How to open a shell script in a new Terminal window and run it with administrator privileges I need to programmatically open a shell script in a Terminal window and run it with administrator privileges. I'm using osascript as it displays a convenient prompt for an admin login/password.

I'm currently using this :

osascript -e 'do shell script "open -a Terminal \"'"$appDir"'\"" with administrator privileges'

The trouble is, even after entering the credentials in the OS X prompt, the newly opened script will beg for a password at the first sudo command.

How do I pass the admin credentials to the opened script?

I'd try writing a simple script:

#!/bin/bash
sudo /usr/bin/id

save this as something.command, change its permissions to executable with chmod +x, and then run this from AppleScript with

osascript -e 'do shell script "open -a Terminal ./something.command"'

Instead of /usr/bin/id you can call whatever script you need to run with admin privileges then.

EDIT:

This will work:

osascript -e 'do shell script "sudo /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal" with administrator privileges'


Is there a free tool that allows for cutting of videos? I am downloading AVI files from a German "online" video recording service. These files don't work with quicktime, but using the Elmedia video player (via app store) does the job.

Now I would like to "cut" those videos (basically selecting the real content of the videos, as they always contain additional 5 minutes before/after the actual recording).

I installed avidemux (using *brew cast install avidemux), and the tool installs. But when I open these AVI video files ... it seems that the buttons to select A/B boundaries for cutting are simply disabled. And on top of that, audio isn't in sync when avidemux is playing my AVIs - so I doubt that avidemux cutting the video would give me a correct file in the end.

As mentioned: quicktime refuses to play my avis,so this existing question on how to trim using quicktime doesn't help me.

Thus: are there other tools for Mac Os that work better?

You could just put them into iMovie and trim the beginning and end and export them.

I tried using iMovie with .avi files before posting this answer, so I know it works.


Put Macbook Pro to sleep with HDMI connected to External Monitor? I have conneceted my Macbook Pro (Late 2011) to my recently bought 27'' monitor with an HDMI cable. I have done all the settings so when I close the lid, I can still use my external monitor without any problems.

The issue however is that my Macbook Pro heats a lot when I do that and I also use two devices and therefore have to pay bills for two devices as well.

Is there any possible way of putting my Macbook Pro into sleep mode so that I can ONLY use my external monitor without my Macbook Pro being 'on' (sleep mode)?

Extra information:

I use a bluetooth keyboard conneceted with a cable to charge
I use a bluetooth mouse conneceted with a cable to charge

Both, mouse and keyboard can be used when my Macbook Pro's lid is closed.

Your MacBook Pro can't go to sleep completely as you're using it, however, since you're using it in  "Clamshell mode" (with the lid shut) the internal display will have been powered down (you can tell as the logo on the lid will no longer be lit).

If you want to put the machine to sleep while it's in Clamshell mode, just press Ctrl-Eject on the keyboard you're using and the prompt for putting it to sleep will appear (the specific key sequence is Ctrl-Eject followed by 'S').  You can also put it to sleep via the Apple menu in the top left.


Dell monitor display interference I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro. I'm running a Dell 2407 monitor using a VGA adapter and I get intermittent wavy lines on the external display. If I open the display menu on the monitor itself while the problem happens, the overlaid menu is not 'waving'. If I adjust the pixel clock on the monitor while the wavy lines are there, this temporarily resolves the problem

I'm using VGA as the DVI connection had other issues - intermittent noise / snow. I will probably replace the Macbook later this year and maybe even upgrade to a new thunderbolt display but in the meantime, this is incredibly annoying.

This video shows the wavy lines I'm seeing (but this was not uploaded by me) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEyUk6S07iQ

I've plugged the monitor into a completely separate power source and can't identify any other source of interference.

I'm running OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion. The display adapter is an official apple one.

VGA cables are generally not designed for the high bandwidth required of large, digital displays, so it wouldn't surprise me if this is a cable issue that would be present in a variety of cables.  I had similar issues with a KVM adapter.  (If you're using a KVM adapter, then the KVM itself is probably the problem.)

One thing to try would be to lower the refresh rate on the monitor to the lowest setting the Mac will allow and see if that solves the problem.

Better would be to get the DVI cable working, but again the intermittent noise/snow points to a bandwidth limitation of the cable (or KVM adapter).


Help running what seems to be a directory in Terminal? I'm trying to export my Skype chat history with this: https://github.com/Temptin/SkypeExport

After I'm in the downloads directory in Terminal, typing in (with my skype username substituted in)

./SkypeExport --db ~/Library/Application\ Support/Skype/your_username/main.db

results in

-bash: ./SkypeExport: No such file or directory

I thought this was because my main.db file wasn't in Home/Library/Applications etc, so I pasted in the path. Typing in

./SkypeExport --db ~/Users/myaccount/Library/Application Support/Skype/your_username/main.db

also results in no such file or directory

What am I doing wrong? Any responses are appreciated!

The project has windows and os x binaries provided on the releases page so you can skip compiling it on your machine.

The error is clear above:

"bash: ./SkypeExport: No such file or directory"

Whatever folder you are in in Terminal  must contain the "SkypeExport" binary.

Try again by downloading the latest release (see the downloads list under the release you want):
https://github.com/Temptin/SkypeExport/releases

Unzip it in your Downloads folder, make sure the resulting "SkypeExport" file is directly in the Downloads folder, then type "cd ~/Downloads" in your terminal and follow the other steps.

This should work, since your error was that Terminal (bash) couldn't find SkypeExport in your current folder.


My mac is rebooting everytime I login I have downloaded these apps to conveniently shutdown or restart my MAC from spotlight. Usually I used the shutdown app which worked great. Today I used the restart app. Since then my MAC is restarting gives me the login screen, I type the password, the desktop starts to show, and before it finishes loading, boom, another restart.

I noticed that when logging in, the preview app is opened again (it was open when I ran the restart command), so one idea I have, is that somehow the OS is relaunching the restart app, causing a new restart. Yet I'm not sure, could be totally bug from Apple, or anything else.

I did use the restart app in the past a few times without a problem.
The same problem was about two weeks ago, but only one restart happened, then the computer worked fine. I'm not sure, but I think that then I did not use the restart app. But I'm very vague with my memory on this one, because it was only one restart, so I didn't think there is a problem.

I tried, while being on the login screen, to not type the password but press the restart and shutdown buttons at the bottom. Also tried leaving the computer not connected to the electricity for about 3 hours. Nothing changed.

What can I do to get it working again?

In case it makes any difference:

Mac Mini (mid 2011)
Yosemite (updated about a 5-7 weeks ago)

After reading a bit through the internet I found the 'safe mode', there I deleted some random files from the desktop, and changed the dock settings so it is always visible (I don't think these had any effect). Then I restarted and made sure the little checkbox next to '' is empty (probably this made the effect). When the computer started I could log in, but it is still weird, the desktop background image disappears and comes back, no dock, ... see my followup question.

The next time I logged in I moved all the apps to the trash, just in case.


Using AppleScript to change text color in Keynote I am tired of clicking through the color wheel to get custom colors and I would like to use AppleScript to automate with BTT a simple button to change the selected text color to a set of company standards.  I have been able to get as far as opening up the Color Picker in Keynote with AppleScript, but I can't figure out how to click the pencil.  Here is what Accessibility Inspector shows:

This is my code so far, but the selection to click Blueberry pencil keeps complaining that

  System Events got an error: Can’t get window "Text Color" of application process "Keynote".

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Keynote"
        tell radio group of toolbar of window 1
            -- This prevents it from toggling the button when already selected
            if value of radio button "Format" = {{0}} then
                click radio button "Format"
            end if
        end tell
        tell scroll area 1 of window 1
            click color well 1
        end tell
    end tell
    tell application "System Events"
        tell window "Text Color" of application process "Keynote"
            tell splitter group 1
                tell radio group "Pencils"
                    click radio button "Blueberry"
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

In Keynote, if I select some text and run the following example AppleScript code, the color of the text is set to Blueberry:

activate application "Keynote"
tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Keynote"
        tell window 1
            tell radio group of toolbar 1
                if value of radio button 1 = {{0}} then
                    click radio button 1
                end if
            end tell
            click color well of scroll area 1
            click button 5 of toolbar 1
            click radio button 33 of radio group 1 of splitter group 1
            click button 1
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

If you want to use the pencil color name instead of the radio button number, then change:

click radio button 33 of radio group 1 of splitter group 1

To:

click (every radio button of radio group 1 of splitter group 1 whose description is "Blueberry")

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

You can then substitute any valid pencil color for a different color then "Blueberry".

Note: The example AppleScript code was tested and worked, as is, on my Mac running macOS High Sierra and Keynote version 8.1 (5683).

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Best way to clear up space and dump to computer when getting iCloud storage backup prompt? When i sync my iphone, I am getting an error message saying it can't do a backup because i have more than 5GB of space used.

I went to:

Settings --> iCloud -->  Storage and backup --> Manage Storage.

I see it says Next backup size 5.0 GB and 4.6 GB of that is coming from Camera roll. So i have a few questions on how to clean this up:

When looking at my photos, I see:

Camera Roll (500 pictures)
Photo Stream (655 pictures)

Since it says, Camera roll on the iCloud storage page, I am assuming if I just delete some pictures and videos from this, it will free up space.

Is this correct?
Does iCloud simply backup latest state of camera roll at sync time and if i have previously backed up pictures and i deleted them on camera roll, it will be deleted from iCloud backup?

My second question is around getting all of these pictures down to my computer (I have a Windows XP computer).  I am currently NOT syncing pictures in itunes as I find it was making the sync time go from around 45 seconds to over 10 minutes.  After a bunch of research the advise everyone gave was to not sync pictures via iTunes.    Is there any easy way to download these all to my Win XP computer so I can free up space on my iPhone ?

First question: yes, iCloud backs up your photo as it is. If you delete media from your photos library it will be deleted from iCloud. (I might add that videos are also stored in the cloud - and consequently take up the most room).

