How to hide previous commands/history in terminal and start like the beginning of the tab? There should be a command on terminal that hides the history belongs a specific tab and lets you start from the beginning of the tab like it is new, but when you scroll up with a mouse you can see your history. I can't remember and find it online. I hope someone can tell it.

If you want to clear your terminal window:

use the command clearto clear whatever is showing
use command+K to clear everything

There are other things you can try too:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2198377/how-to-clear-previous-output-in-terminal-in-mac-os-x


How can I globally disable 'Text Replacement'? I've been looking for an answer to this question for a while, so I'm guessing this can only be solved with a console command.

What I want to do is disable 'Text Replacement' everywhere on my Mac.
The trick is, I have a library of text replacements that I use on my iPhone (like ill > I'll), and apparently it's synced to my iCloud account. As a result, if I make changes in one place it affects all of my devices everywhere - making the easy solution of "delete all of the text substitutions from your substitution library" is unavailable.

The text replacement I'm referring to specifically is the option you can disable by right-clicking on any text input area, then selecting 'Substitutions < Text Replacement' (see image).

I know you can disable this one field at a time by right-clicking fields and unchecking 'Text Replacement', but it is enabled by default for every individual input on every field for every application (including the entire internet and my browser's search/address bar), and it periodically gets re-enabled on some inputs.

I've already disabled 'Correct Spelling Automatically' from my system text options. (see image)

And still I have to disable 'Text Replacement' on every field or it will try to correct my typing with entries in that dictionary.

I use iCloud tabs, handoff, and a number of Apple's other "Better Together" features (and I don't want to lose the ability to track my devices with 'Find my [device]'), so I don't want to disassociate my iCloud account from my computer or devices, but I'd be really happy if I never had to disable 'Text Replacement' on an input field again.

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT:
I've found https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/217387/172938 and https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/121553/172938 , both of which have some console references:

defaults write -g WebAutomaticTextReplacementEnabled -bool true from the first link (for enabling 'Text Replacement' in Safari).

defaults delete -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems from the second link (for deleting the User Dictionary as seen in my second image).

Both pertain to my issue tangentially, but each to the opposite effect I'm looking for.

Very late, but

defaults write -g WebAutomaticTextReplacementEnabled -bool false

Will disable text replacement not just in Safari but in all other apps that use that input method (e.g. Evernote).

Reboot is required (at least as of macOS 10.13.6), and the menubar checkmark UI won't visually change within each app. The change also only affects applications, and not Spotlight.


Recording direct from camera into MacBook Pro via HDMI? Is there any way to 'tether' my camera via its HDMI out to a MacBook pro?

The goal is to record live, uncompressed, video direct from a camera. Thus skipping the camera's file system and recording directly onto the Mac's hard drive via Premier Pro or similar software.

This is how it works for me camera's HDMI -> Mac's USB but it requires a special device:

I have a Panasonic HC-V777 camera which has a micro HDMI output (the micro HDMI - HDMI cabel is provided with the camera out of the box).
I have a Corsair Elgato HD60 S capture device which has 2 HDMIs: input and output. Also it provides an output port and a cable that connects HD60 to my Macbook's USB.
I connect my camera to HD60 which connects the camera to the USB.
OBS Studio is software that works on macOS and is HD60-friendly: it supports a special adapter that makes it possible to both record and stream the input from the camera coming to HD60 from the camera's micro HDMI.

The disadvantage of this approach is the need in the extra device (HD60 S) and also this device requires output to go somewhere otherwise the capture does not work. I connect it to the second monitor where I see the output from my camera that is passed through the HD60.


Can I use one charger for all MacBooks from years 2008 to 2013? Can I use one charger for all MacBooks from years 2008 to 2013?
... or did Apple change the charger in the last 5-6 years?

A friend of mine has a Macbook from 2007 or 2008 , she can lend it to me but she lost the charger, so I have to buy one here in the Czech Republic... I need the laptop now, so I will have to buy it tomorrow ...

The physical MagSafe adapter remains unchanged from a pinout perspective (the shape has altered externally from a T shape to an L shape and back again) for almost every Macbook except the 2012 Macbook Air and Retina Macbook which use MagSafe 2; Adapters are available to connect a MagSafe power supply to these machines, but you cannot use a MagSafe 2 adapter to power anything other than the 2012 Air and Retina at present.

You need to ensure that you use the correct power rated charger for the Macbooks.  Macbook Airs use a 45 watt supply, through to something like 85 watts for Macbook Pros.

It's OK to use a higher rated supply than is required, the charger only supplies what is asked of it, so a Macbook Air on a Pros power supply will only request its 45 watts, not get fried with 85 watts.

Conversely, it's not OK to do the opposite, running a MBP on an Airs power supply will request up to 85 watts of draw on a 45 watt power supply, and burn out the adapter eventually.


Date/time in terminal correct but one hour off in apps I live in Chile and the government has decided to go to winter time later than usual a few months ago. Apple has not provided an update for OS X to reflect this change.

I now fixed the timezones manually by downloading timezone files and using zic to update my mac based on instruction found here
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070128185822710

The good thing is now that if I set the timezone now to Chile/Santiago in the Date & Time preferences to Santiago/Chile that when I issue the date command in the terminal I get the right time.(still summer time). However all the Mac Clock on the panel and also all Mac Apps are one hour off. They show already winter time.

Any idea on how to get the mac apps show the right time?

OK I found the solution by using instructions found here
http://brickybox.com/2009/10/18/os-x-fix-argentina-dst-october-2009

Except the thing I already did with "zic" you also need to update the timezone files for "ICU". The article I refer to is for an older version of OS X. For mountain lion. Download ICU from here:
http://www.opensource.apple.com/release/mac-os-x-1082/
and the latest timezone data from
http://www.iana.org/time-zones


AirDrop photo from iPhone to Macbook Pro says "waiting…" then "rejected" What I'm doing:

Open Photos on iPhone (7 plus, iOS 10.2.0)
Tap share icon
Wait for my laptop identity to appear in AirDrop section
Tap on my own face  (i.e., laptop identity)

Result:

My face says, "Waiting…"
After what I assume is a timeout delay, my face says, "Declined"

The MacBook Pro has Allow me to be discovered by: set to Everyone. The top Google search results seem to suggest logging out of iCloud, then back in, but it takes forever to reinstall everything, so I'd really rather not. ☹

SOLUTION

ok after months of this on occasionally then off mostly and sat with the waiting. I found the solution

VPN, do you have any VPN like expressvpn or similar on your mac, if so turn it off and voila .


How to deploy machines with Apple IDs? We have about 10 Macs at not big Digital Agency.
Currently I am doing some research and preparing some deployment plan, and don't know what to do with those Apple IDs. There is no any centralised business accounts that I would set up and manage all employees Apple IDs in one place. Or I have missed it?
        Note: Those computers should not be synched with iPad or any other mobile devices, or this is not important to be able to

So what's the best practice in deployment:

Tie up all machines to one(or group) accounts? E.g
sales@companydomain.com, designers@companydomain.com,
management@companydomain.com and so on
Or create for each employee
personal AppleID? e.g employeename@companydomain.com.

Would be nice to hear some advices from experienced admins

There are tradeoffs to any choice of Apple ID, but unless your personal Apple ID are tied to an Apple email, you can always re-name the Apple ID and change email, DOB, security questions, etc…

For pilot projects on iOS where the budget for apps is less than $1000, I usually recommend a personal account option when you don't have someone in the organization to manage email / fire up new corporate accounts.

If you do have control and desire to set up work Apple ID, then you should do that and keep the purchases on a work account per policy. This also is my primary recommendation for Macs since software costs are often higher and you are less likely to shuffle people through a Mac as opposed to an iPad or iPhone/iPod.

The process of discovering how you want to enable your people to work, who will be responsible for managing Apple ID / passwords is more valuable than any decision you actually make. Most decisions can be fixed / adjusted / changed if you find you choose unwisely. Just write up your plan, review it internally and go. You don't have to get everything right if you can loop back in 3 months and see how you did and adjust accordingly.

I would go to the seller of your Macs and see if they can advise you on how to deploy. If you haven't purchased yet, go to your local Apple store (if there is one) and talk with their Business Team. They help hundreds of groups like you navigate the path of using Apple at work. They don't charge for their time, have amazing resources if you stump them, and can hand you off to a local consultant if it's more economical to hire expertise if you have more money that time or training. A good consultant will guide you and inform so you can use Apple's planning guides to best effect.

Here's my TLDR advice:

Empower each Mac user to use their work email as their Apple ID and have no form of payment associated with these accounts.
Expect them to handle purchases / updates with a discretionary budget of gift cards that work provides, so you'll train them or get them to Apple for training so they can perform basic tasks / troubleshooting without needing your help. Treat one-off purchases like other things you use expense reports for and review all purchases quarterly or annually to see which apps you want everyone to be using.
Enroll your work in Apple's VPP program (even though it's designed for iOS - you will be forced to think about how to deploy apps and the resources there are worth your time to read / understand.) My guess is VPP will come to Macs this year with 10.9 - but that's wild speculation on my part.
Use one account to gift required apps to each user account if you find gift cards unworkable. Use this for purchases that are role-based as opposed to exploratory or one-off needs.
Consider enrolling in Joint Venture so Apple can provide your first line of help desk training and support in a business setting.


Is there a way to put switches at the end when using OS X command-line? For example:

rm long/path/to/some/dir  -r

instead of:

rm  -r  long/path/to/some/dir

Is it possible to make it work like that, as in GNU command line utils?

TIA, Karol

Unfortunately the answer is negative unless you are willing to switch to GNU command line utilities. OS/X command line tools derive from BSD sources which process command line arguments differently. This all boils down to usage of the library calls like getopt() in the standard C-library. OS/X command line tools use the standard library functions whereas GNU command line tools use their own, similar, but slightly more "advanced" version of getopt() and companions.

