downloaded 5 times altogether with no luck.  I tried using prior versions such as 10.6.1 and 10.6.2, again with no luck.
Redownloaded from a different system.  That didn't work either.
Reformatted the disk.  That didn't do anything.  I also zero-filled.
Ran the disk repair utility

My system ran updates absolutely fine before this.  Anyone got any ideas at all?

Cheers

Sounds like some sort of silently corrupted download (I had an old router that did this occasionally).  Try a different connection using completely different modems, routers and access points.  Maybe even a different internet provider at a friend's house or office.


Time Machine Backup over WiFi Causes Erratic Magic Trackpad Behavior My Setup
I have a mid-2010 13" MacBook Pro running OSX 10.4.8.
TimeMachine is configured to run hourly backups over WiFi to a TimeCapsule.
I also have a Magic Trackpad linked to my computer via Bluetooth.

The Problem
When TimeMachine begins its backup, if my computer is not connected via ethernet (WiFi connection only), the cursor controlled by the Magic Trackpad moves erratically to the point of being unusable for the duration of the backup.  When the TimeMachine backup completes, normal movement/responsiveness to Magic Trackpad gestures is restored.

Current Workaround
If I repeat the process but use an ethernet connection, there is no erratic cursor movement.

What I've tried
At first I presumed a hardware issue was to blame, but I tried with my dad's trackpad and got the same behavior.

--

Has anyone else experienced this?Is there any workaround besides keeping my laptop connected via ethernet?

Try connecting to 5GHz channel. Rumor has it that the trackpad is sensitive to interference with 2.4GHz wifi.


Deploying default Wifi settings and Passwords I am building a default 10.8 image for our corporate Mac users.  We have a local Wifi network which should be set up by default on this image.  I have used PackageMaker to set up all the other deployed software and settings, and would like to keep it that way.  I am using InstaDMG to build the image (another reason to prefer the modular packaging method I have in place).

I have tried deploying a .keychain file to /Library/Keychains/, but the AP is not picked up;      I am also aware of /Library/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist but after deploying this, the system still does not result in the expected behavior.

How can I deploy system-wide Wifi settings to a unbooted images using packages?

I believe PackageMaker includes some first-run scripts, does it not? The easiest way is probably to make use of the networksetup command line tool in a script set to run on the first launch of an image.

To add a WPA network:

networksetup -addpreferredwirelessnetworkatindex AirPort mynetworkSSID 0 WPA superSecretPassword

The encryption type can be one of:

OPEN — open hotspot, no passphrase necessary of course.
WPA
WPAE (WPA Enterprise)
WPA2
WPA2E (WPA2 Enterprise)
WEP
8021XWEP (802.1X WEP)


How can I disable MySQL from starting at boot? I have a mid 2013 MBA running OSX 10.9.

The process that starts on every start up is mysqld. I believe it was from an old version of MySQL I had installed (via AMPPS). I then installed MAMP Pro and I often have conflicts between these two processes. Everytime I shut down and restart my mac, I have to find the process of mysqld that is running (on activity monitor), quit it, and then start MAMP (via the terminal command: /Application/MAMP/bin/startMysql.sh won't work from anywhere else).

So I'm wondering how I can disable this mysqld from running on every startup.

Open terminal, then:

sudo launchctl list | grep -i mysql

launchctl remove xxx.xxx.mysql

Where "xxx.xxx" is included in the output of the first command, for example "org.macports.mysql". The password for the "sudo" command is your own user account's password.

True, sudo isn't needed to "list" but because you already gave a sudo password for the first command, it is stored for a short while in session memory and isn't required for the second command (which is privileged). Otherwise, just skip sudo on the first command and use it on the second. There are more ways than one to skin a cat.


Quickly remove badge from app Is it possible to quickly remove a notification badge from an app in the Dock? I'm looking for a solution faster than opening the app itself and performing whatever task is required to mark the notification as read.

In some apps, clearing the badge is quick and easy, but others require a bit more persuasion or actual action. For example, the App Store badge is useful as it tells me that updates are available, but once I'm aware of this, I don't need the badge any more. Unfortunately, clearing the badge requires installing/ignoring the updates, which I may not want to do immediately. A quick way to remove just the badge would be very useful.

I would prefer something scriptable, but GUI scripting is not out of the scope.

I'm not aware of anything available to remove the badge from the app. However is is simple enough to turn off the notifications. For example in Mail:

Note the checkmark next to Badge App Icons in Notifications -> Mail. That will prevent the badge icon and if you have the sound on you will be notified when a new message comes in without the annoying visual distraction of the badge.