Second question: It is possible you can use the Scanner and Camera wizard to import photos from your iPhone. Here is are two articles that briefly describe the process.

Tech Recipes
OSX Daily

Before you delete all (or most of) your photos off your iPhone, I would recommend that you double check that everything has been transfered correctly so you don't lose any pictures.

You probably already know this but it's worth mentioning anyways. When you go to delete photos from your iPhone, open the Photos app, click the Camera Roll album, then select the box with the arrow icon at the top right of the screen. Select pictures to be deleted, then tap the Delete button in the bottom bar (this is also a way to email more then one picture).

Of course, the other option would be to turn off the iCloud backup of your photos. (You already know how to get there but go to iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage > [your name] iPhone > Turn Camera Off.)


How to prevent auto mounting of a volume in macOS High Sierra? I am trying to prevent 2 volumes from mounting at startup.

I created a new fstab using vifs and added the UUIDs of the volumes I don't want to mount at system startup, but for some reason this does not seam to work in High Sierra. Both volumes will mount as usual.

Any idea what's missing?

The following syntax is what i used -

UUID= none apfs rw,noauto

To prevent a volume from automatically mounting you need to know the filesystem type and either the volume name or volume UUID. This information can be found by using the Terminal application command diskutil info name, where name is the volume name. For example, volume names can be found under Devices in the sidebar of a Finder application window.

On my computer, the output from the command diskutil info "Macintosh HD" is given below.

   Device Identifier:        disk2s1
   Device Node:              /dev/disk2s1
   Whole:                    No
   Part of Whole:            disk2

   Volume Name:              Macintosh HD
   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/Macintosh HD

   Partition Type:           41504653-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   File System Personality:  APFS
   Type (Bundle):            apfs
   Name (User Visible):      APFS
   Owners:                   Disabled

   OS Can Be Installed:      Yes
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 Disk Image
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Volume UUID:              F21AD81B-B114-456C-B2A0-BF4452E4842D
   Disk / Partition UUID:    F21AD81B-B114-456C-B2A0-BF4452E4842D

   Disk Size:                1000.0 MB (999981056 Bytes) (exactly 1953088 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        4096 Bytes

   Volume Total Space:       1000.0 MB (999981056 Bytes) (exactly 1953088 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Used Space:        3.4 MB (3416064 Bytes) (exactly 6672 512-Byte-Units) (0.3%)
   Volume Available Space:   996.6 MB (996564992 Bytes) (exactly 1946416 512-Byte-Units) (99.7%)
   Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         No

   Device Location:          External
   Removable Media:          Removable
   Media Removal:            Software-Activated

The pertinent lines are shown below.

   Volume Name:              Macintosh HD
   Type (Bundle):            apfs
   Volume UUID:              F21AD81B-B114-456C-B2A0-BF4452E4842D

Note: You can not use the Disk / Partition UUID, except when the Disk / Partition UUID is the same as the Volume UUID.

Either of the lines given below could be added to the /etc/fstab file to prevent this volume from automatically mounting.

UUID=F21AD81B-B114-456C-B2A0-BF4452E4842D none apfs rw,noauto
LABEL=Macintosh\040HD none apfs rw,noauto

Note: The character sequence \040 is just the octal representation of the space character.


Is there a replacement for Rosetta in Lion? I have a few PowerPC Mac binaries I would like to run under MacOSX 10.7.

I guess Rosetta is not going to be Open Source, isn't it? Any petition about this? I would start one or contact someone at Apple about this if I would know whom or where.

Can Rosetta be downloaded somewhere or copied over from an 10.6 and made working on 10.7?

Then I thought about user the userspace QEMU emulation. This would be the same thing as what Rosetta was doing (right?). However, from here, it says

  target PowerPC on x86: Not working as the ppc commpage can’t be mapped (yet!)

I'm not sure what that means. I would like to work on this if this isn't too hard but not sure where to start. (Btw., because of this, maybe this question is better suited for Stackoverflow?)

Here is a mail from the mailinglist (from 2007) with some more information (not much though).

What are other possibilities?

I know it sucks, but really you might just need to drop the PPC stuff (Apple isn't going to support it at all in the future) or look into trying to get the source code and recompiling it yourself.


Stop syncing Safari History through iCloud between 1 or more computers or iOS devices If I uncheck the Safari option under iCloud settings either on a Mac or an iOS device will the links stop syncing between devices?

Yes. Links, browsing history, open tabs. Everything should stop syncing on the device you uncheck Safari on.


Disabling Messages on Desktop I've tried following every instruction available to prevent my desktop mac from receiving my text messages or notifications that texts are being sent or received and can't get it taken care of so far.  I want to completely disable the feature on my desktop.  Does anyone know how/if this can be done?

Launch Messages. Go to Messages > Preferences. Click on Accounts. Then, click on your Apple ID and deselect "Enable this account". It will keep all messages from going from and to your Mac.


“Watch Later” Video Service for iPhone I regularly find articles on the internet and think “I’ll read that later”. These days I press a button, which uses Instapaper and lets me read it later on my iPhone. This works very well.

However, I also often find YouTube videos and think “I’ll watch that later”. Unfortunately I don't have a handy process for easily sending videos to a ‘watch later’ on my iPhone — does such a workflow exist?

Instapaper does have some basic YouTube functionality — if you save a YouTube page to Instapaper, it will appear in the app with a thumbnail and play button, so you can play it directly there.

You might also want to check out Pocket, which is similar to Instapaper, but a bit more focused on multimedia, rather than mostly just articles. I believe it has some sort of offline viewing mode as well, but I'm not that familiar with it.


No version model of Macbook in 'About This Mac' section What does it mean if there is no version model?

Is it normal? I expect the money year after the words "MacBook Air" similar to this.

I would like to buy this particular Mac, should I worry about it?

It's not normal, but it might be nothing. The next reinstall of the OS or an update might populate that field for you.

As far as I can tell, some time during installation the OS checks with Apple and downloads a localized string to represent the hardware. Since you're not US - perhaps there was an outage or an error localizing the string.

Unless there's other cause for concern - you could try reinstalling the OS - choose US location and language to see if that's related. Try looking up the serial number using the answer of the last link (The Stack Overflow question).

http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/product?cc=G940&lang=en_US

In your case, that's reported as a MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015) and you could change the language code to get a localized version.

Some other reading on serial numbers and the OS:

What causes a Mac to lose its serial number?
How can I find the serial number on a mac programmatically from the terminal?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8058151/how-does-system-profiler-retrieve-the-full-mac-hardware-identifier


What is the best way to block ocsp.apple.com on mac? There seems to be some bug where mac os is constantly contacting http://ocsp.apple.com. You can prevent it by turning off the wifi, but then your computer is nothing more than a fancy calculator. Is there a program, vpn, or even the firewall option, to block this site from the whole os?

A quick and easy solution is to use your system's hosts file to redirect requests to localhost.
sudo sh -c 'echo "127.0.0.1  ocsp.apple.com" >> /etc/hosts'

Then you'll want to make sure this has been applied by clearing the DNS cache - which on the latest version is done by forcing the DNS responder to restart:
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder


Enable keyboard shortcut to look up word in dictionary I have been using the trackpad w/ force touch to look up the defintions of words when browsing (safari/chrome/ff/etc).  It looks like this:

The problem is my wrist has been bothering me as I use the trackpad so I decided to get an ergonomic mouse (logitech mx master 2s) but now I can't seem to figure out how to mirror this 'look up word in osx dictionary' behavior.

I looked at defaults read -g but nothing stood out.  How can I use a mouse + keyboard option to mirror this 'look up' word behavior that force currently has on my trackpad?

command ⌘control ⌃D is the built-in shortcut for this, performing a Look Up on the current mouse position, as if you'd used Force Touch.


Keyboard shortcut to switch between Application tabs Applications typically have tabs like so:

Is there a way to make a keyboard shortcut that switches between them? I'm hoping for a shortcut that spans all apps, not just a specific one (like iTerm below)

That might sound a bit funny now: you spelled  out you answer all the time.

Use Tab to switch between all those controls and "Tabs".

In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts you might want to enable Full Keyboard Access: All Controls.

Some applications might be too 'dumb' to respect that. For Safari or iTerm: they are not.

Note that while cycling through the Tabs with:

Tab = forward
Shift + Tab = backward

the highlighting halo that indicates your position might be a bit smallish or dim, depending on your settings

Space = select/toggle what is highlighted

Also note the varying options if you talk about browser-like tabs.
The first 10 can be usually switched to directly by using Command+1 etc.

If cycling through browser-like tabs is your goal, the Tab key  also works, but really cycles through all elements.

To only rotate through the tabs as such use Ctrl+Tab


How to hard format sd card on macOS? I try to make sd card with raspbian software, but on my windows PC from work i don't have enough permissions to do it. Unfortunately it formatted into multiple partitions. Now i can see only one in Mac Disk Utility with 300 MB (sd card have 64GB). Somebody has idea how to fix it back to get full space?

This will erase all data that currently exists on the SD card:

Remove your SD card.
Open Disk Utility.
In the menu bar, click [View] > [Show All Devices].
Insert your SD card, ensuring the write-lock switch is in the unlocked position (towards the side of the card which has the gold contacts). You should see your SD card appear in the sidebar in Disk Utility as something like "Apple SDXC Reader Media". Click this item.
Click [Erase] in the top bar.
Enter a name of your choosing.
For the format, choose "MS-DOS (FAT)".
For the scheme, choose "Master Boot Record".
Click [Security Options...], move the slider to "Fastest", then click "OK".
Click [Erase].


High Sierra quicktime player does not support H.265 videos? So I upgraded my Mac to high Sierra and I was about the H.265 video encoding standard but when I encode a H.264 video to H.265 standard and then when I attempt to open the video using quick time player it shows "Quick Time player does not support these kind of videos"

So is this a problem that only I am experiencing or is this expected. I am running latest version of High Sierra by the way.