That said, you could work around that by installing GNU coreutils. One way of doing that would be to use Homebrew. That, of course, is not the same thing as making OS/X provided BSD command line utilities to the parse command line like the GNU command line utilities do.


windows pdf highlight, underline, etc come with a square in mac preview? How to get rid of them in the first place? I mean, I don't want to delete them one by one as in the other threads. I just want to know how to prevent this happening at all(may be has something to do with windows), I am using foxit reader on windows. I also tried adobe dc reader

The squares are all empty, I didn't add anything in it.

This is a compatibility issue I think.
Same behavior happens when I copy something from MS Word 2013 to MS Word 365 (for Mac)
By the way, is it a macOS question or a Windows related question? If it's the latter, your question should not be here. :-)


Email verification not coming I have signed up with a .edu.pk domain and waiting for email verification, but it's been hours since I haven't gotten it. Is there any issue with .edu.pk and apple?

Apple have no special conditions for .edu.pk, so it should work. Try the usual suspects:

Check your spam folder
Check your email rules
Check your mail server isn't rejecting the email

If all else fails, try resetting your password at iforgot.apple.com.


Swap Fusion Drive for SSD I want to swap my Fusion Drive for a 1 TB SSD, to gain more speed loading programs. Do I have to delete (uninstall) the Fusion Drive first or can I just take out the HD and install the SSD and then start to format and install Sierra.

Will I the have afterwards 2 SSD's....the old one (128 GB) and the new one (1 TB)? Of course I have backups!

The short answer to this is YES.

I have done this exact thing in my iMac and it works perfectly.  You don't have to "uninstall" the Fusion drive.  Once you remove the HDD, you would have effectively destroyed the Fusion drive requiring the original (128GB) SSD to be reformatted.

I personally opted to create a new Fusion drive of the 128GB and 1TB Fusion drive for a 1.128TB drive, but you for format them and use them independently as well.


iPhone 4S restarting 20x a day since iOS 8.4.1 was installed I have an iPhone 4S it is restarting 20x a day since iOS 8.4.1 was installed.  I have the Apple Music service turned on. I am going to turn it off because it keeps causing problems with playing iTunes, but I wonder if anyone else has experienced these restarts, and if so, what configuration options cause it or make it go away.

If it turns out turning off Apple Music solves this issue, I'll post that as an answer. Any other idea?

Update: The backup/reset/restore suggested in the answer below also cleared up 20 gb of JUNK/crap in the "Other" category from my iPhone:

If this popped up right after an OS upgrade than I would wipe the phone and restore from backup:

Backup phone in iTunes
In Settings > General > Reset: erase all content and settings
Once that is done restore from backup

My guess is that a file got damaged during the upgrade and restoring it may fix it.


Apple Music and gift cards I'm in a country where Apple Music is not available (Morocco) and I have an apple ID that I use with my all of my iDevices. Will I be able to use Apple Music using a gift card (25$ one)?

Also, what about the free, 3 month trial? Will I lose the 25$ or they will just use the gift card to verify the account?

According to Apple, Apple music isn't available in Morocco, meaning that even is you use a gift card that you can't use it.

Other then that, you need to use a credit card to even use the 3 month free trial.

You can see the available countrys that Apple music is available in here.


Google Photos Backup creates large Pictures/GPBackup folder I installed Google Photos Backups on OSX (Mavericks).  It created a /Users/rob/Pictures/GPBackup folder that is 10 gig in size, and it looks like it has copies of all my photos and movies.  I don't want it to use all this space, but didn't see any configuration settings for this.  What is the purpose of this folder?  If I just delete it, will Google Photos Backup continue to work?

If you click the "Google Photos Backup" icon in your menu bar (looks like a gray pinwheel), you should see the "Preferences" option.  Clicking this will open the preferences window.  There you should see a checkbox for "Also copy photos/videos from external media to" (See image below).  Uncheck this box and you shouldn't have the extra backups anymore.


Why does Disk Utility show "Macintosh HD" on both Logical Volume Group and the volume underneath? After performing a clean install of Yosemite (erasing the entire disk using disk utility during installation), the original name of the disk (APPLE HDD HTS547575A9E384 Media) turned out to be "Macintosh HD" eventually. In addition, there are only two actions left, first aid and partition.

I have carried out clean installs several times on this MacBook Pro (13-inch, mid 2012, now running 10.10.4), but this is the first time that I encounter this kind of problem. The only thing I did was erase the entire disk. Hope to return back to its original state, showing its real name and available actions.

Why Disk Utility does it this way is a good question, but when both the drive and volume show like this, its a CoreStorage volume.

These terminal commands should put it back to the old way if it isn't encrypted:

diskutil cs list - find the "Logical Volume" (not Group) and copy the long "number" at the end of the line (it looks like this: BE1E16CA-64E2-494B-8EDC-3E843EF5C9A9)

diskutil cs revert BE1E… - paste in that long string in place of BE1E…

As always, ensure you have a backup in case things don't work out.


Installing gcc47 as default using Homebrew I'm trying to install gcc47 as my default compiler using homebrew.  I can successfully install gcc47, but it adds a -4.7 suffix on all of its binaries.  If I try to symlink it in /usr/local/bin things get tricky.  Consider this:

$ which gcc
/usr/bin/gcc
$ gcc --version
i686-apple-darwin11-llvm-gcc-4.2 (GCC) 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2336.11.00)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.7 /usr/local/bin/gcc
$ which gcc
/usr/local/bin/gcc
$ gcc --version
gcc-4.7: err    or trying to exec '/usr/local/bin/../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-llvm-gcc-4.2': execvp: No such file or directory
$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/*gcc* /usr/local/bin/*g++*
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  33 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/g++-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/g++-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  22 Mar 28 11:32 /usr/local/bin/gcc -> /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  33 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/gcc-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  36 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/gcc-ar-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/gcc-ar-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  36 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/gcc-nm-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/gcc-nm-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  40 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/gcc-ranlib-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/gcc-ranlib-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  59 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-g++-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-g++-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  59 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  61 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-4.7.2 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-4.7.2
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  62 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-ar-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-ar-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  62 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-nm-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-nm-4.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff  66 Mar 27 15:48 /usr/local/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-ranlib-4.7 -> ../Cellar/gcc47/4.7.2/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin12.3.0-gcc-ranlib-4.7

If you want to do something a little easier to revert later, you can always make an alias in your bashrc file.

alias gcc gcc-4.7

This will automatically convert everything for you from the command line. The downside is that it only works when your bashrc is used and only for your user (which could also be a positive).


Looking for Text Editor with File Browser for logs Need a text editor with file browser that will keep files sorted by date and allow quickly switching between files in the editor. Lots of log files to view through quickly.

TextWrangler only shows files in disk browser by name. Lots of other editors don't even have a file browser. Loved Notepad++ on windows. Anything close on Mac?

Need:

allow browsing file system
sort files/folders by date modified
quickly show/edit files in main window by clicking/double-clicking filenames (no popup of separate windows)

I've looked at log file viewers and they're mainly for viewing individual files. I have log files with semi-random names but I need them sorted by modified date to troubleshoot.

Use Atom: https://atom.io

  File system browser

  Easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple
  projects in one window.

With log files it looks like this:


Display appears different on two accounts using same color profile I have 2 accounts on my Mac Pro both are using the same color display profile however on my account it is clearly a lot brighter. I can test this by switching between the 2 accounts with the same image open in both accounts. On account A you can see the light shades of gray on account B the light shades of gray are missing and it just looks solid white.

I removed everything from account B's startup items and looked at the processes running on a clean boot into both accounts and the only differences are processes I expect to make no difference (mysql, perl etc.)

When I login into the account B (with the problem) that does have the problem I see the brightness change 2 times before finder and the rest of the desktop starts, whereas logging into account A doesn't seem to do this.

I would like to know what is causing this and stop it as it's very annoying.

It sounds like a color profile issue.

Does account "B" have any custom color profiles installed in ~/Library/ColorSync/ ? If so try moving them out of that folder (to the Desktop, Trash, or wherever) then log out and back in to see if that helps.


Fusion 5, Windows 8 and Boot Camp VMware are not very direct about revealing the features of their producst.

This KB article claims that "VMware Fusion does not support launching a Boot Camp partition with Windows 8 installed on it" while the Fusion 5 homepage says that Fusion 5 supports Windows 8 and that it "lets you run Windows and Mac applications side-by-side directly from your existing Boot Camp partition".

Any idea which is true? Does VMware Fusion 5 support Windows 8 Boot Camp installations or not?

And can it use a Windows 8 BC partition on another disk or only the first disk?

The KB article appears to be outdated. A VMWare staff member advised that "Windows 8 is fully supported as a Boot Camp virtual machine in VMware Fusion 5".


How to identify if an app is installed on iPhone from Windows PC? I am trying to identify programatically from computer if a particular app is installed in my iphone, once the iphone is connected to the computer( Windows OS).

How to proceed with this?

Well, after these many days, I found the answer myself. I just extended Manzana framework to support AMDeviceLookupApplications method as well. That worked


How to change the app switching keyboard shortcut from the standard Cmd + Tab key to Cmd + Eject key combo? I would like to change the Cmd + Tab hotkey to Cmd + Eject.

I use a Mac Aluminium keyboard with the eject key, which is only present on external keyboards.

I would like to try this key combination, or other possibly, to avoid the excessive amount of Cmd + Tabs I do every day; and even maybe prevent a future RSI.

You can use a keyboard customiser app like Karabiner to tweak the default key associations.

Karabiner is a free software.


Magic Mouse2 keep loosing connection which keyboard and Magic Trackpad work fine I have a Magic Mouse 2, Magic Trackpad and Apple keyboard. From time to time, mainly when I have higher CPU usage, my mouse drops it's connection. I have my trackpad next to it and it is still working fine, as is my keyboard.
I think I have narrowed it down to the amount of screen I have attached to my computer. At work I have a Dell 43" 4k screen and at home I have (2) 27, 1(34 wide) and (1) USB Screen. If I have all screens running then my mouse drops more frequently.
I have a 2018 Macbook Pro 15 with 16gb memory, i7, 4gb video memory

The problem was related to a cheaper dongle for HDMI. Once I removed the dongle my mouse problem disappeared.
It is related to this issue. I did not try wrapping the dongle in foil, but removing it completely solved my mouse dropping issue.
Macbook loses network connection when connecting external display


How to stop applications opening on login? Whenever I reboot my computer a handful of annoying apps open automatically including Spotify, Epic Games launcher, and some kind of Adobe software updater. I know there are two official ways to stop items launching on login:

Removing them from "login items" in System Preferences
Right clicking in the dock and unchecking "Open at login"

However all of these applications do not appear in System Preferences and don't have "Open at Login" checked in the dock (are they purposely dodging removal?). I assume I can dig through the app settings to stop these things launching, but that's annoying and feels like capitulation.