How do I stop a deleted purchased apps from continously charging me? I bought this Starmaker app at the App Store for Iphone which cost me $1.79. I thought that I would be charged just one time. But every week, I have been getting email notifications that I am continously being charged $1.79 for each week. I deleted the app from my Iphone but they are still charging my credit card. How do I stop this?

It's likely you made an in-app purchase of some sort of subscription. To check and deactivate the subscription, manage you Apple ID account in iTunes by clicking View My Apple ID in the Store menu.

Enter your password and on the resulting page you should see subscriptions listed under Settings with the number of subscriptions.

Click on the Manage link to the right. There you should be able to cancel any recurrent subscription plans.


How can I change the default Documents and Pictures directories to symlinks? I have most of my important files under Dropbox, like Pictures and Documents. It would be great if I could set the default Documents and Pictures directories to either point under the respective directory under my Dropbox folder, or (if their path is important) have my real directories being symlinked under ~/Documents and ~/Pictures.

Is this possible somehow?

You can do the opposite way round: add a symlink of the defaults Documents and Pictures to your Dropbox folder.

Full instructions can be found here, but basically, in the Terminal, just change directory to your Dropbox folder, and then create the links there.

cd ~/Dropbox
ln -s ~/Documents
ln -s ~/Pictures

Obviously, this will overwrite the existing Dropbox subfolders. You can either rename those folders, or you can create a new name for the symlink in the ln command:

ln -s ~/Documents symDocuments


How to know if Mac OS X machine is being remotely viewed? Currently I have no way to know if my machine is being remotely viewed by our tech support, and would prefer to know, given the massive privacy breach that would entail should this be happening. I am running Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Running

ps -A | grep Remote

I know this service is running:

/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent

My knowledge of administration of Macs on a network is limited, so I don't know what tools allow this.

If your computer is being remotely accessed, it will show a little viewer icon in the menu bar. (Note, I've been using screen sharing since OS X Leopard, and I've never seen the icon noted by de_an777 in his answer.

Go into System Preferences > Shared. Make sure that Screen Sharing and Remote Management (for Apple's Remote Desktop) are both unchecked.

Also, check under Security & Privacy > Firewall and turn the Firewall on. Note the warning. "The firewall will block all sharing services, such as file sharing, screen sharing, iChat Bonjour, and iTunes music sharing. If you want to allow sharing services, click Advanced and deselect the “Block all incoming connections” checkbox."

This will block any incoming screen sharing connection (as well as other services).
To check to make sure that you can't connect to your computer via screen sharing, you can use nmap, a free command line tool for "network discovery and security auditing."
To use it, just type nmap [YOUR IP ADDRESS]

You'll see that nmap reports that the vnc (screen sharing) port is open. After turning off screen sharing and turning on the firewall:

(Note that I've explicitly allowed ssh, printer, and afp sharing in the Firewall.)
I hope this helps you!


Change Folder Icon for Shared Dropbox Folder I have several shared Dropbox folders. I would like to change the folder icon for each, to be a picture of the people with whom that folder is shared.

I know that I can change the icons for regular folders, so I tried to do that for the dropbox folders... which seemed to work at first. However, I notice that after a reboot, the folder icons reset to the default dropbox shared folder icon.

Is there a way that I can change the folder icons on a more permanent basis?

Dropbox likes to reset the images. You can prevent this by locking the new folder icon. After setting the folder icon to your desired icon, run the following command:

chflags uchg /path/to/folder/Icon$'\r'

To unlock, replace uchg with nouchg.


Any way on God's green earth to disable resuming applications after a crash? Using OS 10.6.8

Every month or two I'll have a hard crash on my MacBook Pro and I'll have to force reboot by holding down the power button. No big deal, I've been doing this on various macs since 1995 since OS version 7.1.

What drives me absolutely bonkers in 10.6.x is that in certain cases like a hard power-cycle, OS X Snow Leopard insists on resuming all 20 or 30 applications I had running before the hard reboot.

Is there some way to tell the OS just never ever ever (ever!) to resume my applications at boot time? I've done everything I can via system preferences and tinkertool of course.

Please help! It takes literally 20-30 minutes for my computer to get up and going in some cases (16 GB RAM, tons of applications running) and if this happens while I'm with a client it's incredibly embarrassing.

I just want a fresh start. Do I have better options in 10.7+?

Just to mention, 15 minutes to boot is way too much, no matter how many apps you have. I haven't seen that boot time since windows XP. 16 GB of ram and a slow hard drive may be your problem, so I'd consider an SSD which will speed your boot time up to 30 seconds.

Also make sure you don't have too many apps in your login items. Remove stuff you can start manually later when you need them.

Finally make sure you have enough drive space, with 16 GB of ram, you need that amount of space to store the ram contents during suspend/resume and other operations.