“All iOS devices running iOS 11 and all Macs on High Sierra will support HEVC playback”
https://www.macrumors.com/guide/hevc-video-macos-high-sierra-ios-11

Use QuickTime to encode the video to HEVC/H.265 so you can ensure it is encoded to the correct standards.
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Reference/HLSAuthoringSpec/Requirements.html

I’m guessing you were encoding using Handbrake.


Mini DisplayPort and DVI cables not working? I recently bought a Mini DisplayPort to DVI and DVI/DVI cable to connect to my monitor. However, when I connect my MacBook Pro (late 2009) to the monitor it doesn't work - laptop screen flashes blue, but monitor stays idle.

The laptop recognises the monitor ('Displays' in System Preferences shows 2 monitors); but the monitor does not seem to recognise the laptop (it just continues to scan and eventually goes to sleep).

So I borrowed a set of cables from a friend to see if the cables I bought were faulty. Tried all combinations of cables and all combinations worked - except for using the two that I purchased!

From testing out the combinations, I'm assuming that none of the cables are faulty.

From doing some research, I believe the DVI/DVI cable I bought is a DVI-D (Dual link), whereas my friend's is a DVI-D (Single link) - though that shouldn't make a difference should it?

The cables I bought:

The cables I borrowed:

Combinations tried

.             | CableA (Female) | CableB (Female)
--------------------------------------------------
CableA (Male) |  does not work  |     works
--------------------------------------------------
CableB (Male) |      works      |     works

Where:

CableA = Cables I bought
CableB = Cables I borrowed

I still don't understand why the only combination that did not work was using the two cables I bought - any ideas?

Would also like to know if there is a way to get the monitor working with the cables I bought.

There's no reason it should work with a single-link DVI cable, but not a dual-link one. The second link is only needed for resolutions higher than 1920x1200x60Hz, and the second set of wires will otherwise be unused. In fact, a standard passive Mini Displayport -> DVI adapter can't use (or see) the second link.

You could check if a lower resolution works - if it does, this would indicate that the cables suffer from too much interference to carry high resolutions. This would be the case if they had cheap/bad shielding. If both your adapter and the DVI cable are very close to the minimum required shielding, it could cause problems in combination but work OK when combined with higher quality cables or used on their own.


How can I specify the Sent folder for Gmail on iPad? I use Gmail with IMAP on the iPad. I can only find Drafts and Trash folder to configure in the Settings, how can I specify the Sent folder?

Trial with Gmail account: cannot find Sent folder

Perhaps related

  Trying to do this in Android app here.
  Trying to do this on Desktop app here,
  using Debian.
  Trying to find a server-side solution to this, more here (Probably just IMAP enough so perhaps stupid question).

If you're talking about viewing emails in Sent folder, that is turned on in the Gmail settings in a regular browser, preferably not on a mobile device, then "Labels" tab (remember folders are "labels" in Gmail). You turn on/off what imap folders you see on your devices in there.

Another way to view the imap folders is to not use Apple's Mail app, and use "mail.google.com" in Safari.  This has way more options, and one of them, clicking on the 3 bars icon above the first mail, will show you all your folder/labels.


How do I turn focus follows mouse off? I keep reading online that the Mac doesn't support focus follows mouse, even that its not really possible all around.

Anyway I never had it on, then one day I woke up and its on. Is there a way to turn it off? Every single time I move my mouse to chrome or the terminal it automatically focuses and pops up, and worse if a window pops up and my mouse is not over it, it automatically pops up and focuses the window under the mouse!

I have a feeling that you likely resolved your issue since this was a few months ago, but just in case someone else runs across this in the future:

I had this exact issue - no changes to use preferences and this just happened all the sudden. It wound up being a special system extension (an awesome one, minus this Focus follows mouse feature) called Afloat. It has a menu bar option in all OS X applications under Window>Focus Follows mouse that is easily accidentally selected.


Time Capsule alternatives Can someone tell me the best alternative to Apple Time capsule? Common question, I know, but couldn't find it in the list.

People who have actually tried out the alternatives only please.

Since there have been no "hardware" answers by someone who has used one, I'll add that there are third party drives who support Time Machine.  Just as some examples, LaCie has support in their NAS products and Drobos also have support.  I've used neither, although I have a LaCie d2 Network 2 on order.

The cautionary note here is that "support" means that they (a) make it possible to connect to the NAS from Time Machine and (b) typically provide size restrictions on Time Machine so that it doesn't eventually consume all free space on the drive.  Apple does not support any NAS other than a Time Capsule, so there is no guarantee that the third party drives won't stop working with a future Time Machine software update, or have other problems.


Is it advisable to sync Applications and User prefs between two Macs? I've got an iMac as my main computer and just bought a MacBook for while I'm travelling or visiting clients. I'm using Dropbox to keep my files in sync. But I've thinking about taking a step further and keep everything in sync, including Application, users preferences (everything in /Library/Preferences, /Users/user/Library/Preferences, /Library/Application Support and /Users/user/Library/Application Support) as well as Applications and everything in the command line (including home-brew install, packages, etc.

Please note that I do know how to keep Applications and User Preferences in sync (ln -s /source/dir/ /Users/user/Dropbox/whatevername) but would like to know if its advisable to also sync Applications and command line settings/packages (which I have no idea of how to do it).

Could you please provide suggestions? Thanks in advance

There are a number of ways to achieve this and probably twice as many traps. That said, I've had a lot of success using Mackup. It can backup your dot files, plist files, is customizable and can integrate with several cloud storage services or a local file server. I run this hourly as a cron job to make sure I'm always backing up. This works well on settings but not apps. You can find this at https://github.com/lra/mackup

You could also use Homebrew as a way of "synching" your applications. brew list > souceAppList on your iMac will list the applications installedthere. You could do the same on your MacBook and grep the difference to see what is missing. Something like:

targetApps="$(brew list)"
for checkThisApp in $(cat /some/path/to/sourceAppList); do
  if [[ "$checkThisApp" != "$(echo "$targetApps"|grep -o $checkThisApp)" ]]; then
    echo "$appCheck is not installed on this computer"  # to notify an app is missing
    brew install "$appCheck"                            # to force the app install
  fi
done


Control arrow key to jump to the next word I have OS X 10.6.8 and I run MS Word:Mac 2011.  I programmed the keyboard to allow me to jump from word to word in a document by hitting Control + Arrow key.  This makes word processing much faster.  However, I lost this ability after an update some time ago.  Now, when I hit  Control + Arrow key OS X cycles through what I believe are Spaces on my desktop.

This is hugely annoying and I have no interest in using Spaces.  I am perfectly happy to switch between apps using Alt + Tab.  How do I go back to being able to use Control + Arrow key to navigate in a document in MS Word?

Thanks!

To disable the shortcut for switching to spaces go to the keyboard shortcuts tab of the keyboard preferences pane. Select Mission Control on the left and then un-check the 'Move left/right a space' options.


How do I send invitations for Calendar events with locations? If a Calendar event has a location associated with it, no invitations are ever sent to any of the invitees. In fact, once a location is added to an event, no subsequent updates about changes to the event are ever sent to any invitees (including the addition of the location).

This failure is silent. No warning is given, the invitees are simply never informed of the event at all. This happens regardless of whether the invitees have iCloud addresses or not (in most cases, for me, all invitees are iCloud users).

I con reproduce this 100% of the time on both macOS and iOS. This error suddenly appeared recently, and since then I've learned from several friends that they have experienced the same problem.

How do I send invitations to events with locations from Calendar?

This turns out to be a known bug. Apple Support's recommendation is (astonishingly) simply:

  Do not add a location to events you plan to invite people to.

Apple is "working on it as we speak".


Memory in early 2008 Mac Pro I have an early 2008 Mac Pro.  It currently has 6G of ram (2x1G and 2x2G sticks).  I've been swapping with some programs for a while, and just got around to buying more ram.  (4x4G).

My question is. . . am I better off just running the 4x4G or should I just add the 4x4G to the ram I already have?  (my gut says more is better, of course just add, but I know there are often hardware considerations that may make this not true)

Considering you have Pairs of equal memory (2x1G, 2x2G and 4x4G) the best option is to install them all (that's a lot of RAM!).

Early 2008's Mac Pros use the full memory bandwidth when modules are installed in Pairs (like you have). But their location in the risers (where you install the modules) is important. Therefore, you should follow what the manual says.

Since you're going to fill all the 8 slots, you can go ahead an install them in pairs one next to the other. You have 2 risers, so here's how you should put them:

TOP RISER

SLOT 1: 1x4GB

SLOT 2: 1x4GB

SLOT 3: 1x4GB

SLOT 4: 1x4GB

BOTTOM RISER

SLOT 1: 1x2GB

SLOT 2: 1x2GB

SLOT 3: 1x1GB

SLOT 4: 1x1GB

The graphic explanation for this can be read in the Early 2008 Mac Pro Memory Manual, located at manuals.info.apple.com.


How can I get some basic GNU utilities on my iPhone? I'm specifically looking for du, but really, I want the usual suite of command line power tools. Which package contains those?

Using dpkg -S du I discovered that there is a copy of du in the Cydia libexec folder. It's not quite as nice as finding it in /bin, but it'll serve my purposes nicely. The general question is still open, though; where can I find awk, sed, and so on?


Downloading old Safari point releases (Ex: 8.0.4) I am attempting to build VMware Fusion images with each recent point release of Safari. I've had success with the versions bundled with OS X updates (10.10.1, 10.10.2) but I am not sure if it's possible to download a point release that has been superseded by a release in an OS X update. I've found version history with knowledge base documents for each version, but haven't found a way to download them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_version_history

Example:

10.10 shipped with Safari 8.0 (10600.1.25)
10.10.1 had Safari 8.0 (10600.1.25.1)
Safari 8.0.1 and 8.0.2 were in security updates - KB HT204421 and HT204424
10.10.2 had Safari 8.0.3 (10600.3.18)
Safari 8.0.4 was in a security update - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204560
10.10.3 has Safari 8.0.5 (10600.5.17)

Check oldapps.com and oldversion.com. Be careful with these downloads, I haven't had an issues yet but install at your own risk.