How can I stop these from opening at login?

From my own answer at Super User…
If it is not in the regular user Login list, then it is most likely in LaunchDaemons.
There are several locations for these, one is for Apple daemons only:
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
The others are to include 3rd party processes, /Library/LaunchDaemons and ~/Library/LaunchDaemons.
You may also need to remove from /Library/LaunchAgents or ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Simply remove or zip the process you don't wish to auto-launch & it should be gone at next boot.


Strange behaviour from delete key on a non-apple keyboard I have a fairly generic USB keyboard plugged into my MacBook Pro. The Delete key doesn't seem to do anything most of the time. When I try to create a shortcut using it (to display the key code) it acts as if it's dead.  Other keys around it (Home/End/PgUp/PgDn) seem to work fine.

Now here's the really interesting part. When I push the key in text edit, it seems to do a delete-forward.

I want to use this key with Cmd (the Windows key on my keyboard) to move files to the Trash. Can anybody explain why this key is acting the way it is? Can anyone suggest a utility which will tell me which key I am pressing on my keyboard?  I used to use xev on an X Windows system.  Is there something like that on a Mac without X installed?

Actually, I want the Delete key, by itself  to do what Cmd Bkspc does in Finder. It moves a file to the trash.

But the standard OS X keyboard shortcut window won't accept any of the keys in the 6-key block with (Ins/Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn)

It's interesting.  When I first pull up the keyboard viewer, it shows a diagram of a standard Mac keyboard.  As soon as I hit one of the above 6 keys, the map changes to an extended keyboard closer to what I have.  But the diagram has my Cmd/Opt keys swapped.

Is there any way for me to tell the OS I am using an extended keyboard?

The frustrating thing is, Mac OS is training me to use that key.  It does something useful in lots of built-in applications. But I can't assign it to a hot key.

iCal - deletes an appointment (Cmd+Backspace does the same)
textedit - deletes forward

That's completely normal. The key called delete on Windows is called forward delete on OS X, even though it's often labeled like delete ⌦. It deletes a character forward in text views. It doesn't delete items in many applications like Finder, presumably because it would be too easy to press accidentally.

Many shortcut recorders don't allow using just forward delete as a shortcut. You can often edit the property lists that store the shortcuts directly though. See How to remap delete and shift+delete keys to delete and permanently delete a file in Mac OS X Lion?.


Exploring the files in a MobileSync backup I'm trying to find if some movies that I had on my iPhone 5 might be hidden away in a MobileSync backup.  The weird part is that iTunes → Preferences → Devices doesn't show a backup for this device in February, but there's a folder in the MobileSync backup folder that shows a Feb 10, 2013 last modified date.

What I'd like to do is find out what all is in that folder without having to restore a device. Honestly, I'm not sure how to do the restore anyway, since there's no entry in iTunes for it.

Is there any way to browse what is in each backup?

Here's the DIY method:

Navigate to the following directory:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

You'll get a cryptic list of folders.  Inside each folder will be a large number of files with cryptic names.

Open these files in Quicktime Player.

There may be thousands of them but if you sort by size you should get video, audio and photos to float to the top.

Alternatively you could try one of the applications that is meant to do this such as iPhone Backup Extractor (There is a free and a paid version I have not tried either myself).


Failed downgrade - iPod touch with broken home button I tried to downgrade my iPod touch 4th gen iOS 6.1.6 to iOS 5.1.1.

I went on Redsn0w clicking extras/even more/restore/ipsw. Then I selected iOS 5.1.1 firmware. I stopped the process halfway. Now my iPod's screen is black and when I plug it into iTunes the device is not recognised.

The problem is that my home button is broken so I cannot press the power and home button to make the screen light up with the apple logo.

What can I do now to fix this issue?

You need to get your device into a state called Recovery Mode, and then iTunes will automatically detect your device and let you restore to the latest iOS. For an iPod touch 4th gen, there are a few tools that can get your device into Recovery Mode for you without the use of hardware buttons. The best ways are to use redsn0w or iRecovery, but the steps are really complicated to use those utilities. There is a tool called RecBoot that claims to work, but I haven't used it, so I can't speak to it.

Edit: I actually had to use RecBoot the other day, and it worked great.


Permanently saving a cookie in ios8 Is there a way to permanently save a cookie in ios8?

So I can clear every other cookie and browsing data but that cookie?

My banking makes me confirm the computer/phone I'm using through email and code, I have to do this each time, only if the cookie is deleted.

I'm using the iPhone 6 no jailbreak.

No.  There is no way to do this through the standard user interface.  Sorry.  I can understand why you might want to do this, but the reality is that -- for pragmatic reasons -- software designers often need to keep it simple and avoid features that only a tiny fraction of their user base will use.


Wired keyboard for iPad Mini Is there any wired keyboard-case available for new iPad Mini (thefore using Lightning port)? Or keyboard-case with standard USB cable, that has been tested and proven to work with Lightning OTG Adapter? Does anyone have any experience in this area to share?

I did a really good (as I think) research on this in the Internet, but all I've found is a really big bunch of wireless Bluetooth-based keyboard-cases for iPad Mini. Plus some entries that only suggest that a wired keyboard-case should work.

I don't like the entire idea of charging keyboard aside of charging iPad itself. So the best solution for me would be either keyboard-case with Lightning cable or keyboard-case with standard USB plug, proven to work with iPad Mini through OTG adapter.

Thank you in advance for any help here.

Nope, it won't work. Apple disabled the functionality a while ago with an iOS update. It only worked for few months on the first iPad with the Camera connection kit.

I tested it on my iPad 2. If I remember well, when connecting an Apple USB keyboard it poped a message that said the connector can't provide enough power ... Probably a fake reason because it worked before.


Cant recover from Time Machine Disk because [UPDATE NEEDED] I have an external drive with a bunch of backups and I want to make a restore from that disk. I've always been able to restore by starting the computer while pressing the option key and selecting the disk, where it would take me to an options panel where I could start the recovery process.

But when I try to access that disk now, It shows me a login page with a user called "[UPDATE NEEDED]". What should I do to pass this step? How can I make this work?

from the answer to a very similar question from 2014:

  Log in into the Mac as administrator.
  Backup the Mac with Time Machine (optional but recommended)
  Launch System Preferences selecting System Preferences from the Apple menu.
  Click the Security & Privacy preference pane.
  Click the FileVault tab.
  Unlock the pane clicking on the padlock (administrator password required)
  Disable FileVault and wait (…about 3hrs with a 250GB no SSD HD)
  Restart the Mac (optional but recommended)
  Go back the FileVault tab.
  Enable FileVault and wait (…about 7hrs for me!!!)
  Restart the Mac.
  The unknown user account will disappear.
  This should also now allow you to set automatic login.

I assume, if thats the only account listed, it has to be an administrator account.

I know you might not be able or want to back up your drive again, though. So maybe this isnt what youre looking for (though that step is optional).

also heres a discussion on apple.com from 2011 with a similar question and answer. this one may be closer to your scenario as it also doesnt mention any accounts besides the "update needed" account


What form factor, connector needed to replace SSD in 2015 Macbook Air? I want to upgrade a macbook air from 2015. I have done lots of drive replacements (and watched the videos for macbook air) but I'm not sure what form factor and connection specs to search for on amazon or newegg. I think that these computers use a PCI-E 3.1x4, but am unsure what form factor drives will fit in the tiny case. I'm also concerned about what connectors the computer uses. I'd hate to get one that needed an adapter. It's my understanding that NVME drives would need some kind of adapter.
Can anyone provide the specific connector and form factor details?

I recently went through something similar myself. Apple uses a proprietary 28 pin connecter which means that industry standard M.2 will not work directly unless used with an adapter. I have a Macbook Pro Mid 2015 and chose to go with the OWC Aura Pro X2. You essentially have 3 options:

Get an SSD from OWC. The Aura Pro X2 provides double the speed of your current SSD. You can find a compatible SSD here.
Buy any standard M.2 SSD from Amazon and get a Sintech M.2 to Apple 28 Pin SSD adapter (Make sure you buy one appropriate to your year). There have been reports of this method causing issues with wake and sleep, battery drain, etc.
Transcend used to make SSDs for Macbooks called JetDrives. Look it up on their website.

Personally speaking, the OWC Aura Pro X2 might be your best option. The only drive that will fit in your Macbook are ones that conform to Apple's proprietary 28 Pin Connectors. This too has changes with every year. So make sure you get the year right while getting the SSD.


How to set timeout to 'ping' command? In windows argument -w and number in milliseconds set how long wait echo reply from pinging host.

I'm running now macOS Sierra and -t argument from ping help set count of echo requests. So ping google.com -c 5 and ping google.com -t 5 give the same result - five echo requests with default timeout.

Is there a flag that does what I need?

Looking at the man page for ping (man ping); under the -i wait option, we see that the default time between sending pings is 1 second:

  -i wait

  wait seconds between sending each packet.  The default is to wait for one second between each packet.

So, using the default of sending 1 packet every 1 second, the options -t and -c will produce the same output.