Anyway, in Lion (tho I recommend Mountain Lion instead) you can disable the Resume of applications straight from the System Preferences (and there are other tricks as well, easy to find).

If you are really going to switch to something other than Snow Leopard, I'd go Mountain Lion. I would venture and say Lion was the Windows Vista of the modern OS Xs :)


Sensitivity to gross noise on battery charging lines of Lightning connector Long ago, I docked my iPod Touch with 30-pin connector onto a cheap ghetto blaster.  I cranked the volume over an extended period.  Shortly thereafter, the battery of the iPod Touch could not retain a charge.  I am guessing that cranking the ghetto blaster caused damaging electrical noise to spike into the iPod Touch.  These days, I only connect media devices to the ghetto blaster via an old audio cable.

Now I own an iPhone SE, which I'm still paying off.  I am experiencing the low charge life that iPhones are known for.  If I charge it with the car's 12V source (older cars use to have cigarette lighters in the socket but mine only has a cover), I won't get caught running out of juice when I'm on the road and needing to navigate or look things up.

But I am concerned about noise damaging my much more expensive iPhone.  After all, it is a car, and the power sources probably weren't designed to be steady and quiet.  Heck, I imagine starting the motor causes really causes fluctuations in the 12V, and maybe when the A/C kicks in.

I can pick up a USB power adapter to plug into the 12V socket, and I always carry a USB-to-Lightning cable (expensive buggers).  The USB power adapter is only a few bucks at a car accessories shop, but $20 at a national electronics store chain (for a brand that isn't exactly high end).  The price difference is approximately 5-fold.  And generally, one gets what one pays for.

I will go for the much cheaper alternative if the risk to my iPhone is minimal.  That depends on the sensitivity of the iPhone SE to gross noise on Lightning port.  I won't even say on the powering lines, as I don't know exactly how Lightning is designed, and even if there were dedicated powering lines, the adapter may inject noise on all lines.

My decision should also depend on how easy and typical it is to filter or block such gross noise.  I suspect that we've been charging all manner of electronics in the car for a while now.  If the technology is a commodity technology, then even cheap adapters can be expected to filter/block gross noise.  There's no way to be sure without lab-testing each product; it's more a risk assessment based on what is likely.

I can boil the above down into two questions:

(1) Is the iPhone SE known to be sensitive to damage from gross noise along the Lightning port?

(2) How commoditized is the technology to block such noise in USB adapters for the 12V socket of a car?

Truly answering this requires a comprehensive study which is probably unaffordable to most.  I am only seeking information that can narrow down my complete lack of familiarity with the topic of either question, and enable a judgement call to be made.

Now that I've actually taken the time to describe the problem, I can't even say that the cost difference is the motivating factor. It's more the fact that I would feel far more gratified in having made a rational decision rather than just going for higher cost, which might make no difference in quality.  And if the information exists with which make a decision rather than a wild guess perhaps this might help others.

I'm not sure how well this answers your question, but it seems the whole basis for your post is an assumption you've made about the experience you had a long time ago with an iPod Touch:

  I am guessing that cranking the ghetto blaster caused damaging electrical noise to spike into the iPod Touch.

As you indicate, this is just a guess and there's no way to know what the actual cause of the iPod Touch battery no longer maintaining a charge was.

My experience

What I can tell you is that during the past 11 years:

I have personally owned 6 iPhones, 3 iPads, 1 iPod and 2 Apple Watches
My family has owned 17 iPhones, 7 iPads and 5 iPods
All of the above devices were charged on a regular basis using the 12v sockets of various motor vehicles, campers or caravans
We have used a range of 12v USB power adapters ranging from about $4 to $50 in cost
We have never come across any damage to any of our devices regardless of the vehicle, socket or adapter being used

In all of that experience, the only damage we've noticed is that cheaper adapters and cables end up failing sooner rather than later (i.e. sometimes they just don't work, or they blow a fuse in the vehicle). However, all iPhones, iPads, iPods and Apple Watches have survived without any damage whatsoever.

Finally, as all of these devices have internal batteries, they're less likely to suffer damage as a result of electrical noise or spikes.


Unlocking a disabled iPhone A friend asked me to help her with her old iPhone 4 (she has upgraded to a 7). When I turn it on, it says, "iPhone is disabled" and "connect to iTunes."

When I do so, iTunes reports that it is locked with a passcode, and that I need to type that in to continue. However, the iPhone does not display a keypad or allow any sort of input.

Apple suggests the only solution is a wipe, but this will lose all of her photos.

Can photos be retrieved (at a minimum) from a disabled iPhone 4?

This happens when the wrong passcode has been entered 10 times. The stages escalate from a 1-minute lock after 5 incorrect attempts, to a 60-minute lock after 9 incorrect attempts. After the 10th incorrect attempt, depending on the setting under Settings → Passcode, either the iPhone gets wiped, or you get the message you describe.