Has the Virtual Display screen sharing been removed in Mountain Lion? One of the great things about Lion was the Virtual Display, whereby when screen sharing you could login as a 2nd user rather than just take over the physical display.

In effect it was like turning your Mac into a (limited) multi user system, whereby 2 people could simultaneously login and use it.

When using the Screen Sharing feature in Mountain Lion (to research whether there were any changes that might answer this question), I noticed it has seemingly been removed.

Is there any official documentation showing it's removal, or is it still possible to achieve perhaps through other utilities, like Apple Remote Desktop?

I should add that I am using ML at both ends of the screen sharing.

OK, I sussed it out.  You can still do it, it's just that the way you do it is based on context rather than using the appropriate command.

Basically, to use the virtual display, you need multiple user accounts on the target machine, and you need an account to be already logged into the target machine such that you can login a 2nd time using the virtual display.  Any account you wish to log into obviously needs the associated sharing rights enabled.  Then follow the following logic:

If no one is logged into the target machine, you will always get the Hardware display showing the normal login screen, when you login from that screen you continue to use the hardware display.
If the user you try to login as is already logged in, then it will always switch to that user and continue to use the hardware display
If you login with a user who is not already logged in at the hardware display but someone else is (this is the key, the Hardware display needs to be in use by someone else), you get the following message and the ability to use the virtual display.

If you want to use the virtual display for privacy reasons, you cannot simply switch to it like you could in 10.7, but you could simply leave the target machine with Guest logged in on the Hardware display to allow you to login as your primary user on the Virtual one.


Move desktop wallpaper to the side iMac desktop photo is in the middle of the screen. I want to move the photo to one side so my desktop folders are on the other side.

The Mac does not have a way (built-in) to show the desktop picture on just half of the screen.

What you could do, however is to open that picture in your picture editing program of choice, make a new picture with just a single color you like and then shrink the photo you want down a bit so it is only on the left or right side of the screen. Once it is positioned correctly save it as a JPG in your pictures folder and select that as your new desktop picture.


How can I sync iPhone photos one way? Is it possible to configure my iPhone to just send Photos I have taken with the camera to iPhoto without synchronizing additionally stored photos back to the phone?

At first you should disable Photo sync in iTunes. When you open iPhoto, you should be able to select your iPhone on the left side (assuming it's connected to your Mac). Then you can select all pictures you need and import them (you will even be asked if they will be deleted from your iPhone after the import). This way the iPhone should not sync photos like it ususally does with iTunes (when enabled).

See this Apple KB article: Copying personal photos and videos from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer

EDIT: You have to do this manually. I don't know if it's possible to do this automatically when syncing with iTunes.


Set a personalized alarm clock schedule on iPhone I need to set a schedule of alarms using the below formula:

Day:yes Day:no

For example, starting Monday:

Day:alarm

Monday:yes Tuesday:no Wednesday:yes Thursday:no Friday:yes Saturday:no Sunday:yes Monday:no Tuesday:yes Wednesday:no Thursday:yes Friday:no Saturday:yes …

Anyone can help?

You can't do this with the Alarm mode within the default Clock app in iOS. However, you can do this using either the Reminders app or the Calendar app.

Wakeup alarms

First of all, if you want this to work as a wake-up alarm in the same way as the Alarm in the Clock app, you need to change the sound associated with the app. If this is what you want, these are the steps involved:

Go to Settings
Tap on Sounds
Scroll down to and tap on either the Calendar Alerts option or the Reminder Alerts option
Scroll down to the list of Ringtones (past the alert tones) and select the ringtone you want to use as your alarm. If you want to use a traditional 'alarm' sound you will need to scroll to the very bottom and tap on Classic to select the one you want.
Once you've selected it, go back to the main Settings screen and exit

NOTE: Keep in mind that when you make the above change it'll be set for all Reminders or all Calendar Events - so you will need to decide which App it is you want to use with your new 'alarm' sound.

Setting your schedule

Now go to the app you chose for this (i.e. either the Reminders app or Calendar app) to set your schedule. The process for either will basically be the same, but in these steps I'll use the Reminders app as my example.

Launch the Reminders app
Tap on the + sign to create a new reminder
Give it some sort of meaningful name
Switch on Remind me on a day
Select whichever date is the very next Monday you want the alarm to go off on
Set the time you want it to go off on that Monday
Tap on Repeat
Select Every Fortnight. (see Notes below)
Now repeat the same steps for each of the days, making sure you pick the date you want the alarm to go off and choosing to repeat it every fortnight
Exit the Reminders app. Your schedule is now set.

NOTES:

The Every Fortnight option may be a localised option in my region. If it's not available, select whichever option is for two weeks. If you have no such option, you can tap on Custom and then choose a Frequency of Weekly and select Every 2 weeks.
If the actual time is the same for each alarm, regardless of day, then at Step 8 you could choose a custom repeat of Daily that repeats every two days. In this scenario you could get away with a single reminder and totally skip Step 9 altogether.


Recursively change file type I have folders, containing files and folders.
Among these files, some have extension, some have no extension.

I noticed that a file without extension can have a type (probably stored in some kind of metadata)

Example of a TextEdit file without extension :

Example of a Document Sublime Text file without extension :

What I want is recursively exploring folders and changing the type of files without extension.

I am not talking about setting a default app for all files without extension.

I am talking about changing each file individually (metadata), to set there type to "Document Sublime Text"

I am looking for something like that :

find ./ -depth <file has no extension> -exec <set file type = Document Sublime Text>

Or an AppleScript !

I did it with xattr !
My final script is :

find FOLDER -type f ! -name "*.*" -print0 | xargs -0 xattr -wx com.apple.LaunchServices.OpenWith \
"`xattr -px com.apple.LaunchServices.OpenWith FILEWITHGOODTYPE`"

Replace FOLDER by your folder (containing files without extension) (drag and drop)

Replace FILEWITHGOODTYPE by a file which has the expected type (drag and drop)

I found what I was looking for here :

https://stackoverflow.com/q/4833052/4135158


My iPad won't turn on I turned my iPad off fully (with the whole "slide to shut off" thing) and then turned it back on. After a few minutes the lock screen came up, showing 86% battery, but the finger controls weren't working. now i can't even get it to turn on. What do I do?

Hold the Home and Power buttons at the same time.  Keep holding until the Apple logo appears.  Release the buttons and it should reboot.  That might fix yor problem.


What's the maximum pid for Mac OS X? The Mac OS X Internals book states that the maximum process identifier is 30,000 and after that the kernel will start re-using pids.  But checking on my own system, via:

ps a | grep ps | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'

I can see that I have pids that go higher.  Does anyone know if there is a pid_max explicitly set somewhere, like in Linux?

Looking at sys/proc_internal.h in xnu-1699.24.23, I find that PID_MAX is 99999.  The value is used in kern_fork.c in the function forkproc.  Looking at that function, process IDs are not assigned equal to PID_MAX, so the highest possible pid is 99998.


Changing dashboard space I realized the other day that I never use the dashboard and had no desire to. So I decided to disable it. But I feel as if the 3 finger swipe to the right that had displayed it is now wasted. Can something else fill that space?

You can always add more spaces by clicking the + button in the upper right when you swipe up:


How can I increase font size in Spotlight When I write 7/3 in spotlight it automatically shows result but the font is too small and doesn't have enough contrast. Is there a way to increase the size of the result font or all Spotlight fonts in general?

Maybe I'm missing something, but once you enter an equation such as 7/3 in Spotlight and pause for a moment, it'll also preview the result below right of the search field:

You can also press return to display the result in the Calculator:


How to know when phone was last rebooted? Occasionally I get the message about TouchID needing my password after reboot. Problem is, I haven't been rebooting. So I'm concerned my phone is rebooting itself in my pocket without me knowing it. I want to know for sure if my phone is rebooting by itself, or if the TouchID message is just erroneous. How can I find out if my phone is rebooting?

iPhone 5s, iOS 8 (latest)

There appears to be an app called "System Status Lite" that is capable of displaying the system uptime (which should be the time since the last reboot). I haven't used it myself, so I can't speak to its accuracy, but here's a store link.


iPhone 4 keeps losing contacts My iPhone 4 keeps losing contacts under various conditions: first after an app crash followed by a manual reboot; all the other times after the battery becomes empty.

What proved helpful in my situation was replacing the battery (which was nearly 3 years old) with a new one. Since then I haven't reached a zero battery in several weeks, but after all it stopped the lost contacts problem from reappearing since the replacement.


Error installing Windows 10 64 bit under El Capitan's Boot Camp It gets to the point of rebooting into Windows but then "upgrade" says "Booted from install media, reboot under Windows" and "Install Windows Only" says the BOOTCAMP partition is incompatible because it's not NTFS. If I reformat the partition, it then says "Unable to create or locate partition see SETUP.LOG" and I can't find SETUP.LOG (in any case - upper, lower, or mixed)

What do i do now?

You must do everything (install, partition, uninstall, repartition, delete partition) with BootcampAssistant, nothing else.
Start bootcampAssistant and delete the windows partition.
restart the mac. Then do everything agian, with BootcampAssistant.


Remote desktop display shifted up I use the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client (ver 8.0.31) to connect from my 2013 Retina Macbook Pro (OSX 10.11.4) to a Windows 10 desktop machine. When in fullscreen mode, I get the following experience:

The display is shifted up by about 10 pixels, resulting in a black bar at the bottom of the screen and the top of the screen being cut-off.

Does anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?

This is a known bug with 8.0.x.