When we add in a fractional wait time of say, a half second, we should now get 12 packets sent within the 6 seconds:

$ sudo ping -i .5  -t 6 apple.stackexchange.com

PING apple.stackexchange.com (151.101.193.69): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=0 ttl=58 time=12.509 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=11.990 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=17.027 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=13.173 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=4 ttl=58 time=15.752 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=5 ttl=58 time=10.337 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=6 ttl=58 time=15.484 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=7 ttl=58 time=9.653 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=8 ttl=58 time=9.734 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=9 ttl=58 time=9.486 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=10 ttl=58 time=11.321 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.193.69: icmp_seq=11 ttl=58 time=9.549 ms

Twelve responses as expected.  Note, that you must run this as root;    per the man page for the -i wait option:

  The wait time may be fractional, but only the super-user may specify
  values less than 1 second.

Now, the -W option (capital "W", not lowercase) will be the equivalent to the Windows -w which specifies a wait time between receipt of the packets:

  -W waittime Time in milliseconds to wait for a reply for each packet sent. If a reply arrives later, the packet is not printed as replied,
  but considered as replied when calculating statistics.


Constant Bluetooth Connection Request Prompts Between Two Macs I recently got a 16" MacBook Pro. My wife has a 2019 15" MacBook Pro. They're both running 10.15.1 (Software Update says both Macs are "up to date").

Ever since I got the 16" MBP both MBPs are constantly trying to connect to each other via Bluetooth:

If I ignore the prompt it goes away after two seconds. If I click check "Ignore this device" and click "Cancel" the prompt comes back after two seconds. If I click "Connect" nothing happens on either MBP and the prompt keeps appearing every few seconds.

On my wife's 15" MBP System Preferences > Bluetooth list I clicked the "X" icon next to my 16" MBP's name. After doing this a different Bluetooth device name appears in her Bluetooth list after each prompt on my MBP.

The only way I've discovered to prevent this is to turn off Bluetooth on my 16" MBP.

Any ideas on how to stop these constant Bluetooth Connection Request prompts?

Continuity and iCloud are the obvious paring agents, so I would disable handoff first on both devices and see if that quells things.

If so, you might need to engage Apple Support to see if there’s a precise way to rejigger that, but for most people you would need to sign out of iCloud on one or both Macs to then sign in again and see if the pairing identity crypto can heal itself.


App suggestion for low-friction way to log regular text entries? I would like to keep a log of what I have been doing every hour during my work day.

I would like something (say, an app or menu-bar utility) that will pop-up every hour and ask me what I have been doing, allowing me to enter a few lines of text.

The fact that it would automatically pop up, and that it only expects me to fill in one text field would mean that it is a very low-friction way of entering information.

It would, of course, then have some way to let me view what has been logged post-facto.

Can you recommend anything that will let me do this?

Whilst not being the intended purpose, the app "Day One" which is available on iOS and Mac OS is a journal/diary program that is focussed on hassle free text entry.  It will sit in the menu bar on Mac OS X, and you can configure reminders for how often you would like to enter something.  Th eexpection is more along the lines of twice a day etc, but you can tell it as many times as you want/need.

When the reminder is due, it will produce a small popup box under the menu bar icon that allows you to type a few words in (Markdown supported, but no fancy formatting toolbars etc) and then save them, you can postpone or ignore entries if you like.

It will collate all your entries together, sync them between other instances inc. the iOS app via Dropbox or iCloud, and you are then able to  search for entries specifically, or list by day/month/year all in a timeline style like a diary.  It won't do fancy stuff, like applying time or entries to specific codes etc, or produce reports and so on, but if you just need manuall adhoc review of contents it's a good fit.


ERROR: AUCTeX cannot find a working TeX distribution (macOS Sierra) I have installed MacTex and GNU Emacs on my iMac. I have created a simple tex file (the one suggested here) and tried to run LaTeX on it by hitting C-c C-c, but the following message appeared:

  ERROR: AUCTeX cannot find a working TeX distribution.
  Make sure you have one and that TeX binaries are in PATH environment variable.
  If you are using OS X El Capitan or later
  remember to add /Library/TeX/texbin/ to your PATH

Opening Terminal and running

  echo $PATH

yields

  /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin

Operating system: macOS Sierra, Version 10.12.4
Emacs version: 25.1.1
AUCTeX version: 11.90.0
MacTex distribution: MacTeX-2016

As patrix suggested, the problem was that the PATH variable that the error message referred to was not the Terminal's environment variable but emacs' own environment variable, whose content can be seen (as suggested by patrix) by evaluating (getenv "PATH") in Emacs.

To add /Library/TeX/texbin/ to emacs' PATH variable, I added the following code to the emacs initialization file .emacs:

(setenv "PATH" (concat (getenv "PATH") ":/Library/TeX/texbin/"))
(setq exec-path (append exec-path '("/Library/TeX/texbin/")))

These lines of code are appropriately modified versions of the ones given here.

After restarting Emacs, the problem was gone.


Can not start XQuartz I can't start Inkscape and Gimp.
I have the latest Xcode and the latest xQuartz installed.

My logs shows:

6/2/12 1:30:15.957 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx: lockfile: Sorry, giving up on "/var/folders/9x/qkjwtrd52qbb5bcvb0zk4rqw0000gn/T//font_cache.lock"
...
6/2/12 1:56:41.324 AM [0x0-0xe20e2].org.inkscape.Inkscape: /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/bin/inkscape: line 132: cp: command not found
...
6/2/12 1:30:16.046 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx: /opt/X11/bin/startx: line 240: hostname: command not found

However I have the path set up. In my terminal (both normal and X11 terminal) the hostname command and the cp command executes correctly.

It is important for the XQuartz app to inherit a proper PATH from launchd. The path of the systemwide launchd is /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin by default; you can check its value by running

sudo launchctl getenv PATH

If is not as expected, it has most likely been set by a command in /etc/launchd.conf. (This file contains commands in the format expected by launchctl; see the manual page for the latter.)

When you log in, launchd forks a process that becomes the per-user launchd. This inherits the environment from the system launchd, but its environment can be further altered by the commands in /etc/launchd-user.conf and the contents of ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist. Look in these places for alterations to the PATH environment variable, and make sure it at least contains the four paths mentioned above. You can check its value by running

launchctl getenv PATH

(note: no sudo). While experimenting, you can change the environment of your launchd by running

launchctl setenv PATH /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

and then stopping and restarting XQuartz.app. But once you have a solution that works, use either one of /etc/launchd-user.conf or ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist to set the appropriate value permanently. Use the former for all users, and the latter if it's a personal preference.


Configure Skype proxy setting? I would like to use Skype's proxy setting on Mac. However, when I click "Change",

it just takes me to SystemPreferences -> Wifi -> Advanced -> Proxies.

What am I supposed to do to set up a proxy for Skype? I wish to do this because others can resolve and attack me with booters very easily thanks to Skype.

I would like a method that does not require an additional application. Please do not post links to apps which attempt to route the connections on a per-app basis. It should be possible to do this without one.

Preferably, I would like a proxy "just for Skype". Not for the entire OS to use.

How can I configure a proxy to be used by just Skype?

You can set up a Proxy in OS X of your choosing and let Skype use it.

Skype works with HTTPS and SOCKS types of Proxy.

Alternatively without setting up a Proxy and in order to protect your privacy in Skype you can simply use the Skype feature to Hide your IP.

Open Skype- Preferences - Advanced.


Is there free software for recognizing a song when it plays? I have few .mp3 file that have no name or have a wrong name(artist name and song name) is there any free software exist to recognized what exactly this song is(by playing the song and this software search their database and find similar signal wave)?

I see some similar app in iphone (if you play song and run this app after some second this app recognize the song)

And I Also use Tunatic in windows and it was a good software but I can't use Tunatic in OS X (Tunatic is available for MAC OS X too)

I know some software exist to tag music like TuneUP and MusicBrainz and ... but I want some thing else. I don't want answer like this one.

I'm not sure if you have a smartphone, but Shazam and SoundHound work well by using the phone's mic to identify songs while they're playing.  And I know you said you don't want to use MusicBrainz, but have you tried the scan feature?  It scans the song and tries to identify it based on a musical "fingerprint", not just by metadata.


How can I give a Space a custom name? I'd like to give my Spaces helpful names like "Graphics" and "Communications" instead of using confusing, generic names like Desktop 1 and Desktop 2. Is there a way to accomplish that through a setting, a Terminal/hidden command, or a third party application? I'm using Mavericks.

The third-party program TotalSpaces2 seems to offer this feature, along with many other Spaces-related features.


Can I use Automator or some other method to extract EXIF GPS data from batches of photos on my Mac? I need a way of extracting EXIF GPS data, using my Mac, from a bunch of photos taken on an iPhone.  So for example, if I put 1000 photos into a folder, I want an easy way of extracting all the GPS data for each photo into a text file.

A solution which gets me close will probably be good enough.  I've looked at Automator but don't see a built in way to do what I need.  I have Aperture, iPhoto and Photoshop CS4 on my Mac in case someone knows a way of incorporating those applications.

With Commandline tools this is easy:

Install Homebrew
brew install exiftools  in the Terminal
find ~/Pictures/ -iname '*.jpg' -print  -exec exiftool -DateTimeOriginal -GPSLatitude -GPSLongitude {} \; in the Terminal


Typing national characters in a slightly different way Typical way of typing national characters (if you need to use them) on a keyboard looks as follows:

This is an example for Polish ą character:

Push ALT.
Push a.
Release a.

As a result we 'll see ą on the screen.

Now, the question: I am looking for slightly more convenient solution:

Push and release ALT.
Push and release a.

As a result we 'll see ą on the screen as well.

I can easily configure emacs to behave like this. Do you know any hack/software or whatever which could allow me to use keyboard in all Mac applications?

Thanks!

Sticky Keys will do that.

System Prefs > Accessibility > Keyboard

It removes the need to hold a modifier key before pressing the associated key to be modified.

You can set options to make it switchable, beep when used, or display the modifier on-screen


Wifi drop out on macbook pro retina late 2013 with El Capitan Constant wi fi drop out only on my Macbook pro retina (late 2013) with el capitan installed. My imac is not affected, nor any other appliance using the wifi in our house. Can anyone help? Will the solution posted previously about similar problem with Yosemite work for El Capitan? Thanks in adavance

Change your security from wpa2 to wpa. Helped me solving this problems.