Since your friend is worried about losing all her photos with a wipe, it's safe to assume she did not have iCloud Backup enabled, or that she was running iOS 4? Because if she does have a backup in iCloud, you could simply wipe the phone and restore it.

According to OS X Daily, you need to plug the phone into iTunes on the computer it was previously synced with. Then you should be able to Sync it by entering the correct passcode directly into iTunes. This will trigger a new backup, after which you'll be able to Restore her iPhone from this backup.

If this doesn't work for you, then the only way to regain access to that iPhone is to wipe it. Because the contents of the phone are encrypted, not even Apple can recover the data for you.


How can I redownload an episode of podcast which I accidentaly deleted? Here is the situation. I have accidentaly deleted a file of an episode in iTunes podcast. Now whenever I try to play it, I get an error message asking me to locate the file on disk.

The problem is, I don't have it anymore, and I can't figure out how to tell iTunes to download it again.

Another problem is, that if I delete the episode via right click -> delete, I can't get it to show up in the list again, or even download it.

Is there any simple way to tell iTunes to get the list of episodes again and redownload the ones that aren't available anymore?

If you are in "album" view, there should still be an "album" placeholder for your podcast, even if you do not have any more episodes stored locally in your computer. Right click (or Command click) on the podcast's album/icon and then select the option "Show All Available Episodes". This re-downloads the entire list of episodes in the podcast's RSS feed.

Is important to note that "Show All Available Episodes" does not re-download the episodes themselves, but rather the list of episodes. This is the same list that anybody sees in iTunes if they haven't subscribed to the podcast yet. You will be able to select and re-download individual episodes from that list that you have already downloaded and deleted. Hope this helps.


How to restore the Mavericks version of the sound effect for the volume button for Yosemite? I just upgraded my MacBook to Yosemite, and the new sound effect for the volume button is just awful. Is there a way to change out the sound file so I can hear the old version on Yosemite?

It can be done, although you need to find the Mavericks volume feedback sound file. The filename is "volume.aiff" and (for both Mavericks and Yosemite) it is located in:
/System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources

Find the Mavericks volume feedback sound file and put it on your Desktop for easy access.

Open the Terminal and navigate to the folder containing the sound file:

cd /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources

Create a backup of the original file in case you want to reverse the changes:

sudo cp volume.aiff volume.aiff.bak

Provide the password when prompted.

Now copy in the Mavericks sound file placed on your Desktop:

sudo cp ~/Desktop/volume.aiff ./

Restart


How does Airdrop work under the hood I have an iPhone 5s (iOS8.4) and an MBP 2012 (10.10.4). I had this problem since Apple introduced Airdrop.

I set bot the MBP and iPhone Airdrop to "everyone". MBP sees the phone and can send all sorts of files.  The phone receives them fine, it prompts then I say yes.  The other way it does not work. The iPhone does not see the MBP. However, if I try hard enough, (including hard resets) it ends up working.

Now iPhone 5s - iPad mini 2nd generation work like a charm, both ways, and so does iPad mini 2nd generation - MBP.

My questions are

Is this expected? Does iPhone 5s have partial Airdrop support?
In general, how does Airdrop work under the hood?  Bluetooth? Ad-hoc wifi? Does it make a difference if the devices are on the same wifi network?

iPhone 5s has full AirDrop support, so the problem you're describing is strange, and something I don't have an explanation for.
AirDrop for iOS uses both Wi-Fi (Direct) and Bluetooth technologies. AirDrop for OS X uses Wi-Fi (Direct) only.


Change from Mac OS Extended File to APFS in order to install Mojave I've tried to install Mac OS Mojave on my Mac Mini (late 2012), but it has Mac OS Extended (journaled) as the file system on the main drive. This link is somewhat inconclusive and refers to retired documents.

So my question is two-folded:

Can I change in-place from Mac OS Extended (journaled) to APFS on my boot disc (and can Mojave boot from APFS)?
If not, how can I install Mojave on my Mac Mini (which currently runs High Sierra)?

Update: I've already tried upgrading, and it failed with a vague error message related to the file system upgrade (which I sadly can't recall).

The internal drives of Macs are converted to APFS when upgrading to macOS 10.14 Mojave and yes, macOS Mojave boots from APFS just fine.

More specifically, when Mojave is installed it will convert any internal drive (including SSDs, HDDs and Fusion/Hybrid Drives) from HFS Plus to APFS.

This is an important distinction as prior to macOS Mojave, only SSDs were converted to APFS, and this explains some of the confusion over time regarding how macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra and macOS Mojave have managed things as APFS has continued to evolve.