There's a beta currently in progress for a completely re-developed Microsoft Remote Desktop, currently on 8.2.22, which fixes almost all the known bugs with the existing app. You can download the latest beta here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=619698


Lost in FFMPEG (downloading & installing) i'm trying to convert some video that many people say can only be done using FFMPEG. so i go to the ffmpeg.org website and am completely confused as to what to download. i go to the downloads page, click on the Apple (since i use Mac) and it gives 2 "OS X Packages" options... "Static builds for OS X Intel 64-bit" & "Builds 32-bit and 64-bit for OS X 10.5 and above"!

if i click on the first option (Static builds for OS X Intel 64-bit), i'm then presented with 2 big green buttons to choose from for "FFmpeg", "FFserver", "FFprobe", & "FFplay" - i've not heard of the last 3 so i'm assuming the "FFmpeg" section is what i need. but then there are 2 big green buttons there: 1) ffmpeg-86281-g2413397 & 2) ffmpeg-3.3.1.

if i click on the second option (Builds 32-bit and 64-bit for OS X 10.5 and above), it takes me to a different website at ffmpegmac.net. here, i'm again given 2 choices to download: 1) "Lion_Mountain_Lion_Mavericks_Yosemite_El-Captain_15.05.2017.zip" & 2) "ffmpeg-3.3.1.tar.bz2". there is a "How To" page but that's just a bunch of gibberish to a non-programmer like me.

there's all these terms i'm not familiar with, like, compile, binary, source, snapshot, builds, etc.

i went ahead & downloaded all 4 of the above mentioned downloads but none of them are apps. one is a folder full of code files & the others are some sort of "exec" files.

so then i started google'ing & am finding seemingly conflicting instructions on how to get this program installed & how to use it...

ericholsinger.com/install-ffmpeg-on-a-mac - has a long & detailed steps on what they say to do.
but then there's,
idiotinside.com/2016/05/01/ffmpeg-mac-os-x - which claims its much easier to use something called "homebrew".
but then there's,
oodlestechnologies.com/blogs/Easiest-Way-To-Install-FFmpeg-On-Mac-OS-X - which also says to use homebrew but says you have to have "Xcode" first.
but then there's,
...take your pick; there's just way too many options & this just seems way more complex than it seems it should be.

so, can anybody boil this down to a simple/easy way to use this program on a Mac?

and yes, i've tried MANY other video converting apps (including handbrake & VLC) but none works to get an m3u8 converted to mp4. and yes, i've learned it's because it's a text file with links to segmented files - but others have said using ffmpeg in terminal with a single line of code will download these & fix them together into a playable mp4.

thanks.

The easiest way to convert video on the Mac is to use Handbrake. It is easily downloaded and installed and includes the same libraries as ffmpeg. (I know you say it doesn't work in your case but I include it here for others who might end up at this question.)

The version of ffmpeg you want is the 64-bit static build, preferably in a DMG as that is the easiest one to install. Using homebrew would be an even easier way to get it installed.

As for homebrew it is fairly well explained on their home page. You don't actually need XCode, just the XCode command line tools which homebrew will download for you the first time you use it to install something.

Once you install ffmpeg then man ffmpeg will get you the manual for it. You might prefer

man -t ffmpeg | open -f -a /Applications/Preview.app/

which will open the man page in Preview where you can read it more easily, or even print it.


Why do I have to pair my devices again after changing the Bluetooth adapter? My computer runs Yosemite and has no working internal Bluetooth chip.

I therefore connect a Bluetooth adapter through USB.

Recently, this USB Bluetooth adapter broke. I bought a new one, and inserted that instead.

The interesting thing is that my previously paired devices still appear in a list, but they are not paired anymore. Instead, I get an option to pair them again.

My theory is that this happens because the USB Bluetooth adapter has some sort of ID number or something and that the devices are paired to that, not the computer itself.

Is this true? If yes, what is this ID number called?

Every Bluetooth "thing", for lack of a better word, has a unique identifier. If it didn't, devices wouldn't be able to differentiate from one another. Walk down the street with AirPods here in a month or two and without a unique device identifier, you would get everybody else's music/conversations/whatever coming through your AirPods as you got within ~30 feet of them.

Your paired devices are still in that list because your computer remembers devices that were previously paired to it.


Permanently disable Spotlight on disk that is used with rsync I'm using rsync to mirror files from my internal drive to an external USB hard drive. This is the command I'm using:

/usr/local/bin/rsync --archive --exclude='.DS_Store' --delete-after --progress --stats /Files/ /Volumes/BACKUP2014B

So files not on the main HDD will be deleted from the backup disk. This means that the files telling Spotlight to ignore the external disk will be deleted at every sync. Is there some way to avoid that? I don't like the fact that Spotlight reindexes my drive every day, it's a lot of disk crunching.

Things to try...

Set the .metadata_never_index file to stationery or locked
Put the entire backup structure inside a folder called myBackup.noindex
Add it to the Privacy pane in Spotlight settings. [I don't know where that data is stored - if it's on the boot drive, then it will work, if it's on the relevant external drive, back to 1 & 2]


Convert a PC path to Mac path with AppleScript I am a lone Mac user in a company that uses PCs...I often get file paths that I need to manually navigate. I have found some scripts, but they don't seem to be working for me. I'd like to be able to right click on a highlighted path and click on a script that directs me to Finder and the associated file. Here is an example of my PC path vs Mac path:

PC Path:
P:\city\projectname

Mac Version of the same path:
smb://perkinswill.net/projects/city/projectname

The code I found thus far is the following:

Script: “Convert Windows to Mac path and open it”

 on searchReplace(theText, SearchString, ReplaceString)
            set OldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
            set AppleScript's text item delimiters to SearchString
            set newText to text items of theText
            set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ReplaceString
            set newText to newText as text
            set AppleScript's text item delimiters to OldDelims
            return newText
 end searchReplace

 on run {input, parameters}
            set myClip to the input
            set mytext to searchReplace(myClip, "<", "")
            set mytext to searchReplace(mytext, ">.", "")
            set mytext to searchReplace(mytext, ">", "")
            set findIt to "\\"
            set replaceIt to "/"
            set mylocation to searchReplace(mytext, findIt, replaceIt)
            set mylocation to "smb:" & mylocation
            tell application "Finder"
                            open location mylocation
            end tell
            return input
 end run

 -- Thanks to: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/144916/how-to-change-filepath-structure -using-automator-windows-to-mac --

I appreciate your help!

From what I can see, there's nowhere that P: gets replaced by your Mac path smb://perkinswill.net/projects. Adding another replace for that seems to get the script working for me, see below. If you have other servers with other paths, you can add those in in a similar fashion.

Note that by changing the actual opening command from tell application "Finder" to do shell script it also handles spaces in paths, at least in my environment (which is slightly different from yours).

on searchReplace(theText, SearchString, ReplaceString)
    set OldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to SearchString
    set newText to text items of theText
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ReplaceString
    set newText to newText as text
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to OldDelims
    return newText
end searchReplace

on run {input, parameters}
    set myClip to the input
    set mytext to searchReplace(myClip, "<", "")
    set mytext to searchReplace(mytext, ">.", "")
    set mytext to searchReplace(mytext, ">", "")
    set findIt to "\\"
    set replaceIt to "/"
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mytext, findIt, replaceIt)

    -- Add these three lines for any path you wish to be able to open
    set winPath to "P:"
    set macPath to "smb://perkinswill.net/projects"
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, winPath, macPath)

    do shell script "open " & quoted form of mylocation

    return mylocation
end run


How can I ignore DS_Store settings for a given drive? I regularly use a network drive (using SMB), along with a bunch of other Mac users. Because those other Macs leave the window view settings in .DS_Store files, I'm constantly having my windows open using other people's last-view settings. Is there any way I can somehow tell the Finder to ignore .DS_Store settings for a given volume?

(I know there's a way I can stop my system from leaving .DS_Store files, but setting that same preference on every Mac that might access the volume is not an option.)

Other than using the terminal command

sudo find /<volume> -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

and running it with cron on a regular schedule, you could use FolderWasher, and clean up the volume whenever you wish.

http://sw.ixoft.com/folderwasher/


why is the touch screen on my iphone 4s not working correctly? when I am  typing a text message some of the letters wont work,if I am scrolling through or down something its very slow or goes on to something I never clicked on?

Assuming that you haven't jailbroken your phone, the most likely culprit is a hardware part called the digitizer. If you live near an Apple Store, you can get get a free diagnosis of what is wrong by making an appointment at the Genius Bar. The repair will not be free if it is indeed a hardware problem, but then you will have a starting place.

If you have a good up-to-date backup of your device, you can try restoring the operating system. Please be aware that the process of restoring can result in serious data loss (including text messages and photos) if you are not careful.


Mac Mini (summer 2011) and Dell U2711 - How to get the maximum resolution 2560x1440? I've been using the Mac Mini with Dell U2711 monitor for couple days and only now I've realized what is wrong: The display isn't using its maximum resolution 2560x1440 but the 1080p which the OS reports as the max resolution. I then read from the Apple's site that for some reason 1080p is the maximum resolution when using the HDMI-connector.

The Mac Mini contains only HDMI and Thunderbolt connectors, at least according to Apple's site. The Dell-monitor doesn't have Thunderbolt but instead it has VGA, DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI.

So my question is: Is it possible to get the maximum resolution out of my monitor?

Thunderbolt contains a DisplayPort channel.  You can get a Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.  I found a cheap one on Monoprice a while back. Here is a 6 footer.


User Data Migration from HFS+ Disk Image I got the following

source: the disk image of a iMac4,1 Intel32 from 2006 running the preinstalled 10.4.4
target: an iMac6,1 Intel32 from 2006 running the preinstalled 10.4.7

This use case isn't covered from the migration assistant, so:

Is there any way to apply all user data and installed programs from source to the target Mac?

My current status is:

I got both partitions on the target Mac's disk
I can access the source partition from MacOS, but not checkdisk.
I copied the user-data, but how do I register this new user with the system?
I copied the program I need, but now it is unregistered. Need the install CD.

I am a total Mac noob but rather familiar with low level linux.

This is a rather broad question, so the answer will be somewhat broad as well.

Adding a new user

You can create a new user in System Preferences->Users & Groups. Once done you can then copy/move the copied user data into the newly created home directory and adjust ownership of files/directories.

There is a certain risk that some paths in configuration files etc will break, but this is hard to say from outside. You can reduce the risk by making sure the shortname of the newly created user is the same as it was on the old system.