Can I connect a resistive touch panel to the iPad? I am wondering if it would be possible to connect a resistive touch panel (manufactured with a 30-pin connector) to the iPad through the 30-pin connection and use that for input?

No chance I'm afraid, the limiting factor is software more than anything though, it's possible that an App could be written to talk to said accessory, but using it outside of that App would not be possible unless you are talking about a highly modified jailbroken solution.

Unless you already have a device in mind that exists which you actually want to use, I can't imagine anyone creating one, and if they did not by the dock connector, but more likely over a custom Bluetooth protocol which is allowed (see the i-Cade games cabinet for example of a custom controller using Bluetooth that only works with supported apps).

You may be better mentioning what you wish to achieve to allow alternate answers, as I am almost positive that this method will never fly.


On the iPhone and iPad, is there an app that can search a webpage or Twitter every few minutes and pop up notifications? For example, the app can be set to search on the Twitter channel https://twitter.com/itunescarddeals for a custom phrase such as "Best Buy" or "PayPal" for such sales events, every few minutes or every 30 minutes, and show a notification on the iPhone or iPad when such tweet is found.

Or equivalently, it doesn't need to be Twitter specific but can be a webpage https://twitter.com/itunescarddeals

Is there such an app?

Use IFTTT.

(IFTTT is a cloud service sometime referred to as “If This Then That”.)

Download the IFTTT app to your phone.  I don’t see a pre-made applet that does exactly what you want, but applets are easy to create from scratch.

For your first applet, the IF trigger will be twitter “new tweet from search” and for the “THEN THAT” pick “notifications” and select “push notification from IFTTT app.

That’s enough to get you started, there are many many pre-made apps and as you see the ability to create your own using data from 100’s of services.  You really just need to log in and explore the services available.

Note:  you can also log into IFTTT.com from any browser, mobile or desktop.  (The only reason you “need” the iOS app is if you want to receive IFTTT push notifications on your phone.)


How can I encrypt photos on an iPhone 3GS/4? How can I encrypt photo files on my iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 with a password and without any quality loss?

Is there an app for that?

I'm now using CryptMyPic, as it's the simplest and most secure I've found so far.


Save Podcast on iPhone without Downloading I've been using the Podcasts app and I'd like to be able to mark in some way the episodes that I really like. I was saving them but I realized that they get downloaded if I do that, which causes space issues.

Is there a way to save a podcast without actually downloading it? I'm open to other apps that are a reasonable replacement and can achieve what I'm trying to do here.

You could mark as unplayed but there doesn't appear to be anything like the heart in Music.


Is Apple ID the publisher name for apps or books created with iBooks Author? I'm about to sign into the Mac Apps store for the first time.

I have an Apple ID -- my Apple ID is my email address.

When I publish something in the Apps store, for Mac or for iPad or for iPhone, will my Apple ID appear as the publisher of the App?

…This question relating to apps that I publish either through iBooks Author or without iBooks Author...

I'd like the name of the publisher not to be my email.

Eg. Where it says "More Apps by Name" -- the name that appears there, is that name my Apple ID, or do I choose that name elsewhere?

I can't see how names appear in the iBookstore yet because I haven't signed in yet.

I want to figure this out before I sign in because signing in means linking my credit card to this account, and I don't know if I'll need to create another account instead of this one.

No - when you actually sign up with iTunes connect to sell (or distribute for free) a podcast, music track, iBook, iOS app or Mac app - you enter into a much more formal relationship with Apple.

The forms are fairly self-explanatory and allow for you to specify the name of the business in a separate form that the name of the person filling out the form on behalf of the business. Of course, you can sell things in your own name and enter the same information in multiple places (which isn't what you are asking, but it's possible in general).

As with any contract, lawyers and accountants are advisable if you wish to know the costs and advantages of doing something personally versus as a business or corporation. That's far above our scope here, but in your case, iBooks Author will guide you through this sign up process. I have had 4 acquaintances sign up and all of them completed the initial sign up process in less than an hour. One decided to not use their personal account and is in the process of forming an LLC to sell books, but the others are intending to sell under their real names.

At worst, you will have signed up and wasted time and can just close your account and open another if you determine you didn't do it correctly or can't change some critical piece of information. I've seen plenty of app developers change their selling names and presume it was without signing up again, but once you sign up, you will have Apple to field questions on how to use their service and modify certain information you submitted if it needs to change.


Can't mount AFP and SMB shares through Finder but can manually mount via terminal I have Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a laptop which cannot mount or connect to any shares, AFP or SMB, through Finder. I can, however, connect through terminal bash commands and is able to mount them this way;

Once mounted through terminal commands, Finder can then browse the share.

This is just a problem on the one profile on that computer as other profiles do not have this issue. I have removed the keychains for the servers and still no luck through Finder.

I also checked and verified the disk and permissions. Any ideas what could be wrong with this profile?

If this is the same issue as I've seen try this:

Get rid of the user's GlobalPreferences.plist file (it's hidden).

~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist


Is there any way to use my old Logitech Quickcam Express on Catalina? I have an old Logitech Quickcam Express - the one that looks like this:

I have a 2018 MacBook Pro running Catalina, and I'd like (if possible) to use the webcam with it.  If I plug it in, I can see it in System Information:

...but I can't use it in Photo Booth nor in Google Meets in Chrome (which is where I'd actually like to use it).  Is there anything I can do so that I can use the webcam with my Mac?

Generally speaking as long as the webcam is a standard USB video device, it will work as those drivers are included with macOS.

However, those vintage webcams required Logitech drivers to be installed as it was a DSC WIA device per C|Net so it needed a Mac specific driver.  What you’re seeing is that the webcam is detected and identified, it just doesn’t have the proper drivers to work.


Search file system for multiple search terms (bulk search finder) I have a list of over 200 partial file names:

Apple
Orange
Banana
...

I want a text file with a list indicating which of them exist inside an mp3 file on my hard drive.

I can type them one-by-one into my finder, but I would prefer to perform some batch operation to determine which ones are present and which are not.

You can place "OR" between names and do a regular Finder or Spotlight search. As you can see File4 is missing. Then you can click 'Save' and get a XML of the results.


iCloud - Turning on/off process problem When I try to toggle the on/off button in iCloud apps (like Contacts, Notes, Safari, etc) in my iPhone (by Settings - iCloud), It always show the HUD (like "Turning On Notes...") for a long time. But nothing happens.

Note: I have the iOS version 6.0.1. I deleted the iCloud account from my iPhone then again tried to login with my Apple ID. But same error occurs if I tap on/off button.

Anyone stumbling across this entry might be interested in the solution mentioned in this Apple Support Community entry (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4314429?start=0&tstart=0):

Excerpt of the solution:

  In the settings app, go to iCloud and turn notes off.

  Next, scroll down and select "Delete Account". Choose save data onto phone.

  Re-activate the iCloud account on your phone (you'll have to type in your password)

  Turn notes back on.

Seems a bit radical at the first glance but it worked perfectly for me.


Youtube videos do not resume after pause in Safari One opens a youtube video in Safari. One clicks pause, waits a while, then clicks resume - nothing happens. One has to move the progressbar of the video a bit (the thing that shows at what point the video is in) and then the video starts.

I have this behavior since I first started usind Mac OS X (have reinstalled 10.5 and 10.6 at least once). I'm not sure, but I think I've seen this behavior with Chrome and with Google Videos.

Anyone?

This sounds like a problem with the Flash player. you can edit the flash player's settings by going to:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

In the section "Website Storage Settings", increasing the amount of data youtube.com can store on your computer might help. Completely deleting youtube.com from the list of visited websites might also help (since that might get rid of any corrupt data).

If that doesn't work you can also try deleting the flash player's cache files manually.

just delete all the folders out of:

/Users/[YOUR USER NAME]/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player/AssetCache

The folders should have names that look similar to "5PXNHG84" or "KK4Y5DSK".

Unfortunately, Flash for OS X (and linux) has never seemed to work as well as it does on windows. So what I just described still may not solve your problem, but it's worth a shot.


Disable automatic link formatting I'm sending a Mail message with text that looks like a link. I've color-coded this text, and I don't want it transformed into an underlined blue link. How can I stop Mail from "linkifying" my text when I send it?

Note: I know that I can right-click on a link and select "Disable Link", but unfortunately 1) these links don't show up until the email is sent, and 2) disabling the link doesn't seem to change how it displays the email when it is received.

I did a test with the word link.google.com and this is what the raw source looks like after sending:

--Apple-Mail=...
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/html;
    charset=us-ascii

<meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Type" content=3D"text/html =
charset=3Dus-ascii">link.google.com

Switch off... Edit > Substitutions > Smart Links.


Is it possible to make "Look Up" appear higher in Spotlight? Possible Duplicate:
  How to place Dictionary definitions higher up in spotlight results

If so, how?

I happen to use Spotlight a lot for looking up definitions. Basically, I'll be reading or writing, find a word I want to know the definition of, press Cmd+Space type it up and then... I'll have to move my hand to the mouse and drag it over to hover over the "Look Up" section in spotlight for the popup to appear.

I would really enjoy doing this with the keyboard only. If "Look Up" was the first or amongst the first results in Spotlight, I could just press the down key to get to it. So I head over to System Preferences and find the following:

A complete lack of the "Look Up" element! Is there any way to move "Look Up" higher in Spotlight? Or some way to get to the result using the keyboard? Thanks in advance for your time!

You might consider Alfred for your searches. It's not only an improvement over Spotlight for local searches (using Spotlight indexes) because it learns your frequent searches, it's extremely malleable.

Here's Alfred's preference pane that shows control of searches that use OS X's built in dictionary:

Here's what it looks like to search for a word. You can set Alfred up to come up with Command/Space or you can keep Spotlight active and bring it up with an alternative like Option/Space.

In my case, I type Option/Space and the word "define" and then the word I want to define (which I've left blank here). You can see the Dictionary comes up in the search results by default because "define" triggers it:

Alfred is a spectacular product and it's quite stable and free (you do not need the Power Pack extension to look up words). I think it will solve the lookup problem and become useful to you for many other things.


Rosetta under Yosemite? Is there any simple way to run rosetta under Yosemite?

If not, am I correct that Snow Leopard Server will run on Parallels (and it seems this is the 'legit' way, I'd like to be 100% legal), and that would solve my goal of hanging on to some PPC apps without the constant need to reboot to other drives or use multiple machines?

I'm running a mid-2010 Mac Pro, and need higher than Snow Leopard to run the new TurboTax, but wanting to hold on to an investment of $$ in PPC-only apps.

Update - I bought two Apricorn PCI cards to install SSDs without taking up HD space. One SSD boot Snow Leo, the other, Yosemite. At this point, the Snow Leo OS is the one I use most often, booting into Yosemite when I need the newer software. The SSDs offer such a fast boot that starting up/ rebooting is pretty fast, not too much trouble.

There is no way at all to run Rosetta in Yosemite. Rosetta was included in Mac OS X 10.4.4–10.6.8 (Intel) only.

The Apple license agreement doesn't allow customers to run a Snow Leopard client  in a virtual environment.
So the only legal way to use PPC apps with Yosemite is indeed Snow Leopard Server (Apple part number is MC588Z/A internal link (It only works in their store)) in Parallels (10.0 recommended) or VMware Fusion (at least 6.0.5, 7.0 recommended).


How can I get `defaults write com.apple.screencapture` to change screen capture location in Mountain Lion I used to be able to set the key location under com.apple.screencapture to change the save location for the system-wide screen capture facility.

This doesn't work for me anymore -- screenshots save to the Desktop regardless of the setting of location. Here's what defaults says:

$ defaults read com.apple.screencapture
{
 location = "/Users/jogloran/Desktop/Screenshots";
}

Works for me quite happily.

Have you restarted UIserver?

killall SystemUIServer

Does the path exist?

UPDATE: If the screen capture cannot find or write to the designated folder, it will default to the current user's desktop.


Calendar set timezone automatically I travel a lot and change timezones quite often. Is there a way to let Calendar detect and change timezone automatically so I can work with Calendar in the same timezone I'm currently in?

I don't think Calendar will automatically change the time zone. In fact, it probably shouldn't, otherwise it could be confusing if the user didn't notice it has changed.

However there are two things you can easily do:

Enable Set time zone automatically using current location in System Preferences > Date & Time > Time Zone. This will ensure that the machine time zone is always correct.
Then, in the Calendar, select the time zone in the top right corner. In this dropdown, there should normally be all the time zones associated with the calendar events, as well as the current time zone. Select the current one, and that should do it. Since this setting is saved, you only need to do it once every time you change the time zone.


iPad Air 2 on iOS 11 after enrolling with Apple MDM profile manager through Apple Configurator 2 is stuck on Remote management screen I install OS X Server for MDM profile manager on iMac with High Sierra.   Then used Apple Configurator 2.5 to enroll 16 iPad Air 2 on iOS11 to the MDM and added wifi Profile.   All iPads are showing up as supervised devices on AC2.  Now on each iPad, I see the Remote Management screen,  hit the NEXT on the top right corner to attempt to install the remote management,  and they all came back saying failed timed out.
The same profile worked fine on iMac.

This might be the reason, look at Apple's compatibility list of devices for Apple Configurator 2 -- iPad Air 2 is not listed.


sandbox for testing application I have developed an application and I want to test it in a fresh environment (e.g. as if this is a clean OSX, no custom /usr/local, a fresh ~/Library, etc.). What would be the simplest way?

Since Lion it is possible to run a virtual copy of Mac OS X on Apple hardware (e.g., with VirualBox, Parallels, VMWare).

You could install a clean copy, take a snapshot and use this fresh installation for tests.


Why does shasum generate non-standard hashes? As far as I can tell, the shasum that ships with os x doesn't generate the hashes that it's supposed to.

$ echo "" | /usr/bin/shasum
adc83b19e793491b1c6ea0fd8b46cd9f32e592fc ?-

When I look up empty string sha hash in wikipedia I see that I should expect to get

da39a3ee 5e6b4b0d 3255bfef 95601890 afd80709

My reading of the man page for shasum is that it defaults to sha 1. I get the same result even if I specify sha 1.

What's going on here?

ps Apologies for the bad tag. I can't create a tag of sha or shasum due to low reputation...

shasum is working fine but echo "" doesn't produce an empty string:

pse@Fourecks:~$ echo "" | od
0000000    000012
0000001

This works better:

pse@Fourecks:~$ echo -n "" | shasum
da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709


My ipad 3 is asking money for free apps I was downloading clash royale . First it asked me my password.
Then it said verification required for app purchase.
I can download the apps which i have downloaded before and deleted.

You must have a valid payment method in your account, even for free apps.


Restore Time Machine backup onto different Mac I currently have an older iMac (first Intel generation - 2 GHz Intel Core Duo with 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM.  I am running OS X 10.6.8 and cannot upgrade to any newer OS to to hardware limitations.  I have used Time Machine to routinely back up this iMac.

I have inherited a newer iMac that has data on it from my deceased step father.  It is a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 memory and is also running 10.6.8.

I would like to reset or reformat the newer iMac and then use my current iMac data that resides on the external hard drive to make the new iMac my very own, with all of my data files etc.

What steps do I need to follow? And where can I find directions or steps to follow? (I know that I must erase the existing old data that was not mine and then use Time Machine to load my personal information on the newer iMac.)

There are a couple different approaches you can take.

Approach 1 - Erase the newer iMac, reinstall 10.6.8 and use migration assistant to migrate your Time Machine data

With the newer iMac:

Insert your Snow Leopard DVD (not the gray disc, a retail copy) and boot to it either by holding C while powering on or holding option while powering on and then selecting the 10.6 DVD.
Select "Disk Utility" from the Utilities menu in the Snow Leopard installer
Select the iMac's hard drive from the list on the left in Disk Utility, click on the "Erase" tab, type in a name for the hard drive (Macintosh HD?) and click erase.
Once the hard drive is erased you can close Disk Utility and proceed with the installation of 10.6, following the on screen prompts.
Once the installation is finished your newer iMac will boot to the normal welcome to OS X screen.
I believe the third or fourth step in setting up the newly installed 10.6 will ask you if you want to transfer information from an existing Mac.  Make sure your external Time Machine disk is connected and choose the "From a Time Machine Backup" option and follow the onscreen prompts.
Once the migration is finished you should be able to login with your normal user account and your data should appear to be just as it was the last time your old Mac backed up.

Approach 2 - Clone your older iMac to the newer iMac

This requires that you have a firewire cable

With your older iMac:

Download Carbon Copy Cloner on your older iMac
Power on your newer iMac while holding T, you should eventually see the Firewire symbol (sort of looks like a Y) floating around it's screen
Connect the two Macs together via a firewire cable, your newer iMac should appear as an external disk on your older iMac's desktop
Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities) on your older iMac
Select the newer iMac's hard drive (should be an orange icon) from the list on the left in Disk Utility, click on the "Erase" tab, type in a name for the hard drive (Macintosh HD?) and click erase.
Once the newer iMac's hard drive is erased you can open Carbon Copy Cloner
Follow the on screen prompts in Carbon Copy Cloner to select your newer iMac's hard drive as the destination and then clone your older iMac's hard drive over to it.
Once Carbon Copy Cloner is finished you should be able to boot your newer iMac and browse through to see all of your older iMac's data now in place.

Hopefully one of those options works and you're able to get that data migrated with little to no pain.


Can I simply swap a Time Machine SSD with the original one on an MBPro? I need to replace the original internal SSD (256GB) with a 512GB that has Time Machine on it and up to date.

I am hoping it were not required to involve yet a third disk - e.g. another USB hard drive in this process .. but am not clear on it.  Let us call this 1TBdrive

Specifically it seems one solution would be:

attach the 1TB hard drive and make it the time machine backup.
power off the MBPro and physically swap the 256GB with the 512GB
attach the 1TB USB hard drive and boot up, keeping the option button pressed to induce booting to time machine
restore from 1TB TM to the new 512GB internal drive

Unfortunately I do not possess this 1TB external drive.  So is there any way to do this with just the first two SSD's?

UPDATE Here is the relevant available disk space info

df -k

Filesystem                        1024-blocks      Used Available Capacity  iused    ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1                          243915264 235014420   8644844    97% 58817603  2161211   96%   /
/dev/disk7s2                        499771696 214002444 285769252    43% 53500609 71442313   43%   /Volumes/os2mellyrn

Notice the externally attached SSD used for TM (disk7s2) still has 280GB available = more than twice the internal (active) SSD (disk1)

As I understand the question, you don't need another disk. But be careful if this is your only backup.

It's possible to clone the current bootable drive (256GB) onto the same drive as your Time Machine Backups (512GB with 280GB available), so that it contains a working system and is bootable.

It should possible without third party tools, but it's definitely possible with them.

Take SuperDuper! for example. From their FAQ:

  How do I store a bootable backup side-by-side with my Time Machine data?

  It's actually really simple. Assuming the Time Machine volume is
  properly partitioned and formatted for the Mac (as "GUID" for Intel
  Macs, or "Apple Partition Map" for Power PC), and is boot compatible
  to start with, just use "Backup - all files" with Smart Update to
  store a bootable backup on the drive. Your Time Machine backups will
  be preserved.

CarbonCopyCloner is another example of software which can probably do this, but I've not seen the exact details in their knowledgeable. It could certainly do the cloning, but you'd want to make sure it didn't mess with the backups assuming you have need for them later (moving them off when you get a new larger drive, etc).

But, if you don't need those backups in the future and are prepared to erase them, then you could just format that drive and make a bootable clone of your current system on that drive.

Note: The recovery partition would be a factor here. I'm not sure what, if anything SuperDuper! would do to create one. I know CCC will work with them.

Note 2: If needed you can reconnect your Time Machine with one of the methods explained here.


Transfer mp3 files to Nokia Lumia from a Mac? On Windows, I use standard software (Zune) to transfer files to my Nokia Lumia 800.