Reinstalling an application

This heavily depends on the application in question. Some of them require just the .app directory to be copied, others have support files installed all over the system, and if they require registration it may again be somehow more complicated. To dig into this, please ask a new question and mention the name of the application.

PS: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204320 implies that you should be able to select a mounted disk (partition) as a source for migration. But I don't have a way to verify that for 10.4.x.


How to get Mac to give Ethernet connection priority? I have the following issues / question. I use WIFI and Ethernet through each other like most people probably.

Certain things like ripping a blu ray I want to do through the Ethernet connection so that is when I plug it on.

However, I first have to turn WIFI off to "force" the mac to choose to route the data through the Ethernet connection.

In system settings under network / priorities I have the proper order, so Thunderbolt Ethernet above WIFI.

Any idea how I can make the Mac use the Ethernet cable without turning off the WIFI? THANKS!

According to Apple Support:

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network.
Click the Action pop-up menu , then choose Set Service Order.
Drag a service, such as Ethernet, to the top of the list.
Click OK, then click Apply to make the new settings active.

Full article is here.


How to 'reconnect' an Apple pencil 2 to iPad pro? After I used my apple pencil last night, I put it along side with my iPad Pro. I did not return the pencil back to its charging position.
Just a moment ago, when I pick up the pencil and try to make it work with the iPad Pro again, the iPad Pro is simply not responding to any pencil move. I tried many different ways: drawing the pencil in vertical or horizontally across the screen, randomly scribble, the "swipe up from lower right corner" move to trigger screen capture, and tapping on the pencil itself. None of this can reconnect the pencil to the iPad Pro.
When I return the pencil to its charging position, iPad reports that it still holds 70% of charge. So it is not a 'flat battery' issue.

So what is the proper way to reconnect apple Pencil 2 to an iPad Pro?

Attaching Apple Pencil to the side of your iPad should connect it to your iPad. If that doesn’t work, Apple have some other steps you can try:

If your Apple Pencil won't pair with your iPad

Make sure to center your Apple Pencil (2nd generation) on the magnetic connector on the right edge of the iPad. For an Apple Pencil (1st generation), remove the cap and plug your Apple Pencil into the Lightning connector on your iPad.
Restart your iPad, then try to pair again.
Go to Settings > Bluetooth and make sure that Bluetooth is turned on.
On the same screen, look under My Devices for your Apple Pencil. If you see it, tap i. Then tap Forget this Device.
Connect your Apple Pencil in to your iPad and tap the Pair button when it appears after a few seconds.
If you don't see the Pair button, wait for one minute while your Apple Pencil charges. Then try connecting your Apple Pencil again and wait until you see the Pair button.
If you still don’t see the Pair button, contact Apple Support.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT205236#pair-help


macOS High Sierra Notification Center auto closing or not opening at all I had a problem before about my icons not displaying correctly, and I followed Orlando Castro's answer in this discussion at Apple Forums.

  In Menu > Go (press option) > Library > Preferences
  Find and remove "com.apple.dock.extra.plist" and "com.apple.dock.plist" then restart.

After doing so I had no issue at all, but yesterday night I wanted to switch off "Night mode" which is located in Notification Center and for my surprise it didn't open at first with the gesture (Swipe left with 2 fingers from the right edge of trackpad), to make things worse I found that clicking on the Notification Center icon at the top right corner didn't make the Notification Center to be shown so I kept clicking on it for many times until it finally popped but it auto closed before I could turn night shift off.

Here's a video showing the issue: https://youtu.be/rU_Ph57dm8Y

I restarted my Mac and I'm still having this issue.

These are my Mac specs:

MacBook Pro (13", 2016, four Thunderbolt 3 ports) (With Touch Bar)
Processor: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
macOS High Sierra 10.13.2

From the suggested questions while writing this question I found this other question: How do I re-enable Notification Center in Yosemite or El Capitan post-upgrade? which I thought could be the answer, but after running both commands:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
killall NotificationCenter

and restarting my Mac, the problem shown in the video above persists.

Also, in the suggested questions I found this other question: Can I speed up the auto-dismissal of Notification Center banners? because I thought it could be a problem related to the time it was too low, I switched it to 5 seconds, logged out and in after doing so, restarted my Mac and still no success.

As shown in the video, I can't get Notification Center to be shown while using gesture and sometimes I can do it while clicking Notification Center.

How to solve this issue?

I was working with a chatbot with Dialogflow which wasn't responding correctly. Once I did 2 restarts and correct it, my notification bar is working again as expected.


Will restoring from TimeMachine keep my bootcamp partition intact? I am going to install Mavericks from the scratch, formatting the Mac partition.
Then, using TimeMachine I will restore my data and applications.

The bootcamp partition was excluded from the TimeMachine backup.

If I restore my copy with TimeMachine, will it keep intact the bootcamp partition as it was not backed up?

Thanks.

Yes it will.

As long as you only erase your Mac partition, the Boot Camp partition will be untouched. Time Machine will only modify the Mac partition.


Old password not being accepted when attempting to change password I was trying to change my password from System Preferences on my MacBook Pro. I followed the procedure by filling in the old password along with the new one. However, I am informed that the old password is incorrect! I tried several times but it didn't succeed. The old password is not working so the newer one is not being set.

You can reboot into recovery and run resetpassword from Terminal to reset your password.


Bypass for the certificate must be valid for 825 days or fewer Is there a way to workaround issue with certs valid for long time (10 years)?
I work in a corporation where Macs are not common and we have some internal long live certificates.

I know I can add single cert to trusted but any option to make Mac to trust all internal certs?

A quick workaround of you are using Google Chrome is to use the bypass word "thisisunsafe":

Go to the (trusted) page
Once you get to the message that says "Your connection is not private" click anywhere on the page
Type: thisisunsafe

This will add your page to a whitelist of the browser and instantly bypass the warning. Don't do this on sites you don't trust.


How can I find all the changes I've made to my system via "defaults write"? Over time, I've made many tweaks to my OS using defaults write, for example:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 0
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleShowScrollBars -string "Always"

and so on.

How can I generate a list of all the non-factory settings I've overridden?

It's not possible to distinguish changes made by you with defaults versus changing the setting using the GUI equivalent preference if one exists, since both perform writes to the property list files in the same way.

Theoretically, the default value shouldn't be written to preference files. Therefore, the only values in ~/Library/Preferences property list files should be ones overridden by you. You will have to investigate these files for the preferences you're using.

Create a new user account and open the software you use without making any changes. Diff the contents of ~/Library/Preferences from this user account with your normal user account, such as with Kaleidoscope, to identify changes made to preferences.


Why does rm in zsh abort? I have a number of files:

> $ ls
FleurInputSchema.xsd inp.xml              out                  usage.json
fort.77              juDFT_times.json     out.xml

and I would like to delete some of then, but not every files is there everytime. So I made an alias for

rm broyd  broyd.7 cdn* *.dat *.npy stars wkf2  fleurinputschema.xsd judft_times juDFT_times.json  inf out  out.xml  usage.json struct.xsf juDFT_times FleurInputSchema.xsd mixing_history* 2> /dev/null
zsh: no matches found: cdn*

This works fine on linux using zsh aswell. On mac it doesn't even start the rm-command, after it can't complete the cdn-wildward. How do I get zsh to ignore the missing files?

With the zsh, the (very sane) default is to error on globs that can't be expanded to existing files. In other shells, the usual default is to leave the glob untouched (which may or may not be the right thing to do depending on the command - and it may very well be a very wrong thing to do). I suspect your Linux configuration has this overridden somewhere to follow the behaviour of other shells.

If you're using zsh on both shells, IMHO the best option would be to qualify globs that are allowed to expand to nothing using the (N) qualifier:

% echo .zshc*
zsh: no matches found: .zshc*
% echo .zshc*(N)

%

Of course, you can change this behaviour globally. Pick whichever of the following most suits your needs:

setopt nullglob # all globs can expand to nothing
setopt +o nomatch # leave globs as-is instead of reporting error


Battery indicator is showing "Service Battery" notification I upgraded my macbook RAM, but after that when I switched on my MAC it showed my "Service Battery" indicator in battery menu. I installed Battery Health application and it showed following stats.

Its showing my original battery charge is left at 26%. Does that means I need to change my battery and get a new one. My macbook is 15 inch early 2011 model.
Thanks

Your Mac's battery hasn't reached its maximum cycle count, which for your model is 1000 cycles (see Mac notebooks: Determining battery cycle count):

Other factors may decrease battery life, so double-check the battery condition in System Information.app:

Open Apple menu>About This Mac>More Info…

Press System Report…

On the left hand side select Hardware>Power and look for Condition:

Article OS X Mountain Lion: Battery conditions lists the possible conditions:

Normal: The battery is functioning normally.
Replace Soon: The battery is functioning normally but holds less charge than it did when it was new.
Replace Now: The battery is functioning normally but holds significantly less charge than it did when it was new. You can
continue to use the battery until you replace it without harming your
computer.
Service Battery: The battery isn’t functioning normally, and you may or may not notice a change in its behavior or the amount of charge
it holds. Take your computer in for service. You can continue to use
your battery before it’s checked without harming your computer.


Periodic update of macports Yet again it happened. I forgot to update my macports and I'm wasting hours...

How can I automatically run

sudo port -v selfupdate
sudo port -v upgrade outdated

Let say every week? Note that it has to be ran as root...

How do you maintain you macports up-to-date?

Is something like suggested here is a good idea?

The usual way to run commands at regular intervals is you use launchd

An easy way is to use tools like Lingon X or LaunchControl to maintain the  daemon/agent configuration file.

You can also do this without the tool by creating the file with a plain editor. To run as root you will need a .plist file in /Library/LaunchDaemons. This needs you to provide the script and its arguments and will run as root.

In your case create a script to run both updates

port -v selfupdate
port -v upgrade outdated

Apple gives an example to run a script called happybirthday as below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
  "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.example.happybirthday</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>happybirthday</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Day</key>
        <integer>11</integer>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <key>Month</key>
        <integer>7</integer>
        <key>Weekday</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>


How would I identify what's causing my Mac to permanently hang on shutdown? Whenever I try to shutdown or reboot my Mac (Macbook Pro 15" Retina late 2013, OS X 10.11.3) it closes all programs like normal and then it goes into that black screen with the progress bar. When it gets to about halfway it permanently hangs and won't ever finish rebooting. I looked at the log viewer and couldn't find anything in particular. Is there a way to monitor a shutdown more closely and find out what's causing it to get stuck?

My first response whenever something is broken in Mac OS X is to try a safe boot. Safe boots perform several repair tasks in addition to safe booting your mac without extensions or startup items running.
Shut down your Mac. Power it up and begin holding down the shift key the moment you hear the startup chime. Keep it down until you see an onscreen progress bar. Eventually, you will get a login screen - Login and wait until your machine is fully started up. Now restart normally and see if problem is fixed.


Can't enable File Sharing under OSX Lion So I've upgraded to Lion, but now I can't enable File Sharing, when I press the checkbox, it simple shows the "correct" symbol and in less than half of a second it removes it again.

This happens the same for the 2 checkboxes under the Options... as well.

What can I do to enable File Sharing again?

It turns out it's not only me, but following this amazing tutorial everything whent smooth and worked out nicely...


Will my apps be removed from the App Store if my developer account expires? Will my apps get taken down on the App Store if I allow my developer account to expire?

Yes - all your apps will be removed from their respective App Stores if your developer program membership expires.

  If your Apple Developer Program membership expires, you will still have access to iTunes Connect. However, your apps will no longer be available for download on the App Store and you will not be able to submit new apps or updates.

Source: https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/itunes-connect/

Attempting to log in to iTunes Connect will show the following message, but all of the services are still accessible.


How to enable searching inside Google Drive/Docs using Spotlight? Has anyone found/created a working solution for searching inside Google Docs using Spotlight (their contents, not just their names)?

Precipitate used to provide this functionality, but unfortunately no longer works and is no longer maintained.

I don't believe that Spotlight is technically able to index the content inside the Google Drive files, at least not files that were created from within Google Drive's web interface. For example, if I go to drive.google.com and create a new file (e.g. a Document) and insert some content (text) in the document, that new file representing that document will show up in my Mac's directory (i.e. /Users/myname/Google Drive/filename.gdoc). However if I take that file and open it in a text editor, I can see that the only content in the file is a link to the online file and some other information. The actual content of the google document is not in the file that's on my computer. Since the content of the document isn't in the file that's on my computer, there's nothing for Spotlight to index.

I think this is really unfortunate. The idea that I could use Spotlight to search through all of the files that I created online is really great, but it appears that Google Drive isn't downloading the content of the files, so there is nothing for Spotlight to index. As you noted Precipitate provided that functionality, but it doesn't work any more and it's no longer developed.

One non-spotlight alternative is to use the app Alfred to search:

Google Drive Search with Alfred App

All this really is is a shortcut to open your google drive in a web browser and initiate a search- not really what you (or I) want.

There is also an app called Found that is able to search Google Drive, but that company was purchased and the app is no longer being developed. I haven't tried the most recent version (which is from 2013), and the reviews on macupdate.com are mixed about its current functionality, but it might be worth a try.


How can I configure fail2ban for use with OS X I've seen instructions for configuring fail2ban on BSD using pf but I'm not sure how these can be adapted to configure the fail2ban rules that ship with homebrew to configure Yosemite's firewall for safety.

What changes do I need to make, and to which files, to enable fail2ban safely on my OSX server?

If you are running the macosx server product (as well as running macosx as a server), you can try activating the adaptive firewall (man afctl(8)). It is a tool that watches for auth failures and blocks the originating host for a short time. Not quite as flexible as fail2ban but catches some of the services that don't log auth failures.


Upgrade from non-server to server? Is it possible to upgrade from a non-server (desktop) edition of OS X to the server edition? I currently have a Mac Mini running standard ML but I'd like to upgrade it to the Server version as I use it for a home fileserver and the connections frequently get maxed out. Preferably I'd like to go straight from ML -> Mavericks Server, but I don't even know if the desktop-to-server path is possible on any edition without a fresh install (I hope it is).

OS X Server, from OS X Lion onwards, is just another app you buy from the Mac App Store and install. You do not need to do a fresh install of the OS. There are generally no special hardware requirements for OS X Server compared to the client edition either.

To move from OS X Mountain Lion client to OS X Mavericks server, you would first have to upgrade to OS X Mavericks client, then buy and install the Server App from the Mac App Store.

The General Requirements section on OS X Server Technical Specifications page currently states:

  Mac computer running Mountain Lion.
  2GB of memory.
  10GB of available disk space; some features require additional disk space.
  Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
  Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
  Some features are not available in all countries.


Change or disable Content Security Policy in Safari? Trying to make my own userscripts, running them in the browser console and connect to ws://localhost:* servers, but the Content Security Policy always ruins my day.

How do I disable it in Safari?

Or change them to include ws://localhost:* ?

Impossible in Safari, I had to install Firefox Developer Edition and change it there:

by disabling security.csp.enable in the about:config menu

Which you access of course by typing about:config into the URL bar.


Audio output and volume controls gone after updating to iOS 5.1 I have an iPhone 4 (Verizon, Model MD146LL) and I just upgraded from iOS 5.0.1 to iOS 5.1 (9B176) using Settings > General > Software Update.
Immediately after completing the update, I noticed that my phone did not make the unlock sound as I unlocked my phone. "Oh, the volume must be down", I thought. So, I made sure my mute switch was off and pressed the + button to increase the volume. Unfortunately, I was greeted by the empty ringer volume popup:

"Apple must have changed the default setting for the volume buttons ^^"... Surely, I could change it myself! So, I head over to Settings > Sounds:

Oh, the settings are right. Hmm... What happens if I move the volume slider?
Rejoice! MARIMBA!

Ok, so my phone can play audio. Can it play music or watch a video?
No!

No!

NO...

Other controls:

Hoping that this was just a temporary glitch, I tried the following:

Switching Change with buttons on and off
Turning my phone on and off
Hard reset (holding Home+Lock until it reboots)
Plugging and unplugging my earphones
Plugging and unplugging the USB charging cable

Plugging and unplugging the USB cable seems to fix the issue. However, as soon as I lock the phone, the sound and volume controls are disabled again! Due to this behavior, I'm convinced that this is a software bug and not hardware related (e.g. faulty headphone jack).
Has anyone else experienced this? I'm afraid I'm going to have to do a clean restore or downgrade back to iOS 5.0.

Update 1:
Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings was unsuccessful, even when setting up the phone as a new device (no backup). The bug is still present. I will be trying a clean restore from iTunes soon.

Update 2:
Restoring as a new device using iTunes was also unsuccessful. :( From my research, it looks like this bug not specific to my model:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/17808462#17808462
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17799461#17799461
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17850153#17850153

Update 3:
After further analysis and comparison, I think that this bug is related to the External Accessory Framework (or similar components). When you are plugged into a compatible device, the controls are hidden, similar to my screenshots above. This may also explain why plugging and unplugging the charger temporarily fixes the problem. "I'm unplugged; I should enable my volume controls now."

From the fact that the issue persists across multiple firmware updates, it's almost definitely a hardware or firmware issue.

My first guess would be some small amount of metallic debris in the dock connector. It's likely that connecting and disconnecting the usb connection forces the software to assume that there is nothing connected, until the next time the phone wakes, when it checks if it's connected to a passive audio-out adapter.

Some metallic debris in the dock connector could force the phone into thinking there is always a line-out adapter present.

Try cleaning the dock connector with compressed air or a soft brush, or look into it with  bright light to see if there are any bent pins.


Can't sync iphone with Mac after restoring from TimeMachine I recently reinstalled my MacBook from a time machine backup (because I installed an SSD) [*]. Now syncing my iPhone via iTunes doesn't seem to work anymore:

At first, it displayed "over capacity" by 3.4 GB (which makes no sense, as I haven't added anything)

Then, after deleting several apps from my iPhone, the "over capacity" message is gone, but syncing doesn't work:

At first, it appears to work normally, and the capacity bar starts to fill up green on the left (green = apps)
Then, after it finishes, the capacity bar turns yellow:
I'm trying to sync a few files (just one song, and a few books), but they all keep the sync icon and are grayed out  I can't access the files on my iPhone.

Also, my iPhone seems to believe that the last backup to my computer was in September (according to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync), whereas iTunes says, that the last backup was today.

How can I make the setup work again? I tried enabling/disabling "Manually manage music and videos" and "Sync only checked songs and videos", as well as "Sync Apps" etc.

Info: Mac OS X 10.6.8, iOS 5.1.1, not using iCloud - only backing up to this mac.

[*] as described in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 -> Restoring data from Time Machine backups -> If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac.

After spending almost the entire day on this problem, I found the solution: I had to thoroughly re-install iTunes, using FineWine's step-by-step guide.

Here are the things I did before that, but which had no effect:
- Tweaking every possible setting in iTunes
- tweaking every possible setting on my iPhone
- reinstalling the latest backup
- reinstalling the backup from last month
- reinstalling the backup from a year ago
- deleting files on my phone manually
- doing several iPhone hard resets
- upgrading to iOS 6 (!)
- and more


Is it possible to restore data deleted by Adobe Creative Cloud? I lost data from the Adobe Creative Cloud bug last week. I have been searching to see if anyone has posted any suggestions other than by a backup source. Can you use any kind of data recovery software on the hard drive that was affected by this bug?

If the data is worth $120 to you, DiskWarrior may help, depending on how long ago you lost data and how much use you've had on the system prior to noticing it (more use = more chance something was overwritten and is now unrecoverable). I realize you asked for no "from backup source" answers, but if Time Machine is enabled, you should have local backups stored on the computer drive, even if you don't have access to your normal backup destination. No external program necessary, just restore the folder.