Is there any way to transfer mp3 files from Mac to Lumia? Lumia is running Windows Phone 7.

You can use the Windows Phone 7 Connector software, made by Microsoft specifically for OS X.

Download here


QuickTime X can't use .srt files For some reason, ever since Apple released QuickTime X, QuickTime won't open files with an associated .srt file anymore. I get the error QuickTime can't open it and if I would like to open it in QuickTime 7. And the strange part is, the .srt files are working with Preview.
I have Perian installed correctly.

I don't mind using QuickTime 7 and I know VLC is far better in using .srt files, but still. This question intrigues me a lot.

How can I make QuickTime X work with .srt files?

I strongly recommend Subler, with which you can not only soft bake the subtitles but easily add metadata as well. This allows playback with subtitles on iTunes and iOS devices as well, and even swiftly converts .mkv files for playback on these devices as well.

Small tutorial:

Drag a movie file on Subler, then drag the .srt-file on the newly opened window
Optionally choose a language and set as default to autoload
Optionally click the search icon on the top right to add metadata
Click the share icon right next to the search icon to merge the files


app download stuck on cloud with arrow i recently got my new phone and tried to download instagram. When i tried it looked normal and everything with the 'get' button there, but when i pressed the button it changed to the iCloud thingy with an arrow on it. Whenever i try to download it now, it just comes up with a loading circle then quickly goes back to the cloud. i have tried so many things like changing my apple ID account, making a new account, restarting the phone. Nothing works.

(it is not doing this with any other apps)

i believe they stopped offering instagram app for ios 6 and below. what phone/ios version are you on? if youre able to upgrade the software, do that. ive heard a lot of people having issues with instagram, so theres obviously something wrong. you should try downloading the app in itunes on your computer, and then check the app to be synced with your phone when you plug it in.


How do I deal with an automatic reboot following a cydia app install The tethered RedSnOw jailbreak for 5.1 worked like a charm.  I ran into a problem when I installed winterboard however.  Following the automatic reboot, I couldn't get my iPhone into DFU mode to use the "just reboot" function.  What am I doing wrong?

Well, good news for you. As from a few weeks ago, you are able to jailbreak your iOS 5.1 untethered, which eliminates the fact you've to "just-boot" the iPhone very time.

In order to do so, Jailbreak nation has published a very detailed and good tutorial on how to jailbreak your iPhone. I suggest you preform a untetheredjailbreak and try again. If things are still not working, please give some feedback with your errors so we can help you further.
Good luck!


Actual working tutorial of installing catalina on an external drive? I want to know where the working tutorial for installing Catalina on an external drive is.
All the tutorial I managed to google up for some reason failed to mention the "missing a firmware partition" error.
I tried to install it using clover or raw official installer, under a GUID scheme. All got stuck at this "firmware partition" gag. I tried to use apple FS but to no avail.
Would someone please help me? This is driving me nuts. My MacBook is genuine, not HacBook.

Plug the external drive to your MacBook and Launch Disk Utility.

Select the external drive on the left-hand side panel, select Edit>Erase, choose APFS and GUID partition map and press Erase:

Download Catalina installer from your genuine MacBook App Store by clicking this link.

After downloading, the installer launches automatically. If you want to install Catalina at a later time, you can find the installer in the Applications folder:

Follow the onscreen instructions, and when asked where to install Catalina, choose the external disk.

You MacBook will restart and proceed with the installation.

When the installation is over, to boot from the external disk, start up your Mac and press and hold the Option key to display the Startup Manager. Choose the external disk and click the arrow under its icon.
See these support articles about installing Catalina and erasing a disk for more information.


Why do many processes use the letter "d" at the end of the process name? Just recently started getting into OS X/iOS development and noticed several files have a "d" at the end. I.e launchd, accountsd, cloudd, assistantd, etc.. Not all have it just some. Just a quirky question I was pondering and figured if anyone knew the answer it would be you guys.

Since OS X is in part based on FreeBSD here is relevant documentation from the FreeBSD Handbook's 3.8. Processes and Daemons...

  "There is a convention to name programs that normally run as daemons
  with a trailing “d”. For example, BIND is the Berkeley Internet Name
  Domain, but the actual program that executes is named. The Apache web
  server program is httpd and the line printer spooling daemon is lpd.
  This is only a naming convention. For example, the main mail daemon
  for the Sendmail application is sendmail, and not maild."

Take note of the last two sentences from what I quoted, the trailing "d" is only a convention but as you can see with the example sendmail is the mail daemon and doesn't have the trailing "d".  There are also other daemons in Unix/Unix like OSes that do not use the trailing "d" for daemons however as a convention it is a good practice but not an absolute.


Media Keys Not Working for a Specific User Account I have macOS setup with several user accounts for different purposes, and in all but one of them the media keys (play/pause, previous, next, and volume up and down) are all working correctly.

However, in one specific account the keys have mysteriously stopped doing anything and I can't for the life of me figure out why. There is no obvious cause.

I'm using an Apple Magic Keyboard With Numeric Pad, with a 2018 Mac Mini running macOS 10.15.3, but the issue began under 10.15.2 (I had hoped the update/restart would fix it).

Other things I've already tried:

I've checked the behaviour under System Preferences -> Keyboard (it doesn't seem to be a function key issue, as the media keys don't work either pressing the Fn key or not).
Reset NVRAM
Reset SMC

The fact that this is only affecting one specific account is the part that has me confused; of all my accounts it's the one I would least expect to have a problem, but the one in which it is most annoying, as it's the one I use for watching TV shows/movies (i.e- minimal running programs, no distractions etc.).

Also it's strange that the issue is affecting both the media keys and volume keys; I've noticed all kinds of annoyances with macOS' bonkers media key behaviour with apps fighting for focus so in any given moment I have no idea what play/pause will actually do, but I've never had any issue with the volume control keys, which also do not work for this user account.

Ive also checked my keyboard shortcuts; but I only have shortcuts for other keys (F5 and F6, and F13, F14 and F15, i.e- all the "blank" function keys on my keyboard that do not have special behaviours).

Now, if there's no other way to resolve this issue, I'll of course have to remove and recreate the user account; not the end of the world, but I'd very much like to avoid having to do this if I can.

Does anyone know of any likely reasons why a single user account would have non-functioning media and volume keys, when all others are functioning normally, and how I would go about fixing it?

So I typed this whole thing out and the culprit presented itself right after I posted it!

I have a trackball by Elecom, love it, but apparently there was a problem with their Elecom Mouse Assistant software; an error message popped up, so I force quit it, trashed its settings and relaunched it, and now my media keys are fine again.

It must have something to do with the ability to remap the mouse buttons to various functions (volume and media functions being some of them).

For anyone that experiences the same problem, and has Elecom Mouse Assistant installed, you may wish to try:

Relaunch the app:

Open mouse assistant (from System Preferences)
Make a minor change (e.g- assign a mouse wheel click function), and click Apply.
Check your media keys, this may have resolved your issue.
If necessary, re-open mouse assistant and change your settings back to the way you wanted them.

If that doesn't work, you may try the following:

Locate your settings file and delete it. This appears to be a hidden XML file stored under your user directory, so it will most easily be found using Terminal:
Open Terminal.app
Enter the following command and hit enter: ls -al
Look for a strangely named file with the .xml extension. I'm not sure of the naming convention, it may be model specific, but mine is: .VID056e_PID00fc.xml
Remove the file using the rm command, substituting in the correct name for the file, like so: rm ~/.VID056e_PID00fc.xml
Logout of the user account, and then log back in again

Using either option your normal use of your media and volume keys should be restored without having to uninstall mouse assistant.

I won't mark this as the right answer, but may leave the question in place in case anyone else has the same issue, or has other causes they would like to document for others.


How to use Catalina window snapping feature? I keep reading about a window snapping feature in Catalina but I cannot for the life of me get it to work.
From https://www.hellotech.com/blog/the-best-features-macos-catalina:

All you have to do is drag an app to one side of the screen. When you see a transparent box fill that side of the screen, release the mouse, and the window will resize itself. If you push the app against the right or left side of your screen, the window will fill up that half of the screen.
...
You can also drag an app to any corner to make the window fill a quarter of the screen. Or you can drag an app against the top of your screen to fill the screen with that window. Finally, you can drag a window to the bottom of your screen to make the window fill the center of your screen.

From https://www.maketecheasier.com/snap-split-screen-windows-macos/:

Entering snap mode is very straightforward. All you have to do is click and drag any open window to one of the four sides or four corners of your display. Once a translucent box appears, release the mouse button. The window will now automatically snap into position.

No matter what I do, I cannot get this to happen. No translucent box, no snapping.
Is there some setting I have to have enabled?

There's no "translucent box" in Catalina, that was for previous versions of macOS.  To do that, you would click and hold the green button.
Catalina uses the "hover" method.  Hover over the green button and you'll get a popup allowing you to select "Full Screen," "Tile Left," and "Tile Right."
Personally, I've found macOS' window snapping feature a bit light on functionality.  I recently started using BetterSnapTool that allowed me to create custom snap areas anywhere on my desktops (multiple monitors).  I can even assign shortcuts so that I can snap my open windows to the preset monitor and size.  It costs $3, but (IMO) it is well worth it.
I've tested various other window managers that didn't work for me, but you might get better mileage out of them

Magnet ($3).  Intuitive and very useful. I couldn't use it because it conflicted with Think or Swim trading platform.

Spectacle (Free).  Worked well in El Capitan, however it's no longer maintained and was crashing in Catalina, though it may have also had a compatibility issue with Think or Swim.

Moom ($10).  Moom is short for Move and Zoom.  It works on a grid system and has the ability to remember layouts

Divvy ($14).  Another grid based window manager .  It allows you to "divvy up" your screen into snappable areas.

Rectangle (Free). Allows you to resize windows with keyboard shortcuts.  There's about 20 predefined shortcuts, and no way to create custom snap points/sizes.

Hookshot ($8).  Based on Rectangle and from the same developer. Uses modifier keys and mouse gestures to snap windows.


Headphones only play right side My Macbook pro OS X 10.8.5 headphone jack seems to work - like it knows when I plug in the headphones - but it only plays out of the right side. I've adjusted the balance in settings but the left side stays silent. I've tried many different headphones and its always the same. Any suggestions?

I own a Shure headset with 3 connectors and it does not work on my MacBook Pro Retina 15''late 2013 nor does it with my iPhone 4S --- only the channel marked with 'left' works. And even the 4 connector versions are different among the various Notebook/Phone manufacturers compared to Apple. There are special Apple compatible versions advertised. Best, Peter


AppleTV, iTunes and Multiple Disks I have a 20 iMac and an AppleTV 2 (the black one), and three external drives (2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB) that house all my music, movies and tv shows.
Up until now, I've never needed more than the one drive for everything, but now my 1.5TB drive is almost full and what I'm doing to keep things organized feels like a cludge so I'll just explain what I'm doing and hopefully someone will tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it.
Right now, I'm using the 1.5TB (music, apps and tv shows) and 2TB (movies) for my media. After I've converted, tagged, etc. all my new shows or movies, I change the preferences in iTunes to the drive that contains whatever I'm about to add to the library. For example, if I'm going to add a new movie, I switch the "iTunes Media Folder Location" to the 2TB drive, add the movie, then change the preference back to the 1.5TB drive.
This just seems silly to me, and I know I could create a RAID but I don't want to move all that data around so there has to be a better way to do this.

What I would do is:

Have only 1 library
Make sure that iTunes is configured to keep all your media organized (and point your single iTunes Library to your preferred disk)
When adding files to your iTunes library hold down Option/Alt to let iTunes know that it shouldn't copy the file to where your library is

This way all your data will be organized by iTunes except for the large files that should belong on your largest external disk in the first place.

Cheers...


I included emoji in my password and now I can't log in to my Account on Yosemite I wanted to check if it's possible to use emoji in a password for my Account on OS Yosemite. It worked but I didn't realize that the login screen has only native keyboards, so I can't type emoji there.

So the situation is that I know my password but I can't type it. The machine has rebooted to the Recovery HD and I don't see a way to enable the emoji keyboard there. In effect, since FileVault was turned on, I can't restore the password easily.

I see three possible options here, but would be happy to hear anything else:

Find a way to type emoji in the password field, this would be ideal.
Access my Account from external machine that will allow me to type my password from there so I can type emoji (not sure there such a thing)
Restore the password even though I used FileVault.

If you have "Other Input Sources" available at the top right of your login screen, select the one called Unicode Hex Input.  This can be used to input emoji (or any other character) into the password field, as long as you know the Unicode Hex number of the character.  This number can be found in the Character Viewer or on the internet.

Some items you find in the  "emoji" category have Unicode hex numbers with just 4 characters, such as Airplane U+2708 ✈.  With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard, you input this by holding down the Option key while you type 2708.

Other emoji have Unicode hex numbers with 5 characters, such as Grinning Face U+1F600 .  For these you need to find the two corresponding UTF-16 Hex codes (sometimes called "surrogates") by consulting Character Viewer or using an internet source like fileformat.info.  For 1F600 these are D83D and DE00.  You can input 1F600 by holding down the option key while typing D83DDE00.  You may see two dots in the field, but it is still just one character.


Can't add custom keyboard layout in System preferences I've created the custom keyboard layout using Ukelele and save an obtained bundle to /Library/Keyboard Layouts folder.

Unfortunately, when I try to add any new layout in System Preferences app (having something in "Keyboard Layouts" folder), it just crashes. Has anyone encountered this issue?

P.S. macOS 10.13.6

I have no problem installing and using your .bundle once the .icns file is removed.  I think there is something wrong with it.

Here is a new .icns file which I think will fix the problem.  Let us know.


How do I get the path of app in its launch script? I made an app by following these steps

Make folder Foo.app
Make Subfolder Contents
Put Info.Plist in Contents with

...
<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
<string>Foo</string>
...

Make MacOS/Foo as an executable shell script

Foo looks like

#!/bin/sh
echo $0 > /Users/me/temp/foo1
pwd > /Users/me/temp/foo2
export > /Users/me/temp/foo3

Clicking on the app in the finder then checking the results. The results are, foo1 is empty, foo2 is just / and foo3 looks like

export Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render="/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.FgQwJ5EVCp/Render"
export HOME="/Users/me"
export LOGNAME="me"
export OLDPWD
export PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
export PWD="/"
export SHELL="/bin/zsh"
export SHLVL="1"
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.4hbrl5p8fp/Listeners"
export TMPDIR="/var/folders/7h/wyw4jhd933z5jmqzsdx6r0sr0000gn/T/"
export USER="me"
export __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING="0x1F5:0x0:0x0"

No references to /Applications/Foo.app anywhere

Now do I get the path to my app in the launch script?

You can use this code:

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
echo $DIR >  /Users/me/temp/outLog.txt

It'll give you path to the MacOS folder of you app.

Here's great stackoverflow answer about this.


Internet Accounts spontaneously forgets passwords and I can't reauthorize them I've had this problem before, but I was able to resolve it that time. macOS 10.13.4, everything up to date. Yesterday, Internet Accounts forgot my LinkedIn password and would not reauthenticate. Today, it forgot my Facebook password.

I've tried:

App specific password.
Removing the account and re-adding it.
Turning off 2-factor authentication.
Deleting associated entries from Keychain.
Logging out of iCloud, deleting Keychain entries, removing and re-adding the account, then logging back in.

First of all, what the hell—why does this keep happening?! Secondly, what else can I do to fix this short of reinstalling macOS?

I came here looking for answers to exactly the same issue. In my case, both LinkedIn and Facebook started prompting me for passwords on my MacBook, but (oddly enough) not on my iMac.

I've since removed the login keychain items for both, and was able to re-authenticate to Facebook once (which created three login keychain items), only to be prompted again.

No such luck with LinkedIn, though. I get an error message with an un-clickable URL (with a long UUID).

I suspect that either Apple has some sort of subtle date bug or that both services broke their APIs somehow (GDPR might explain the near simultaneity).


Will the Macbook Air (Mid 2012) support dual monitors? Can I hook up two external monitors (with a HDMI interface) to a MacBook Air 2012?

I don't want to use the MacBook Air monitor when the two monitors are used.

You can hook up two external monitors by using the thunderbolt port that support daisy chaining. You connect the the first screen with your Macbook air and connect the second screen with the first screen.

According to the following KB-article the following models support up to 2 displays through one thunderbolt port.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012) and later
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) and later
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, Early 2011) and later
MacBook Air (Mid 2012) and later
iMac (Late 2012)
iMac (Mid 2011)
Mac Mini (Late 2012)
Mac Mini (Mid 2011), 2.5 GHz

It's not possible to connect 2 monitors simultaneously through one hdmi port.

Arstechnica also has an article about the support of multiple external monitors through one thunderbolt port. Apparently the older Macbook airs only support one external screen due to limitations in the thunderbolt host controller.


How do I prevent someone from switching off mobile data from control center in iOS 11 while the iPhone is locked? Till iOS 10.3, control center did not allow you to toggle mobile data from control center. Thus, if your phone was being handled by someone else, he could not switch off mobile data without locking the phone.

However, with iOS 11, mobile data switch has been added to the control center and now anyone handling my iPhone with iOS 11 can switch off mobile data. This also compromises Find my iPhone feature in a big way.

How do I prevent somone from switching off mobile data from control center?

Do not worry, it is still possible.The way is a little long. Just follow these steps:

Go to Settings > General > Restrictions
If you have setup Restrictions, enter your Restrictions passcode. If you have not set it up yet, enter a password (twice) and enable Restrictions. Make sure you will never forget this passcode; it is required even when resetting the phone. If you forget it, not only will you be disallowed from entering the Restrictions section, you will also not be able to reset your iPhone.
On Restrictions page, go down to the “Allow Changes” section and click on “Mobile Data”.
Set “Mobile Data” to “Don’t Allow Changes”. Leave the “Data Plan” to “Allow Changes”.
Open control center once and close it.

Now, the control center widget will not toggle mobile data and you can still go to settings and disable it while the iPhone is unlocked; just like you were doing till iOS 10.3


Xcode 7 update unavailable on AppStore I have been seeing on web that latest update for Xcode -Xcode 7 beta release has arrived. I currently have xcode 6.4 and i cannot see any update on Appstore. Where can i get it?

From the Apple Developer Downloads page - https://developer.apple.com/xcode/download/

The App store doesn't have Xcode 7 yet since it's still Golden Master status and not released to the world via the App Store downloads.


External HD has disappeared from Finder I believe I created this problem. When I plugged my External HD in last week I accidentally dragged the Ext HD onto the desktop. It then disappeared from view in finder and there is no shortcut on the desktop or anywhere that I can find on my computer.

It does however show up in disk utility and when I unplug it, I receive the "inproperly ejected disk" message.

Does anyone know how I can make the Ext HD accessible again?

You have only removed the visibility on your desktop.

Go to Finder (The smiling blue man in your Dock in the lower part of your screen)
Then press Command, or go to Finder (menubar) and choose 'Preferences'
Now choose 'General'
Tick the checkbox that says "External Drives"

You can do the same for the Finder Sidebar

Within the Finder Preferences choose 'Sidebar'
Tick the checkboxes in the Devises section of the devices you want to see

Somewhere within the evolution of Finder they added this option, I am almost certain is wasn't added yet in OS 6 ;) With this feature they created a cleaner desktop and some confusion, I must admit.

Another easy way to check which drive is mounted is to open "Disk Utility" located in Applications/Utilities/

Good luck with your drive.


Trying to fit iMac 27 Late 2013 memory into iMac 27 Late 2009 When shoving the memory in, I cannot get it to click (or get it deep enough for the lid to close). Are the dimensions different or do I need to push harder?!

Specs say that the 27" late-2013 RAM is 204-pin PC3-12800 while the late-2009 RAM is 204-pin PC3-8500. When you physically compare the RAM carrier boards, are they identical in height, width, thickness and indexing guide slot locations?

Red arrows are index guide slots.