MacBook Pro Mid 2009 has a recovery partition? Does my computer (Snow Leopard, MacBook Pro mid 2009), have a recovery hidden partition? How can I access that?

I have the DVDs that came with my laptop, but when I start my laptop, and press and hold C key, nothing happens! I hear the noise from optical drive, but it is stuck to the gray initial screen, with the circle rotating.

Any help is appreciated.

The answer to your first question is no, unfortunately mid 2009 mbp's didn't have the recovery partition built in.

In regards to your dvd boot issue, you'll probably need to provide quite a bit more info for a definitive solution, but I can offer a few suggestions anyway. First off, try holding the option key when booting to see all your available discs, hopefully you'll see the inserted DVD and the problem will be solved.

If you still have no luck, try booting into verbose mode (command + v at startup) and seeing if theres any obvious system hangs. Verbose mode just basically shows you whats going on behind the scenes when you're starting up.

If you can provide a bit more info, like why you're reinstalling and if theres an OS currently loaded on the drive, hopefully we can zero in on an answer.


Intuos 3 Drivers for Mac OSX Sierra (10.12) I have an old Wacom Intuos 3 tablet (with pen and mouse) that I occasionally use with my Mac (OS 10.12.6 - Sierra).
I noticed my Wacom Intuos 3 mouse was acting strange (clicks not always being registered). I tried to re-install the Wacom Drivers for the tablet to troubleshoot whether this was a hardware (mouse itself) or software (drivers) problem.
When I reinstalled the latest drivers that work with Intuos 3 tablets for Mac (Driver 6.3.15-3), the Wacom Preferences Pane kept saying there was something wrong with the driver and the computer needed to be restarted, and if the issue persisted to re-install the driver. I restarted my computer a few times and still had the issue, then I un-installed and I re-installed the driver and still had the issue.
I realized it was probably because the supported Mac OS versions were 10.8 - 10.11 according to the Wacom Driver site and searching "Intuos 3". I was running Mac OS 10.12.6.
I then tried installing the most recent drivers (Driver 6.3.37-3  for macOS 10.11 - 10.15) because I thought that might work with my newer Mac OS, and after installation the Wacom Preferences Pane kept saying there were no devices attached, even when my tablet was plugged in.
How do I get drivers for Intuos 3 that work with Mac OS 10.12? It used to work just fine, but now with no working drivers, my tablet is not mapped to my screen properly and using my mouse/pen is terrible.

After searching all over the internet, I found a few people who have the same problem here.
They said to use Wacom Driver 6.3.8-2 (macOS 10.7 - 10.9).
This driver can be found here.
Alternatively, you can find the link to this driver by:

Navigate to Wacom's Driver Search Page here
Search for "Intuos 3"
In the MacOS driver box, select the "Older Versions" link
Scroll the list until you see Driver 6.3.8-2 (macOS 10.7 - 10.9) and download it
Un-install any previous non-working versions of the wacom tablet driver and install the newly downloaded version

After I installed it, I was able to see the Wacom Tablet on the Preferences Pane and edit the preferences to map the tablet to my screen size again!
My pen and mouse work as they did previously, but the original issue with my mouse (clicking) now appears to be a hardware issue. I will go buy a replacement mouse from eBay.


Any way to know if a USB attached drive to a Mac is HDD or SSD? I'm very puzzled that when you click "Info" for a SSD drive connected with USB in Disk Utility, it says:
Solid State: NO
Any way to know if a USB attached drive to a Mac is HDD or SSD?  Best if you can know in macOS, without third party tool.
It's a 2.5" SSD connected to a USB port.
Any help much welcome.

It depends.  If the external USB controller supports the whole set of ATA commands you can find out if the drive attached is solid state or not.  See the following post for several ways to determine if your drive attached is solid state or not.
How to determine if a drive is Solid State via Terminal
Though the driver in macOS is very limited, macOS has this ability to identify the  drive attached.  The second part that’s required for this to work is the USB to SATA bridge (the chip in the enclosure) must provide this capability.  Many off brand vendors use chips that only provide read/write functionality because they are substantially cheaper than quality chips that support more functions.
You can see this in smartmontools (excellent utility for monitoring drive SMART status via the command line) USB support wiki where they state to support USB they need:

The USB bridge provides an ATA or NVMe pass-through command.
The operating system provides a SCSI pass-through I/O-control which works through its USB-layer.

macOS doesn’t support the pass through of the whole ATA command set (Why it’s limited) and thus you need a special driver for smartmontools.  But if the USB device doesn’t suport it, theres no 3rd party driver that will give you this ability.


osx - cannot open images or pdfs When I try to open images or pdfs with preview, the application starts but the files never open. When I try to open them from the command line, I get the error message:

LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -1712 for file [...]

This was working yesterday, so presumably I did something to break it since then, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it could have been.

Were you using Firefox browser to download them?

If so in Firefox go to: Tools>Add-ons>Plugins>Adobe Acrobat NPAPi Plugin>Disable.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/925055?e=es&as=aaq

If not then right click (control click) on a PDF file. Select "get info". Toward the bottom of the dialog you'll see "Open with:" and an arrow. Click on the arrow and you'll be presented with the applications that can open PDF files. Select Preview and then click on the box that says: "Change All..."

When you select Preview it will say below it: "Use this application to open all documents like this one."


Login user - opposite to launchctl bootout user/id How can I login user in programmatically way?

I need something opposite to command

  launchctl bootout user/502

that logouts user with id=502.

Does this way exist?

Not on macOS

No, there is no Apple supported programmatic way of logging in a user on macOS.

One approach would be to create a virtual smart card and simulate a user logging in. This would require significant effort and development time.


Does OS X Notification Center receive messages from APNS, LAN or just locally? I'm looking for technical details on how the Notification Center is architected on Mountain Lion so I can make the most use of it as a user of OS X. Specifically, does it receive messages directly from Apple's push notification service? The high level overview documentation on Apple's developer site for Notification Center mentions UDP delivery of a notification so it seems a network trigger is provided but I can't find a reference to or example of this being implemented on Mountain Lion.

If not, can it receive messages from the local network or just from other programs that run locally on OS X?

It can work in a couple of ways. One, as you say, is through APNS.

Apps can also use the local notification centre to trigger a notification (you can see this in XCode when a build completes for example).

What are you trying to do? Maybe I can point you at the right document.


Setting a variable to the result of a terminal command within an applescript I'm trying to make a script that ejects all connected external drives and does not move on until they are all disconnected.

The main problem I'm having is being able to set the variable vol_count to the result of the following script:

tell application "Terminal"
    cd /Volumes
    ls | wc -l
end tell

I also have not tested that script, but I assume that's how you run a terminal command from within an applescript.

Follow up question:

How would I then have it eject all but two disks (my hard drive is partitioned into two disks)?

on run {}

    tell application "Finder"
        set vol_count to do shell script "cd /Volumes; ls | wc -l"

        eject the disks

        repeat until vol_count is equal to 2
            set vol_count to do shell script "cd /Volumes; ls | wc -l"
        end repeat
    end tell
end run

try:

set dontEject to {"Mac OS X", "Time Machine", "Media", "home", "net"}
set myDisks to list disks

repeat with aDisk in myDisks
    if aDisk is not in dontEject then tell application "Finder" to eject aDisk
end repeat


Bootcamp and upgrading to macOS Sierra At the moment, I am running OS X El Capitan (10.11.5) and Windows 10 in bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. I plan on upgrading to the macOS Sierra public beta when it comes out in July or so.

My question is, is an upgrade to macOS Sierra going to make my bootcamp not bootable anymore. I have seen on apple discussion forums, and people that I know have had problems getting their bootcamp to work after an OS X upgrade. However, I have also seen many others not having any issues whatsoever when upgrading.

I would just like to clear up my confusion, will an upgrade from El Capitan to macOS sierra render my bootcamp useless/unbootable?

I am running a macOS Sierra Seed Beta (invitation-only, released before the public beta) and my VMs and other bootable OS', including bootcamp are working just fine. But as always, you will be on a beta so proceed with caution!


Is it more memory/processor-efficient to open many windows in one desktop, or to make all these windows fullscreen? I have many, many windows that must be open all at once (VM, Email client, browser, IDE, source navigator, issue tracker, notebook, etc...), and have often bumped up against my MacBook's 16GB of RAM. Would it be more efficient to have these all in 1 or 2 desktops, or to have as many as possible fullscreen in their own desktop?

My logic here is that if they're all in 1 desktop (or 2 with a 2-monitor setup), then the Mac doesn't have to track which desktop each is on, and can use that memory for other things. On the other hand, if I have many fullscreen windows, then it doesn't have to worry about what may be in front of / behind those windows, because it will only be them and maybe a preferences dialog, so maybe it wouldn't care at all about windows on other desktops, or in other fullscreens.

Intuitively, I also feel there must be a performance hit from having so many virtual desktops open. I don't know how Mac OS handles it, but I feel like there's probably duplicate objects there (perhaps each has its own menu bar, dock, icons, etc.)

To expand on patrix's point in comments above, essentially OS X keeps track of every open window regardless of where it is, because there is a process(es) running each window. It also manages RAM usage, taking from the poor (less recently used open programs) and giving to the rich (program currently being used). Even if a program has an open window on the same virtual desktop, if needed, OS X will cull RAM from that program to feed the currently active program.

It's theoretically possible you would incur a graphics performance penalty for having everything on one desktop, especially if you have transparency enabled, but otherwise, there aren't really any system implications. So, basically, do whatever works best for your workflow.


What's the "built-in" firewall in OS X 10.9? By "built-in" I mean the backend of the System firewall (System Preference->Security&Privacy->Firewall). Is it ipfw or pf? (I know that ipfw was the backend for previous versions of OS X).

And, what are the commands/logs that I can use to determine which firewall is running?

The firewall in OS X 10.9 is now "pf".

It is controlled by the tool pfctl which can also give you a lot of status about the firewall itself. Try sudo pfctl -s all and you will get a huge dump of info. If you want a lot of information you can add one or two -v to the front of the options for even more info - sudo pfctl -v -v -s all